Parties and Power
Two or more parties govern together and collectively control more than half of parliament.
What is a majority coalition?
Freedoms that protect individuals from government interference, including speech, religion, press, and assembly.
What are civil liberties?
False information spread by someone who believes it is true.
What is misinformation?
Making information about government actions, decisions, spending, or political financing available to the public.
What is transparency?
The principle that laws apply to everyone (including government officials) and are enforced fairly rather than according to political loyalty.
What is the rule of law?
Two or more parties govern together but do not control more than half of parliament and therefore need support from outside parties.
What is a minority coalition?
Protections designed to guarantee equal treatment and prevent discrimination against groups.
What are civil rights?
False information knowingly created or spread in order to deceive people.
What is disinformation?
The ability to investigate leaders, require them to explain their actions, and impose consequences for misconduct.
What is accountability?
Government money provided to qualifying political parties or campaigns rather than requiring them to rely entirely on donors.
What is public campaign financing?
Bonus: What is the alternative?
Parliament determines that the prime minister no longer has enough legislative support to remain in office.
What is a vote of no confidence?
The government closes a newspaper because it repeatedly criticizes the prime minister. Which concept is being violated?
Civil liberties, specifically freedom of the press.
The government prevents a television network from broadcasting an investigation into corruption.
What is censorship?
What is this kind of accountability?
Voters defeat the governing party after a corruption scandal.
What is vertical accountability?
The government has not changed any laws, but prosecutors almost exclusively investigate opposition politicians while overlooking similar behavior by governing-party officials.
How can the rule of law be weakened even when the laws themselves have not changed?
Having rule does not equal enforcing rule.
The problem is unequal/selective enforcement. Rule of law requires laws to apply consistently to political allies and opponents, not merely that laws exist.
A president is accused of serious misconduct, and the legislature begins a constitutional process that could remove the president from office.
What is impeachment?
Bonus: How exactly is this different than a vote of no confidence?
A religious minority is allowed to worship freely but is prohibited from attending the same public universities as everyone else.
Is this primarily a civil-rights or civil-liberties problem, and why?
Civil rights, because the issue is unequal treatment/discrimination rather than government restriction of religious practice.
Two newspapers accurately cover the same protest. One emphasizes violence and property destruction; the other emphasizes peaceful protesters and their political demands.
What concept is this?
What is framing?
What kind of accountability is this?
A supreme court rules that the president violated the constitution and blocks the president's action.
What is horizontal accountability?
A country allows unlimited campaign donations but requires every large donor to be publicly identified.
Name one democratic strength and one democratic concern.
Answers may vary...
Party A wins 40% of parliament, Party B wins 18%, Party C wins 16%, and the remaining seats are divided among other parties. A and B agree to govern together.
What kind of government is this, and give one potential strength and one potential weakness.
What is a Majority Coalition?
Strengths and Weaknesses are...
A country’s constitution guarantees freedom of speech and assembly. The government does not officially ban opposition protests, but it charges opposition groups enormous permit fees, repeatedly schedules “security inspections” that delay their events, and threatens employers of people who attend. Pro-government demonstrations face none of these barriers.
The government claims civil liberties are still protected because protests are technically legal. Why is that argument weak? Identify at least TWO democratic problems in the scenario.
Civil Liberties-speech/assembly is undermined by being overly burdened in practice
Civil Rights-opposition supporters are treated differently
Rule of Law-selective enforcement
A candidate's campaign knowingly creates a fake video showing an opponent accepting a bribe. Thousands of people believe it and repost it without realizing it is fake.
What is the original campaign doing, and what are the people reposting it doing?
The campaign is spreading disinformation; people who unknowingly repeat it are spreading misinformation.
A cabinet minister is accused of secretly giving government contracts to a company owned by a friend. Investigative journalists uncover the evidence. Parliament holds hearings. A court later rules that the minister broke the law. At the next election, voters punish the minister’s party.
Identify three different forms or mechanisms of democratic accountability operating in this scenario.
Independent media / transparency
Horizontal accountability — Parliament investigating
Horizontal accountability / rule of law — courts enforcing the law
Vertical accountability — voters punishing the party
An elected government gradually packs the courts with loyalists, threatens independent journalists, changes election rules to hurt opponents, restricts protests, and selectively prosecutes political rivals, but elections still continue.
What concept is this illustrating?
What is democratic backsliding?
Which of these actions makes the OTHER forms of backsliding hardest to reverse, and why? Defend your choice.