POLS1002 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Social Polarization, Collective Behavior, Infant Mortality
COLOMER ‘The Science of Politics’ – Ch 8 Democracy
• Winston Churchill- “democracy is the worst form of government, except all others that have
been tried from time to time” – may be a warning that a democratic regime may not guarantee
efficient policy outcomes
• Democracy is a luxury that poor countries cannot afford
- Hold regular political elections
- Party organization
- Open media
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?
• The ideal of democracy should include effective citizens’ participation, voting equality and
well-informed choices on both the agenda of issues and the policy proposals for each issue
• The minimum elements that make democracy better than dictatorship are freedom and
elections
• Polyarchy/Democratic features
- Freedom of association
- Freedom of expression and information
- Broad suffrage rights
- Right to form candidacies for public offices and compete for votes
- Free and fair elections
- Government policies depending on electoral results
Overthrowing the Rulers
• A test on whether a democratic regime works according to some minimum requirements is
the possibility that incumbent rulers can be peacefully overthrown and replaced as a result of
elections
• Well established democracy:
- Winners in government should follow established procedures for making policy
decisions, which should be reversible
- Should be committed to calling a further election by collectively accepted rules
- The rulers should value the costs of suppressing the opposition as being higher than
those tolerating it – may imply some capacity for potential resistance from the opposition
- Losers of election should step down and not try to rebel
• Favorable conditions for political leaders to comply with the basic rules of democracy:
- Presence of relatively robust political and social organizations
- Fair electoral and institutional rules for achieving power
- Being out of government does not imply complete destitution with regard to political
rights and influence
Consolidation
• Consolidated democracy – the main actors routinely play according to the rule of the game –
it is self-enforcing
• Democracies are more vulnerable when they are young – it is rare for countries that have been
democratic for 20 years to breakdown and be replaced by dictatorship
• Thailand – example of a nonconsolidated democracy – e.g. military is in charge
• Civic culture is formed of relations of trust, cooperation, and engagement in collective
actions
- Such collective behavior implies a shared set of values and beliefs that the basic
political rules and appropriate and worth defending
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• Via the study of the Prisoner’s Dilemma model: actors can accept to comply in the short term,
in spite of the possibility of obtaining immediate benefits from not obeying, if they can expect
higher total benefits in the long term
- Mutual cooperation is more likely to hold up the longer and more durable the
citizens’ relationships are under the same type of rules
• It may be harder to achieve consensus on the rules in economically poor, polarized societies
in which people develop heavy redistributive demands, place high stakes in politics, and
expect a lot from government – as it may greatly depend on their capacity to produce “good”
substantive outcomes
• Politicians may be motivated to resist complying if enjoying power entails great advantages
in comparison with few alternative professional or private opportunities
• Social polarization, exclusionary concentration of power, and lack of consensus on rules
among leaders can facilitate some political entrepreneurs without appealing alternatives to
try to gain support from certain groups against others in order to establish a dictatorial rule
Waves of Democracy
1. Democracy expanded, first, in the aftermath of WWI, when several empires in continental
Europe fell and new states were created →Virtually all these new democratic regimes
disappeared as a consequence of revolutions, counterrevolutions and coups d’état
2. Democratization spread more widely after WWII with the liberation of Western Europe,
including France, Germany, Italy, and Japan
3. Started in mid 1970s in Southern Europe – including Portugal, Greece, and Spain, moved to
Latin America, starting with Argentina and Brazil, to some countries in Africa and Asia, and
Central Europe – there have been few cases of retreats from democratization, but most new
democracies have stabilized
• By the early 21st century, democracy characterized by high levels of civil liberties and
competitive elections in which both men and women can vote exists in about 90 countries
• Some form of “electoral democracy” exists in two thirds of the independent countries
DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT
• Economic growth and social complexity tends to reduce the likely levels of conflict when a
democratic regime is established – thus favors its viability and endurance however democracy
can also create favorable conditions for economic and cultural development
Development Favors Democracy
• At low levels of economic and social development, the rulers and the members of dominant
social groups may fear the introduction of elections with broad voting rights to select the
government
• A logical interference from the correlations just mentioned is that a sustained process of
economic development may produce a more diversified economy, foster demands for
education, and craft a more complex society
• High levels of collective wealth may reduce income and social polarization, and thus lower
the intensity of redistributive conflicts – this can facilitate the acceptance of peaceful legal
mechanisms for making collective decisions on the basis of votes
• If the working lower classes go beyond the level of subsistence and have “something to lose”
– they may want to avoid risk revolts and revolutions entailing significant degrees of violence
and destruction
• In the absence of a revolutionary threat, the upper class can accept opening the system to
some degree of political pluralism
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Document Summary
Right to form candidacies for public offices and compete for votes. Overthrowing the rulers: a test on whether a democratic regime works according to some minimum requirements is the possibility that incumbent rulers can be peacefully overthrown and replaced as a result of elections, well established democracy: Winners in government should follow established procedures for making policy decisions, which should be reversible. Should be committed to calling a further election by collectively accepted rules. The rulers should value the costs of suppressing the opposition as being higher than those tolerating it may imply some capacity for potential resistance from the opposition. Losers of election should step down and not try to rebel: favorable conditions for political leaders to comply with the basic rules of democracy: Presence of relatively robust political and social organizations. Fair electoral and institutional rules for achieving power. Being out of government does not imply complete destitution with regard to political rights and influence.
