Description
For the final assignment, please answer the following four essay questions.
Devote 2-3 pages to answering each question, and double-space, using Times New Roman 12-point font with standard one-inch margins. Insert page numbers on all graduate work.
It is important to demonstrate a working knowledge of the course materials that we have covered. Do not research at the expense of demonstrating your knowledge of the course readings.
All references should be cited in Chicago/Turabian format, which entails including page numbers. Be sure to make a clear thesis statement and argument and use examples to support your analysis.
Questions
1. Can democracies slide into authoritarianism while holding elections? What are some of the signs?
2. The essence of democracy is representation of the interests and demands of citizens on governments. The channels of their representation and the outcomes vary, however, depending on electoral systems, organizations of representation such as political parties, interest groups, and client-patronage networks, and the historical trajectory of these channels, including instances of transition to democracy. Given what you have learned in the course, under what conditions are elections most likely to result in the representation of citizens’ preferences?
3. What are the particular challenges to establishing democratic government in the post-communist world?
4. Cultural theories about the link between civil society and democracy have argued that a robust civil society generates social capital, trust, habits, and norms conducive to effective democratic collective action. In this way, in the words of Robert Putnam, civil society “makes democracy work.” But such theories were originally developed in the context of Western democracies. What are the challenges in applying these theories to non-Western, non-democratic countries? Under what conditions can a strong civil society weaken, rather than strengthen, democracy and democratization?
