Topic 3 Democracy

UOL PS1172 Introduction to Political cience lectures民主，指人民所享有的参与国家事务和社会事务管理或对国事自由发表意见的权利。

Topic 3: Democracy

• 3.1 What is Democracy?
  • “Of / For / By the People” —— Lincoln
    • People elect representatives to represent their ideas / interests
    • Decisions made by the elected representatives and not others
    • Democracy must promote the interests of the people and NOT private interests
• 3.2 Why do we need Democracy?
  • Basic idea:
    • citizens should have political equality as opposed to concentrating political power in the hands of the elites
  • Procedural Democracy:
    • Characteristics:
      • certain procedures and institutions must be in place (also know as minimalist democracy)
    • Contestation:
      • extent to which citizens are free to organise themselves into competing blocs
      • stakeholders negotiating for what policies they want effected; i.e procedures of democratic competition
    • Inclusion:
      • the extent of which who gets to participate in the democratic process
  • Substantive:
    • Substantive: dependent on the outcomes – what did democracy hope to achieve?
  • Limitations of Procedural & Substantive
    • Procedural:
      • Only takes into account the procedures and institutions but does not measure whether democracy actually exists
      • Virtually every country has held some form of election in its history – does that mean ALL countries are democratic?
    • Substantive:
      • Outcomes of democracy may vary from case to case – what might be an accurate measure?
      • How do you measure “economic justice”?
      • Difficulty in finding empirical examples of such regimes
• 3.3 How to measure Democracy?
  • Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project
    • Unique approach:
      • historical, multidimensional, nuanced, and disaggregated + employs state-of-the-art methodology
    • Big dataset:
      • produces the largest global dataset on democracy with over 30 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2021
    • Advantage:
      • V-Dem allows political scientists to take into account how much country experts differ in their assessment of a country’s regime
      • The V-Dem project also provides indexes of regime type based upon alternative procedural and substantive conceptions of democracy
  • Conceptualisation:
    • What is conceptualisation?
      • comparison of how the same country can be classified differently depending on the measurements used
    • Advantages of procedural conceptualisation:
      • The minimalist view helps to more easily isolate variables
      • Recognises that a democracy can be organised in many different ways
      • Substantive definitions that attach value can be more difficult to quantify and measure as it varies from country to country (culture, history, economy, demographics may impact)
      • Huntington —— the importance of “how”
• 3.4 History of Democracy
  • Uneven:
    • rise and fall in the number of democracies in the world
  • 3 Waves of democratisation:
    • 1900-1939:
      • roots in American and French revolutions, social progress, establishment of at least minimally democratic institutions (suffrage, elections, establishment of executive etc)
    • Reverse wave WW2:
      • rise of Fascism, military coups/rule, authoritarian dictatorships
    • Post WW2
      • movement towards democratisation (limited democracy) but unstable given militaristic interferences
        • 1950/1960s: End of colonialism in many former colonies and negotiations with militaristic rulers
        • Late 1960/1970s onwards: Final phase of European decolonisation and liberation of authoritarian regimes and movements promoting democracy gaining strength in Asia, Latin America.
• 3.5 Explaining democracy
  • Democratisation:
    • End of non-democratic rule (autocracy, dictatorship, authoritarian)
    • Installation of a democratic regime
    • Consolidation of democratic regime
  • Why countries become democratic? Ec, Culture, Strategic Bargaining
    • Lipset (1959) — Economic and social modernization — Modernization theory
      • modernization creates changes in economic and social structure
      • Economic development leads to demand and emergence of democratic political institutions
      • Critics:
        • Too linear and ideal – does modernization ALWAYS create progress? (Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, 1968)
        • Economic development and urbanization in some developing/Third World countries lead to bureaucratic-authoritarianism instead (O'Donnell, Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism, 1973)
        • Economic development actually helps more with consolidation of democratic rule as opposed to creating it – survival story (Przeworski, several publications)
        • Ingelheart provides 4 reasons why modernisation theory is problematic
      • Examples of critics:
        • Middle East:
          • Several countries gained wealth but did not become democracies
    • Cultural factors
      • Reason:
        • Inherent culture of a society contributes to embedding and acceptance of institutions in a society
      • Quotations:
        • Lipset (1994): democracy “requires a supportive culture, the acceptance by the citizenry and political elites, of principles underlying freedom of speech, media, assembly, religion, of the rights of opposition parties, of the rule of law, of human rights, and the like”
      • Inglehart and Welzel —— Revised modernisation theory
        • Key point:
          • Modernisation does not automatically bring democracy, industrialisation can lead to racism, communism, and theocracy of democracy.
      • Democracy & Catholicism天主教
        • Cultural Connections:
          • Bible contains basis on which society to be organised;
          • it was God’s words and cannot be disputed/debated;
          • Catholicism is highly hierarchical institution and incompatible with political equality
        • Realistic impact:
          • the Catholic Church remained a political force into the twentieth century (as opposed to the decline of the Protestant Church’s political presence)
      • Democracy & Non-Western cultures:
        • Huntington —— Clash of civilisations
          • Western society:
            • Individualism
            • Liberalism
            • Constitutionalism
            • Human Rights
            • Equality
            • Liberty
            • The rule of Law
            • Democracy
            • Free Markets
            • The separation of church and state
        • 4 elements of cultural influence
          • Belief that individuals can influence political decisions
          • High support for existing political system
          • High levels of interpersonal trust
          • Preference for gradual societal change
      • Conclusion:
        • Democracy is more common in some cultures (Western cultures) that support democratic values (individual liberties, freedom of expression, equality) than in others (Islam, Confucianism)
        • Economic development does not directly cause democracy, but rather economic development leads to cultural change and the emergence of civic culture, which in turn leads to democracy
        • more evidence for H2, that civic culture is central to creating and sustaining democracy as opposed to the belief that some cultures are inherently anti-democratic
    • Strategic bargains between political elites and citizens
      • What is strategic bargains?
        • Agreements between elites and masses to establish democratic institutions via transferring political power to the majority (i.e democratization)
      • Case studies: Britain — gradual development
        • English civil war, Glorious Revolution: resultant restriction of power of monarchy and increasing the power of the parliament
        • 1800s: Period of sustained growth
        • 1832: First Reform Act and introduction of basic voting based on property and income
        • 1867: Second Reform Act with the working class forming the majority
        • Democracy in Britain:
          • strategic concessions made by wealthy elites to prevent social revolution in environment if increasing economic development, industrialization, urbanization, economic inequality
      • Case studies: Argentina — more abrupt and political instability
        • initial claims of democratic reform post-independence in 1800s was a sham
        • Rising discontent and unrest led to universal male suffrage in 1912 via the Saenz Pena Law (low inclusion)
        • Emergence/dominance of Radical Party and failure of the elites’ Conservative Party
        • Military coup in 1930 to suppress Radicals and return of power to traditional elites
        • Military coup in 1943 leading to a more redistributive government led by Peron
        • Military coup in 1955, 1966 à social mobilization leading to proper democratic election in 1973
        • Military coup in 1976 à eventual defeat of military as a political actor in the Falklands War
        • 1983 and onwards: democracy entrenched
        • Democracy in Argentina:
          • credible commitment problem arising from increased political equality and level of redistribution led to several coups to protect economic and political interests of the elites (reneging on all promises)
      • Case studies: Singapore — small changes
        • Desire for independence —— 1940s/50s characterized by strikes/labour unrest
        • 1959 critical: win by PAP and the subsequent suppression of labour and the Barisan Sosialis
        • 1968: Barisan Sosialis resigned seats, leaving PAP unchallenged till 1980s
        • Structure of society: lack of traditional elites, weak industrial class and co-opting of media among others, limited demands for greater independence
        • Democracy in Singapore:
          • modernization and economic rise has not created conditions where there is a high level of pressure for political change/revolution.
      • Case studies: Tunisia — Sudden change
        • Threats of repression failed and the bargain offered by ruling elite were perceived as too little too late by the protesting masses
        • Transition to democracy more sudden + less stable (as opposed to what is seen in a strategic bargaining model) and can have a possibly destabilising effect on democracy in Tunisia
  • Summary:
    • Scholars: Acemoglu and Robinson —— combination of the level of economic inequality and the cost of repression explain motivations for:
      • why people mobilise
      • whether traditional elites will seek to strike a bargain leading to democracy
      • whether elites will resist because the cost of redistribution of wealth as a result of democracy in a highly unequal society is too high
    • 4 contexts of democratisation
      • Britain — the gradual and steady democratisation through a strategic bargain
      • Argentina — the uneven and unstable democracy of Argentina where there were constant tussles between the elites and the masses and no bargains were struck
      • Singapore — the masses never demanded democracy (till today?) due to low levels of economic inequality and the political domination of a single party
      • Tunisia — threats of repression failed and the subsequent bargain offered by the ruling elite was seen as coming too late by the protesting masses and therefore it did not stave off a revolution