POLSCI 140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Subsistence Agriculture, Absolute Monarchy, Economic Determinism
19 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
British politics i: the industrial revolution and the emergence of mass democracy. Unique british case: birthplace of the industrial rev, transformed brit and world; opens option of democracy, birthplace of representative democracy. Economic development rise of strong middle class. Vast majority of democracies are middle class/ high income. Agrarian industrial postindustrial: huge turning point, abrupt change, postindustrial: product is a service; workforce producing ideas, research, ect. Absolute monarchy is improvement over civil war (but you could get idiot as ruler) The elite that dominates modernization determines the regime. If bourgeoisie takes over from landed aristocracy you get democracy. If landed elite remains senior partner you get fascism. If middle class fails to develop sufficiently to challenge landed aristocracy premature rev led by intellectuals with peasant mass base leads to communism. Marx: the elite that owns the means of production dominates society. Marx and moore claim that the bourgeoisie is the bearer of democracy.
