Part Three

1
Part Three

• Chapter 16
• Classification of Political Systems

2

• Forms of governmentrelated (in your book ) to
  ideologies
• So, what is an ideology?

3
Ideology(taken from Part 2, chp.9)

• A value or belief system that is accepted as
  fact or truth by some group.
• A social belief accepted by large numbers of
  people
• Always involves a mixture of factual and moral
  beliefs (is that to suggest that facts are
  distinct from moral beliefs??)

4

• If we accept that ideologies are partially
  formed, incomplete, complex beliefs about
  political life
• Can we clarify these beliefs, or improve our
  opinions?
• Arent the best opinions the ones supported with
  the best reasons?
• How do we arrive at the best opinions?

5
Shameless Promotion of Liberal Studies Program at
Mal-U

• Political Science is constituted by the rivalry
  of opinion regarding justice and the common good
  (rival ideologies?)
• Consider the aim of Liberal Studies degree at
  Mal-U
• Because Liberal Studies is based on the
  assumption that mutual respect and tolerance for
  difference is essential to promoting
  understanding, it is easy to reach the conclusion
  that all opinions whatsoever are equally
  valuable, correct or true.The alternative view
  which underlies the program agrees that it is
  essential to allow for the expression of a
  variety of opinions, but that it is possible to
  decide in many cases which opinion is more
  valuable, more correct or closer to the truth.
  Making this decision depends on the evaluation of
  arguments for and against differing opinions it
  is rational to place more credence in opinions
  which are well-supported than in those which are
  not. This component of critical thinking is
  essential to success in the program.
• So, the true foundation of a political science
  that can explain political behaviour is the
  capacity to distinguish between the rational and
  the rationalizing. (Martin Diamond, p.234).

6
Liberal EducationEducation for Liberty (freedom)

• The heart and soul of a truly liberal education
  is the ability to look critically at the
  prevalent beliefs, to free yourself from slavish
  devotion to public opinion, to weigh opinions in
  the balance, and determine what is truly good.
• We may believe that freedom and equality are
  good. Can we justify this belief? Can we give a
  thorough, persuasive, rational argument for their
  defence?

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• Government and ideology reciprocally
  relatedeach causes and is caused by the other
• Living in a democracy will tend to make you
  democratic (a lover of equality and freedom)

8
Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia,
1781-1782

• It is more difficult for a native to bring to
  that standard the manners of his own nation,
  familiarized to him by habit. There must
  doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners
  of our people produced by the existence of
  slavery among us. The whole commerce between
  master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the
  most boisterous passions, the most unremitting
  despotism on the one part, and degrading
  submissions on the other. Our children see this,
  and learn to imitate it for man is an imitative
  animal. This quality is the germ of all education
  in him. From his cradle to his grave he is
  learning to do what he sees others do. If a
  parent could find no motive either in his
  philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining
  the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it
  should always be a sufficient one that his child
  is present. But generally it is not sufficient.
  The parent storms, the child looks on, catches
  the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in
  the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to
  his worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated,
  and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be
  stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man
  must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and
  morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with
  what execration should the statesman be loaded,
  who permitting one half the citizens thus to
  trample on the rights of the other, transforms
  those into despots, and these into enemies,
  destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor
  patriae of the other.
• http//etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JefVir
  g.html

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Typologies of governmentAristotles Typology

• For the common good (in the interests of the
  ruler and the ruled)
• Monarchy (rule by one best person)
• Aristocracy (rule by few best (aristos)
• Polity (combines principles of aristocracy and
  democracy)

• In the interests of the ruler
• Tyranny (rule by one in his own interest)
• Oligarchy (rule by few rich)
• Democracy (rule by the many poor)

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• For Aristotle, the permanent factions in any
  regime are the many poor and the few rich.
• Each has a partially legitimate claim to rule,
  but each also believes its partial view of
  justice is the complete view.
• Note Aristotle favours neither the poor nor the
  rich completelyeach side has something to
  contribute, and you can never do away with either
  one or the other. They are always present.
• nothing prevents the multitude from being at
  some point better than the few and wealthier
  Politics, 1283b33

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• Polity the Greek word for constitution. the
  rule of the many is good only if it is exercised
  within a fixed constitutional framework
  (textbook, chp.16).

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Modern Typology

• Liberal Democratic
• Transitional Democracies
• Autocratic (Authoritarian, Totalitarian)

• Parliamentary/ Presidential/Hybrid Forms
• Unitary State/Devolution/ Federalism/Confederation

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Comparison of the two typologies

• Aristotles
• Ranks regimes from best to worst (concerned with
  their goodness)
• Concentrates on who rules (the character of the
  rulers)
• Focus is on the polis, so not concerned with
  unitary vs Federalism questions

• Modern
• Is not explicitly concerned with better/worse
  comparison (Fact/Value distinction?).
• Concerned with Institutions (presidential vs
  parliamentary)
• Looks at division of power in large states
  (federalism, etc.)

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• Perhaps we need to combine the two typologies to
  arrive at a complete political science?

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Chapter 17Liberal Democracy
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• Democracy direct democracy has frequently been
  regarded as dangerous
• Plato freedom taken too far ends up in
  licentiousness, softness, inability to defend
  oneself or ones liberty (too much liberty
  destroys liberty)
• Aristotle it leads to the insecurity of property
• John Stuart Mill democracy can become the
  tyranny of the majority and abuse the rights of
  the minority.
• Alexis de Tocqueville The desire for equality
  can go in one of two waysa desire to raise
  everyone up equally to a high standard, or it can
  lower everyone equally to a low standard and
  suppress excellence.

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• To be legitimate, democracy must be united with
• constitutionalism,
• rule of law,
• liberty under law,
• and the limited state. (textbook, chp17)
• Democracy operates according to majority rule,
  but it does not necessarily declare that the
  majority is always correct.

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Liberal democracy

• Liberal democracy the system of government in
  which the people rule themselves, either directly
  or indirectly (through chosen officials) . .
  .subject to constitutional restraints on the
  power of the majority.
• Freedom is made possible by the rule of law.

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• Chief characteristics of democracy
• Majority rule
• Freedom
• Problem Freedom is made possible by the rule of
  law (which minimizes arbitrary rule and
  coercion), but as Aristotle saw, majority rule
  may or may not be lawful (text, chp.17)

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• The Theory of Liberalism in the Founding of the
  United States
• The Oldest Written Constitution
• Highly influential around the world
• Had to address these problems of democracy
• They wanted freedom, democracy, and stability.
  Can these be combined?

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Key Features of Liberal Democracy

• Rule of Law,
• Constitutionalism
• Limited Government
• ____________
• Equality of Political Rights
• Majority Rule
• Political participation
• Political freedom

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1. Equality of Political Rights

• Right to elect the government
• The history of the expansion of the suffrage
  (vote) summarized in the textbook the movement
  is to greater and greater political equality.
• Property franchise in Canada between 1837-1860s
  was only 40 shillings which meant that almost
  every adult male could vote.
• The British North American colonies (Canada) had
  a broader franchise than Britain at the time
  (C.Moore, 1867, 171).

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• Oddly enough. . .it was the advocates of
  responsible government and a broad franchise who
  were most reluctant to remove the last vestiges
  of a property requirement. The vote was nearly
  sacred to reformers they resisted giving it to
  those who, they felt, neither earned it nor cared
  how they exercised it. . .George Brown defended
  token limits to exclude the unconcerned and
  uncommitted (Christopher Moore, 1867 How the
  Fathers Made a Deal, 172).

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• Voting is now a protected Charter Right
• 1993 Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the right
  of prisoners to vote

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2. Majority Rule

• a convention which makes practical sense in a
  democracy.
• Adjusting the majority rule principle is
  legitimate (nothing sacred about 50 plus one)
• Plurality Winning with less than 50
  percentoccurs when candidates with the most
  votes win an election and you have at least three
  candidates running.

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• Qualified majority
• Needing a super-majority (more than 50 percent)
  Constitutional amendments, etc.
• (requiring unanimity would give too much power to
  a small minority)
• Concurrent Majority
• Requiring majorities in two separate voting
  bodies (some laws in Canada East and Canada West
  1840-1867)
• Bicameral (two house) systems (e.g. Canada, US)
  require concurrent majority

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3. Political Participation

• Direct democracy
• Representative democracy
• Elected officials are unresponsive
• Solutions?
• Referendum vote directly on legislation,
  amendment, etc
• Plebiscite nonbinding, advisory referendum
• Initiative citizens petition forcing the
  government to take up an issue
• Recall enable voters to remove an elected
  official from office.

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• The move to direct democracy is questionable,
  however.
• Representative democracy is not just a second
  best substitute for direct democracy, made
  necessary by the size of modern states rather it
  is a mechanism for achieving the consensus that
  is essential to good government (Dickerson and
  Flanagan)

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4. Political Freedom

• Freedom to oppose government peacefully, within
  the rule of law
• When opposition in a liberal democracy resorts to
  unlawful means. . .its actions are not compatible
  with political freedom in a liberal democracy.
• Free press, freedom to associate and form parties
  (factions?),

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US Declaration

• Original Draft of Declaration
• Final Draft

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Original Draft Declaration of the United States
32

• Jeffersons condemnation of slavery is removed by
  southern (slave-holding) states
• He has waged cruel war against human nature
  itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life
  and liberty in the persons of a distant people
  who never offended him, captivating carrying
  them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to
  incur miserable death in their transportation
  thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium of
  INFIDEL Powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN
  king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a
  market where MEN should be bought sold, he has
  prostituted his negative for suppressing every
  legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain
  this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage
  of horrors might want no fact of distinguished
  die, he is now exciting those very people to rise
  in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of
  which he has deprived them, by murdering the
  people on whom he also obtruded them thus paying
  off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES
  of one people, with crimes which he urges them to
  commit against the LIVES of another.

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• The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen
  ColoniesIn CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
• The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united
  States of America,
• When in the Course of human events, it becomes
  necessary for one people to dissolve the
  political bands which have connected them with
  another, and to assume among the powers of the
  earth, the separate and equal station to which
  the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
  them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
  requires that they should declare the causes
  which impel them to the separation.
• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
  men are created equal, that they are endowed by
  their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
  that among these are Life, Liberty and the
  pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these
  rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
  deriving their just powers from the consent of
  the governed, --That whenever any Form of
  Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
  is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
  it, and to institute new Government, laying its
  foundation on such principles and organizing its
  powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
  likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
  long established should not be changed for light
  and transient causes and accordingly all
  experience hath shewn, that mankind are more
  disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
  than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
  to which they are accustomed. But when a long
  train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
  invariably the same Object evinces a design to
  reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their
  right, it is their duty, to throw off such
  Government, and to provide new Guards for their
  future security. Such has been the patient
  sufferance of these Colonies and such is now the
  necessity which constrains them to alter their
  former Systems of Government. The history of the
  present King of Great Britain George III is a
  history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
  having in direct object the establishment of an
  absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove
  this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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Preamble to the US Constitution

• We the people of the United States, in order (1)
  to form a more perfect union, (2) establish
  justice, (3) insure domestic tranquility, (4)
  provide for the common defence, (5) promote the
  general welfare, and (6) secure the blessings of
  liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain
  and establish this constitution for the United
  States of America.

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Federalist Paper 9

• US Constitution, Why study it?
• first written constitution establish a liberal
  democratic regime. Survives as the oldest,
  functioning written constitution.
• Federalist Papers, written as newspaper articles
  in Fall of 1787 (consider what sort of audience
  this mist have been).
• Addressed primarily to state of New York, the
  Constitutional Convention there would be
  decisive.
• Raises theoretical and practical difficulties
  with establishing a free and stable government.

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• Written principally by Alexander Hamilton and
  James Madison. Two of the 85 essays written by
  John Jay.
• Purpose, to explain, defend, and promote the
  drafted Constitution (make it more likely it
  would be ratified by the people), but also to put
  forward this challenge

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• to decide whether men are really capable or not
  of establishing good government from reflection
  and choice, or whether societies of men are
  forever destined to depend for their political
  constitutions on accident and force (Federalist
  Paper 1).
• Like it or not, a similar question faces Iraq
  today

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Federalist Number 9

• The necessity of a firm union
• As a barrier against domestic faction.
• Why is faction such a big deal?
• petty republics of Greece and Rome oscillated
  between extremes of tyranny and anarchy
• From this evidence, enemies of the Constitution
  argue that all free government is inconsistent
  with order of society

39

• Recall what we had learned from John Locke and
  from Declaration of Independence.
• Legitimate government is based on consent, but we
  must consent to a form of government that is
  good (stable, decent, respects rights, etc.).

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Locke

• Men are by nature free and equal. . .there is no
  natural rule among them.
• Legitimate rule can be established only by
  consent.
• Men consent to be ruled for their own good . .
  .a rational creature cannot be supposed, when
  free, to put himself into subjection to another,
  for his own harm (XIV, par. 164).

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• Or, see the US Declaration the purpose of govt
  is to protect natural rights
• When any form of government becomes destructive
  of these ends, it is the right of the people to
  alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
  government, laying its foundation on such
  principles and organizing its power in such form
  as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
  safety and happiness.

42

• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• The Charter guarantees the rights and freedoms
  set out in it subject only to such reasonable
  limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably
  justified in a free and democratic society.
• Sec.7 Everyone has the right to life, liberty
  and security of the person and the right not to
  be deprived thereof except in accordance with the
  principles of fundamental justice.

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• If pure Democracy oscillates between extremes,
  it is not capable of protecting these rights. It
  is not a form of government we should consent to.
• Paradox we should democratically consent to be
  ruled by something other than a direct democracy.
• Hence liberal democracy Democracy becomes a
  legitimate form of government only when it is
  united with the traditional Western ideals of
  constitutionalism, rule of law, liberty under the
  law, and the limited state (textbook, chp17)

44
Federalist 9

• So, it would have been useless to propose a free
  and democratic form of government for the US
  unless there had been some improvements made in
  the science of politics.

45
Five improvements

• Regular distribution of power into distinct
  departments less distinct in Canada
• Legislative checks and balances (bicammeral
  house, presidential veto) fewer institutional
  checks in Canada Senate is perfunctory, GG is
  figurehead, executive (Prime Minister) is a
  member of the legislature
• Independent judiciary Canada, yes
• Representation of the people Canada, yes
• Enlargement of the orbit (big states and big
  country) Canada, obviously yes

46

• The last improvement is most novel
• It will combine the strengths of monarchy with
  the advantages of republic
• It will also help repress domestic faction

47
Federalist Paper 10

• But if the point is to prevent or repress
  faction, how does the new liberal democracy solve
  that?
• A well constructed union will break and control
  the violence of faction
• Perhaps factions will always exist. So can we
  break their tendency to violence?
• The cure for faction must not violate the
  principles of liberty

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• The recent history of the state government
  demonstrates that tyranny of majority is the
  problem (majority faction).
• Faction a number of citizens, either a minority
  or majority, united and actuated (moved) by some
  common impulse of passions, or of interest,
  adverse to the rights others or to the common
  good.

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Two methods to cure faction

• Remove its cause
• Control its effects

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Two Ways to Remove Faction

• 1. Destroy liberty
• This cure is worse than the disease it violates
  the purpose for which govt is formed.
• 2. Give to every citizen the same opinions,
  passions, and interests.

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Problems with Number Two

• Mans reason is fallible
• hence different opinions will be formed.
• Our reasons is connected with our self-love we
  love the things we make, including our own
  opinions, even erroneous opinions
• We begin to be passionately attached to our
  opinions so, its hard to get wide-spread
  agreement

52

• The faculties of men differ we are not equal in
  all respects
• It is from these faculties that the rights of
  property originate see John Locke, Second
  Treatise, chp.v On Property
• Govt must protect these faculties (and, hence,
  protect private property)
• From this protection there will arise different
  degrees and kinds of property.
• Property influences the sentiments and views of
  the property holders, generating different
  interest and parties e.g. farmers, steel
  workers, teachers, doctors, artists.

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Conclusion

• The latent causes of faction are sown in the
  nature of man
• Madison now throws religion into the mix,
  heretofore absent in the discussion. Religious
  factions are and have been potent in the past.
  See John Locke, Letter Concerning Toleration.
• Yet, cause of the most common and durable source
  of faction? Unequal distribution of property.
  Aristotles permanent factions Few Rich and Many
  Poor

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• Inference to be drawn from this?
• The causes of faction cannot be removed
• You can only control the effects of faction

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Controlling the Effects

• Majority vote works well when the faction is a
  minority (and preserves the democratic principle)
• But when the majority is the faction the form of
  popular government enables it to sacrifice the
  public good to its passion and interest.

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• The Big Question
• How do you secure public good and private rights
  against the danger of faction while preserving
  the spirit and the form of popular government?
• Solution
• Ensure the majority does not combine to have the
  same interest, or passion
• Or, when they do, make it difficult for the
  majority to concert and carry into effect
  schemes of oppression.

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• Therefore, pure democracy can admit of no cure
  for the mischief of faction
• It is already ruled by the majority, and
  communication and concert result from the very
  form of government
• This is why such democracies have always been. .
  .incompatible with personal security or the
  rights of property.
• Equality of political rights never leads to
  equality of possessions, opinions, and passions.

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How a Republic Differs from Democracy

• Uses (elected) representatives
• It Refines and enlarges public views
• Most people are better at choosing a good
  representative than being a good representative
  themselves

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How a Republic Differs from Democracy

• This scheme of representation allows the country
  and population to be larger and, therefore, more
  diverse.
• The smaller the society, the smaller the number
  of diverse interests (more likely a majority will
  find a common motive)
• Extended sphere takes in more parties and
  interests
• Larger territory means it is more difficult to
  act in unison