final exam Flashcards
legitimacy (Lipset)
refers to when citizens believe their political system is working right; legitimacy or stability is assumed to be the second stage of democracy
factors that legitimize democracy (3)
- continuous economic development
- inclusiveness of the new political system
- resolution of political cleavages (or dividing issues)
continuous economic development (2)
- leads to the well-being of citizens and is essential to democratic stability
- helps in preventing reversion to authoritarianism
inclusiveness of the new political system
all major groups, including the conservative groups, must be included in the new system
3 important cleavages (or dividing issues)
- religion
- citizenship
- income distribution
key takeaway from Lipset’s analysis of religion
new democracies should allow religious freedom (separation of church and state)
the citizenship or voting rights issue (2)
- timely provision of voting rights (19th century)
- led to the ideology of gradual reformism of the working classes in the US and Great Britain
consequences of delaying the provision of voting rights (2)
- Sweden established social democracy in 1910
- Russia established communism in 1917
the income distribution issue (2)
- should be addressed periodically in democratic countries
- income distribution in industrial democracies –> skewed in favor of the upper class
Dahl on democratic stability (3)
- democratic persistence is partly determined by the performance of political leaders
- if one or more major groups are not happy with a polyarchy, its chances of survival will be low
- the less trusting a given society is, the less the maintenance of a polyarchy
Western Europe’s sequence of political development (Schedler)
state building, legal system, and then democracy
third wave
many democracies were created in weakly legitimized states and legal systems
Schedler’s classification of democratic regimes
electoral and advanced democracies
electoral democracies
hold elections but fail to consistently uphold political and civil freedoms
advanced democracies (2)
- allow free and fair elections; uphold political and civil freedoms
- also have strong judicial and party systems, civil society, and democratic political culture
major factors that may help democratic consolidation, according to Schedler (4)
- economic effectiveness
- mass legitimacy
- democratic political culture
- competitive party systems
consolidated democracy (Linz & Stephan)
when the democratic political system has become “the only game in town”
democracy is NOT consolidated if the following things are occurring (3)
- free and fair elections are lacking
- winners cannot exercise the monopoly of legitimate force or cannot rule democratically
- citizens’ rights are not protected by a rule of law
the democratic regime can be consolidate in 3 ways
- behaviorally
- attitudinally
- constitutionally
behaviorally
no group overthrows the democratic regime or no group fights for secession
attitudinally
the majority must believe political change must emerge only by democratic means
constitutionally
political conflict is resolved according to established norms and laws
at least 4 conditions must be present in order for a democracy to be consolidated
- conditions must exist for the development of a free and vibrant civil society
- there must be a relatively autonomous political society
- a functioning bureaucracy is needed to effectively command, regulate, and extract tax revenues
- there must be an institutionalized economic society
civil society
arena of the polity where autonomous groups, movements, and individuals develop
political society
arena in which political actors freely compete to exercise and control power
economic society (2)
- politically crafted and accepted economic norms, institutions, and regulations
- economic society is neither a command nor a pure market economy; it is a mixed economic system
2 major obstacles to democratic consolidation
- ethnic conflict
- lack of economic well-being
the idea that the world is becoming Western takes 2 forms
- coca-colonization
- modernization
coca-colonization thesis (2)
- identifies culture with the consumption of material goods
- but this trivializes Western culture by identifying it with fatty foods, faded pants, and fizzy drinks
the essence of the Western culture is the…
Magna Carta: a 1215 document signed by King Henry and Feudal Barons - started limiting the power of the monarchy
what makes the West Western? (8)
- the classical legacy
- Western Christianity
- European languages
- separation of spiritual and temporal authority
- rule of law
- social pluralism
- representative bodies
- individualism
the classical legacy (4)
- the West inherited Greek philosophy and Roman law
- Roman law –> legal system of ancient Romans
- laws passed by assemblies and senates
- legal writing
Western Christianity (4)
- the most important historical characteristic of Western civilization
- Roman and Germanic
- although separate, the religion and state dualism exists in the West
- when Westerns went out to conquer the world in 16th century, they did so for God and gold (and glory)
European languages
it is second only to religion as a factor distinguishing cultures
separation of spiritual and temporal authority
secularism entailed religion did not impact politics
rule of law (3)
- Roman law, medieval natural law, and 17th-century liberalism are the basis of Western rule of law
- natural law –> right to form government; right to own private property
- liberalism –> individual liberty
social pluralism
West had autonomous aristocracy, as well as substantial peasantry and merchants
representative bodies (2)
- social pluralism gave rise to estates, parliaments, and institutions
- estate –> legal rights to property
individualism
developed in the West in the 14th and 15th centuries, leading to ideas of individual liberty
you can modernize but not Westernize (2)
- modernization neither requires nor produces cultural Westernization
- Ex: Peter the Great (Russia) and Mustafa Kemal (Turkey) were modernizers and tried to adopt Western culture; created “town” countries unsure of their cultural identity
what the West should do (4)
- the future of the West will depend on the unity of the West
- culture follow power; so beef up your power by the alliance of North America and Europe
- if Latin America can sustain democracy and market economy, it can become a junior partner of the West
- strengthen NATO, but let Turkey and Greece leave NATO; Turkey is Muslim, Greece is Eastern Christian
democracy as a universal value: Amartya Sen argues (2)
- in the 19th century, theorists debated whether countries were “fit for democracy”
- in the 20th century, democracy was accepted as a “natural” form of government (ex: James Bryce)
Sen takes issue with those saying (2)
- authoritarian regimes can boost economic growth more than democratic ones (The Lee Hypothesis)
- disagrees with those claiming Asian culture is not conducive to democracy
why democracy? (3)
- Sen contends no famine has occurred in a democratic country with a free press
- political freedom is part of human freedom
- since political freedom is part of human freedom, democracy is a universal value
human freedom (4)
- personal freedom
- freedom of speech
- economic freedom
- no abuse, cruelty, and neglect
how far can free government travel? (Giovanni Sartori) (2)
- he asks: can and should democracy, which was invented (discovered) in the West, be imported by others in toto (altogether)?
- he claims: two terms are combined in liberal democracy: liberalism and democracy
liberalism
refers to demo-protection (demo-people) or freeing the people from arbitrary power and tyranny
democracy
refers to empowering the people
what can be imported, to Sartori…
is liberalism or demo-protection, not demo-empowering
demo-protection is important because…(2)
- nobody on Earth likes to be imprisoned, tortured, or killed
- that is, liberalism or demo-protection is the universal element of liberal democracy
to Sartori, his choice of liberalism over democracy is more of a procedural sequencing
that is, liberalism or demo-protection should come before democracy or demo-empowering
liberal democracy must be conceived as a political form, not a system that provides economic “goodies” (2)
- if liberal democracy is purely political, then it can be established even in poor countries
- but liberal democracy should not be exported to bring about economic growth
