Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Athenian Democracy, Benevolent Dictatorship, Reca
3 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Political power: the power to issue and enforce binding commands. Every citizen should have the right to an equal say. Government of, by, and for the people. Scope of authority of democratic will: democracy may not be the best authority to bestow. Indirect: voters choose representatives who then make decisions. More direct is more democratic but not necessarily better. Extreme lack of accountability: representatives elected for life. Democracy aims for equal capacity of citizens to process information relevant to decision making. Watch for the impact of e(cid:272)o(cid:374)o(cid:373)i(cid:272) i(cid:374)e(cid:395)uality o(cid:374) (cid:272)itize(cid:374)s" oppo(cid:396)tu(cid:374)ity to pa(cid:396)ti(cid:272)ipate i(cid:374) politics. Two ways to limit the scope of democracy: (i) by appeal to the democratic ideal, (ii) by assigning the issue to the private sphere. Decisions made by majority vote in an assembly of all citizens. Open debate, subsidized participation, and public-spirited citizens (polites) Exclusionary: only a tenth were actually citizens. More democratic than ours and less democratic than ours.
