Week 1 - Introduction to European Politics
Two basic conceptualizations of democracy → minimalist and maximalist
★ Minimalist;
○ Focuses on elections in which citizens delegate decision-making power to
politicians;
○ Are there free and fair elections including more than one party?
○ Are the chief executive and the parliament elected and has there been alternation
in power?
○ Josef Schumpeter;
★ Maximalist;
○ Focus on outcomes;
■ Liberal democracy;
■ Civil rights;
○ Are human rights protected and are all people equal before the law?
○ Can everyone express themselves freely, join associations and protest?
○ Do elected politicians represent the will of the voters?
○ Robert Dahl;
■ Effective participation;
■ Equality in voting;
■ Gaining enlightened understanding;
■ Exercising final control of the agenda;
■ Inclusion of adults;
■ No political system fulfils these criteria;
■ Partly competing with each other.
Measuring Democracy
★ Binary view of democracy;
○ This approach treats democracy as a simple yes/no category;
■ A country is either a democracy or it is not;
○ The advantage is that it is straightforward and easy to classify;
○ The limitation is that it cannot capture "in-between" cases, such as countries that
have elections but weak protections for rights;
★ V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy Project);
○ Collects evaluations from country experts across hundreds of indicators;
○ Covers both procedural aspects (rules, elections, institutions) and substantive
aspects (civil liberties, equality, inclusion);
○ Provides historical data, not only current scores;
○ Offers a multidimensional and fine-grained picture of democracy;
★ Polity Project (Polity IV / V):
○ Ranks countries on a scale from –10 (full autocracy) to +10 (full democracy);
, ○ Emphasizes institutions, such as executive constraints, competitiveness of
political participation, and selection of leaders;
○ Often used in political science research;
★ Freedom House (Freedom in the World):
○ Publishes annual Freedom Scores;
○ Classifies countries as Free, Partly Free, or Not Free;
○ Focuses on civil liberties (speech, religion, assembly) and political rights
(elections, participation);
○ More normative and advocacy-oriented compared to Polity or V-Dem.
Historical Development of Democracy
★ Authoritarian rulers need to make credible commitments to rule increasingly wealthy
countries: Citizens will only pay taxes and contribute to war efforts if they can trust that
the monarch will not steal their money.
★ These commitments are more believable when there is a credible threat to the monarch‘s
safety in case of betrayal, e.g. previous monarchs have been killed or exiled and
institutions have been set up to protect property rights.
★ A middle class is also important as they have a strong interest in stability and power to
overthrow the monarch.
★ Instrumental in the development of British democracy.
Democracy and Wealth
★ Modernization Theory posited by Lipset (1959), argues that democracy can only take
hold in countries that are sufficiently wealthy, urban and educated.
★ Other factors such as wealth, passing of time and political system lead countries to
transition from unconsolidated to consolidated democracies.
★ Consolidated Democracies are much less likely to revert back to authoritarianism and are
resilient against crises.
The role of the EU
★ Democratic norms and institutions are part of Copenhagen criteria to join the EU;
○ Don’t confuse them with Convergence criteria for Euro zone!
○ Political criterion: “Institutional stability as a guarantee of a democratic and
constitutional system, of the protection of human rights and of respect for and
the protection of minorities”;
○ Economic criterion: “a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to
cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union.”;
○ Acquis criterion: candidate’s ability to take on the obligations of membership →
that means the whole law as well policies of the EU (the so called "Acquis
communautaire") – including adherence to the aims of political, economic and
monetary union;
★ Greece, Spain and Portugal join after restoring democracy in the 1970s and 80s;
★ Eastern enlargement in 2000s: democratization in Central Eastern European countries;
, ★ However, EU cannot prevent democratic backsliding: The rules are set up to monitor
countries before they join but are less effective in constraining countries from reverting
back towards authoritarianism after they join;
★ Also, criticism about the EU’s democratic deficit.
European politics today
★ Most countries in Europe have multiparty parliamentary systems:
○ Multiple party compete in elections.
○ Elections government formation, mostly between 2 or more parties.
○ Link between government and parliament: the executive is supported by
parliament and can dissolve the parliament.
○ Extensions: Minority governments, semi-presidential systems, two-party
systems.
European politics today
★ Common understanding of the political landscape:
★ Political conflict typically based on divisions over classic left-right ideology (on role of
the state in the economy);
★ Increasingly important second dimension of ideology: new policy issues such as
immigration, globalization, minority rights, climate change, and European integration.
What is multilevel politics?
Multilevel governance:
★ dispersion of authority away from the central state (Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks);
★ Upwards to the EU and other international institutions;
★ Downwards to regional and local levels;
Politics at different levels intertwined and influence each other.
, Week 2 - Democratic politics in Europe
Recap 1st year
Legitimacy
★ Belief in legitimacy (Max Weber)
○ ‘probability that to a relevant degree the appropriate attitudes will exist [leading
to] submissiveness to persons in positions of power' (Weber 1962: 74).
○ Consent to be led
○ Discussed in lecture 10
★ Institutional legitimacy
○ Close to legal and philosophical questions
Input, output, throughput legitimacy
★ Input legitimacy (Fritz Scharpf):
○ Political criterion
○ Government by the people
○ European ‘demos’ involved in decision making process
○ Representative institutions
Vs.
★ Output legitimacy (Scharpf):
○ Performance criterion: Addresses performance
○ Government for the people
○ Outcome in general interest
★ Throughput legitimacy
○ Vivien Schmidt (2013)
○ Procedural criterion: Quality of government processes
○ Government of the people
○ Accountability, transparency, inclusiveness and
○ Linking input and output legitimacy
Two basic conceptualizations of democracy → minimalist and maximalist
★ Minimalist;
○ Focuses on elections in which citizens delegate decision-making power to
politicians;
○ Are there free and fair elections including more than one party?
○ Are the chief executive and the parliament elected and has there been alternation
in power?
○ Josef Schumpeter;
★ Maximalist;
○ Focus on outcomes;
■ Liberal democracy;
■ Civil rights;
○ Are human rights protected and are all people equal before the law?
○ Can everyone express themselves freely, join associations and protest?
○ Do elected politicians represent the will of the voters?
○ Robert Dahl;
■ Effective participation;
■ Equality in voting;
■ Gaining enlightened understanding;
■ Exercising final control of the agenda;
■ Inclusion of adults;
■ No political system fulfils these criteria;
■ Partly competing with each other.
Measuring Democracy
★ Binary view of democracy;
○ This approach treats democracy as a simple yes/no category;
■ A country is either a democracy or it is not;
○ The advantage is that it is straightforward and easy to classify;
○ The limitation is that it cannot capture "in-between" cases, such as countries that
have elections but weak protections for rights;
★ V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy Project);
○ Collects evaluations from country experts across hundreds of indicators;
○ Covers both procedural aspects (rules, elections, institutions) and substantive
aspects (civil liberties, equality, inclusion);
○ Provides historical data, not only current scores;
○ Offers a multidimensional and fine-grained picture of democracy;
★ Polity Project (Polity IV / V):
○ Ranks countries on a scale from –10 (full autocracy) to +10 (full democracy);
, ○ Emphasizes institutions, such as executive constraints, competitiveness of
political participation, and selection of leaders;
○ Often used in political science research;
★ Freedom House (Freedom in the World):
○ Publishes annual Freedom Scores;
○ Classifies countries as Free, Partly Free, or Not Free;
○ Focuses on civil liberties (speech, religion, assembly) and political rights
(elections, participation);
○ More normative and advocacy-oriented compared to Polity or V-Dem.
Historical Development of Democracy
★ Authoritarian rulers need to make credible commitments to rule increasingly wealthy
countries: Citizens will only pay taxes and contribute to war efforts if they can trust that
the monarch will not steal their money.
★ These commitments are more believable when there is a credible threat to the monarch‘s
safety in case of betrayal, e.g. previous monarchs have been killed or exiled and
institutions have been set up to protect property rights.
★ A middle class is also important as they have a strong interest in stability and power to
overthrow the monarch.
★ Instrumental in the development of British democracy.
Democracy and Wealth
★ Modernization Theory posited by Lipset (1959), argues that democracy can only take
hold in countries that are sufficiently wealthy, urban and educated.
★ Other factors such as wealth, passing of time and political system lead countries to
transition from unconsolidated to consolidated democracies.
★ Consolidated Democracies are much less likely to revert back to authoritarianism and are
resilient against crises.
The role of the EU
★ Democratic norms and institutions are part of Copenhagen criteria to join the EU;
○ Don’t confuse them with Convergence criteria for Euro zone!
○ Political criterion: “Institutional stability as a guarantee of a democratic and
constitutional system, of the protection of human rights and of respect for and
the protection of minorities”;
○ Economic criterion: “a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to
cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union.”;
○ Acquis criterion: candidate’s ability to take on the obligations of membership →
that means the whole law as well policies of the EU (the so called "Acquis
communautaire") – including adherence to the aims of political, economic and
monetary union;
★ Greece, Spain and Portugal join after restoring democracy in the 1970s and 80s;
★ Eastern enlargement in 2000s: democratization in Central Eastern European countries;
, ★ However, EU cannot prevent democratic backsliding: The rules are set up to monitor
countries before they join but are less effective in constraining countries from reverting
back towards authoritarianism after they join;
★ Also, criticism about the EU’s democratic deficit.
European politics today
★ Most countries in Europe have multiparty parliamentary systems:
○ Multiple party compete in elections.
○ Elections government formation, mostly between 2 or more parties.
○ Link between government and parliament: the executive is supported by
parliament and can dissolve the parliament.
○ Extensions: Minority governments, semi-presidential systems, two-party
systems.
European politics today
★ Common understanding of the political landscape:
★ Political conflict typically based on divisions over classic left-right ideology (on role of
the state in the economy);
★ Increasingly important second dimension of ideology: new policy issues such as
immigration, globalization, minority rights, climate change, and European integration.
What is multilevel politics?
Multilevel governance:
★ dispersion of authority away from the central state (Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks);
★ Upwards to the EU and other international institutions;
★ Downwards to regional and local levels;
Politics at different levels intertwined and influence each other.
, Week 2 - Democratic politics in Europe
Recap 1st year
Legitimacy
★ Belief in legitimacy (Max Weber)
○ ‘probability that to a relevant degree the appropriate attitudes will exist [leading
to] submissiveness to persons in positions of power' (Weber 1962: 74).
○ Consent to be led
○ Discussed in lecture 10
★ Institutional legitimacy
○ Close to legal and philosophical questions
Input, output, throughput legitimacy
★ Input legitimacy (Fritz Scharpf):
○ Political criterion
○ Government by the people
○ European ‘demos’ involved in decision making process
○ Representative institutions
Vs.
★ Output legitimacy (Scharpf):
○ Performance criterion: Addresses performance
○ Government for the people
○ Outcome in general interest
★ Throughput legitimacy
○ Vivien Schmidt (2013)
○ Procedural criterion: Quality of government processes
○ Government of the people
○ Accountability, transparency, inclusiveness and
○ Linking input and output legitimacy
