POLS 489 Lecture 11: Powell Chapters 1 - 2
25 Oct 2016
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What is a democracy: system of government, people participate in government, people vote, outcome of system of government are supposed to represent what people want. What is an election: process of picking a representative, allocation of votes. How do the two relate: cannot have a democracy without elections, elections pick people to run government. Elections are instruments of democracy to the degree that they give the people influence over policy making. Assumption: citizen influence is a good thing. Perception (view of winning or ability to run government) Powerful politicians: little necessary power share. Elections are precise: choices given to citizens generally reflect the opinions of the populous. Sticky politicians: hard to kick a certain party out of power. Only need a minimum number of votes to receive power. Citize(cid:374)s" prefere(cid:374)ces citizens voting behavior > election outcomes > policy making between elections > public policies. Majoritarian vision: clarity of responsibility majorities government domination of policy making.
