A Critical Review Essay Politics Essay

A Critical Review attempt Politics EssayArend dAngremond Lijphart born in Apeldoom, the Netherlands is a world renowned governmental scientist specializing in relative political science, elections and voting systems, representative institutions and ethnicity and politicsPolitics is the process by which groups of battalion make decisions. The term is loosely applied to behaviour within civil organisations, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religious persuasion institutions. He is currently inquiry Professor Emeritus of Political SciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and employ of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior.at the University of California, San DiegoThe University of California, San Diego is a public hear university in San Diego, California, California. The schools campus contains 694 buildings and is located in the La Jolla, San Diego, California community.His work has rivet on the broader melodic greenbacks between majoritarian and consensus democracies.The origin of this article under review was an invitation Lipjhart received to deliver at the Stein Rokkan Lecture, Joint Sessions of Workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research in Leiden on April 3rd, 1993 (Lipjhart 1994a). He dos this opportunity to present a report at that time on the latest phase of his work-in-progress a large-scale project, on which he has been functional since the early 1980s, that attempts the systematic mapping of the worlds democracies in terms of their principal institutional characteristics.My purpose is to demonstrate if there is one best baffle of state composition evaluating the approach Lipjhart has taken. Part of the argument has already been offered by Lipjhart (1994a), and this paper builds on his work. I will demonstrate his strengths composition explaining the assorted forms of dem ocratic methods proportionate representation, consensus and majoritarian including implications of his helplessnesses. Sartori (1968273) adequately summarises the electoral system as the most specific manipulative instrument of politics.Democracies Forms, Performance and Constitutional Engineering Lipjhart (1994a) argues that the choice between majoritarian electoral systems and proportional representation (PR) systems, there exists an exchange, as both be good forms of democracy but there is better minority representation in proportional representation systems and with the majoritarian system it leads to effective giving medication. While Lijphart advocated consociationalism primarily for societies deeply divided along ethnic, religious, ideological, or other divisions, he sees consensus democracy as appropriate for every society.Lipjhart (1994a) strongly suggested that the government by the people or, democracy, as stated by Abraham Lincoln, is an ideal rather than a precise f orm of governmental procedures and goals. Lijpharts (1994a) article comp atomic number 18s the twain basic models of democracy majoritarian or Westminster as used in the United Kingdom and New Zealand and consensus which is used in major Western European nations such(prenominal) as Switzerland. He goes on to state that to each one of these models use a different approach of an electoral model at how to best represent the citizens. In consequence one whitethorn ask, is it to a greater extent democratic to delegate indemnity- reservation power to the majority plainly or is it better to include minorities, as salutary? (Lipjhart, 1994a2)Lipjhart (1994a2) defines the majoritarian model is characterized by a one party majority executive an executive that predominates over the legislature a two party system a one dimensional party system (in which the two main parties differ primarily on socio-economic issues) a disproportional electoral system and a pluralist delight group system. This maintains that majority rule comes closer to the democratic ideal than a government responsive to a minority.Furthermore, Lipjhart (1994a2) states that the other type of electoral system, the consensus democracy has the reverse gear six characteristics multiparty coalition executives executive legislative balance a multi party system a multi-dimensional party system (in which the parties differ on issues in extension to socio-economic issues, for example, on religious, rural-urban and foreign policy issues) more or less proportional electoral outcomes and a corporatists interest group system. He contends that majoritarian system when compared to the consensus form of government is a go forth of the more divided a country is, the more it is a plural society- the more consensual its form of democracy tends to be (Lipjhart 1994a2) age countries with a British political colonial past adopted the majoritarian model.Lipjhart (20004) then extends his comparative analysis to plural ity versus proportional representational systems. Here he analyses 13 advanced industrial democracies with parliamentary systems of government, contrasting four that use majoritarian election methods and nine that use proportional representational methods. He argued three main pointsHe then goes on to use the same performance changeables comparing consensus versus majoritarian democracy where he concludes that Western European democracies with their consensus democracies have superior political representation while arguing that the majoritarian democracies are non performing better economically and that concentrating political power in the hands of a narrow majority can crowd unified, decisive leadership and fast decision making (Lipjhart 1994a11-12).Lipjharts findings are in a particular time period and he argues (1994a12) the special advantage because of the mid-nineties are not only the decade of democratization but also the decade of renewed ethnic conflict, and because ethn ic divisions are generally deeper and more blunt in the democratizing world than in the world of established democracies. In the end his evidence points to consensus oriented political cultures are a strong counterforce to the majoritarian institutional conservatism and they provide fertile soil for the consensus model of democracy (Lipjhart 1994a15).There are many good arguments that Lipjhart (1994a) makes using his methods of analysis and illustrated evidence. The send-off benefit of Lipjharts paper, Schmidt (1997) agrees with Lipjhart and what he namees to be a truly epoch-making topic of political science, comparative politics and that the article focuses the attention with a precisely stated and extremely relevant research question Lipjhart (1994a1) what can the new democracies of and democratizing countries of Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa learn from Western Europe?. Schmidt (1997) supports Lipjharts claims, which centres on the concentration of the re lationship between constitutional structures and forms of democracy while Lipjhart mea currents political performance. Schmidt (1997194) comments that this question is related to a recurrent topic in political science which political system is more advanced than others in coping with social, economic and political problems and why?Lipjhart (1994a1) answers this indispensible task in representative democracies is performed by the electoral system- the set of methods for translating the citizens votes into representatives seats. Thus the electoral system is the most fundamental part of representative democracy. Lipjhart (1994a3) further states the conventional wisdom is that there is a trade off between consensus and majoritarian democracy where he goes on to comment consensus democracy provides more accurate representation and in particular, better minority representation and fortress of minority interests while majority governments produced by majoritarian election methods are mo re decisive, and are more effective policy-makers.Similarly, Sartori (19978) states that the major factor establishing the proportionality or disproportionality of the proportional representation (PR) is the size of the constituency, where size is measured by the number of members that each dominion elects. So and regardless of the mathematical fine points, the larger the constituency, the greater the proportionality. Hence allowing for better representation. While Schmidt (2002148) agrees however, the view that the English-speaking democracies (regardless of whether the Westminster model or the checks-and-balances model is concerned) are superior is no longer regarded as tenable.The succor base argument in favour of this (1994a) article, Schmidt (1997195) applauds Lipjhart on the quality of the research design, the methodology and the empirical results. Schmidt (1997195) argues in contrast to more traditional case-oriented theories of the ideal state, Lipjhart (1994a) addresses the research question within the framework of an empirical comparative analysis of 21 constitutional democracies. Moreover, the work builds on blanket(a) research, such as his 1984 book, Democracies, not to mention numerous articles on related topics. In substantive terms, Lijphart demonstrates significant commonalities as easy as differences between various democracies, such as those between consensus democracies and majoritarian democracy.The third merit of the article By Schmidt (1997195) is due to the successful effort on the part of Lijphart to bring work on more formal institutions state structures and constitutional structures back into the investigation of public policy and policy outcomes. Following his own impressive research in comparative politics, Lijphart does this within the context of a comparative framework. Lijpharts article inspires other scholars in the field to follow more closely the avenue of a more richly integrated comparative analysis of the relationsh ips between institutions and public policy choices.Finally, Schmidt (1997195) states that the author derives relevant recommendations for purposes of constitutional engineering from his analysis. Pointing to the weaknesses and strengths of the various forms of democracies, the author has lessons to offer not only for constitution building in established democracies, but also for new political systems such as the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. This demonstrates in a particularly convincing manner that high quality political science can generate high quality policy advice.However, this discussion is not without f polices and by careful examination and review of perspectives which might have been neglected by Schmidt (1997) support for Lipjhart (1994a), the following will include theoretical perspectives ignored and overstated claims not fully supported by argument or evidence. As Geddes (1990132) states the effort here is not to discredit arguments or be superficial a uthors, who are, aft(prenominal) all, working within accepted conventions-but to demonstrate the deficiencies of the conventions.DiscussionFirst, Schmidt (2002148) states majoritarian democracies were long regarded as more stable, fitter for survival even under adverse circumstances such as during the interwar period and World War II, and better at problem solving. That belief largely mirrored the survival of the English speaking democracies in the 1920s and thirties as opposed to the breakdown of a wide variety of democratic states and the rise of Fascism in Italy and of National Socialism in Germany and Austria in this period. Questioning this statement, tally to consociationalist empirical democratic theory, such as that put forward by Lijphart (1999) and Lehmbruch (1975), negotiation democracies are much of equal strength and sometimes stronger than their majoritarian counterparts. There is little evidence and inaccuracy to state one is better than other from the evidence tha t is put forward by Lipjhart (1994a). Infact Satori (199769) states the necessary condition for the successful working of a consociational democracy is an elite cooperation whose intent counters the disintegrative tendencies of their society but this necessary and most crucial condition disappears in the definition of consensus democracy.Second, Sartori (199769) argues there is a false belief that proportional systems are inherently superior to majoritarian systems and therefore that they are always to be preferred. He (Satori 199773) also states that in the pure form of PR generally backfires and in the extremist package recommended by Lipjhart its defects boomerang and PR may turn out to be the kiss of death. Sartori (199728) thus as a result states once an electoral arrangement is in place, its beneficiaries protect their vested interests and struggle to go on playing the game by the rules they know.Third, another unproven claim by Lipjharts (1994a) article about the two types o f electoral systems, he does not go into detail on the discussion of Duvergers laws and is very un small of those laws. Maurice Duverger was the first author to address the effects of electoral systems. Duverger as stated by Sartori (199729) formulated two laws, the first one states that plurality (majoritarian) systems tend to party dualism while the second law asserts that PR tends to mutlipartism, i.e., that it has a multiplying effect. Saroti was setting up his evidence to show the weakness of Duvergers laws in relation to Lipjharts views in the (1994a) article under review.Sartori (199730) goes on to demonstrate that weakness by stating Duverger assumes that a causal relation can be deduced from a correlation that is to say, he misses the difference between cause of and associated with while in the second law, he states a causal generalization is verifiable if and only if, the cause and the effect are clearly specified, whereas the effect of Duvergers first law (party dualism) defies underpinning, and the effect of his second law (multipartism) also suffers from excessive imprecision. Sartori comments that Duvergers laws are not consistent and that he can be easily use his evidence to fit his purpose. Sartori (199731) states the bottom line is, then, that a law is required to declare more than a regularity and cannot consist of a mere generalization. Furthermore, since a law stands so long as it is not falsified, it must be formulated so as to permit empirical confirmation or refutation.Fourth, consensus democracies are not necessarily better at policy formulation and implementation. Schmidt (2002150) argues they are also faced with certain problems such as challenges requiring swift response, the rapid development of political substitute(a)s and rapid decision making tend to overburden the consensus democracies. And so, too, do challenges which require the capacity to design and implement significant policy changes. Due to the large number of participan ts in policy deliberation and decision making, consensus democracies usually need longer periods of time to reach a consensus or initiatives may even get stuck in a blocked decision-making process.Schmidt (2002150) adds a further weakness of consensus democracies lies in the lower transparency of the process of deliberation and decision making as well as the indistinct accountabilities of the participants in the negotiations. These deficits often are overlooked in the comparison of political performance levels of majoritarian and consensus democracies. Sartori (199772) argues if you reward divisions and divisiveness (and this is precisely what proporz and veto power do), you increase and eventually heighten divisions and divisiveness. In the end, then, Lipharts machinery may well engender more consensus-breaking than consensus-making.Fifth, in contrast to majoritarian democracies there is incomplete arguments made, Lipjhart (199411) argues that consensus democracy with regard to m inority representation and democratic quality is not impress because consensus democracy may be said to be designed so as to achieve more accurate representation of interests and broad participation in decision-making. While Powell (2000234) comments that concentrated power is valued by majoritarians for enabling elected governments to carry out their promises (mandates) and for giving voters clear information about responsibility for government actions (accountability). Unless public opinion is very homogenous, however, concentrating power in the hands of the government will be detrimental to the normative principle of giving proportional define to agents of all the electorate, which is the process most valued by the alternative vision.Sixth, another factor against consensus democracy is that some perform better than others. Schmidt (2002149) argues other blind spot also include the asymmetric availability of performance data, with less systematic coverage of democracies in eco nomically less-advanced states as a major gap, as well as the tendency to overlook both the imperfections of all consensus democracies and the wide range of variation in policy performance among consensus democracies. Powell (200052) argues clarity of responsibility is greatest when a single, unified political party controls both the national legislature and chief executive. If control of these critical policy-making points is dispersed among various parties or among individuals not securely connected by political parties, then it will be much harder for citizens to determine who should bear the responsibility for policy success or failure and to use their electoral resources effectively as instruments for reward or retribution.Seventh, another weakness of Lijphart, is that he uses different concepts of democracy. Van Schendelen (19818) states in his first book, he refers to the election process, in the second (Democracies of Plurality) to Dahls concept of polyarchy. Between the tw o there exist, of course, important differences for Dahl elections are only one element of polyarchy among many. Van Schendelen (19818) further states in his first conceptualization Lijphart leaves open the possibilities that political parties fully control the recruitment of candidates for an election that in the interelection period the relationships between electors and elected are almost non-existent or loath(p) that elites opinions and behaviour are non-representative of the peoples demands and that elite-politics is full of secrecy and immune to popular control.Eighth, while Lipjhart focuses on certain countries for his research, Barbara Geddes (1990131) states that there is a problem with selecting cases for study when the dependent variable originates from the logic of explanation. She (1990131) further states when one sets out to explain why countries A and B have, say, developed more rapidly than countries C through G, one is implicitly looking for some antecedent factors X through Z that countries A and B possess, but that countries C through G do not. Geddes (1990) argues that the crux of the barrier that arises when cases are selected on the dependent variable is that if one studies only countries A and B, one can collect only half the information needed, namely what A and B have in common which is what Lipjhart (1994a) does. She (1990131) goes on to state unless one also studies countries C through G (or a sample of them) to make sure they lack factors X through Z, one cannot know whether or not the factors identified are crucial antecedents of the outcome under investigation. Countries A and B may be the only countries that have X through Z, in which case the hypothesis seems plausible. But many other countries may also have them, in which case the hypothesis would seem dubious.Schmidt (2002148) clearly states one result of comparative studies of the behaviour, output and outcome of democracies has been that simple generalizations do not fit. According to Lijphart (1994a), no significant difference exists between the two types of democracies with respect to macro-economic policy outcomes and law-and-order-management. However, when it comes to softer political issues, consensus democracy turns out to be the winner. As a group, consensus democracies, Lijphart (1994a) argues, they perform better than majoritarian democracies in the protection of minorities, voter turnout, income equality and ratings of democratic quality.Schmidt (2002151) continues with his discussion stating this finding is undoubtedly preliminary, and future work will require more detailed analysis of the impact of alternative explanations and control variables. However, the major point in this context is that Lijphart (1994a) has asked the right questions, such as do forms of democracy make a difference to policy outputs and policy outcomes and, if so, to what extent? Moreover, Schmidt (2002151) continues his discussion the research published from many a cademics thus far has already produced fresh evidence on the costs and benefits of governmental systems with different political arrangements and different forms of democracy in particular. In contrast to this, policy deliberation in a non-majoritarian democracy is frequently characterized by extended bargaining, time-consuming searches for compromises and oblique attempts to develop a political consensus such features are not at all suitable to politics as a spectacle (Edelman 1988).Finally, Schmidt (2002151) says the higher level of transparency and accountability of majoritarian democracies also weighs in their favour. Political leaders in a majoritarian democracy are more exposed and accountable to the general public, while responsibility and accountability in non-majoritarian systems often tends to evaporate in the countless networks typical of a negotiation democracy. Satori (199772) adds consociational democracy is a cross-pressured system held together by countervailing, s olidaristic elites solidifying upon neutralizing the centrifugal pulls of their societies consensus democracy is, instead, a one way slope that leads to a self-reinforcing system of minority appetites.CONCLUSIONThe catalogue of collected criticisms raised against Lijpharts views demonstrates at least one thing his views are widely and fundamentally contested. But it also demonstrates that Lijpharts views have been taken seriously and that they have at least provoked critical debate and analysis among scholars. This critical inquiry attests to the substance and importance of Lijpharts efforts.I agree with Sartori (1997) where he states Lijphart seems to be more concerned about the applicability or the engineering potential of his theory than about its political science validity. If, along the basic lines of his essential views, democratic stability could be realized in highly unstable countries, then the theory may be weak, but not wrong. In consequence, Edelman (19852) states in th eir obsession with the state, men are of course obsessed with themselves. If politics is as complicated and ambivalent as the men who create it, it is to be expected that its institutions and forms should take on strong meanings meanings that men cue and teach each other to expect and that are vital for the acquiescence of the general public in the actions of elites and therefore for social harmony.I support Lipjharts consociational democracy as it presents us with a challenging and provocative point of view. But, at the present time, it provides less than is needed for solid prescriptions for deeply divided societies anxiously searching for stable democracy. Perhaps, after rigorous analysis and evaluation, it might lead us to answers for problems confronting such societies. Any answers it might provide would certainly be highly valued by those who seek a stable, democratic political system.