PSC 1001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Representative Democracy, Presidential System, Supermajority
18 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Citizens have grown distrustful of politicians, skeptical about democratic institutions, and disillusioned about how the democratic process functions: presidential systems in particular. Nordic democracies (sweden, norway, finland) are praised for their high-effectiveness: affluent, peaceful, and successful in addressing problems such as poverty, public health, and gender equality, doubts about how well it can perform in turbulent times. Powerful political parties one of the pillars of well-functioning parliaments. Democracy started out as direct democracies; everyone had a vote on all issues. People give parliament critical power to make decisions. In this system of delegation, there is a hierarchy where agents report to one principal: differs from presidential system where civil servants may report to both the president and the legislature. Contracting: implementing term limits, campaign spending limits, direct oversight, and condemnation measures such as a vote of no confidence. Political parties: groups that run political candidates under their label: parliamentary has two models, westminster and madisonian models.
