In this paper I discuss e-voting through the theories of Robert Dahl and Carole Pateman.  Dahls view of an electoral democracy and Patemans participatory democracy is used as a foundation for the discussion. A brief introduction to e-democracy is also provided and used in the discussion because of the strong conection between e-voting and edemocracy. E-voting is explained mostly with the help of understanding the Norwegian and Estonian experiences. The aspects of e-voting that is focused on include trust for the system, accessibility and secrecy and freedom of the vote. In the results I can show that e-voting has both positive and negative inpacts on Dahl and Patemans theories and why it is controversial. The results also points to the positive inpacts e-democracy might have on both the theories and on democracy altogether.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:52:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo5655_1.pdf: 1069367 bytes, checksum: 87ffd89b792e784541e3e1c5a8a77395 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A democracia é, atualmente, um dos temas mais recorrentes no âmbito da Ciência Política. Autores diversos têm contribuído, ao longo de décadas, na elucidação de múltiplos problemas relacionados àquela forma de governo, tendo destaque os trabalhos do teórico norte americano Robert Dahl, que tem se destacado, dentre outros motivos, pelo enfoque apresentado sobre o tema da relação entre democracia e escala. Sobre a questão da democracia, do ponto de vista analítico, não se pode perder de vista a sua relação histórica com a problemática das unidades políticas, ou seja, a ligação entre regime democrático e tamanho espacial, o que inclui a dimensão geográfica e populacional do sistema. Para Dahl, em muitas de suas obras, a construção da democracia encontra-se estreitamente relacionada ao ambiente em que ela se propõe ser aplicada. Assim, define esse autor, sempre tendo em mente a questão do espaço, a existência de vários modelos de democracia, apropriados para cada escala - desde a pequena à grande unidade. Assim sendo, é nosso objetivo analisar, na presente dissertação, a reflexão de Dahl sobre a questão da relação entre democracia e escala. Deste modo, visamos também compreender os tipos de regimes democráticos desenvolvidos por este cientista político e a relação destes regimes com o tamanho das unidades políticas em que eles são consagrados

<p>Bortom historien slut – Beyond the end of history</p><p>According to Robert Dahl there are seven criteria that have to be fulfilled in order for a state to be democratic. Dahl also states that there are several factors that effect the development of democracy. In today’s world it is mostly developing countries that have failed to bring about democratic changes. It is the developing country that is in focus in this thesis.</p><p>The purpose is to examine if there are any particularly advantageous factors that can bring about or promote the development of democratic institutions.</p><p>The questions are:</p><p>What factor has effected the development of democratic institutions?</p><p>Which, if any, of Dahl’s seven criteria is found within each state today?; do they correctly reflect the democratic situation?</p><p>Can any connection between the states democratic development be found in a comparison?</p><p>In a comparison between nine countries the different factors have been examined. The result shows that pluralism is a key factor for development of democracy in a developing country. External influence is on the other hand not important.</p><p>Keywords: developing countries, democratization, Robert Dahl</p><p>Nyckerlord: utvecklingsländer, demokratisering</p>

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Este trabalho analisa o conceito de poliarquia na obra de Robert Dahl. O autor faz uma distinÃÃo entre âdemocracia idealâ e âdemocracia realâ. Para ele, a palavra âdemocraciaâ evoca o cenÃrio grego original de participaÃÃo direta, nÃo sendo mais adequada para classificar os regimes representativos contemporÃneos. Tais regimes sÃo pobres aproximaÃÃes dos ideais democrÃticos, e que por isso devem ser classificados como âpoliarquiasâ. Por meio de uma pesquisa bibliogrÃfica, o trabalho objetiva evidenciar e analisar, mais especificamente, a investigaÃÃo que o autor realizou no seu clÃssico livro âPoliarquia: ParticipaÃÃo e OposiÃÃoâ, no qual ele abordou o tema da transiÃÃo de regimes, procurando compreender quais as condiÃÃes que favorecem ou impedem a transiÃÃo de um regime nÃo poliÃrquico para um regime poliÃrquico. / This paper analyzes the concept of polyarchy in the work of Robert Dahl. The author makes a distinction between "ideal democracy" and "real democracy". For him, the word "democracy" evokes the original Greek scenario of direct participation, no longer appropriate to classify regimes representative contemporaries. Such schemes are poor approximations of democratic ideals, and therefore should be classified as "polyarchies". Through a literature search, this work aims at identifying and analyzing more specifically, the research that the author conducted in his classic book "Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition," in which he addressed the issue of regime transition, trying to understand what conditions that favor or hinder the transition from a regime not polyarchical to a polyachical regime.

Bortom historien slut – Beyond the end of history According to Robert Dahl there are seven criteria that have to be fulfilled in order for a state to be democratic. Dahl also states that there are several factors that effect the development of democracy. In today’s world it is mostly developing countries that have failed to bring about democratic changes. It is the developing country that is in focus in this thesis. The purpose is to examine if there are any particularly advantageous factors that can bring about or promote the development of democratic institutions. The questions are: What factor has effected the development of democratic institutions? Which, if any, of Dahl’s seven criteria is found within each state today?; do they correctly reflect the democratic situation? Can any connection between the states democratic development be found in a comparison? In a comparison between nine countries the different factors have been examined. The result shows that pluralism is a key factor for development of democracy in a developing country. External influence is on the other hand not important. Keywords: developing countries, democratization, Robert Dahl Nyckerlord: utvecklingsländer, demokratisering

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to study the level of democracy within the European Union (EU). To do so the following issues were examined: How the EU works and the efforts it has made to improve levels of democracy; and the degree to which the EU fulfils the criteria set by Robert Dahl in his theory of polyarchy.</p><p>The study is based on a qualitative text analysis. The focus of the analysis is documents released by the EU that can be connected to democracy, and human and fundamental rights. The theory of polyarchy proposed by Robert Dahl and Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of democracy are the principal theories applied. The thesis also includes theories about democracy within the EU prior to this study.</p><p>The result and conclusion after studying the documents in the light of the theories of Dahl and Schumpeter suggest that the EU could be more democratic than it is at present. The movement towards becoming more democratic is in progress but needs more time. The fundamental criterion, i.e. that citizens should to be able to choose the holders of a particular position, is weak in the EU because there are only general elections to the European Parliament, which is just one of the three main institutions.</p>

For the last decades, Sweden has transformed from a state with strong elements of corporatism, to a governance of pluralistic character. This development has opened up to a new form of participation – lobbyism – which since has spread and commercialized. Because of this, a report on the state of Swedish democracy – Demokratiutredningen – was issued to examine the phenomenon of lobbyism as it was feared to challenge the functioning of a representative democracy. The report issued a warning of the negative impact on transparency and political equality a professionalization of lobbying could have. Even some forms of regulation were thought to have a negative impact on the political equality. Since the report was released in 2000, nine bills regarding lobbyism have been presented to the Swedish parliament, but no regulation has yet been implemented. The report identified problems regarding transparency and political equality with both regulated and unregulated lobbying. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the parliamentary bills handle the democratic problems voiced by the report. The bills are analyzed with the ideal types of “transparency” and “political equality”, based on Robert Dahl’s ideal of democracy. The study found that the problem of transparency was of a high priority in the bills, while the problem of political equality was hardly addressed. Three of the bills actually ignored the warning issued by the report, where a regulation in the form of registration was thought to have a negative impact on political equality. The fact that the bills hardly addressed the problem of political equality, and in some cases even worsened it, represents a democratic deficit in the regulation debate. / De senaste decennierna har Sverige förvandlats från en stat med starka inslag av korporativism, till ett styrelseskick med pluralistisk prägel. Utvecklingen har öppnat upp för en ny deltagandeform, lobbyism, som sedan dess brett ut sig och kommersialiserats. Med anledning av detta tillkallade regeringen Demokratiutredningen för att analysera lobbningen då den ansågs utmana den representativa demokratins funktionssätt. Demokratiutredningen varnade för att professionaliseringen av lobbying kunde påverka öppenheten och den politiska jämlikheten negativt. Även vissa regleringar ansågs kunna försämra den politiska jämlikheten. Sedan Demokratiutredningen överlämnade sitt slutbetänkande år 2000 har nio motioner gällande lobbyism lagts fram i Sveriges riksdag utan att resultera i en reglering. Demokratiutredningen identifierade demokratiproblem med både öppenhet och politisk jämlikhet i oreglerad, såväl som reglerad, lobbyism. Uppsatsen studerade hur motionerna i ärendet hanterat de demokratiproblem som utredningen framhävde. Studien genomfördes med idealtyper som analysverktyg. Idealtyperna, ”öppenhet” och ”politisk jämlikhet”, byggdes upp med hjälp av Robert Dahls demokratiideal. Studien fann att problemet med öppenhet uppmärksammades i hög grad av motionerna, medan politisk jämlikhet knappt hanterades alls. Tre av motionerna ignorerade till och med den varning som Demokratiutredningen utfärdade, där en reglering i form av registrering skulle påverka den politiska jämlikheten negativt. Att motionerna inte hanterar problemet med politisk jämlikhet, och i flera fall även förvärrar den, innebär ett påtagligt demokratiskt underskott i regleringsdebatten.

The purpose of the study is to investigate if the presence of subcultural pluralism has affected Rwanda’s democratisation negatively. The study’s question is therefore: Are subcultural pluralism an explanation of Rwanda’s low degree of democracy? To answer this, I have chosen to do an explanatory case study and the study is theory consuming. The study’s theoretical framework consists of Robert A Dahls part theory about subcultural pluralism from his work Polyarchy. Other materials used in the study is secondary material which is used to describe Rwanda’s political history. Another important source is Freedom House “Freedom in the world”- reports about Rwanda from the period 1995-2019. The analysis shows that Rwanda do not meet Robert A Dahls three criteria’s about subcultural pluralism. If a country meets his criteria’s they have a good chance of democratization even though they have a high degree of subcultural pluralism. If the country does not meet his criteria’s they have a low chance to democratize. The study shows that Rwanda's leading party RPF has adopted several measures that have complicated the oppositions situation to operate in the country and Rwanda's subcultural groups hutu and twa are excluded from political processes. The result shows that Rwanda has low chances of democratisation. It also shows that subcultural pluralism is one explanation to the country’s low degree of democracy.

I den rådande läroplanen för gymnasieskolan står framskrivet att undervisningen skall ske genom demokratiska arbetsmetoder (Skolverket 2011a), det vill säga att undervisningen skall ske genom demokrati. Samtidigt står det framskrivet i ämnesplanen för samhällskunskap på gymnasiet att innehållet i undervisningen skall bestå av demokrati (Skolverket 2011b), det vill säga att undervisningen skall vara i demokrati. Det väcker frågan om det är möjligt att kombinera dessa två. Samtidigt som de demokratiska ambitionerna från Skolverket är fortsatt höga så sjunker de demokratiska värderingarna i Sverige (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010). Tidigare forskning visar på att demokratibegreppet är både brett och abstrakt vilket kan göra det svårt att omsätta i praktik. Detta är en kvalitativ intervjustudie baserad på målriktat, systematiskt urval. Målet med intervjuerna var att dels ta del av lärares tankar kopplat till styrdokumenten, dels samla in arbetsmetoder som används för att undervisa i och genom demokrati. Resultaten analyseras sedan utifrån Robert A. Dahls demokratimodell. Resultatet av denna studie ringar in delar av de konsekvenser som Skolverkets höga ambitioner har på den verkställande nivån, men lyfter även fram exempel på lärares lösningar på dessa problem.

This thesis is a case study who analyzes the democracy in North Macedonia during the period2008-2018. The method which was applied in this study was an ideal-type of democracy.Democracy is defined on the grounds of Robert Dahl’s polyarchy and its seven institutionswhich are; elected representatives, free and fair elections, universal suffrage, the right tocandidate in elections, freedom of speech, alternative information and the right to organize.The material on this work includes reports from the European Commission, Freedom House,the Swedish Government Offices and CountryWatch.The results of this study showed that regarding the four institutions; elected representatives,universal suffrage, the right to candidate in elections and alternative information there havebeen no significant changes during the period 2008-2018. The institution the right to organizeis the only institution where we can see a positive change during the period 2008-2018. Onthe contrary the institutions; free and fair elections and freedom of speech was thoseinstitutions that became more restricted during the period 2015-2018. The institution free andfair elections became more restricted because of the political crisis in recent year, for examplethe wire-tapping scandal which took place in 2015. To sum up, we can both see positive andnegative changes between the period 2008-2018. One thing that we can note is that NorthMacedonia does not fulfill the seven institutions that characterize an polyarchy and that NorthMacedonia has some work left to do, to achieve a more democratic and independent politicalsystem.