Chapter 2: States and Democracy §

(F) Day of the week: Thursday Class: IS307 Created Time: April 1, 2021 1:56 AM Database: Class Notes Database Date: April 1, 2021 1:56 AM Days Till Date: Passed Last Edited Time: July 29, 2021 4:04 PM Type: Lecture, Reading Notes

To be discussed:

Democracy: having mass public participate in political decisions

Hard to have everyone participate

• Elected representatives of people
• How accountable are they to the citizens
• Complications that must be resolved for a good democracy

Why study states? §

Increasing connectivity and amount of influential actors created by globalization has limited freedom of state to control it’s own affairs.

• UN
• EU
• MNCs

Should we pay less attention to states? §

No, states are still sovereign in their own territory however limited.

• help with financial crisis
• get rid of genocide

Why concentrate on democracies? §

We can compare and contrast groups of similar states

Problem: Many democracies are Eruopean, Anglo-Saxon and North American

• Over represented western countries

The Modern States and Democracy §

How do you differentiate between democracies and non-democracies? §

1. Citizen’s rights §

Human rights: right for everyone to free movement and self-determination

• speech & press
• religion & conscience
• assembly & association
• right to equal protection of law
• right to due process of law and to fair trail
• property rights to land, goods, and money

Rights allow people to compete politically without consequences

• there can be winners and losers in system of election

2. Election and parliamentary accountability §

Representative democracy: democracy in which citizens elect leaders who govern in their name.

• consent of citizens
• selected and replaced according to citizens

How did democratic states rise? §

Non-democratic states still resist to share power but number of democracies are rising

• First half of 1900 to second half of 1950s → 31% are living in democracies
• 21st century made even more democracies

Democracy value changes over time

• Democracy accepted as prefered way to organize states

Redistribution and welfare states §

As political freedom and democracy grows, the need of national identification by re-distributive policies also increase.

• Turns states into welfare states
• collecting taxes and redistributing to the poor

GDP per capital used to compare wealth between nations

States abandoned the laissez-faire policies and free-market after great depression

Public expenditure and revenue of states take up more and more of GDP

• To provide welfare for it’s citizens
• Industrialized countries are hard to come back down in expenditures

Theories of states and societies §

Political theories about states

• Normative Theories: what state should do
• Empirical Theories: what states actually do and why

This section is about empirical theories

Four approaches to relations between state and society

1. State Supremacy §

Etatism: means states have dominance over society and is independent of them

• Doesn’t reflect characteristics of broader society
• Reducing of social and individual rights

Debunk §

Relation between state and society is mutually interdependent

• state influence society and mold it
• society create state, give, and limit its powers

2. State Dependency §

State is dependent on society especially economics

Karl Marx : state is nothing more or less than a committee for managing the common affairs for the dominant class {#d38d8d}

• State is an instrument to strengthen power of capitalists

Turning to interdependent one §

Structural tension created by

• States supposed to protect free market to make profit but also to maintain social order and provide public services
  • Need to tax businesses to maintain society which reduces profit
• Increase in state activities: states perform lots of things but get little right

3. Inter-dependency §

Society and state are mutually interdependent

• State very involved in social and economic regulations
• Society has become so complex it need state co-ordination for regulation and arbitration.

capitalists argue mutual dependency between state and major economic interest groups

• traditional variant: trade unions & employer associations negotiate directly with states about economic policies
• More variety of social groups making and implementing public policy of all kinds

4. Separation and autonomy §

State and society are distinct and autonomous areas

• Social forces create social groups which cannot be regulated by state
• State cannot be captured by any interest or social class

For states to overstep these rules would be breach of democracy