Democracy-today Democracy carries positive connotation, not always the case- Democracy began in Athens like an assembly, as Direct Democracy, where ev-ery citizen has a vote, today we have a representative democracy, we elect represen-tatives to make the votes, direct democracy is only seen today through ballot issues and referendums- modern thinking doesn’t consider “direct democracy” to be practical Aristotle believed there was a good and bad form of every type of governmentOne ruler —> Monarchy (Good) , Tyranny (Bad)Few rulers—> Aristocracy (Good) , Oligarchy (Bad)Many rulers —> Polity (Good) , Democracy (Bad)Substantive view of democracy- classifies political regimes in regard to the outcome they produceMinimalist view of democracy- classifies political regimes in regard to the institutionsRobert Dahl (1971) Polyarchy- believed concept of democracy consists of two dimensions: contestation and in-clusion- polyarchy (high C and I) like US or W Europe, competitive oligarchy (high C, low I) like US in 1800s or S Africa in Apartheid, inclusive hegeman (low C, high I) like So-viet Union, closed hegeman (low C and I) like N Korea- contestation: how many have the opportunity to lead and make policies (or the extent to which citizens are free to organize themselves into competing blocs in order to press for the policies or outcomes they desire)- inclusion- how many have the opportunity to choose a leader and policiesDichotomous measure- a measure that has only two discrete categories or values (democracy or not)D-D Measure- countries are classified as a democracy if all the following hold true1) chief executive is elected2) legislature is elected3) more than one party competing in election4) an alternation in power under identical electoral rules has taken place (power hasnot remained in one party or person)- otherwise, countries are coded as dictatorships- does this measure capture the two dimensions of Dahl’s “polyarchy”? inclusion often left out- continuous measure: measure that can take on any intermediate value within a given range- polity measure provides a continuous measure of democracyThe Polity IV:1) competitiveness of executive recruitment2) openness of executive recruitment3) constraints that exist on the executive4) regulation of political participation5) competitiveness of political participation- does this measure capture Dahl’s polyarchy?Freedom House:- annual measure of “global freedom”, not technically a measure of democracy, butcan be seen as on- like Polity IV it produced a continuous measure- includes a measure of both civil and political
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