final-liberal capitalist state Flashcards
(24 cards)
democracy
where political power resides with the people
3 characteristics of democracy
political accountability, political competition, political equality
regime censitaire
the right to vote based on income and tax payed
Principe capacitaire
restrictions to vote based on education
supporting characteristics of democracy
civil society, compliant bureaucracy, rule of law, autonomous economics sphere
Origins of democracy
Ancient Greece and Rome- direct democracy where citizens directly participated in democracy
Roman empire- republicanism: representation of people
Magna Carta- introducing the concept of the rule of law
writings of John Locke and Adam Smith
The distribution of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial
Executive- head of state (symbolic representation of the people deals with foreign affairs) and head of government (day to day policy)
Legislative- concerned with making and passing legislation, bicameral and unicameral system
Judicial branch- in charge of keeping the government accountable to the constitution
Parliamentary system
fusion of powers: executive and legislative work closely together because the legislative elects the cabinet and from the cabinet, the choose the prime minister and the executive
- shared legislative and judicial responsibility
Presidential system
executive: the head of state and head of government are fused together, and is directly elected by the people.
Legislative: passes laws and provides a check and balance to the executive- separation of powers
semi-presidential
executive- the prime minister and president share power; president writes policy prime minister implements it
- Mali, Sri Lanka,
Electoral system
divide the population into electoral districts, and each district is allocated a certain amount of legislative seats.
democratic voting systems
single member district-
proportional representation
mixed system
democratic constitutions
promote civil rights and civil liberties
characteristics of classical liberalism
- popular sovereignty
- rights based: right to property, right to self-determination, right to protection from arbitrary state power
- separation of public and private sector
- the state has consent from those who govern
what led to the decline of the classical liberal state
- disgruntle labourers because of lax labour laws and poor working conditions
- great depression- economic crisis questions the legitimacy of the state
- ww2- infrastructural damage, food shortage, refugee crisis, higher unemployment (returning soldiers
- cold war, soviet union creating a threat to the capitalist state
Characteristics of the welfare state
corporatist treatise- labour unions and strikes for better working conditions
Keynesianism- state intervention to support the economy; lowering taxes, government spending, banks reducing interest rates
Assembly line- Henry Ford; specialization and pay compensation for specialization
full employment- infrastructural damage increased demand, role of the state increased
what led to the fall of the welfare state
- urbanization
- environmental degradation
- gender contradictions
- generational change- Ronald Inglehart
- New social movements
- international political crisis: creating own nuclear deterrence
- economic crisis of the middle east
characteristics of the neo-liberal state
- Thatcherism and Reaganism
- policy in place to get rid of the welfare state
- creeping socialism
- removing state intervention and liberalizing the market
Third way
- Tony Blair, leader of the new labour party
- combination of left and right
- not big state vs small state
- focus on who was the best at delivering the service when choosing private or pubic
- social contract.
shared characteristics of developed democracies
- institutionalized democracy
- capitalist
- high level of economic development
freedom and equality in developed democracy
every developed democracy reconciles freedom and equality differently example: liberal democratic states vs. social democratic states
how are developed democracies similar
all liberal capitalist democracies value and promote participation, competition, and liberties but do so in different degrees and whose institutions in charge of promoting these values differ in construction and functionality
EU integration
monetary policy: a single currency links diverse economies together and if one is doing badly they all suffer
supranational system: state within the EU are no longer autonomous but decisions made by EU are binding
EU is too large: send power and responsibility back down to local government to encourage participation, therefore re-institutes democracy and gives a voice to the minorities
challenges of post-modern values
- quality of life
- globalization: immigration, sovereignty- changing nature of goods no longer tangible, technology, education, finance
