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    Popular Democracy
    Popular Democracy
    Popular Democracy
    Ebook101 pages1 hour

    Popular Democracy

    By Philip Tether

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    About this ebook

    POPULAR DEMOCRACY. This is the third in a series of texts on government and politics designed for students and the general reader (see author's other publications for a full list of titles). This book continues the series with an in-depth examination of majoritarian democracy and its central, core tenet - the 'sovereignty of the people' and all that that implies for political structures, processes and priorities. The text opens with a clear statement of Aims and Learning Outcomes to give clarity and direction to your reading. The subsequent text is then divided into easy-to-read sections on:
    Democracy and liberty
    One person, one vote, one value
    Democracy and voter participation
    Democracy and technology
    Direct and representative democracy
    Maximalist and minimalist views of democracy
    Electoral systems
    Who represents whom?
    It concludes with:
    Democracy – concepts and principles: a summary
    Review questions
    References
    The material is carefully designed to equip the reader with a basic political vocabulary, an appreciation of the significance of politics as an important, pervasive and irreplaceable activity involving us all and a comprehensive understanding of the structures, principles and processes of popular, majoritarian democracy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Tether
    Release dateDec 17, 2015
    ISBN9781311845948
    Popular Democracy
    Author

    Philip Tether

    Philip Tether has taught government and politics for over thirty years at a number of higher education institutions in the UK. During this time he has taught a wide variety of students and supervised many Masters dissertations and PhD theses. He has set and marked government and politics papers for a variety of examination boards. He has published extensively on a variety of political topics with particular emphasis on the politics of health including alcohol and HIV-AIDS and his current research interest is the business – government relationship. Philip Tether enjoys the theatre, cinema and walking the dogs. You will sometimes find him in the garden.

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      Book preview

      Popular Democracy - Philip Tether

      POPULAR DEMOCRACY

      Copyright 2015 Dr. Philip Tether

      Published by Dr. Philip Tether at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Cover design © Bob Croft

      Technical advice, layout and formatting by Bob Croft

      For further information or help designing and creating e-books contact:

      bob.croft1@gmail.com

      Table of Contents

      The Purpose of Politics - this book series

      Aims and Learning Outcomes

      Democracy and liberty.

      One person, one vote, one value

      Democracy and voter participation

      Democracy and technology

      Direct and representative democracy

      Maximalist and minimalist views of democracy

      Electoral systems

      Who represents whom?

      Democracy – concepts and principles: a summary

      Review questions

      References

      About Dr. Philip Tether

      Other books by Dr. Philip Tether

      Connect with Dr. Philip Tether

      Popular Democracy

      Dr. Philip Tether

      This is No 3 in a series of introductory texts each addressing an aspect of politics. The current and forthcoming title list is shown below. They are free-standing but link together to present a multi-layered analysis of the ideas, structures, people and processes which go to shape the world of politics. The author has taught government and politics in various higher education institutions for over thirty years. The focus is largely but not exclusively on the United Kingdom (UK). Where appropriate, examples and illustrations are drawn from around the world. The material is designed to be accessible to interested readers and students at all levels from beginners to university students. ‘Aims,’ ‘Contents’ and ‘Learning Outcomes’ are specified at the start of every text and each concludes with an overview summary and a set of review questions for independent learning.

      The current title list includes:

      No 1: The Purpose of Politics

      No 2: Political Systems

      No 3: Popular Democracy

      No 4: Liberal Democracy

      No 5: Political Ideology and the Liberal Centre

      No 6: Political Ideology: Politics on the Right

      Forthcoming titles are planned:

      No 7: Political Ideology: Politics on the Left

      No 8: The European Union (EU)

      No 9: Global Governance

      Aims

      No. 1 and No. 2 in this series of introductory texts on politics examined the nature of politics and political systems – the software and hardware of politics respectively. The aim of this text is to describe and analyse one particular type of political system – democracy. The word is familiar and it is constantly used (and sometimes abused) in the media and daily conversation but what is it, where does it come from and how do we do it? In this introductory analysis, the emphasis is on a core concept which takes us to the heart of the idea of democracy – the ‘sovereignty of the people’ with all that this concept entails in terms of voting, political involvement and selecting representatives. Remember though, popular democracy is not liberal-democracy – the concepts overlap but are distinct. The complicated notion of liberal-democracy is examined in the next text (No 4) in this series.

      Contents

      Democracy and Liberty

      One person, one vote, one value

      Democracy and voter participation

      Democracy and technology

      Direct and representative democracy

      Maximalist and minimalist views of democracy

      Electoral systems

      Who represents whom?

      Democracy – concepts and principles: a summary

      Review questions

      References

      Learning outcomes

      After reading this text you should be able to understand and discuss:

      * The relationship of democracy and liberty.

      * The importance of voting in a democracy.

      * Electoral systems – types, features and merits.

      * The notion of the ‘sovereignty of the people’.

      * The difference between the maximum and the minimum views of democracy.

      * The differences between direct and indirect (representative) democracy.

      * Whether or not representatives should reflect the characteristics of those whom they represent.

      At the end of this text you will find a selection of review questions to test your understanding of these learning outcomes.

      Democracy and liberty.

      The first powerful but incomplete examples of democracy are found in ancient Greece. They were incomplete because they excluded women, slaves and non-residents from voting. In contrast, modern democracy is built on the ‘sovereignty of the people’ - all of the people -(excepting, in the UK, members of the House of Lords, prisoners and in the language of the legislation ‘idiots’ and ‘lunatics’ when not ‘lucid’) expressed through universal adult suffrage. The people make and unmake governments. Modern democracies are very modern - there was no independent nation state with universal suffrage in 1900. However, democracy has spread rapidly and widely in the intervening century.

      At the end of the twentieth century a survey claimed that 118 countries encompassing 54.8 per cent of the world’s population were ‘democratic’ (Zakaria 1997). However, there are degrees of freedom. The Freedom House is a US-based organisation which was originally established in 1941 to promote democratic ideals. From 1973 onwards it has published annual reviews of freedom around the world classifying countries as ‘free’, ‘partly free’ and ‘not free’. These surveys showed the numbers of ‘free’ and ‘partly free’ countries improving in the late 1980s and 1990s largely due to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communist regimes supported by the Soviet Union. However, the situation has deteriorated from 2005 onwards.

      "According to the survey’s findings, 2010 was the fifth consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline – the longest period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-year history of the report. These declines threaten gains dating to the post-Cold War era in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the former Soviet bloc. The latest survey highlights the

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