4. Democracy Flashcards
What is a regime?
Intermediary between government and state.
Ensemble of governing principles and institutions, as well as interactions with society.
What is democracy?
Democracy is rule BY the people
Who said democracy is an essentially contested concept?
Gallie (1955)
What are the two approaches to democracy?
a) Comparative politics: democracy as a political regime
b) Political theory: democracy as a political ideal
Lipset’s (1960) minimal definition of democracy:
“a political system which supplies regular constitutional opportunities for changing the governing officials, and a social mechanism which permits the largest possible part of the
population to include major decisions by choosing among
contenders for political office.”
= Rule of law + Sovereignity
Three core components of democracy
- A political formula (a system)
- A set of political leaders in office
- One or more leaders out of office, attempting to gain access
Main arguments:
- Economic development is necessary
- Social division leads to oligarchy or tyranny
Who view democracy a “gradation” rather than a dichotomy?
Levitsky and Way in their work: Competetive authoritarian regime (2002)
Name measures of democracy
V-DEM
Freedom House
Polity IV
Bertelsmann Transformation Index
IDEA
Economist Intelligence Unit
What is Schumpeter’s elitist interpretation of democracy?
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942)
“Democracy does not mean and cannot mean
that the people actually rule in any obvious sense of the terms ‘people’ and ‘rule’. Democracy means only that the people have the opportunity of accepting or refusing the men who are to rule them.”
- Democracy is governance by and competition between elites
- Citizens as referees
- representation of the “will of people” not the “will of majority”
Describe Dahl’s (1971) polyarchy
“highly inclusive and widely
open to political competition.”
Three necessary conditions
- Preference formulation
- Individual and collective action
- Equal weight of preferences, no discrimination
For the map of regime types look at the ppt (all regimes lie somewhere on two dimensions: public contestation and political participation)
What does stability depend on according to Lipset (1959)?
- Efficiency of modernisation
- Effectiveness and legitimacy of political system
What is Down’s (1957) economic theory?
Introduces economic left-right as a frequent short-cut for voters - Due to incomplete information.
Ideological distribution contributes to stability of democracy. If preferences are single-peaked, median-voter can be identified. Choices of candidates and parties will gravitate towards the median. If polarised, lack of consensus and equilibrium. Parties are necessary as mediating brokers between individuals and governments.
