Democracy as procedure and principle: essays on social groups and democratization

Thesis

p>How does inequality between social groups impact the politics of democratic change? Several scholars of democratization argue that individuals (a) intuit principles about procedural democracy that consequentially affect the distribution of benefits and; (b) form preferences between democracy and dictatorship based on which maximizes the utility of their social group. This thesis argues for a more comparative understanding of both (a) and (b) through three primary means. First, it compares and contrasts three different and contradictory principles of democracy namely the popular, liberal and associational principles. Second, it looks at a wider variety of social groups through studying gender, class and ethnic identity. Third, it considers a wider variety of inequalities that includes not only economic, but also social, political and demographic inequality.

The chapters of this thesis explore how different varieties of inequality between different social groups can impact the politics of democratic change. The first chapter provides a comparative overview of the role social identity plays in shaping individual preferences and compares and contrasts different principles of democracy. The second chapter introduces a new data set on political elite (WhoGov) which constitutes the largest database of political elite that is publicly available. The third chapter argues that civil and political empowerment of women each have differential impacts on the probability of democratic transition. The fourth argues that influence in democratic executive politics by the authoritarian elite is a function of the predatory economic legacies left by the previous authoritarian regime. The fifth argues that the size of an ethnic group to which an individual belongs does not predict support for democracy. Instead, group size influences the salience with which individuals view differing principles of democracy. The final concludes with policy implications for proponents of democratic change and discusses extensions for WhoGov that can enable scholars to better study how social identity and elite-level politics interact.

Authors: Bramwell, S

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Political Elites; Social Identity; Democratization
• Subjects: Politics and government