PSCI 3500 Final Exam

Monarchies rely on

• Kin and family network

• Royal family, succession

• Ex) Qatar and Kuwait

Military dictatorships are ruled by

• Committee, or junta

• “Guardians of the national interest”

• The biggest threat to stability is more military coups

Civilian dictatorships rely on

• Regime parties or personality cults

• Ex) China and North Korea

Electoral authoritarianism

leaders hold elections and tolerate some pluralism, yet democratic norms are violated

Selectorate Theory

• To stay in power, leaders must keep members of their winning coalition happy

• Government performance should be better in large W/S systems than small W/S systems.

Condorcet’s Paradox

• A set of rational individuals may not act rationally when they act as a group

• There is either no stable outcome or the outcome is determined by the rules of the game

Median Voter Theorem

the proposal matching the ideal point of the median voter will defeat all other alternatives

Final outcome?

B is final outcome

C determines final outcome

Sincere Vote

Vote for their “Most-Preferred Alternative”

Strategic Vote

“Think Ahead, and Reason Backwards”

Arrow’s Theorem

The pathologies of majority rule apply to “any” group decision procedure that meets some minimal standards of fairness

Presidential democracy

• government does not depend on a legislative majority to exist.

• Minority government is more frequent.

Parliamentary democracy

• government depends only on a legislative majority to exist

• Power to remove a government (no Confidence)

Semi-presidential democracy

• government depends on a legislative majority and the head of state is popularly elected

  • fixed term of the Head of State

• Prime minister, Cohabitation

Political surfing

The government does not actively manipulate the economy, but waits until the economy is at a highpoint before announcing the election

Political business cycle

• The government actively manipulates the economy to engineer a short-term economic high and then calls an election

• Followed by an economic decline

• Result: cycles of booms and busts

Electoral Integrity

The extent to which the conduct of elections meets international standards and global norms concerning “good” elections

Three major electoral systems

• Majoritarian

• Proportional Representation (PR)

• Mixed

A single-member district plurality (SMDP) system

• The candidate with the most votes wins

• unrepresentative outcomes

  • Ex) United States (for the House of Representatives)

Proportional Electoral Systems

• a quota- or divisor-based electoral system employed in multimember districts

• produce a proportional translation of votes into seats.

Electoral Thresholds

• Minimum percentage of votes that a party must win to gain representation

• Formal thresholds are often introduced in an attempt to reduce legislative fragmentation

Main Purposes of Political Parties

• Structure the political world

• Recruit and socialize the political elite

• Mobilize the masses

• Provide a link between the rulers and the ruled

Social Cleavages

• individuals have different political identifications

• Divisions/structure of party systems in society based on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, religion, territory/location 

Types of social cleavages

• Urban-rural cleavage

• Confessional cleavage

• Secular-clerical cleavage

• Class cleavage

• Post-materialist cleavage

• Ethnic and linguistic cleavages

Urban-rural cleavage

• One of oldest political conflicts in world 

• Conflict between rural and urban interests 

• Ex. 

  • Early modern europe - feudal lords vs town dwellers (freemen, burghers, bourgeoise) 

    • Economic and cultural dimension

Confessional cleavage

• Different denominations in religion 

• Conflict over religious differences

• Ex. 

  • Europe during Protestant Reformation 

    • Roman Catholic Church vs rising Protestantism 

  • India 

    • Hindus and Muslims -> creation of Pakistan 

  • Middle Eastern countries 

    • Sunni vs Shia muslims

Secular-clerical cleavage

• Religious voters vs non religious voters 

• Political competition around religious issues 

• Conflict between growing state, that wants to dominate, and church that wants to maintain historic power

Class cleavage

• Actors have have conflicting economic interests 

• Industrial sectors: Conflict b/w workers and capitalists

  • Capitalists: favor free market, small state, restricted franchise 

  • Workers: greater state intervention in economy and franchise expansion 

• Agricultural sector: peasants/agricultural workers and large landowners 

• Involves attempts to use state to redistribute wealth from rich to poor

Post-materialistic cleavage

• Different views regarding human freedom

• Ex. equality, reproductive choice, and sexual freedom

Ethnic and linguistic cleavages

• Differences in ethnicity and language 

• can be source of conflict

• Ex. Canada, belgium, spain

Nonpartisan democracy

• no official political parties

• ex. George Washington’s Era, Small Pacific Islands

One-party dominant system

• Only one particular party has a realistic chance of gaining power

• Ex) Japan

Two-party system

• Two major parties

• Ex) US

Multiparty system

• more than two parties

• Ex) Germany and France

Duverger’s Theory

• Electoral institutions influence how social divisions are translated into political parties.

• SMDP => Two party system

• PR => Multiparty system

Social Heterogeneity and Electoral System Permissiveness

• high social heterogeneity & permissive electoral system → many parties

  • more diversity leads to more demand for political parties

• high social heterogeneity & nonpermissive electoral system → few parties

  • have many social divisions and social demands aren’t translated into political parties

• low social heterogeneity & nonpermissive/permissive electoral system→ few parties

  • less diversity → less demand for political parties

Federalism

• Sovereignty is constitutionally split between at least two territorial levels

• Federal (10 % of the World) vs. Unitary States

Devolution

A unitary state grants powers to subnational governments but retains the right to unilaterally recall or reshape those powers

Why Federalism?

• bargaining process to achieve security and economic goals

• Diffuse secessionist pressures

• U.S.

  • Big vs small states

    • Large state: want strong central gov

    • Small state: don’t want strong central gov 

    • Why? Bigger states have more power

Bicameralism

• Two distinct assemblies (41% of the world)

• ex. U.S. Legislative (Congress composed of Senate and House of Representatives)

Unicameralism

• Single assembly

• ex. Denmark

Veto Player Theory

A veto player is an actor whose agreement is necessary for a change in the political status quo

An increase in the number of veto players produces

• Greater policy stability

• Smaller policy shifts

• Less variation in the size of policy shifts

• Weaker agenda-setter powers