Week 4: Political Man, Chapter 2 Economic Development and Democracy (Seymour Martin Lipset)

Week 4: Political Man, Chapter 2 Economic Development and Democracy (Seymour Martin Lipset)

1. Conditions of Democracy

   • political formula specifying which institutions are legitimate.
   • One set of political leaders in office
   • One or more sets of leaders attempting to gain office

2. Characteristics dealt with in Lipset's argument

   • Legitimacy
   • Economic Development
     • in Europe and the Americas
       • Aristotle/others:
         • Democracies only in wealthy nations.
           • intelligence to participate in politics
           • Self restraint
           • Protection from demagogues
         • Lack of wealth
           • Tyranny
           • oligarchy
       • Democracy = +wealth + industrialization + education
       • Education
         • WHY is there not as high a correlation between Education and Democracy as expected ex: Germany and France.
           • Education is necessary but NOT sufficient
         • 1951-1952 study. Hihg correlation between urbanization, literacy, voting rates, media consumption/production vs education
       • Modernization
         • Requires multiple aspects of development to keep pace with one another
           • urbanization
           • Education
             • LITERACY
           • Lerner's Phases
             • Urbanization
             • Literacy
             • Media Growth
               • Fully accelerates literacy through media networks
     • and the Class struggle
       • form of struggle based on level of economic development and resulting changes
         • Inverse relationship between strength of communism and economic development
           • Stronger relationship than between communism and ethnic/ religious factors
             • What is the relationship between Communism and level of education?
         • More wealth and education = multiple pressures from various ideologies = lower commitment to any single ideology = less extremism
         • Larger, moderate middle class penalizes extremism
       • Poverty and economic struggle do not result, on their own, in political extremism.
         • In the case of stable poverty without the concept of the possibility of change, the result will be conservatism
           • Resultant high correlation between political extremism and economic inequality NOT simply poverty.
     • The Politics of rapid economic development
       • Basic issue is pressure for rapid development
         • Why are industrial newcomers prone to extremism?
           • BC they are uneducated, comparatively poor, etc.

3. Lipset on emergence of Democracy]

   • Weber not completely right that capitalism is the only prerequisite for democracy
   • Many cases where the socio economic conditions were right, but still no democracy. Germany
     • Key Historical Events

4. Persistence of democracy

   • premature democracies must improve conditions that allow it's persistence
     • universal literacy
       • literacy gives people the capacity to be good citizens who vote, participate, etc.
       • The higher one's education, the more likely they are to buy in to democratic values and practices