Democracy

Definitions, concepts and classifications

Ideologies

• Democracy or the Free Market?

• Communism: Stalinism, Revisionism, Eurocommunism or Marxism?

• Islam: Sunni, Shia, Shariat or Secular?

• Anti-colonialism, Neo-colonialism

• Feminism

• Trotskyism, Anarchism and terrorism

What is Democracy?

• Regular, contested elections• Alternation of Governments• Rule of Law• freedoms: speech, association press, etc.• pluralism/polycentrism/civil society• Privacy• Separation of powers/checks and

balances

Important events

• Death of Socrates: Plato blames democracy [399BC]

• The Roman Republic [SPQR]• Anglo-saxon and Viking ideas of warrior

community [Dark Ages]• Magna Carta 1215• Glorious Revolution 1688• American Revolution 1776• French Revolution 1789

“Modern” Events

• Chartists and 6 demands:

• Universal Suffrage [well, male]

• Equal electoral districts

• Payment for MPs

• Abolition of property qual. For MPs

• Vote by ballot

• Annual parliaments

Even more modern events

• Struggle for decolonisation• Russian revolution 1917• Chinese protracted revolution• Globalisation• United Nations• European Union• Collapse of Communism and Westphalian

settlement• Idea of Universal Human rights

What sort of democracy?

• Participative• People’s Democracy• Representative• Liberal• Free market?• Eurocommunist?• Totalitarian /Rousseau-style General will• Fabian one-party

Models of Democracy

• British

• American

• French

• Asian

• Islamic

Variables

• Electoral system and party system

• monarchy or republic

• uni- or bi-cameral

• fusion of executive and legislature

• separation of powers

• President and prime minister: 4th or 5th Rep

• ministers in or out of Assembly

Choosing a system 1: legislature and executive

• Presidential or parliamentary?

• British model?

• US model?

• French 4th Republic?

• French 5th Republic?

• Other European?

• Asian?

Choosing 2: electoral system

• PR or first past the post?

• Constituency size: whole country, German model or multi-member?

• Qualification for representation: what proportion of electorate?

• How do we want to fix the result? CPs thought single-member constituencies would benefit them. Turned out differently.

Choosing 3: Presidents

• Direct or indirect election?

• How much power?

• Relationship with Prime Minister

• Can Prexy dissolve Assembly?

The Tyranny of the Market

W[h]ither the Nation-state?

Marx [or was it Engels?]

• “The state will wither away”

• Was this the state as “executive committee of the bourgeoisie”?

• Or as an instrument of class oppression?

• Or did he really mean what anarchists mean?

Globalisation

• Are we moving to a single global market?

• Does that mean forget national and regional markets?

• And does that demand global governance, rather than regional or national?

Would Marx agree with Friedman and Hayek?

• Capitalism is supposed to create the conditions necessary for socialism

• The revolution is an international one• So capitalism must presumably create an

international state for the proletariat to overthrow.

• “Man creates his own history but in conditions not of his own choosing”

• So F and H may be friends of Karl!

Friedrich Hayek

• Austrian, 1899-1992

• Chicago after 1950. Previously at LSE

• Anti-Keynesian/ free market economist

• Law Legislation and Liberty 3 vols 1973-9 Keith Joseph gave a copy to all civil servants in DTI when he became sec of state in 1979

Milton Friedman

• New Yorker 1912-

• Theoretical Economist

• Monetarist

• founder of “Chicago School”

• Governments should not intervene in the workings of the market

• Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money

The Market

• Hayek• recognises the

existence of market failure

• specifically to provide collective goods

• Friedman• that the market can

be relied upon • to generate not only

the best world but the best of all possible worlds

Fairness and Justice

• Hayek: the market and therefore inequality is justifiable

• individuals do not deserve their lot

• market can be cruel and unfair: hard work and bright ideas not always rewarded

• money is not a measure of human worth

• Friedman• the distribtion of

income found in a capitalist society is just

• in that it reflects the different talents abilities and efforts of the people in that society

The State

• Hayek• state has a role in

licensing• quality must be

guaranteed• services must be

contracted out

• Friedman• State should be kept

to a minimum• market will guarantee

quality• services must be

privatised

Issues

• Pollution

• Can government prevent deforestation?

• The safety-net

• caveat emptor?

• How do you form an army?

• Or: if the state no longer has a monopoly of coercive force, is it a state?

In conclusion

• Is the nation state withering away?

• Is Marx about to make a come-back?

• Is there an era of regional superstates around the corner, or a world state?

• Or is the term “state” redundant?

• “The executive committee of the global corporations” what will it look like and what power will it have?