Democracy

1
Democracy

• Definitions, concepts and classifications

2
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

3
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

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
What sort of democracy?

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

8
Models of Democracy

• British
• American
• French
• Asian
• Islamic

9
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

10
Choosing a system 1 legislature and executive

• Presidential or parliamentary?
• British model?
• US model?
• French 4th Republic?
• French 5th Republic?
• Other European?
• Asian?

11
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.

12
Choosing 3 Presidents

• Direct or indirect election?
• How much power?
• Relationship with Prime Minister
• Can Prexy dissolve Assembly?

13
The Tyranny of the Market

• Whither the Nation-state?

14
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?

15
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?

16
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!

17
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

18
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

19
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

20
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

21
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

22
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?

23
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?