cit and dem main ideas

aristotles view of democracy

Many heads are better judges than one or few. Even if none of the common people is separately an especially good

Mixed regime sustains best political form since it is free from faction

virtue and practical wisdom as defining features of democratic regime

Machiavelli

the discourses:

government by the populaces is better than government by the princes

when the populace is in power and is well- ordered, it will be stable, prudent and grateful

the populace is more prudent, more stable, and of sounder judgement than the prince

Pericles

Athens as ideal democracy -to be a citizen is to participate in public affairs.

Athenian city state values: liberty, equality and security

ours is the bravery of people who think through what they will take in hand, and discuss it thoroughly

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

the social contract: man is born free and everywhere he is in chains

general will - the source of legitimate authority and political power is the collective will of the people. shared common interest

an individual is a private person, while a citizen is a public person 

Sovereign is a collective body, and always the people.

people fill 2 roles: 1 citizens, they express popular soverenity by making laws, 2 subjects, obey the command of the govt 

the general will will force us to be free whoever refuses to obey the general will be compelled to do so by the whole body.

conditions for a true democracy - small state, simplicity of manners, middle class, no luxury, equality of rank 

Tocqueville, democracy in America

democracy makes the idea of political rights descend to the least of citizens, as the division of property puts the idea of the right of property in general within reach of all men.

serves the well being of the greatest number. 

public spirit that prevails in american democracy - love of country and thoughtful patriotism

With the idea of rights, men have defined what license and tyranny were. rights have helped us define our own virtues 

Hannah Arendt - freedom and politics

freedom is realized through political action

Political participation helps us become aware of our freedom since the very essence of political participation hinges on interaction ( intercourse ) with others.

freedom as independence from others, free will as ability to make choices undetermed by others

privacy protects individual dignity, autonomy, and control over personal information, yet freedom thrives in uncontrolled interaction

sovernity implies control, which reduces human action in political life 

Hannah Arendt - the freedom to be free

american revolution was more successful than French bc american revolution was seeking freedom, while French was only seeking liberation. 

og revoultion meant restoration of rights

liberation is a condition for freedom, not freedom itself 

difficult to see and say where the desire for liberation, to be free from oppression, ends, and the desire for freedom, to live a political life, begins

Only those who know freedom from want can fully appreciate the meaning of freedom from fear, and only those who are free from both want and fear are in a position to conceive a passion for public freedom.

Plato

Aristocracy ( rule of knowledge ) is better than democracy

ideal republic - one person = one job

politics is a profession, not everyone can do it well

supreme political value is order, platonic statesman looks at city as a whole and seeks to establish its unity

democracy is a regime of disorder - ruling is granted to anyone, no distinctions between kinds of pleasures and desires

democracy evolves into tyranny when a leader creates an imagined enemy and places himslef as the savior, he maintains the appearance of being a good man and a just ruler. In this way, he lulls the people into a deep civic sleep.

Tocqueville- tyranny

there may be strength in numbers but not nessarlity truth

omnipitence of the majority can become tyrannical and dangerous towards freethinks, dissidents and minorities 

tyranny of majority felt in realm of thought and opinion 

3 features of the democratic soul : compassion , restlessness, self intrest  

Karl Marx

the communist manifesto -

insists on the abolishment of bourgeois property ( aka private property ) 

winning the battle of democracy as the 1st step in the revolution of the working class 

to be a capitalist is to have not only a purely personal, but a social status in production

bourgeois family based on capital and private gain 

Vladimir Lenin

- state and revolution

a capitalist democracy stealthily pushes aside the poor, and is therefore hypocritical and false

dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat, or the working class, holds control over state power.

imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists

We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery, their resistance must be crushed by force

Michael Bakunin

“The Illusion of Universal Suffrage

the right to vote is insufficient for a fully functional democracy bc daily experience in fact proves that, in legislation as well as government the bourgeoisie is mainly directed by its own interests and prejudices, without any great concern for those of the people.

the control exercised by voters on their elected representatives is a pure fiction.

Diane Coole

Women in Political Theory

in Rousseau’s view, women are unfit for public life and democratic citizenship → The characteristics ascribed to women rob them of the credentials for citizenship: they lack the right sort of reason, autonomy, judgement, sense of justice and ability to consent.

because women are associated through their relationship with their young with a natural compassion, that they must be protected by confinement in the domestic world, where they are awarded a crucial role in sustaining the sentiments which are required for civic virtue

Susan Mendus

Feminism and democracy

formal political equality is not enough for full democratic inclusion of women

‘for feminists, democracy has never existed; women never have been and still are not admitted as full and equal members in any country known as a “democracy”

but because historically they have been explicitly excluded from the category of citizen in the democratic state

debate between those who urge that sex should become irrelevant and those who believe that sex should not provide the basis for inequality

Schmitt

The crisis of Parliamentary democracy

democracy is the rule of the majority, homogeneity is required, people only just all come to agreement for a democracy to be present,

while liberalism is virtue and rights based, and can be precondition to democracy

in the sphere of the political one cannot abstract out what is political leaving only universal human equality