Liberal Democracy Flashcards
Finish the sentence:
The liberal democracy is the dominant…
Political force in the developed world
Who proclaimed the worldwide triumph of western liberal democracy?
Francis Fukuyama
Why did Fukuyama say liberalism had triumphed?
Collapse of communism and democratisation of Asia and Latin America
What are liberal features of a liberal democracy reflected in?
A network of internal and external checks in government that are designed to guarantee civil liberty and ensure a healthy civil society
What is the democratic character of liberal democracy based on?
The system of regular and competitive elections
What do the regular and competitive elections conform to?
The principles of universal suffrage and political equality
What are liberals ambivalent towards?
Democracy
Why are liberals ambivalent towards democracy?
They fear collective power
How did 19th century liberals often see democracy?
As threatening or dangerous
How did Plato and Aristotle see democracy?
As a system of rule by the masses at the expense of wisdom and property
What can democracy become?
The enemy of individual Liberty
How did de Tocqueville describe democracy?
As the tyranny of the majority
What did James Madison argue that the best defence against majoritarianism is?
A series of checks and balances that would make government responsive to competing minorities and also safeguard the propertied few from the propertyless masses
What did JS Mill think about political wisdom?
It’s unequally distributes and is largely related to education
How did JS Mill think the classes would vote?
The uneducated would vote according to narrow class interests while the educated are able to use their wisdom and experience for the good of others
How did John Stuart Mill Argus politicians should speak?
On behalf of themselves rather than their electors
Describe John Stuart Mill’s proposal of a system of plural voting
The illiterate would be disenfranchised and individuals would be allocated one, two, three or four votes depending on their level of education or social position
What did Gasset warm that the arrival of mass democracy had led to?
To overthrow of civilised society and the moral order
What did Gasset say mass democracy had paved the way for?
Authoritarian rulers to come to power by appealing to the basest instincts of the masses
By the twnetieth century, what had a large proportion of liberals come to view democracy as?
A virtue
What was the earliest liberal justification for democracy founded on?
Consent
What did John Locke develop in the 17th century?
A limited theory of protective democracy
What did Locke argue should happen?
Voting rights should be extended to the propertied who could then defend their natural rights against government
Finish the sentence:
If government through taxation, possess the power to…
Expropriate property, citizens are entitled to protect themselves by controlling the composition of the tax making body, the legislature
Give a quote from the American Revolution
“No taxation without representation”
What did Utilitarian theorists develop the notion of democracy as a form of protection for the individual into?
A case for universal suffrage
What did Bentham come to believe?
That universal suffrage was the only way of promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number
What did JS Mill say about democracy in its unrestrained form?
It will lead to tyranny, but without democracy, ignorance and brutality will prevail
What does democracy promote?
The highest and most harmonious development of human creatures
How do citizens enhance their understanding?
By participating in political life
What does developmental democracy say about democracy?
It’s an educational experience
Who did Mill believe franchise should be extended to and not extended to?
Extend to women
Not the illiterate
What has liberal theory focused more on since the 20th century?
The need for consensus
What have pluralist theorists argued?
That organised groups rather than individuals have become the primary political actors
How did pluralist theorists portray modern industrial societies?
As more complex, characterised by competition between and amongst rival interests
Finish the sentence:
From the pluralist point of view…
Democracy is the only system of rule capable of maintaining balance or equilibrium within complex and fluid modern societies
Why do pluralists think democracy is the only viable system of rule?
It gives competing groups a political voice and it brings them to the political system and so maintains political stability
