Democracy

Types:

Presidential (ex. United States)
Parliamentary (ex. Western Europe, Canada, Australia, India)
Semi – presidential (ex. France, Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine)

Characteristics:

Concentration of power: power is dispersed a) no overall between political and social or economic power b) various form of political power: local, state, national; c) institutional division into several branches (legislative, executive, judiciary) d) strong private sphere

Access to power: broad; competitive and multiple avenues for exerting pressure; a) in theory almost can achieve position of power – access is limited only by resources rather than formal barriers; b) access to power is trough electoral competition; c) citizens can exert broad and multiple pressure on those in power through voting, lobbying, demonstrating, writing letter, etc. d) citizens can organize themselves in pressure groups to influence policies

Degree of power: Power is limited in variety of ways: a) constitutions; b) strict separation of public and private with government power to stay out of private sphere; c) free and critical media; d) courts

Mode of governing: a) through rule of law and constitutional procedures; b) rule by persuasion, bargaining, compromise, consensus; c) acceptance of conflict and competition as essential to democratic politics; d) “democratic bargain” adhered to by both those who govern and those who have lost elections; ex. those in power do note discriminate against losers, who in turn accept legitimacy of those in power to govern.

Citizen participation: a) purely voluntary b) politics only one area of activity; citizens may seek to pursue public goods in other forms of activity (charity, volunteering)

Responsiveness: a) very responsive to popular demands; b) high levels of policy input by citizens, lobbies, pressure groups, and high policy output in response.