Part III: Three Worlds of Political Systems

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Part III Three Worlds of Political Systems
Session 9 Established Democracies in Advanced
Industrial Societies (Western World)
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Features of Developed Democracies
Electoral democracies with organized competition
for government office
Market economies with an elaborated welfare
state welfare state capitalism
Material living standards far higher than in any
comparable era and area
Mass participation in prosperity and freedom far
higher than in any comparable era and area
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Prosperity and Democracy
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Conceptual Confusion
Does market capitalism mean the absence of
extended welfare states?
Is market capitalism identical to electoral
democracy?
Does democracy mean that governments act in
accord with peoples preferences?
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Problems of Democracy
Limitations on voters meaningful choice
Anthony Downs inevitable ideological convergence
Otto Kirchheimer catch-all parties (washing
powder parties)
Leveling pressures of globalization
Party-cartel tendencies
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A Reaction Emerging Identity Politics (populism)
Bloc Québécois (Canada) Vlaams Bloc
(Belgium) Lega Nord (Umberto Bossi, Italy) Front
National (Jean Marie Le Pen, France) German
Peoples Union Austrian Freedom Party (Christoph
Haider) Swiss Peoples Party (Christoph Blocher)
Strategies presenting themselves as advocates
of the problems of marginalized and alienated
groups (modernization losers) accusing the
establishment of ignoring ordinary peoples
legitimate interests nourishing threat
perceptions against outsiders (scapegoat
strategy) nourishing the image of a determined
leader whose mission as an honest agent of
peoples interest is to remove a decadent
establishment
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The Crisis-of-Democracy Thesis
Voters are confronted with fewer and fewer
meaningful choices.

• Voters are alienated from standard representative
  procedures
• declining party identification
• declining confidence in institutions
• declining voter turnout
• increasing dissatisfaction with political elites
  as a whole

If voters do not have clear and meaningful
choices between alternatives of public policy
that concern them, elections become irrelevant.
Hence, the whole logic of electoral democracy
is questioned.
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What Is Required to Make Democracies Enduring?
The legitimacy-performance dilemma!
Historical sequencing elite competition before
mass inclusion challenge of nation building not
at the same time with the challenge of regime
choice
Cross-cutting versus segmented cleavages
Absence of existential survival questions that
fuel xenophobia and undermine tolerance.
Potential danger in identity politics, moral
politics and symbolic politics Appeals to
threats of communal identity (from the right) and
to lethal questions (from the left) bring an
element of existential good versus evil
questions into politics.
Commitment to procedures must be stronger
than commitment to particular results.
Egalitarian, Deferential or Submissive?
Which Authority Orientations?
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If we consider emancipative value orientations as
equal to egalitarian orientations towards
authority, do these orientations undermine the
efficacy of democratic governance?
Good governance measure taken from World Bank
(summary indicator of public accountability and
law-abiding- ness of government).
Survival vs. self-expression values taken from
the earliest available survey of the World Values
Surveys II (1990) and III (1995). Self-expression
values summarize high inclination to take part in
civilian protests, strong emphasis on
personal liberty, tolerance of outsiders,
inter- personal trust and a strong sense
of Subjective well-being. Survival
values summarize the opposite attitudes.
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Two-dimensional Theory of Value Change
(Inglehart Welzel, forthcoming)
Economic development brings cultural changes in
peoples authority orientations, but the nature
of these changes is changing with the character
of economic development itself.
Industrialization Secularization OF Authority
On one hand, industrialization gives human
societies increasing physical control over their
environment, which undermines the need of
religious authority (you do not have to pray to
God for a good harvest, if you can use chemical
fertilizer). On other hand, the mass-disciplined
way in which industrial societies are organized
still proliferates a need for authority and
dogma.
Postindustrialization Emancipation FROM
Authority
On the one hand, the individuation trend linked
with postindustrialization lowers peoples need
for external authority, such that authority
becomes increasingly internalized into the SELF,
giving rise to self-expression values. On the
other hand, Peoples emphasis on self-fulfillment
provides a new need in search for meaning
and purpose in ones life, giving rise to new
spiritual needs. This puts a stop to further
secularization. Instead, inidividualized forms
of religiosity begin to flourish.
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Evidence from the World Values Surveys I
Industrialization gives rise to
secular-rational values
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Evidence from the World Values Surveys II
Postindustrialization gives rise to
self- expression values
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Evidence from the World Values Surveys III
Industrialization does not promote self-expression
values
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Evidence from the World Values Surveys IV
Postindustrialization does not promote secular-rat
ional values
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Learning Goals
Being familiar with the legitimacy problems of
advanced democracies and the deeper origins and
nature of these problems.