Class 1 - Democracy and Authoritarianism

Question 1

Who rules in an authocracy?

Answer 1

It depends:

1. Personal rule
   Dictatorial monarch (hereditary right to rule)
   Monarchical dictator (no hereditary right to rule)
2. Organisational rule
   Military rule
   One-party rule

Question 2

What is the rentier state?

Answer 2

Revenues made from resources keeps pop happy and unquestioning authority

Question 3

Why is military rule fragile?

Answer 3

Competition between generals + limited civilian freedoms (martial law)

Question 4

How is power legitimised in an autocracy?

Answer 4

-religious grounds
- ideology
- democracy (fake)

Question 5

How is power exerted in a authoritarian system?

Answer 5

• Totalitarianism: everything controlled, no degree of freedom
  E.g.: N Korea
• Authoritarianism: certain degree of contradictory views

Question 6

What are the mechanisms of authoritarian rulers?

Answer 6

• secret police
• information gathering - surveillance
• disproportionate sanctioning of criminality
• martial law

Question 7

Possible futures to authoritarian regimes?

Answer 7

• Extinction
• Evolution
• Resurgence

Question 8

What are the 4 characteristics of democracy? (first lecture)

Answer 8

1. fair elections
2. by the people (representation, accountability) - INPUT
3. for the people (gov. Effectiveness, representing)
4. institutional systems which limits power of those owning it

Question 9

What are 2 dimensions to defining democracy?

Answer 9

1. Procedural
   HOW should decisions be made?
2. Substantive
   WHAT public goods should it produce?

Question 10

What is the substantive understanding of democracy?

Answer 10

Democracy = a system that does well for its citizens

Question 11

What are the two procedural understandings of democracy?

Answer 11

1. Thin - Schumpeter

Minimal -> competitive elections

2. Thick - Dahl

8 conditions -> more complex, higher threshold

Question 12

What is the link between illiberal and liberal democracies and the thin and thick descriptions of democracy?

Answer 12

Illiberal dem -> thin description

Liberal dem -> thick description

Question 13

What are the 3 waves of democratisation for Huntington?

Answer 13

1. First wave
   French Revolution - end of WW2
   End of WW2 - Decolonisation period
   Portuguese Revolution -

-> For each wave, there is another way of democratisation

Question 14

What are three critiques to Huntington wave model?

Answer 14

-> quantity over quality (no of dems, as opposed to strenght of system)
-> assumes history moves just in one direction (‘end of history’ - fukuyama)
-> based on male suffrage; if looking at females, there is one wave of dem

Question 15

Why do definitions matter for measuring democracy?

Answer 15

Shapes what we count as democracy.

Example:
- clean elections
- gov. Effectiveness
- liberal component index

Leads to v mixed results WITHIN a country

Question 16

What are the three milestones of a democracy (Dahl)?

Answer 16

1. Incorporation
   Give right to vote -> inclusivity
2. Representation
   Rights to organise themselves in blocks -> liberalisation
3. Organised opposition
   power to vote out rulling party -> liberalisation

Question 17

What are the two pathways to democracy?

Answer 17

1. liberalisation
   Representation + org opposition
2. inclusiveness
   Right to vote

Closed hegemony -> competitive oligarchy / inclusive hegemony -> mass democracy

Question 18

What are, according to Lijphart, the 2 classifications of democratic systems?

Answer 18

• majoritarian democracy
  E.g.: Britain
• consensul democracy
  E.g.: Belgium

Question 19

What is the difference between majoritarian and consensus democracies? (Executives, party & electoral system, type of gov org, consitution and judicial review)

Answer 19

Maj - consensus

1. executives
   Concentration of power in single-party maj cabinets, minimum winning coalitions
   Executive > legislature

Multiparty coalitions - executive power sharing
Balance of power in executive - legislative relations

2. Party system & electoral system
   - two-party system
   Majoritarian and disproportionate electoral system

-multiparty system; proportional representation (PR)

3. Type of gov
   - unitary and centralised

• federal and decentralised

4. Constitution and judicial review

-flexible and easily amended
- parliamentary sovereignty

-rigid and diff to amend
- constitutional court

Question 20

What are the 2 dimensions associated with majoritarian and consensus democracies?

Answer 20

1. Executive - parties dimensions

+ for majoritarian
Neg- for consensus

2. federal- unitary dimension
   + for majoritarian
   Neg- for consensus

Question 21

6 Critiques to Lijphart’s model (of 2 types of democracy and classifying states)

Answer 21

• typologies are ideal-types
• only looks at institutions
• power shifts when it comes to judiciary or CB (e.g: EU)
• limited applicability (for e.g.: post-communist countries)
• static vs dynamic view of democracy (countries change over time)
• countries are growing more and more alike

Hard to classify & model democracies:
- ever-changing
- convergence

Question 22

What is institutional engineering? What is neo-institutionalism?

Answer 22

InstItutional engineering - building democracy from scratch

Neo-institutionalism - institutions as independent variables which have an independent impact on outcomes regardless of social & econ context