Week 4: Democracy

Question 1

What is democracy?

Answer 1

‘Rule by the people’
Demos = people, Kratos = power

Question 2

What is the principle of ‘rule by the people’ in democracy?

Answer 2

It is applied to representative
democracy; means that
citizens elect officials to
make decisions, and hold
them accountable.

Question 3

Democracy is the dominant principle of…

Answer 3

legitimacy for governments in our historical era, and rulers everywhere

even tyrannical rulers claim democratic credentials as justification for their power

Question 4

What does the term democracy describe?

Answer 4

an ideal as much as the reality of certain forms of government

Question 5

When did the number of democracies expand?

Answer 5

late 20th century

Question 6

List the types of ancient democracies which differ from democracies that emerged in the mid/late 19th century.

Answer 6

1. Direct democracy vs. indirect or representative
   democracy
2. Mass Democracy

Question 7

What is direct democracy? + example

Answer 7

E.g Athenian democracy

1. Major decisions were made by citizens meeting at a popular assembly
2. A very small minority of the city’s population was granted citizenship (women, slaves, former slaves, foreigners, and minors were excluded)
3. No constitutional protection of individual rights
4. All citizens were expected to participate in the assembly

Question 8

List the cons of direct democracy e.g Athenian democracy

Answer 8

1. The system did not expand beyond the size of an independent city
2. Popular decisions were often random + inconsistent
3. Viewed as the rule of an ‘uniformed angry mob’
4. Many argued in favour of ‘mixed government’ - monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy

Question 9

So did the term ‘democracy’ carry a positive or negative connotation amongst educated readers until the 19th century?

Answer 9

Negative

Question 10

What is a term for ‘really existing democracies’, the political regimes that rule in many contemporary societies?

Answer 10

Mass liberal republic

Question 11

Modern democracies are built on…

Answer 11

1. Republican arrangements
2. Liberal principles of the 18th century

Question 12

List the republican arrangements modern democracies are based on.

Answer 12

Most policy decisions are not made directly by citizens, but they are delegated to representative legislatures and executive leaders who are accountable to the electorate

Question 13

List the liberal principles modern democracies are based on.

Answer 13

1. Political rights are recognized for all citizens
2. Social and human rights are recognized for non-citizens as well
3. The government is expected to respect such rights and to protect individuals when their rights are threatened by other actors, such as criminals or corporations

Question 14

Liberal republics already existed before the industrial era under the guise of…

Answer 14

A constitutional monarchy, which represented the interests of a small aristocratic minority

Question 15

How did the scale of both democratic and non-democratic political systems expand to include large population segments in the political process?

Answer 15

Progressively expanding the right to vote to men without property, to women, to excluded ethnic groups, and to younger adults

Question 16

What did Joseph Schumpeter argue was the key feature of modern democracies in 1942?

(minimalist/procedural democracy)

Answer 16

1. A regime in which leaders are selected through competitive elections
2. Focuses on institutions - easy to
   measure and comparable over time

Competitive elections - this idea was praised for its simplicity but also criticised for its limited understanding of democracy

Question 17

In 1971, Robert Dahl expanded the idea and came up with polyarchy. Explain.

(maximalist/substantive democracy)

Answer 17

1. Dahl argued: modern democracy = combination of open contestation for power + inclusive political participation
2. Free and fair elections plus liberties

Question 18

List features of Dahl’s polyarchy (maximalist democracy)

Answer 18

✓ elected officials
✓ elections need to be free and fair
✓ all citizens to be able to run for
office
✓ freedom of expression
✓ access to information
✓ freedom of association

Social and economic rights:
✓ Right to healthcare
✓Right to education
* Political and economic equality
* Accountability (lack of corruption)
* Equity (gender, race, etc.)
* Social inclusion and civil society
involvement

Question 19

What are the 4 general conditions of democracy?

Answer 19

1. Free and fair elections
2. Universal participation
3. Civil liberties
4. Responsible government

Question 20

Explain free and fair elections

Answer 20

1. National government is exercised by a legislature—parliament, congress, or assembly—and by an executive branch typically led by a prime minister or president
2. The legislature is elected by the people
3. Head of the gov can be elected by the people or selected by the majority in parliament
4. The electoral process leading to the formation of new governments is recurrent (elections take place every few years), free (candidates are allowed to campaign and voters to participate without intimidation) and fair (votes are counted w/out fraud)

Question 21

Explain universal participation.

Answer 21

1. The adult population enjoys the right to vote and to run for office without exclusions based on income, education, gender, ethnicity, or religion
2. Except for minors, foreign citizens or people with criminal record

Question 22

Explain civil liberties.

Answer 22

1. Democratic governments do not commit gross or systematic human rights violations against their citizens
2. Do not censor critical voices in the mass media
3. Do not ban the organisation of legitimate political parties or interest groups

Question 23

Explain responsible government.

Answer 23

1. Once elected, civilian authorities can adopt policies unconstrained by the monarch, military officers, foreign governments, religious authorities, or other unelected powers
2. To protect civil liberties, some decisions may be overturned by a constitutional court.
3. Interest groups intervene in the policymaking process
4. Executive leaders respond for their actions to the elected representatives in the legislature
5. Both executive leaders and elected representatives are ultimately responsible to voters for their policies

Question 24

What are the steps to measuring democracy?

Answer 24

1. Definition: Decide what features make up the concept of ‘democracy’
2. Operationalisation: Identify in the definition the features (variables) that we could observe/measure (e.g. we cannot observe ‘democracy’, but we can establish if a country has free and fair elections)
3. Measurement/Indicators: Develop measures of the variables that constitute the concept. Binary (yes/no) ? A scale (e.g. 1-10 score)?
4. Aggregation: Come up with a rule for adding up scores into an overall
   ‘Democracy score’

Question 25

List existing measures to measure democracy.

Answer 25

1. Polity IV
2. FH Freedom in the World
3. V-DEM

Question 26

Explain Polity IV

Answer 26

A scale (-10 to 10) that captures ‘regime authority’ from less democratic to more democratic.

Polity scores can also be converted into regime categories:
o “autocracies” (-10 to -6)
o “anocracies” (-5 to +5)
o “democracies” (+6 to +10)

Question 27

Explain FH Freedom in the World

Answer 27

Uses a two-tier system:

1) Scores from 0-4 for each country on 10 political rights indicators
and 15 civil liberties indicators.

2) Status (based on aggregate scores): Free, Partly Free, Not Free

Question 28

Explain V-DEM

Answer 28

Democracy is multidimensional – five separate indices:

Electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian democracy

Question 29

What are hybrid regimes? (imperfect democracies)

Answer 29

Pol regimes that fall ‘somewhere in between’ full democracy and full dictatorship

Question 30

List the types of hybrid regimes.

Answer 30

1. Oligarchical democracy
2. Tutelary democracy
3. Delegative democracy
4. Illiberal democracy

Question 31

Delegative democracy

Answer 31

In which the executive branch concentrates excessive power and is hardly accountable to other branches of government such as the legislature or the judiciary

Question 32

Illiberal democracy

Answer 32

To describe regimes that display multiparty elections and universal participation, but generally fail to respect civil liberties and the rule of law