POLSCI 1AB3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarianism
11 Apr 2018
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In their 2016 analysis, freedom house classified 125 of 195 countries as electoral democracies. Meaning that 36% of countries are not democracies. So, if we only focus on liberal democracies. We are (cid:373)issi(cid:374)g out o(cid:374) a (cid:448)er(cid:455) large pie(cid:272)e of the (cid:449)orld"s politi(cid:272)al puzzle. We avoid asking a number of questions. Note: in exploring the justifications for authoritarianism i am not attempting to justify these justifications. Rather, there are two purposes i am aiming at: to understand non-democratic regimes on their own terms. How do they manufacture consent: non-liberal-democratic regimes often justify themselves as being more democratic than actually existing liberal democracies. What strategies do authoritarian regimes use to manufacture consent? (see mayer (on the syllabus), from whom this discussion is drawn: consequentialist justification. Authoritarian government is a means to an end rather than a legitimate end in and of itself. If a society wants to achieve a certain goal (like economic development), liberal.
