1. Democracy

2. What will this seminar be about?
Part One: Minorities
Part Two: Interest Groups
Part Three: Political Capital

3. How this will be useful to debating
These concepts can form the core of the content of your argumentation
These concepts can inform our characterisation of how we expect the state to behave

4. Traps It is not black and white
Just because it is democratic doesn’t mean it is good

5. Why do we like democracy?
Mandate
Alignment of incentives
Wide deliberative input

6. Minority Groups

7. Not all voters are equal
Minorities are excluded from institutions that give them access to the political process
This makes them less likely to politically organise and vote

8. Electoral Behaviour of Minorities
Majority can outvote the minority in a democratic system
Electorate system
Minorities block vote
Alternating of power of rival coalitions
Minority voter loyalty

9. Interest Groups

10. Why do they matter
Deliberative theory of democracy: policy outcomes will reflect the best compromise between competing interests
But there are asymmetries
Asymmetries of impact
Asymmetries of information
Asymmetries of resources
Asymmetries of status
Regulatory Capture

11. How do Interest Groups harm policy?
They direct policy to favouring the most powerful
They create political inertia

12. Political Capital

13. What is political capital?
The ability to enact some kind of political change
This can be thought of a little bit like a currency

14. Where do we get political capital from?
How likely are different groups to agree with the policy?
The machinery of the political party?
The legislature?
Relevant interest groups?
The voting public?

15. More on the voting public
Perceptions = Outcomes
Information concerns

16. What are some things that this tells us?
All sorts of different groups can achieve disproportionate amounts of power
There are important dynamic considerations in politics
Because political capital is finite, political actions are substitutes