industrialized democracies an overview. political system inputs –types: support & demands...
TRANSCRIPT
Political system
• Inputs– types: support & demands– channels: interest groups and parties
• Decision making– institutions & leaders of the state
• Outputs– public policy
Political system inputs
• interest articulation– voting, participation in elections– informal group, social movement– personal interest contact– protest activity
• interest groups
• channels of political access
Political system inputs
• interest aggregation– political demands of individuals and groups
are combined into policy programs
• personal interest aggregation– patron-client network
• central person or group• provides benefits to supporters• in exchange for their loyalty
Institutional interest aggregation
• associational groups– e.g. aggregation of labor and business
interests
• institutional groups– e.g. bureaucracy and military
• political parties are the primary structures of interest aggregation– competitive vs. authoritarian party systems
Competitive party system
• political parties can freely form
• primarily try to build electoral support
• citizen support is prerequisite for controlling government
• the closeness of electoral victory or even the number of political parties are not essential– e.g. the Indian or African National Congress
Competitive party system
• 3 stages of interest aggregation in a competitive party system
• within individual parties– candidates and policy proposals
• through electoral competition
• through bargaining and coalition building in the legislature or executive
Electoral rules
• single-member district plurality rule– “first past the post”– e.g. Britain, U.S., and many other countries
once influenced by Britain– the “Median Voter Theorem”
• proportional representation– e.g. many countries in continental Europe
Duverger’s Law
• Plurality single-member district election rules tend to create two-party systems in the legislature
• Proportional representation electoral systems generate multiple party systems in the legislature
Three Types of Polities
• Industrialized democracies– North America, European Union, Japan, and
Oceania
• Current and former communist regimes– East Europe, East Asia, and Cuba
• The Third World– Latin America, Asia, and Africa
Democracy: conceptual issues
• Greek words: rule by the people
• Who are “the people”?– Gender, race, and age
• How to rule?– Direct versus representative democracy
• Almost every government claims to be a democracy
Criteria of democracy
• Institutional arrangements?
• Individual freedom?
• Economic equality?
• ...
• Necessary condition but
• Not sufficient condition
Criteria of democracy
• Democracies guarantee basic individual freedoms and rights
• Democracies rely on the rule of law
• Democratic governments are chosen through regular, free, and fair elections– different electoral systems
• single-member district & first-past-the-post system• proportional representation system
Criteria of democracy
• Two uncertain and controversial criteria:
• civil society and civic culture– legitimacy (the right to rule)– distinction between administration and
democracy
• capitalism and affluence
• Historical development of democracy
Origins of the Democratic State
• In Europe (and North America) the way democracy developed was largely a result of the way countries handled four great transformations over the last 500 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
Waves of Democratization
• ``A group of transitions from nondemocratic to democratic regimes that occur within a specified period of time and that significantly outnumber transitions in the opposite direction during that period”
The First Two Waves
• A long and slow wave from 1828 to 1926
• A reverse wave of democratic breakdown from 1922 to 1942
• A wave of democratization after World War II from 1943 to 1964
• A reverse wave of democratic breakdown from 1961 to 1975
The Third Wave
• Started in Portugal and Spain in mid-1970s
• Spread to South America from late 1970s to early 1980s
• Reached Asia in late 1980s
• Surge of transitions in East Europe at end of 1980s
• South Africa 1990
Political parties in democracies
• Traditional left-right political spectrum
• left end: communist parties
• left: social democratic parties
• right: Christian democratic parties
• right: conservative parties