Democracy

• Derived from Greek demokratia, demos (people) and kratos (rule) = rule by the people• Direct democracy = people participate directly in making

laws• Representative democracy = interests and views

represented by others

• Schumpeter: all citizens eligible to vote on who will represent them in free, fair, and periodic elections• Freedom House (2001), 121 of world’s 192

governments (63%) qualified as constitutionally democratic systems with competitive, multiparty elections (most ever in history)

Waves of Democracy

• Huntington: transition from autocracy to democracy proceeded in three waves• First wave = started with American and French

revolutions; receded in 1930s• Second wave = started with defeat of fascism (WWII)• Germany, Austria, and Japan emerged democratic; many

former European colonies adopted democratic constitutions on independence

• Receded in 1950s-1960s with return to authoritarianism in many African and Asian countries

• Third wave = started as second wave was receding; Portugal (1974) emerged from dictatorship, followed by Greece, Spain; Latin America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil); Asia (India and the Philippines, Korea, Turkey, Pakistan); in Europe (Berlin Wall fell; Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and finally the Soviet Union itself)

Mauritius – A Democratic Enigma

Mauritius: island nation of over one million located off southeast coast of Africa

Ethnically and religiously diverse

No authoritarian government

Stable democracy since independence (1968)

Why?

• “Vibrant and healthy civil society that cuts across ethnic cleavages”• Civic organizations act as bridges across

religious and ethnic boundaries• Checks and balances• No standing army• Independent judiciary• Professional civil service• Supermajorities required to make

constitutional changes• Constitutionally recognized ethnic and

religious groups guaranteed seats in parliament

• Constitution provides for office of Leader of Opposition whom president must consult on some issues

• Mauritius does have ethnic conflicts and suffers from corruption, but its democratic record is the best in Africa

Transitions to Democracy

• Range of explanations (see Moaz)• Economic explanations• Oil producing countries of Middle East; wealthy

but not democratic – Why? Curse of oil = authoritarian rulers use oil revenues to pacify public

• Economic development causes democratic stability, not democratization; poor democracies more likely to collapse into authoritarianism

• International environment• Diffusion effect = countries surrounded by

democracies find it in their interest to copy their neighbors

Democracy

• “From Huntington’s initial hypothesis of preconditions for democracy to each of the fruitful modifications offered by Gallagher, Herb, and Bellin, we seemed to have come full circle indeed. Ultimately, what social scientists know about democratization is well-summed up by Bellin: ‘A host of conditions, including a minimal level of elite commitment, a minimal level of national solidarity, a minimal level of per capita GNP, and…impartial and effective state institutions must be present.’” http://incusblack.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/what-do-we-know-about-democratization/

• Will More Countries Become Democratic, http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/fattah/courses/pols535/huntington.pdf

• What Makes Democracies Endure, http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_democracy/v007/7.1przeworski.html

• Why Democracies Collapse, http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_democracy/v015/15.3hagopian.html http://ips.sagepub.com/content/26/3/291.abstract

Presidential vs. Parliamentary

• Presidential system = executive and legislative branches separated from each other• Sovereignty shared between legislature and president, creating

checks and balances between them• Presidents directly elected by people; serve for fixed terms in office; do

not owe their jobs to the legislature

• Parliamentary = legislature directly elected by voters• Government (prime minister and Cabinet elected committee of

legislature); fused together, former empowering latter• Leader of government (prime minister) indirectly elected by legislature• PM governs as long as they have majority in legislature

• Most third wave democracies chose presidential form• Can lead to gridlock when there is disagreement between the two

branches• Criticized for being unrepresentative• May offer more accountability

Electoral Rules

• Single member districts• Only one legislator elected from each district (e.g.,

U.S.)• No benefit for second place finishers; only one

winner (“winner-take-all”)• Multimember districts• Sweden: number of legislators from each district

depends upon district size• Israel and Netherlands: entire country is one multi-

member electoral district• Winner is selected from list of candidates that

parties submit to voters to get seated. Runner–up wins, too, and so on down the line, depending on number of seats accorded to district

From Votes to Seats

• Plurality rules = U.K., U.S., and Canada• Majority rules = France – double-ballot elections;

presidential candidates must receive a majority of votes to prevail• Run-off between top two vote getters

• Proportional representation (PR)• Once parties attain a certain threshold of votes,

they are awarded seats in the legislature based on the percentage of votes they receive

• Netherlands: ten parties competed in the 2006 parliamentary election

• Christian Democratic Appeal won 27 % of the vote and received 27% of the seats; Labour won 21% of the vote and won 21% of seats; all the way down to the smallest party, Reformed Political Party, which received 1 % of the vote and received 1% of the seats

Electoral Rules & Party Systems

• Political actors think strategically about electoral rules especially as more and more people were given franchise

• Groups and parties wanted rules to work to their advantage• PR works to advantage of ethnic and regional minorities• Most powerful supporters of PR were elites because they were

more afraid that working-class mobilization would propel socialist parties to victory

• Plurality and majority rules in single member districts could be dominated by larger numbers of working classes

• Elites believed proportional representation would blunt power of socialist parties, requiring them to share power in order to govern

• Electoral rules are not neutral; can give advantage to one party over another

• Parties sometimes try to change rules, but electoral systems rarely change

Electoral Rules & Party Systems

• Shape party systems (recurring patterns of party behavior resulting from political competition)

• SMD with plurality rules create bias toward two-party systems• Voters do not like to “waste” their vote

• Countries with multi-member districts selected by proportional rules tend to have multi-party systems• More accurately reflect diversity of opinion within

country• Can become ungovernable with too much diversity of

opinion, no majority coalition

• Impact on party discipline• Greater in PR systems; more party loyalty

Democracy, Authoritarianism, & Economic Development

Pro-Authoritarian

• Better invest society’s limited resources (no low-yield projects for votes)

• Can ignore demands for short term versus long term

• Consistent, stable, orderly environment for long-term economic growth

• Better invest society’s limited resources (no low-yield projects for votes)

• Can ignore demands for short term versus long term

• Consistent, stable, orderly environment for long-term economic growth

Pro-Democratic• Rule of law creates

predictable environment

• Benefit from debate, access to information, responsiveness

• Openness and adaptability; can reverse policy mistakes

• Citizens freer to be creative and innovative

• Rule of law creates predictable environment

• Benefit from debate, access to information, responsiveness

• Openness and adaptability; can reverse policy mistakes

• Citizens freer to be creative and innovative

Democracy, Authoritarianism, & Economic Development

• Supporters of democracy celebrate prosperity of West compared to collapse of Communist one-party states

• Supporters of authoritarianism point to superior growth of People’s Republic of China compared to democratic India

• Democracies = two advantages: greater range of choices for women; better record of steady economic performance and avoiding calamitous outcomes

Record for democracies and authoritarian regimes is MIXED

Democracy, Authoritarianism, & Capabilities

Physical Well-being

• Results inconclusive in terms of infant mortality rates

• Democracies tend to have best average infant mortality rates (12.53 per 1,000 live births)

• Most authoritarian states second best (27.57)

• Semi-democracies third (45.52)

• Semi-authoritarian states worst (57.48)

Informed-Decision Making

• Similar results in terms of literacy rates

• Democracies ranked best (94.25)

• Authoritarian regimes second (87.39)

• Semi-democracies third (76.44)

• Semi-authoritarian regimes last (66.68)

Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Capabilities

Safety• Most authoritarian states

best record on safety (homicide rates, 5.43 murders per 100k citizens)

• Democracies close behind (5.91 homicides)

• Semi-democracies (15.28 homicides per 100K citizens)

• Semi-authoritarian systems (12.04)

Overall

• Democratic states better overall

• Semi-democratic states not better than semi-authoritarian states