Classification: Wednesday 10-11 Tutorial
Questions:
Does a regime tend to last longer under a dictatorial or democratic leadership?
Classification system criteria:
Elections:
-Free and regular elections (3 Points)
-Competitive authoritarianism (2 Points)
-Non-Competitive authoritarianism (1 Point)
-No elections (0 points)
Freedoms provided by the state:
-Freedom of mobility and association (On a scale of 0-3)
-Freedom of speech, press and information (On a scale of 0-3)
- Freedom of political participation
- Voting impact (On a scale of 0-3)
- Active Participation: protesting, interest group etc (0-3)
Human Rights:
-Does the current regime have a history of human rights abuses?
(On a scale of 0-3 with 0 being a history of large scale abuses)
Out of 18 with a high score being more democratic:
Anarchy: 0
Dictatorship: 1- 4
Non- Competitive authoritarianism: 5- 9
Competitive authoritarianism: 10-13
Democracy: 14-18
Definitions and other information:
Competitive authoritarianism: In competitive authoritarian regimes, formal democratic institutions are widely viewed as the principal means of obtaining and exercising political authority. Officials violate those rules very often and an extent that the regime fails to meet conventional minimum standards for democracy. Examples include; Russia under Vladimir Putin. In competitive authoritarian regimes violations of these criteria are both frequent and serious enough to create an uneven playing field between the government and opposition. Although elections are regularly held and are generally free of massive fraud, officials routinely abuse state resources, deny the opposition adequate media coverage, harass opposition candidates and their supporters, and in some cases manipulate electoral results. Journalists, opposition politicians, and other government critics may be spied on, threatened, harassed, or arrested. Members of the opposition may be jailed, exiled, or assaulted or murdered. Regimes characterized by such abuses cannot be called democratic. Competitive authoritarianism must be distinguished from unstable, ineffective, or flawed types of regimes that meet the basic standards of democracy ( Levitsky & Way, 2002, p. 53).
Free and regular elections: The most important arena of contestation is the electoral arena. In authoritarian regimes, elections either do not exist or the elections are not seriously contested. Electoral competition is eliminated either de jure or de facto. In de facto regimes, opposition parties are routinely banned or disqualified from electoral competition, and opposition leaders are often jailed. Further, independent or outside observers are prevented from verifying results via parallel vote counts, which creates widespread opportunities for vote stealing (Levitsky & Way, 2002 p. 54).
Freedom of association and mobility:
Freedom of association, expression and mobility are fundamental aspects of a democratic system. The freedom of association and expression are basic human rights and form the basis of any pluralist society. The freedom of association enacts an individuals right to freely participate in any group in society and to create collective associations. The freedom of expression then allows those individual/s to collectively express, promote and pursue common interests vital to the formation of public opinion. This is the cornerstone of developing a strong democratic society. The freedom of mobility asserts that one has the liberty to travel work and live in their own state and to leave and return at their will. This right to free movement stops one from potentially facing political, social or religious state repression. Any restrictions imposed by a state on any of these fundamental freedoms results in the reduction of democracy in that state.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Heywood, Andrew, Political Ideologies, 2007.
Freedom of the Media: In most autocracies, the media are entirely state-owned, censored, and/or systematically repressed. Television and radio stations are controlled by the government, and major independent newspapers and magazines are either prohibited by law or eliminated due to the de facto regime. Journalists who cause the government to anger will wither risk arrest, deportation, or assassination. In competitive authoritarian regimes independent media are not only legal but are often quite influential, and journalists, though frequently threatened and periodically attacked, often emerge as important opposition figures (Levitsky & Way, 2002. p. 58).
Human Rights: Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings regardless of nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. International human rights law lays gives responsibility to Governments to act in certain ways or, to refrain from certain acts. This is in order to protect fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups. States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfill human rights. There are 30 Human Rights, which promote and protect equality. Article 9: 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile' and Article 20: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association & no one may be compelled to belong to an association' are just as significant as each other. Each Human Right needs to be abided by in order for individual and national freedom to be achieved. (www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/)
Possible Sources:
Freedom House:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/
Fund for Peace 2011 Failed States Index:
http://www.fundforpeace.org/global/?q=fsi-grid2011
Transparency International:
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/gcb/2010
OECD Reports:
http://www.oecd.org/home/0,2987,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
United Nations Information Centres:
http://unic.un.org/
Questions:
Does a regime tend to last longer under a dictatorial or democratic leadership?
Classification system criteria:
Elections:
-Free and regular elections (3 Points)
-Competitive authoritarianism (2 Points)
-Non-Competitive authoritarianism (1 Point)
-No elections (0 points)
Freedoms provided by the state:
-Freedom of mobility and association (On a scale of 0-3)
-Freedom of speech, press and information (On a scale of 0-3)
- Freedom of political participation
- Voting impact (On a scale of 0-3)
- Active Participation: protesting, interest group etc (0-3)
Human Rights:
-Does the current regime have a history of human rights abuses?
(On a scale of 0-3 with 0 being a history of large scale abuses)
Out of 18 with a high score being more democratic:
Anarchy: 0
Dictatorship: 1- 4
Non- Competitive authoritarianism: 5- 9
Competitive authoritarianism: 10-13
Democracy: 14-18
Definitions and other information:
Competitive authoritarianism: In competitive authoritarian regimes, formal democratic institutions are widely viewed as the principal means of obtaining and exercising political authority. Officials violate those rules very often and an extent that the regime fails to meet conventional minimum standards for democracy. Examples include; Russia under Vladimir Putin. In competitive authoritarian regimes violations of these criteria are both frequent and serious enough to create an uneven playing field between the government and opposition. Although elections are regularly held and are generally free of massive fraud, officials routinely abuse state resources, deny the opposition adequate media coverage, harass opposition candidates and their supporters, and in some cases manipulate electoral results. Journalists, opposition politicians, and other government critics may be spied on, threatened, harassed, or arrested. Members of the opposition may be jailed, exiled, or assaulted or murdered. Regimes characterized by such abuses cannot be called democratic. Competitive authoritarianism must be distinguished from unstable, ineffective, or flawed types of regimes that meet the basic standards of democracy ( Levitsky & Way, 2002, p. 53).
Free and regular elections: The most important arena of contestation is the electoral arena. In authoritarian regimes, elections either do not exist or the elections are not seriously contested. Electoral competition is eliminated either de jure or de facto. In de facto regimes, opposition parties are routinely banned or disqualified from electoral competition, and opposition leaders are often jailed. Further, independent or outside observers are prevented from verifying results via parallel vote counts, which creates widespread opportunities for vote stealing (Levitsky & Way, 2002 p. 54).
Freedom of association and mobility:
Freedom of association, expression and mobility are fundamental aspects of a democratic system. The freedom of association and expression are basic human rights and form the basis of any pluralist society. The freedom of association enacts an individuals right to freely participate in any group in society and to create collective associations. The freedom of expression then allows those individual/s to collectively express, promote and pursue common interests vital to the formation of public opinion. This is the cornerstone of developing a strong democratic society. The freedom of mobility asserts that one has the liberty to travel work and live in their own state and to leave and return at their will. This right to free movement stops one from potentially facing political, social or religious state repression. Any restrictions imposed by a state on any of these fundamental freedoms results in the reduction of democracy in that state.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Heywood, Andrew, Political Ideologies, 2007.
Freedom of the Media: In most autocracies, the media are entirely state-owned, censored, and/or systematically repressed. Television and radio stations are controlled by the government, and major independent newspapers and magazines are either prohibited by law or eliminated due to the de facto regime. Journalists who cause the government to anger will wither risk arrest, deportation, or assassination. In competitive authoritarian regimes independent media are not only legal but are often quite influential, and journalists, though frequently threatened and periodically attacked, often emerge as important opposition figures (Levitsky & Way, 2002. p. 58).
Human Rights: Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings regardless of nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. International human rights law lays gives responsibility to Governments to act in certain ways or, to refrain from certain acts. This is in order to protect fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups. States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfill human rights. There are 30 Human Rights, which promote and protect equality. Article 9: 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile' and Article 20: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association & no one may be compelled to belong to an association' are just as significant as each other. Each Human Right needs to be abided by in order for individual and national freedom to be achieved. (www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/)
Possible Sources:
Freedom House:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/
Fund for Peace 2011 Failed States Index:
http://www.fundforpeace.org/global/?q=fsi-grid2011
Transparency International:
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/gcb/2010
OECD Reports:
http://www.oecd.org/home/0,2987,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
United Nations Information Centres:
http://unic.un.org/
For the human rights abuses, I think you need to add a time frame to question. Because otherwise it leaves it open to a lot of bias depending on who is using the index. For example, would to colonization of New Zealand and the abuse of indigenous Maori equate to human rights abuses? It may seem a bit far fetched it just gives the index more clarity.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm not sure about the first question. Right from the outset we are essentially asked to classify the regime of our country by applying it to the definitions. The index isn't doing the classification, we are... What's more, because we are only given a definition of competitive authoritarianism, non-competitive authoritarianism is simply a residual category for anything that doesn't fit under the other categories. To me, the first question shouldn't be so broad and open to interpretation like that?
I think you need to be more clear on how to scale countries in 'Freedoms Provided by the State.' Does 0 represent much freedom, or no freedom?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting question, but note that in order to get a real answer here we would have to know how long the regime has lasted, which might be difficult to find out (more precisely we need the start and end dates for the regime).
ReplyDeleteIs there a particular reason why these aspects of the regime?
Also I'm not sure I understand "voting impact". What do you mean by this?
Regarding Freedoms provided by the state; The higher the more freedoms referring to the trend of the the criteria in fitting with the other categories except explicitly stated. Some clarification needs to be made regarded the freedoms being "provided" which relates to the idea that a country in a state of anarchy would not regulate freedoms and as such could score anywhere on the scale.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for these aspects was a need to recognise wider aspects than simply elections.
I also think you need to work on the scaling/rating system for the countries as its a bit confusing and seems a little complicated. The rest is good though!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good question, but maybe rather self-answering. It seems that we already have a pretty good idea of that dictatorships tend to last longer than democracies alone from the fact that very few democratically elected governments in the world are secured for more than 4 years at the time...
ReplyDelete