Polisci 103

comparative politics

the study and comparison of domestic politics across countries (such as elections, political parties, revolutions, and judicial systems)

international relations

A field in political science which concentrates on relations between countries, such as foreign policy, war, trade, and foreign aid.

Three basic categories of political science

Analytical concepts - assumptions and theories that guide our research
Methods - ways to study and tests those theories
ideals - beliefs and values about preferred outcomes
Analytical concepts help us ask questions about cause and effect, methods provide tools to seek out explanations, and ideals help us compare existing politics with what we might prefer.

institution

An organization or activity that is self-perpetuating and valued for its own sake
institutions play an important role in defining and shaping what is possible and probable in political life by laying out the rules, norms, and structures in which we live

Politics

the struggle in any group for power that will give one or more persons the ability to make decisions for the larger group

Power

the ability to influence others or impose one's will on them

comparative method

The means by which social scientists make comparisons across cases

Goal - solve puzzles by generating hypotheses

inductive reasoning

Research that works from case studies in order to generate hypotheses

deductive reasoning

Research that works from a hypothesis that is then tested against data

Correlation

An apparent relationship between two or more variables

used to test for a casual relationship

casual relationship

cause and effect; when a change in one variable causes a change in another variable

Multicasuality

When variables are interconnected and interact together to produce particular outcomes

difficulty controlling variables in the cases they study

goal: eliminate alternative explanations

one of the seven major challenges in establishing causation

Independent variable

The variable that doesn’t depend on changes in other variables

The cause

Dependent Variable

The variable that is affected by (“dependent on”) the presence of the independent variable

The effect

Hypothesis

An educated guess about how these variables relate

if X, then Y

More of X increases/decreases Y

Control Variables

Additional factors that could affect the dependent variable

area studies

A regional focus when studying political science, rather than studying parts of the world where similar variables are clustered

risk: some regions are overrepresented in research; may bias conclusions

Seven major challenges in establishing causation 2:

limited number of cases available to research

limited info available in cases we study

research tends to focus on a specific geographic area

selection bias

A focus on effects rather than causes, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions about correlation or causation

Seven major challenges in establishing causation 3

Endogeneity

The issue that cause and effect are not often clear, in that variables may be both cause and effect in relationship to one another

Seven major challenges 3

What is science ?

Based on a process of learning, not a topic studied

emphasizes empirical, not normative knowledge

The basic scientific process

focus on developing hypothesis

use evidence (data) to test hypotheses

use the hypotheses that hold up to data to build theory

Theory: an integrated set of hypotheses, assumptions, and facts

Modernization Theory

A theory asserting that as societies developed, they would take on a set of common characteristics, including democracy and capitalism

behavioral revolution

A movement within political science during the 1950s and 1960s to develop general theories about individual political behavior that could be applied across all countries

•1970s: Critics emerge questioning the behavioral revolution.

•Leads to several divisions in theory and methodology

Qualitative method

Study through an in-depth investigation of a limited number of cases

•Examples: historical case analysis

•Excels in detail-oriented theory development

•Very good at inductive reasoning

quantitative method

Study through statistical data from many cases

•Examples: survey data, large-N statistical

•Excels in testing whether patterns are generalizable

•Very good at deductive reasoning

rational choice

Approach that assumes that individuals weigh the costs and benefits and make choices to maximize their benefits

game theory

An approach that emphasizes how actors or organizations behave in their goal to influence others. Built upon assumptions of rational choice

formal institutions

Institutions usually based on officially sanctioned rules that are relatively clear

•Citizenship

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•Electoral systems

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•Federal versus unitary systems

informal institutions

Institutions with unwritten and unofficial rules

•Legislative norms

•U.S. Senate’s filibuster

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•Societal rules and culture

•Neopatrimonialism

•Gender relations

freedom

The ability of an individual to act independently, without fear of restriction or punishment by the state or other individuals or groups in society

equality

A shared material standard of individuals within a community, society, or country

What is a state?

•Max Weber

•A **state** is a “human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.”

Sovereignty

Ability to carry out actions and policies within a territory independently of external actors and internal rivals

Regime

fundamental rules and norms of politics that shape 

•long-term goals regarding individual freedom and equality,

•where power should reside, and

•use of that power.

Democratic examples

•Constitutional monarchies

•Republics

•Consociational democracies

nondemocratic examples

•Personalistic dictatorships

•Military rule

•One-party

Government

leadership or elite in charge of running the state

Government may consist of

•Elected officials

•Such as legislators, presidents or prime ministers

•Or, nonelected officials, who came to power either through

•Force or other nondemocratic means

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Tend to be weakly institutionalized

Country

State, government, regime, and the people who live within that political system

Nation

•Nation: a group of people bound together by a common set of political aspirations

•States, countries, and nations can be different things!

•States can exist without nations, and nations can exist without states.

Legitimacy

a value whereby an institution is accepted by the public as right and proper, thus giving it authority and power

Symmetric federalism

•All regions have the same powers.

•Example: United States

Asymmetric federalism

•Different regions have different powers.

•Example: Canada

•Quebec has powers over taxation and health care that other provinces lack.

capacity

•Ability to wield power to carry out basic tasks

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•Mobilization of resources

Autonomy

•Ability to wield power independently of the public or international actors

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•Relates to sovereignty

**High Capacity, High Autonomy**

•Strong state

•State is able to fulfill basic tasks.

•Minimum public intervention

•Highly centralized power

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•Disadvantage: may undermine democracy

**High Capacity, Low Autonomy**

•State is able to fulfill basic tasks.

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•Public helps determine policy and limits state power.

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•Disadvantage: State may be unable to develop new policies and respond to new challenges.

**Low Capacity, High Autonomy**

•State lacks basic ability to fulfill tasks.

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•State acts with minimum public control.

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•Disadvantage: state is ineffective.

•Slow development

•Public unrest

**Low Capacity, Low Autonomy**

•Weak state

•State lacks basic ability to fulfill tasks.

•State is subject to direct public control and interference.

•Power is highly decentralized \n among state and nonstate actors.

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•Disadvantage: risk of internal state failure

society

•a collection of people bound by shared institutions that define how human relations should be conducted

Social Identity

a sense of who a person is based on membership in social groups

Ethnic identity/ethnicity

attributes or social institutions that make one group of people culturally distinct from others

Nation

a group that desires self-government, often through an independent state

National Identity

an institution that binds people together through common political aspirations

Nationalism

pride in one’s people and the belief that they have a unique political destiny

Citizenship

an individual’s or group’s relation to the state; citizens swear allegiance to that state, and the state in return is obligated to provide rights to those citizens

Patriotism

Pride in ones state

Citizenship does not guarantee

Patriotism

Nation-state

A sovereign state encompassing one dominant nation that it claims to embody and represent

Ethnic conflict

conflict between ethnic groups that struggle to achieve certain political or economic goals at each other’s expense

national conflict

conflict between groups who seek to gain (or prevent the other from gaining) sovereignty

political attitude

views regarding the necessary pace and scope of change in the balance between freedom and equality

Radicals

prefer large institutional change

•Favor dramatic, often revolutionary change to the existing political, social, or economic order

•Believe old institutions are broken and must be replaced

•Example: Tunisia’s Arab Spring protestors

on the left

Liberals

•prefer changes within institutions

•Favor gradual, evolutionary change

•Believe that existing institutions can create positive change

•Example: U.S. Democrats

on the left

Conservatives

•are skeptical of change and favor the status quo.

•Skeptical of change; value continuity of institutions

•Traditions that work should be respected

•Fear change will have unintended effects

•Example: Germany’s Christian Democrats

Reactionaries

•View current order as fundamentally unacceptable

•Seek to return to “older” systems

•Sometimes a fictional past

•Example: “Make America Great Again”

on the right

Political ideologies

basic values held by an individual about the fundamental goals of politics or the ideal balance of freedom and equality

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Fundamentalism

an ideology that seeks to make faith the sovereign authority

Culture

basic institutions that define a society

•Road map to organize personal and social lives

Political culture

basic norms of political activity in a society

•Road map to organize public/political life

Political economy

•the study of the interaction between states and markets

•Examines the balance of *freedom* and *equality*, and which one is more prioritized in a state’s economic policy-making

Markets

•interactions between the forces of supply and demand that allocate resources

•Composed of sellers and buyers

Property

•goods or services that are owned by an individual or group

•Can be owned privately or publically

•Can be tangible or intangible

Public goods

•goods provided or secured by the state that are available for society and are indivisible

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•Examples:

•National Defense

•Roads

•Primary education

Health care\*

Private goods

•Possible to exclude others from consuming

•Consumption reduces availability

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•Markets are efficient at providing private goods

Public goods

•Impossible to exclude others from consuming

•Consumption does *not* reduce availability

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•Markets are bad at providing public goods

Social expenditures

•the state’s provision of public benefits, such as education, health care, and transportation

•Commonly called welfare or the welfare state

•Prioritizes *equality* value

•Main beneficiaries: middle class

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**Advantages**

•Provide “economic building blocks”

•Insurance against economic downturns

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**Disadvantages**

•May discourage people from seeking work

•Costly for governments to maintain

Gross domestic product (GDP)

the total market value of goods and services produced by one country in a year

Centtral Bank

an institution that controls how much money is flowing through the economy as well as how much it costs to borrow money in that economy

•Central banks and interest rates

•Higher rates:

•Less loans + more saving = less money flowing

•Lower rates:

•More loans + more spending = more money flowing

Inflation

•increase in the general price level of goods and services in the economy when demand outstrips supply

•Problem: too much money

•Money is less valuable; the same goods cost more

•Poverty increases

hyperinflation

inflation greater than 50% per month for more than two months in a row

Deflation

•too many goods are chasing too little money

•Also known as the “liquidity trap”

•Problem: not enough money

•Prices lower, as do profits and spending

•Businesses close and unemployment rises

Regulations

•**:** rules or orders that set the boundaries of a given procedure

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•Some regulations limit commerce

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•Other regulations govern the organization and operation of firms

Regulations limiting commerce

•Public health and safety rules

•food safety, consumer protections

•Bans on some commerce

•drugs

Regulations Governing Firms

•Employee protections

•worker safety

•Production techniques

•pollution rules

•Allowing or banning **monopolies:** a market controlled by a single producer

•telecommunications

•How firms raise money

•stock market regulations

Tariff

•tax on an imported good (not applied to an otherwise similar domestic good)

Quota

•a limit on the number of certain foreign goods that can enter the country

Nontariff regulatory barriers

Health, packing, or other restrictions that make it more difficult for foreign goods to sell in local markets

Comparative advantage

•the ability to produce a particular good or service relatively more efficiently than other countries

comparative advantage shaped by

•Relative resource endowments

•Climate

•Production technologies

•Human capital and innovation

•Labor costs

Government policies

political economic system

•relationship between political and economic institutions in a particular country, as well as the policies and outcomes they create

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Mercantilism

•a political-economic system in which national economic power is paramount and the domestic economy is viewed as an instrument that exits primarily to serve the needs of the state

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•**Goal:** maximize state wealth as a means to increase state power

•Economic freedom and equality  are low priorities.

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•State as a primary economic actor prioritizing certain goals

•Strategic industries are fully nationalized or parastatals.

•**Parastatals:** industry partially owned by the government

•Other sectors see less government support or intervention.

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•Examples: Japan, South Korea, post-Mao China

Purchasing power parity (PPP)

•a statistical tool that attempts to estimate  the buying power of income in each country by comparing similar costs, such as food and housing expenses, by using prices in the United States as a benchmark

GDP per capita: divide GDP by the country’s population

**Gini index**

•a mathematical formula that measures the amount of economic inequality in a society

•Income distribution over population

•Range of 0 to 100

•Higher Gini scores = more *un*equal societies

Human development index (HDI)

a statistical tool that attempts to evaluate the overall wealth, health, and knowledge of a country’s people
Created by the United Nations Development Programme

•Measures “quality of life” by combining:

•Expected years of education

•Life expectancy

•Income per capita

Economic liberalization

policy changes consistent with liberalism that aim to limit the power of the state and increase the power of the market and private property in the economy

Political Violence

violence *outside of state control* that is politically motivated

•Actions carried out by nonstate actors

•Political violence is NOT crime.

•Crime lacks political motivation.

Contentious Politics

•collective struggle carried out to achieve a political goal

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•Contentious politics can be violent or nonviolent.

•Nonviolent activities: sit-ins, protests, strikes

•Violent activities: revolutions, riots, civil war, terrorism

Terrorism

•Represents conspiratorial action carried out by small groups

•Why study it?

•Less transformative, but poses significant challenge to modern political institutions

Revolution

•Represents an uprising of the masses

•Why study it?

•Can transform domestic and international relations

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•public seizure of the state in order to overturn the existing government and regime

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•Key elements of revolution

•Some element of public participation

•Goal is to gain control of the state (central government)

•Often, but not always, violent