GOV 312L 1/22/16 course packet? FRI FRI look on canvas

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1 GOV 312L 1/22/16 course packet? FRI FRI look on canvas What is Democracy? The Core Principles of Democracy: Popular Sovereignty, Collective Autonomy, and Consent Greeks now would say what we have is not Democracy. Elections weren't the best in Greece. Everyone calls themselves Democratic. In history many said they were not Democratic. Doesn't make any sense to think were Democratic. Only the wise can rule not common people. peoples democracy elections are not sufficient for Democracy, difficult to define Democracy because so many people call themselves Democratic, Greek term two parts: kratos form of rule demo people, anarchy is bad the big and strong will take over absence of rule doesn't work, Sovereignty is the highest in the land but in Democracy the people are in charge, people could do whatever they want to do, ultimate base of rule is the people some type of agreement, participation and obligation, collective autonomy: self laws collectively as a people involved in making laws, social contract to the laws because they are made by you to protect you, equality before the law equally obligates, Plato s Crito!!!!! common people have equal opportunity to make laws, evolvement, with representatives the people are consenting on who they want to make their choices for them, Democracy means that political rule is ultimately based on the consent of the citizens considered as political equals, one person one vote Additions and Qualifications Why Communism s Imputed Consent is not Democratic Democracy squared? People don't have a good idea of what they want, short interests, media manipulation, say they know the true interest of the people govern not after what they say but what they really meant to say and actually want, they know what s good for everyone else, not political equality, US says everyone is the best interpreter of their own interests, we ask what do you want and then take action not assume we know what you want, actual visible valid indicators of what you really want in the US, communism twisted consent Imputed, if only you were more enlightened and knew your own interests Why Elections without Choice are not Democratic In Russia based in imputed consent, dismissed the observable expressed interests in the people, lost elections threw it out you don't know what you really want, I'm best for you, US doesn't accept Imputed Consent, no one knows better for the people but the people, no choice no Democracy, that s not a vote, cannot have elections without effective choice, one election for office doesn't count, especially like Cuba when you have one candidate, in Egypt media destroyed others chances, government control, unfair competition that isn't a real choice, to make sure consent is effective and real we have to make sure this choice is given to the citizens with freedom Why Abdication of Consent (Hitler) is not Democratic Free Democratic election but who they elected passed laws that limit citizens freedoms, what if you elect someone that says they want to rule for life, sovereignty, we could choose to give up our sovereignty for the rest of our lives, we could elect a dictator but shooting ourselves in the foot, we can transfer consent, every Democracy insists on renewal consent, to make sure someone cant dismantle Democracy from the inside

2 Why Limited Citizenship (US pre-1964) is not fully Democratic you cant exclude large parts of the population, Athens did it, many say the US before 1964 wasn't Democratic, cant say people cant vote by race or gender, inclusive definition of a citizen, Democracy is a political regime in which the possibility of undisturbed public contestation (freedom of speech etc.) guaranteed and in which political rule is ultimately based on the renewable empirical consent of the citizens, considered as political equals and defined in an inclusive way. MODELS OF DEMOCRACY I: DIRECT DEMOCRACY 1/25/16 Direct Democracy a la Athens Most Democratic system that ever existed, not sending a congressman, equal right to give speeches and voice opinions, now I don't make decisions, I only have representatives, selected people by lottery, perfect political equality, the people: THE PEOPLE IS COLLECTIVE, idiosyncratic is negative idiot Guiding Principles Decision-Making by the Citizenry Once a year they get to choose who gets to be ostracized and forced to exile on pot sherds, this could lead to political inequality Maximum Political Equality Selected people by lottery to fill offices, military leaders, etc. no one had huge amount of power so it s ok if it wasn't a perfect person, some one day leadership, rotation short term, p much everyone had the chance to be the ruler for the day Unlimited Political Authority Can be kicked out if you get too much power, institutions don't always have the effect their founders intended, for the people by the people, they can do what they want to do, popular sovereignty, collective idea Differences from Modern, Representative Democracy No direct influence, especially on a national level, one person one vote, but not all equality on a democratic level, limited authority, checks and balances, less participation now, elections and protests but that isn t shit, someone else makes decisions that bind you, The Most Democratic Form of Democracy? Ancient Athens? small city-states The Problem of Limited Citizenship It was a privilege, only a minority were actual citizens, no slaves, immigrants, or women, only male citizens were the people Why is No Large-Scale Modern State a Direct Democracy? Only worked on a small scale, effective debate only works on small scales, city-states, polis, direct democracy effected by citizens can only be effective on a small scale, excluded immigrants, slaves, women to make it even smaller scale, could it work with millions of people? ha, couldn't have an effective debate, also too many people in the world now, city state was a couple hundred, now were at 7.8 billion Advanced Information Technology to the Rescue? Technology frees out time to think about politics, we could use this for debate or voting, life is

3 no longer simple, not simple decisions like taxing goat cheese not nuking Iran, wasn't much to regulate, so common citizens have a good idea of the political issues at the time, life now is too complex MODELSOFDEMOCRACY -II 1/27/16 Representative Democracy Very different principle, only authoritative decision making power is we give someone else the right to make decisions on our behalf, we authorize someone to make the decisions, one right, years they have your life in their hands, laws that bind us, in principle they could reintroduce the draft, how do you make sure they do more or less of what we want them to do? we can recreate democracy in a unit if we add representation Guiding Principle: Decision-Making by Representatives Authorized by Citizenry If given the choice to vote on everything you would only vote on the things that you cared about, fragmented power, self selected voting, unrepresentative decision making, unrealistic, election in representative democracy is a two stage process, select special person to represent interests, involves citizenry How Representation Addresses the Problems of Direct Democracy Create a small scale, not self selected, cross section of the population used, modern theorists would say representative is not a democracy How Much Freedom for the Representatives? how much latitude and liberty do you give to these representatives? That s iffy, they could become self serving elites, some think we should just trust, how has the party system dealt with this issue? political parties have a program to commit to a certain goal with policies, have to stay close to it, party insures cohesion of view points, pretty much have to stick with what you said you would do The Problems of Responsiveness and Accountability responsiveness and accountability, listen and try to do their best to follow the popular will, supposed to stay responsive or will loose your seat, elected to senate for a mandate, can t impeach your senator in US, you have to trust them, sanctioned power is limited, fixed term of office, BUT no reelection, citizenry can assess their promise for the future pass judgement, renewal keeps citizen accountability, need competition to fill that persons hole, can only punish if they want to be reelected and there s a competitor, but do you really think that the competition will do a better job? not that simple and strait forward Democracy of Technocracy? Complicated because now they have to rely on expertise, world is so complex, need to draw in experts, politicians gravitating towards the same position because all influenced by same experts, expert rule, signing what someone else prepares and puts under your face, do politicians really evaluate what they're proposing, hollowed out from the inside? are they making decisions or are they the mouth pieces of all the scientists The Challenge of Globalization local decision making to national level decision making, globalization is moving from national decision making to supranational decision making, delegating decision making to international organizations, local-national-supranational, compromises being made are hard to figure out,

4 global decision making is going to move decision making even further from the citizens, another layer to make sure representatives are responsive and accountable to their citizens Electoral Participation Amidst Socioeconomic Inequality Citizens have to want to be involved, smaller demands on citizens, many people don't really even vote, electoral participation goes way up with income (socioeconomic status), inequality in representative democracy is high, this effects decisions in congress The Impact of Inequality on Democracy: Divergent Positions Liberal Democracy look we just care about one person one vote, if people don't go out and vote that s their decisions, they must be reasonably content, if there s inequality sorry you're not exercising your rights, you're allowed to vote you're allowed not to vote The Marxian Criticism & Counter-Proposal of course this is a problem, in effect if you have skewed voting then this is a rule for the rich by the rich, class rule, poor don't have time to worry about politics, so called democracy is a sham, abolish economic and social inequality, can t in capitalism, need socialism Social Democracy Marxian is too radical but the existing system is problematic, but it gives poor people the right to vote, we ll try to give them more political influence they'll make more gradual changing in social economic issues in the country Liberal Democracy 1/29 Basic Assumptions of (Classical, Europe) Liberalism Representative Democracy is much less democratic, representatives are full time politicians, rely on expertise, globalization makes it less and less democratic the higher and higher people making decisions even farther away from direct democracy, LIBERAL say social inequality doesn't matter, legal equal opportunity is all that matters, one person one vote, US is liberal democracy, most liberal in the world, liberalism is a term used in many different ways, America uses the Latin/Classical/European definition: Liberal is free, individual freedom and liberty, free market, Ronald Reagan type, contrast to conservative, contrast to socialist, football got distorted, so did the definition of liberal, the state is a potential threat, not just for the few strong people, the state has coercive power, voluntarily activity/exchange, makes us better off, economy and society are based off of voluntary exchange, freedom to do it or not, in economy and society people acting out of own initiative, balance between supply and demand, decentralized coordination, because of competition, individual producer and consumer decisions, all self interests, money, laws can bite you backed up by coercion, want broadest possible range, need state in economy because of fundamental functions like guaranteed property rights, foundation of the economy is the state guaranteeing property rights, but the state is clumsy can mess up economy, economy responds in a flexible way to supply and demand, liberals love the free market liberalism came about in the opposition of Absolutionism, from Louis 14th, he said nothing mattered in politics except I'm a king and I'm absolved from the laws, appointed by god, one person concentrated power, ran politics, killed any opposition, controlled economy, created government manufacturing, restricted trade, many regulations, made everyone Catholic, some books and newspapers and science was censored, you couldn't even think what you wanted to think, The Three Principal Strategies of Liberalism

5 Confine the State to a Narrow Political Sphere get the state out of intellectual life, the state can only deal with political things, state has no right interfering with other areas of life like religion, private decisions, science is outside what politics can regulate, society is free of state impositions, state should get involved in economy very little, private sector: state stays out, realm of coercion, should protect the realms of freedom, declare they are extra political, liberalism want to confined the state, freedom of professional choice Tame State Power Institutionally: Constitution with Basic Rights; Checks and Balances but I'm still the sun king, were going to tame state power institutionally, he could do whatever he want, liberalism want to impose institutional limitations, rule of law, state power is governed by laws, you cant do whatever you want to do, its always the same, laws are laws, constitution is hard to change its permanent restraints and boundaries, liberals want a firm constitution, popular sovereignty is restrained, old principles have contemporary relevance, separation of powers by checks and balances, Louis 14 one power concentrating all state power, constitution isn't sufficient, have to divide up powers of the state, need to cooperate to get anything done, different independent powers that have to come to an agreement, tame state power institutionally then divide up power Make State Power Dependent on Popular Consent via Representation if the people are the source of authorizing power they need to consent, state decision making with popular consent, the people that are voting are the ones sticking out their neck, its a safe guard, people are much less likely to do something against the will of the people, liberals want state power based on popular consent, favor representation and representative democracy, people can be distracted, majority could apse on minority, people can misuse their power, don't want common people making decisions just electing experts Tensions between Liberalism & Popular Sovereignty: Liberals except that sovereignty lies with the people, someone has to be it, don't want the king to be it, is best assigned to the people, highest power in the land can be bad, accept it but want to reign in its exercise want to make it hard to make political decisions, worried about power in the people too, II) Marxian Democracy 2/1/16 Basic Assumptions Much more optimistic, new society, bring happiness to the people, bring the best, fundamental challenge to liberal democracy Economics as the Base of Politics says exploitation so not political equality, bring real economical social equality to have real democracy, of the people for the people by the people, says economic is basis of politics, of everything, no economic foundation nothing works, drives other spheres, politics culture thinking etc. Exploitation is Inherent in Capitalism fundamental is the distribution of property, in capitalist system means of production are owned by few, those that own capital have a good life, individuals working for Michael Dell don't have

6 any bargaining power, if i throw you out you're in big trouble because you might not get another job, business sets the terms, grabs the profits pays workers low wages, inequality is the natural inherit product of Capitalism, not just blah blah, look at who actually runs, politics is skewed business has more influenced and dominated Problems of Representative Democracy Under Capitalism, Politics is Class Dominated in this system no effective democracy, get to vote and then you take the backseat and business runs the show, run of the business class for the business class by the business class, not a cross section of the population all skewed upwards Mechanisms of Predominant Business Influence Interest groups that wine and dine the politicians, loopholes, resources, lobbyists are business, influence pushing and shoving heavily influencing politicians, in a private market economy business investment is what keeps the economy going, they have to participate to keep economy going, raise minimum wage ill fire all my workers, tax me ill move my money to the Bahamas, unemployment will rise, taxing wont work, they influencing the political decisions Denying Effective Citizenship and Participation to Workers Not effecting, work hard to make a living getting education come home exhausted cant devote time to politics and have no real resources, can they finance lobbying? vote is unequal, don't exercise political rights because don't have resources, whole working life are subject to authority, doesn't make them feel like they have autonomy, can t develop feeling of participation The Call for Revolution Why Revolution is Necessary in Marx s Eyes Need to get rid of private property, once you have equality then the state can wither away, happily ever after, a little too ambitious. Need to get rid of this, revamp it, doesn't have to be violent, bring fundamental change How Revolution Will Come About, in Marx s Eyes Not drawing up Utopia that comes out of nowhere, just an extension of trends all we need to do is give this development a qualitative push to step forward, on the course to happening, capitalism is the ground for the new socialist society, don't want to redistribute sacristy, redistribute abundance and wealth, Capitalism I don t like parts of it but there s more wealth to go around, society as a whole was much more affluent, its great to increase affluence but bad at distributing it, redistribute to make everyone well off, its what s going on already were just giving it a push at the end, extension of historical developments that are already on their way Expected Results of Revolution: A Classless, Conflict-free, and Eventually Stateless Society Complex structure of social class, goal is to abolish private property inequalities, capitalist competition have driven people into bankruptcy and taken away their private property and become working class citizens, capitalism separates classes to many workers few business people, get rid of business class, its conflict, only conflict is with property owners and non owners, classless you can bring back direct democracy, people on the same wave length, wants to reintroduce democracy in larger nation-states, social reforms to guarantee democracy, don't need high up choice making politically, no coercion, no imposed rules, people will just agree, no need for state, real community Direct Democracy a la Marx