1. AFTER IDEOLOGY: IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE TO LIBERAL DEMOCRACY?
HAZEL CARLISLE

2. What are we doing? The basics of liberal democracy
Are there alternatives?
Research task
Debate (40 mins)

3. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”
WHAT IS A DEMOCRACY?
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people”
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

4. WHAT MAKES IT A LIBERAL DEMOCRACY?
“A democratic system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law”
Oxford Dictionary
Let us compare a liberal democracy with another kind of democracy.
Direct democracy is where all decisions are made by all citizens e.g. where in the UK every time parliament hold a vote, every single citizen would vote on it. Most accurate way of representing everyone’s views, but not very efficient in large groups!
Liberal democracy involves electing representatives who make decisions on our behalf, and they are limited by rules about their power

5. Characteristics Popular rule Accountability
Individuals rights and freedoms
Plurality
Rule of Law
Civil society
Representative
Constitution
Equality
Free and fair elections
Limited government
So, can anyone give any suggestions of things that we have in a democracy?
Plurality - getting more votes than anyone else in an election, but less than 50% overall. This happened to Theresa MAy, and was why she formed a coalition with the DUP.
Rule of Law - everyone is accountable to the law, no exceptions
Civil Society - a community of citizens
Representative - those in power reflect the identities and interests of citizens
Popular rule - the ruling government was voted for by the majority of citizens
Accountability - the government is entirely responsible for all they do
Individual rights and freedoms - each person can do as they wish providing it does not harm others
Constitution - a body of fundamental principles and laws. Where the US has a codified constitution, the UK has one but it is not codified
Equality - everyone is treated equally in the eyes of the law
Free and fair elections - you have the right for your vote to be secret, there are no unfair rules regarding who can run/vote
Limited government - power exists only within predefined limits

6. PROBLEMS WITH LIBERAL DEMOCRACY
Is it the best, or are we biased because it reflects Western values?
Capitalist economic structures
Majority rule (minority oppression)
Not consistently democratic (only sometimes - elections, and on certain issues)
Constitution restricts liberty
Voter turnout
Electoral corruption
Elitism’
Is it the best, or are we biased because it reflects Western values?
Everyone has a natural bias to what they grow up with. Do we have a right to impose this on others? Consider colonialism, how we tried to impose our ideas on other countries, and how that went wrong.
Capitalist economic structures
Is this a fair or acceptable distribution of wealth? The wealth gap continues to widen...
Majority rule (minority oppression)
Do we have the right to oppress a minority, or a minority idea, just because fewer people are part of that group? E.g. LGBT rights
Not consistently democratic (only sometimes - elections, and on certain issues)
Constitution restricts liberty
Utilitarianism, JS Mill
Voter turnout
Turn out continues to decline. Democracy reflect the views of those who vote, not the actual view of the country.
Electoral corruption
Consider the Brexit Bus. Whatever your view on Brexit, there was no way the referendum results could account for misleading the public
Elitism

7. ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES?

8. SOCIALISM
Single party-state which rejects Capitalism and instead favours common ownership, equality and cooperation, where Socialism can be established through state policies
Example: Cuba, since 1959 (Marxist-Leninist variation)

9. THEOCRACY
Form of government where God is the head of state and source of authority. Laws are administered by religious agents such as priests.
Example: ISIS since establishment of ‘Caliphal state’ in 2014
Political form of Islam, different to Islam as a religion, characterized by moral conservatism, literalism, attempting to implement Islamic values in all spheres of life through establishing Sharia Law and often associated with militancy

10. AUTHORITARIANISM
Strong central power and limited political freedoms. This type of government presents itself as necessary in order to deal with pervasive societal problems as a means to gain legitimacy. Limited political pluralism and minimal social mobilization.
Example: Maduro’s Venezuela, since the constitutional crisis of 2017

11. ANARCHISM
The opposition of authority. Stateless, as the state is seen to be harmful and unnecessary. The belief that individuals are better off cooperating and establishing a mutual respect between each other in order to operate.
Example: Federation of Northern Syria, Rojava

12. FREEDOM IN THE WORLD www.freedomhouse.org Norway: 100/100 UK: 93/100
North Korea: 3/100
A really fantastic resource when looking at democracy and alternatives is Freedom House, which do a report on ‘how free’ each country is every year using lots of different factors. I’ve got the map for 2019 here, and we’ll just focus on a few countries as examples. I’ve put the website at the bottom of the slide for anyone who wants to take a look in their own time.
I thought we could start with the UK, because that’s where we are. So we have a score of 93/100 which is really good. Concerns have been around increased government surveillance, as well as Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment.
Norway gets a perfect score, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have issues. There is still problems around discrimination against Roma communities and other minorities.
I put Ghana on here because Lancaster University also has a campus there, so I thought it would be interesting. They have a reasonably high score at 83, there electoral system is reasonable robust but there is a lot of discrimination against women and the LGBT community, as well as some levels of political corruption.
I included Syria which scores 0, to really highlight how destructive the conflict there has been. There is huge levels of oppression, human rights abuses, no freedom of speech and incredibly high levels of conflict. Although it hasn’t been reported on as much recently, it is still continuing.
Other than Syria, North Korea has the lowest score in the world at 3/100, which is why they are included. There is incredible amounts governmental surveillance, severe punishments and virtually no freedom. The points it does have are for minor social and economic development in the last few years. Interestingly, NK claims to be a democracy. They just happen to have only one party and some very scary consequences if you don’t support it.
Syria: 0/100
Ghana: 83/100

13. RESEARCH
Research and creating presentation: 20 minutes
Presentation length: 3-5 minutes
In your groups, research your designated case study and create a short presentation to give to the rest of the group
Aim: to explain your case study in more depth (i.e. characteristics etc) and suggest whether it functions as a viable alternative to liberal democracy
Case Studies:
Socialism, Cuba
Theocracy, ISIS
Authoritarianism, Venezuela
Anarchism, Rojava
To get ready for the next task, you may wish to make notes about good points made in the presentations

14. IS THERE A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO LIBERAL DEMOCRACY?

15. POLITICAL DEBATE
Planning: 15 minutes
Debate: 25 minutes
Is there an alternative to liberal democracy? Base your debate on an analysis of the research done during this seminar
Divide into two groups and argue either for or against
Plan an opening statement (3 key points of your argument)
Consider the other side’s possible arguments and develop rebuttals (why are they wrong?)
How might they rebut your arguments? Why are you still right?
Debate Format
Side
Presenting
Time (mins)
For
Opening Statement 5
Against
Clarifying Questions 2
Rebuttal 3
Counter rebuttal and summarise
We’re going to divide up and hold a debate, using the structure outlined here.
You are welcome to use more or fewer debate points, but consider that you don’t have much time to go into detail if you have lots of arguments. Likewise, only using one argument makes it easy for the opposition to rebut it.

16. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Is liberal democracy the best means of promoting our interests?
Given recent global events, is Fukuyama’s argument that we have reached “the end of history” still valid?

17. REFERENCES
Kolstø, Pal and Blakkisrud, Helge (eds.). The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism , 2016, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press
Linz, Juan J. (ed.). Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, 2000, Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers
McLellan, David and Sayers, Sean. Socialism and democracy, 1991, Basingstoke, Macmillan
Meltzer, Albert. Anarchism, arguments for and against, 7th Edition, 2000, Edinburgh, AK Press
Newman, Michael. Socialism : a very short introduction. 2005, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press
Ritter, Alan. Anarchism, a theoretical analysis, 1980, Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press
Ross, Cameron. Federalism and democratisation in Russia, 2002, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press
Stern, Jessica and Berger, J.M. ISIS: The State of Terror, 2016, London, William Collins
Ward, Colin. Anarchism : a very short introduction, 2004, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Weiss, Michael and Hassan, Hassan. ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, 2016, New York, Regan Arts
Wilkinson, Paul. Terrorism versus Democracy: The Liberal State Response, 2nd Edition, 2006, London and New York, Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group
Arblaster, Anthony. Demoracy, 3rd Edition, 1987, 1994, 2002, Buckingham and Philadelphia, Open University Press
Bobbio, Norberto, Liberalism and Democracy, 1988, 1990, 2005, Verso, London and New York, translated by Martin Ryle and Kate Soper
Collected authors, including Marx, Engels and Lenin. The essential left : four classic texts on the principles of socialism, 1960, London, Allen & Unwin
Fukuyama, Francis. The end of history and the last man, 1992, London, Penguin
Fukuyama, Francis. The origins of political order : from prehuman times to the French Revolution, 2011, London, Profile
Gray, John. Liberalism, 2nd Edition, 1986, 1995, Buckingham, Open University Press
Herz, John H. (ed.). From dictatorship to democracy : coping with the legacies of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, 1982, Westport, Greenwood Press
Heywood, Andrew. Political ideologies : an introduction, 5th edition, 2012, Basingstoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan
Huberman, Leo and Sweezy, Paul M. Socialism in Cuba, 1969, New York, New York Monthly Review Press