AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Crisis. Or Is It?• Thinking About Democracy• The Origins of the Democratic State• Political Culture and Participation• The Democratic State• Public Policy• The Media• Conclusion: The Worst Form of Government

Except for All the Others?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• After studying this chapter, students should be able to:– Define “democracy”.– Explain variations in democracies in different

countries.– Define “rule of law”.– Describe characteristics of civil society and civic

culture.– Outline support for and exceptions to the hypothesis

that capitalism and affluence are prerequisites of democratic political cultures.

– Outline the development of democratic states in Western Europe since the eighteenth century.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES (CONT’D) – Define “political legitimacy” and explain its role in

democratic civil societies.– Explain the roles of social capital and tolerance in

democratic civil societies.– Outline the characteristics of the types of political

parties found in Western democratic states.– Describe characteristics of presidential and

parliamentary regimes.– Explain the primary roles of bureaucracies in

democratic regimes.– Define and apply the concept of an “integrated elite”.– Describe an “interventionist state” and its primary

characteristics.

CRISIS. OR IS IT?

• Not all industrialized democracies have dealt with the economic crisis in the same way.

• Most analysts agree the crisis won’t reach levels of the Great Depression.

• Political damage will be limited because the regimes are not in jeopardy.

• Obama and the United States not only played a pivotal role in April ‘09 G-2 summit, but also fostered international cooperation.

TABLE 2.1 Stimulus Spending as of March 2009

• Democracy is about relationships between the rulers and the ruled.– Rule by the people – Democratic reality: Pay taxes, serve in the military,

follow the rule of law, and so on.

THINKING ABOUT DEMOCRACY

• The Basics– Rights

• Basic individual freedoms – Competitive Elections

• Regular, free, fair• Different electoral and party systems • Single-member districts vs. proportional

representation – The Rule of Law

• Clear and fair rules• People are governed by clear and fair rules

THINKING ABOUT DEMOCRACY

TABLE 2.2 Women in Parliament: Selected Countries

Source: International Parliamentary Union, www.ipu.org. Accessed 15 April 2011.

– Civil Society and Civic Culture

• Stable democracies have a civic culture

– Capitalism and Affluence

• Democracy can only exist alongside an affluent economy

THINKING ABOUT DEMOCRACY

THINKING ABOUT DEMOCRACY

• Key Concepts and Questions– Why did democracy emerge in these countries?

– Why did democracy become so remarkably durable in the second half of the twentieth century?

– Why is there so much debate about public policy in the industrialized democracies in the first years of the twenty-first century?

– Why has that debate not gone one step further and led many people to question their regimes or democracy itself?

THINKING ABOUT DEMOCRACY

• Which Countries Are Democracies?– Using these criteria, it is easy to identify more than

twenty countries that are unquestionably democratic.– Most are in Western Europe or in parts of the world

Europeans colonized.• The one obvious exception is Japan.

– All of these countries have met the five criteria for at least thirty years—which seems to be enough time for them to develop sufficient support for their democracies such that there is little chance of their regimes collapsing.

THE ORIGINS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• Domestic concerns played more of a role in their development than other countries we will examine.

• History of Europe and North America are intertwined.

• Democracy took a long time to develop.

THE ORIGINS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• The Evolution of Democratic Thought – Thomas Hobbes (1586–1679): People had to give

up their freedom to the Leviathan in order to prevent anarchy.

– Laissez-faire theory: Government should stay out of the economy and let the market run itself.

– John Locke (1632–1704): State’s role was to protect life, liberty, and property.• How would the state accomplish this?

TABLE 2.3 Key Turning Points in the Development of Industrialized Democracies

THE ORIGINS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• Evolution of Democratic Thought (Cont’d)– All of the industrialized democracies limited suffrage

until the mid-nineteenth century

• Women did not get the right to vote in many countries until the twentieth century.

– 1815 Congress of Vienna

– In the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth centuries, European parliaments gained more power.

Museum of London/Imagestate RM/PhotoLibrary

THE ORIGINS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• Building Democracies– Four great transformations:

• The creation of the nation and state.

• The role of religion in society and government.

• The development of pressures for democracy.

• The Industrial Revolution.

THE ORIGINS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• Building Democracies (Cont’d)– What countries experienced cleavages that made

their paths to democracy more difficult?

– Rise of fascism and authoritarianism led many to question democracy.

– Democracy was a tumultuous process.

– United States sent aid to Europe during the Cold War to stop the spread of communism.

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• The Civic Culture?– In successful democracies, people have a sense of

legitimacy.

– The feeling of legitimacy has remained despite a dramatic drop.

– Scholars consider values and assumptions of a political culture.

• Putnam: Stresses the role of social capital

• Zakaria: Emphasizes the importance of tolerance and institutions that instill respect for the views and actions of others

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• Political Parties and Elections– Political parties: Contest elections and form

governments.

– Left end of spectrum: Remains of communist parties, socialist parties, center democratic parties.

– Center: Liberals or radicals. – Right: Christian Democratic parties, secular

conservatives .

TABLE 2.4 The Changing Meaning of Left and Right

TABLE 2.5 Main Types of Political Parties by Country

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• Catch-All Parties– Democratic party systems today are not working

very well because of their old roots.

– The rise of catch-all parties• Adoption of more moderate position

• Sustained economic growth

• The expansion of the welfare state

FIGURE 2.1 Political Participation in Flux: Two Versions

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• New Divisions– Important changes are occurring on the fringes of

the electoral mainstream.

• Growing difference between men and women

• A new type of middle-class, postmaterialistvoters

• Likely to support the new party: The Greens• The growing role of women playing in political life

Photo by Franck Prevel/Getty Images

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• Realignment?– Existing or new parties adopt strong positions

appealing to new segments of the electorate.• Dealignment always precedes realignment.• The right has gone a long way toward redefining

itself: Reagan and Thatcher.

• The left has had a much harder time redefining its image and appealing to a new coalition of voters.

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• Interest Groups– Interest groups promote different points of views.

• Business groups have more influence than unions.

• Nature of relationship between interest groups and decision makers varies from country to country.

– Protest movements go beyond activities of interest groups, but do not question legitimacy of regimes.

POLITICAL CULTURE AND PARTICIPATION

• Political Protest– The industrialized democracies all have protest

movements.

• There is plenty of protest: Goes beyond traditional activities of interest groups.

• No one who joins the protests questions the legitimacy of their regimes.

THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• Presidential and Parliamentary Systems– Presidential System (United States)

• Constitution set out to create the separation of powers.

• Compromise was the norm and rapid decision making was difficult.

• Lengthy legislative process

• Checks and balances among three branches

FIGURE 2.2 The President and Congress

Cengage Learning

THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• Presidential and Parliamentary Systems (Cont’d)– Parliamentary System

• Power of prime minister is fused with parliament, not separated.

• Prime minister is usually head of majority party, appoints the rest of cabinet.

• Doctrine of cabinet responsibility: The government remains in office until the next election if and only if it retains the support of that majority on all major pieces of legislation.

• Must keep its majority on votes of confidence.• If there is no clear majority in parliament: Coalition of

parties.

FIGURE 2.3 The Parliamentary System

Cengage Learning.

• Presidential and Parliamentary Systems– Parliamentary System (Cont’d)

• How is the legislative process different from the presidential system?

• In some parliamentary systems, a coalition of many parties is necessary to govern.

THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

THE DEMOCRATIC STATE

• The Rest of the State– Bureaucracy plays a critical role.

• Max Weber (1864–1920)—Modern civil services are supposed to be the epitome of efficiency, but do not always reach this ideal.

• Iron triangle—Close cooperation between bureaucrats, politicians, and businesses.

• How are bureaucratic relationships different in France and the United States?

– The courts have more power in the United States than other industrialized democracies

FIGURE 2.4 Elite Integration: Iron Triangles

Cengage Learning.

PUBLIC POLICY

• The Interventionist State– Markets cannot effectively provide public goods.

– Markets work best if there is competition and wealth and power is not concentrated .

– Social and economic changes of the Industrial Revolution led to the interventionist state.

– Globalization of economic activity

• The Interventionist State (Cont’d)– Basic health care and education

– Subsidized or free education at all levels

– Unemployment compensation

– Pensions and programs for seniors

PUBLIC POLICY

• Foreign Policy– During the Cold War most leaders in industrialized

democracies followed the lead of the United States with the exception of France during de Gaulle’s leadership.

– End of Cold War resulted in one superpower, the United States.

– Democracies supported war in Afghanistan, not as widespread in support of Iraq.

PUBLIC POLICY

THE MEDIA

• With the telecommunications revolution it is easier to get information; it is also more accessible, but can be confusing.

• Average citizens’ view toward the world may be quite different from those of either politicians or the media moguls.

• People are paying less attention to the political world, partially due to general cynicism towards politics and politicians .

CONCLUSION: THE WORST FORM OF GOVERNMENTEXCEPT FOR ALL OF THE OTHERS

• Democratic regimes achieve a series of balances better than any other type of government, at least over the long haul:– Between the governors and the governed.

– Between the political world and the rest of society.

– Between unbridled capitalism and the interests of those who do not benefit (much) from it.

– Between personal freedom and the need to maintain order and forge coherent public policy.

DISCUSSION

• How are the social and economic changes in the world as a whole affecting the nature of and prospects for democracy?

• What are the main differences between presidential and parliamentary versions of democracy?