Russia as a Plebiscitary Democracy

Electoral procedures, such as elections, voting, or opinion polling, play a pivotal role in the Russian political system. A theoretical problem for contemporary political science arises; how can this proactive recourse to the popular voice coexist with the obvious depoliticization and concentration of personal power? Describing the Russian political regime as intermediary and inferior as opposed to full democracies cannot account for its electoral enthusiasm nor its robustness and endurance. This paper reverts to the plebiscitarian theory of democracy to address these issues. Combining monarchical power with universal suffrage created the political system of the Second Empire in France, and was later thoroughly theorized in Germany during the years of the Weimar Republic. Plebiscitary democracy produces direct democratic legitimacy for a strong leader while severely reducing the role of the masses under a drastic and rapid extension of suffrage. This paper identifies key principles as well as the main contradictions of plebiscitarian regimes. Additionally, it demonstrates that the plebiscitarian ideas proposed by Max Weber and Carl Schmitt have affected the minimalist definition of democracy espoused by Joseph Schumpeter, and therefore keeps enjoying a wide influence in political science. In identifying democracy with elections, the minimalist view promotes the electoralization of political regimes and favors the contemporary rise of plebiscitarianism. The paper considers present-day Russia as a radical case of plebiscitarian politics and traces some of its key developments.

The Political Class and Redistributive Policies

We study the relationship between the composition of the political class and the size of government. First, we use a citizen-candidate model to show that the extension of suffrage is inconsequential for government spending when stricter eligibility requirements are in place. The removal of eligibility requirements, on the other hand, leads to the election of less wealthy politicians and the enactment of more redistributive policies. We test these predictions empirically using data from the 13 U.S. original states. We find no robust correlation between the extension of the franchise and government spending or the composition of the political class. However, the subsequent elimination of eligibility restrictions is associated with an increase in government spending and the election of state senators with a less elite background.

El bicameralismo en el siglo XXI. Los últimos debates sobre el Senado en el Derecho comparado

Desde que las revoluciones liberales atribuyeran el poder soberano a la nación y se configurara el gobierno representativo como única forma de organizar el ejercicio del poder político, el bicameralismo y, en concreto, el Senado se convertirá en una institución muy discutida en el derecho comparado. La extensión del sufragio y la asunción del principio democrático de la soberanía popular todavía harán más palmaría la contradicción entre la voluntad popular única y su expresión doble. De conformidad con esta idea, el siglo xx ha mostrado una clara tendencia a la baja del bicameralismo en los Estados unitarios; no así en los Estados federales. El presente trabajo analiza la tendencia del bicameralismo a comienzos del siglo xxi, así como los más recientes debates en torno al Senado tanto en Estados unitarios como en Estados Federales. Observaremos cómo, pese a la impresión inicial, la reducción del poder del Senado se generaliza en las democracias contemporáneas.From the moment that liberal revolutions attributed sovereign power to the nation and constituted representative government as the only way to organize the exercise of political power, bicameralism and, in particular, the Senate will become a much discussed institution in comparative law. The extension of suffrage and the assumption of the democratic principle of popular sovereignty will further enhance the contradiction between the single popular will and its double expression. According to this idea, the twentieth century has shown a clear downward trend of bicameralism in the unitary states; not so in federal states. This paper analyzes the trend of bicameralism at the beginning of the 21st century, as well as the most recent debates around the Senate in both unitary and federal states. We will see how, despite the initial impression, the reduction of Senate power is widespread in contemporary democracies.

Landowners and Democracy

Are large landowners, especially those engaged in labor-dependent agriculture, detrimental to democratization and the subsequent survival of democracy? This assumption is at the heart of both canonical and recent influential work on regime transition and durability. Using an original panel data set on the extent of labor-dependent agriculture in countries across the world since 1930, the author finds that labor-dependent agriculture was indeed historically bad for democratic stability and stunted the extension of suffrage, parliamentary independence, and free and fair elections. However, the negative influence of labor-dependent agriculture on democracy started to turn positive around the time of democracy's third wave. The dual threats of land reform and costly domestic insurgencies in that period—often with more potent consequences under dictators—plausibly prompted landowners to push for democracy with strong horizontal constraints and favorable institutions that could protect their property more reliably over the long term than could dictatorship. The shift in support for democracy by labor-dependent landowners is a major untold story of democracy's third wave and helps explain the persistent democratic deficit in many new democracies.

Voting and Liberty

In this paper, the author takes up the opposition between liberty and dependence proposed by Quentin Skinner and applies it to the analysis of the debates involving voting rights and regulations. The goal here is to examine the rhetoric supporting different positions in favor and against the extension of suffrage, the exclusion of certain groups, etc. The author points out that dependence can be detected even in democratic societies that lack traditional hierarchies. A similar effort is made to think how commitment, deliberation, and contestation can take place in the context of today's representative democracy in ways that enhance freedom instead of endangering it.

The Ideology, Rhetoric, and Organizational Structure of a Countermovement Publication: The Remonstrance, 1890–1920

This article examines the anti-suffrage ideology, rhetoric, and structure of The Remonstrance, the publication of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. As a counter- movement publication, The Remonstrance was principally reactive, that is, driven to respond to suffrage claims and strategies. Basic themes illustrated the ideology of the anti-suffrage movement. Further, the anti-suffrage ideology was reflected in the organizational structure of both the MAOFESW and The Remonstrance. Although they changed over time, they failed to keep step with the broad social changes affecting women's lives in the early twentieth century.