Week 5 – Democracy & Dictatorship

 Who rules?
o Single person
o Minority
o Majority
o Could be either lawful or lawless
Lawful Lawless
(in the common good) (in the private interest)

One Monarchy Tyranny

Few Aristocracy Oligarchy
Many Polity Democracy
(constitutional democracy)

Democracy
 Democracy – A system of government in which the majority rules without legal
constraint
 Definitions of Democracy (no real good one, but we know it when we see it):
o Substantive – Defined by the results it produces
 Realises the common good
 Expresses the general will, the will of the people
 Generates rational decisions
 Guarantees the representation of citizen’s interests
 Holds government officials accountable
 Produces economic equality
 Maximises participation
 Leads to justice….
o Procedural – A method for selecting leaders
 “The democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving
at the political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to
decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s vote”
 “Democracy is a regime in which those who govern are selected
through contested elections”
 Liberal Democracy – A system of government characterized by universal adult
suffrage, political equality, majority rule and constitutionalism
o A system where the majority chooses the rulers, and then the rulers govern
within the rule of law
 Canada
 US
 Australia
 Britain
 Western Europe
 Principles of Liberal Democracy
 o Equality of Political Rights – Every individual has the same right to:
 Vote
 Run for office
 Jury duty
 Speak on public issues
o Majority Rule
 If each vote is counted equally the decision of the majority must be
accepted
 Majorities are 50% + 1
 Pluralities are the largest number of votes (<50%)
o Political Participation
 Voting is the basis for all liberal democratic regimes
 Direct
 Initiative
 Recall
 Indirect
 Representative democracy
o Political Freedom
 Legitimacy of opposition
 Government
 Newspapers
 Street corners
 Right to speak out, criticize the government, form organizations, run
for office
 Consolidation of democracy – Both winners and losers accept the electoral results
and abide by the rules
 Democracy and Development
o Economic development favors the viability of democracy because it reduces
income and social polarization and lowers the intensity of redistributive
conflicts
o Democracy can be established in a poor country, but it is more likely to
endure if the country experiences economic development
 Democracy favours economic development
o The rule of law (protection of property rights, guarantees for contracts,
effective administration, an independent judiciary).
o It is more competent in the provision of public goods
 Democracy and Peace
o Democracies are less likely to fight each other and engage in wars than
dictatorships
o Democracies fight only when they are confident of victory; while
dictatorships are more inclined to engage in risky wars
o Almost all wars involve at least one dictatorial regime
 Problems of Liberal Democracy
o Elite rule (oligarchy)
o Majority v Minority, Public v Private, Old v New
o Citizen disengagement
 o Unresponsive government
Autocratic Government
 Autocracy – An arbitrary system of government unconstrained by the rule of law and
the consent of the governed
 Despotism – One who rules through fear without regard to law
 Common characteristics
o Rule is arbitrary and not bound by law
o Rule is exercised in the interest of the rules and not the common interest
o Rule is based on coercion and fear
 Authoritarianism – A system of government in which leaders are not subjected to
the test of free elections
o Civilian
o Military
o Secular
o Religious
o Capitalist
o Socialist
 Right Wing Authoritarianism
o Limited political pluralism
 Not a classless society or master race
 Social Organizations play an important role
o No guiding ideology
 No ideas of utopian order
 Economy
o No extensive political mobilization
 No great need to mobilize society (no free elections)
 Large numbers of people nurture instability
o Leaders who exercise power within ill-defined but predictable limits
o Want to “protect” society
 Statism
o RWA opposed to communism – but unwilling to leave economic
development completely to the private sector
o Not state-ownership, but the state as a driver (wage and price controls,
exchange rates, imports…)
 Left Wing Authoritarianism
o Official ideology
o Strong element of nationalism
o Remake society
 Totalitarianism
o A modern form of despotic rule the state undertakes to remake society
according to ideological design
o “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”
 Nazi Germany
 USSR
 People’s Republic of China
  Fascist Italy
 Characteristics of totalitarianism
o Attempt to remake society
 Produce a condition of utopian perfection (e.g. master race)
o One-party state
 Party in all aspects of life: army, schools, unions, churches…
o All powerful leader
 Charismatic leader (Fidel Castro)
o Pseudo-Democracy
 Political participation encouraged by the state
o Control of Communications
 All media owned and controlled by the state
o Use of Terror
 “political police” Nazi Gestapo, Soviet KGB
o Subordination of the law to the State
 No rule of law
o Planned economy
 Public ownership or state supervision
Authoritarianism Totalitarianism

Charisma Low High

Role conception Leader as individual Leader as destiny
Economy Private State
Corruption High Low
Official ideology No Yes
Limited pluralism Yes No
Legitimacy No Yes

 Fall of dictatorships
o Dictatorships tend to fall as a consequence of their failures
 Military defeats
 Economic crises
 Death of the dictator
o Civil wars and revolutions, more likely in:
 Large countries
 With available natural resources
 Low per capita income
 State weakness
 Semi-democratic regime.
o Democratisation
 Broadening suffrage rights within an existing institutional setting:
 Increasing inclusiveness,
 Limited political competition.
 Negotiations between authoritarian rulers and the opposition