Materials for teachers 3C: Suggestions for extensions and follow-ups

Living Democracy » Textbooks » Taking part in democracy » Part 1: Taking part in the community » UNIT 3: DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM » Materials for teachers 3C: Suggestions for extensions and follow-ups

1. How do parties reflect social cleavages?

Student handout 3.5 and discussion

  • What cleavages exist in our society?
  • How do the parties in our country reflect these cleavages?
  • What decisions and compromises have been mad

2. Pluralism

  • What interest groups and NGOs are present in politics?
  • Which interests are well organised? Which are not?

3. Compromise

In democracies, pluralism generates the necessity for compromise. Different views are held on this:

  1. From the individual player’s point of view: compromise is the price to pay for power. Good ideas are watered down to a second best solution.
  2. From a general point of view: pluralism generates competition; the players keep each other in check and ensure that none of them becomes too powerful. Pluralism in society has the same effect as checks and balances do in a constitution.
  3. Viewed from the output perspective: pluralism generates the necessity to compromise. Decisions that go to extremes are rare. This supports social cohesion.
    • Which of these views are confirmed by a reality check in your country, e.g. a case study?

4.  Comparing democracy and dictatorship

Student handout 3.4

  • How do democracies and dictatorships handle diverse interests and views?
  • What decisions are made? (Criteria for comparison: inclusion of interests, efficiency, articulation of criticism, role of the media.)

5. The two dimensions of politics

Max Weber:4

  1. “Politics may be compared to slowly and strongly boring holes through thick planks, both with passion and good judgment.”
  2. “Whoever is active in politics strives for power.”
  • How did we experience the two dimensions of politics in this unit?
  • How do political actors balance these two dimensions in our country?

13. Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation”, pp. 2, 34 (www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/ethos/Weber-vocation.pdf); quotations edited by the author.