POLI 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Liberal Democracy, John Stuart Mill, Representative Democracy
17 Feb 2017
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Equal right to vote, serve on juries, run for office, speak on public issues, conduct public functions. There is no set rule for how much equality is necessary to be a democracy. There is always an ongoing debate about political rights. Decisions are made according to the option that gets the majority support. Liberal democracies do not, and cannot function completely on majority rule. Plurality votes: the person with the most votes. Qualified votes: win a number above 50% is necessary to win. Unanimous vote- when all parties must agree on a decision. Unlike ancient greece, the people themselves do not weigh in on individual issues, but rather, they select people to represent them in assemblies. Representative democracies add checks to the institutions to prevent representatives from abusing their delegated authorities. According to js mill, these checks induce rulers to act for the general benefit. Elections are about electing the individuals who will represent districts in deciding on.
