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ANTON PELINKA
the European Court of Human Rights). Contemporary democracies have to
face certain ambiguities or even contradictions, like:
+ The tension between legal equality among all citizens and a social
inequality, expressed by an unequal distribution of property and income
« The world-wide increasing number of people living in a state without
enjoying this state’s citizenship and therefore without the right of political
participation
« The consequence of economic globalization, reducing the impact
of national policies when national governments are confronted by
transnational trends
In so far as democracies are successful in managing these tensions, they may
be seen to be able to withstand inside or outside ‘undemocratic pressure’.
FORMS OF DEMOCRACY
Any democracy is a combination of indirect democratic (representative) and
direct democratic elements:
+ Parliament, the executive (government), and political parties are the key
representative elements. They act as the result of free and fair elections.
As the actors of representative democracy have an inbuilt interest to be
re-elected, they are observing the public mood and try to satisfy specific
interests which seem to be important for the next electoral outcome.
« Elections are the decisive link between “the people” and the people’s
government. In most democracies, in addition to elections, certain
instrument are provided to give the voters the possibility to have an
immediate impact on political decisions, independent from parliament
and government - like plebiscites or “people’s initiatives”.
As political parties — out of self-interest — use the techniques of opinion research
to get information about the most recent trends in the electorate’s interest, the
difference between the representative (and necessarily elitist) and the direct
democratic (“populist”) factors has become less and less significant. The parties
in government and in opposition know what is expected and what is necessary
to win elections. Democracy has become more and more plebiscitarian.
The mechanisms of democracy are in many respects similar to the
mechanisms of an economic market. In that respect, democracy is linked to
liberalism: Based on the assumption that each person is able (and entitled) to
define his/her interests and decide about his/her own fate.
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