Tags & Description
Fareed Zakaria
thinker on international relations who wrote on the definition of illiberal democracies
Illiberal democracy
democratically elected regimes that ignore the constitutional limits on power and deprive citizens of bais rights
Constitutional liberalism
defense of individual's right to life, property, freedom of religion, speech through checks and balances, equality under the law, separation of church and state, and impartial courts
Francis Fukuyama
thinker on international relations who writes on liberalism and the interaction with democracy as the will of the people
Liberalism
rule of law, system of formal rules that restrict the power of the executive, even if they are democratically elected (Fukuyama)
Liberal institutions
protect democratic process by limiting executive power, thus when they are eroded so is democracy as a process
Gerrymandering
process of eroding democracy by which political parties in power draw congressional districts to their advantage
Baka v Hungary
the ECHR grand chamber ruled that Hungary had violated the rights of the former President of the Supreme Court after he criticized the judicial reforms to remove checks on the governments, expressed the importance of procedural fairness, which he did not have
Procedural fairness
standards one must comply with when making a decision, to give all parties a possibility to make clear their point of view (ex: denied in Baka v Hungary)
Zurek v Poland
defendant had criticized changes to the judiciary implemented by the legislative, he was prematurely removed from office and targeted in campaigns to silence him, so ECHR ruled in his favor in this case
Grezda v Poland
case in which the ECHR ruled that the impossibility of judicial review was a violation of the right to access a court, and that intent to silence was a freedom of speech
Putin on liberalism
called it an "obsolete doctrine", continues to assault freedom of speech and checks of power, evident through numerous rulings in the ECHR before withdrawing from the Council of Europe
French voter turnout
in the recent 2022 election, voting participation has been decreasing, and so has the amount of people who show up to vote but submit a blank ballot
Representation of elected officials
inaccurate based on class, most come from upper social class and have politics as a profession
women are underrepresented in politics, even after 2000 gender parity law
Representative democracy
citizens don't make decisions on public policy themselves, but elect representatives in the form of parliament, so minority groups must be heard
elections must be held at regular intervals to ensure reflection of preferences, either proportional or majoritarian
Majoritarian systems
first past the post system in single member constituencies
found in common-law systems ex. US, UK
designed to make clear majorities, usually 2-party system because of winner take all, thus formation of coalitions through alliances and trade-offs