O Estado oculto - Repositorio Institucional da USC - Universidade ...

obxectivos que un réxime político debe acadar para poder ser considerado
unha democracia consolidada:
1. the organizational and associational life of civil society –protected by law and with
some base in the economy– must have a reasonably high degree of autonomy;
2. the specific procedures and institutions of political society (parties, electoral
systems, legislatures, etc.) must be valued in themselves, and have a sufficient
degree of autonomy to function adequately;
3. the institutions of democracy, individual rights, and the rights of minorities must be
embedded in –and guided and protected by– constitutionalism and the rule of law;
4. the state bureaucracies whose task it is to implement the laws, procedures, and
policies decided upon by political society must operate within the confines of
democratic mandates, constitutionalism, and professional norms; and the vast
majority of the bureaucracy, both civil and military, must respect the authority of any
democratically elected government; and
5. there should be a certain degree of market autonomy and ownership diversity
(government regulation of economic relations and mixed patterns of public and
private ownership notwithstanding), so that sufficient pluralism can exist to permit
the autonomous group activity necessary for a modern democracy.
Linz e Stepan (1996, 7-15) detéñense con máis vagar nestes cinco
obxectivos cando se refiren ás “five major arenas of a modern consolidated
democracy”, que serían: (a) A sociedade civil: Grupos autoorganizados,
movementos e individuos relativamente autónomos verbo do Estado, que
procuran articular valores, crear asociacións e solidariedades e defender os
seus intereses. A cidadanía –organizada en parte en sindicatos, patronais,
colexios profesionais, grupos feministas, asociacións de veciños, grupos
relixiosos, etc.– informa, presiona e renova periodicamente a sociedade
política. (b) A sociedade política: A comunidade política selecciona o goberno
democrático e controla o poder público e o aparato do Estado a través das
“core institutions of a democratic political society –political parties, elections,
electoral rules, political leadership, interparty alliances, and legislatures–“. (c) O
Estado de dereito (rule of law): Todos os actores relevantes –e especialmente o
goberno democrático e mais o Estado– deben respectar e facer respectar o
Estado de dereito. Para o tipo de sociedade civil e política descrito, o Estado de
dereito “embodied in a spirit of constitutionalism” é unha condición
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