IM CRUSHING POLI SCI 250 COMPARE YOUR MOM

WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS

Study of politics within countries, domestic politics

Study of politics of foreign countries

Goal is to understand why things happen 

What country is an ideal democracy

Denmark (Free, democratic, equal, peaceful)

POSITIVE ARGUMENTS

Actual state of the world

Shows the way things are

Explains why/how the world is

Examples:

• Oil wealth makes it less likely that a country democracy

• Poverty does not increase the likelihood of civil war

• A first-past-the-post election system leads to a two party system

NORMATIVE ARGUMENTS

Ethical or moral argument, focused on values

What “should” be happening

Examples

• Violence is never justified

• It is wrong that some people do not have enough food

Describe the Summit for democracy (who invited)

• Gathering of leaders from 100+ countries and NGOs

• Invitees (only democracy)

  • Pakistan, Iraq and DRC are invited 

  • Hungary and EU member is not invited

  • 3% not free, 28% partly Free, 69% Free

Substantive definitions of democracy

• Source of authority

  • Represents will of the people (Rousseau)

  • Hard to put a finger on ; fluctuating, uniformed, contradictory 

• Purposes of rule

  • Realizes the common good

  • Who decides what the common good is and whether it is being achieved 

Procedural definitions of Democracy

• A set of certain institutions for governing & collective decisions

  • Typically elections are means of choosing leaders

  • A system where leaders lose elections

Pro/Con for PROCEDURAL DEFINITION of democracy

• Pros

  • Easier to measure and study objectively 

  • Practical : tells you what to do

  • Elections matter?

• Cons

  • Does it capture weather people are really ruling

  • Does it capture whether government actions benefits all or just some

  • Is it inspiring?

DAHL'S CONTRIBUTION to the democracy conversation

• Two dimensions of democracy

  • He calls it polyarchy

• Contestation: choice between alternatives

  • Inclusive non-democracies : communist regimes

• Inclusiveness : everyone gets to choose

  • Limited democracy : South Africa under apartheid, US under Jim Crow

How to measure democracy

• Conceptualization 

  • Minimalist or maximalist

  • Objective or subjective measures

  • Dichotomous or continuous 

• Validity : measures correspond to concepts 

  • Is this actually democracy

• Reliability : consistently produces same score for a given case

• FREEDOM HOUSE MEASURE

FREEDOM HOUSE MEASURE

• Political rights

  • Free vote for head of state

  • No pervasive corruption

  • Govt. open and accountable

  • Right to organize

  • Socioeconomic equality

• Civil Liberties

  • Free media

  • Free religious orgs

  • Independent judiciary

  • Equal treatment under law

  • Right to own property

• Maximalist

• Subjective

• Continuous : 7 point scale, 2 dimensional

what is wring with the FREEDOM HOUSE MEASURE

• Reliability : Hard to replicate bc many aspects, often subjective, scores of elements not record

• Validity : is democracy everything good

• Is politically biased : US allies score better

A MINIMALIST OBJECTIVE MEASURE of democracy

• Dichotomous - need all four elements to be democratic

  • Chief executive elected

  • Legislature elected

  • More than one party competing in elections 

  • An alteration in power under identical electoral rules

Why is Turkey a hard case for democracy

• Multiple parties, leaders have lost elections

• Past : deep state

  • Military and educated elite limit power of religious groups, enforce secularism 

• Today : Islamist government in power 

  • Limit power of opposition, falsified case against military, journalists

• Under both regimes taboos: speaking about Armenian genocide 

LIBERAL RIGHTS

• basic rights and freedoms (speech, press, association)

• Usually they go together  (liberal democracy = US)

• But some don’t (Turkey or hungary = illiberal democracy, spain in 1975 liberal dictatorship)

• Paradox : people can vote to restrict rights  

Varieties of democracy

• Electoral

• Liberal 

• Egalitarian 

• Participation

• Deliberative 

NORMATIVE ARGUMENTS FOR DEMOCRACY 

• Deontological - and action is right because it conforms with moral law 

  •  ex: democracy is a fundamental right

• Consequential - action is right because it has good consequences

  • Prevents tyranny 

ARGUMENTS AGAINST DEMOCRACY 

• Anarchism : max freedom democracy limits that

• Guardianship : politics require expertise, most people incompetent to rule 

• Toughness (fascism) ; world is dangerous need strong leaders, democracy is not unified enough   

Working definition of democracy

• System is democratic to the extent that its most powerful collective decision makers are selected through fair, honest, and periodic elections in which candidates freely compete for votes and in which virtually all the adult population is eligible to vote 

Early democracy

• Athenian democracy 

  • Citizens rule directly - vote on policy

  • Some positions elected by lot

  • Not all people are considered citizens

• Roman republic 

  • Representative institutions

Zakaria on long view

• Europe developed distinctive institutions that allow democracy 

• Countervailing powers to rulers 

  • Churches feudal lords, weak bureaucracies

• Space for civil society, private enterprise and the rule of law

• But centuries-long development not present elsewhere

• Waves of democracy 

• Positive ( First wave )

  • Long gradual expansion

• Reversals (first reverse )

  • Communism & fascism

• Positive (Second wave )

  • Losers of World war 2 and formal colonies

• Second reverse 

  • Many new democracies fall in developing world

    • Positive ( Third Wave ) 

      • Fall of military dictatorship and communism 

    • Third reverse

      • Are we in the middle of one

Recent downgrades on democracy

• Hungry turkey 

• India

• Indonesia

Potential for democratic improvement

• Poland 

• Ukraine

Democratic backsliding Old style

• open ended coups

• Self coups

• Election day fraud

Democratic backsliding new style

• Promissory coups – temporary, in name of democracy

• Executive aggrandizement

• Strategic election manipulation: media, funding, rules

• • In short, more gradual, ambiguous

• MODERNIZATION THEORY

• Socioeconomic modernization connected with industrialization produces democracy

• More middle class/ more democracy

How does Wealth reduce class and religious conflict

• More inequality, the elites oppress more

• Modernization reduces inequality

• People are focusing on other things

WEIRD

• Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.

Endogeneity

• where the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable cannot be casually interpreted because it includes omitted causes 

State (or modern state)

• centralized organization with monopoly on legitimate use of violence within a territory

Stateness

degree of government

• Illiberal democracies

Some components of a democracy (periodic elections ) none for the civil rights of citizens, freedom of speech/press is suppressed examples

• Poland 

• Hungry

• Russia

Extractive Economic Institutions

• design to extract wealth from one party of the society, leads to inequality, stunted economic growth, rich exploiting the poor

Inclusive Economic Institution

• free market, open to trade, ability to choose your occupation, everyone can participate, low barriers to entry 

Collective action problem

• Free Rider: people who don't participate in the strike, union, etc but get the benefits

  • Solutions: Selective incentives: Limit access to common resources, Sanctions: monitored and penalized for those not following the rules, Privatization: converting from a collective good to private good, Basic idea of both: align personal gain with collective good

Nation

• A psychological bond that groups people together based on shared descent, language, culture  (within a state there can be a/multiple nation, nation is more fluffy state is more steel)

Empirical argument

• Actual state of the world, shows the way things are, explains why/how the world is, Examples:

  • Oil wealth makes it less likely that a country democracy

Malthusian trap

• when population grown exponentially, the production of agriculture and things do not grow as fast to catch up, so therefore we are screwed, but because of the industrial revolution we are now caught up

How do states use violence

• how to extract goods under the threat or act of violence (taxes, seizing property, execution/prison) 

Consequentialist argument for democracy

• its an argument based on outcomes, it prevents long term tyranny collective wisdom, protects personal rights, prevent wars because democracy does tend to fight with each other 

Why didn;t nationalism emerge before the 1900’s

• bc there was a lack of national language and culture, society was divided into small villages , the change was due to the industrial revolution and urbanization as migration happened so a cosmopolitan affect, more people gathering in cities 

Why doesn’t tilly’s argument apply to africa (herbs argument)

• trade routes and physical barriers, borders were drawn by European 

  • Eurape there was many wars (war making dynamic) low population density, the the war making activity was less and borders were created by europeans exciting, no strong infrastructure to collect taxes 

• Why is the existence of strong centralized states more important than democracy for many developing countries?

• Anarchy is the worst possible thing

• Democracy needs to be implemented slowly 

• Strong taxing ability

  • deliver public goods, security, enforce laws  

  • All of this is so important in having a strong state 

  • Weak three 

PREFERENCE FALSIFICATION & REVOLUTION

• To overthrow a dictator need a lot of people

  • Large anonymous group

  • Everyone receives benefit if dictator overthrown 

  • Thus better if I let other make the sacrifice

  • Predicts that revolutionary action uncommon

  • Dictators makes the cost very high (death) so that people don’t want to risk being the few paying the cost and still get the benefit from the movement 

• The paradox  for communism

• Communist regimes are very stable and show no sign of falling 

  • Seem to have public support and provide goods to citizens 

• Few experts on the region predict any change

• The suddenly the entire bloc falls

  • All of this anti-movement has to move in silence bc it is communism and so it must happen suddenly and hard

Preference of falsification

• People often don’t say what they think

• Coat and benefits of critzing regimes 

  • Internal : being true to yourself

  • External : punishments and rewards

• These depends on what other people are doing

  • Hard to know who else opposes

  • Hard to coordinate on action at the same time

Revolutionary Threshold

• % of people who must oppose the regime before you join and oppose it 

  • That guy in Russia who was poisoned for running against Putin then went back to Russia bc he still wanted to run

    • That guy got a low percent 

  • Eastern European regimes look more like everyone is at 20% 

    • Some very unpopular but no one is sure what others are thinking

what does huntington the main difference in between countries

not type of gov but degree of gov

What does tilly sau abt modern states

war made modern states and states made war in europe

public goods non rivalrous (can be used by many people) and nonexcludable (open to all)

• ex: national defense, roads, laws, public order

Hobbs say abt anarchy

 better to have absolute dictator than citizens killing each other 

Pinker says violence declining because:

• power of state, leviathan 

• commerce, mutual benefit

• feminization, more respect for women

• cosmopolitanism, literacy, media, empathy goes up whatever

• reason, futility of violence

what do coercion intensive states depend on

slaves

capital intensive state

shares power with capitalists

these powerful states are kind of a new phenomenon

modern states are better at war

Why are states weak in africa

no monopoly on violence, few public goods, difficulty with taxes

because difficult terrain, low pop. density–difficult and costly for leaders to project power

nation versus state

nation has no organization or resources, is more cultural (nation should have a state, state should have a nation)

cosmopolitanism

allegiance to the human race

why no democracy in middle east

• oil→ rentier effect: gov has all this money, doesn’t really need to tax, no representation and no accountability

• repression effect: rich gov deploys military against citizens

• modernization effect: wealth is direct to gov and not through industry, which skips the social changes (education, middle class) that are needed for democracy

fish theory: female subordination

ross’s findings: all these things do hinder democracy, oil hurts poor countries more than rich countries