Democracy and Authoritarianism

What is the comparative method?

A research approach used to observe and compare politics in order to reach conclusions. It uses 3 types of evidence: quantitative, qualitative and historical evidence in order to embody the main objectives of political science - to describe, explain and predict.

Most Similar Systems

• Multiple cases as similar as possible

• Controls important variables in order to explain which other variables may explain the difference in outcome

Most Different Systems

• Multiple cases with important differences but 1 crucial similarity

• This similarity explains the same outcome.

Methodology

Set of methods used to reach certain conclusions. Also the system study of the methods used in a specific field

State

A specific political and administrative form of organisation over a given territory. Within this space, leaders have complete sovereignty. They operate using a bureaucracy and can only be reified if they are recognised as legitimate.
Significance: Key actor in IR

Nation

A group of people who share a common identity, culture, language, or history, often residing in a specific territory and seeking political autonomy or recognition.

Significance: Shapes political legitimacy and often motivates claims to statehood.

Westphalian Order

• each state has sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs;

• no interference in other states’ internal affairs;

• equality among states in international law.

  Significance: Established the norms of how states are recognised and interact today
  
  Example: UN operates under principles rooted in WO, treating member states as equal and sovereign entities.

Sovereignty

A principle which suggests that (1) within a territory, political faculties and prerogatives override all those claimed by lesser powers; and (2) acknowledges no centre of rule operating outside those territories as having political faculties and prerogatives superior to their own.

External: Sovereignty relative to outside powers (eg. Colonial states were dependent on outside forces)

Internal: Sovereignty relative to domestic challengers (affected by groups within the country eg rebels or military groups)

Significance: Central to state power and autonomy in both domestic and international spheres.

Nationalism

An ideology and political movement based on the nation-state principle in which those who consider themselves to be members of a nation seek to obtain an independent state. There is both “majoritarian” and “minority” nationalism (France vs. Catalonia)

Colonial Legacies

The impacts of colonialism which has resulted in

• Weak state apparatus

• Heterogeneity (eg. Nigeria with many tribes)

• Low legitimacy

in former colonies.

Social movements

A network structure with a collective identity, who has the aim to change society (or resist such a change), through collective and public protest.

Significance: Captures vast political activity happening outside institutional channels, helping us understand why normal people unite to get involved in politics.

Example: 1950/60s American Civil Rights Movement

Resource Mobilisation Theory

• Movements are rational and strategic

• Not based on whether groups are oppressed/deprived but rather if they have the resources to allow the movement to gain way

Political Process Model

• Stresses interaction between social movements and their environment.

• driven by external conditions (eg. the position, resources, and strategies of movements’ opponents)

Political Opportunity Approach

• Extension of the PPM

• Highlights how the degree of openness/closeness of political climate can change how challengers behave

• Eg. LGBTQ movements in MENA, Lebanon succeeded due to gradual change vs. failure in Tunisia.

Framing

• Refers to how movements construct meaning and create narratives around their goals and issues, influencing public perception and mobilization.

• Serves 3 goals: Delivers a problem, provides a solution and motivates action

Collective Identity

• a social construct, what a group stands for/percieve themselves

• shaped over time based on context

• This done through symbols and stories in the creation of social and cultural boundaries.

Rational Choice approach

• Not groups/organisations action but aggregate of individuals acting

• Individuals weigh up costs and benefits to make rational decisions based on self-interest.

What are the theoretical Approaches to social movements

• Resource Mobilisation theory

• Political Process Model

• Political Opportunity Approach

• Framing

• Collective Identity

• Rational Choice

Substantive meaning of democracy (ie Democracy SHOULD…)

Ideal for social organisation. A constantly evolving empty signifier used to carry out our normative desires and concerns about a political system.

Procedural meaning of democracy

Form of government where policy decisions not made directly by citizens but delegated to representative legislatures and executive leaders.

Minimalist conception of democracy

A regime in which leaders are selected through “Free and fair competitive elections that lead to peaceful alternations in office”

Maximalist conceptions of democracy

• Not just competitive elections but also political liberties

  • elections need to be free and fair

  • citizens to be able to run for office

  • freedom of expression

  • access to information

  • freedom of association

Paved the way for thinking about democracy as a matter of degree, rather than a binary.

4 Key ideas of democracy

• Free and Fair Elections

• Universal Participation

• Civil Liberties

• Responsible GOV

3 ways to level Democracy

Freedom House, Polity Level, V-dem

Polity

• Measures from -10 to 10

• Very institutionally focused measure,

• codes various authority characteristics,

• best for interest in institutional changes.

Freedom House

Uses a two-tier system:

1. Scores from 0-4 for each country on 10 political rights indicators and 15 civil liberties indicators.

2. Status (based on aggregate scores): Free, Partly Free, Not Free

V-dem

• Democracy is multidimensional – five separate indices

  • Deliberate

  • Electoral

  • Egalitarian

  • Participatory

  • Liberal

Modernisation theory

• As societies progress, they adopt democratic institutions and behaviors.

• Links socio-economic development to the transition to democracy.

• Money = more likely SURVIVAL of democracy but not necessarily the emergence of it

• Causal link, not clear if its just that democracy favours rich

Democratization

The transition of a country from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. It undergoes 2 stages, transition and consolidation.

Democratic Backsliding

The incremental erosion of democratic institutions, rules and norms that results from the actions of duly elected governments’

Executive Aggrandisement

The increasing concentration of power in the executive instead of the other branches of gov

Significance: undermines the checks and balances essential for a functioning democracy, leading to potential authoritarianism.

Example: Venezuela under Hugo Chavez

• The constitution was amended to give Chávez power to rule by decree.

• Chávez eliminated the Senate and created a 21-person unelected council that was loyal to him.

• Added 12 seats to the Supreme Court, to ensure that the tribunal was filled with government supporters who had to pledge a commitment to his agenda.

Polarisation

Movement of political attitudes away from the centre and towards the extremes.

Significance: Creates societal conflict and division, this leads to an environment which is exploitable by autocrats (through populism) who can then dismantle systems who hold them accountable.

Democratic Backsliding case study

Hungary

Viktor Orban and Fidesz have been in power since 2010

• Removed checks and balances (weakening the judiciary)

• Redrawing of electoral boundaries, changes in electoral laws – changing the rules of the democratic game in favour of the incumbent

• Other measures:

  • Media control

  • Suppression of civil society

  • Suppression of academic freedom

  • Anti-LGBT discourse

Authoritarianism

• Regimes with no electoral turnover with the power of the elective

• Broad term encompassing many different types of GOV

• Absence of independent authority that would enforce mutual agreements

• Ever-present potential for violence

Totalitarian Regime

• Extreme form of authoritarianism which aims to transform the organisation of human life

• Exercise power using terror and secret police

• Rely of ideology and propaganda to create loyal citizens and legitimacy for the regime.

• Example: North Korea

Types of authoritarian regimes

Personalist, Military, Single-party and Hybrid

Personalist Regime

• Leader takes action to consolidate absolute power

• Removes threats

  • Weakens the military

  • Reshuffles cabinet constantly so no one else can build a following

• Makes legislature meaningless

• Controls political parties, judiciary and media in a way which “props-up” leader

• Often tries to create a “personality cult”, leader is surrounded by undeniably loyal and non-threatening citizens

• Creates an environment of unpredictability (eg. by jailing most trusted advisors) to make subject entirely dependent

Usually durable but most unpredictable, have lowest likelihood of democratization after regime breakdown

Example: Mobutu of Zaire

Single-Party Regime

• Control of state by one party

• Party is still well organised which prevents the leader from taking full control

• Can appear similar to a democracy (it holds elections, has legislature and encourages political participation) but legislature is filled with party members meaning they can change rules to favour the party

• Military is subordinate to the party

• As there are many veto players and the decision-making process revolves around discussion, policy output is predictable and pragmatic

• They tend to be the longest-lasting, most peaceful and most economically prosperous

Example: China, Communist Party (Since 1949)

Military Regimes

• Military leaders seize control of the state

• Sometimes have a party but party is subordinate to the military

• members of the ruling junta make decisions jointly

• Usually short-lived as divisions occur once military becomes political, also means that chances of democratizing after regime are higher

Example: Brazil 1964-85, anomaly as it lasted for quite a while

Monarchic authoritarian Regime

• When a person of royal descent inherits HoS position

• Only a dictatorship when members of the royal family occupy positions of power and exert control over military/security policy, access to political office and domestic/foreign policy.

• Quite resistant compared to other autocratic regimes

  • Long list of veto players which temper whims of monarch

  • institutionalised leadership transitions

  • traditional religious and tribal legitimacy

Example: Brunei

Continuous Typology of Authoritarianism

• Emphasises that there are different dimensions of authoritarianism which are important, not just who is in charge.

• Dictators can't rule alone and interact with other elites and institutions

• Acknowledge that most regimes may not be fully democratic or fully autocratic

Hybrid

• Regimes that hold elections with some degree of uncertainty, but where the odds are heavily stacked in their favour.

• Democratic institutions are used to exercise political authority, but incumbents violate the rules often enough that the ‘regime fails to meet conventional minimum standards for democracy’

  • Elections are not ‘fair’ as one party may have more control

  • Legislature exists but there is little activity there,

  • Judiciary is weak and susceptible to bribes and corruption

  • Independent media is allowed but greatly restricted

• Despite this, elections still can result in turnover of power so not completely undemocratic

Example of Hybrid Regime

Hungary

Hungary, some elections take place that are by and large mostly fair (as in there is no ballot stuffing) (Drinóczi and Bień-Kacała 2021). Political parties are free to form and operate in theory. The issue is that the ruling Fidesz party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has a big advantage. Opposition parties, journalists, media outlets, and anyone that opposes the ruling coalition face huge obstacles. The media is all but completely controlled and influenced by the Fidesz party. Hungary created a media control body which is appointed by the ruling Fidesz party, and one of its first decisions was to close down opposition radio channels and influential newspapers. All media outlets have to register with the Media Council to operate, and media laws were passed that imposed large fines on outlets that provided coverage which violated public morality and/or were viewed as overly critical of the ruling party.

Repression

• The act of subduing someone or something by force

• In A regime, done through imprisonment, disappearances, executions and purges

• Creates an environment of fear, citizens think they risk their lives in opposing

• Makes opposition harder to organise and mobilise against the regime due to risk

• Can pose a threat to the regime as they lack accurate information, must give more power to military to carry out repression and take up economic resources

Example: No second revolution took place in Iran during protests in 2009 because the government responded to the protests by killing over 70 people and arresting 4,000.

Legitimacy

• The right and acceptance of an authority considered valid and justified by the public

• Can be achieved through:

  • economic growth (eg China uses growth as justification for regime)

  • Ideological indoctrination (either through mass media or education) - eg. pro-regime content on the curriculum in China led to higher trust in GOV officials

  • Retrospectively (Authoritarian Nostalgia) - romanticise a rule, normally occurs with high dissatisfaction of the present

Cooptation

• A method to bring about loyalty

• Done to both opposition and elite

• Works with opposition as it means they have vested interests in the regime, preventing them from mounting significant challenge against the regime

• Works with party elite as it keeps them happy

• Can happen in the financial form but also through power (eg. a specific position)

Coup d’Etat

• A sudden, seizure of power which overthrows its own government

• typically executed by a small group within the existing state structure, such as the military or political elites.

• It often aims to replace the current leadership without a broad public mandate.

Example: Mali 2020, military overthrew president Keita

Constitution

• Body of hierarchically superior meta-norms, which dictate how all other legal norms are to be produced, enforced, interpreted and changed. (PEIC)

• Sets out how states are organised and what the states can and cannot do

• They are entrenched so to limit power and usually codified.

What do constitutions do ?

• Ascribes horizontal allocation of rights and obligations between different branches of GOV

• Establishes how rights are managed between the state and the citizen, outlining what the state can and cannot do

Rights Review

• A process in which laws and policies are evaluated to ensure they comply with constitutional rights and values.

• Aims to protect individual freedoms and prevent abuses of power by the state.

The judicialization of politics

The process through which the influence of courts on legislative and administrative power develops over time, as a result courts become far more involved in determining policy outcomes that would be otherwise decided by an elected legislature.

Presidential System

• President is both Head of State and GOV

• Directly elected by electorate but power balanced by legislative

• Dependence on Legislative Branch

• Can appoint ministers who are accountable to the president not legislature

• Execution of policy is done by the appointed cabinets

• Fixed Tenure

• Seperation of executive and legislative

Example : USA

Parliamentary System

• Citizens elect the legislature (Parliamen/Assembly) so Executive is not directly elected but drawn from Parliament/Assembly

• Collective responsibility for actions of the GOV

• Prime Minister is the Head of Government (not state) and is the leader of the party with the most support

• Executive is directly dependent on and accountable to legislature

• Due to collective responsibility, disagreements between PM and cabinet weaker power as they are mutually dependent.

• Fusion of executive and Legislative

Example: UK

Negative of presidential

• Conflict between executive and legislature can lead to deadlock and immobilisation

Negative of Parliamentary

• Fusion of leg and exec can leave leaders with too much power

Negative of Semi-presidential

• Confusion surrounding accountability between President and PM

• Can also produce deadlock between PM and P

Semi-Presidential system

• Directly elected president shares power with a pm

• President: Appoint/Dismiss PM, dissolve parliament and call for a state of Emergency

• PM: Creates a cabinet who are accountable to the parliament

• When both the PM and P are from the same party, P has more power

• If it is cohabitation, PM has more power

Example: France

Cohabitation

A situation in a semi-presidential system where the President and Prime Minister are from opposing political parties.

Significance: Increase in the PM's power as they are able to govern more independently. Helps reveal power dynamics and provide clarity when it comes to accountability

Example: 1997-2002 France Conservative Chirac (Pres) and Socialist Jospin (PM)

Veto Players

Individual or collective actors whose agreement is necessary for a change of the status quo

Significance: Largely affects the speed and efficiency of policy implementation and development.

Example: November 2024 - UN votes for an immediate and unconditional ceasfire in Gaza, this was vetoed by US.

Competitive authoritarian regimes

• a hybrid regime that holds elections but where the incumbent has an enormous advantage.

• Though the elections are free of massive fraud, the regime represses civil liberties and the executive does not face checks and balances from other branches of government.

Vote of no confidence

parliamentary procedure where elected representatives vote on whether they have confidence in a government or a specific minister. If the motion is passed, it signifies a lack of trust and can lead to significant consequences, including the government's resignation or a general election. 

Example: 1997 James Callaghan (Labour) and Margret Thatcher, conservatives won by 1 vote. Resulted in general election won by conservatives.

Gerrymandering

• Manipulation of district boundaries in order to generate an electoral advantage for a particular party or group.

• It can be done by cracking, packing and stacking.

District Magnitude

The number of seats per district

• Determined by the proportion of the population residing in the district

• If district magnitudes are not equal, it can lead to malapportionment leading to over/under underrepresentation.

Example: Single-member districts (UK), Multi-member (Ireland) or region districts (The Netherlands)

Ballot Structure

How voters express their choice

Significance: It influences levels of voter empowerment and strategic voter behaviours, affecting election outcomes.

Example: In Australia, voters can rank candidates in order of preference, whereas in the United Kingdom, voters can only select one candidate for each position.

Majoritarian Electoral System

The party with the most votes wins, aims to find the most popular candidate in each constituency.

They generally use single member constituencies.

Two types:

• Plurality; most votes = win

• Absolute Majority; >50% votes = win

Example: Plurality (First-past-the-post), how MPs are elected in Westminster
Absolute Majority (Two-round-System), candidate who wins most in second ballot wins (French National Assembly)

Proportional representation System

• Parties’ seat share should be proportional to their vote share.

• Legal thresholds (e.g. 5% of votes) are sometimes used to stop parties with very low support winning seats.

• Two Types:

  • List PR – citizens cast votes for various kinds of party list (e.g. closed lists,

    open lists).

    • Single Transferable Vote – citizens cast votes for individual candidates, and

    can express preferences.

Example: In Scotland, STV is used, quota’s are calculated to elect officials.

Mixed Member

• Using lecture definition

• Combines Majoritarian and proportional elements

• Two types:

  • Independent - Majoritarian and Proportional work independently (eg.Japan)

  • Dependent - Proportional compensates for Majoritarian (eg. New Zealand)

Function of democratic elections

• A method for choosing who occupies offices at different levels.

• Ensures representation of citizens’ interests:

  • Descriptive (who they are) and substantive (what they do)

• Voting for policies and people to implement them – the mandate function

• Voting against incumbents to punish bad outcomes – the accountability function

Political Party

An organised group who contest elections, making actions with the aim of gaining office.

Significance: They reflect citizen interests, voters delegate policy-making authority to elected representatives via political parties. They organise policy making, provide a link between citizens and GOV and recruit people for office.

Example: British Labour party was formed as a result of trade union movements in the late 19th century, reflecting the interests of workers.

Elite Party

A small intra-parliamentary group of mainly parliamentarians who use personal wealth and connections as a primary source of resources. They emerged at the beginning of parliamentary governance.

Mass party

A large, extra-parliamentary group who organise around an elected party congress with local branches. First seen around the drive for mass suffrage.

Challenger Party

Parties that challenge the established party system and the dominant parties within that system

• Do not have experience of government initially

• Include a wide range of parties outside the ‘established’ parties, e.g. populist parties.

Example: UKIP (UK Independece party)

Party System

Pattern of interaction and competition between parties in a country over time.

Significance:

Example: Two party system in US, 2 parties hold 80% of votes, single party gov which alternates between the two

Social Cleavage

• Division of interest and values within a polity, opposing groups structurally, culturally, and organizationally.

• In Europe, considered as a freezed reflection of the socio-economic and ethic-religious cleavages.

Example: Historically, in Europe, there has been cleavages between the state and the church.

Significance: Can lead to Political and social conflict and unrest