POLI 212 Study Guide - Final Guide: Consensus Democracy, Liberal Democracy, Democratic Deficit
23 Apr 2013
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Lijphart is interested in variations among liberal democracies; he argues that. Siaroff"s classifications of democracies are not specific enough: he is writing in 1989, before the third wave of democratization in the. His main question is how to distinguish different types of democratic regimes: basic distinction between: majoritarian & consensus democracies, each are organized around a basic political principle: Majoritarian concentrate as much power as possible in the hands of the majority. Consensus share and disperse power as much as possible. He highlights two independent dimensions which can be used to define democratic regimes and then to classify individual cases: first dimension institutional profile. Two party = majoritarian; multi-party = consensus. Plurality fptp = majoritarian; pr = consensus: second dimension territorial profile. Not a question of being either in power or out of power, and, when out of power, being at the mercy of someone you fundamentally disagree with.
