Class 1 - Democracy and Authoritarianism Flashcards
Who rules in an authocracy?
It depends:
- Personal rule
Dictatorial monarch (hereditary right to rule)
Monarchical dictator (no hereditary right to rule) - Organisational rule
Military rule
One-party rule
What is the rentier state?
Revenues made from resources keeps pop happy and unquestioning authority
Why is military rule fragile?
Competition between generals + limited civilian freedoms (martial law)
How is power legitimised in an autocracy?
-religious grounds
- ideology
- democracy (fake)
How is power exerted in a authoritarian system?
- Totalitarianism: everything controlled, no degree of freedom
E.g.: N Korea - Authoritarianism: certain degree of contradictory views
What are the mechanisms of authoritarian rulers?
- secret police
- information gathering - surveillance
- disproportionate sanctioning of criminality
- martial law
Possible futures to authoritarian regimes?
- Extinction
- Evolution
- Resurgence
What are the 4 characteristics of democracy? (first lecture)
- fair elections
- by the people (representation, accountability) - INPUT
- for the people (gov. Effectiveness, representing)
- institutional systems which limits power of those owning it
What are 2 dimensions to defining democracy?
- Procedural
HOW should decisions be made? - Substantive
WHAT public goods should it produce?
What is the substantive understanding of democracy?
Democracy = a system that does well for its citizens
What are the two procedural understandings of democracy?
- Thin - Schumpeter
Minimal -> competitive elections
- Thick - Dahl
8 conditions -> more complex, higher threshold
What is the link between illiberal and liberal democracies and the thin and thick descriptions of democracy?
Illiberal dem -> thin description
Liberal dem -> thick description
What are the 3 waves of democratisation for Huntington?
- First wave
French Revolution - end of WW2
End of WW2 - Decolonisation period
Portuguese Revolution -
-> For each wave, there is another way of democratisation
What are three critiques to Huntington wave model?
-> quantity over quality (no of dems, as opposed to strenght of system)
-> assumes history moves just in one direction (‘end of history’ - fukuyama)
-> based on male suffrage; if looking at females, there is one wave of dem
Why do definitions matter for measuring democracy?
Shapes what we count as democracy.
Example:
- clean elections
- gov. Effectiveness
- liberal component index
Leads to v mixed results WITHIN a country
What are the three milestones of a democracy (Dahl)?
- Incorporation
Give right to vote -> inclusivity - Representation
Rights to organise themselves in blocks -> liberalisation - Organised opposition
power to vote out rulling party -> liberalisation
What are the two pathways to democracy?
- liberalisation
Representation + org opposition - inclusiveness
Right to vote
Closed hegemony -> competitive oligarchy / inclusive hegemony -> mass democracy
What are, according to Lijphart, the 2 classifications of democratic systems?
- majoritarian democracy
E.g.: Britain - consensul democracy
E.g.: Belgium
What is the difference between majoritarian and consensus democracies? (Executives, party & electoral system, type of gov org, consitution and judicial review)
Maj - consensus
- executives
Concentration of power in single-party maj cabinets, minimum winning coalitions
Executive > legislature
Multiparty coalitions - executive power sharing
Balance of power in executive - legislative relations
- Party system & electoral system
- two-party system
Majoritarian and disproportionate electoral system
-multiparty system; proportional representation (PR)
- Type of gov
- unitary and centralised
- federal and decentralised
- Constitution and judicial review
-flexible and easily amended
- parliamentary sovereignty
-rigid and diff to amend
- constitutional court
What are the 2 dimensions associated with majoritarian and consensus democracies?
- Executive - parties dimensions
+ for majoritarian
Neg- for consensus
- federal- unitary dimension
+ for majoritarian
Neg- for consensus
6 Critiques to Lijphart’s model (of 2 types of democracy and classifying states)
- typologies are ideal-types
- only looks at institutions
- power shifts when it comes to judiciary or CB (e.g: EU)
- limited applicability (for e.g.: post-communist countries)
- static vs dynamic view of democracy (countries change over time)
- countries are growing more and more alike
Hard to classify & model democracies:
- ever-changing
- convergence
What is institutional engineering? What is neo-institutionalism?
InstItutional engineering - building democracy from scratch
Neo-institutionalism - institutions as independent variables which have an independent impact on outcomes regardless of social & econ context
