WEEK 6 - Citizen: Participation and Protest Flashcards
democracy defined by…
citizen participation
- voting
- robust civil society
- protest politics/social movements
the vote
- most basic form of democratic participation
- universal in most countries
- elections critically important
electoral systems definition
- system used to translate votes into seats
- using different ballots each case
2 kinds of electoral systems
- single member plurality (first past post)
- proportional representation
SMP…
- X beside choice, person with most votes gets seat
- US, UK, Canada
- single member constituency
SMP Benefits and drawbacks
benefits
- easy to understand
- creates majority governments
drawbacks
- seat doesn’t reflect popular vote
- small parties under represented
- votes “wasted”
proportional representation
- most common form of election
- elected seats proportional to popular vote
- multiple members in riding
2 kinds of PR
Party List System
- seats reflect pop. vote
- electorate votes chosen from list
Mixed Member PR system
- SMP + PR
- 2 votes on ballot
- 1 local 1 party
2 MP kinds
- MP’s who represent constituency
- MP’s on party list based on pop. vote
proportional representation benefits and drawback
benefits
- seats reflect pop. vote
- ensure small party representation
drawbacks
- constituencies need to be larger
- Party list system gives more power than electorate
- less link between constit. and single MP
democratic engaged participation
- goes beyond voting every 4 years
- robust civil society between elections key
key thinkers in engaged participation
- Alexis de Tocqueville 19th C
- Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba 1960’s
Robert Putnam 2000’s
Alexis de Tocqueville
“Democracy in America” 1835
- French author celebrated american democracy
- democracy depends on active, engaged civil society
The Civic Culture 1963
- Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba
- compared 5 nations
The Civic Culture 1963
3 kinds of political culture
- subject citizen aware but passive - parochial citizen unaware of politics - participant citizen aware and active
Bowling Alone 2000
Robert Putnam
- decline in civic participation last 40 years
- association memberships
- civil society collapse bad for democracy
problem with Putnam civic society thesis
Arneil “Diverse Communities” 2006
- measures old rather than new forms of civic society
- civic society changing rather than declining
