SDSU Political Science 101 Exam 1 Mercurio

Idealism

What we'd like to do

Realism

What we have to do or what is possible

Theory

Pursuit of Knowledge

Small; complex lang

Ideology

Coordinating action/Large

Simp lang

Adam Smith

Wealth of Nation (1776)

Critique of mercantilism

Laissez-faire economics

Getting broke when getting rich

Creation of ships on harbor, very little came back with gold/wealth

"Invisible hand"

Atomistic Society

Ideals are individual

Doesn't affect society

Organic Society

All connected

Group oriented

Edmund Burke

Classic Conservatism

Rebuttals to smith and French revolution

Believe people who are better should rule

People are emotional and irrational

Institution are good and necessary

Karl Marx Created

Communism

Communism Def

Critique of Capitalism

Keep making the same mistakes, but improving

Class Division

Democratic Socialism

Eduard Bernstein

Agrees with Karl Marx

Moral Cost of Revolution

Humanitarian Socialism

Can achieve communism by creating political parties and voting

Taxation and Spending

tax wealthy, benefit the poor

Mussolini created

Facism

Hitler created

Naziism

Facism Defintion

Restoring the glory; pro government and military

Nationalism plus racism

Naziism Definition

Totalitarian principle of government

Total control

Traits of Facism

Mythology (Naziism: volk - people of destiny, kept away from greatness)

Racism (Volk blaming jews and other races/peoples)

Totalitarianism (soviet union - want total control of people lives)

Elitism (Don't believe everyone was created equal)

Imperialism (Ruled by emperor)

Militarism (People wearing uniforms everywhere)

Van Belle's Definition

Individual or combined actions of individuals, governments and/or groups, aimed at getting what they want accomplished, when those actions have public consequences.

Harold Lasswell's Definition

Politics is the process of determining who gets what, when, and how.

David Easton's Definition

Politics is the authoritative allocation of values for society

Legitimacy definition

The belief, by a people, that those who are in charge should be in charge,

and not somebody else

Sovereignty Definition

The recognition by the government of one country that the government of

another country that the government of another country should be in charge of that country and not somebody else

Hard Science

Laws (Dealing with things that are set properties)

Soft Science

Theories (People don't have set properties)

Experiential Reality

Things that we know are real because we have directly experienced them

Agreement

Things that we agree are real even though we have not directly

experienced them

Robert Bellah

American Civil Religion

A collection of beliefs, symbols, and rituals with respect to sacred things

and institutionalized in a collectivity

Secular and Nonsectarian

Purpose of Religion

To Unify

To give a sense of group identity

Have an "us" in a community

Totalitarian

Total control

Utopian Vision

Perfect society with any means (including excluding people)

Authoritarian

Just enough control

Only need to be controlled when needed to

No utopian vision

Direct Democracy

Citizens make the decisions themselves

Full control of what the people want to do

Works best in small groups

Representative Democracy

Republican government

"Policy Experts"

Focus on the "common good"

Inclusiveness

Participation by large number of citizens in the political process

Literacy tests, voter ID laws

Public Contestation

Competition between social groups for a policy position

Charities

Polyarchies

Less than the democratic ideal, but best of the forms of government that

can exist in reality

Best form of government that can be achieved in reality

Effective Participation

Every citizen affording the chance to make their views knows

before a policy decision is made

Voting equality

Every citizen has equal right to vote and all votes treated equally

Enlightened understanding

Every citizen has the opportunity to learn about relevant alternative

policy and their impacts

Control of the agenda

Every citizens control what the government concerns itself with

Inclusiveness

Every citizen being entitled to participate in the political agreement

Participation As Solution

The economist sees mandatory voting bad because it infringes on individual rights

The Vanhanen measure of democracy sees it as good because it increases democratic representation

Poverty and Democracy

Role of the middle class

Levitsky and Ziblatt

"How Democracies Die"

Comparative case studies of Regime Type

worry if politicians

Reject the democratic rules

Deny the legitimacy of opponents

Tolerates of encourages violence

Shows a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents

Preventing Authoritarians

Keep off the ballot

Root out extremists at grassroot level

Pro-democratic Avoid forming bad alliances w/ anti-comunist

Isolate rather than legitimize

Ally with opposition if necessary

Safeguards

Constitutions?

Protections from the constitutions don't always work

Wealth

Check and balances

Middle Class

Strength of democracy increase when more middle class

Civil Society

Believes good citizen should vote

Democratic Norms

Establishing norms / unwritten rules of democracy

Mutual Toleration

As long as they're following rules, they have equal rights

Accept them as legitimate

Forbearance

Parties avoid following the letter of the law but violates spirit of the law

Cognitive Dissonance

Education / Brainwashing

Process at birth - learn our values

Selective Perception

See what you want to see

You control what you see and hear

Can become a natural behavior

Agents of Socialization

Family

Parents - establish the biggest and most filters

Schools

Formal source - top down info - teachers to students

Peer Group

Informal source - rarely give you new filters - reinforcing filters

Media

Powerful agent - potentially put good and bad filters Ex. Video Games

Life

Environment and places you've been and seen

Participan

Are citizens - are the nation

High Political Efficacy - what you do matters/your vote matters

Subject

Know they are citizen - connected to the nation - pays attention to politics

Very passive, don't jump in themselves - lower level of competence

Know how things work - choose to just watch

Parochial

Don't feel like citizen - don't pay attention to politics

Low political efficacy

American Exceptionalism

The degree to which the United States is different from other advanced industrialized democracies

Not better, just different

American is "the exception"

Legitimacy

The acceptance or recognition of a population that those who are in charge, should be in charge, and not someone else (internal)

Sovereignty

The recognition by the government of one country that the government of

another county should be in charge of that country, and not someone else

Middle ages

Divine right of kings

God created government

Power from god → king → people

"Because god said so"

Thomas Hobbes

Believed we lived in a state of nature

No limits of what we could do - anarchy

Bottom up dynamic

Power come from the people → goes upward

People create government; no god

John Locke

Acknowledge no protection of our property/stuff

God given rights for life, liberty, and property

Give up a little of our freedom

I won't steal yours if you don't steal mine

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Thought people by nature is good - want to work together

Noble savages living in the state of nature

Social contract - general will

Do what's best for everyone - give up all of our freedom

The Consent of the Governed

We recognize what's best in our interest