Week 2: The State, Democracy, Dictatorship Flashcards
What is a state?
- Monopoly of legitimate violence
- Territory
- Souvereignty
- Plurality (anarchy on international level)
- certain relation between:
a) political elites / institutions
b) population /citizenship
Nation state
Group of people with shared national identity
–> living within a state
Failed State
Impaired state-like entities:
- weak / competing / non-existing government
- not sole souvereignty
- cannot rule over population
Autocratic states
- no electoral turnover
- no polyarchies
- -> different forms (Totalitarianism)
Totalitarian regimes
- dictatorship –> goal: full control over society (omnipresent)
- why durable?
- repression
- artifical legitimacy(education)
- co-opting elites
- elections
- foreign support
minimalist / procedural democracy (Schumpeter)
- institutions & procedures matter
- electoral contestation
- procedural fairness upheld
Substantive democracy
Schumpeter
Outcomes matter
- includes values (freedom, rights, absense of corruption, independent & fair trials)
Liberal democracy
Fareed Zakaria
- Multiparty election
- Universal participation
- Respect rule of Law
- Grant basic civil liberties
Illiberal democracies
Fareed Zakaria
- Multiparty elections
- Universal Participation
- Don’t respect rule of law
- infringe on civil liberties
Polyarchy
Dahl
8/9 characteristics must be upheld :
- Freedom of organization
- Freedom of expression
- Right to vote
- Eligibility for public office
- Right for leaders to compete for support
- Alternative sources of information
- Free & Fair elections
- Institutions & policies dependent on voters preference
- inclusiveness of societ at large
How to measure a democracy
Dichotomous (yes / no –> DD)
vs.
continuous scale (scale –> polity IV)
How to transition to a democracy?
Conditions:
- structural:
- Economic development (Lipset) (might be inverted)
- high level of social inequality
- institutions:
- Collaboration
- Actors & Agency:
- must incorporate followers to democratic life
- Civic values: Wealth –> expressthemselves –> Democracy
- Elites misjudgement: Incomplete information; if opposition weak, than
incorporation into regime; if not than revolution
- international forces
- democratic contagion (waves of democratization + counterwaves)
- Class based explenation (Barrington Moore)
- size of middle class determines in which direction society will develop
- Geography based explenation
- It happens in geographic clustern
Modernization theory (Lipset)
socio-economic development
- Industrialization - Urbanization - wealth - education
open class system, large middle class
- democratic transition - democratic stability
Majoritarian Democracy
- Winners takes all
- less centralized
- Winner takes all; government is exclusive; power is restricted
pros: If people abide, the stable
con: minorities are underrepresented; Policies easily changeable; Fast acting;
Consensual system
Shared power; less centralized
minorities are represented
rather stable
long to take action
