What is Democracy?

MLK thought that just laws were the product of democracy

Different models of democracy (4) On a Continuum

Is democracy simply majority rule? NO! it is way more complex

Classical Democracy

Athens (was not always a democracy)

• Primary govern Facility was the assembly

  • all citizens of Athens were a part of the assembly (lawmakers

Who were citizens of Athens

• male, adults, native born

Who weren’t citizens of Athens

• slaves, women, children,

The only way the assembly worked was because only a small percent of the population were “citizens”

Citizens were also members of their “local government”

• dealing with issues locally

Slaves women and children did all the work while the men dealt with politics

What made classical democracy work?

1. one person, one vote

   1. every citizen had the same say when it came to law making

      1. some people could attract more attention, but they were committed to the one person one vote idea

2. close connection with ethics and politics

   1. Opposite of how Americans view politics (hating politician)

   2. In Athens, to be a good human, you had to be a politician

      1. to be a good human being, you had to be a good citizen

   3. In Athens, “a man who does not take interest in politics is not a man who minds their own business. A man who does not take interest in politics has no place here”

3. Deep Participation

   1. In America, deep participation means voting only

   2. In Athens, participation in politics was all the time

      1. Your life, your cities life depended on politics

4. Enlightened Understanding

   1. The worst thing you could do at the assembly was appear to be ignorant and selfish - lack enlightened understand

      1. Ignorant of what is going on

      2. Only care about yourself

   2. Not every citizen had enlightened understanding

      1. but it was a goal that they all had

While this made democracy work for a while, not everyone liked classical democracy

• Plato and Aristotle thought democracy was the worst form of government

Plato

Wrote a book called “republic” (brilliant amazing - Morris)

Tries to answer “what is justice”

Transitions from “what is justice in the abstract” → what does it mean to live just”

In the republic, Plato gives us the “ship at sea analogy”

• There is a bay that is connected to a sea

• ships are out at sea

  • There are waves and a thunderstorm out a sea

  • There are rocks guarding the bay

  • Dangerous port to enter

  • Goal is to get into the bay

• On the ship, there are:

  • 30 sailors (fresh off the farm, strong, but they don’t know anything about sailing, young)

  • One navigator (knows lots about sailing, super good at it, 90 years old)

• The old navigator will try and convince the sailors what best to do

  • The sailors won’t listen

• A young, blond, sexy sailor will convince the sailors

  • Everyone on ship will die

Old man represents wisdom

Sailors represent passion

In a democracy, people are led by passion, not wisdom. They then crash onto rocks and die

“The ship at sea” is very important during presidential democracy

• Obama ran during McCain

• McCain spoke out against stuff, life long public servant, member of congress, POW in Vietnam, Graduate of Navy academy

  • Lifetime of political experience, Running against Obama (junior senator)

• Obama won due to passion

  • He spoke to something deep inside of us

  • Very charismatic

  • Rockstar (he was hot by presidential standards)

Hilary Clinton vs Trump

• Clinton was navigator

  • Lifetime of experience in politics

• Trump was sailor

  • Failed businessman

  • Never held political office

  • Very charismatic

    • People chanted “lock her up”

Passion is all bad

Wisdom > Passion

Plato’s alternative is one you have a child, you give it up to the community. No one knows who their parent is. Some kids would leave the education system because of their intellectual ability (eugenics). If you continue on, you could be filtered out to be a solider. The end goal would be a philosopher. Old philosophers would be philosopher kids and rule for a brief period of time.

Learn about representative on their own

Pluralism

Robert Dahl - main inventor of it (50s-60s)

• Great American democratic political theorist

• “if you want to understand politics, you must understand group. What groups do after elections matter the most”

Started as how politics could work, then changed into how it does work

Two types of groups. (interest groups)

1. Permanent

   1. long history, fought many political values, bright future

   2. Political parties, NRA, PETA, Sierra Club, AARP, Veterans of Foreign Wars,

2. Temporary

   1. Emerge to fight one specific political value, then they fade away

      1. “Something bad happens, they form a group to demand change, and once the change happens they fade away”

   2. BLM, The hockey shooting will create a group that will demand action, ME TOO movement

Definitions of Pluralism

1. Power:

   1. A has power over B when A can make B do something B would otherwise not do

   2. The more power you have, the more likely you are to get what you want

      1. The more power you have the better you are

      2. three principals of power

2. Politics:

   1. Decisions about who gets what, when, and how

   2. Result of bargaining negotiating and compromising between groups

3. Means of Politics

   1. bargaining, negotiating, and compromising

Principle of power:

1. Power comes from resources

   1.  the more resources, the more powerful it will be

   2. Money, Information, access to decision makers, numbers of people in group, organization

2. All groups have some resources

   1. Therefore, all groups have some power

   2. 30 people, some info, 5 dollars in change ( our American gov class therefore has some power)

3. No group is all powerful

   1. NRA, while powerful, is very not important when it comes to policies that are not within its goal

      1. NRA doesn’t care about healthcare

Example:

Morris lived in a cul-de-sac Neighborhood which was on one side of a road

Across the road there was a large empty field, which had some lemon-trees

• also a dead body in the empty field

• A retirement/fancy assisted living home

Retirement home set up benches to watch the wildlife that lived in the empty field

• bird with broke wing, 3 legged coyote

One day, Morris learned that the city that owned the property would well it to a Sheetz

• Morris was happy because he could get candy whenever he wants

• His parents were very unhappy

  • It increases traffic, undesirable humans, crime

His parents joined a coalition of retirement group, other homeowners and Faught against the Sheetz

• Other groups got involved

  • Permeant groups would get involved to see the Sheetz built

    • Unions who would build it, Food Service to provide Sheetz, Sheetz owners

  • They have a ton of money

• The permanent group has way more resources than the retirement/home owners

  • Old people have time, Information about neighborhood and community, some money, personal Access, right kind of numbers (under dog/moral cause)

  • They know the area because they are form the area

    • THEY ARE VOTERS old voters love to vote

    • This makes the local government officials more likely to protect local interests

A small Gas station, planted a couple more trees, and put a little path through the area to make it a park

• everyone is unhappy, but ok at the same time

• The path led to Morris’s first girlfriend Julie’s house

Robert Michels - critical of pluralism

• Iron law of oligarchy - like a law of nature that says:

  • Democracy can never happen, even if we try and make it happen

  • we will always end up with oligarchy

Iron Law of Oligarchy:

1. Anytime we get a group of people together, a leader emerges

   1. In a group project, someone always takes the lead

2. Once the leader emerges, they acquire new values and interests

   1. They want to keep the conflict going in order to maintain their social standing

   2. If they resolve the conflict, their position as a leader is over

   3. The people are no longer represented by their people

Maybe pluralism is not that democratic?

Elite

Irony of democracy - Democracy is ironic because in order to have democracy, you can’t have democracy (WTF) Two definitions of democracy

Democracy - all the things we love about democracy

• Participation, Equality, freedom, rights, Voting,

Democracy - People rule

• If people are in charge, the first thing they will do is take away the things people love

• Starts by targeting one group, then another, and another

You cannot have all the things you love about democracy when you have the people rule

Common polling questions:

• Books that teach the overthrow of government should be banned

• People suspected of disloyalty should be watched

Divide the responses into those of Elites and Nonelites

If the mass people charge, they would end democracy

Elite theorists would ask: What do we have congress and voting for? Our political system is a facade, to make you feel like you are making decisions. The real decisions are made elites

Metaphor:

Trees! made up of a trunk, branches, twigs,

If you break a twig off of a tree, it will grow a new twig. The tree will be fine

If you break off a branch. The growth will be stunted, but the tree wills survuve

If you cut a tree at the trunk, the tree will die

We have twig decisions, branch decisions, and trunk decisions

• The decisions that the majority of people make. No major consequence of these do not affect the government. (legalize Marijuana)

• Branch Elites and trunk shape who runs for office, meaning that the twig people do not have that much say in who is president

These elites are not bourgeoise Karl Marx elites. These elites are dedicated to protecting the stuff we love about democracy. They are our caretakers. They help us to do what is right even when we don’t want to do it.

Elite theorists say this tree democracy is the best we can hope for