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The Gov and Politics of Social Problems (All lectures)
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Hoor college 1: IntroductionLiberal democracy: Power of government is constrained by constitutional rules which are upheld by
an independent judicial system.
Mudde: Populism is a symptom of a democratic deficit, not the cause..
Key problem: many people still support the idea of liberal democracy but distrust established parties
and politicians.
Immigration reduces shared cultural norms and communication (language), forcing European
societies to deal with social dilemmas of increasing diversity: multiculturalism versus forced
assimilation, which fuel a politics where ethnic / religious differences are politicised.
Populist support:
Next to traditional lower middle class support for far-right politics now also strong support from
working class (blue collar voters)
Lower and middle class economic prosperity and social security declined with neoliberal austerity
and welfare states retrenchment policies
Their ‘bargaining power’ is shrinking due to outsourcing cheap labour countries, automation /
robotics, competition with labour migrants.
European democracies:
- Strong welfare states
- High level economic redistribution
- Extensive social protection (pensions and unemployment assistance)
‘Logic’ of populism:
- Anti – establishment
- Anti – experts / intellectualism
- Pro ‘common sense’
- Simple (and immediate) solutions
- Out-group derogation
New media populism:
- New media creates and ‘increasingly individualised civic environment’ in which public
engagement is a personal experience, not a collective affair.
- This results in a blurring of private and public sphere as well as obfuscate professional and
private life
- Filter bubbles and selective exposure insulates people from opinion – adverse information.
,Decline of traditional centrist parties
- Christian democracy: Structural decline of core electorate of religious voters
- Disappearance ideological reference points of Christian democracy.
- No longer catch – all people’s parties with broad cross-class support
- Loss of embeddedment in civil society
- No intermediary position between market (liberalism) and state (socialism)
_________________________
Hoor college 2: Representation and voting
Models of representation
Modern democracies are built on the logic of representation: the processes of devising, scrutinizing,
and choosing between policy alternatives are carried out for the most part not by voters themselves,
but by their representatives.
4 models:
- Trustees: Experts (knowledge, education and experience) who act in the best interest of
constituents without necessarily consulting them.
- Delegates: Little or no capacity to exercise his or her own judgement or preferences: only
mirror the views of their constituents, making regular consultation necessary before deciding
on behalf of constituents
- Mandate: representatives adhere to the policy descriptions which got them elected to
power.
- Resemblance: representatives need to typify characteristics of the larger group to which they
belong to represent the interest of the group. (a woman can better champion the cause of
women than a man)
Elections don’t make a democracy, even authoritarian regimes hold elections (Russia).
,Crucial in a democracy
- an institution that limits actions and rule of powerful, so this can be institutional but also
cultural (how to behave)
- Opposition: counter-power to balance the concentrations of power at the helm and provide
a check to those in power.
Functions of an institution
- Constitutions guarantee political and economic freedoms of citizens. (against arbitrary state
actions)
- Constitutions restrict powers (regulates mutual relationship between legislative and
executive)
- Constitutions limit the duration of the execution of power
- Constitutions regulate orderly method of change of the (executive) power
- Constitutions guarantee regular, free, fair and competitive elections of representatives of the
people on the basis of universal and equal suffrage.
- Constitutions compel government to be accountable to the people.
_____________________
Electoral formula: Defines how votes are translated into seats;
districts and district magnitude: which concerns the division of a country into electoral districts and
the number of seats in each district.
Ballot structure: Shapes the nature of the choice that voters are presented with and how votes are
cast.
The electoral threshold: the minimum amount of votes needed by a party to secure representation.
, Electoral Formula
Majoritarian system (power-concentration): making sure that there is a clear winner, power
concentration is the goal. It has to be clear that everyone knows who makes the decisions. You don’t
need a majority, you just need the most votes (plurality There’s no minimum number of votes that
you need.)
- Single-member plurality (SMP)
- Alternative vote (AV) You let people rank their preferences, the lowest candidate gets
eliminated and the second preferences of those goes to the rest. You do this as long until
there’s a majority. (Ireland)
Proportional (power-sharing):
- List proportional representation (List PR): Each party draws up a list of candidates and that
list is then fielded in an election and voters can then vote for the list of candidates. Any vote
on the list for the candidate counts as a vote for the party.
- Single transferable vote (STV) You can rank the candidates for the number of seats
available. Let’s say there’s 3 seats. When one candidate reaches the amount of votes needed
for a seat, the excess votes is will go to the other candidates, based on 2 nd preference and so
on until all 3 candidates have reached the threshold votes.
Mixed system:
In Germany you can vote for a person to represent your constituency in parliament but also for a
party on a national level. You could combine a vote for a person from a conservative party on a
constituency level and vote for a liberal party on a national level.
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