DD classification 2008 dataset Cheibub visualized hanteng en

Embedded democracy is a form of

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

in which democratic governance is secured by democratic partial regimes. The term "embedded democracy" was coined by political scientists Wolfgang Merkel,

Hans-Jürgen Puhle Hans-Jürgen Puhle (born 8 October 1940 in Środa Śląska) is a German historian and political scientist. Further reading * , Christian Lammert, Söhnke Schreyer (editors): ''Staat, Nation, Demokratie. Traditionen und Perspektiven moderner Ges ...

, and Aurel Croissant, who identified "five interdependent partial regimes" necessary for an embedded democracy: electoral regime, political participation, civil rights, horizontal accountability, and the power of the elected representatives to govern.Merkel (2004) p.33 The five internal regimes work together to check the power of the government, while external regimes also help to secure and stabilize embedded democracies. Together, all the regimes ensure that an embedded democracy is guided by the three fundamental principles of freedom, equality, and control.Merkel (2004) p.43-45

Embedded democracy

The ideal embedded democracy is guided by the three fundamental democratic principles of freedom, equality, and control. Merkel uses

Robert Dahl Robert Alan Dahl (; December 17, 1915 – February 5, 2014) was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He established the pluralist theory of democracy—in which political outcomes are ...

's definition of political equality, which includes equality "before the law and in the political process." While equality can infringe upon freedom, an embedded democracy should establish a balance between equality and freedom; to preserve the equality-freedom equilibrium, there must be checks on government power (horizontal and vertical accountability).

Internal regimes of embedded democracy

Democratic electoral regime

Merkel writes about five different forms of internal embeddedness, with democratic electoral regime occupying the central position because "it is the most obvious expression of the sovereignty of the people, the participation of citizens, and the equal weight allotted to their individual preferences."Merkel (2004) p.38 Democratic electoral regime is the backbone of an embedded democracy because it differentiates between authoritarian regimes and democratic regimes. For a democratic regime, equal political rights are a requirement, and "the citizens of the state should be included" in the political process. Four factors support the democratic electoral regime: "universal, active suffrage, universal, passive right to vote, free and fair elections and elected representatives." In order to maintain a democratic electoral regime, all four factors must be present. Voters must all be able to vote in free and fair elections, without coercion, to elect representatives for themselves in the government. An electoral democracy is a form of government in which the democratic electoral regime is present, but other attributes of liberal embedded democracies are lacking. Merkel writes that the "electoral democracy merely entails that the election of the ruling elite be based on the formal, universal right to vote, such that elections are general, free and regular."

Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...

uses its own set of criteria for determining whether or not a state is democratic, which include the existence of free and fair elections Furthermore, "the most popular definition of democracy equates it with regular elections." The principle of democratic electoral regimes is an important one for embedded democracy because electoral regimes are the base of democracies; electoral regimes act as the foundation for the other internal regimes due to the importance of elections for democratic processes.Merkel (2004) p.40

Political participation

The internal regime of political

participation Participation or Participant may refer to: Politics *Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions *Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government *e-participation, citizen participation ...

is closely related to the electoral regime. According to Merkel, participatory rights "make the public arena an independent political sphere of action, where organizational and communicative power is developed."Merkel (2004) p.39 Political participation is facilitated by

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

freedom of assembly Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...

, the

right to petition The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the human rights, right to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government, without fear of punishment or reprisals. In Europe, Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamen ...

, and

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

. In Merkel's vision of embedded democracy, citizens are able to form independent interest groups and organize

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature fo ...

to help them express their political preferences. Political participation is not limited to traditional institutionalized channels for expression; it can take place in arenas like the private media and

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere. Some scholars of democracy disagree with Merkel's assertion that frequent political participation is the ideal for a

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represen ...

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at Ha ...

sees direct participation as limited to elections in a representative democracy; in the intervals between elections, citizens allow representatives to speak for them.

argues that only a small portion of the population will be active in political participation and warns that mass participation in a representative democracy could lead to

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...

. In weak or failed states, "low-intensity citizenship" is often commonplace. This means that many people are denied their full political rights or choose not to exercise them. Political participation in modern democracies is frequently weakened by public apathy and disinterest in government. As government

bureaucracies The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

have grown in size, people have generally participated in political processes less frequently, especially those in low socioeconomic groups. Some countries have more equitable voting patterns than others; for instance, Denmark has less

income inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...

than the United States as well as higher rates of political participation. However, political participation does not depend solely on income distribution: it is also influenced by individual motivation and group affiliation. In some cases, individuals whose economic status predisposes them to political apathy are more likely to participate if motivated by identification with a large group. Proponents of deliberative democracy believe that the ideal democracy allows individuals to participate equally in discussions. In Fishkin's vision of

deliberative democracy Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional ...

, interest groups or parties do not dominate a discussion.Fishkin (2009) Fishkin acknowledges difficulties in achieving mass participation: people view their opinions as statistically insignificant, and they are often uneducated about political topics and easily influenced by the media. In modern democracies, most citizens avoid discussing politics with people they disagree with, which limits the potential for conciliation and compromise. While the internet can provide a forum for deliberation and potentially change participation patterms, it may also increase political polarization.

Deliberative polling A deliberative opinion poll, sometimes called a deliberative poll, is a form of opinion poll that incorporates the principles of deliberative democracy. Professor James S. Fishkin of Stanford University first described the concept in 1988. The typ ...

may offer one means for political participation.

Civil rights

The first two partial regimes of embedded democracy, the democratic electoral regime and political rights of participation, must be supplemented by

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

Buhlmann et al. p.15 Civil rights are central to the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

in an embedded democracy. Merkel defines the rule of law as “the principle that the state is bound to uphold its laws effectively and to act according to clearly defined prerogatives.” The rule of law contains and limits state power. The core of liberal rule of law lies in constitutional rights. These rights protect individuals against executive and legislative actions that infringe on an individual's freedom. Independent courts are also an important aspect of the rule of law.Buhlmann et al. p.18 Courts need the authority to review the behaviors of the executive and legislative branches. Merkel calls the courts “constitutional custodians of the legislature and supervisors of executive conformity to law.” Civil rights are

negative rights Negative and positive rights are rights that oblige either inaction (''negative rights'') or action (''positive rights''). These obligations may be of either a legal or moral character. The notion of positive and negative rights may also be ap ...

of freedom against the state. These rights need to be protected from any majority of citizens or parliament to prevent a

tyranny of the majority The tyranny of the majority (or tyranny of the masses) is an inherent weakness to majority rule in which the majority of an electorate pursues exclusively its own objectives at the expense of those of the minority factions. This results in oppres ...

Alternative models for assessing democracies

Defective democracy is an alternative to terms such as electoral democracy,

illiberal democracy An illiberal democracy describes a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties; thus it does not con ...

, or partial democracy, all of which describe governing systems that meet only some of the conditions required for a full democracy. Merkel argues that using embedded democracy as the basis for assessing real regimes is a more nuanced method than the quantitative rankings released by organizations lik
Freedom House
which are often used to categorize a democracy as

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

, semi-liberal, or

illiberal An illiberal democracy describes a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties; thus it does not c ...

. Embedded and defective democracies are primarily categorized based on their

institutions Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

rather than their purposes or outcomes. This is in keeping with the procedural approach to democratic scholarship followed by scholars such as Schmitter and Huntington. An embedded democracy can be considered a type of

consolidated democracy Democratic consolidation is the process by which a new democracy matures, in a way that it becomes unlikely to revert to authoritarianism without an external shock, and is regarded as the only available system of government within a country. This is ...

, meaning that the democratic regime in an embedded democracy is seen as legitimate and stable. Political scientists debate the definition of democratic consolidation, but at minimum, a consolidated democracy is entrenched so that democracy is considered "the only game in town." Some scholars, like Merkel, take a maximalist approach to defining consolidated democracy by specifying the partial regimes of consolidation. Gunther considers three dimensions of consolidation—institutional, attitudinal, and behavioral—while

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

and Stepan highlight five arenas for consolidation: civil society, political society, rule of law, the state apparatus and economic society. Other scholars have developed multidimensional models of democracy that are similar to Merkel's embedded democracy model. For instance, Dahl defines

polyarchy In political science, the term polyarchy ( "many", ''arkhe'' "rule") was used by Robert A. Dahl to describe a form of government in which power is invested in multiple people. It takes the form of neither a dictatorship nor a democracy.Robert D ...

based on seven distinct criteria: elected officials, free elections, inclusive

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...

, the right to run for office, freedom of expression, alternative information, and associational autonomy. Some scholars critique Merkel's model for merely describing the institutional elements found in a liberal embedded democracy and then categorizing other "

hybrid regimes A hybrid regime is a mixed type of political system often created as a result of an incomplete Democratic transition, transition from an authoritarian regime to a Democracy, democratic one (or vice versa). Hybrid regimes are categorized as combin ...

" as diminished subtypes of democracy. Jayasuriya and

Rodan is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', which first appeared as the title character in Ishirō Honda's 1956 film ''Rodan'', produced and distributed by Toho. Following its debut standalone appearance, Rodan went on to be featured in numerous ent ...

point out that Merkel's model fails to account for how and why regimes form. Møller and Skanning praise Merkel's work for creating a cohesive system of democratic subtypes but argue that Merkel suffers from the "radial delusion," meaning that it lacks a hierarchical structure, which makes it difficult to conduct consistent empirical analyses of democratic regimes. According to Møller and Skanning, there are also inconsistencies between Merkel's original papers on embedded and defective democracy and later works by his colleagues Aurel Croissant and Hans-Jürgen Puhle.

References

{{Reflist Types of democracy