Fundamentals of Political Science

Dr. Sujian Guo

Professor of Political Science

San Francisco State Unversity

Email: sguo@sfsu.edu

http://bss.sfsu.edu/sguo

The Third Wave Founding Election Major “Third Wave” Countries

(Not An Exhaustive List)

the mid 1970s —

1980

1980 – 1987

1988 – the 1990s

Portugal, Greece, Spain, Ecuador, India, Nigeria

Turkey, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras,

Uruguay, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, South

Korea, the Philippines, Grenada, Sudan

Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Mongolia, the Soviet Union, Albania, Yugoslavia, Taiwan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia

What is Democracy?

Q: What conceptual and empirical elements can serve as theoretical criteria against which to measure to what extent political systems are democratic and to compare systems to determine whether a democratic transition has occurred or whether a political system has become more or less democratic?

DEFINING DEMOCRACY

1. A procedural or minimal conception. Among the first group of scholars (such as Joseph Schumpeter, Robert A. Dahl, Seymour Martin Lipset, and Juan Linz), the Schumpeterian definition is a minimal conception of democracy, which emphasizes the single most important defining property of democracy – free election or meaningful participation, that is, government authority is derived from the free decision of an electorate. This is sometimes referred to as “electoralism.” Under this definition, the competition for leadership through free elections is the distinctive feature of democracy.

DEFINING DEMOCRACY

2. A substantive or maximal conception. Some other scholars tend to stress conceptual breadth, which involves a larger number of defining properties intrinsic to democracy. Under this definition, the conception of democracy embraces effective and responsible government, informed and rational deliberation, honest and openness in politics, economic equality, equal participation and power, social justice, and various other civic virtues.

DEFINING DEMOCRACY

3. A middle-ground position. Still others, such as Terry Lynn Karl, choose a middle ground for defining democracy in order to avoid either an overly narrow or overly broad definition, with the concept being defined with reference to a small number of characteristics that distinguish it from other political systems. The middle-ground definition usually includes (1) a set of procedures and institutions that allow the contestation over power in free and fair elections, (2) accountability of the ruler to the ruled, (3) checks and balances in the exercise of government, (4) the neutrality of the armed forces, and (5) protection of civil and political liberty and rights of every citizen.

DEFINING DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION

• Democratic transition refers to a political process of movement aimed at establishing a democratic political system, initiated either from above or below or a combination of both, committed to democracy, tolerating opposition, allowing bargaining and compromise among different political forces for the resolution of social conflicts, institutionalizing the pluralist structures and procedures by which different political forces are allowed to compete over the power, and engaging in the fundamental transformation of political structure.

DEFINING LIBRALIZATION

• Liberalization is a controlled partial opening of the political space, or only a limited and controlled concession of political and civil rights from above, releasing political prisoners, opening up some issues for public debate, loosening censorship, and the like, but short of choosing a government through free, open, and competitive elections.

DEFINING DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION

• Democratic Consolidation is a discernible process by which the democratic norms, rules, and institutions constitute “the only game in town,” the only legitimate framework for seeking and exercising political power, and through which democracy becomes standardized and deeply internalized in institutional, social, and cultural life. In consolidated democracy, there may be intense conflicts, but no significant political actors attempt to achieve their objectives by illegal, unconstitutional, or antidemocratic means.