Karteikarten
Democracies
Karten in diesem Stapel (29)
- 1What is democracy and what ways can it be defined?- Democracy is a system of government where the power lies in the whole population, or the eligible members of the state
- This occurs through electing representatives to portray the publics values, and in return
- The public participates in politics directly or indirectly through participation, competition and liberty.
-There are 2 ways to define democracy:
1) Procedural definitions - defined a democracy in terms of the political and civil rights
2) Substantive definitions
- Democracy can also be defined in terms of whether it is direct or indirect democracy - 2What is the Third Wave of democracy?- The third wave of democracy is a book by Samuel P. Huntington that outlines the significant "third wave" of democratization
- It looks into 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America to outline the global trend of adopting some form of democratic government in the late 20th century - 3Define democracy in terms of its origins and connotationsOrigins: Democracy originates from the word demokratia which is greek
- Demos meaning the common good, and Kratia meaning the power or rule
= from this, we can define democracy as the fundamental system in which power resides within the people, and in term, people convert their power directly or indirectly in 3 forms
1) participation
2) Competition
3) Liberty
Connotation:
- Democracy has inherited a possible connotation, giving all systems that are democratic the idea that they are ideal, and any non-democratic system viewed as wrong or bad - 4Why is the term democracy not easily defined?- Democracy is not easily define dbecause it depends on the eye of the beholder
e.) In china, or other communist nations, democracy means collective equality and no individual freedom is that cost
- To them, under this definition, the communist regime is the true democratic regime which is not wrong if we use their definitions - 5Define direct and indirect democracyDirect democracy = where the public will participate directly in governance and policy making - this is historically found in small communities such as the Polis described in Plato's Republic on the Athenian state
Indirect democracy = This is where the public participate indirectly through elected representatives
- this is found is most modern democracies - 6Origins of democracy - Greece and Rome, The Magna Carta- The roots of democracy originate back to the ancient city of Athens and Rome- but both contribute to democracy very differently
Athens:
- The athenian state and early greek democracy laid down the idea of direct oublic participation
- They allowed the poiublic, excluding women, slaves and children, to directly be involved with policits
Rome:
- the roman empire laid down the concept of republicanism
- They emphasized the idea of a decentralized power which is now a federal democratic system in modern democracies
- They also laid out the idea of indirect participation through elected officials
= so greeks gave us the idea of a popular sovereign , and the romans introduced the idea of separating power to create executives, legislature and judiciary.
The Magna Carta:
- The magna Carta established by King John set up the foundations of the rule of law
- this meant that no one was above the law even the sovereign, and this established the idea of political rights, and created the English Democracy - 7Democratization:Definition: this is the processes that leads to regime change from authoritarianism to democracy
- Democratization is achieved through 2 ways
1) Transition = the change to a democracy regime
2) Consolidation = the institutionalization of a new democratic order
- in order to sucesfully go through democratization, countries should undergo both processes - 8What is meant by the transition paradigm- The transition paradigm is a term outlined by Thomas Carothers in 2002 "the end of the transition paradigm"
- He explains the movement away from an authoritarian regime to a democratic transition since 1970 - 9What are Thomas Carothers findings in the "end of the transition paradigm"1) Countries that had left a dictator rule moved to a democratic rule
2) Democratization would emerge in a sequence of stages rather than a single event
3) Democratization would only occur if there was a belief that elections were important
4) Structural matters of a country had no significance of democratization
5) Democracy could only occur in a functioning state - 10What is "democracy with adjectives"- Democracy with adjectives is the work of David Collier and Steven Levitsky to adress a new phenomena of defining democracy
- Because of the wave of democratization, scholars have been challenged with the ability to define democracy since different democratic attributes are adopted by authoritarian states of Asia, Africa and Latin America
= this is why they created democracies with adjectives in order to increase aglaytrical differentiation, and improve decoration of a democracy - 11What are the findings of a democracy with adjectives?- The text focuses on creation of 1) more procedural definitions, and 2) creating diminished subtype democracies.
Procedural definitions - the text focuses on the sue of these definitions rather than substantive definitions that are misleading
- these procedural definitions focus solely on the key procedures of a democracy i.e participation, competition and liberty
- The procedural definitions also focus on the minimal number of possible attributes needed by a country to be considered a democracy
** this can be problematic since people have conflicting views on what attributes make a democracy in the first place**
Diminishing sub-types - these represent an incomplete form of democracy and may be viewed as having fewer democratic attributes
- this can be misleading since people may confused subtypes to be a country not truly democratic
- examples of diminished sub-types include illiberal democracies, - 12What is the issue of Adjective democracies - Levisky & Way- Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way later reject the concept of an illiberal democracy as a diminishing sub-type,
- They argue that terms like "illiberal democracy" are inappropriate for some of these states, because the term implies that these regimes are democracies that have gone wrong.
- They argue that states such as Serbia and Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe, and post-Soviet Russia, were never truly democratic and not developing toward democracy, but were rather tending toward authoritarian behavior, despite having elections
= Thus, Levitsky and Way create a new term to remove the positive connotation of democracy from these states and distinguish them from flawed or developing democracies: competitive authoritarianism
= this shows that even with diminishing subtypes or adjective democracies, there will always a definition to argue against it and conflict over what a democracy really consists of continues. - 13What are the focus points of contemporary democratic studies?- Historical democratic studies focused on how and why democracies had emerged, byt this does not benefit modern day or give guidance
- This is why modern scholars shifted focus onto understanding democracy in terms of 5 aspects
1) Modernization and democracy
2) Elites and democracy
3) IR and democracy
4) Society and democracy
5) Culture and democracy - 14Modernization and democracy:- This is the most prominent theory of democratization
-It states that as a country modernizated, it will form better education which means a more economically sophisticated middle upper class = this allows the country to control the state order to achieve and defend democratic interests
- The behavioral revolution was strongly connected to modernization so correlated with democratization
- Modernization theory lost significance as countries which had modernized in Latin America failed to democratize, and as nondemocratic regimes arose in Asia and Africa
= now, modernization theory is not a direct contributed to democracy, but scholars claim that the wealth and economic development from modernization is essential to institutionalize democracy and ensure long term stability. - 15Elites and democracy:- Modernization implied that democracy would automatically occur if a country had developed a strong middle class and high standards of living, making people aware of liberal rights.
- This argument does not explain why countries that have a strong middle class and high standards of living do not transition e.g The Gulf, BUT elite-democracy relations can explain it.
- Scholars focus now not on modernization and democracy, but how elites hold or surrender power
- The way that elites respond to the middle class is what will determine whether a democracy forms
- Distribution of wealth from elites will also be significant in contributing to a democratic transition because the key to democracy is minimal poverty. - this is also especially true as the economic assets of the state are in the hands of elites e.g Think of Saudi Arabia and its oil
- It must be noted that elites and elite economic assets are not fixed; the second the assets run out or the elites loose significance, revolts may occur allowing a democratic transition. - 16Society and democratization:- Society based theories have formed because of 2 reasons:
1) Elite based theories may explain why elites surrender power or hold it, but this does not explain why the public demand the power in the first place
2) Modernization theory may explain the ideas of wealth and economic development leading to a middle class, but this does not explain why the middle class want to move to a democratic society if their current political institutions are stable and favor continuous development
- Scholars now shifted a focus onto the importance of public organizations to explain democracy
- They emphasis the role of a civil society; the organized life outside of the state, made for people based on the peoples interests e.g churches, sports teams,
-Alexisis De Toqueville called it the art of association
- The civil society will act as a political tool, providing democratic ideas in the society, making them demand power from elite, or demand democratic regimes over their current system.
e.g) Soviet Union's strong civil society aided their ability to leaving communist rule - 17International relations and democracy- Most theories focus on domestic factors for democratization but international relations can aid the process too
- Modernization can be a result of FDI, trade and globalization which aids democratic ideas to develop
- Civil societies will develop from globalization, making people aware of a democratic society through media and education = this causes the transmission of ideas which explained Egypt's democratization
- Trade alliances also act as prerequisites for democracy e.g) Eastern europeans successful consolation and transition was a direct cause of it being a member of the EU
- International pressure to abandon non-democratic rules
- Openness of closeness of the country e.g North Koreas closeness restricts a civil society from emerging, so prevents ideas of democracy to exist in the first place - 18Culture and democracy- The idea of a political culture is significant to determine whether democracies will form because political culture influences the policies in place
- Political culture also influence the relationship between freedom-equality
- Many philosophers argue democracy is a political culture itself = they argue it has formed on mutual historical, cultural and philosophical foundations; so in this perspective, having a "democratic political culture" is what causes modernization rather than modernization causing a democracy
- If this idea is true, then it can account for why many countries in the far East have failed to adopt democracies = this is because their historical development was based on strong national identity and not ideas of equality/freedom
- Having this in mind, it is hard to infer cause and effect e.g Countries like Spain were not predicted to democratize due to its roman catholic hierarchal stricture but it did. - 19Can democracies be crafted?YES!!!
1) Democratic assistance
2) Political conditionality - 20Democratic promotion/ assistance- It is a strand of foreign policy adopted by governments and international organizations to seek the spread of democracy around the world.
- It works on mutual agreement to adopt grand aided support e.g technical, material and financial assistance that will promote democracies.
- The precise definition of democracy promotion has been debated for more than twenty-five years.
- For example, the term 'promotion' itself can be seen by some as too intrusive, or implying outside interference, whilst 'support/assistance' can be seen by some as more gentle but, by others, as insufficiently assertive.
- These days the differences tend to divide into two main camps: those who see it as a political process and those who see it as a developmental process - 21Political conditionality- Conditonality refers to the use of use of conditions attached to the provision of benefits e.g loans, debt relif or bilateral aid
- This allows normative change through socialization or social learning which favors democratization
- It originates form of the European Commission and EU member interrupting, stopping or re-directing bilateral aid flows as a response to all sorts of violations of human rights, flawed election processes, military coups or corruption.
- There are principally 3 reasons for donors to apply political conditionality
1) to respond to demands or pressures in donor countries not to provide aid to certain regimes.
2) to ensure that partner country governments cannot abuse aid to maintain the status quo.
3) to create strong incentive packages that favor pro-democratic groups in power to their reform path. - 22Why study the democratization in Indonesia and Nigeria ?- they are both a product of colonialism
- they are both geographically strategic in terms of location and size
- they are both resource rich
- they both adopted democratic regimes leaving their authoritarian past
- they still have larger political problems regardless of being democratic - 23Indonesia timeline for democracy:1. The guided democracy under the Sukarno's regime
2. The new order under Suhartos regime
3. Habibi government
4. Wahid government
3. Megawatti government
5. The Yudhoyono goverment
6. The Widodo goverment - 24The guided democracy Indonesia- This was a political system that occured from 1957 till the new order in 1996
- It was under the rule of Sukarno
-It was an attempt to bring political stability; the regime created a system of traditional consensus by using guidance from village elders
-Sukarno rejected western democracy as he said it was unsuitable for the Indonesian context
- Guided democracy attempted to satisfy 3 areas of Indonesian politics:
1) The Army
2) The islamic groups
3) communists
- Sukarno returned to the 1945 constitution as it would make him head to state and head of goverment
- He had publicly denounced the USA, claimed to withdraw from the world bank and IMF, and threatened american companies
- The 30 September movement ended the guided democracy - 25The new order, Indonesia- The new order was under the Suharto regime
- It was regime which established elaborate coporoate structures, creatign the society in a corporist matter
- The regime placed economic development as the top priority
- Armed forces were used, and patronage was used to buy supporters
- The new order came to an end and this finally brought the democratic governments of Habibi, Wahid and Megawatti in 5 short years = but this meant that people now had freedom of expression, checks and balances between the legislatures and executives - 26Challenges of Indonesia as a democracy in modern day- Indonesia has domestic issues such as terrorism and problems with political elites
- It even has issues with law enforcement and cant be considered a real democracy without supremacy of law - 27Military and politics in Nigeria-After gaining independence in 1960 from Great Britain, Nigeria went to civil war due to the major ethnic differences
- the first of many military coups occurred in 1966.
- Democracy was briefly restored from 1979 to 1983, but for most of its independent history, Nigeria was ruled by a series of military juntas.
- The end of military rule brought about a new era of regular elections as well as the return of civil liberties, free press and an end to arbitrary arrests and torture, although human rights violations still occur regularly.
- Nigeria also began a long campaign against the bureaucratic and military corruption that had paralyzed its economy and its international reputation. - 28Nigeria's move to democracy- In 1979, after more than 13 years of military rule, Nigeria returned to democratic rule.
- The National Party of Nigeria won the presidential election and Alhaji Shehu Shagari was elected as the first returning democratic President.
- It was during Abubakar's leadership that Nigeria adopted its new constitution , which provided for multiparty elections.
- Elections were held and Olusegun Obasanjo, who had previously governed Nigeria as a military ruler, was elected the new president in 1999. - 29Why was Nigeria's 2015 elections significant?- Nigeria's 2015 presidental poll was arguably the most challenging for Nigeria
- Election related violence occured, ongoing attacks by Boko Haram in the northern parts of the region and there was a fear that if elections failed, then the west African region would be destabilized.
- Muhammadi Buhari was elected, and this meant that for the first time since Nigeria's independence, political power was transferred peacefully from one party to another.
- Buhari's visit to Washington represented an important opportunity for the USA and the international community of democracies to have hope to Nigeria setting an example to the rest of Africa.
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- Karteikarten am Democracies , erstellt von Amna AlNasser am 07/05/2016.
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- Amna AlNasser · Mai 2016
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