week 13 - veto players and regime types Flashcards
(8 cards)
What is the difference between a majoritarian and consensus style of governance, and who coined this distinction?
Lijphart (1984)
(1) consensus democracy - designed to achieve as much consensus on a decision is possible, which requires cross party support.
- there is a larger emphasis on representation; a proportional representative electoral system like alternative vote is more likely to occur in a consensus style of government.
- due to this, coalition governments are more frequent, as multiple parties must come to an agreement.
^characteristics:
1) slow decision making
2) greater representation
3) struggles to respond to immediate crisises / threats
4) less tactical voting
(2) majoritarian democracy - the will of the majority reigns. the ‘majority’ is simply a threshold rather than a goal.
- majoritarian democracies are often characterised via plurality electoral systems like FPTP in which it doesn’t matter whether a candidate or party gets a certain percent of the vote, they just need to get the most votes.
- this can lead to events where a party that only got 30% of the vote share is in government.
^characteristics:
1) fast decision making - power is concentrated in one party
2) party cohesion
3) if executive holds a strong majority in parliament, with a strong whip, this can lead to an electoral dictatorship
4) minority concerns oftentimes ignored as they are not detrimental to the vote
what did Arend Lijphart research paper show on the different outcomes in the two different types of democracies?
Consensus - more socially beneficial outcomes. Less inequality, more family orientated policies, more female representation, etc.
BUT a smaller economy. Less economic growth as the government doesn’t have the ability to respond quickly to economic circumstances.
What is the spatial model and what are the key assumptions in the spatial model? and who came up with it?
(Downs 1957)
The spatial model - a theory that describes voters, politicians and parties in a ‘political space’. Voters have an ideal policy point in this space and will gravitate towards such ideal when it comes to voting.
key assumptions:
1) We assume there is a clear left-right spectrum
2) We assume everyone can clearly plot where they are on this spectrum on both a social and economic level
3) Each actor will vote for the policy mostly aligned to their preferences
^In this sense, it also presupposes the rational choice model (Adam Smith). individuals weigh up the cost and benefit when casting a decision on policy -they behave rationally during their decision making.
What is the median voter theorem and who coined it?
(Black 1958)
Without any institutions or enforcement mechanisms (like the whip) , policy decisions should converge to the preference of the median voter. The median voter in such system is oftentimes a VETO player, as they can block any policy too far to the left or to the right.
^However, in real life this is often not the case, due to party mechanisms.
What is the agenda setter in the spatial model?
An agenda setter is the body of authority that decides which bills are brought forward to debate. In a presidential system, the president is the primary agenda setter. Whereas in a parliamentary system, it would be the government who would have agenda setting power.
^In the spatial model, it assumes party cohesion.
what is the status quo in the spatial model and how does this create a ‘win-set’?
The status quo represents the current policy position.
VETO players influence the win-set of the status quo – the spectrum of policy that could still achieve majority support.
It is the set of alternative policies to the status quo that would pass into legislation, despite the presence of VETO power.
A larger win-set indicates more potential for policy change as more can be agreed upon, whereas a smaller set significantly decreases the change in policy that can be agreed upon amongst all VETO players.
The status quo oftentimes serves as a reference to which new policies are evaluated.
^The agenda setter will need to propose a bill within the win-set in order for it to actually pass into law.
What is the role of a VETO player in the spatial model?
The number of veto players in a political system directly impacts the size of the “winset,” which is the set of possible policy outcomes that can be achieved without needing to overcome a veto. A higher number of veto players generally leads to a smaller winset, meaning fewer policy changes can be made.
What is the gridlock interval in the spatial model?
The position in which no new policy can be introduced. Therefore, the status quo remains, as agreement cannot be made amongst VETO players. This is where any policies between two VETO players are never going to be able to change, as they’d be blocked.
