Democracy And Authoritarianism Flashcards
How can populism affect democracy?
Populism can blur the lines between a democracy and non-democracy/slippery slope between fragile democracy and outright authoritarianism.
Example: Erdogan’s removal of “effective democratic choice” in Turkey serving as a model for the anti democratic effects of populism in power (Rogenhofer and Panievsky, 2020)
What is Schmitter and Karl’s definition of democracy?
Modern political democracy is a system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public realm by citizens acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of their elected representatives.
Summarise the Democracy-Dictatorship measure of democracy
Takes a procedural approach to democracy
Regime types are a dichotomy with a qualitative difference between democracies and dictatorships
To know a regime is a democracy, the incumbent ruler must demonstrate that he is willing to to give up power after losing an election. (e.g., codes Botswana as dictatorship for this reason)
Defines democracies as “regimes in which governmental offices are filled as a consequence of contested elections”
For a regime to be considered democratic both the chief executive office and legislature are elected.
Contested requires uncertainty, irreversibility, and repeatability.
DD measure is an operationalisation of Przeworski.
Summarise the Polity IV measure of democracy
Democracy and Autocracy score given from 0 to 10 to each country. Polity score is Democracy-Autocracy, giving each country a polity score ranging from -10 to 10 for each country.
Countries often coded as democracies if polity score is >6 and dictatorship if polity score is <-6
Democracy is a continuum
Attempt to operationalise Dahl
Polity score determined by the competitiveness of executive recruitment, openness of executive recruitment, the constraints that exist on the executive, the regulation of political participation, and the competitiveness of political participation
Summarise the Freedom House measure of democracy
Employs a substantive view of democracy; particular institutions necessary but not sufficient, substantive outcomes produced by different regimes such as academic freedom, freedom from war, and freedom from socioeconomic inequalities also considered.
Two dimensions: political rights and civil rights. Each dimension receives a score 1 to 7 and freedom house score is average of the two.
Many scholars choose to code scores from 1 to 2.5 as free, scores 3 to 5.5 as partly free, and 5.5 to 7 as not free.
Democracy as a continuum
What is Gilbert’s (2011) method of categorising states in ‘Beyond Authoritarianism: the conceptualisation of hybrid regimes’?
Graded measures problematic for complex concepts such as political regimes
The three dimensions of competitiveness, competition and tutelary interference form the main axes of a configurative approach to political regime classification.
These three dimensions cannot be combined into a single continuum.
If they lack competitiveness: authoritarian (e.g., Singapore just lacks competitiveness)
If they have competitiveness but not civil liberties or freedom from tutelary interference: hybrid (e.g., Turkey is tutelary hybrid regime)
If they have all 3: democracy (e.g., UK)
How does Gilbert (2011) explain competitiveness, competition, and tutelary interference?
Competitiveness: produces an alternation of rulers and concretely impacts the distribution of power in a regime. It is verified by at least one turnover in four electoral cycles for the executive or legislature
Competition: regimes with fair competition protect civil liberties as this provides a broad arena in which citizens can participate, thus creating a fairer electoral playing field for competing parties.
Tutelary interference: for a regime to be democratic unelected bodies such as the military, religious authorities or a monarch must not unduly restrain the agency of elected leaders or veto national legislation.
According to Sartori (1984), what is the dichotomous approach to categorising regimes as democracies or not?
A regime is either a democracy or a non-democracy
What are the two key dimensions Dahl used for classifying regimes? What is an example of a regime having one but not the other?
Contestation: the extent to which citizens are free to organise themselves into competing blocs in order to press for the policies and outcomes they desire
Inclusion: in political regimes which have high levels of inclusion barriers to the naturalisation of immigrants are low and all adult citizens are permitted to vote.
Example: the former Soviet Union had high levels of inclusion because everyone was allowed to vote and participate but low levels of contestation because there was only one political party.
When, according to Dahl (1971), was a regime a polyarchy?
Highly inclusive and contested; preferred to label regimes as polyarchies because did not think any country could possibly be a complete democracy
What conditions does Dahl believe need to be present for modern political democracy?
Control over government decisions about policy is constitutionally vested in elected officials
Elected officials are chosen in frequent and fairly conducted elections in which coercion is comparatively uncommon.
Practically all adults have the right to vote in the election of officials
Practically all adults have the right to run for elective offices in the government
Citizens have a right to express themselves without the danger of severe punishment on political matters
Citizens have a right to seek out alternative sources of information. Moreover, alternative sources of information exist and are protected by the law
Citizens also have the right to form relatively independent associations or organisations, including independent political parties and interest groups
What other conditions do Schmitter and Karl (1991) propose are essential for modern political democracy?
Popularly elected officials must be able to exercise their constitutional powers without being subjected to overriding opposition from unelected officials
it must be able to act independently of constraints imposed by some other overarching political system.
What are the citations for democracy and authoritarianism?
Clark, Golder, and Golder, 2013 - summarises different ways of measuring democracy
Gilbert, 2011 - ‘Beyond authoritarianism: the conceptualisation of hybrid regimes’
Dahl, 1971/2005 - polyarchy and requirements for democracy
Schmitter and Karl, 1991 - definition of democracy and further requirements for democracy
Rogenhofer and Panievsky, 2020 - link to populism
What are Collier and Levitsky’s (1997) criteria for a regime to be a democracy?
- fully contested elections without massive electoral fraud
- universal suffrage
- effective guarantees of civil liberties (speech, assembly, association)
