Page 39 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION

Constitutionality
First, there must be an agreed set of procedures and rules governing
the conduct of elections, the behaviour of those who win them and
the legitimate activities of dissenters. Such rules will typically take
the form of a constitution (although some countries, like Britain, do
not have a ‘written’ constitution) or a bill of rights.

Participation
Second, those who participate in the democratic process must
comprise what Bobbio terms a ‘substantial’ proportion of the
people. In the early democratic period, as we have noted, citizenship
rights were restricted to a small minority of the population –
men with property and/or formal education. For John Stuart
Mill, one of the great early theorists of liberal democracy, only
this guaranteed the rational, informed electorate demanded
by democracy. 1 In reality, of course, this restriction merely
demonstrated the close relationship between democracy and the rise
of the bourgeoisie.
Gradually, voting rights were extended to the lower classes
and, by the early twentieth century, to women. In the US, only in
the 1950s were blacks able to vote. Conversely, societies which
deprived the majority of their people of voting rights, such as South
Africa until the elections of April 1994, have rightly been viewed as
‘undemocratic’.

Rational choice
A third condition of democracy, as already noted, is the availability
of choice (Democrat versus Republican, Labour versus Conserva-
tive, Christian Democrat versus Social Democrat), while a fourth is
the ability of citizens to exercise that choice rationally. This in turn
presupposes a knowledgeable, educated citizenry.

PUBLIC OPINION AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE

The importance of an informed, knowledgeable electorate dictates
that democratic politics must be pursued in the public arena (as
distinct from the secrecy characteristic of autocratic regimes). The
knowledge and information on the basis of which citizens will

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