Democratic Theory and Practice
Bachelor in Social Sciences: 3
Spring 2020
,Table of Content
Introduction
• Development of democracy
o Greece and Rome
o Northern Europe
• Evolution of democratic regimes
• What is democracy
o Self-government
o Equality
o Liberty
• Democracy in practice
o Limitation of power
o Rights
o Votes
• Measuring democracy
o Freedom house index
• Methodology for the course
The classical theories of democracy
• Introduction
• Classification of the forms of government from political theory of Antiquity to
modern political theory
o Aristotle
o JJ Rousseau
o Hans Kelsen
• The evaluation of democracy as a form of government
o Pericles
o Aristotle
o Plato
o Rousseau
• Representative government: a democratic aristocracy
o England
o France
o USA
§ Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist
• Conclusion
• Tocqueville
2
,The realist conceptions of representative democracy
• Introduction
• The minimalist conception of democracy (JA Schumpeter)
o Schumpeter’s critique of classical democracy
§ Rule of the people
§ Common good and will of the people
§ Political independence and rationality of the voter’s will
§ Political inequality
o Schumpeter's Conceptualization of Democracy
§ Minimal definition
• Polyarchies or the functional definition of democracy
• Conclusion
Deliberative and participatory democracy
• Deliberation?
o Four different approaches
• A systematic review of mini-public’s consequences
• Case
Constitutionalism
• Introduction
• Constitutionalism as a constraint on democracy
o Dworkin
§ Critique
• Constitutionalism as enabling democracy
o Habermas
§ Critique
• Constitutionalism as democracy
o Balance of power
o Public deliberation
• Conclusion
Party competition and representation: a comparative perspective
• Introduction
• Political parties and representation
• Political parties and social cleavages
• Old and new cleavages: the “defreezing hypothesis”
• Who profits? The rise of the far right
o What?
o Ideology
o Rise of far right
• Conclusion
3
, Representation and accountability
1. Representation and democracy: incompatibility or complementarity
2. How to represent?
o Representational styles
3. What to represent?
o Representational focus
Public deliberation and online speech: what role for online platform?
1. Online speech
2. Let’s talk intermediary liability
3. What content detection systems make sense?
4. Let’s design a law together!
5. Discussion
The critics of liberal democracy and the raise of illiberal democracies
• Democracy and crisis: some definitions
o The concept of “embedded democracy”
o What do we mean by crisis?
• Do we really have a problem?
• What are the causes that trigger a crisis of democracy?
• Conclusion. What can we do about it?
Democratization (democratic transitions)
• The 3rd wave of democratization
• How can explain democratization?
o The structural approach
o The transitology school
o The sociological theories of democratization
o Towards an integrated model
• A recent example of democratization: the Gambia
è Explaining democratic change: 2016 presidential elections in The Gambia
• An overview of The Gambia’s Political Transitions:
o A Country Profile
o Yahya Jammeh and the Military Takeover
o How He Could Rule for 22 Years?
o State of Democratization in Africa
• Main Discourse: The Gambia’s Democratic Change
o December 2016 Presidential Elections: What Happened?
o Dynamics/Factors
4
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