POLS1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Democratic Consolidation, Bertrand Russell, Social Polarization
23 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
L6 DEMOCRACY AND DICTATORSHIP
1. What are the features of democracy
2. What are the features of autocracy
3. Who rules and how do we decide?
DEMOCRACY
What is democracy?
- Freedom of association
- Freedom of expression and information
- Broad suffrage rights
- Right to form candidacies for public offices and compete for votes
- Free and fair elections
- Govt. policies depending on electoral results
A democracy can be considered consolidated if it is self-enforcing, that is if the main actors routinely play
according to the rules of the game.
- Development favours democracy as it tends to reduce income and social polarization and lower the
intensity of redistributive conflicts
- Democracy favours development because it is strongly associated with the rule of law and is more
competent in the provision of public goods
- Democratic peace. Democratic states are less likely to fight each other and engage in wars than are
dictatorships
- A consolidated democracy can be associated with a civic culture favouring trust, cooperation, and
engagement in collective activities.
- Civic culture: values of trust, cooperation and engagement in collective activities.
- Philosopher Bertrad Russel stated, A deorat eed ot eliee that the ajo
Democracy: A system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public
real by citizens, acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of their elected
representatives. (Schmitter, 1991)
Concepts: System of governance, Rulers, Public realm, Citizens, Competition, Cooperation, Elections and
Representatives.
System of Governance:
- Democracy entails institutional arrangements
- Rules that inform democracy emerge from patterns of interaction
- Rules eventually become publically binding
o Big questions: Where do these rules come from? What forms do they take (constitutions)?
Rulers:
- Rulers are those people that occupy authority positions
o Rulers have legitimacy (recall Weber)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Political scientists are interested in how they get their legitimacy
▪ Elections?
▪ How are they held accountable?
The public realm
- D is an associational activity that has the public participating in the public sphere
- Distinct from govt. activities
- D is not always about govt. or elected representatives. It is also about how society interacts.
o Values and beliefs is society about what govt. should do
- The public realm in a democracy reflects democracy norms and values.
Citizens
- Citizens in a democracy show a unique relationship with the governing system
- Relationship based on rights and obligations that a suitable to a democracy
o Voting
o Freedom of expression/association
Competition
- Competition is an acknowledgement that there are diverse interests
o Ds reflect the different interests in a uni
o Competition between interests is legitimate and encouraged
▪ Different interests strengthen democracy institutions
▪ Competition of interests is the name of the game
▪ Democratic institutions regulate the interests to provide for health competition
o Cooperation
▪ Acknowledge competition, but also recognise the importance of community e.g. South Africa,
Northern Ireland
Elections
- The process by which rulers are put into office
o Lots of variation (PR vs plurality)
o Presidential or parliamentary systems
- Emphasis on the regularity of the occurrence
o Keeps rulers accountable
o Also have accountability mechanisms between elections
o Also have mechanisms for citizens to have their voices hear outside of elections
- Must be competitive + inclusive
o There must be an opportunity to throw the rascals out
Representatives
- Refers to those who we elect as well as those who work in executive agencies
o Those departments that execute the decisions made by elected representatives
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
(Liberal) Democracy Procedures: procedures that are required in order for a democracy to function as a
democracy
- Elected officials ultimately control decisions about policy
- Regular elections are free
- Practically all adult citizens have the right to vote
- All citizens have the right to stand for office
- Freedom of expression
- Multiple sources of information
- Freedom of association
- Sovereignty
Plato
- Politial deisio akig should e ased o epertise, o rule ill result if ou let the people rules
in a democracy
- Same argument for letting trained pilots fly airplanes, let the professionals (statesmen) rule.
- Thought that democracy would not be govt. of the people, but govt. of the poor and uneducated vs the
rich and educated
- Uneducated masses would be open to demagoguery → short lives democracies in which the people
would quickly surrender their power to a tyrant.
- Democracies end when they are too democratic → article.
Aristotle
- Believed there are conditions where the will of the many could be equal to the will of the few
- Gots. Are either good or ad ad that good a e orrupted i ad
- For Aristotle, democra falls ito the ad ategor
- Like Plato, he believed democracy to be dangerous because effective it is class rules where the poor
and uneducated rule for themselves
- Preferred aristocracy.
- Classification of regimes
Number of rulers
Good term. For the good of
all.
Bad form. For the good the
rulers
One
Monarchy
Tyranny
Few
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Many
Politeia
Democracy
Is classifying regimes according to the outcomes. Systematic approach.
Robert Dahl and polyarchy
- Substantive vs minimalist/procedural view of democracy
o “ustatie: lassifies politial regies aordig to the outoes the produe (e.g. Aristotle’s
good and bad regimes)
o Miialist/proedural: lassifies regies aordig to their istitutios ad proedures (Dahl’s
preference)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
