2: Democracy and Legitimacy

What kind of power do we tolerate?

Winston Churchill

‘Democracy is the worst form of government except all the other forms that have been tried from time to time’

Three Inherent Powers of the State

1. Eminent Power

2. Police Power

3. Taxation

→ Deconstructing Legitimacy via Rousseau

• The strongest is never strong enough:

  • unless he turns might into right…

    • Thus, legitimacy must be:
      1) Justly perceived; and
      2) in line w/ People’s interest

  • …and obedience into duty

    • Thus, legitimacy is when people obey authority out of sense of moral duty

  👉🏽 Legitimacy is thus the key to political stability; it is nothing less than the source of a regime’s survival and success.

→ John Locke’s Social Contract

the duty of the government is not just for common good but more on the individual rights of the citizen.

→ Rousseau’s Social Contract

the duty of the government is to express the will of the people.

Definition of Legitimacy

• from the Latin word “legitimare” meaning, to make law, in accordance with law

• it is the right to rule of a regime, thereby maintaining political stability.

→ Political Obligation

• the moral duty to obey the law of one’s state

→ Three Different Types of Authority (Max Weber)

1. Traditional Authority - customs, traditions, and long-standing practices. (e.g. monarchy, tribal system, and dynasty)

   a. Stability - customs and historical continuity

   b. Inherited Power - leadership is passed down through family lines

   c. Resistance to Change - changes are seen as threats to established order
   

2. Charismatic Authority - personal appeal, extraordinary leadership qualities and abilities. (e.g. Cory Aquino, Rodrigo Duterte)
   a. Unstable - dependent on emotions

   b. Revolutionary potential - the individual is used to instigate common rage

3. Legal-Rational Authority - clearly-defined set of laws and rules, tied to positions (e.g. President, Mayor, Chairman)

   a. Predictable
   b. Systematic
   c. Fair process

—> Neo-Marxist Critiques on Legal-Rational Authority

• Jürgen Habermas: proposed crisis tendency—that legal-rational authority becomes unfair when taken advantaged of by populists.

• King and Rose: proposed government overload—over-demand.

  • New Right fought this using ‘hegemonic project’—establishing a rival set of pro-individual and pro-market values and theories.

    • Fiscal crisis of the welfare state: The crisis in state finances that occurs when expanding social expenditure coincides with recession and declining tax revenues.

→ David Beetham's Conditions for Legitimacy

1. Power must be exercised according to established rules

2. Rules are justified in terms of the shared beliefs of the government and the governed.

3. It must be consented by the governed.

→ Beetham’s Legitimation Process

existence of:

1. elections and party competition

2. constitutional rules that reflect how people feel they should be governed

The Issue of Democracy

In modern politics, democratic legitimacy is sometimes viewed as the only meaningful form of legitimacy.

3 Characteristics of Democratic Legitimacy

1. Consent and Participation - participatory opportunities encourages the governed to view the rules of the political game as rightful and acceptable

2. Compromise, reconciliation and negotiation - rivals create ways to live together in peace

3. Feedback System - channels exists that brings the ‘outputs’ of government into line with the ‘inputs’ of pressures placed upon it

Arab Spring

The movements aimed to establish governments that derived their legitimacy from popular consent and democratic principles rather than coercion. However, others faced turmoil, raising questions about the sustainability and realization of democratic legitimacy in the region.

Non-Democratic Legitimacy

in the absence of democracy, what means of legitimation are available to such regimes?

1. Non-competitive (rigged) elections - one party election are used to give a regime a democratic façade.

2. Performance Legitimation - basis is ability to deliver a package of socio-economic benefits to their citizens, a strategy that continues to be practiced by China.

3. Ideological Legitimation - establishes broader goals and principles that invests the larger regime with a sense of rightfulness.

Democracy

demos = the people + and kratia = rule

Abraham Lincoln’s Democracy

government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Heywood’s Rival Models of Democracy

1. Classical Democracy (Athenian): direct and continuous participation in political life

   Cons: only men, landowners, and pure citizens are given political rights
   

2. Limited Democracy (Protective): proposed by Locke, where democracy is seen as a way for citizens to protect themselves from encroachments of government

   Cons: only property owners are given suffrage
   

3. Developmental Democracy: proposed by Rousseau and Aristotle, that people should be able to achieve a certain level of personal development by engaging with the process of democracy.

   Versions

   1. Aristotle - classical

   2. Rousseau - people are free only when they fully participate in democracy (general will)

   3. Mill - Illiterates and women are allowed to vote, but with an equivalent weight for each profession.

   Cons: (1) Sometimes inconvenient due to decentralized decision-making process; (2) Vulnerable to turning into a Totalitarian Democracy via deceit; and (3) The majority is not always right
   

4. People’s Democracy (socialist): influenced by Marx egalitarian belief, where the government is for the people but by the Party.

   Versions

   1. Leninist Democracy - one party represents the will of the people

   Cons: (1) Rosa Luxemburg - not all decisions of the party is in line with the people’s interest (2) No one will guard the communist part

Democracy in Practice

rival views in the basis of how it is done in real-life situations.

1. Pluralists - the system should guarantee popular responsiveness and public accountability.

   1. Polyarchy - created by Robert Dahl, where there should be a feedback system between the governors and the governed, and a contestation among the parties, so that democracy is secured.

   2. Madisonian democracy - a form of democracy that incorporates constitutional protections for minorities that enable them to resist majority rule.

   Cons: Long jam / Grid lock → analysis by paralysis
   

2. Elitists highlight the tendency for political power to be concentrated in the hands of a privileged minority.

   1. Competitive Elitism - created by C. Wright Mills, a built-in check and balances among rival elite classes

   Cons: (1) To compel the governed, elitists might use suppressive actions (2) Iron Rule, or the idea that there is no way to oppress the Elite class*
   

3. Corporatists incorporates group interests such as those of trade unions into the government in stagnant states. Tripartite government.
   

4. The New Right focuses on the dangers of ‘democratic overload’, proposing to bring back government intervention.

   Con: Lack of market discipline leads to economic downfall.
   

5. Marxists point to tensions between democracy and capitalism, stating that unions, bureaucrats, and proletariats should have political voice as well.

   1. Cosmopolitan Democracy - growing global interdependence leads to the proposal of world government.

      Con: Impossible today, numerous barriers such as State resistance, Economic disparities, and Democratic deficit.