Samenvatting

Readings summary Democracies, Autocracies and Transitions

0 keer verkocht

Instelling
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)

Summary of all the readings from DAT from 2024. I also uploaded a document with lecture notes. My grade for this course was a 9.0 and my grade for the endterm was a 10.0.

[Meer zien]

Voorbeeld 3 van de 22 pagina's

Bekijk voorbeeld

Geupload op 12 december 2024
Aantal pagina's 22
Geschreven in 2024/2025
Type Samenvatting

€8,99

Ook beschikbaar in voordeelbundel v.a. €12,49

In winkelwagen

Opslaan

100% tevredenheidsgarantie
Direct beschikbaar na je betaling
Lees online óf als PDF
Geen vaste maandelijkse kosten

Ook beschikbaar in voordeelbundel (1)

Lecture notes and readings summary Democracies, Autocracies and Transitions

€ 15,98 € 12,49

1x verkocht

2 items

1. College aantekeningen - Lecture notes democracies, autocracies and transitions
2. Samenvatting - Readings summary democracies, autocracies and transitions
Meer zien

DAT readings

Lecture 1: Introduction

Przeworski, Adam. 2018. Why Bother with Elections? Chapter 1.
- Elections are a competitive procedure for selecting individuals or groups to hold
public office
- Essential to democracy → choosing leaders and holding them accountable
- Positives
• Peaceful transition of power: avoids violence and instability
• Promote participation and engagement: more people interested in politics
• Legitimate government and its policies: it’s chosen by the people
• Ensures government is responsive to people’s needs: can be voted out of
office
- Negatives
• Elections are costly: money can be spend on education or healthcare
• Elections are inefficient: takes time and resources to organize
• Elections can be manipulated: bribery, intimidation, fraud
- Two kinds
• Majoritarian
o Easier to understand and administer
o Strong and stable governments
o Help concentrate power in hands of single party
o Can be unfair to minorities
o Can lead to polarization and political instability
• Proportional
o Fairer to minorities
o More representative
o Promote cooperation and compromise
o Can lead to weak and unstable governments

Sen, Amartya. 1999. “Democracy as a Universal Value.” Journal of Democracy. Vol
10, No. 3.
- Democracy originates in ancient Greece
- Idea of democracy as universal commitment is new → product of 20th century
- Democracy doesn’t work well everywhere
- Lee Hypothesis
• Nondemocratic systems better for economic development
• In some countries true (Korea, China, Singapore)
• But, no evidence that it’s generally true
- Famines and crisis
• In democracies it’s easier to prevent famines and also there is a serious
effort, because of elections and criticisms from opposition
• Financial crisis in nondemocratic countries because of lack of transparency
in business

, - Value of democracy
• Intrinsic value: political participation and freedoms (importance in human
life)
• Instrumental value: importance of political incentives in keeping governments
responsible and accountable (general political incentives)
• Constructive value: the formation of values and understanding of needs,
rights and duties
- Universal value
• No universal consent is required
• For it to be a universal value, people anywhere may have reason to see it’s
value
• Democracy has a protective roll (during famines and crisis)
• No evidence that poor people will reject democracy
• It has been claimed that Asians value discipline, not freedom, but there is no
evidence for this

Lecture 2: What is democracy?

Clark, William, Matt Golder, and Sona Golder. 2018. Principles of Comparative
Politics. Chapter 5.
- Historical perspectives
• Herodotus talks about different forms of regime
• Demokratia: rule of the (common/poor/uneducated) people
• Plato: The Republic
o Democracy bad, because leads to ochlocracy (mob rule)
o Trained statesman should guide ship of state
o Rule by the poor and uneducated against the rich and educated
o Short-lived: people quickly surrender power to tyrant
• Aristotle: Politeia
o Thought not highly of democracy, but could work
o Classification of regimes
o Good forms ruler rules for good of all and in bad forms for himself
o Good forms could be corrupted: politeia most easy, aristocracy most
difficult (like Plato)
o Democracy would result in class warfare (rich vs poor, like Marx)
• Democracy in ancient times
o No elections, but by lot
o In ancient times, elections in aristocracy
o Bodin, Hegel, Hobbes, Kant, Locke, Montesquieu and Vico preferred
monarchy, because monarchy had elections and democracy was
determined by lot
o This view holds until French and American Revolutions
o New distinction: democracy (many) vs autocracy/dictatorship (one or
few) → dichotomy
- Classifying democracies and dictatorships

, • Dahl’s view
o Against substantive view (classifies in regard to outcomes that
democracy produces): too idealist → no true democracy
o Minimalist/procedural view: classifies in regard to their institutions
and procedures
o Two dimensions: contestation (extent to which citizens are free to
organize themselves into competing political blocs to pressure for
desired outcomes) and inclusion (who gets to participate)
o Dahl calls regime with high levels of both a polyarchy (not democracy)
• Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) Measure (1946-2008)
o Democracy: regime with governmental office and contested elections
o Three elements of contestation: 1. Ex ante uncertainty (no certain
outcome before election), 2. Ex post irreversibility (winner takes
office), 3. Repeatability (occurs at known intervals)
o Operationalization: four conditions
▪ Chief executive is elected
▪ Legislature is elected
▪ More than one party
▪ Alternation in power under identical electoral rules has taken
place (ruler is willing to give up power if he loses election)
o Dichotomy: dictatorship if not all four
o Builds on Dahl: procedural view, focuses on contestation
o Difference: ignores inclusion (no big changes since 1946),
dichotomous measure (Dahl: continuous measure)
• Polity IV (1880-present)
o Democracy and autocracy score from 1 to 10
o Polity score = democracy score – autocracy score (from -10 to 10)
▪ 6 – 10: democracy
▪ -5 – 5 = mixed regime or anocracy
▪ -10 - -5 = autocracy
o Five dimensions
▪ Competitiveness of executive recruitment
▪ Openness of executive recruitment
▪ Constraints on executive
▪ Regulation of political participation
▪ Competitiveness of political participation
o Follows Dahl: inclusion and contestation, continuous scale
o New dimension to Dahl: constraints/limits on government
• Freedom House (1972-present)
o Measures global freedom, not democracy (but used by scholars)
o The more free, the more democratic a country
o Political rights
▪ Electoral process
▪ Political pluralism and participation
▪ Functioning of government
o Civil rights
▪ Freedom of expression and belief

Dit zijn jouw voordelen als je samenvattingen koopt bij Stuvia:

Bewezen kwaliteit door reviews

Studenten hebben al meer dan 850.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet jij zeker dat je de beste keuze maakt!

In een paar klikken geregeld

Geen gedoe — betaal gewoon eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of je Stuvia-tegoed en je bent klaar. Geen abonnement nodig.

Direct to-the-point

Studenten maken samenvattingen voor studenten. Dat betekent: actuele inhoud waar jij écht wat aan hebt. Geen overbodige details!

Veelgestelde vragen

Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?

Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.

Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?

Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.

Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?

Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper NederlandsePoliticoloog. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.