Electoral and Liberal Democracy - Assignment Example

TASK A Report Card on Democracy’ the distinction is made between ‘electoral democracies’ and ‘liberal democracies’. What qualifies a as an ‘electoral democracy’? What additional conditions must be met for a state to qualify as a ‘liberal democracy’? According to the author of the article, there has been a wave of “democratization” seen in the 20th century and since the 1980’s there has not been much reversal of democratic gains in the world (Diamond, 2000). However, the concept of democracy is further qualified according to the degree of political liberty and the sense of personal and intellectual freedoms that are in place in each of these countries. The author defines electoral democracies as those that have filled the positions of power through electoral means and there are competing parties for the same posts that the product of a competition for votes among the parties. The countries that come under this include multiparty democracies like Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia. These countries hold elections but the outcomes of which are questioned according to the standards of the western observers. On the other hand, Liberal democracies are defined as those that have freedom of speech, right to individual and personal liberties and freedom from political terror. What the author is implying is that the mere mention of a democracy does not guarantee these rights. It is the practice of democratic principles and the observance of the rule of law along with the establishment of institutions that support these that are the pre-condition for a country to be known as a liberal democracy. It would appear that the countries in Western Europe qualify for what can be known as liberal democracies and the others are electoralist in nature but do not encompass the whole spectrum. According to Freedom House 2008 report what % of contemporary independent states could be described as full ‘liberal democracies’ (i.e. ‘free’) ~50% (90 of 193 countries) By Freedom House criteria have the last couple of years been good or bad for ‘freedom in the world’? According to the criteria used by the Freedom house, the last couple of years have been mixed for “freedom in the world”. There has been a marginal increase in the percentage of population that is considered as “partly free” though the percentage of people in the “not free” category has not shown a substantial increase. As I have mentioned before, the results are mixed and it remains to be seen how much of progress can one make in the next couple of years for the fate of the people of the world. What is worrisome is the fact that in supposedly “free” or “partially free” countries, the elections are being held in conditions that can be described as “patently unfair” and even “rigged” (Puddington, 2008). In the Freedom House country ratings the United Kingdom scores 1 both on the political rights indicator and the civil liberties indicator. We should not however be complacent about freedom in the UK. Access the web site below and summarise ‘Democratic Audit’s’ concerns about the state of democracy in the UK in 2005 “The United Kingdom delivers democratic elections despite the vulnerabilities in its electoral system. These vulnerabilities could easily affect the overall democratic nature of future elections in Great Britain.” Council of Europe (2008). The reason I have highlighted the above statement is to show that though the overall electoral process in Great Britain is free and fair to a large extent, there are inbuilt structural imbalances that can threaten the future of the system in the longer term. As the author notes, there are a variety of reasons for this. These range from the legacies left behind by the modernization of the electoral process to the incorrect maintenance of registers that are used to enumerate the lists of potential voters. Further, the report talks about a worrisome trend of money being used to influence the electoral process. Are there regions of the world where democracy is more marked by its absence than its presence? If so, which regions? The regions that include where democracy is marked by its absence are mainly in Africa. These are the regions that do not have functioning democracies and have a lot of dictatorships and worse regions racked by civil war and an absence of government of any sort. Does size matter for the likelyhood of a state being democratic or not? If it does speculate on why? Diamond contrasts the mature or ‘consolidated’ democracies of the West with the newly democratising states. What three principal dangers do newly democratising states face that might threaten their successful transition to democracy? Give examples of states that might be seen to be faltering in their transition to democracy Failure of democratic institutions to take root Usurping of power by the military and other factions thereby threatening democracy Weak governance and a resurgence of extremism Of the states ranked as having a high level of human development what % of them are ranked as ‘free’ (i.e. as fully fledged liberal democracies) 50% Of the states ranked as having a low level of human development what % of them are ranked as ‘free’ (i.e. as fully fledged liberal democracies) 45% A number of states with a high HDI ranking are rated as unfree or only partly free by Freedom House. Do these paradoxical states appear to have anything in common? They are run by autocracies. What does Niall Ferguson identify as the economic and cultural pre-requisites of freedom and democracy? Should we be sanguine about democracy’s current global prospects? The cultural pre-requisites are to do with the civilizational attributes and this is borne out by the fact that Western countries with protestant strain are more likely to be democratic whereas Islamic states aren’t. The economic pre-requisites are that the average annual income must be above $1,000. We cannot be sanguine about the prospects for democracy as the world’s most populous nation, China, is not democratic. TASK 2 Where does the UK rank among European states in terms of turnout in national parliamentary elections? Fifth. Describe and comment briefly on trends in post-war general elections in the UK. The post war trends suggest that voter turnout in the UK is falling at an alarming rate and the reasons are complex and go beyond the usual factors about the electoral process. Suggest reasons why we should be concerned about low turnout in elections. Low turnout leads to lesser participatory democracy and the only way in which democratic systems succeed is by making the people participate in the electoral process. What social, economic and demographic factors have an impact on voter turnout? The economic status, the level of education and age of the electors have a direct bearing on voter turnout. Why does Anthony King think low turnout is not a threat to democracy? Because it holds that there is more demographic participation among the people who turnout to vote. Is the introduction of compulsory voting likely to make a difference to turnout? By raising turnout, compulsory voting can make the governing party or coalition appear more legitimate, as its power is very likely to be based on the support of a greater proportion of the population. Is lowering the voting age to 16 a ‘good idea’? Lowering the voting age to 16 is not a good idea as this may be a myopic measure since the level of maturity needed for casting votes is not attained at the age of 16. TASK 3 The number of elected members (MPs, MEPs, MSPs etc.) in each elected body 200. 50. 76. The organization of members into electoral districts / constituencies 345/ 530. The formula or method for allocating seats to parties and candidates 5:2:1 The party composition of the four elected bodies after the last round of elections (2005 for House of Commons, 2004 for the European Parliament elections and 2007 for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections.) Labour. Tory. The party character of government that formed after the election in the UK 2005 General Election and in the third round of Scottish and Welsh ‘devolution elections’ of 2007 (does not apply to Euro-elections) Labour. The proportionality of these different election outcomes. Use the ‘disproportionality measure’ described in the handouts. 3:2:1 Demonstrate for yourselves how the ‘additional member systems’ in Scotland and Wales function by working out the distribution of the seats to the parties in the Mid-Wales region in the 2007 Welsh Assembly election. Show your working. 18.3 4.3 TASK 4 How many parties offering how many candidates winning what share of the votes? 25. 45% What share of the vote going to the two major parties, what share to ‘third parties’? 35%. 22% How many parties with how many seats are represented in the House of Commons election by election? 3 How the parties do shares of seats in the Commons match to their shares of the vote (we are looking for the distortive effects of our ‘first-past-the-post electoral system)? 20% How dominant in the Commons have the two major parties been? They have been quite dominant as far as the voting patterns are concerned. How many years each have the Labour and Conservative parties been in office since 1945? Identify extended periods of office for one party or the other. 20. 30. How large were the Commons’ majorities for the governing party at each election? Above 30% Identify the ‘vulnerable governments’ of these post-war years (small or non-existent majorities)? 1970-75. 1990-95. TASK 5 List the main factors identified by the authors as being critical to a pressure group being able successfully to influence the policy process Fundamentals of Politics Sinister Interests The Range of Organisations Mobilisation of Opinion Popular Phrensies On the internet, locate and identify the web-sites for two UK ‘interest groups’ and two UK ‘cause’ / ‘campaigning’ groups. From the sites extract and record details of the group’s aims / objectives, membership and resources, and current campaign activities. Weapons of Mass Destruction GM Crops Anti-War campaigns Fuel Protest Read More