POLSCI 1AB3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarianism
30 Jan 2018
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In their 2017 analysis, freedom house classified 123 of 195 countries as electoral democracies. Meaning that 37% of countries are not democracies. So, if we only focus on liberal democracies. We are missing out on a very large piece of the world"s political puzzle. Note: in exploring the justifications for authoritarianism i am not attempting to justify these justifications. Rather, there are two purposes i am aiming at: to understand non-democratic regimes on their own terms. How do they manufacture consent: non-liberal-democratic regimes often justify themselves as being more democratic than actually existing liberal democracies. What strategies do authoritarian regimes use to manufacture consent? (see. Mayer (on the syllabus), from whom this discussion is drawn: consequentialist justification. Authoritarian government is a means to an end rather than a legitimate end in and of itself. If a society wants to achieve a certain goal (like economic development), liberal. Democracy may not be the best route (according to this justification: principled justification.
