POLI 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Direct Democracy, Representative Democracy, Essentially Contested Concept
3 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Generally considered to be a positive term. Set of institutions built around competitive elections (multiple candidates with a real chance of winning) that enable all adult citizens to choose and remove their government leaders (stoker, Illiberal democracies, also called competitive authoritarian regimes or semi-democracies, are also on the rise. Regime in which political power is widely and power in some way rests with the people. Political equality as a central theme (not equality in the sense of sameness, a diverse group of people have the right to vote) This leaves lots of room for differing interpretations as to what counts as democracy. Lively argues that interpretations 1-4 can justifiably decried as democratic. 5-7 cannot since there is no provision for rulers to be removed by the ruled. Point 7 allows for systems without elections to call themselves democratic Direct rule by the people, traditionally considered possible only in small societies.
