Chapter 16- Consequences of Democratic InstitutionsChapter 16- Principles of Comparative Politics- Part 2Chapter 16 PP NotesChapter 16- Consequences of Democratic InstitutionsInstitutional Trade offs- Governments can function very differently depending on the institutions thatgovern political competition within a given system.o Electoral rules- majoritarian vs. proportional representationo Party System fragmentationo Institutional veto playersElections and Electoral System- An electoral system - a set of laws that regulate electoral competition between candidates or parties or both.- The electoral formula - determines how votes are translated into seatso Majoritarian systems- based on the idea that power should be concentrated in the hands of the majority.o Proportional systems- Based on the idea that power should be dispersed among as many political actors as possible.--Electoral rules are the sets of institutions that determine how these votes are converted into seats---In majoritarian electoral systems- legislative seats are distributed to the candidate or candidates with the most votes- Candidate centric, high on “identifiability”, geographic representations- More likely to result in few parties---In proportional representation electoral systems, legislative seats are distributed amongst parties in proportion to the total vote they win.- Allows for many different parties to be elected in the legislature, causing multiparty systems and coalition governments.Party Systems- Democracies vary widely with respect to parties in their systems. Some have very few, some have over 30.- Likewise some parliamentary systems have very few parties, while others have many more- The number of parties in a system reflects the number of issue ‘cleavages’ in a given country.- But this is also partially determined by the electoral systemFederalism, Bicameralism, and Judicial Review- States vary in the extent to which political power is divided amongst multiple“veto players”o A veto player…- States may be federal or unitary- Legislatures can be bicameral or unicameral- Judicial institutions can be empowered to interpret the constitution (or not).Institutional Trade-offsIn practice, we can think of constitutions as responding to these trade-offs in two ways:1. Concentrate Power- majoritarian systemsa. Teams of politicians compete for the support of the voters.b. The “teams” in majoritarian systems simply refers to parties.c. The teams selected by a majority of voters are then given complete control over policy.i. Single party governmentii. Parties are either government or oppositiond. As a result, there are usually very few (usually 2) partiese. Voters observe social, economic, and political outcomes and decide whether to retain or replace the team that is held responsible for producing outcomesf. Because majoritarian systems have few parties, it is easy for voters toevaluate incumbent and potential governments.i. Voters can vote retrospectively, meaning they look at incumbents’ past performance to decide how to vote in the current electionii. Voters can vote prospectively, meaning they evaluate each parties’ campaign promises ahead of time and vote for the party that best reflects their preferencesg. Retrospective voting in majoritarian systems enhances accountability and clarity of responsibility.i. Accountability- is the extent to which voters are able to reward or punish parties for their behavior in officeii. Clarity of Responsibility- is the extent of which voters can identify exactly who it is responsible for policies.h. Prospective voting - in majoritarian systems enhances mandates and government identifiability.i. A mandate- is a policy that the government is both authorized and obligated to carry out once in office.ii. Government identifiability- refers to the extent to which voters can identify what government alternatives they are voting for at election time.i. Majoritarian institutional arrangements increase accountability, identifiability, and government mandatesi. Majoritarian electoral rulesii. Two party systemsiii. Single party governmentsiv. Unitary systemsv. Unified governmentsj. The United States is an example of a majoritarian system. The electoral system used here is called single member district pluralityi. Voters vote for favorite candidate in a district, candidate with the most votes wins.ii. Then the party that wins a plurality in a majority of districts win government controlk. A two party system means that usually one of the two major parties hold the majorityi. This leads to single party majority governmentii. In parliamentary systems, the same party controls both the executive and legislative branches of government.VERSUS2. Disperse Power- Consensus Modela. Institutions are designed to maximize representation of all views found in society and to make sure that decisions reflect consideration of minority views.b. Representative institutions reflect the preferences of as many voters as possiblec. Legislators represent the interests of voters and vote on issues the way “citizens themselves would have voted.”d. Representation can be conceptualized in terms of:i. Responsiveness, or dynamic representation, how well elected representatives respond to changes in the preferences of the electorate.ii. Congruence, or static representation, refers to how well elected representatives match the preferences of the electorate.e. Institutions maximize the representation of all views in societyi. Proportional representation electoral ruleii. Multipartismiii. Coalition governmentsiv. Federal systemsv. Bicameralismvi. Former British Colonies typify the majoritarian ideal: unitary, SMDP, single party government.1. Belgium and Switzerland are ideal types of consensus model: proportional representation, Multipartism, equal participation of linguistic minorities in cabinetsf. So the majoritarian and consensus models represent two models of democratic responsivenessi. In consensus democracies, the parties win power in proportionto the votes they shareii. Majoritarian democracies out perform consensus democracies on other important dimensions, like accountability.Evaluating Democracies- Accountability- extent to which voters are able to reward or punish parties for their behavior in office.- Clarity of Responsibility- the extent to which voters can identify exactly who it is responsible for the policies that are implemented.- Mandate- a policy that the
View Full Document
Unlocking...