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Democracy, Citizenship and Constitutions

Lecture 1

What is Democracy?

Democratic	Undemocratic
Parlimentary Free elections proportional representation written constitution universal suffiage political parties regular elections independant judiciacy	Hereditary rulers focade constitution consultative legislative No elections Denial of civil rights No political parties No formal legislative

Legislative, free regular elections and political parties are all institutions and processes of democracy. Equality to participate (citizenship), political parties are multi-issued and allowed to critque each other. Voting is a collective decision of the people.

Schumpeter - He saw democracy as an elitist institution. He views the limitation of the number of people who can partisipate in government as characteristics of this elitism. Schumpeter argues against the utilitarian ideal of democracy that held the presence of ultimate collective goal of the society and that democracy is a way to attain that goal through the direct rule by the people themselves. Schumpeter sees the people as only giving legitimacy to the regime through elections.

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