POLI 200 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Authoritarianism, Judicial Independence, Modernization Theory
4 Dec 2018
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Trichotomous: authoritarian, semi-democracies, democracies (4) dimensions of democracy: Chief of gov"t and legislature must be elected through popular elections. Elected authorities must exercise real governing power. No violation (democracy), partial violation (semi-democracy), big violation (authoritarian) Variation in democracies; to what extent is there Trade-off b/w stability and depth of democracies. Non-democracies competitive authoritarianism: cases where elections are the principal means for acquiring power but where incumbents routinely abuse state resources/deny opposition of adequate media coverage/ harass opposition candidates and supporters/ manipulate electoral results. Electoral authoritarianism: the foil of electoral democracy: a system in which elections are held but incumbents systematically manipulate the voting. For a nondemocratic regime to be considered electoral authoritarian, some form of multiparty or multi- factional polling must be allowed. Otherwise it belongs in the category of fully closed authoritarianism. No elections or elections are a mere facade (fallacy of electoralism) Opposition can challenge gov"t outside of elections. Formal checks and balances (independent legislature, judiciary)
