The Fallacy of Democratic Elitism: Elite Competition and Commitment to Civil Liberties

Abstract

Since the seminal studies of Stouffer and McClosky it has become accepted that political elites are markedly more committed to civil liberties and democratic values than is the public at large; so much so that political elites should be recognized, in McClosky's words, as ‘the major repositories of the public conscience and as carriers of the Creed’. The argument of this article is that previous analyses have erred by focusing on the contrast between elites taken as a whole and the mass public. The crucial contrast is not between elites and citizens, but rather between groups of elites that are competing one with another for political power.Drawing on large-scale surveys of two modern democracies, Canada and the United States, this article demonstrates that differences among elites in support for civil liberties eclipse, both in size and political significance, differences between elites and citizens. The fallacy of democratic elitism, as this study shows, is its indifference to which elites prevail in the electoral competition for power.

In Principle and in Practice: Learning Political Tolerance in Eastern and Western Europe

“…These country-specific studies tend to focus on advanced industrial countries such as the United States (Shamir, Walsh, & Roberts, 1981;Stouffer, 1955;Sullivan et al, 1979Sullivan et al, , 1982, Great Britain (Barnum & Sullivan, 1989), Canada (Sniderman et al, 1991;Sniderman, Fletcher, Russell, & Tetlock, 1996), West Germany (Weil, 1989(Weil, , 1991, Italy (Sniderman, Peri, de Figuieredo Jr., & Piazza, 2000), and Israel (Shamir, 1991;Shamir & Sullivan, 1983). Recently, studies of tolerance have broadened to encompass newly democratizing countries including Russia (Bahry et al, 1997;Gibson, 1992Gibson, , 1996Gibson & Duch, 1993), Poland (Karpov, 1999a, b), and Estonia (Kaplan, 1995).…”

Election in Malaysia and Indigenization of Democracy

“…Elitist democracy based on Schumpeter's idea focuses on political parties and elites where democracy is in the hand of a few people that are elected by the people. Thus, such concentration of power in the hands of a few will not derail democracy because the competition among elites allows democracy to prevail (Sniderman et al, 2009). Populist democracy is based on Jean Jacques Rousseau's social contract (1762) that concisely highlights the 'general will' of the people that must be carried out with responsibility and accountability to deliver services to the people.…”

The Deliberative Pulpit? The Democratic Norms and Practices of the PCUSA

“…Finally, we investigate the effects of a series of variables capturing what the clergy might want and the freedom of clergy to pursue their own vision for the congregation; they also serve as needed controls. It is a longstanding finding that conservatives tend to be less tolerant of minority groups and of ideas and lifestyles that challenge the status quo (e.g., Guth et al 1997;Sniderman et al 1991;Stouffer 1955). Though tolerance is not the only component of deliberative democracy, it is a critical one and the logic should extend easily to deliberative norms and practices-we expect liberals to be more supportive of deliberative norms and practices.…”