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Chapter 4 - Democracy and Dictatorship, Conceptualization and Measurements

  • Although there is widespread agreement that democracy is the best form of government, this has not always been the case. Indeed, democracy was widely seen as an out-of-date system that was both hazardous and unstable throughout his time.

  • This chapter examines the problems that occur when social scientists attempt to conceptualize and measure abstract political processes. In the framework of democracy and tyranny, we do so. What distinguishes a democracy from a dictatorship?

  • Democracy became a good thing in fifty years.” Democracy has only lately come to be recognized as a political system worthy of championing and exporting throughout the world. As a result, we'll start this chapter by looking at how the meaning and attraction of democracy have evolved throughout time.

Democracy and Dictatorship in Historical Perspective

  • During the second part of the twentieth century, the word "democracy" came to have a very favorable meaning. Even countries that are commonly regarded as dictatorships have expressed support for democracy and merely changed their definition of the term so that it may be used to their style of government.

  • The first arguments about the advantages of various systems of government, including democracy, may be traced back to Persia around 520 BC. 1 Plato and Aristotle, on the other hand, may have been the first to think methodically about the many shapes that governments may take.

5.1

  • What are the distinction between a government, a regime, and a state? Despite the fact that these phrases are frequently used interchangeably, they relate to different entities. The state, as we saw in the last chapter, is an entity that rules a region by coercion and the threat of force.

  • In a broad sense, the government is the group of individuals in charge of the state or who have the ability to act on its behalf at any given time. Governments, in other words, are the mechanism through which state authority is exercised. President Barack Obama, King Abdullah of the Saud dynasty, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan, for example, led the governments of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Japan in 2011. Governments come and go, whereas nations are typically stable over time.

  • Consider the following two examples to bring all of these definitions together. Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956, and the Tunisian state was established in its current form. From 1956 to 1987, Tunisia was ruled by a civilian dictatorship, and from 1987 to 2011, it was ruled by a military dictatorship. President Habib Bourguiba headed the Tunisian government from 1956 to 1987, and President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali governed it from 1987 to 2011.

  • Aristotle was concerned that any of the excellent types of governance may be corrupted, with the common good being substituted by the rulers' good. A tyrant would emerge from a corrupted monarchy, an oligarchy would emerge from a corrupted aristocracy, and democracy would emerge from a corrupted politeia.

5.2

  • It wasn't until after World War I that autocracies were generally referred to as dictatorships. Dictatorships have not always been seen negatively throughout history. Although the terms tyranny, despotism, and autocracy have always had negative connotations, dictatorships do not. From 500 BC until the third century AD, a "dictator" was an unusual Roman magistrate appointed under extreme emergency circumstances. This magistrate or dictator was appointed only for the sake of carrying out the unusual duty that had been assigned to him.

  • During the French Revolution (1789), this scenario began to shift as the two opposing parties in the struggle consolidated their positions around the division between the aristocracy and the people. From this point on, the modern concept of democracy began to take on many of the qualities that we are acquainted with today.

Classifying Democracies and Dictatorships

  • As political scientists, we frequently seek to know why certain nations are democracies while others are dictatorships, what variables impact democratic survival, and whether democracies or dictatorships yield superior economic results. We need to be able to quantify democracy and designate nations as democratic or authoritarian in order to answer these issues.

  • Dahl highlighted two dimensions for categorizing political regimes as being particularly important: contestation and inclusion. Citizens' freedom to organize themselves into competing blocs in order to advocate for the policies and outcomes they want is referred to as contestation. Freedom to create political parties, freedom of expression and assembly, and the extent to which leaders are selected in free and fair elections are all examples of contestation.

  • The former Soviet Union is an example of a country with high levels of inclusion due to the fact that everyone was able to vote and participate, but low levels of competition due to the fact that there was only one political party. Because there is just one party and no elections above the local level, China has low levels of inclusion and participation.

  • Due to multiparty elections, Liechtenstein pre-1984, Switzerland pre-1971, and France pre-1945 experienced high levels of contestation, but only modest levels of inclusion because universal suffrage only applied to men.

  • Another reason for his preference for the term polyarchy was that he did not believe that any large country had, or could have, sufficient levels of contestation or inclusion to be considered a true democracy—countries could be closer or farther away from the ideal type of democracy, but they could never reach it.

  • Although there is widespread agreement that democracy is the best form of government, this has not always been the case. Indeed, democracy was widely seen as an out-of-date system that was both hazardous and unstable throughout his time.

  • This chapter examines the problems that occur when social scientists attempt to conceptualize and measure abstract political processes. In the framework of democracy and tyranny, we do so. What distinguishes a democracy from a dictatorship?

  • Democracy became a good thing in fifty years.” Democracy has only lately come to be recognized as a political system worthy of championing and exporting throughout the world. As a result, we'll start this chapter by looking at how the meaning and attraction of democracy have evolved throughout time.

Democracy and Dictatorship in Historical Perspective

  • During the second part of the twentieth century, the word "democracy" came to have a very favorable meaning. Even countries that are commonly regarded as dictatorships have expressed support for democracy and merely changed their definition of the term so that it may be used to their style of government.

  • The first arguments about the advantages of various systems of government, including democracy, may be traced back to Persia around 520 BC. 1 Plato and Aristotle, on the other hand, may have been the first to think methodically about the many shapes that governments may take.

5.1

  • What are the distinction between a government, a regime, and a state? Despite the fact that these phrases are frequently used interchangeably, they relate to different entities. The state, as we saw in the last chapter, is an entity that rules a region by coercion and the threat of force.

  • In a broad sense, the government is the group of individuals in charge of the state or who have the ability to act on its behalf at any given time. Governments, in other words, are the mechanism through which state authority is exercised. President Barack Obama, King Abdullah of the Saud dynasty, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan, for example, led the governments of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Japan in 2011. Governments come and go, whereas nations are typically stable over time.

  • Consider the following two examples to bring all of these definitions together. Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956, and the Tunisian state was established in its current form. From 1956 to 1987, Tunisia was ruled by a civilian dictatorship, and from 1987 to 2011, it was ruled by a military dictatorship. President Habib Bourguiba headed the Tunisian government from 1956 to 1987, and President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali governed it from 1987 to 2011.

  • Aristotle was concerned that any of the excellent types of governance may be corrupted, with the common good being substituted by the rulers' good. A tyrant would emerge from a corrupted monarchy, an oligarchy would emerge from a corrupted aristocracy, and democracy would emerge from a corrupted politeia.

5.2

  • It wasn't until after World War I that autocracies were generally referred to as dictatorships. Dictatorships have not always been seen negatively throughout history. Although the terms tyranny, despotism, and autocracy have always had negative connotations, dictatorships do not. From 500 BC until the third century AD, a "dictator" was an unusual Roman magistrate appointed under extreme emergency circumstances. This magistrate or dictator was appointed only for the sake of carrying out the unusual duty that had been assigned to him.

  • During the French Revolution (1789), this scenario began to shift as the two opposing parties in the struggle consolidated their positions around the division between the aristocracy and the people. From this point on, the modern concept of democracy began to take on many of the qualities that we are acquainted with today.

Classifying Democracies and Dictatorships

  • As political scientists, we frequently seek to know why certain nations are democracies while others are dictatorships, what variables impact democratic survival, and whether democracies or dictatorships yield superior economic results. We need to be able to quantify democracy and designate nations as democratic or authoritarian in order to answer these issues.

  • Dahl highlighted two dimensions for categorizing political regimes as being particularly important: contestation and inclusion. Citizens' freedom to organize themselves into competing blocs in order to advocate for the policies and outcomes they want is referred to as contestation. Freedom to create political parties, freedom of expression and assembly, and the extent to which leaders are selected in free and fair elections are all examples of contestation.

  • The former Soviet Union is an example of a country with high levels of inclusion due to the fact that everyone was able to vote and participate, but low levels of competition due to the fact that there was only one political party. Because there is just one party and no elections above the local level, China has low levels of inclusion and participation.

  • Due to multiparty elections, Liechtenstein pre-1984, Switzerland pre-1971, and France pre-1945 experienced high levels of contestation, but only modest levels of inclusion because universal suffrage only applied to men.

  • Another reason for his preference for the term polyarchy was that he did not believe that any large country had, or could have, sufficient levels of contestation or inclusion to be considered a true democracy—countries could be closer or farther away from the ideal type of democracy, but they could never reach it.