Representation, Parties, Elections

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Representation, Parties, Elections
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• Democracy
• Direct (historically earlier form) citizens
  themselves govern
• To which extent is it possible?
• Representative (modern)
• Government by citizens representatives
• The main principles
• The state is a separate entity above society
• The state derives its authority from citizen
  consent
• State officials have an autonomy from society,
  but are accountable to it

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• What is the meaning of representation?
• 1. Rulers are elected, granted authority to
  govern - but may not necessarily do what citizens
  want unfulfilled promises
• painful but necessary reforms
• 2. Rulers are not elected, but govern in such a
  way that citizens do feel that their interests
  are taken into account
• kindly kings, benevolent dictators seeking
  citizen support
• Obviously, electoral democracy is a better form
  of representation
• But major problems remain

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• 1. Electoral mechanisms how well do they
  communicate societys demands to the state
• 2. Channels of citizen influence on the
  government between elections in the
  policy-making process
• 3. The contents of policy
• Some of these problems can be solved through
  improvements in the mechanisms of representation
• But there are strong arguments in favour of
  reinforcing representation with robust
  institutions of direct democracy

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• The political process
• The political process can be described as the
  flow of political power
• This flow never stops
• It has its own patterns, reproduced over and over
  again in a systematic way
• It moves through institutions, links, channels
  which connect society with the state

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The Political Process

Government
Elections
Interest Groups
Executive
Demands

INTERESTS

Political Parties
Assembly
LAWS AND POLICIES
Supports
Judiciary
Media
Social impact of laws and policies

THE STATE
SOCIETY
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• Some interests have more weight than others. Such
  differences are reflected in every part of the
  political process
• Some interests need the state more than others
• Different interests need the state for different
  things
• The flow of power has a dual nature
• Power flows in two directions
• from society to the state
• from the state to society

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• Overall, the dominance of the society-to-state
  flow should be a sign of democracy the
  government heeds societal demands
• But if one looks at the unequal distribution of
  power, the picture looks different
• Economically dominant classes exert dominant
  control over both flows of power
• The rise of economic inequality in society is a
  sign that the political process works primarily
  for those at the top, creating a DEMOCRATIC
  DEFICIT

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• Interest Groups and Interest Articulation
• The basic actor in the political process is the
  individual citizen
• The range of individual political impact -
• From letters to MPs and newspapers
• To being a Bill Gates or a Prime Ministers
  close friend
• But most individuals can have any impact only by
  acting through interest groups created to
  articulate (formulate and express) group
  interests
• In modern societies, they are numerous
• They vary in structure, goals, style, financing,
  support base

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• Channels used to transmit demands
• Legal access channels
• Personal connections
• Mass media
• Political parties
• Legislatures
• Government bureaucracies
• Protest demonstrations, strikes
• Coercive methods
• Protest demonstrations, strikes
• Boycotts
• Riots
• Terrorism
• Coup detat

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• Interest Aggregation
• The process through which demands are translated
  into policy proposals
• The key pre-modern (feudal) mechanism for IA is
• the patron-client network (the crony system)
• who knows whom, who is obliged to whom, who
  serves whom personal, informal, and flexible
  tools of power
• In modern democracies, generally considered
  ineffective. Rule of law, active citizenry, media
  freedom, competitive elections limit the
  usability of cronyism.

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• The main modern interest aggregation mechanism is
  the political party. Some interest groups
  (institutional and associational) also perform
  interest aggregation tasks.
• But patron-client networks have not disappeared
  from modern democracies
• They continue to serve as unofficial - but not
  necessarily illegal - mechanisms interlocking
  with official institutions
• When a patron-client network is used to break the
  law, this is called corruption. But the lines
  between the legal and the illegal are often
  blurred

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• Political Party
• An interest group seeks to influence the state
• A political party seeks to capture control of the
  state
• Functions of political parties
• provide links between the rulers and the ruled
• formulate programs to govern society
• help organize the process of policy-making
• recruit and train citizens for political
  leadership roles
• How are political parties created?

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• 1. BY COMPETING ELITES
• The first parties, usually created in early
  parliaments, were elite factions with narrow
  popular bases, divided by ideology and interest,
  fighting each other for power
• With the rise of democracy, they are forced to
  reach out into broader society to seek voter
  support
• Example of an elite party which successfully
  adapted to mass politics the British
  Conservative Party

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• 2. BY CIVIL SOCIETY
• Organized by citizen activists, interest groups
  seeking to reduce the power of elites - or
  overthrow the elites altogether
• The influence of these mass parties comes from
  the numbers of their supporters. They are
  interested in mass participation, and their
  programs are built around popular demands
• NOT ALL MASS PARTIES ARE DEMOCRATIC -
• TOTALITARIANISM IS A FORM OF MASS POLITICS

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• 2 basic types of party systems
• Competitive (in democracies)
• Non-competitive (in authoritarian states)
• In non-competitive systems, one party rules,
  allowing no challenges to its control of the
  state
• Competitive
• One-and-a-half party systems (Japan until
  recently)
• 2-party systems (USA, also Canada)
• Multiparty systems (most European states)

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• Parties in government
• In one-party authoritarian systems, the party,
  organized as a military-type command structure,
  controls both state and society
• In two-party systems, the majority party has a
  high degree of control over government
• In multiparty systems, government is often formed
  on the basis of several parties (bloc,
  coalition). Differences between parties in a
  coalition may undermine the government

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• http//www.wegovern.ca/

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Elections
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• Democracy is much more than elections
• But it is impossible without elections
• Electoral (formal, procedural, representative)
  democracy is the foundation of all democratic
  systems
• An election is an act through which citizens
  create public power which they accept as
  legitimate, to which they submit
• Historical sequence
• Primitive democracy the state the democratic
  state
• We started with democracy, then deviated from it
  for about 5,000 years, and now, for the past
  couple of centuries, have been trying to return
  to it because the other methods has been found
  wanting

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• What are the other methods?
• A person may inherit the post of ruler, or
• A person may conquer, seize by force the power
  to rule
• Problems with the quality of the result how good
  a ruler?
• Quality of the person?
• Issue of legitimacy?
• The first issue is addressed more effectively
  through choice.
• The second, through wide participation in the act
  of choosing

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• The hereditary method
• Through the millennia of monarchic rule -
  considered the normal, legitimate option.
• The few elements of choice
• choosing an heir
• marrying another royal (or non-royal)
• A wider group, representing some diverse
  interests, is always involved in the
  decision-making (kingmakers)
• Still, the role of choice is severely limited
• And the circle of participants is extremely
  narrow

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• The method of conquest
• No choice
• Huge problems of legitimacy
• Who would be the conquerors?
• Foreigners (no legitimacy)
• Members of the ruling family through a coup
  (some legitimacy)
• The people through a revolution (new
  legitimacy)
• After a revolution, a new state is organized, and
  the issues of choice and legitimacy arise again

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• Enabling citizens (all or at least some of them)
  to choose the rulers through a peaceful,
  rule-bound process of elections looks like the
  simplest and most natural way of creating a
  government, which will have legitimate authority
  immediately after the election provided the
  election was free and fair
• This assumption holds only if the true purpose of
  an election is to create a representative
  government
• In a stable democracy, citizens take it for
  granted

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• Even though 2/3 of the governments in the world
  today are created through an electoral process,
• Electoral democracy as a political institution is
  facing massive challenges
• A large part of humanity still doesnt have it
  (China. many Muslim states)
• Imitations of democracy (Russia, Central Asian
  states)
• Rollbacks of democracy (Pakistan under Musharraf)
• Impositions of democracy (Bosnia, Iraq)
• Erosion of democracy (USA under G.W.Bush)
• The issue can democracy be limited to elections
  only?
• If the egalitarian mechanism keeps producing
  results which are deeply unsatisfactory for the
  majority, what does this contradiction do to the
  mechanism itself?

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• So, the main purpose of an election is to choose
  a ruler or a group of rulers
• Other purposes?
• Recruitment and training of elites
• Policy-making
• Leaders run policy proposals through the
  electoral process to test (and also manipulate)
  public opinion
• Referendums and plebiscites (voting for policy
  proposals, not candidates)
• A means to confirm and strengthen the legitimacy
  of the state
• ----------------------------
• Phillips Shively, Power and Choice, McGraw-Hill,
  2003, pp.223-226

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• Key requirements of an effective electoral
  democracy
• Participation
• Contestation
• Can one work without the other?
• Civil and political rights and liberties, rule of
  law as essential tools to assure both
  requirements - to enable the citizens to
  collectively create a new government

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• Electoral systems
• 1. Constituency who will be represented?
• Entire country
• A part of the country
• Balance between national and local
• 2. Apportionment how to organize representation?
• Geography (where you live)
• Equal representation of individual citizens
• 3. Franchise
• Who may vote?
• Who may run for office?

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• Electoral formulas
• A. Electing a single executive officer
  President, Governor, Mayor, dogcatcher, etc.).
  Options
• Elected by citizens themselves
• Elected by members of the legislature
• If elected by citizens, the options are
• Simple majority rule (the winner is the candidate
  receiving the highest percentage of votes cast)
• Absolute majority rule (the winner is the
  candidate who got more than 50 of the votes
  cast)
• Level of participation (in some countries, an
  election is valid only if more than half of the
  registered voters took part)

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• Electing a group of officials a legislature
• 2 basic systems
• 1. Majoritarian
• 2. Proportional representation (PR)
• Mixed systems (combinations of 1 and 2)
• Majoritarian (UK, US, Canada, India, France,
  Japan, Australia over 40 countries)
• Every electoral district elects one
  representative
• Simple (absolute) majority rule - need to get 50
  (more than all the rest) or, more often
• Plurality (relative majority) rule
  (first-past-the post) - need to get more than any
  other candidate

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• Proportional representation (Austria, Denmark,
  Finland, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway,
  Poland, Russia, Spain and others)
• Competition between parties, not individual
  candidates
• Distribution of seats in the legislature
  according to the of the votes cast for each
  party
• For example

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• A country has a parliament with 100 seats
• 5 parties are competing in elections
• Under a majoritarian system
• The country s divided into 100 districts
  (ridings)
• In each, it is a race between individual
  candidates from different parties
• Results in Riding No.1
• Candidate from Party No.1 got 10 of votes
• No.2 15
• No. 3 - 25
• No. 4 20
• No. 5 30
• The winner is No.5, with 30 support
• He/she represents a minority of voters in the
  riding

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• Imagine that the same results came up in each of
  the 100 ridings
• It would mean that 1 of the 5 parties,
• having received 30 of the total vote,
• would capture 100 of the seats in the parliament
• It would
• obtain monopoly control of the legislature
• easily form a government
• and have a lot of freedom to govern as it wants
• In real life
• majoritarian systems do favour large,
  established, better-funded parties and make it
  easier for elites to govern a country

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• Imagine that the same country switched to the PR
  system.
• In each of the 100 ridings, voters choose between
  the same 5 parties
• But each party is represented not by an
  individual candidate, but by a nationwide party
  list of candidates
• Imagine that the distribution of votes in Riding
  No.1 is the same
• Party No.1 got 10 of votes
• No.2 15
• No. 3 - 25
• No. 4 20
• No. 5 30

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• After the election, the votes cast for each party
  in all 100 ridings are added up to determine each
  partys nationwide share of parliamentary seats
• The individual candidates to fill the seats are
  then selected from the party lists
• Imagine that across the country, the popular vote
  was distributed in the same proportion as in
  Riding No.1
• Party No.5 gets only 30 of the seats
• Itll have a hard time forming a government
• And an even harder time governing
• The parliament is split into 5 factions
• Need for coalitions

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• Makes it harder to govern but is more
  democratic
• More fairly reflects societys political
  preferences (though usually involves limits on
  smaller parties)
• Fosters multiparty systems
• More diverse voices are heard in debates
• But Ties between citizens and representatives
  are more distant no individual link, like in
  majoritarian systems
• Mixed systems

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• Participation
• The paradox
• Individually, voting doesnt seem to make sense
  1 person cant change the course of a country, my
  vote doesnt count
• Makes sense only as a collective act
• Through the act of voting, political power is
  created in society from individual political
  wills
• The long struggle for voting rights

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• Still, some people who do have voting rights
  refuse to vote
• when the link between their individual and
  collective interests is broken
• Some are alienated from society, lack sense of
  civic responsibility
• Others dont vote when they dont believe that
  anything can be changed through elections
• Right or duty?
• 20th century debate Is mass participation
  desirable?
• Resolved in favour of mass participation it does
  lead to a better government and a better society

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• An election as a challenge to the powers that be
• Ways to defeat the challenge
• Dont hold an election but if you have to
• Limit participation
• Arrange the voting rules to favour your side
• Limit the oppositions access to the public
  (control of media is key)
• Eliminate the opposition physically
• Intimidate voters
• Limit public access to the voting places, where
  necessary
• Stuff ballot boxes with your ballots
• Make sure who counts (be inventive with
  computers)
• Be well prepared for court challenges
• Make sure the police and troops will obey your
  orders to disperse the crowds of protesters
• Declare a state of emergency
• Keep a helicopter ready for your rapid evacuation
  if everything else goes wrong

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• Equality of voting rights vs. social inequality
• The power of concentrated wealth
• Big corporations go to great lengths to control
  the political process
• It is a major reason for public cynicism about
  electoral democracy
• Attempts at reform