Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Business Cycle, Polyarchy, Liberal Democracy
15 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Ancient greeks: a denial of democracy, the idea that you would give the right to govern to a small group of people is not democracy. Rousseau: the moment a people gives itself representatives, it is no longer free . Thomas paine: we need a system of government capable of embracing and confederating all the various interests . They are not a modern invention, they have long preceded democracy - the early ones in europe during the middle ages acted as an external check on monarchy. They grew stronger as they started to be elected as this gave them legitimacy. Were gradually internalized as key institutions within a representative democracy (began as external institutions but are now part of government) Direct democracy not available in modern world so institutions became center of representative democracy. Most of our decisions are personal, private. Democracy is a procedure for making collective public decisions.
