Chapter 5: Democratic Regimes
tldr
- democracies give power to their citizens to shape political decision through free, fair, and competitive elections, and through allowing and encouraging active participation of the people during all phases of the policymaking process
- public participation can be indirect through elected representatives or direct through votes on specific policy proposals
- political parties serve many crucial functions to democracies, including organizing majority rule, nominating candidates for office, and making political participation simpler and easier to understand, single-member-district (SMD) election systems allow only one candidate to win representation in each area and tend to result in two-party systems
- proportional representation (PR) election systems give representation to large and small parties alike based on the votes they receive and tend to result in multiparty systems
- states can fuse the powers of the legislature and executive together in a parliamentary system, or separate them from one another in a presidential system
democracy: political system in which all the people of the state are involved in making decisions about its affairs
Diamond states every democracy possesses 4 basic characteristics
- a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections
- indirect democracy: people choose representative who exercise power
- In the UK, an adult citizen votes for a member of parliament (MP) from their area (called a constituency), and the parliament, once gathered, can pass laws that apply to everyone
- direct democracy: people vote directly on whether a policy will be enacted or not
- referendum: government proposes a specific policy change to voters at which point a national election is held in which voters cast a yes/no vote on the question resulting in binding or nonbinding law
- plebiscite: similar to a referendum but not binding
- indirect democracy: people choose representative who exercise power
- the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life
- civil society: groups people choose to form and join in order to express their interests such as clubs, churches, charities, and interest groups
- associational autonomy: freedom to join, leave, and speak freely
- pluralist societies: allow civil societies to form independently and freely
- state corporatist societies: gives the state a strong and controlling role in the organization of civil society
- prevalent in Authoritarian Regimes
- protection of the human rights of all citizens
- liberal democracies: respect rights of people in addition to holding free and fair elections
- illiberal democracies: free and fair elections but no respect for natural rights
- Modern Russia during the rise of Vladimir Putin
- transitional democracies: former authoritarian regimes attempting to integrate democratic practices into the regime
- not totally liberal due to the lack of democratic culture among the people
- a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens
- rule of law: government is not empowered to reshape the regime to benefit it's own interests or its hold on power
- Magna Carta: first rule of law which revises the distinction between the government and the regime
- constitution: a basic set of laws that define and codify the extent and limitations on the power of the government and each of the state's institutions
- a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections
Role of Political Parties
- political party: institution that seeks to gain control of government for the purpose of wielding political power to achieve goals common to its members
- interest groups: not the same as parties, but they help parties
- interest articulation: group communicates the common interest of its members with relevant policymakers, government officials, and the public at large
- interest aggregation: combining the interests of many individuals and groups into a formal policy program
- articulation causes aggregation
Election Systems
- legislative representation
- proportional representation system (PR): gives parties seats based on the percent of vote they receive; creates multiparty democracies
- party list: list in which political parties specify a ranking of their candidates for voters to review before the election
- coalition government: phenomenon in which parties team together because there is no majority as a result of PRs
- single-member-district (SMD): gives seats only to the candidate with the most votes in each district; creates two-party systems
- plurality: the most votes, but not necessarily the majority
- first-past-the-post: the candidate with the plurality wins and the other parties don't get anything
- United States and United Kingdom
- proportional representation system (PR): gives parties seats based on the percent of vote they receive; creates multiparty democracies
- presidential vs parliamentary
- presidential system: voters directly elect the executive
- separation of powers: legislative, judicial, executive
- divided government: one party controls one house while the other controls the other
- parliamentary systems: legislature chooses the executive, usually the leader of the majority party
- vote of no confidence: removes president if the majority party and the president don't agree
- head of state vs head of government
- head of state: ceremonial responsibility
- Queen of England
- head of government: actual responsibility
- Prime Minister of England
- head of state: ceremonial responsibility
Measuring Democratization
- Freedom House score
- 1-7, 1 being free and 7 being not free