(EXPANDED KEY FIGURES ) Comp Politics Exam

Max Weber

Studied authority, the state, and bureaucracy; identified three types of authority.

What are Weber's three types of authority?

Charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal.

What is Weber's rational-legal authority?

Authority based on laws and formal rules.

What is Weber's traditional authority?

Authority based on tradition.

What is Weber's charismatic authority?

Authority based on a leader's personal appeal.

Mancur Olson

Explained government and state formation through rational choice and collective action.

What is Olson's roving bandit?

A violent ruler who moves around taking resources.

What is Olson's stationary bandit?

A ruler who stays, taxes society, and provides some public goods.

What is Olson's main idea about the stationary bandit?

The ruler benefits from a growing economy, so he has reason to protect it.

What is Olson's collective action problem?

Large groups have difficulty working together toward a shared goal.

What is Olson's "grasping hand"?

The ruler's incentive to extract as much wealth as possible.

David Hume

Criticized the idea that governments usually begin through a social contract.

What did Hume say about the social contract?

Popular consent has rarely been the actual origin of government.

Robert Bates

Studies political economy, development, violence, and state formation.

What is Bates interested in?

How societies manage violence and develop productive political orders.

What does Bates emphasize about investment?

People need confidence that the future will be stable enough to invest.

Michael Mann

Studies social power, state formation, and the autonomy of the state.

What are Mann's three key ideas?

State autonomy; infrastructure vs. despotic power; and social power.

What is Mann's view of the state?

The state is a social creation with some autonomy of its own.

What is Mann's infrastructure power?

The state's ability to reach and organize society.

What is Mann's despotic power?

The ability of rulers to make decisions without societal input.

What are Mann's four networks of power?

Ideological, economic, military, and political power.

Charles Tilly

Studied historical state formation and how states developed over time.

What does Tilly emphasize about state formation?

States developed through historical competition and changing conditions.

Henrik Spruyt

Studied the historical development and variation of states.

What do Tilly and Spruyt have in common?

Both treat states as historically created rather than permanent or natural.

Anthony Giddens

Studied the development of states and the relationship between structure and action.

Theda Skocpol

Studied states, social structures, and state formation.

What does Skocpol emphasize about states?

State structures matter and cannot simply be reduced to social classes.

Otto Hintze

Argued that state formation is shaped by both internal and external forces.

What are Hintze's two dimensions of state formation?

Internal social forces and competition with other states.

George Tsebelis

Associated with rational-choice approaches and political institutions in comparative politics.

Karl Popper

Argued that good social science should focus on falsification.

What does Popper mean by falsification?

We should try to test whether a theory could be wrong.

King, Keohane, and Verba (KKV)

Argued that qualitative and quantitative research can use a common system of logic.

What is KKV's key point about research procedures?

Research procedures should be public and transparent.

What does KKV say about conclusions?

Conclusions are uncertain and involve inference.

John Stuart Mill

Associated with the Methods of Difference and Agreement for studying causation.

What is Mill's Method of Difference?

Compare similar cases that differ in the outcome.

What is Mill's Method of Agreement?

Find what different cases have in common.

Steven Lukes

Developed the three-dimensional view of power.

What is Lukes' first dimension?

Direct, observable power over decisions.

What is Lukes' second dimension?

Power to control the agenda and keep issues out of discussion.

What is Lukes' third dimension?

Power through norms and values that shape what people accept.

Immanuel Wallerstein

Studied world systems and the relationship between states and capitalism.

What does Wallerstein say about European state systems?

Europe developed as a decentralized system containing multiple states.

Weiss and Hobson

Studied differences in state formation and capitalism, especially Europe versus China.

What do Weiss and Hobson argue about capitalism?

States played an important role in enabling capitalist development.

What do Weiss and Hobson say about war?

War pushed states toward market-promoting strategies.

What do Weiss and Hobson say about state strength?

Strong infrastructure states can better support modern capitalism.

Hobbes

Associated with social contract theory and the problem of political order.

Locke

Associated with social contract theory and government based on consent.

Rousseau

Associated with social contract theory and popular sovereignty.

Kant

Associated with Enlightenment social contract ideas.

Rawls

Associated with later social contract theory.

Michel's Iron Law of Oligarchy

An example of a proposed political "law" discussed in the notes.

Duverger's Law

An example of a proposed political "law" discussed in the notes.

Kenneth Waltz

Referenced in the notes in relation to structural theories and levels of analysis.