CONCEPTS AND MODELS

-THEORIES, FEATURES AND CURRENT STATUS OF DEMOCRACY-

Concepts, characteristics and democratic modelWhat do we mean when we say "democracy"?

Reflection Resources

-AUTHORITARIANISM-

 “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right."  George Orwell, 1984 

“Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.”  Steve Allen

Features

1. Single leader or small group of leaders with ultimate political authority. Unquestionable obedience to authority. Limited political pluralism
2. Supremacy of the authority of the state over all organizations in society. Against individual and collective freedom
3.  Authoritarian systems commonly emerge in times of political, economic, and social instability. Identification of the regime as a necessary evil to combat easily recognizable societal problems  such as underdevelopment or insurgency.
4. Limited/control in mass political participation.  Government’s control of the State’s repressive mechanisms –Police, Army…-.  Violence.

Types

1. Military authoritarian system is one in which the military is not only privileged—as it typically is in all authoritarian systems—but actually in control of all major aspects of government decision-making. The rule of Augusto Pinochet in Chile from 1973 to 1988 is the classic example of a military authoritarian regime.
2.  In party authoritarian systems, on the other hand, a single political party dominates the system. Party authoritarian systems may even tolerate small opposition parties and use mechanisms of democracy like elections in an effort to increase their legitimacy with the public. Mexico’s authoritarian system prior to the reforms of the 1990s and 2000s is an example of a party authoritarian system.
3. Bureaucratic authoritarian systems are run by the military but rely heavily on experts in the fields of economics and other policy areas, often allowing them significant autonomy to set and oversee government policy –technocrats-. Guillermo O’Donnell identifies Argentina from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s as the classic example of bureaucratic authoritarianism.

-REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY-

 “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” John Quincy Adams 

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." Thomas Jefferson 

"[In] representative democracy, as in, say, the United States or Great Britain […] there is a monopoly of power centralized in the state. The representative democracy is limited to the political sphere and in no serious way encroaches on the economic sphere […] That is, as long as individuals are compelled to rent themselves on the market to those who are willing to hire them, as long as their role in production is simply that of ancillary tools, then there are striking elements of coercion and oppression that make talk of democracy very limited, if even meaningful." Noam Chomsky

Features

1.  Elected Representatives are elected by citizens for one legislature. The decisions are made by the executive cabinet formed by members of the party/ies in the government.  The representatives have authority to approve the decisions made by the executive cabinet and control the public funds.
2. Regular Elections. Battle between parties. Majority rule (+50%).
3. Representatives may be elected by a particular district, or represent the entire electorate through proportional systems. Some representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct democracy, such as referendums.

Types

1. Parliamentary System:   President is both head of state and the head of government and is elected by the voters. Under a parliamentary democracy, government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry. Parliamentary systems have the right to dismiss a Prime Minister
2. Presidential System: Public elects the president through elections. The president serves as both the head of state and head of government controlling most of the executive powers. The president serves for a specific term and cannot exceed that amount of time. The president has direct control over the cabinet, specifically appointing the cabinet members. The president cannot be easily removed from office by the legislature
3. Constitutional System Elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of a constitution that emphasizes the protection of the rights and freedoms, and which places constraints on the leaders and on the extent to which the will of the majority can be exercised against the rights of minorities 
4. 
   

-DIRECT DEMOCRACY-

“People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing.” Walter H Judd 

“A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employment.” Aristotle 

“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” Charles de Montesquieu

Features

1. Participation in the direction and operation of political systems. People decide policy initiatives directly, as opposed to  representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then decide policy initiatives.
2. Depending on the particular system in use, it might entail passing executive decisions, the use of sortition, making laws, directly electing or dismissing officials and conducting trials.
3. Community-based activity within the domain of civil society.
4. Decision-making methods:  referendum (plebiscite), initiative, and recall.
5. Direct democracy is opposed to a strong central authority, as decision making power can only reside at one level – with the people themselves or with the central authority.

 Types

1. Deliberative democracy  is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision making. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule.
2. E-democracy. Information and communications technology to promote Democracy. That means a form of government in which all adult citizens are presumed to be eligible to participate equally in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. E-democracy encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.
3. Delegative democracy is a form of democratic control whereby power is vested in delegates, rather than representatives.  Each member can choose to take either a passive role as an individual or an active role as a delegate. Delegates have further choices as to how active they are and in what areas. The difficulty and cost of becoming a delegate is small, and in particular does not require campaigning or winning a competitive election. Delegates exercise power in organizational processes on behalf of themselves and those individuals who select them as their delegate. Different delegates, therefore, can exercise varying levels of decision power. To avoid social pressures or coercion, all votes made by individuals are private. To ensure the accountability of delegates to their voters and to the community at large, all formal deliberative decisions made by delegates are public.

-RADICAL DEMOCRACY-

“All these discussions are going to help decide what we are.” Subcomandante Marcos. 

“Democracy is anarchic, in the specific sense that it is "based on nothing other than the absence of every title to govern." Jacques Rancière               

“The government of the absolute majority is but the government of the strongest interests; and when not effectively checked, is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised... [To read the Constitution is to realize that] no free system was ever farther removed from the principle that the absolute majority, without check or limitation, ought to govern. I prefer when political parties agree with one another? If we had a radical democracy, I would have a choice that means something and I don't know if I'm ready for that responsibility." John C. Calhoun

Features

1. Pluralism, citizenship and local community
2. Social movement as social and political change agent.
3. Democratic consensus oppresses differing opinions, race, classes and gender. The aim of radical democracy is expanding the democracy based on freedom and equality including differences.

Types

1. Socialist radical democracy is not only accepting of difference, dissent and antagonisms, but is dependent on it. Oppressive power relations existing in society should be made visible, re-negotiated and altered. By building democracy around difference and dissent, oppressive relations of power that exist in society^[ are able to come to the forefront so that they can be challenged
2. Disagreement democracy: as a necessary part of the democratic process. Radical democracy holds to the opinion that differences cannot be overcome through rational discourse or formal discussions. Rather than seeking to deter differences of opinion and create absolute consensus, radical democracy is an attempt to utilize those differences in manner consistent with the notion of democracy as a contest between two or more rival factions.