Comparative Politics - How Do Democracies Function?

Introduction to Comparative Politics
Lecture 02: Assessing the Quality of Democracy

Part II: How do Democracies Function?

This two-part lecture is offered as the first real study in my Introduction to Comparative Politics class. Here we spend two days looking at what a democracy is and how it functions.

This second part examines how democracies function on a day-to-day basis. What makes some democracies work better than others? Why do voters in one state care about certain issues while voters in another state care about others? What is the role of the public beyond participating in periodic elections? What is the role of a state bureaucracy?

These questions are addressed through an examination of Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan's work Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, one of the leading works on democracy and good governance in the late 1990s, and a series of readings I still assign my Introduction to Comparative Politics class.

This lecture also looks at the potential dangers of democracy, emphasizing that the rule of the majority can oftentimes stifle dissent and relegate alternative thoughts to the periphery. In examining this, we look at a passage from Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, written in the early 19th century, and note how distension and deviation from the hegemonic norms of thought are penalized worse than in any non-democratic authoritarian state.

Whereas dissention in an authoritarian state lands one in jail, or worse executed, such actions run the risk of turning one into a martyr. In democracies, political elites through their allies in media and ability to sway public opinion may succeed in stifling extremist thought, but can also use that power to demonize anyone or any group with ideas and visions that can actually improve the system as well.

This understanding of democracy takes a lot more time to explain, but this is the nature of how developed democracies work. Knowing this, we can better understand how certain states work.

Michael Rossi
Rutgers University
Department of Political Science

Recorded January 27, 2017

Видео Comparative Politics - How Do Democracies Function? канала Michael Rossi Poli Sci