POG 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Liberal Democracy, Limited Government, Totalitarianism

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Politics and Public Administration
• Course: POG 100
• Professor: Joerg Wittenbrinck

Document Summary

Democracy definition and value of democracy are historically contingent: Ancient greek origins of the tern: negative. Competing visions of what constitutes true democracy since the 18th century (macpherson 1965) A political system that combines the liberal ideas of limited government, individual freedom and the rule of law with a democratic system of governing based on the election of representatives. Citizenship is founded on a basic equality among members. Confers a legal status with rights, entitlements, duties (vertical relationship with the state) Has a symbolic element that indicates full membership in a political community (horizontal relationship of recognition and belonging with other citizens (jensen 2007) *a citizen is someone who belongs to a certain community* These citizenship relationships manifest themselves in citizenship regimes that vary across time and place. Formal political equality of all citizens, combines with. Democracy (-dictatorship dimension) and liberalism (-totalitarianism dimension) But: several normative arguments speak for a combination of liberalism and democracy.