Transcript POLS104_lecture Notes for Chapter 6 File

Political Science: An Introduction
Michael G. Roskin
Robert L. Cord
James A. Medeiros
Walter S. Jones
Chapter 6
Regimes
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Regime’s Control of Information
Chinese propaganda about “liberating” Tibet
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Kinds of Regimes
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Athenian democracy – all male citizens equal, their civic
duty to participate and vote
Totalitarian regimes like Stalinist Russia demand
absolute obedience, even try to control thoughts by
indoctrination
Sham democracies like Egypt have trappings of
democratic institutions but controlled by regime
Some regimes, more or less democratic, tending toward
authoritarianism, like Venezuela and Bolivia
Freedom House ranks countries on a relative freedom
scale
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Freedom House Rankings on Relative Freedom
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Democracy
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“Democracy” comes from Greek words meaning
government by the people
Greeks had direct democracy where all citizens could
vote on government policies; US states have direct
democracy through referendums
Representative democracy is where people elect
representatives to make laws and govern
Democracy a term variously used; dictatorships pretend
to be democratic, such as Communist Peoples
Democracies
Illiberal democracies are regimes elected to power
but lack democratic qualities such as civil rights and
limits on government; the Islamic republic of Iran is an
example
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Representative Democracy: Characteristics (1)
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Popular Accountability of Government – Elected officials
need to be able to be held accountable, usually by being
voted out of office
--Requires frequent, fair, and open elections
Political Competition – Voters must have a choice either
of candidates or parties
--Parties must have time and freedom to organize and
publicize their positions
--Must have adequate access to media
--Defective voting systems (“hanging chads”) negate the
popular will
--Gerrymandering in US reduces our democracy
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (2)
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Alternation in Power – Power must change hands in
peaceful, legitimate way; no party should hold executive
power indefinitely
--Parties in power may tilt the rules to keep power, as
Singapore’s People’s Action Party’s redrawing
constituency boundaries to maintain majority
--Important role of alternation in power is to control
corruption, which otherwise is inevitable
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (3)
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Uncertain Electoral Outcomes – A certain proportion of the
electorate must be up for grabs in any election; otherwise the
political system can become deadlocked
--In Iraq, most voters vote along ethnic and religious lines, giving
their parties a secure, invariable voting bloc; this makes it
difficult to compromise, and for secular parties to arise and
run on broad national issues
--Where an ethnic group makes up majority, as does Zimbabwe’s
Shona tribe, dictatorship comes more easily and Mugabe has
been able to persecute minorities
--In India, many caste members tend to vote for their caste parties,
but enough are individualistic and vote for more general
parties
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (4)
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Popular Representation – voters elect representatives to
act as legislators and to take care of the public interest
Some legislators claim that election gives them
mandates to carry out their constituents’ wishes
Some theorists argue that legislators are trustees who
must act in the best interests of the polity as a whole
Joseph Schumpeter argued that the electorate can’t
have a definite opinion on every issue, so legislators
must do what they view as best
One view is that voters seek a general direction for
policy; legislators provide means and details for this goal
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (5)
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Majority Decisions – The majority decides issues to
provide a definite decision where many views may exist
But, it’s incumbent on majority to respect minority
rights; the civil rights movement argued movingly that
the Black minority had been oppressed for centuries
Thus, many changes in society come about through
conflict between majority and minority groups; the civil
rights movement ultimately triumphed, giving Blacks
much greater equality in law
When minority views are silenced, we have “tyranny of
the majority,” which is prelude to executive tyranny
Discussion Question: Do you think gays and lesbians can
or should be allowed to marry?
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (6)
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Right of Dissent and Disobedience – the right of people
to resist government commands they deem wrong or
unreasonable
Thoreau defended civil disobedience when people,
through individual conscience, strongly oppose
government policies
Gandhi brought India independence through non-violent
civil disobedience
Thoreau and Gandhi believed civil disobedience was to
get authorities’ attention to rethink policies, not to
impose change violently on society
Civil disobedience can be effectively mobilized en masse,
as Martin Luther King, Jr., demonstrated
For civil disobedience to work, regime has to accept
some limits to its actions; it would only get you killed in
Stalin’s Russia or Nazi Germany
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (7)
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Popular Equality – all adults must be allowed to vote and
participate in politics
Doubts have been raised whether the great amount of
money required in elections truly permits full
participation by all
Popular Consultation – Important for leaders to monitor
public opinion on current issues
Public opinion polls serve as a window on public
attitudes, for a given moment, though they can be quite
variable from week to week
Some small but powerful constituencies can sway
politicians unduly (such as finance industry and National
Rifle Association) with their cash and distort democratic
will
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Representative Democracy – Characteristics (8)
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Free Press – Democracy cannot function without free
and critical mass media; they provide citizens with facts,
opportunity to criticize government and to publish their
arguments
For these reasons, authoritarian governments try to
control press, allowing them to shape public perspectives
and keep public passive
Regimes can keep corruption and incompetence hidden
if no free press
Some criticize the media as biased, especially in favor of
liberals; in truth, the media is biased toward getting a
good story, Republican or Democratic
The multiverse of communications modes – traditional
press, Internet, blogs, Twitter, and the like – provides a
“marketplace of ideas,” though it seems often like chaos,
and unfortunately is little professionally edited
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Democracy in Practice: Elitism or Pluralism? (1)
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Gaetano Mosca argued that government always falls into
the hands of a few, and Robert Michels argued that any
organization, no matter how democratic its intent, will be
run by a small elite (Iron Law of Oligarchy)
Elite theory argues that the key policy decisions are
made by a tiny minority; Robert Dahl felt government
too large, issues too complex, for any other option
Elite theorists feel elite rule unfair, undemocratic; that
decisions benefit the powerful and wealthy
--Bush 43, a former wealthy oil executive, fostered tax
cuts for wealthiest 1%, special tax breaks for oil
firms
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Democracy in Practice: Elitism or Pluralism? (2)
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Pluralism argues that political decisions are largely driven
by interest groups
While there may be powerful business interests,
pluralists point out the action government has taken to
close down asbestos operations and curtail the use of
tobacco, as a result of various other interests promoting
government action
Some pluralists argue that only societies with traditions
of pluralism can foster democracy; democracy has had
little success taking root in Russia where Communism
eliminated most competing groups
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Pluralism
Interest group demonstrating before Capitol
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Democracy in Practice: Elitism or Pluralism? (3)
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Both elitism and pluralism may be too simple; polyarchy
is the synthesis that interest groups compete (pluralism),
but that each group is run by elites (elitism)
Arend Lijphart calls this “consociational democracy” –
elites agree among themselves on rules of the game,
and get their followers to abide by the rules
Lijphart’s Netherlands is example of Calvinist, Catholic,
and secular elites reaching an accommodation to work
together
When elite accommodation breaks down, strife results,
as in Lebanon’s civil war
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Models of Elitism, Pluralism, and Polyarchy
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Totalitarianism (1)
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Totalitarianism – a political system where the state
attempts total control of its citizens
Elites almost totally unaccountable – they monopolize
instruments of force, hold power tightly and violently if
necessary, hence difficult to remove short of regime
collapse, as in E. Europe and Soviet Union in late 20th
century
Distinct from dictatorship and authoritarianism – these
forms of regime seek power for power’s sake, for certain
individuals and cronies
--Such regimes tend to act arbitrarily, not in accord with
some overarching ideology
N. Korea only true totalitarian state today
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Totalitarianism (2)
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A totalitarian state operates under an all-encompassing
ideology – tries to restructure society according to goals
of the ideology
Regime promotes official theory of history, economics,
politics, and social development – all required to believe
this version; any dissenters are enemies of the people
Only one party legally exists, led by a single individual
who fosters a “cult of personality”
Membership in party is elite honor, limited to a few,
bringing special privileges – in USSR, party members
could shop at special stores for goods unavailable to rest
of society
The hierarchical party is superior to all other institutions
in society – party members hold or control all important
positions in government and society
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Totalitarianism (3)
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Totalitarian regimes use secret police apparatus to
intimidate citizens, without judicial restraints
Secret jailings, torture, and concentration slave labor
camps all used to keep control of populace
Stalin and Mao, especially, utilized purges to break any
competing sources of power and keep potential enemies
off balance
Regime monopolizes mass media to control information
citizens receive, and to propagandize
Regime controls economy tightly, making state powerful
and able to allocate resources to serve its interests, such
as military production
But, such control served economy badly when computers
and internet arose with transparent information systems,
as the regimes still tried to control and compartmentalize
information flows
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Authoritarianism
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Authoritarian regimes governed by small group that
minimizes popular input
They aren’t usually ideological
These regimes don’t try to control everything – many
cultural, social, economic and other matters left up to
individuals so long as they don’t threaten regime
Individual freedoms limited in favor of hierarchical
organization of command, obedience, and order
Some trappings of democracy may exist, such as courts
and legislatures, but they rubber stamp regime’s orders
The official party always wins elections
Today, China and Russia may be “authoritarian
capitalist” regimes in allowing market economies but
retaining political control
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Authoritarianism and the Developing Nations
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End of colonial empires after World War II created many
new states that started out calling themselves
democracies
They had no Western traditions of democracy, and
usually individualistic culture or market economy
The societies were usually tribal, and tribes often lived
across international boundaries, especially in Africa
Charismatic leaders, such as Sékou Touré of Guinea and
Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, established single-party rule
which centralized power in authoritarian states
Officials pushed wasteful projects, became corrupt, and
suppressed dissent; usually imposed socialism, to sad
economic consequences
Often, military coups led to military dictatorships
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Types of Authoritarianism
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The Democratization of Authoritarian Regimes
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Democratization seems to happen to (1) authoritarian
countries with rapid economic growth, and (2) collapsed
Communist states with slow economic growth
When authoritarian regimes permit relatively free
markets, they become ripe for some form of democracy
This is driven by growth of a middle class seeking
reforms, increased numbers of educated who can’t be
hoodwinked by demagoguery, and people beginning to
recognize and pursue their pluralistic interests
Gradually, as these come together, regimes tend to ease
up and permit democratic reforms
This scenario doesn’t apply to petrostates which keep
democracy at bay with jobs and handouts to the people
Communist states collapse when poor economic growth
signals failure of system; when ideology shown to fail,
regime is too brittle to reform and so breaks down
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Why Democracies Fail
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Apart from outside conquest, democracies usually fail
because they come too soon; stable democracies require
large, educated middle class
Poor people more concerned with survival than rights,
and easily demagogued, as are newly enfranchised
voters
Hitler could destroy Weimar Republic because Germans
had no tradition of democracy and Germany was going
through desperately hard times in Great Depression
Several characteristics work against democracy: poverty,
great inequality, no middle class, low education levels,
oil, tribalism, little civil society, no earlier democratic
experience, and no democratic countries nearby
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