The Democratic Value of Participation
- the involvement of, direct or indirect, of ordinary citizens in government decision making
Benefits:
● Get what we want from gov.
● Protect ourselves from government
● Provide the government with a wide range of knowledge, experience, ideas, and skills
Costs:
● Time and Effort
● People are no good
● Slows down decision making
● Makes it hard for the government to keep secrets
How much participation should we have?
- Democratic Elitis prefer low levels of participation~participatory democrats want high
levels of participation
What type of participation should we have?
Direct electoral democracy~ the people make laws through general elections
- Referendum: A legislature put a proposed law on the ballot, and it becomes a law only if
the citizens approve it
- Initiative: the people propose a law through petitions and the people make the final
decision in the election
- Benefits: The people know what they want and Magnify the benefits of participation
Representative democracy
- the people elect representatives; the elected representatives make laws
- lobbying: a form of influencing between elections
Pluralism
- the joining of interest groups
- James Madison and The Federalist Papers 10 and 51
- Goals: Majority Rule and Minority Rights
- Methods: A large, diverse, plural, fragmented nation (many different groups of
people)
- He wanted smaller groups to for majority coalition~ majority rules as a
compromise, making it safer for minorities
Problems with pluralism:
● Gridlock- not making a decision at all
● Pluralization- A situation where different groups of people are so far away from those
who disagree
Elections
- An election is a form of democratic participation
- the involvement of, direct or indirect, of ordinary citizens in government decision making
Benefits:
● Get what we want from gov.
● Protect ourselves from government
● Provide the government with a wide range of knowledge, experience, ideas, and skills
Costs:
● Time and Effort
● People are no good
● Slows down decision making
● Makes it hard for the government to keep secrets
How much participation should we have?
- Democratic Elitis prefer low levels of participation~participatory democrats want high
levels of participation
What type of participation should we have?
Direct electoral democracy~ the people make laws through general elections
- Referendum: A legislature put a proposed law on the ballot, and it becomes a law only if
the citizens approve it
- Initiative: the people propose a law through petitions and the people make the final
decision in the election
- Benefits: The people know what they want and Magnify the benefits of participation
Representative democracy
- the people elect representatives; the elected representatives make laws
- lobbying: a form of influencing between elections
Pluralism
- the joining of interest groups
- James Madison and The Federalist Papers 10 and 51
- Goals: Majority Rule and Minority Rights
- Methods: A large, diverse, plural, fragmented nation (many different groups of
people)
- He wanted smaller groups to for majority coalition~ majority rules as a
compromise, making it safer for minorities
Problems with pluralism:
● Gridlock- not making a decision at all
● Pluralization- A situation where different groups of people are so far away from those
who disagree
Elections
- An election is a form of democratic participation
