Political Science

In Chapter 3 of the book Problems of Democratic Transitions and Consolidation the focus of the entire chapter is the definition of five different types of government currently found in the world.  Of the five governments, only one is democratic.  The remaining governments are totalitarian, post-totalitarian, authoritarian and sultanistic. The chapter focused on the move from a non-democratic government to a democratic one, in the how and why this transition occurred.

Of the four non-democratic governments the function was one of total rule of the one or the elite.  There was little in the way of pluralism in any of these regimes, however, some did offer partial or the beginnings of pluralism.  The chapter also discussed why some of these regimes, such as the totalitarian regime, moved into a different type of government, such as the post-totalitarian government.  The changes in the social norms of the country were a part of the changes as were the changes in the world views.  Unfortunately, sultanistic regimes are based solely on the interests of the leader and therefore, was the least likely to change without a major upheaval in the country.
The implication of this chapter is that no governmental regime is completely stable.  Most governments go through changes just as people do, growing and learning.  Most move from a single person leader to group leadership that give the people of the country more say over their own lives.  In any matter, however, the move from totalitarianism or authoritarianism is a slow process but in most cases changes with time.  The sultanistic government is harder to change, but when another charismatic person is able to topple the current leader the government will change, in one way or another.

Democracy
The main focus of the article What Democracy is and is not is the concept and types of democracy, and what makes democracy work. The facts of the article show that there are no real set rules of democracy that are required.  Instead there is a common interest in the accountability established of the national government.  However, there are six aspects of democracy that are obvious in any type of democracy. They are the citizens, the rulerregime, the public, majority rule, cooperation, representation and of course competition. The authors show in their descriptions that no matter what type of democratic government is enlisted in a nation these six aspects will appear in some way.  No nation has a perfect or true democracy, no would it be feasible.  Using these six factors one can not just define democracy, but test the nation to see if they even have a basic democracy in varying degrees.

The authors, Schmitter and Karl also discuss the nine factors that are inherent to democracy and range from the election of officials to their posts at regular intervals to the rights and promises made to the public, the citizens that vote for and elect the representatives.  While this is just an overview, it gives insight into the needs of a democracy and that there are many ways in which to define the democratic government.  The democratic government can be defined in eleven different ways, but each encompasses each of the above factors in the way it works.

The last part of the article discusses the fact that the democratic government does not heal all historical wounds of a country.  The economy, the public, the laws, and such will not be better automatically just because a democratic government is established.  Many healthy democracies take years and generations to gain the trust of the public and create the laws that do not infringe on the rights of the people.  Democracy is not a quick fix, but a long term promise to a better governing body and a better life for its citizens.

Public Contestation and Opposition
Robert Dahl, in chapter 1 of the book Polyarchy Participation and Opposition, discusses the public and the publics ability to work within the democratic governments.  Dahl believed that there are three subjects or aspects of public contestation and opposition that needed to be accounted for in large nations.  The first is the publics ability to formulate preferences in relation to the laws of the government.  The second is the ability to signify those preferences to the rulers or representatives of the government.  Third is the ability for the representatives to weigh the preferences from differing public groups equally to make decision in relation to those preferences.
 
Unfortunately most democracies fail at some portion of these three aspects.  Most democracies have hindered wide spread public contestation and the other is that public opposition is hindered.  While these factors are held erroneously from the public, the government is still more in itself than for the public and it is this that needs to be challenged and changed.  One example of democracy is the Swiss democracy is one of the closest to a pure democracy however, the public contestation does not include women.  However, the example of democracy in the United States is less of a true democracy but includes almost every adult in the country.  This shows that democracies can run the gamut of differences and still be a democracy.

The implication is that there are no true democracies, nor true authoritarianisms, totalitarianisms, or sultanistics.  The majority of governments in the world fall into the center, allowing some aspects of each type of government.  Even today, no government, even Switzerland, can say they have a true democracy.  For Dahl, those countries claiming democracy are really polyarchy, which is fine for now because of its ability to allow the public their say in the governments of the nations. However, the ultimate goal, he believes is to get to a real democracy.