scholarly journals Populist Government and Constitutional Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
Francesco Maria Scanni
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Government Function ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Harmful Effects

Until the first decade of the 21th century, scholars and reporters have identified contemporary populism as an element of anti-systemic revolt; furthermore, they have also recognized an incompatibility between populist phenomenon and government function. However, some recent cases of populist parties in power seem to be able to put into crisis more than one certainty regarding the nature and scope of the populist phenomenon. This observation raises the questions of this work: what harmful effects does populism in government produce on liberal institutions, pluralism, and representation in constitutional democracies? Do these effects merely erode the liberal component, or do they extend to produce a degeneration of democracy as a whole? And finally: what are the risks for democracy? The article corroborates the diarchic theories of democracy and aims to demonstrate the lack of compatibility between the principles of liberal democracy and populist principles, which have a negative impact not only on the liberal component, but also on the quality of democracy in its entirety.

scholarly journals Threat or Corrective? Assessing the Impact of Populist Parties in Government on the Qualities of Democracy: A 19-Country Comparison

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Davide Vittori
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Country Comparison ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Scholars have long debated whether populism harms or improves the quality of democracy. This article contributes to this debate by focusing on the impact of populist parties in government. In particular, it inquires: (1) whether populists in government are more likely than non-populists to negatively affect the quality of democracies; (2) whether the role of populists in government matters; and (3) which type of populism is expected to negatively affect the quality of liberal-democratic regimes. The results find strong evidence that the role of populists in government affects several qualities of democracy. While robust, the findings related to (2) are less clear-cut than those pertaining to (1). Finally, regardless of their role in government, different types of populism have different impacts on the qualities of democracy. The results show that exclusionary populist parties in government tend to have more of a negative impact than other forms of populism.

Freedom, Equality and the Quality of Democracy

2015 ◽  
pp. 1778-1804
Author(s):  
Thorsten D. Barth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Quintuple Helix ◽  
Essential Questions ◽  
Democratic Life

Freedom and equality are the content, the substance and the tension in a liberal democracy of today. Freedom and equality describe the design, stability and the quality of a democracy. Especially in a Quintuple Helix Model, the quality of democracy and sustainable development are closely related, because a high-quality democracy is a prerequisite for promoting sustainability in democracies. By investigating the quality of democracy this article develops two theses: 1.) Democracy with their quality rises or falls with the expression of freedom and/or equality; 2.) Democracy generates its stability from a balanced interaction between freedom and equality. With the concept of Democratic Life this article examines these two theses: Democratic Life as newly developed concept measures the quality of democracy with providing information about the type of a democracy and an approach to measure a democracy´s democratic development for the top 20 of the Democracy Ranking (2009). The central keys of the Democratic Life concept are the ‘Index of Classification' and the ‘Democratic-Life-Index', which are formed from an ‘Index of Freedom' and an ‘Index of Equality'. By empirical examination of the research question of Democratic Life two essential questions in the modern democratic theory can be investigated: 1.) How democratic is a democracy? 2.) How much freedom and equality does a liberal democracy need? The countries analyzed for the Democratic Life concept in this article are the United States, Australia, Sweden and Germany in comparison between 1995 and 2008. This degree of democratic quality will create a lot of problems towards developing sustainability in a democracy, because in the United States there is currently a big disparity between freedom and equality.

scholarly journals EU Policy on Deepening Liberal Democracy: A Case Study of the Baltic States

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Nataliia Khoma ◽  
Ihor Vdovychyn
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
The Eu

The issues of the EU’s activities concerning the quality of democracy in member states are studied. On the examples of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the effectiveness of EU projects to continue the liberal-democratic transformation in member states with a post-totalitarian past where the risk of regression of democracy remains, is assessed. The current goals of the EU are described as being insufficient in terms of properly preventing and counteracting the decline of the quality of democracy, as well as for inculcating the values of liberal democracy. The need to intensify the EU’s activities in the direction of monitoring the observance of democratic standards is explained by the stagnation/regression of the quality of democracy in the countries of the recent EU enlargements, including the Baltic States. The actions of the EU’s institutions towards member states, where democracy shows stagnation/regression, are assessed as inconsistent, due to the possible consequences of this destructive process. The EU’s lack of attention to strengthening the values on which the EU is based is emphasized, which is seen as the main reason for the present deterioration in the quality of democracy. The requirement to construct a new format of European democracy and new mechanisms to ensure its quality is highlighted.

Freedom, Equality and the Quality of Democracy

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten D. Barth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Essential Questions ◽  
Democratic Life

Freedom and equality are the content, the substance and the tension in a liberal democracy of today. Freedom and equality describe the design, stability and the quality of a democracy. Especially in a Quintuple Helix Model, the quality of democracy and sustainable development are closely related, because a high-quality democracy is a prerequisite for promoting sustainability in democracies. By investigating the quality of democracy this article develops two theses: 1.) Democracy with their quality rises or falls with the expression of freedom and/or equality; 2.) Democracy generates its stability from a balanced interaction between freedom and equality. With the concept of Democratic Life this article examines these two theses: Democratic Life as newly developed concept measures the quality of democracy with providing information about the type of a democracy and an approach to measure a democracy´s democratic development for the top 20 of the Democracy Ranking (2009). The central keys of the Democratic Life concept are the ‘Index of Classification’ and the ‘Democratic-Life-Index’, which are formed from an ‘Index of Freedom’ and an ‘Index of Equality’. By empirical examination of the research question of Democratic Life two essential questions in the modern democratic theory can be investigated: 1.) How democratic is a democracy? 2.) How much freedom and equality does a liberal democracy need? The countries analyzed for the Democratic Life concept in this article are the United States, Australia, Sweden and Germany in comparison between 1995 and 2008. This degree of democratic quality will create a lot of problems towards developing sustainability in a democracy, because in the United States there is currently a big disparity between freedom and equality.

scholarly journals Procedural quality only? Taiwanese democracy reconsidered

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 598-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-tzung Chang ◽  
Yun-han Chu ◽  
Min-hua Huang
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Considerable Progress ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Empirical Assessment ◽  
Comprehensive Method ◽  
Essential Properties

Over the last decade, a growing number of students of democracy have sought to develop means of framing and assessing the quality of democracy and identifying ways to improve the quality of democratic governance. In this article, we review the recent efforts to conceptualize and measure quality of democracy by way of introducing a comprehensive method for measuring some essential properties of liberal democracy. Next, we present an empirical assessment of the quality of democracy in Taiwan based on the sub-dimensions formulated by Morlino – specifically, rule of law, accountability, participation, competition, freedom, equality, and responsiveness. We find that in the areas of accountability, participation, and freedom, Taiwan has made considerable progress. However, Taiwan’s young democracy still has room for improvement in the areas of the rule of law, equality, and responsiveness.

scholarly journals Are Defenders of Liberal Democracy Its Gravediggers?

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-176
Author(s):  
Antoni Z. Kamiński ◽  
Bartłomiej K. Kamiński
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
International Environment

Recent years have witnessed the publication of a number of research papers and books seeking to assess threats of electoral victories of anti-establishment politicians and political parties, described as authoritarian populists. This essay focuses on three books directly addressing the origins and threats of authoritarian populism to democracy. It consists of six sections and the conclusion. The first section presents findings (Norris and Inglehart) based on surveys of values of voters of various age cohorts concluding that authoritarian populism is a temporary backlash provoked by the post-materialist perspective. The second section examines the contention, spelled out in Levitsky and Ziblatt, that increase in openness of American political system produced,  unintentionally, a degradation of the American political system. The third section continues brief presentations focusing on to the causes and implications of “illiberal democracy,” and “undemocratic liberalism” (Mounk). The fourth section examines developments in the quality of democracy in the world showing that despite the decline in Democracy Indices, overall there was no slide towards non-democratic forms of government in 2006–2019. The next two sections deal with dimensions missing in reviewed books; the notion of nation-state, international environment, civic culture and, in particular, dangers of radical egalitarianism to democracy. The last section concludes with regrets that the authors ignored rich literature on fragility of democracy and failed to incorporate in their analyses deeper structural factors eroding democracy: by the same token, return to the pre-populist shock trajectory is unlikely to assure survival of liberal democracy.

scholarly journals Hurricane or fresh breeze? Disentangling the populist effect on the quality of democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-408
Author(s):  
Andreas Juon ◽  
Daniel Bochsler
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Diverse World ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
The Impact

AbstractAre populist actors more like a hurricane that risks undermining democracy? Or do they aim for a different type of democracy, which strengthens popular control? This article offers one of the most extensive, systematic analyses on the impact of populism on multiple functions of the Quality of Democracy. Going beyond the view of ‘high-’ or ‘low-quality’ democracies, we emphasize that the Quality of Democracy is related to multiple dimensions or ‘functions of democracy’, characterized by important trade-offs. We argue that populist actors exert differentiated effects across these functions, depending on their degree of government access and host ideology. Our analysis relies on a new disaggregated dataset covering 53 established democracies in diverse world regions over the period between 1990 and 2016. We find that populist actors increase participation and representation, especially if they are confined to the opposition and especially if they belong to the political left-wing. In contrast, we find a negative impact of populists across the spectrum on institutional safeguards, such as the rule of law and state transparency. In sum, our findings indicate that populism has a variable impact on multiple aspects of democratic quality which should be systematically investigated in a disaggregated manner that is sensitive to these differences.

Manajemen Ekonomi Outopilot: Kegagalan Negara Mencari Identitas?

Liquidity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-152
Author(s):  
Mukhaer Pakkanna
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
National Economy ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Democracy ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Economic Disparities ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Production And Distribution

Political democracy should be equivalent to the economic development of the quality of democracy, economic democracy if not upright, even the owner of the ruling power and money, which is parallel to force global corporatocracy. Consequently, the economic oligarchy preservation reinforces control of production and distribution from upstream to downstream and power monopoly of the market. The implication, increasingly sharp economic disparities, exclusive owner of the money and power become fertile, and the end could jeopardize the harmony of the national economy. The loss of national economic identity that makes people feel lost the “pilot of the state”. What happens then is the autopilot state. Viewing unclear direction of the economy, the national economy should clarify the true figure.

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