Democracy Definitions, concepts and classifications.
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Transcript of Democracy Definitions, concepts and classifications.
Democracy
Definitions, concepts and classifications
Ideologies
• Democracy or the Free Market?
• Communism: Stalinism, Revisionism, Eurocommunism or Marxism?
• Islam: Sunni, Shia, Shariat or Secular?
• Anti-colonialism, Neo-colonialism
• Feminism
• Trotskyism, Anarchism and terrorism
What is Democracy?
• Regular, contested elections• Alternation of Governments• Rule of Law• freedoms: speech, association press, etc.• pluralism/polycentrism/civil society• Privacy• Separation of powers/checks and
balances
Important events
• Death of Socrates: Plato blames democracy [399BC]
• The Roman Republic [SPQR]• Anglo-saxon and Viking ideas of warrior
community [Dark Ages]• Magna Carta 1215• Glorious Revolution 1688• American Revolution 1776• French Revolution 1789
“Modern” Events
• Chartists and 6 demands:
• Universal Suffrage [well, male]
• Equal electoral districts
• Payment for MPs
• Abolition of property qual. For MPs
• Vote by ballot
• Annual parliaments
Even more modern events
• Struggle for decolonisation• Russian revolution 1917• Chinese protracted revolution• Globalisation• United Nations• European Union• Collapse of Communism and Westphalian
settlement• Idea of Universal Human rights
What sort of democracy?
• Participative• People’s Democracy• Representative• Liberal• Free market?• Eurocommunist?• Totalitarian /Rousseau-style General will• Fabian one-party
Models of Democracy
• British
• American
• French
• Asian
• Islamic
Variables
• Electoral system and party system
• monarchy or republic
• uni- or bi-cameral
• fusion of executive and legislature
• separation of powers
• President and prime minister: 4th or 5th Rep
• ministers in or out of Assembly
Choosing a system 1: legislature and executive
• Presidential or parliamentary?
• British model?
• US model?
• French 4th Republic?
• French 5th Republic?
• Other European?
• Asian?
Choosing 2: electoral system
• PR or first past the post?
• Constituency size: whole country, German model or multi-member?
• Qualification for representation: what proportion of electorate?
• How do we want to fix the result? CPs thought single-member constituencies would benefit them. Turned out differently.
Choosing 3: Presidents
• Direct or indirect election?
• How much power?
• Relationship with Prime Minister
• Can Prexy dissolve Assembly?
The Tyranny of the Market
W[h]ither the Nation-state?
Marx [or was it Engels?]
• “The state will wither away”
• Was this the state as “executive committee of the bourgeoisie”?
• Or as an instrument of class oppression?
• Or did he really mean what anarchists mean?
Globalisation
• Are we moving to a single global market?
• Does that mean forget national and regional markets?
• And does that demand global governance, rather than regional or national?
Would Marx agree with Friedman and Hayek?
• Capitalism is supposed to create the conditions necessary for socialism
• The revolution is an international one• So capitalism must presumably create an
international state for the proletariat to overthrow.
• “Man creates his own history but in conditions not of his own choosing”
• So F and H may be friends of Karl!
Friedrich Hayek
• Austrian, 1899-1992
• Chicago after 1950. Previously at LSE
• Anti-Keynesian/ free market economist
• Law Legislation and Liberty 3 vols 1973-9 Keith Joseph gave a copy to all civil servants in DTI when he became sec of state in 1979
Milton Friedman
• New Yorker 1912-
• Theoretical Economist
• Monetarist
• founder of “Chicago School”
• Governments should not intervene in the workings of the market
• Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money
The Market
• Hayek• recognises the
existence of market failure
• specifically to provide collective goods
• Friedman• that the market can
be relied upon • to generate not only
the best world but the best of all possible worlds
Fairness and Justice
• Hayek: the market and therefore inequality is justifiable
• individuals do not deserve their lot
• market can be cruel and unfair: hard work and bright ideas not always rewarded
• money is not a measure of human worth
• Friedman• the distribtion of
income found in a capitalist society is just
• in that it reflects the different talents abilities and efforts of the people in that society
The State
• Hayek• state has a role in
licensing• quality must be
guaranteed• services must be
contracted out
• Friedman• State should be kept
to a minimum• market will guarantee
quality• services must be
privatised
Issues
• Pollution
• Can government prevent deforestation?
• The safety-net
• caveat emptor?
• How do you form an army?
• Or: if the state no longer has a monopoly of coercive force, is it a state?
In conclusion
• Is the nation state withering away?
• Is Marx about to make a come-back?
• Is there an era of regional superstates around the corner, or a world state?
• Or is the term “state” redundant?
• “The executive committee of the global corporations” what will it look like and what power will it have?