Democracy

Demokratia: A woman, crowning, shielding and sheltering old man Demos Athens, Year 336 BCE (from John Keanes The Life and Death of Democracy, Norton, 2009)

Tony Benn on democracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poO5 BgU2PZo Watch the entire film on YouTube!

Democracy as a Natural Order Democracy is any form of government in which the rules of society are decided by the people who will be bound by them.* PEOPLE GOVERNING THEMSELVES That was the original system of making decisions for society primitive democracy which exists for tens of thousands of years before the rise of the state When the state appears 5,000 years ago, it seeks to take the decision-making power away from society

Then, democracy becomes a way of trying to restrain state power and put the state under the peoples control
*Catherine Kellogg, Democratic Theory, in: Janine Brodie and Sandra Rein, Critical
Concepts: An Introduction to Politics.

John Keane highlights 3 overlapping epochs in the historical development of democracy Phase One, Assembly Democracy starting around 2,500 BCE, in lands now within the territories of Iran, Iraq and Syria During the first phase of democracy the seeds of its basic institution self-government through an assembly of equals were scattered across many different soils and climes, ranging from the Indian subcontinent and the prosperous Phoenician empire to the western shores of provincial Europe. These popular assemblies took root, accompanied by various ancillary institutional rules and customs, like written constitutions, the payment of jurors and elected officials, the freedom to speak in public, voting machines, voting by lot and trial before elected or selected juries. There were efforts as well to stop bossy leaders in their tracks, using such methods as the mandatory election of kings (The Life and Death of Democracy, p.xvi) Best-known example Athens, 5th century BCE

Athenian democracy Direct democracy: citizens participated directly in initiating, deliberating, and passing of, the legislation. The Assembly, no less than 6,000 strong (out of 22,000 citizens of Athens), convened about every 10 days. Supreme power to decide on every issue of state policy

Citizen juries: justice is responsibility of citizens (juries composed of 501-1001 citizens)

Appointment of citizens to political office by lot

Citizen-soldiers: every citizen had a duty to serve in the army

Ostracism: a bad politician could be kicked out of office by the people
*See Patrick Watson and Benjamin Barber, The Struggle for Democracy. Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys Ltd., 1988, p.12

Phase Two: Representative Democracy Starts around 10th-12th centuries in Western Europe with the invention of parliamentary assemblies Reaches its classic forms in the 18th century. Officially regarded as normative today. Marquis dArgenson, Foreign Minister of French King Louis XV, 1765: False democracy soon collapses into anarchy. It is government of the multitude; such is a people in revolt, insolently scorning law and reason. Its tyrannical despotism is obvious from the violence of its movements and the uncertainty of its deliberations. In true democracy, one acts through deputies, who are authorized by election; the mission of those elected by the people and the authority that such officials carry constitute the public power. (Keane, p. xviii)

Phase Three: Monitory Democracy (term coined by John Keane) Started after World War II

Invention of about 100 power-monitoring devices which had never existed before
Increase citizen ability to control the state which is organized on the basis of representative democracy Public integrity commissions Judicial activism Local courts Workplace tribunals Citizens assemblies Think tanks The Internet Etc.

The Classical Theory of Democracy The triple meaning: Democracy as source of state authority power of the people Democracy as the purpose of government the common good Democracy as a method of choosing political leaders by the people Abraham Lincoln: Government of the people, by the people, and for the people (1863)
Also from Lincoln (1861): This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

Joseph Schumpeter, 1942:

The classical theory is too broad and vague. It is much more practical to narrow the meaning of democracy to the method:
The democratic method is

that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions

in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the peoples vote.*
*Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper, 1947, p.269

2 major dimensions of the democratic method:* contestation free and fair competition between candidates participation all adult citizens have the right to vote The use of this method requires the freedoms of: expression, to speak publicly and publish ones views assembly, to gather for political purposes association, to form political organizations
*Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971; Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave. Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991

In contemporary politics, the term democracy is used mostly in the Schumpeterian, rather than classical, sense: Representative democracy Electoral democracy Formal democracy The people elect a government and keep it accountable

Robert Dahl: It is more precise to call it polyarchy (rule by many, meaning more than 3 persons) rather than democracy

Democracys Century: A Survey of Global Political Change in the 20th Century. NY: Freedom House, 2001 http://www.freedomhouse.org/reports/century.html

Democracys Century: A Survey of Global Political Change in the 20th Century. NY: Freedom House, 2001 http://www.freedomhouse.org/reports/century.html

Since 1900, the number of internationally recognized independent states has grown

from 55 to nearly 200

Today, governments in 120 countries are formed by democratic method

62.5% of the worlds population live in those countries

Key events which led to this expansion:

The defeat of fascism in World War 2 (1939-45) The fall of Western colonial empires (1950s-70s) The fall of Western authoritarian regimes in Southern Europe and Latin America (1970s-1980s) The fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (1989-91)

2009 Map of Freedom in the World: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cf m?page=363&year=2009

The survey measures freedomthe opportunity to act spontaneously in a variety of fields outside the control of the government and other centers of potential dominationaccording to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. Political rights enable people to participate freely in the political process, including the right to vote freely for distinct alternatives in legitimate elections, compete for public office, join political parties and organizations, and elect representatives who have a decisive impact on public policies and are accountable to the electorate. Civil liberties allow for the freedoms of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, rule of law, and personal autonomy without interference from the state.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=351&ana_page=354&year= 2009

A 21st Century Democratic Paradox

Democracy is accepted as the normal and even normative - form of government more widely in the world than ever before
And yet, the real scope of democratic practices is very limited. The sea of democracy has never been wider. But it is very shallow

Global public opinion on democracy:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/gover nance_bt/482.php?lb=btgov&pnt=482&nid=&id=

The global democratic deficit, 2008: http://www.world publicopinion.org /pipa/articles/gov ernance_bt/482.p hp?lb=btgov&pnt =482&nid=&id=

|Americans trusting or distrusting their government

Comparing social attitudes in US, Sweden, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq (World Values Survey): http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/ 2011/01/what-do-the-people-think/

Occupy Wall Street demonstration, New York, Oct.1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWE PwuIYtA