Lecture 1: What is democracy Flashcards

1
Q

Concepts that distinguish democracy as a unique system for organising relations between rulers and the ruled are

A
  1. Regime/system of governance
  2. The presence of rulers
  3. The public realm
  4. Citizens
  5. Competiton
  6. Fairly conducted and honestly counted election
  7. Majority rule
  8. Cooperation
  9. Civil society
  10. Representatives
  11. Review procedures
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

A regime/system of governance is…

A
  1. A group of patterns that determines the access methods to the principal public offices. It must be institutionalised to work properly, preferably through a written body of laws with a constitution
  2. The characteristics of the actors admitted to or excluded from such access.
  3. The strategies that actors may use to gain access.
  4. The rules that are followed in making publicly binding decisions.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

The presence of rulers and democracy

A
  1. Democracies depend on the presence of rulers.
  2. What distinguishes democratic rulers from non-democratic ones are the norms that condition how they come to power and the practices that hold them accountable for their actions.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Public realm and democracy

A
  1. The public realm contains the making of collective norms and choices that are binding on society and backed by state coercion.
  2. How the public realm looks can vary across democracies and depends on preexisting conditions (public vs private, state vs society, legitimate coercion vs voluntary exchange, collective needs vs individuals preferences).
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Citizens and democracy

A
  1. Only democracies have citizens
  2. There used to be restrictions on citizenship, now the criteria for inclusion are pretty standard.
  3. All native-born adults are eligible for citizenship.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Competition and democracy

A
  1. Competition has different modes, and there are different boundaries of competition.
  2. This contributes to distinguishing one subtype of democracy from the other.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Fairly conducted and honestly counted elections and democracy

A
  1. Can be seen as the same as democracy.
  2. Some even consider just the existence of elections as a sufficient condition for democracy. This fallacy is called electoralism.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

How can citizens influence public policy between elections

A

Through:
1. Interest associations
2. Social movements
3. Locality groupings
4. Clientelistic arrangement

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Majority rule and democracy

A
  1. Problems can arise when the majority makes decisions that harm some minority.
  2. Successful democracies have the central principle of majority rule.
  3. Can be in the form of constitutional provisions
  4. Most common and effective way is the existence of interest associations and social movements
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Cooperation democracy

A
  1. Actors have to voluntarily make collective decisions binding on the polity.
  2. They have to cooperate to compete.
  3. This can be through parties, associations and movements to select candidates, articulate preferences, petition authorities and influence policies.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Civil society and democracy

A
  1. Civil society can restrain the arbitrary actions of rulers and contribute to forming better citizens who are aware of the preferences of others and more self-confident in their actions.
  2. It provides a layer of governance between the individual and the state and is capable of resolving conflicts and controlling the behaviour of members without public coercion.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Representatives and democracy

A
  1. Representatives are professional politicians whose career is oriented around the desire to fill key offices.
  2. In a democracy, it is about how they are chosen and held accountable for their actions.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Review procedures

A

The rules and arrangements needed to make democracy last

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

The procedural minimal conditions to make a democracy exists are:

A
  1. Control over government decisions about policy is constitutionally awarded in elected officials.
  2. Elected officials are chosen in frequent and fairly conducted elections in which coercion is comparatively uncommon.
  3. Practically all adults have the right to vote.
  4. Practically all adults have the right to run for elective offices in the government.
  5. Citizens have a right to express themselves on political matters without the danger of severe punishment.
  6. Citizens have a right to seek alternative sources of information. These have to exist and are protected by law.
  7. Citizens have a right to form independent associations/organisations, including independent political parties and interest groups.
  8. Popularly elected officials must be able to exercise their constitutional powers without being subjected to overriding opposition from unelected officials.
  9. The polity must be self-governing. It must be able to act independently of constraints imposed by some overarching political system.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Two operative principles that make democracy work

A
  1. The principle that representatives agree that those who win greater electoral support or influence over policy will not use their power to ban the losers from taking office or influencing in the future. In exchange, the losers will respect the winners’ right to make binding decisions.
  2. Citizens must obey the decisions that come out of this, as long as they align with the collective preferences they express through fair and regular elections or negotiations.
    All democracies have a degree of uncertainty about who will be elected and what policies they will pursue. However, this uncertainty is bounded. Not just any actor can get into the competition and raise any issue they want, and not just any policy can be adopted.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

How democracies differ

A
  1. Consensus: All citizens may not agree on the goals of political action or on the role of the state.
  2. Participation: All citizens may not take an active and equal part in politics, although it must legally be possible for them to do so.
  3. Access: Rulers may not equally weigh the preferences of everyone before them, although citizenship implies that individuals and groups should have equal opportunity to express their preferences.
  4. Responsiveness: Rulers may not always do what is preferred by the citizens. However, when they deviate from such a policy, they must be held accountable for their actions through regular and fair processes.
  5. Majority rule: Positions may not be allocated or rules may not be decided solely based on the most votes, although this must be defended and approved.
  6. Parliamentary sovereignty: The legislature may not be the only body that can make rules or even the one with final authority in deciding which laws are binding, although they also must be accountable for their actions.
  7. Party government: Rulers may not be nominated, promoted, and disciplined in their activities by well-organized political parties.
  8. Pluralism: The political process may not be based on a variety of overlapping, voluntaristic, and autonomous private groups.
  9. Federalism: The territorial division of authority may not involve multiple levels and local autonomies.
  10. Presidentialism: The chief executive officer may not be a single person and he or she may not be directly elected by the citizenry as a whole.
  11. Checks and Balances: It is not necessary that the different branches of government be systematically pitted against one another.
17
Q

What democracy is not

A
  1. Democracies are not necessarily more efficient economically than other forms of government.
  2. Democracies are not necessarily more efficient administratively.
  3. Democracies are not likely to appear more orderly, consensual, stable or governable than the autocracies they replace.
  4. Democracies will not necessarily have more open economies than the autocracies they replace.
18
Q

Different dimensions in defining democracy

A
  1. Rule of law/liberalism
  2. Rule by the people/democracy
19
Q

First fave of democracy

A

1820-1918

Old democracies, mainly western Europe and USA.

These took a long time to develop, and there were very few

Because of this, there is now the notion that it is unfair to expect African countries to develop a democracy in 20 years.

First wave was also very gradual: the invention of constitutional monarchy instead of unlimited power for the king, after the development of the first parliaments, which consisted of elites, after this states and state institutions developed → nation state, suffrage expanded.

Before the first world war, some eastern European countries dabble in democracy.

20
Q

First reverse wave

A
  1. Due to the rise of fascism and communism
  2. First and Second World War
21
Q

Second Wave of democracy

A

After end of WWII til 1960

Countries that were fascist become demcratic again

Also decolonisation, countries become independent

This is because a lot of colonies helped in the war, which triggered independence movements

22
Q

Second reverse wave of democracy

A

1960-1989

Due to Cold War, USA and SU supported dictators in order for support.

23
Q

Third wave of democracy

A

Starts before end of Cold War, 1970.

Due to democratisation of southern European states.

Dictator Portugal leaving due to disagreement in the army about colony Angola, which shows the effect of decolonisation on the development of democracy.
Spain democratising after Franco, influenced democratisation in Latin America
After Cold War more democratisation due to the victory of the west, the world balance shifted and people see democracy as the solution.
In African countries there is a push for democracy from the west because of this.

24
Q

Hybrid regimes

A

When there are democratic institutions, but they are strongly influenced by the government
Mix of autocratic and democratic features

25
Q

What is problematic about the concept of democracy

A

We generalise, there’s always movement in both ways. There is democratic backsliding right now, but there are also democratic successes

26
Q

Empirical arguments democracy is good

A
  1. Research on the consequences of democracy leads to better human rights, less corruption, human development/health, quality of government, trade, technological change and FDI
  2. strong evidence for positive impact on social & economic policy outcomes too education, environment, growth, etc

no evidence for inequality, inflation and public spending.

27
Q

Populism

A

Pits the leader and his party against the corrupt politicians and “deep state”.
Has created a negative momentum.

28
Q

Populism is illiberal in its:

A
  • Demonization of minorities and critics.
  • Its preference for plebiscitary mechanisms over the filters and deliberation of representative democracy.
29
Q

Populism is antidemocratic in its:

A
  • Hostility to political pluralism.
  • Aspirations for political hegemony.
  • Tendency to exalt the leader above all other democratic actors and institutions.
30
Q

The Achilles’ heel of authoritarian populism

A

Its tendency to exalt one leader and to eviscerate checks and balances, which inevitably opens the way to widespread corruption and ever more extreme abuses of power.

31
Q

Democrats can turn the weakness of authoritarian populism to their advantage if they:

A

Rise above the polarizing, zero-sum narrative of the populist ruler. Democrats need strategies to bridge, not reinforce, polarization.
It is a poor electoral strategy to launch a frontal assault on a populists defection from democratic norms: in sharply polarized electorates, even voters who value democracy will be willing to sacrifice fair democratic competition for the sake of electing politicians who champion their interests.

32
Q

Causes of democracy dying in countries

A
  • Poverty (of a country).
  • Western democracies being preoccupied with war on terror.
  • China and Russia emerging as powerful competitors for international influence –> giving alternatives to autocrats –> western democracies reluctant to call them out.
  • US power and standing in the world taking several hits because of war on terror, not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and causing the global financial crisis.
  • Uneven distribution of the gains of globalization.
33
Q

Remedies

A
  • Democratic conviction.
  • A renewed effort to promote the ideas and values of democracy, along with an understanding of democratic institutions.
  • To rededicate ourselves to the idea that freedom and democracy are transcendent values which require from every citizen a commitment higher than allegiance to any political party or electoral outcome.