• Normative concepts for analyzing democratic government.
  • Universal Participation
  • Political Equality
  • Majority Rule
  • Responsiveness--needed for representative government
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• How can decision makers determine what people want?
  • INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS -- established procedures and organizations -- to promote government responsiveness.
  • Examples: elections, political parties, legislatures, and interest groups.
  • How much responsiveness is needed?
    
• The MAJORITARIAN MODEL of democracy relies on the classic, textbook theory of democracy.

  • government by the majority of the people
  • mass participation in politics is required
  • people are well-informed on political issues and make thoughtful voting decisions.
  • citizens to participate directly in decisionmaking
    

• The PLURALIST MODEL of democracy

  • PLURALISM, people group along economic, religious, ethnic or cultural lines.
  • People with similar interests form INTEREST GROUPS
  • A classic case: the Spotted Owl in the pacific northwest.
    • loggers v. environmental groups
    • How can a conflict between intense minorities be settled "democratically"
  • government by people operating through competing interest groups.
  • The plural model favors
    • a decentralized and organizationally complex structure
    • to providesgroups open access to public officials who consider their views

• Built from different blocks.
  • The majoritarian model: "atomistic"
    • Building blocks are individual citizens
    • Citizens input preferences themselves
  • Pluralist model: "molecular"
    • Organized groups are building blocks.
    • Democracy is served by the free interplay of interest groups
• Different institutional mechanisms for democratic expression.
  • Majoritarianism counts individuals through
    • elections
    • referenda
    • initiatives
  • Pluralist democracy relies on numerous points of access
    • partitioned authority
    • decentralization
    • open access
• Different views of centralized government.
  • Centralized government fits majoritarian democracy.
    • Elected representatives are expected to respond quickly to the wishes of the people.
    • No place for partitioned authority -- the government should be structured to provide for immediate expression of public opinion.
    • Emphasizes MAJORITY RULE over MINORITY RIGHTS.
  • Decentralized government fits pluralist democracy.
    • "minorities rule": many minorities in conflict
    • They are organized into competing interest groups.
    • Does not stress governmental responsiveness to majority demands but governmental for the public interest.
    • The pursuit of this public interest comes from the interplay of contending groups
    • In Pluralist Democracy in the United States (1967), Robert Dahl advanced the FUNDAMENTAL AXIOM of pluralism: "Instead of a single center of sovereign power, there must be multiple centers of power, none of which is or can be wholly sovereign." ( p. 67)
    • Democracy comes about through the openness of the system to group interests

Different models of democracy link to different values.

• Majoritarians favor government for social ends.
  • In some societies, majorities may favor equality
  • In others, they may favor order.
  • Majoritarianism is unlikely to favor freedom
    
• Pluralists are value relativists
  • Admit validity of claims by conflicting groups.
  • Individualism, as manifested in free speech and freedom of choice, is perhaps most valued

Elite Theory--An undemocratic model

• Important government decisions are made by a small but powerful group of people with great wealth
• They make decisions in the interest of the financial, communications, industrial, and government institutions
• Differs from pluralist theory in identifying the ruling minority.
  • Elite theory: a small, distinct, and durable group.
  • Pluralist theory: different minorities win on different issues.
• Research does not tend to support elite theory

Evaluating democratic government:

• Tests for democratic government in countries
  • Powell's five criteria for democratic governmennt:
    • Bases legitimacy desires of its citizens.
    • Leaders are chosen in free elections, contested by at least two viable political parties.
    • Most adults can participate in the electoral process.
    • Citizens' votes are secret and are not coerced.
    • Citizens, leaders, and party officials enjoy basic freedoms of speech, press, assembly, relgion, and organization.
  • Only about 20 of of the world's 100 largest nations qualify as democracies in all five ratings.
• The United States situation:
  • U.S. citizens do not participate regularly in politics
  • U.S. government sometimes does not do what the majority wants
  • The U.S. does not rate very highly on criteria of majoritarian democracy
  • Its decentralized and open structure fits the pluralist model very well.
  • So U.S. looks democratic by pluralist model
    • Is the pluralist model an adequate expression of democracy?
    • Does the majoritarian model result in a more desirable type of democracy?
    • Can one devise new mechanisms of government to produce a better mix of majority rule and minority rights?