Standards of Democracy

1. Standards of Democracy • Start with rights, institutions, and procedures enable individuals and groups to make views know and select leaders/public officials • Civil liberties/civil rights = freedom of speech, assembly, press, absence of discriminatory barriers to participation • Structures of government, institutions, and mechanisms by which policy is made • How patterns of inequality affect democracy and disparities in income, wealth, life chances • Dahl’s question: how does “democratic” system work amid inequality of resources • Politics of power = formal rules and rights + whether citizens have equal chances to influence/control decisions that effect them (substance of democracy)

2. Democracy in practice • Widespread participation in decision making • Absence of restrictions on who gets to participate and fair terms of participation • Inclusive representation of interests, values, beliefs of citizens • Democracy = rule by the many, not privileged few • Effective, extensive citizen involvement • US history = originally property restrictions; 19th amendment, women gained right to vote; (15th amendment, 1870 displaced by Jim Crow); voting rights act of 1965; 26th amendment (18 years-old) • Democratization in U.S. = constitutional government became increasingly democratic (result of struggles to widen franchise, rights)

3. Political representation • Representative democracy = we elect persons to re-present our views, to make laws that serve particular and general interests, and who face re-election • Key questions: • Do representative reflect characteristics of persons they represent, or is their systematic bias in terms of class, race, ethnicity, sex, religion? • Are representatives aware of and responsive to constituents’ concerns? How do those who rule use their power? Do representatives perceive their constituents’ preferences, and do they act of their behalf, and do they do so effectively? • How does a “democratic” system work amid inequality of resources? (High degrees of inequality stand as a barrier to full achievement of democracy in which all citizens have relatively equal chances to influence the making of decisions that affect them.)

4. Political change • U.S. as lone superpower, more interconnected, unpredictable world • Military power unrivaled • Biggest, most powerful economy • Extraordinary influence in international affairs • Increasing interdependence increases American power and vulnerability • Politics more polarized • Parties more divided; voters more fixed ideologically; elections determined by small shifts in middle • Partisan realignment of south (shaped by divisions of class, race, and culture) • Economic crisis • Questions regarding virtues of markets and promise of government

5. Discussion questions • Tension between democracy and capitalism, manner in which formal, legal equality and real, substantive inequality interact, principle subject of textbook • How interplay of democracy and capitalism shape politics is key question • Critical thinking questions • How much inequality based on class, race, or gender is consistent with democracy? • Does citizenship exclusively include civil and political rights, or does it also include social rights? If so, what are they? • Is power the capacity of some to get others to do what they want, or ability of whole society to achieve goals citizens have in common?