POLI 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Consensus Democracy, Consociationalism, Unicameralism
29 Mar 2017
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**dahl"s (1) indicates the greatest degree of democracy. Majoritarian: durable cabinets = more powerful vis- -vis their legislature. Majoritarian: 2 major parties differ from each other on only one dimension: socio- economic policy. Consensual: differences among major parties on left-right dimension but also one on or more (religious, cultural-ethnic, urban-rural, regime support, foreign policy, post- materialist dimensions) Operationalized by degree of disproportionality of electoral outcomes. Unitary and centralized versus federal and decentralized government. Majoritarian: intermediate between unicameralism and strong bicameralism = two chambers are asymmetrical (1 inferior to the other) or congruent (virtually identical as result of being elected by the same methods) Consensual: strong bicameralism = two houses are roughly equal in power. Majoritarian: unwritten b/c doesn"t impose formal limitations on the power of parliament (of the parliamentary majority) Consensual: written, protected by judicial review, difficult to amend. Decentralization, strong bicameralism, rigid constitutions and judicial review are all associated with the concept of federalism.
