2. Democracy:
• Basic Rights
− Do these have to be protected in a written
constitution?
• Competitive Elections
− Which is the better electoral system?
Way of counting the votes
• Rule of Law
• Capitalism and Affluence
− Is this necessary?
3. Common and Not So Common Themes
Elections determine who governs but Not ALL are ALIKE
– Electoral systems:
Direct v. indirect
− U.S. & France elect their chief executives
− Great Britain and Germany do not
Proportional v. plurality (single member districts)
− German Bundestag gives half its seats
proportionally
− U.S. & Great Britain use “first past the post”
− Separation of powers (U.S.) v. fusion of powers
4. Four Different Elections
• United States
− Electoral College
France
− Directly elects its
President
− Ballot has multiple
candidates
− Only top 2 participate
in a runoff
Great Britain
− No scheduled elections
− Prime Minister calls for
elections within 5 years
Germany
− 4 major parties that form
coalitions to pass
legislation
5. Understanding Democracy
• Democratic Regime – a set of institutions that
allow the citizens to choose the makers of
public policy in free, competitive elections
• Industrialized Democracy – the richest
countries with advanced economies and
liberal states.
6. Procedural v. Substantive Democracy
Procedural democracy
− Presence of “free, fair,
competitive” elections
BUT
Hurdles are present for real
democratic procedures
Opposition parties
silenced
Votes not counted
Illiberal Democracy/Guarded
Democracy
- A true “free and fair” election
is a façade as a dominant party,
military, or person is in control
Substantive
Democracy
− Procedural standards
met
− More political rights
and civil liberties are
offered
7. Democratization
The
transformation
process from a
nondemocratic
regime to a
procedural
democracy to a
substantive
democracy
Samuel Huntington's “Three
Waves of Democratization”
→ The introduction of democracy
in different stages after 1900
− Late 19th
century
Increased education and
urbanization
− Post WWII era (1945-1960)
decolonization
− Late 1970s
Collapse of Soviet Union
8. The Origins of the Democratic StateThe Origins of the Democratic State
• Origins of democratic thought
– The early democracies: individualism, capitalism,
Protestantism, scientific revolution, and exploration
– Hobbes
– Laissez-faire
– Locke
– Suffrage
9. The Origins of the Democratic StateThe Origins of the Democratic State
• Building Democracies
– In Europe and North America, the way democracy
developed was largely a result of the way countries
and their rulers handled four great transformations
over the last five hundred years:
• The creation of the nation and state itself
• The role of religion in society and government
• The development of pressures for democracy
• The Industrial Revolution
– Cleavages (social divisions)
– Authoritarian Leaders, Fascism, and WWII
– The Cold War
10. The Emergence of the Early
Modern State
http://www.democracyweb.org/young/young3.php
Read about the early modern state
11. Political Culture and Participation
• The Civic Culture
− Legitimacy: government v. regime
• Political Parties and Elections
− Catch-all Parties
• New Divisions
– Gender
– Post-materialist
3rd
generation affluence – reasonable
assumption of productive careers
Vote on “higher-order” values
• Interest Groups
• Political Protest
12. The Democratic StateThe Democratic State
• Presidential and parliamentary systems
– Presidential: three branches of power used to prevent abuse of
power (only in the U.S.) → lengthy legislative process
– Parliamentary: secure majority party or coalition, the prime
minister rarely has to compromise, which allows their
government to act more quickly and decisively
Fused, not separated
• Cabinet responsibility – principle that requires a prime
minister and government to retain the support of a
parliamentary majority
• Votes of confidence – a vote in which the members express
their support for (or opposition to) the government’s
policies. If it loses, the government must resign
13. Democracy and Public PolicyDemocracy and Public Policy
• The interventionist state – governments in
industrialized democracies that pursue an active
economic policy
– Basic health care
– Subsidized and/or free education
– Unemployment compensation
– Pensions and other programs
14. Alternatives to Democracy
• Authoritarianism - power depends on the
coercive force of the political authorities
• Oligarchies - power is held by only a few,
usually wealthy people
• Totalitarianism - a political system in which
the state controls all aspects of public and
private life
