---
bibtext: @book{held2006models,
title={Models of democracy},
author={Held, David},
year={2006},
publisher={Stanford University Press}
}
---
- Many people and states all proclaim to be democrats but have very different views on what democracy is.
- 'Democracy' is often used to legitimate political structures and authority but this is only a relatively recent phenomenon.
- Democracy is the dominant form of political organisation today but the political structures in many of these states is fragile.
Many definitional problems are associated with democracy:
- who are the people
- how should they participate in politics
- what political, social, & economic conditions are assumed and necessary
"Not only is the history of democracy marked by conflicting interpretations, but also ancient and modern notions intermingle to produce ambiguous and inconsistent accounts of the key terms of democracy" (pX)
"While democratic theory has examined and debated at length the challenges to democracy that emerge from with the boundaries of the nation-state, it has not seriously questions whether the nation-state itself can remain at the centre of democratic thought." (pXI)
"Democracy means a form of government in which ... the people rule. [It] entails a political community in which there is some form of political equality among the people." (p1)
"I believe that it is only when ideas are connected to propitious historical circumstances and structural forces that they develop sufficient influence to alter the nature and workings of institutional forms." p7
Justification:
- Citizens should enjoy political equality in order to be free to rule and be ruled in turn (unity of ruler & ruled)
- public/political participation was the only way to live honourable and fulfilled.
Featured:
- Direct participation in legislature & judiciary
- Assembly of citizens was the sovereign power
- Scope extended to all common affairs of the city
- Multiple methods of selecting officials (voting, sortition, councils)
- No distinctions of privilege between citizens and officials
- Short office terms
- Term limits (except military)
- Payment for public services
Required:
- Small city state
- Economic surplus (dependent on slavery & women performing domestic duties)
- Restrictions on citizenship to promote solidarity
- Military power diffused amongst citizen soldiers
Liberty & equality were linked. Liberty's 2 criteria were:
- rule & be ruled in turn,
- living as one chooses
- required numeric equality & 2) required equality of power. Equality was thus the basis of liberty (p17)
"Law is juxtaposed with tyranny, and freedom therefore implies respect for the law" (p15) There is a difference between law imposed by an autocratic and that which is self-imposed.
Voting was a way of making differences in judgements explicit as well as a decision mechanism (p17)
Citizenship entailed active participation. Only through civic life could a citizen fulfil his telos (p15)
Political rights in Athens weren't attributes of individuals, they were functions of the role as citizen. (p14) The freedom provided by the state wasn't to protect individuals from the state, but to allow the citizen to realise his telos. (p26)
Freedom required the accountability to no authority but itself. p34
Justification:
- Political participation is an essential condition of personal liberty; if citizens do not rule themselves, they will be dominated by other. p44\
- democracy is the instrument to protect oneself from arbitrary rule of others
Features:
- Balance of power between the demos, aristocracy and the monarchy linked to a mixed constitution.
- All leading political forces played an active role in public life
- Active Citizen participation achieved through a variety of mechanisms
- Competing social groups competing for and protecting their interests
- Liberties of speech, expression, and association.
- Rule of law
Conditions:
- Small city
- Religious worship
- Society with independent artists and traders
- Exclusion of women and labourers
- Intensive conflict amongst rival groups
A return to the classical tradition. Rejection of the idea that ruling was a function of divine right. p32
'Democracy' became a pejorative after Aristotle, more associated with the rule of the rabble & interests of the poor at the expense of the common good. Republican democracy was more like a democratic aristocracy. p33
Republicanism can be distinguished as humanist vs classical: the intrinsic role of participation vs instrumental. p36
Justification (p48)
- Citizens must enjoy political and economic equality in order that nobody can be master of another and all can enjoy equal freedom and development in the process of self-determination for the common good.
- democracy has intrinsic value in transforming the character (self expression & development) of citizens
Key Features
- Division of legislative and executive functions
- Direct participation of citizens in public meetings to constitute the legislature
- unanimity on public issues desirable, but majority rule for disagreement
- executive positions in hands of magistrates and administrators
- executive appointed either by direct election or lot
General Conditions
- small, non-industrial community
- diffusion of ownership of property among many; citizenship determined by property ownership
- domestic service of women to free men for work and politics
Increases in bureaucratic competency - centralised administration & organisation - permitted the emergence of public authority and sovereignty - the supreme and indivisible territorial power. p57 This increased the scope & totality of political control of daily life.
Also associated with this period is a religious doctrine that required the submission of judgement to others - priests and nobles.
Held claims that the increasing totality of political power meant that coersion was no longer enough for political control. Concepts of obligation and reciprocity were needed to have subjects willingly obey which set the scene for limits to absolute power and governmental responsibility. p57
"liberalism sought torestrict the powers ... and define a uniquely private sphere independent of church and state" p 59
The central liberal problem was how to balance the sovereignty of the state with the sovereignty of the people.
Justification (p78)
- citizens require protection from their rulers and each other
- laws must exists to promote policies commensurate with citizen's interests
Key Features
- sovereignty ultimately lies in the people, but is vested in representatives who can legitimately exercise power.
- regular elections, secret ballot, competition between factions, majority rule, and popular accountability
- state power to be impersonal and divided amongst the branches of government
- centrality of the constitution to guarantee freedom from arbitrary treatment and equality before the law
- separation of state from civil society
- competing power sections and interest groups.
General Conditions
- development of a political autonomous civil society
- private ownership of the means of production
- competitive market economy
- patriarchal family
- primacy of the nation-state
Justification (p92)
- participation in political life is necessary both for protection of individual interests as well as the development and promotion of individual capacities
Key Features
- popular sovereignty with universal suffrage
- representative government
- constitutional checks to promote individual rights
- clear seperation of the legislature from the bureaucracy
- popular involvement in politics and public life through local government & juries
General Conditions
- an independent civil society
- competitive market economy
- private control over the means of production
- political emancipation of women but domestic subjugation
- primacy of the nation-state
The origins of class: p97
- earliest tribal societies where classless without economic surplus or private property
- agriculture led to surplus, appropriation of surplus and private property
- those who control the means of production can capture surplus and live off the work of others
Marx believed that democracy was incompatible with capitalism. Realising democracy required reorganising society & the economy. p103
Capitalism leads to crises due to overproduction and crises lead to concentration of economic and political power. p102
The state defends individuals as if differences don't exist even though that formal equality entrenches substantive inequality. p103
Marx rejects the liberal claim of private/public realms. All this does is depoliticise private ownership of the means of production. p103
Liberal theory restricts freedom to a minority of population by affirming the central place of capitalism and markets. p109
An immediate objection of post-revolution is the establishment of unrestricted authority of the state to dismantle capitalist relations p113
Socialism seeks to appropriate the means of production, centralise control, increase productive forces and dissolve the bourgeois state.
Communism seeks to end exploitation, achieve consensus on all public questions, to make laws, coercion, and material need redundant. p112
"Instead of deciding once in three to six years which member of the ruling class was to misrepresent the people in Parliament..." Marx, Civil War p67
Marx's vision was: p116
- democratic freedom and equality combined through...
- the end of politics
- the planned use of resources
- efficient production
- greater leisure
Marxism manifested in three main forms p 116
- libertarians who rejected all forms of coercion and control
- pluralists who sought to use existing structures to achieve change
- orthodox who required a revolutionary party to oversee change
Justifications p120
- the free development of all requires the free development of each
- freedom requires the end of exploitation and only equality can realise full human potential
Key Features
- public affairs to be regulated by communes (socialism); government in all forms gives way to self-regulation (communism)
- public office filled by frequent election (socialism); public affairs governed collectively (communism)
General Conditions
- unity of the working class (until class disappears)
- end of class privilege (abolition of scarcity)
- increased productivity
Weber argued that a liberal polity can only be defended on procedural grounds because the competition of values makes substantive justification impossible. p128
Direct democracy requires relative equality of participants. p129
The extension of the franchise leads to diversity of political organisations. Competition amongst them leads to strict party apparatuses and the narrowing of policy options. Representatives become yes-men and party leadership becomes supreme. p135
Schumpeter claimed that the common good was a fiction because people have different wants and different values. p147
Lovers of democracy must clear their creed of make-believe that the people hold definite and rational beliefs on policy. The purpose of democracy is to choose which leaders are to govern. p149
But a competitive system of elites is not a market. There are only a few 'sellers' and they set the price and range of goods on offer. This is a political oligopoly (Macpherson 1977 p 89)
Justification p157
- democracy is a method of selecting a skilled political elite as well as a limit to their excesses
Key features
- parliamentary government with strong executive
- competition between rival elites
- domination of party politics
- centrality of political leadership
- well trained civil service
- constitutional limits
General conditions
- an industrial society
- fragmented social conflict
- poorly informed electorate
- emergence of skilled bureaucrats
Democracy is the manifestation of competition amongst a web of competing individual and group interests - a polyarchy.
A polyarchy requires consensus on the rules of procedure, range of policy options, and scope of political authority. p164
Dahl defines power as a realistic relationship describing A's capacity to control B's responses (Dahl 1956 p 13)
A majority is more than an arithmetic expression. It must also be able to take coordinated action to have power. p 161
Elite's can't just rule arbitrarily - they are constrained by the underlying majority consensus that lays down the parameters of political life. p164
"There are many tensions between equality and liberty, but equality is not in gernal inimcal to liberty" p169
"The most fundamental challenge to liberty derives from inequality" (or the liberty to aquire unlimited resources) p170
From Dahl (1985) modern capitalism produces inequalities so severe they are a threat to political equality. p170
"In order to remain in power in in a liberal democratic electoral system, governments must, in other words, take action to secure the profitability and prosperity of the private sector; they are dependent upon the process of capital accumulation which they have for their own sake to maintain." p 170
"Democracy is embedded in a socioeconomic system that systematically grants a privileged position to business interests." p171
Justifiction p173
- secures liberties with government by minorities
- acts as an obstacle to excessive power factions and unresponsive government
Key Features
- citizenship rights, one person one vote, freedom of expression, freedom of organisation
- system of checks and balances between executive, legislative, judiciary, and bureaucracy
- competitive electoral system with at least two parties
General Conditions
- multiple power groups but biased towards corporate power
- state institutions forge their own sectional interests
- power contested by numerous groups
- poor resource base for some groups limits their influence
- uneven socioeconomic distribution
- insufficiently open government
- international power compromised by powerful multinational corporations
Miliband argues differently. The state doesn't have an identity with the capital class, but does has a strong affinity with it. p174
- there is a dominant class that controls the means of production
- that class has close links to powerful institutions
- it is disproportionately represented in government
Claus Offe highlights the contradictions in modern capitalist democracy. p176
- private capital is the chief foundation of economic enterprise
- the finances of the state depends on this enterprise (via taxation)
- the state lacks direct control over this funding source
- political power must be won with mass electoral support
- but economic inequalities disadvantages those without capital
- so the state must permit the accumulation of private capital upon which it depends while pretending to be neutral to all citizens
"The nature of political power is determined in a dual way: by formal rules of democratic and representative government which fix the institutional form of access to political power, and by the material content of the accumulation process which sets the boundaries of successful polices." p177
His liberal democratic capitalist state is defined by:
- its exclusion of accumulation
- its necessary function for accumulation
- its dependency on accumulation
- its requirement to deny and conceal this.
The state must maintain the accumulation process without undermining private accumulation or the belief that private accumulation is best for all.
A combination of factors - rapid increase in productivity, recent excesses of the far left & right, increasing aspirations, mass consumerism - contributed to stable post war democracy in the West. Lipset describes it as the end of ideology while Marcuse likens it to one dimensional society. p188
The depoliticalisation of society coincided with democracy being viewed in more instrumental terms. p189
Taxonomy of Political Acceptance (p197)
- coercion
- tradition
- apathy
- pragmatic acquiescence
- instrumental acceptance
- normative agreement
- ideal normative agreement
Marginalised groups develop a sense of fatalism when "inequalities, privileges, and disadvantages are seen as determinised political and economic forces." p199
If politics is the art of the possible, and governments have incentives to maintain power, then they will seek to promote policies that secure the existing order, promote the interests of those with influence (capitalists) while pretending to represent the masses and dispersing the effects of policy unevenly. p200
The new right, inspired by Nozik and Hayek, sought to prioritise liberalism over democracy. p201
Justifications: (p207)
- Majority rule is useful for limiting government largess but democracy shouldn't encroach into the law.
Key features
- Constitutional states
- Rule of law
- minimal state intervention into society
- free markets given the largest scope possible
General Conditions
- Effective political leadership guided by liberal principles
- Minimisation of bureaucratic regulation
- Restricted role of interest groups (except business groups)
- International free trade
- Reduction in the threat of collectivism
The new-left's response to the neoliberal's conception of democracy was for mass participation in politics. This differs from direct democracy in that it is compatible with representation.
For McPherson and Pateman, this requires decentralisation and devolution of political power to local groups and a central emphasis on self-determination when conceptualising democracy.
Justification (p215)
- An equal right to liberty and self-determination can only be achieved in a participatory society.
Key features:
- direct participation of citizens in regulating the key institutions of society.
- reorganisation of the party system to make officials more accountable.
- open government to promote transparency
General Conditions
- Redistribution of resources to ensure equal opportunities for all
- Bureaucratic power to be accountable
- Open information to ensure informed decisions
- Child care provisions to allow female participation
"The story of democracy contains both a celebration of the end of arbitrary rule and paternalistic politics, and anxiety that democracy could mean rule by the rabble." p231
Within democratic thinking, a clear distinction exists between those who value participation for its self realisation role, and those who value it for instrumental purposes. Between protection and actualisation / development.
Definition:
- a political approach focused on improving the quality of democratic participation. p232
- public deliberation is the core of legitimate political decision making and self governance. p237
Again this distinction between democracy as a reflective process and democracy as a transformative one. Is democracy the zero sum aggregation of individual wills or some synergistic whole-is-greater-than-the-parts production of something more. (p232)
Enlighten political judgement is one that is: (p232)
- fact-regarding
- future-regarding
- other-regarding
Deliberation can be the source of political legitimacy - something that doesn't exist before a body politic is formed. p233
Fishkin on contemporary democracy: "a forced choice between politically equal but relatively incompetent masses and politically unequal but relatively more competent elites" p234
A confusion exists between behaviour and justifications that are appropriate for the market place and those appropriate for the forum. Liberal democracy only recognises private views and interests . p236
Increasing the level of political participation alone does not address the issue of the quality of participation. p236
Deliberation overcomes the limitations of aggregation by (p237-8)
- sharing information and pooling knowledge can transform individual understanding
- reveal how preference formation is linked to sectional interest
- replace the language of interest with the language of reason
Justification: (p253)
- the legitimacy of political decisions is the mutual justification provided by free and reasoned assent of citizens
Key Features:
- deliberative polls, citizen juries
- e-government initiatives
- group analysis and generation of policy
- new use of referenda
General Conditions:
- value pluralism
- strong civic education
- public culture supporting refined and reflective preferences
- public funding of deliberative bodies
Whether or not we acknowledge it, our activities presuppose a particular framework of state and society.
"The actions of the apathetic do not escape politics; they merely leave things as they are....We do not have the option of 'no politics'" p259
Democracy is compatible with a wide range of substantive values. The principle of autonomy is at the centre of the modern democratic project. p260
Autonomy is defined here as self-conciousness, self-reflection, and self-determining. p263
Persons should enjoy equal rights and obligations in the specification of the political framework which governs their lives, provided they do not deploy this framework to negate the rights of others. p264
It's the only grand or meta-narrative that can legitimately delimit other competing narratives. It "is the value that link and mediate among competing prescriptive concerns" p261
The new left has sought to uncover how the free development of each is compatible with the free development of all. p262
Key Differences & Similarities
Republicanism | Liberalism | Marxism p268
-
Response to power of monarchs (R), to concentrations of state power (L), to concentrations of economic power (M)
-
Liberty requires self-governing participatory polity (R), separation of state & society (L), restructuring of society (M)
-
Freedom and politics are linked (R), freedom requires an impartial state (L), an impartial state can only exist when it isn't dependent on capitalism (M)
-
The common good requires each fulfilling their ends mediated by the state (R), decisions are best left to marketss (L), public direction of resources (M).
"Politics is about power" p270
If the final adgenda of politics is out of the peoples control, then it is a democracy in name only. p272
Democracy then, needs to be a double sided phenomenon - reforming state power and restructuring civic society. p276
Resource equality is necessary for political equality p278 - see also Dahl.
Motivated by a concern with spillover effects and externalities.
- regional impact
- globalisation
- transnational bodies