# Democracy and Polyarchy Political Science I · Political Science I · https://tryals.app/learn/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy ## Rule by the People Democracy means rule by the **People**, but the concept is contested. The classical distinction: - **Direct democracy**: citizens decide policy directly. - **Representative democracy**: citizens choose representatives who decide. This was designed partly to **filter** popular opinion. ### Two Families of Theory - **Minimal or procedural.** Democracy is an institutional **method** for choosing rulers through competitive elections. - **Substantive or participatory.** Democracy requires deep participation, deliberation, and genuine political equality. ### Polyarchy **Robert Dahl** proposed **polyarchy** for real-world regimes rather than the ideal of pure democracy. Polyarchy has two dimensions: - **Contestation**: how open the competition for power is. - **Inclusiveness**: the proportion of the population entitled to participate. Nineteenth-century **Britain** had high contestation but low inclusiveness. **A regime can extend the franchise without becoming more competitive, and open competition without extending the franchise**. Dahl identified **seven** institutional requirements. The final three guarantee open public space between elections. ### Contemporary Issues - **Democratic backsliding**: elected incumbents erode democratic norms using legal mechanisms. - The **boundary problem**: defining who constitutes the citizenry cannot be resolved by democratic voting alone. > **Common pitfall:** treating elections as sufficient for democracy. Regimes often hold elections while manipulating the legal and media environment. ## Practice questions 8 of this lesson's 13 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app. ### 1. Which are true of Dahl's concept of polyarchy? A. It was introduced to avoid calling real regimes democracies B. It is a synonym for representative democracy C. A regime can score high on one dimension and low on the other D. It has two dimensions, contestation and inclusiveness **Answer:** A. It was introduced to avoid calling real regimes democracies; C. A regime can score high on one dimension and low on the other; D. It has two dimensions, contestation and inclusiveness **Why:** The fourth destroys the point. Dahl introduced polyarchy because democracy is an ideal no state has reached, and because the two dimensions move independently: high contestation with a tiny electorate, or wide suffrage with no real competition, are both real historical arrangements and neither is democracy. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/which-are-true-of-dahls-concept-of-polyarchy ### 2. Schumpeter defined democracy as a method for choosing a government rather than as a state of affairs. **Answer:** True **Why:** **True**, and the consequences are deliberate. On Schumpeter's account the people's role is to choose a government and nothing more; deliberation, participation and equality are not part of the definition. That is what makes it usable for classifying regimes and what its critics find impoverished. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/schumpeter-defined-democracy-as-a-method-for-choosing-a-government ### 3. Complete the account of democratic theory. **Answer:** Schumpeter defined democracy as a competitive struggle for the people's **vote**. Dahl proposed **polyarchy** as the name for achievable arrangements, with the two dimensions of contestation and **inclusiveness**. Participatory theorists argue that participation is **educative**, so that a minimal democracy undermines itself. **Why:** The last blank carries the sharpest disagreement in the lesson. If participation is educative, then a system that asks little of citizens produces citizens capable of little, which turns a descriptive dispute about definitions into a claim about what institutions do to people. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/complete-the-account-of-democratic-theory ### 4. The boundary problem asserts that defining the citizenry cannot be settled by democratic voting. Why is this logically so, and what does it imply for democratic legitimacy? A. Only direct democracy can legally establish genuine citizen bodies B. Universal inclusion resolves all procedural ambiguities naturally C. A vote on who may vote already presupposes an established demos D. Representative filtering determines which groups obtain voting rights **Answer:** C. A vote on who may vote already presupposes an established demos **Why:** Treating franchise limits as resolvable by majority rule creates infinite regress, as deciding the original electorate requires a pre-existing decision. Equating democracy with sheer universalism ignores constitutional design, whilst representative filtering addresses policy rather than membership. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/the-boundary-problem-asserts-that-defining-the-citizenry-cannot-be ### 5. Sort each requirement by whether it concerns ELECTION DAY or the period BETWEEN elections. **Answer:** - Election day: Free and fair elections, Inclusive suffrage, The right to run for office - Between elections: Freedom of expression, Alternative sources of information, Associational autonomy **Why:** The second column is what competitive authoritarian regimes fail. They hold real elections with real opponents and lose almost none, because the contest is decided by control of media, courts and state resources in the years between, which is exactly why Dahl's list does not stop at the ballot. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/sort-each-requirement-by-whether-it-concerns-election-day-or-the ### 6. How many institutional requirements for polyarchy does Dahl list? **Answer:** 7 **Why:** **Seven**: elected officials, free and fair elections, inclusive suffrage, the right to run, freedom of expression, alternative information, and associational autonomy. The last three are the ones a regime can fail while running impeccable elections. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/how-many-institutional-requirements-for-polyarchy-does-dahl-list ### 7. Arrange these regime types from the most closed to the most open on Dahl's two dimensions. **Answer:** 1. Closed hegemony: neither contestation nor inclusiveness 2. Inclusive hegemony: wide suffrage, no competition 3. Competitive oligarchy: real competition, tiny electorate 4. Polyarchy: high on both dimensions **Why:** The ordering is partly a convenience, since the two middle types are not really ranked against each other, they are open on different dimensions. That ambiguity is the honest result of using two axes rather than one, and it is why Dahl resisted a single democracy score. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/arrange-these-regime-types-from-the-most-closed-to-the-most-open-on ### 8. Athens at its height had a citizen body entitled to vote in the assembly. Roughly what percentage of the total population of Attica was that? **Answer:** 12 (within ±8) **Why:** Somewhere around **ten to fifteen per cent**. The figures are debated, but the shape is not: the paradigm case of direct democracy excluded women, slaves and resident foreigners entirely. Direct and inclusive are separate properties, and Athens had only the first. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/political-science-i/democracy-and-polyarchy/athens-at-its-height-had-a-citizen-body-entitled-to-vote-in-the