Élections et Démocratie

Accountability of Kings

• If kings are no longer ruled by divine right, they must be accountable to the people.
• The king's role is to rule for the people's good, marking a shift in the relationship between rulers and the governed.
• The idea of the king being accountable to the people and justifying their choices became central to democratic thought.

19th Century Struggles for Democracy

• By the 19th century, many republics and constitutional monarchies had emerged, although democracy was not universally accepted.
• Rediscovering Athenian democracy, through works like George Grote's History of Greece, inspired a revival of democratic ideals.
• Abraham Lincoln's definition of democracy ("government of the people, by the people, for the people") encompassed three key concepts:
  • Government officials originate from the people.
  • The people elect their representatives.
  • The government acts for the common good.
• This definition made democracy politically acceptable and desirable.
• The classic view of democracy emphasized it as a decision-making process: either the people make direct decisions or they elect representatives to do so on their behalf.

Democracy in the 20th Century

• Contemporary views, such as Joseph Schumpeter's (1942) perspective, viewed democracy as an institutional arrangement where individuals gain power through competitive elections.
• Key elements include political competition (candidates vying for votes) and balancing majority rule with the common good.
• A minimal or procedural view of democracy (as stated by Schumpeter) defines democracy primarily in terms of free and fair elections.
• Problems include the electoralism fallacy: simply having elections does not guarantee a true democracy, as highlighted by Karl and Schmitter (1991).

Pluralist Approach to Democracy

• Robert Dahl (1971) defined democracy with two main dimensions:
  • Contesting: The ability of candidates to compete in free and fair elections, and for citizens to criticize and replace the government.
  • Participation: All adult citizens must have the right to vote and engage in political life.

Types of Democracy and Historical Context

• By 1974, less than one-third of independent states were democratic (27.5%).
• By the early 2000s, most countries claimed to be democratic, but this group had become heterogeneous.
• Lijphart's typologies (1984/1999) categorized democracies into majoritarian and consensus types.
• Majoritarian: Executive power concentrated in a single party.
• Consensus: Power-sharing among multiple parties in a coalition.
• Gerring (2005) classified democracies as decentralized (power dispersed across levels of governance) or centripetal (power concentrated at a centralized level).

Global Trends and Types of Regimes

• The rise of electoral autocracies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
• An increase in regimes employing limited multi-party systems while maintaining authoritarian control.
• Types of regimes include liberal democracy, electoral democracy, electoral autocracy, and closed autocracy.
  • Liberal: High contestation, participation, and executive limitations.
  • Electoral: Participation and contestation, but weaker individual rights.
  • Electoral Autocracy: Limited pluralism; elections are not free or fair.
  • Closed Autocracy: Absence of meaningful participation or contestation.

Democratization and Autocratization

• Democratization: Movement toward a democratic regime.
• Autocratization: Movement away from a democratic regime.
• Waves include the First Wave (1828–1926), Second Wave (1943–1962), and Third Wave (1974–1996) of democratization. First and Second Waves of autocratization.
• Autocracies vary in their legitimacy strategies, from repression and co-optation to claims of legitimacy.

Modernization Theory

• Economic development drives democracy.
• Mechanisms include higher education, reducing inequality and distributing wealth, and these factors lessens elite resistance to democracy.

Social Class Theory

• Democratization depends on interactions between the peasantry, bourgeoisie, and aristocracy.
• Outcomes include bourgeois revolutions (France and US), revolutions from above (e.g. Germany), and revolutions from below (e.g. Russia and China).

Strategic Approaches to Democratization

• Transition models (O'Donnell & Schmitter, 1986) highlight the strategic interactions between elites and the masses throughout phases.
• Modes of transition (Karl & Schmitter, 1991) include from above (elites imposing democratization), from below (masses demanding reforms), and pacted transitions (compromises between elites and opposition).
• Democratic consolidation (Linz & Stepan, 1996) defines democracy as entrenched in behavior, attitudes, and institutions.

Comparative Analysis of Approaches

• Structural approaches focus on long-term factors (economic development).
• Strategic approaches prioritize short and medium-term actor interactions, but underestimate structural constraints.

Introduction to Executives

• 'Government' often refers to the central executive branch of a country.
• The executive branch is responsible for enforcing laws and creating policies.
• Key questions include types of government, internal structure, executive autonomy in relation to parties/bureaucracies and the capacity to act.

Types of Governments

• Executives emerged through the separation of judicial and legislative powers.
• Types include Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, Semi-presidentialism and Directorial government.
• Democratic governments are often shaped by constitutional constraints on power.

Internal Workings of Governments

• Constitutions often provide little detail about the internal decision-making methods of governments, allowing political actors to develop conventions.
• Different systems have various structures in how executive authority is exercised.

Political Capacity of Governments

• Defined by how efficiently and effectively the government responds to issues and policies.
• A government can be categorized as unified or divided, a majority or minority government and single or coalition government.

Bureaucracy Capacity and Problems

• Weberian model of bureaucracy outlines personnel, organization, and procedure to ensure professionalism, efficiency, and consistency.
• Problems with bureaucracy include Parkinson's Law (bureaucratic growth), potentially conflicting interests and motives (bureaucrat's interest vs. government objectives), leisure shirking (doing less work than expected), dissent-shirking (refusing to implement policies), and political sabotage (actively opposing government policies).

Introduction to Legislatures

• Legislatures are assemblies with a political purpose for creating and enacting laws.
• Types include parliaments and congresses.

Roles of Legislatures

• Legislatures play the role of a liaison between citizens and government.
• Provide representation for societal views and interests.
• The debating and legislative processes in parliaments provide a public forum for discussing issues.

Internal Organization of Legislatures

• Legislatures can be unicameral or bicameral (single or two chamber).
• The roles of upper and lower houses differ in their functions, responsibilities, and powers.

Assessing Legislative Power

• Legislatures can be assessed by their autonomy which is dependent on institutional structures, partisan independence, and interactions with political parties/electoral systems.

Types of Electoral Systems

• This encompasses a categorization of electoral systems encompassing mechanisms for converting votes into legislative seats. Examples: majoritarian, proportional representation (PR) and mixed systems.
• The systems can include single-member plurality, two-round system, block vote, single transferable vote, and party block vote.

Evaluation of Electoral Systems

• Majoritarian systems support stable governments with one party achieving majority power, but can disadvantage minority parties.
• Proportional representation systems improve minority representations but can lead to coalition governments and political instability.
• The evaluation considers whether the system is disproportionate to the voters' will.

Introduction to Elections

• Elections are a mechanism for citizens to participate directly in decision-making
• They provide a link between people and representatives, confer legitimacy on governments, and shape how governments are formed.
• Elections significantly impact party systems, intra-party dynamics, and representation.

Impact on Election Results

• Duverger's three laws analyze the effects of electoral systems on party competition.
• Lavau's perspective emphasizes the correlation of electoral rules with social and political factors, arguing that electoral rules are shaped by pre-existing social/political factors rather than the reverse.

Factors Determining Electoral Systems

• Mechanical factors like electoral formulas and district magnitude directly impact proportionality and the number of parties represented.
• Psychological factors influence party/candidate behavior and voter choices, and thresholds in systems can contribute to proportionality.

The Ballot and its Effects

• Ballot structure impacts candidates' strategies.
• Candidate-centered versus party-centered systems influencing party discipline.

Quality of Democracy and Electoral Systems

• Voting systems affect government formation, political stability, voter participation, and representation (e.g., women and minorities).

Case Studies (France, Netherlands, Germany, etc.)

• Case studies illustrate the interplay of electoral systems, forms of government, legislative structures, and results.

Political Parties and Party Systems

• Parties are fundamental organizations in democracies that act as intermediaries between governing institutions and the electorate.
• Models include cadre parties, mass parties, and catch-all parties.

Party Systems

• Party systems are categorized by their type and size of parties, and by competitive and cooperative interactions.