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Session3_democracy1.pptxComparative Politics
POLSCI 202
UMASS Boston
Prof. Shuai Jin
What is Democracy
Democracy in Historical Perspective
We live in a world that agrees on the importance and desirability of democracy.
But it hasn’t always been that way.
Until the middle of the 19th century, democracy was associated with an obsolete and ancient political system that was dangerous and unstable.
Demos referred to the “common people.”
These were people with little or no economic independence, no education, and no knowledge of politics.
These people were expected to pursue their own interests at the expense of the commonweal.
Plato saw democracy as government by the poor and uneducated against the rich and educated.
Plato believed that political decision-making should be based on expertise and that allowing all people to rule in a democracy would lead to mob rule and class warfare.
Democracy in Historical Perspective
Aristotle’s Typology of Governments
Democracy in Historical Perspective
| Good forms “for the good of all” | Bad forms “for the good of the rulers” | |
| Rule by one | Monarchy | Tyranny |
| Rule by few | Aristocracy | Oligarchy |
| Rule by many | Polity | Democracy |
Aristotle saw democracy as class rule.
Democracy was class rule by the worst class!
Mob rule was seen as the extreme form of democracy.
Democracy was the most dangerous of the corrupt forms of government.
Democracy was not associated with elections.
In the 18th century, democracy was seen as a form of government from the ancient world “in which offices are distributed by lot (by drawing names out of a hat).”
“Suffrage by lot is natural to democracy; as that by choice is to aristocracy.” (Montesquieu)
Democracy was seen as obsolete.
It meant direct legislation by the people, not by representatives of the people.
It could work in Athens (city-state) but most people thought that it could not work in the modern world.
Democracy in Historical Perspective
At the end of the 18th century, democracy entered west European political rhetoric.
In the Age of Revolution (French Revolution, American Revolution), “Democracy” and “Aristocracy” came to designate the main lines of cleavage of political systems.
representative government, popular sovereignty
Democracy in Historical Perspective
What do we mean by democracy today?
How do we know a democracy when we see one?
Two views of defining democracy
Minimalist or Procedural View: emphasizes the minimal standards, procedures, or rules that a country should have in place to govern political life.
Free, fair, regular elections
Elections have multiple parties or some choice
Freedom of speech / press / assembly
Substantive View: Classify political regimes in terms of the outcomes that they produce, not just the institutions they have.
Examines the notion of democratic depth and quality
Outcomes such as economic justice, equity/equality by gender, race or other groups, government accountability
Robert Dahl (1971): Polyarchy
Three Principles of Democracy
Accountability: a political mechanism that offers citizens regular and realistic opportunities to remove the rulers from office through peaceful and constitutional means.
Participation: political participation must be institutionalized, suffrage must be universal, and participation must be unforced.
Contestation: there must be real competition for power. Open competition between rivals within established rules is a normal part of politics.
Clark, Golder, and Golder, Principles of Comparative Politics 3e. SAGE Publishing, 2018.
Question
How much participation and contestation are necessary to make rulers accountable to the ruled?
Political and Legal Requirements
Elected government: how many government officials must be elected?
Civil liberties:
freedom of expression: does this mean absolute freedom?
freedom of assembly: does this mean the right to join / form any organizations?
freedom of press: does this mean the right to report anything?
Fair and frequent elections
Incumbent advantages
How frequent is frequent enough
Types of Democracy
Representative Democracy
Politicians & institutions represent the electorate
Electorate constrains politicians’ behavior
Elections (held periodically)
Other participation (protests, petitions, media, etc.)
Constitutional Republic
Constitutional Monarchy
Types of Democracy
Direct Democracy
Emphasis on direct citizen involvement in politics
Often involves citizen assemblies
Initiatives and Referenda (plebiscites)
Initiatives: citizens gather signatures to qualify ballot issues
Referenda: state (provincial) governments place issues on the ballot
How to prevent the referenda being used to promote anti-democratic outcomes?
How to protect the rights of political minorities?
Measuring Democracy
How have political scientists operationalized the concept of democracy?
Operationalization: the process by which abstract theoretical concepts are translated into concrete and observable measures or indicators.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of these operationalizations?
We focus on three measures.
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
Polity IV
Freedom House
Democracy is a regime “in which governmental offices are filled as a consequence of contested elections.”
Two primary components:
Government offices: both the chief executive office and the legislature
Contestation
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
A country is a democracy if:
The chief executive is elected.
The legislature is elected.
There is more than one party competing in elections.
There has been an alternation in power under identical electoral rules.
If these conditions do not hold, then the country is a dictatorship.
A country is either a dictatorship or a democracy.
Empirical scope is 199 countries from 1946 (or independence) to 2008.
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
Contestation is very important for DD.
Contestation occurs when there is an opposition that has some chance of winning office as a consequence of elections.
Ex ante uncertainty: Outcome of election is not known before it takes place.
Ex post irreversibility: The winner of the electoral contest actually takes office.
Repeatability: Elections occur at regular and known intervals.
Voters must have at least two alternatives to choose from
States where voters only have a single party list are excluded (i.e. Turkmenistan and Vietnam)
Why the fourth condition is necessary for DD classification that there has to be an alternation in power?
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
The problem is that it is difficult to distinguish between regimes in which (a) incumbents never lose power because they are popular and (b) incumbents hold elections only because they know they will not lose them.
The two cases are observationally equivalent: a single party in power for a long period of time
When the incumbent never lose, we never know whether they will willingly give up power if it loses, DD codes the regime as a dictatorship.
A purely procedural or minimalist view of democracy: no mention of the substantive outcomes
No mention of inclusion or participation
A dichotomous measure: either democracy or dictatorship
Democracy-Dictatorship (DD)
Polity IV
Empirical scope is 190 countries from 1800 to the present.
Provides an annual evaluation of democracy and autocracy.
Democracy measure 0–10.
Autocracy measure 0–10.
From these two measures it provides a Polity Score.
Polity Score = Democracy Measure–Autocracy Measure.
Ranges from − 10 to 10.
Polity: +6 to + 10 : Democracies
Polity: − 5 to +5 : Mixed regime
Polity: − 6 to − 10 : Dictatorships
Polity IV
This measure is based on five attributes.
Competitiveness of executive recruitment
Openness of executive recruitment
Executive constraints/decision rules: limited government dimension
Regulation of political participation
Competitiveness of participation
Each attribute is worth a different number of points. When coming up with a democracy or autocracy score, each attribute is weighted differently.
Scholar’s coding
Polity IV example
Freedom House
Empirical scope is 195 countries (and 15 territories) from 1972 to the present.
Not explicitly a measure of democracy. It is an annual evaluation of the state of “global freedom.”
Freedom has two broad categories.
Political rights (right to vote and compete for office, and so on)
Civil rights (freedom of speech and so on)
Based on scores for political and civil rights, Freedom House classifies countries as Free, Partly Free, and Not Free.
https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores
Freedom House
Types of Political Rights Questions.
Is the head of state elected in free and fair elections?
Is there pervasive corruption?
Is the government accountable between elections? is it open and transparent?
Do people have the right to organize?
Is there a competitive opposition?
Do minorities have reasonable autonomy?
Freedom House
Political rights
Country is awarded 0–4 points for each of the 10 questions.
The 10 questions in 3 categories
The electoral process
Political pluralism and participation
The functioning of government
Take the possible 40 points and place on a 1–7 scale.
1: highest level of freedom; 7: lowest level of freedom
Freedom House
Types of civil rights questions:
Is the media free and independent?
Are there free religious organizations?
Is there an independent judiciary?
Is there equal treatment under the law?
Are there free trade unions?
Is there equality of opportunity?
Do citizens have the right to own property?
Civil rights
Country is awarded 0–4 points for each of 15 questions.
15 questions in 4 categories:
Freedom of expression and belief
Associational and organizational rights
Rule of law
Personal autonomy and individual rights
Take these points and place on a 1–7 scale
Take the average of these two 7-point scales and determine whether a country is free (1–2.5), partly free (3–5.5) , or not free (5.5–7).
In contrast to DD and Polity IV, Freedom House takes a substantive view of democracy.
Freedom House
Freedom House 2013
Green: Free
Yellow: Partly Free
Purple: Not Free
Clark, Golder, and Golder, Principles of Comparative Politics 3e. SAGE Publishing, 2018.
