Industrialized Democracies

An overview

Political system

• Inputs– types: support & demands– channels: interest groups and parties

• Decision making– institutions & leaders of the state

• Outputs– public policy

Political system inputs

• interest articulation– voting, participation in elections– informal group, social movement– personal interest contact– protest activity

• interest groups

• channels of political access

Political system inputs

• interest aggregation– political demands of individuals and groups

are combined into policy programs

• personal interest aggregation– patron-client network

• central person or group• provides benefits to supporters• in exchange for their loyalty

Institutional interest aggregation

• associational groups– e.g. aggregation of labor and business

interests

• institutional groups– e.g. bureaucracy and military

• political parties are the primary structures of interest aggregation– competitive vs. authoritarian party systems

Competitive party system

• political parties can freely form

• primarily try to build electoral support

• citizen support is prerequisite for controlling government

• the closeness of electoral victory or even the number of political parties are not essential– e.g. the Indian or African National Congress

Competitive party system

• 3 stages of interest aggregation in a competitive party system

• within individual parties– candidates and policy proposals

• through electoral competition

• through bargaining and coalition building in the legislature or executive

Electoral rules

• single-member district plurality rule– “first past the post”– e.g. Britain, U.S., and many other countries

once influenced by Britain– the “Median Voter Theorem”

• proportional representation– e.g. many countries in continental Europe

Duverger’s Law

• Plurality single-member district election rules tend to create two-party systems in the legislature

• Proportional representation electoral systems generate multiple party systems in the legislature

Three Types of Polities

• Industrialized democracies– North America, European Union, Japan, and

Oceania

• Current and former communist regimes– East Europe, East Asia, and Cuba

• The Third World– Latin America, Asia, and Africa

Three Types of Polities

Democracy: conceptual issues

• Greek words: rule by the people

• Who are “the people”?– Gender, race, and age

• How to rule?– Direct versus representative democracy

• Almost every government claims to be a democracy

Criteria of democracy

• Institutional arrangements?

• Individual freedom?

• Economic equality?

• ...

• Necessary condition but

• Not sufficient condition

Criteria of democracy

• Democracies guarantee basic individual freedoms and rights

• Democracies rely on the rule of law

• Democratic governments are chosen through regular, free, and fair elections– different electoral systems

• single-member district & first-past-the-post system• proportional representation system

Criteria of democracy

• Two uncertain and controversial criteria:

• civil society and civic culture– legitimacy (the right to rule)– distinction between administration and

democracy

• capitalism and affluence

• Historical development of democracy

Origins of the Democratic State

• In Europe (and North America) the way democracy developed was largely a result of the way countries handled four great transformations over the last 500 years:– The creation of the nation and state itself– The role of religion in society and government– The development of pressures for democracy– The industrial revolution

Waves of Democratization

• ``A group of transitions from nondemocratic to democratic regimes that occur within a specified period of time and that significantly outnumber transitions in the opposite direction during that period”

The First Two Waves

• A long and slow wave from 1828 to 1926

• A reverse wave of democratic breakdown from 1922 to 1942

• A wave of democratization after World War II from 1943 to 1964

• A reverse wave of democratic breakdown from 1961 to 1975

The Third Wave

• Started in Portugal and Spain in mid-1970s

• Spread to South America from late 1970s to early 1980s

• Reached Asia in late 1980s

• Surge of transitions in East Europe at end of 1980s

• South Africa 1990

The Third Wave

Political parties in democracies

• Traditional left-right political spectrum

• left end: communist parties

• left: social democratic parties

• right: Christian democratic parties

• right: conservative parties