What is Politics?

• Political Science: the study of human decisions– Public/Authoritative

• No such thing as Political Solitaire • Political System • Authority: power vested in individuals or groups

with expectations that decisions will be carried out and respected

• Political authority

Government and the State of Nature

• Governments: organizations of individuals empowered to make decisions on behalf of a community

• State of Nature: theoretical existence of the world if there was no government

Why Governments?

• Community/Nation-Building – Political culture foster through

homogenization by government’s

• Security/Order

• Protect Property and other rights

• Promote Economic Efficiency and Growth

• Social Justice

• Protecting the Weak

When Government becomes a problem?

• Critics of the Government– Libertarians: individualists who see society as

composed of individual human beings with fundamental rights that must be protected

– Anarchists: communitarians who believe governments and power leads to corrupt communities, oppression, and alienation

• Destruction of Community– “patronize” its citizens

• Violation of Basic Rights

• Economic Inefficiency – Monopolies and Job protection

• Government For Private Gain – Rent-seeking– Rents

When Government becomes a problem?

• Vested Interests and Inertia – Individual, groups or firms that benefit from “special”

interest in the existing government – Once est., agencies and policies tend to live on far

beyond their usefulness• Markets & Voluntary Coordination (Alternatives

to Gov’t)– Free Markets– Voluntary Coordination – Anarchists – Restricting Government exist in economy– Government Regulation has been strenghtened

When Government becomes a problem?

Political Systems

• A set of institutions, such as parliaments, bureaucracies, courts, that formulates and implements the collective goals of a society or of groups within:– Rule of Legitimacy preferred over rule of force– Outside institutions such as churches,

schools, corporations, media, etc. Make-up outside “environment” of political systems

What are Institutions?

• Any organization or pattern of activity that is self-perpetuating and valued for its own sake– Norms or values considered central to

people’s lives – Set stage for political behavior and influence

politics is conducted– Common political institutions:

• Army, taxation, elections, the legislature

Level of Analysis:

•Focus on specific institutions and processes in different countries;

•Legislature

•Executive

•Political parties

•Social movements

•Court systems

•Best way to study CAP is with countries:

•Countries referred to as Nation-States

•Encompass political institutions, cultures, economies, and ethnic and other social identities

Level of Analysis:

•Political institutions: the formal and informal rules and structured relationships that organize power and resources of society

•Political culture: attitudes, beliefs, and symbols that influence political behavior

•Political development: the stages of change in the structures of government

The State is….

• Monopoly of force over a given territory

• Set of political institutions to generate and carry policy

• Highly institutionalized

• Sovereign

• Characterized by: army, police, taxation, a judiciary, and a social welfare.

•State: key political institutions responsible for making, implementing, enforcing, and adjudicating important policies in a country; Sovereignty rests with political decision-makers

•Internal and External

•Sovereignty is never Absolute, every state has constraints on their internal/external sovereignty

•Nation-states: sizable and contiguous territories and a common national identity (Treaty of Westphalia, 1648)

• State institutions:– Executive: the president/or Prime Minister – Cabinet: notably advisors to the president or

Prime Minister; military, and police– Bureaucracy: the legislature and courts.

• The State is synonymous with “government”

Legitimacy: significant segment of the citizens must believe that the state is entitled to command

Political Legitimacy: affect by the state’s ability to “deliver the goods” through economic performance and distribution of economic resources

State Formation: analysis of how the institutional organization and political procedures of the state have historically

Regimes….

• The fundamental rules and norms of politics

• Democratic: emphasis a large role for the public governance, as well as individual rights or liberties

• Authoritarian: emphasizes limited role for the public in politics

New Millennium:

Positive Developments:

•Widening opportunities associated with democratization and economic developments

Globalization: the global diffusion of investment, trade, production, and extraordinary communication technologies

•September 11th: Changed our thinking of globalization

•Challenged to develop more complex understanding

•Framed politics and the study of comparative politics.

Globalization and Comparative Politics:

•Economic Activities

•Movement of People’s

•Information Technology

•International Governance

•EU, WTO, NATO, UN, IMF, OECD, NAFTA

Four Major Themes in Comparative Politics:

1. The interaction of states with international order

2. The role of the state in economic management

3. The pressures for more democracy and the challenges of democratization

4. The political impact of diverse attachments and sources of group identity, including class, gender, ethnicity, and religion.

What and how Comparative Politics Compares:

•CP: refers to a field within the academic study of politics

•Dates back to Aristotle

•Should study Gov’t by comparing good v. corrupt

•Compare ‘X’ to ‘Y’

•Sub fields: not airtight

•American Politics v. Comparative Politics

•Changes your thinking

•Richer Perspective

•What makes us distinct from other governments

Comparative Politics and International Relations

•CP: study of what occurs within national borders

•International Relations: study of interactions among states as well as the study of international institutions like the United Nations.

•Distinction

•Limit scope of study but not too much

•Immigration, nationalism, economic development, and the conduct and impact of war straddle the fence

Comparative Politics:

•Seeks to identify similarities and differences

•Political institutions

•Processes

•Policies

•We call ourselves Comparativists

•Using Reliable statements

How do comparativists go about comparing?

•Look at similarities and differences:

•States

•Institutions

•Policies

•Conflict

•“If X happens then Y will be the result

•The Independent variable X : influence the outcome

•The Dependent Variable Y: outcome to be explained

Despite the difficulties

•Right balance between individual cases and universal patterns

•Common Goal: “Middle Level Theory” a specific set of countries with the same or similar characteristics, political institutions, or processes:

•Individual

•Universal claims

•Studying Democratic transitions

•Identify political stability: institutional legacies, political culture and levels of economic development

Themes for Comparative Analysis

Theme 1: A World of States

Theme 2: Governing the Economy

Theme 3: The Democratic Idea

Theme 4: The Politics of Collective Identity

Theme 1: A World of States

• Interactive effects of domestic politics and international forces– International organizations and treaties– Challenge sovereign control of national governments– Transnational corporations– Political boarders do not protect their citizens– Technology transfer – Global diffusion

• Hold government to high international standards

Theme 1: World of States

• Pressure from external influences

• Advantage: measured by economic development, military power, and resource base

• Key feature: – impact of a state’s domestic political

institutions and processes: and failures in competing economically and politically

Theme 1: World of States

• Similarities and contrast • development historically• Diverse patterns in the organization of

political institutions, processes and limits of democratization

• Ability of the state to control social groups and sustain power

• State’s economic management strategies and capacities

Theme 1: World of States vocabulary

• Public policy: A course of action chosen by government officials– Effective implementation of policy a function of power

• Power: ability to get other people or groups to do what you want, even against their will

• Strong states: Those who take on more responsibilities and generally carry them out more effectively

• Weak states: those less able to define and carry out policy goals

Theme 2: Governing the Economy

• Ability to ensure that an adequate volume of goods and services is produced to satisfy needs of the people– Russia: inadequate performance of economic system

• Agriculture v. Industrial Production

• Political Economy: refers to how government affect economic performance and how economic performance in turn affects a country’s political process.

• Economic performance

• How to measure success?– Growth v. Equity

Theme 3: the Democratic Idea

• The claim by citizens that they should exercise substantial control over the decisions made by their states and governments

• Development of democratic participation• Democratic appeal

– Dignity and equality

• Democracies vary widely: historical, institutional, and cultural dimensions

• Democratic transitions– Wide gulf exists between a transition to democracy and the

consolidation of democracy– Easier to hold 1st democratic election than the 2nd or 3rd

Theme 3: Democratic Idea

• Incomplete democratic agendas

• Social Movements – Actions and inactions

• Democratic Idea fuels political conflict

• Political Parties: an important established vehicle for representing new demands in representative democracies

Theme 3: The Democratic Idea

• Responsible Party Model– Parties formulate clear and coherent

programs– Voters compare and select among competing

programs– The winning party translates those prgrams

into policies/laws– This is the ideal against which party system

performance is compared.

Theme 4: The Politics of Collective Identity

• Political Culture: the attitudes, beliefs, and symbols that influence political behavior.

• Social Class: solidarities based on the share experience of work (economic position)

• Varies across countries and with in countries.• Can change over times or with seismic events

– i.e. Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, 9-11)

Theme 4: The Politics of Collective Identity

• Nation: A group of people who are culturally, linguistically, ethnically, historically etc. similar and develop a common bond.

• Nationalism: a political movement that emphasizes national distinctiveness and advocates the creation of a separate national state

• Ethnicity: A group of individuals having a distinct culture in common.

• Race: identification based on common biological characteristics

Classifying Political Systems

• Typologies: smaller clusters– Comparison with in same type/between types

• Most different case analysis– What produces the differences we observe– How do political regimes affect issues as

economic development, human rights, and the role of women?

Classifying Political Systems

• Classify by what is useful and for what purpose• After WWII

– First World: Democracies– Second World: Communist States– Third World: Poor Countries

• Today:– Established Democracies– Developing Democracies– Non-democracies

Classifying Political Systems

• Qualifications for a democracies– Political accountability– Political competition– Political freedom– Political equality

• Est. Democracies

• Developing Democracies

Organization of the Text

• The Making of the Modern State

• Political Economy and Development

• Governance and Policy-Making

• Representation and Participation

• Politics in Transition