Department of Political Science & Sociology

POL101: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

DR. KAZI N.H. HAQUE

Asst Professor (Part-time)
PSS, NSU

Lecture No. 4
Political Systems (Political Regimes)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

➢ Explain why representative democracy is the only feasible kind.

➢ Contrast elitist and pluralist theories of democracy.
➢ List the features attributed to totalitarianism.
➢ Distinguish authoritarianism from totalitarianism.
➢ Explain why new democracies often fail.
Main Regime Types

Figure 1: Main Regime Types

Definition of Democracy

➢ Democracy is a complex and carefully balanced system that needs

thoughtful citizens, limits on power, rule of law, and human and civil
rights.
➢ Democracy is a political system of mass participation, competitive
elections, and human and civil rights.
Type of Democracy

➢ Illiberal democracy: regimes that are elected but lack democratic

qualities such as civil rights and limits on government.
➢ Referendum: A mass vote on an issue rather than for a candidate; a
type of direct democracy.
➢ Representative democracy: One in which the people do not rule
directly but through elected and accountable representatives.
Popular Accountability of Government

➢ In a democracy, the policymakers must obtain the support of a

majority or a plurality of votes cast.
➢ Leaders are accountable to citizens.
➢ Elected leaders need to worry that they can be voted out.
➢ Reelection is the people’s means both of expressing support and of
controlling the general direction of government policy.
➢ Term limits may cast a shadow on popular accountability.
Political Competition

➢ Voters must have a choice, either of candidates or parties.

➢ In Europe, voters have a choice among several parties, each of
which tries to distinguish its ideology and policies.
➢ One-party or one-candidate elections are fake.
Political Competition

➢ The parties must have time and freedom to organize and present
their case well before elections.
➢ A regime that permits no opposition activity until shortly before
balloting has rigged the election. Likewise, denying media access—
especially by controlling television—stunts any opposition.
Alternation in Power

➢ The reins of power must occasionally change hands, with

the “ins” becoming the “outs” in a peaceful, legitimate way.
➢ No party or individual should get a lock on executive power.
➢ A system in which the ruling party stays in power many
decades cannot really be democratic.
 Uncertain Electoral Outcomes

➢ Related to alternation in power, democratic elections must have an

element of uncertainty, fluidity, and individual vote switching. Voting
must not be simply by groups, where 100 percent of a tribe, religion,
social class, or region automatically votes for a given candidate or party.
➢ A certain percent of the electorate must be up for grabs to keep
politicians worried and attentive to the nation as a whole.
➢ Indian individualism often overrides caste, making Indian elections
 Popular Representation

➢ In representative democracies, the voters elect representatives to act as

legislators and, as such, to voice and protect their general interest.
➢ Mandate-A representative carrying out the specific wishes of the public.
➢ Trustee-A representative deciding the public good without a specific
mandate.
➢ The people may have a general desire to improve education, but they
leave the means and details of achieving this goal to their legislators.
 Majority Decision

➢ The majority should decide, the procedure used in the democracies of

ancient Greece.
➢ Our more modern and practical concept of democracy is that the
majority decides but with respect for minority rights.
➢ To uphold such rights, an independent judiciary, one not under the
thumb of the regime, is a necessity.
 Majority Decision

➢ Most of what is now public policy became law as a result of conflict

between majority and minority groups.
➢ The will of the majority becomes the “tyranny of the majority,” which is
just as foreboding as executive tyranny.
 Right of Dissent and Disobedience

➢ People must have the right to resist the commands of government they
deem wrong or unreasonable.
➢ All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse
allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its
inefficiency are great and unendurable.
➢ Civil disobedience as an individual act of conscience, but others seek
to organize it and mobilize it.
 Political Equality
➢ In a democracy, all adults (usually now age eighteen and over) are
equally able to participate in politics: “one person, one vote.”
➢ In theory, all are able to run for public office, but critics point out that it
takes a great deal of money—and often specific racial and religious
ties—to really enter public life.
➢ Under the pressure of minority claims and civil disobedience, however,
democracies tend to open up over time and become less elite in
nature. Barack Obama’s victories were examples.
 Popular Consultation

➢ Most leaders realize that to govern effectively, they must know what
the people want and must be responsive to their needs and demands.
➢ mass media-Modern means of communication that quickly reach very
wide audiences. Dictatorships cannot tolerate free and critical mass
media; democracies cannot do without them.
 Popular Consultation

➢ No criticism, no democracy.
➢ The checks on reckless reporting are competing journals, channels,
and blogs that refute each other in what has been called “the
marketplace of ideas.”
 Democracy in Practice: Elitism or Pluralism

➢ Elites make the actual decisions, and ordinary citizens, the masses,
generally go along with these decisions.
➢ Money and connections give elites access to political power,
emphasize elite theorists.
➢ Politics functions, say pluralists, through interest groups.
 Democracy in Practice: Elitism or Pluralism

➢ To be sure, if the group is wealthy and well-placed, it gets listened to

more, but nobody has a hammerlock on the political system.
➢ Robert Dahl called this a “polyarchy,” the rule of the leaders of several
groups who have reached stable understandings with each other.
 Totalitarianism
➢ Totalitarian Political system in which the state attempts total control of
its citizens.
➢ In totalitarian systems, elites are almost completely unaccountable;
they lock themselves into power and are very difficult to oust, short of
regime collapse, which we saw in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the
Soviet Union in 1991.
➢ Its emphasis on total control, brainwashing, and worship of the state
and its leaders has proven mistaken and inefficient.
 Democracy: Why Democracies Fail

➢ Democracy can actually come too soon in the political life of a nation.
Stable democracy has historically taken root in countries with large,
educated middle classes.
➢ As Barrington Moore observed in 1966, “No bourgeoisie, no
democracy.” People in poor countries care more about survival than
democracy.
 Democracy: Why Democracies Fail

➢ In a 2004 UN survey of Latin America, a majority said they preferred a

dictator who puts food on the table to an elected leader who does not.
➢ Middle classes bring with them moderation, tolerance, and the
realization that not everything can be fixed at once.
Several characteristics tend to block democracy

➢ Poverty
➢ Major inequality
➢ No middle class
➢ Low education levels
➢ Oil
➢ Tribalism
Several characteristics tend to block democracy

➢ Little civil society

➢ Had been a colony
➢ No earlier democratic experience
➢ No democratic countries nearby
 Authoritarianism

➢ Authoritarian-Nondemocratic government but not necessarily

totalitarian.
➢ Authoritarian regimes are governed by a small group—usually a
dictator or the army—that minimizes popular input.
➢ Authoritarian regimes limit individual freedoms in favor of a hierarchical
organization of command, obedience, and order.
➢ Authoritarian regimes, for example, rarely have a firm ideology to sell.
 Types of Authoritarianism

➢ Military- Mauritania, Niger

➢ Personalistic- Uzbekistan, Venezuela
➢ Traditional monarchy- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
➢ Dominant-party- Russia, Zimbabwe
➢ Single-party- China, Cuba
 Authoritarianism and the Developing Nations
➢ In the decades after World War II, the European empires granted their
colonies independence.
➢ All the new nations, proclaimed themselves “democratic,” but it did not
last long.
➢ In this way, much of the third World fell into authoritarianism under
single parties.
➢ Government officials push wasteful, unrealistic projects, stifle individual
initiative by regulations and taxes, and crush critical viewpoints.
 The Democratization of Authoritarian Regimes

➢ Since 1974, dozens of countries have abandoned authoritarian or

totalitarian systems in favor of democratic systems, although recently
some have slid backward.
➢ Authoritarian regimes that enjoyed strong economic growth and
collapsed Communist regimes whose economic growth lagged.
 The Democratization of Authoritarian Regimes

➢ The growing economy transformed the whole society into a democracy,

a process that illustrates modernization theory.
➢ Democracy is not easy. It is a complex, finely balanced system that
depends on a political culture that grows best under a market economy
with a large, educated middle class and a tradition of pluralism.