Democracy Flashcards
Three supposed phases of democracy
- Assembly (direct) democracy. Athens circa 500 BC. Democracy becomes a dirty word after the fall of empire
- Representative democracy.
- Monitory Democracy
How did understandings of what democracy entails change in the phase of representative democracy
3 points
Representative democracy:
- democracy comes to absorb language of representation
- comes to mean government of people through elected representatives (overcomes the difficulties of having a democracy in a large state)
- Adult conditional male suffrage leads to universal franchise
How were understandings of what democracy constitutes shaped by WWII?
Public accountability of power became built into the very meaning of democracy
- the abuses of fascism and communism permeated the public consciousness
What new institutions have emerged out of monitory democracies and helped restrain power?
4
‘Unipolar’ world (UN, NATO)
Royal commissions
Digital networks
Citizens juries
3 new directions in democratic thought
Associative democracy - Increasing third party organisations and reducing role of state
Cosmopolitan democracy - International inclusion at state level
Deliberative democracy - Collective decisions only legitimate if they are the result of detailed discussion
What are the key features of democracy
- Representative government by the people based on free and fair elections
- Political institutions and processes based on a distribution of powers
- limits on the power of governments, protection of civil rights
- opposition
- freedom of speech and press
What did Churchill day about democracy
Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time
What are two of the most pertinent weaknesses with democracies
- Tyranny by the majority
The rights of groups of citizens vs the rights of an individual (eg ‘hate’ speech) - Inability to inhibit elitism, corruption and exploitation
