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