What Valid Criticisms Can Be Made of Liberal Democracy?
International Foundation Programme
Culture, Theory and Society
Assignment 2
“What valid criticisms can be made of liberal democracy?”
Class: F4
Student: Tzu-Han Lin
What valid criticisms can be made of liberal democracy?
Liberal democracy is seen as the most common political form of government which has been implemented in the contemporary world. According to the finding of Freedom in the World 2011 Survey released by the US-based Freedom House (http://www.freedomhouse.org/), there are 76 percentages of total countries in the world which is liberal or partly liberal democracy. Moreover, the most of current leading countries are liberal democracies such as U.K., U.S.A, Germany, and Japan. As they represent as a powerful, peaceful, free and wealthy state, liberal democracy has been generally considered as ideally suited governance to modern age. Parekh (1992a) stated this perspective was introduced by U.S.A. in later 20th century, due to the collapse of communism in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the following negative consequence. However, contrary to popular belief, the performances of major liberal countries are somehow to fall short of public expectations (Schmitter and Karl, 1991a). Since the perfect image of liberal democracy has been broken by day-to-day practices, meanwhile, liberal democracy has started to attract many criticisms based on its problems and insufficiencies. This essay will firstly give a generic definition of liberal democracy and the principle of two liberal democratic election systems. Secondly, it will attempt to evaluate a particular criticism that liberal democracy is just a decoration over a plutarchy, and finally conclude that liberal democracy is not absolutely better than direct democracy. It overcomes some problems occur in direct democracy, and vice versa.
Liberal democracy, an ordinary form of representative democracy, is “basically a liberalized or liberally constituted democracy.” (Parek, 1992b, p.
Culture, Theory and Society
Assignment 2
“What valid criticisms can be made of liberal democracy?”
Class: F4
Student: Tzu-Han Lin
What valid criticisms can be made of liberal democracy?
Liberal democracy is seen as the most common political form of government which has been implemented in the contemporary world. According to the finding of Freedom in the World 2011 Survey released by the US-based Freedom House (http://www.freedomhouse.org/), there are 76 percentages of total countries in the world which is liberal or partly liberal democracy. Moreover, the most of current leading countries are liberal democracies such as U.K., U.S.A, Germany, and Japan. As they represent as a powerful, peaceful, free and wealthy state, liberal democracy has been generally considered as ideally suited governance to modern age. Parekh (1992a) stated this perspective was introduced by U.S.A. in later 20th century, due to the collapse of communism in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the following negative consequence. However, contrary to popular belief, the performances of major liberal countries are somehow to fall short of public expectations (Schmitter and Karl, 1991a). Since the perfect image of liberal democracy has been broken by day-to-day practices, meanwhile, liberal democracy has started to attract many criticisms based on its problems and insufficiencies. This essay will firstly give a generic definition of liberal democracy and the principle of two liberal democratic election systems. Secondly, it will attempt to evaluate a particular criticism that liberal democracy is just a decoration over a plutarchy, and finally conclude that liberal democracy is not absolutely better than direct democracy. It overcomes some problems occur in direct democracy, and vice versa.
Liberal democracy, an ordinary form of representative democracy, is “basically a liberalized or liberally constituted democracy.” (Parek, 1992b, p.
Bibliography: Barber, Kathleen L. (2000a, b) A right to representation: proportional election systems for the twenty-first century. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Bogdanor, Vernon. and Butler, David. (eds.) (1983) Democracy and elections: electoral systems and their political consequences. Australia: Cambridge University Press. Bollen, Kenneth A. (1986) Political rights and political liberties in nations: An evaluation of human rights measures, 1950 to 1984. Human Rights Quarterly 8: 568-569. Retrieved 25 February 2011 from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/762193 Bollen, Kenneth A Bollen, Kenneth A. and Paxton, Pamela. (2000) Subjective Measures of Liberal Democracy. Comparative Political Studies 33/1: 59-60. Retrieved 28 February 2011 from: http://cps.sagepub.com/content/33/1/58.full.pdf+html Dahl, Robert A Held, David. (2006a, b) Models of Democracy. United Kingdom: Polity Press. Mill, J.S. (1951a, b) Considerations on Representative Government. In HB Acton (ed.), Utilitarianism, Liberty, and Representative Government. London: Dent Ortiz, Daniel R Parekh, Bhikh. (1992a, b) The Cultural Particularity of Liberal Democracy. Political Studies 40/s1: 160-161. Pateman, Carole (1979) The problem of political obligation: a critique of liberal theory. United Kingdom: University of California Press. Warmsley, Gary, Robert N. Bacher, Charles T. Goodsell, Phillip S. Kronenberg, John A. Rohr, Camilla M. Stivers, Orion F. White, and James F. Wolf. (1990) Refounding Public Administration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.