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Democratic regimes:

political & electoral systems,


and the location of political
power
Politics 110
Introduction to Global Politics

What is democracy?
Democracy is a Greek word, meaning demos (the common
people) and kratia (power or rule). It literally means the rule of
the people or power of the people. The people are the
government this is the principle of popular sovereignty.
In modern times, democracy has three key elements:
Political participation
Political competition
Liberty or freedom

When we speak of democracy today, we therefore mean a


particular form of democracy, liberal democracy, which
underscores the liberal value of liberty.
There are other forms of democracy, which combine participation
and competition with other values, such as social democracy,
Christian democracy, and Islamic democracy.

What is republicanism?
From the ancient Greeks, democracy meant that citizens
participated in politics by serving in public office (governing,
debating issues, voting, and making laws). We call this
direct democracy.
From the Romans, modern democracy inherits
representative democracy, in which citizens elect others to
public office, and these public officials govern on their behalf.
Representative democracy is indirect democracy.
Republicanism is a form of indirect democracy in which the
powers of the government are separated from one another,
such that different officials make laws (legislature), execute
laws (executive), and interpret laws (judiciary).

What explains democratization, or why


some countries are democratic?
Answers have varied over time.
Democracy is a product of modernization as people are educated,
mobile, no longer bound by tradition, etc., they expect to have a say
in politics, to defend their interests.
Democracy is the result of elite politics the efforts of economically
powerful groups in society to assert themselves politically.
Democracy is the result of a country having a strong civil society
associations of people that are a power base outside the control of
the government.
Democracy is the result of global factors, such commerce; war; the
free association of people across borders/ideas.
Democracy is the product of culture, of Western civilization. Liberal
democracy is alien to the rest of the world and therefore is not
easily transferable.

Models of democracy:
the parliamentary system
The legislature is the main center of political power, and in
bicameral systems (two legislative houses) it is the lower house
that wields this power.
The prime minister (PM) is the executive. The PM is a member
of the lower house, elected from a local constituency. S/he is
the leader of her/his party and selected as PM by other party
legislators. PMs may come and go w/o new elections (vote of
no confidence)
The PM forms a cabinet, which runs the day-to-day affairs of
government. Most cabinet members are also parliamentarians,
and the cabinet wields great influence b/c it originates
legislation.
PM is head of government, and some other person is head of
state.

Models of democracy:
the presidential system
Different branches of government have separate and shared
powers, and no one of them is supreme.
The people elect legislators and the executive separately.
The president is the executive, and her/his legitimacy stems in
large part from her/his being elected by the people.
Presidents have cabinets, but the members are typically not also
serving legislators. Presidential administrations draft legislation.
This system creates checks and balances, such that the
president and the legislature may represent different parties and
therefore be at odds over legislation.
The legislature cannot easily remove the president.
President is head of government and head of state.

Models of democracy:
the mixed system (semi-presidential)
A fusion of parliamentary and presidential systems.
A legislature selects the prime minister from its ranks, and the
PM forms a cabinet of like-minded politicians.
The people elect the president, and the president has a say in
who will be prime minister.
The president can dismiss the PM, but the legislature cannot
easily remove the president.
As in the presidential system, there may be divided
government, where the president is from one party and the PM
and the majority in the legislature are from another party.
A system of shared and separate power. Presidents usually
run foreign and defense policy, and PMs handle domestic
matters.

Pluses and minuses of the systems


Insert chart

Democratic electoral systems:


counting votes
All democratic systems of government include elections. Elections
are necessary but not sufficient for democracy.
What is meant by free and fair elections? They are the gold
standard of democratic politics.
Election outcomes require voting, but how votes are counted
matters as much as elections themselves. There are a variety of
ways to count votes.
Electoral systems vary among democracies and these differences
reflect countries values and traditions, with some electoral systems
more democratic (government should reflect popular sentiment
about politics) and some less so.
At the root of elections is the constituency, the geographical area
that an elected official represents. Democracies have different
understandings of these electoral institutions.

Democratic electoral systems:


the single-member district (SMD)
SMD is the first past the post or winner takes all constituency.
SMD is based on the plurality principle, which means that the
winner need only have more votes than the next highest vote getter
to win the election (38% > 32% + 20% + 10%)
This winner take all system has the effect of magnifying the power
of large catch-all parties, which are successful at competing in
many constituencies across a country, and parties that are
concentrated in certain regional constituencies. These parties
typically have more seats (s) than they do the percentage of votes
they get (p), s > p.
A modification of the plurality system is the majority system, which
requires the winning candidate to have at least 50% plus 1 vote of
all votes cast (this requires a run-off election).
Single member districts means one winning candidate.

Democratic electoral systems:


the single-member district (SMD)
Parties that are on the ideological fringe or have no regional
constituencies tend to be the big losers in this system, since
they win many fewer seats than the percentage of the vote
they get, s < p.
Duvergers Law says SMD electoral systems are typically
two-party systems.
SMD systems values political stability (when a majority
government is easy to form and maintain over time) over the
value of representing diversity of political interests in society.
Cases: U.K. Parliamentary elections (2010), Canadian
Parliamentary elections (2011), U.S. House elections (2012).

Democratic electoral systems:


proportional representation (PR)
PR principle says: A partys share of the seats in a legislature
should be roughly equal to the percentage of votes it wins.
In the PR system, parties have party lists of candidates who
run in multi-member districts, as opposed to single-member
districts, and the parties are allocated seats in the legislature
based on the percentage of votes they win in each
constituency. Voters select parties, not candidates.
In a 10 member constituency, if Party A wins 40%, the top
four candidates on its party list are elected to the legislature.
Political party affiliation is more important than the partys
candidates, since voters make party preferences they do
not vote for particular candidates.

Democratic electoral systems:


proportional representation (PR)
PR systems values representativeness of a political system over the
systems stability and therefore seeks to minimize the number of
wasted votes.
Most PR systems have hurdles a minimum percentage of the total
vote that is required for a party to gain representation in the
legislature (2%, 5%, etc.).
If voters think that small parties will meet the hurdle, then voters are
more inclined to support them, since their votes will not be wasted.
Because candidates depend on parties to win votes, party discipline
is strong, since renegade party members may be dropped from party
lists in the next election.
Most PR systems require coalitions of two or more parties to form
governments
Cases: Israel, South Africa

Democratic electoral systems:


hybrid of mixed SMD/PR
Just like some liberal democratic political systems combine
parliamentarian and presidential systems, some liberal
democratic electoral systems combine SMD and PR voting.
In a mixed electoral system, voters typically have two votes
to cast one for a local candidate (SMD) and one for a party
(PR).
This system allows voters to elect local candidates to
represent their constituency and to connect with other voters
regionally and nationally by making a party preference.
Coalitiongovernments are common here, too, but less
common than in the strict PR electoral system
Cases: Germany (50/50), Japan (60/40).

Civil rights and civil liberties


Essential to a liberal democracy, because it empowers the
people and thereby limits the power of government.
Civil rights are things people are entitled to from the
government (non-discrimination) for the purpose of ensuring
equality. Civil rights are 20th century innovation of modern
liberalism
Civil liberties are things people enjoy that cannot be taken
away from them by the government (speech, association,
religion). Civil liberties are freedoms rooted in classical
liberalism of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Freedom in the World map captures levels of freedom
around the world, with liberal democracies labeled free.

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