2300 lecture terms (weeks 7-12)

Majoritarian representation

representative is seen as legitimate because they win the most votes. This is the kind of representation in the Canadian system

Proportional representation

representation that exists in a particular legislature that is distributed in proportion to the diversity of the community

Descriptive representation

representation is based on the idea that people should be represented by those that share characteristics like them, and that these people will therefore represent their interests

The legitimacy of liberal democracy depends on the ______ of the representation that one receives

quality

Political parties are like private clubs in that they...

1) Have their own membership criteria

2) Choose their own leaders

3) operate within their own motives

In countries like Canada and the US, what is the role of political parties?

To act as aggregators of wide swathes of interests under broad coalitions, and as gatekeepers of democracy

What does it mean that parties act as Gatekeepers?

They end up allowing for, or constraining the spectrum of political possibilities by determining party members, the stances parties take on issues, and the leaders these parties put forward (if people don't act in accordance with the wishing/views of the parties, they can kick them out/revoke their membership which makes it harder for people to enter mainstream politics)

Describe the role of political parties in nations such as Ireland where different political parties represent very distinct historical legacies of conflict, colonialism, etc.

political parties act as specific facilitators of community interests - a form of descriptive representation

Duverger's law

suggests that in parliamentary systems where there is a first past the post system that there will be a tendency to constrain the amount of political parties to 2 because there is an incentive that the winner will take all

logic behind Duverger's law

If it is the case that the election means that you can only win by getting a plurality of the votes, then you are less and less incentivized to have a number of different political parties because ultimately one party will end up rising to the top by veering towards the centre and aggregating the majority opinion

First-past-the-post

single candidates running in a single riding and whoever gets the most votes wins the riding (don't need a majority, only a plurality)

Proportional representation (party-list or mixed-member)

The party gets approximately the same percentage of seats as it gets in the percentage of votes

Party List model (of proportional representation)

Parties prepare a list of candidates ahead of time and then the number of seats they win determines how many people from their selected list enter the legislature (voters select a party but not necessarily an individual candidate)

Mixed Member model (of proportional representation)

there is a party list along with a race specifically for the local legislature which means that there ends up being two representatives for a riding, this often means that ridings are bigger or more grouped together

strength of the proportional representation systems for democracy

oftentimes in these systems there is a threshold that a particular political party has to meet in order to be able to access the parliament and or the legislature. This dampens down the perspective of extremist minorities and prevents these extremist views from actually entering the parliament

Runoff systems

2 round runoff, if no one gets a majority, the top two candidates repeat in the second round which forces candidates to reach beyond their voter base

Alternative vote systems

voters rank candidates and if no one gets 50% of the vote, the lowest candidate is eliminated and ballots redistributed by their next preference until someone reaches 50%

What is the significance of these different types of systems of representation?

these rules shape representation by changing how votes are turned into seats and shifting the incentives for how politicians cater to the needs of the people

Electoral rules shape:

• Who wins seats

• How many parties survive

• Incentives for broad vs narrow appeals

electoral rules often shape ________ because they shape the incentives

representation

strength of winner-take all system when compared with proportional representation

there is clearer accountability. Representatives are responsible for their decisions, when one party clearly governs, you can easily blame them.

strength of proportional representation when compared with winner-take all systems

these systems often produce more viewpoint representation, mpoore diversity, more parties, coalitional bargaining which might lead to better translation of voter diversity into existing political configurations

Quotas

rules requiring a minimum share of candidates or seats for underrepresented groups

Reserved/special ridings

designated electorates that guarantee representation

Gerrymandering

drawing district boundaries to advantage a party or dilute a group's voting power

Gerrymandering is a way to _______ representation without banning elections

rigging

Packing (1 of 2 types of gerrymandering)

can pack minority voters into a small number of districts so they win those seats by huge margins but their influence is neutralized everywhere else

Cracking (2 of 2 types of gerrymandering)

split minority communities across many districts so that they're consistently outvoted and can't elect candidates of choice

Why movements matter

•Movements are political actors, and not just events, they go beyond protest to shape policy

• Movements shape agendas, policies, elections, institutions, and democratic legitimacy.

• They offer possibility, for their members, of democratic renewal and substantive representation

What are social movements?

networks of people developing a shared identity that involves public action around sustained and collective claim making

what is WUNCness

an acronym used to assess the efficacy of a social movement

WUNCness

Worthiness, Unity, Numbers and Commitment

Worthiness

is the cause something its members would say is necessary and supporting of a better vision of the world? How worthy is this cause?

Unity

How unified are its members? (do they agree on the claims and approaches?)

Numbers

How many protestors are involved?

- the numbers of people involved might determine whether this movement is taken seriously and seen as legitimate

Commitment

How far are members willing to go to back or defend their cause? (the commitment of members matters to the success of the movement)

What are the functions of social movements?

• important drivers of democratic renewal amongst institutional stagnation

• They facilitate the visibility of unseen peoples/unheard voices

• They provide accountability for institutional actors beyond judiciaries or other institutions

• They can create inclusive spaces for those excluded from civic life (movements are a response to formal or informal exclusion)

why are social movements inherently democratic?

they are democratic expressions of the views of a particular group of people in the polis

3 frameworks can be used to analyze and understand social movements

1) opportunities

2) Resources

3) Frames

Opportunities (social movement frameworks)

• What the system makes possible

• What are the opportunities available to mobilize and how do these opportunities affect the success of the movement and the way that the movement actually goes about its business

Resources (social movement frameworks)

• What movements can mobilize

• What resources do these movements have access to (financial, discursive, etc) and how do these movements mobilize resources to prompt change?

Frames (social movement frameworks)

• How movements make meaning and persuade

• What are the arguments that movements really make

Political opportunity structures (Social movement frameworks: opportunities)

• Openings: elections, elite splits, allies

• Constraints: repression capacity, closed institutions

• Timing matters: windows open and close

movements are groups of people using collective action to make public and consistent claims that respond to their ________

external environment

Political opportunity structure

the external environment that is the broader political context within which movements emerge and are successful or ultimately fail

Repression capacity

if a movement is seeking to counter the state in significant ways, what is the capacity of the state to actively repress that movement?

Closed institutions

institutions that are not willing to change regardless if what happens externally

what do closed institutions often lead to?

lead to people building more aggressive or more contesting movements because if groups aren't being heard through formal means or traditional means of representation then they will be motivated to take more drastic action which is often extrajudicial or illegal

Resources (Social movement frameworks: resources)

• Formal orgs (NGOs, unions, churches)

• Informal networks (community, social media)

• Scale vs cohesion

formal organizations (resources)

their explicit goal is not necessarily movement activity but their connection to a movement might mean that the movement is successful in some meaningful way 9ie. churches as a driver of success of right-wing dictatorships in latin america)

Informal networks (resources)

can be community members (ie. neighbours in minneapolis protesting ICE)

social media helps to galvanize movements (ie. BLM)

Scale vs. Cohesion (resources)

• resources help movements to operate at scale

• The bigger the scale, the more difficult to demonstrate cohesion within a movement

(unity and numbers have a push and pull effect)

3 core framing tools that movements use to get people to join (social movement frameworks: frames)

• Diagnostic: what's the problem that the movement is specifying?

• Prognostic: what's the solution?

Motivational: why act now?

Repertoires of contention

• Tactics: (e.g. marches, sit-ins, boycotts, strikes,mutual aid)

• Like a dance routine, is the type of performance a movement can put off based on the resources available to them, their environment and the culture of protest around them

Repertoires of state responses

• repression, concessions, co-optation

co-optation (repertoires of state responses)

when the state absorbs the social movement into the state to defang it of its radical elements to make it less effective

Repertoires of contention matter for if movements will...

be perceived as worthy and whether or not movements are able to take advantage of their windows

Racial capitalism

• identifies the role of racism in the development of capitalism in early-modern Europe

• the enshrinement of these interwoven systems in the colonial and imperial periods

• the development of these systems in the late capitalist (neoliberal) era

in comparative politics, race and racism...

operate not only as a means to identify with or discriminate against another, but as a foundational social structure that organizes political authority, nationhood, labour, and institutions.

Systems of racial capitalism in South Africa emerged how? and to do what?

emerged in a caste-like structure that sought to divide

workers and fracture class solidarity amongst exploited peoples

racial capitalism as a concept argues that:

• Race and capitalism are co-constitutive

• Extraction and inequality are organized through racial hierarchy

what does the framework of racial capitalism help to explain?

Domestic and transnational governance

Racial capitalism and the Transatlantic slave trade

 commodifies enslaved Africans; constructs “Black bodies” as marker of economic value not just through labour, but also via trade

Canada's involvement with racial capitalism through the TAST

Canada’s wealth and institutional development were tied not only to domestic settlement, but also to Atlantic circuits of racialized extraction.

- salt cod, molasses, rum, sugar from caribbean plantations

Staples thesis

a theory that asserts that the export of natural resources, or staples, from Canada has a pervasive impact on the economy as well as on social and political systems.

How does the staples thesis position Canada?

as an export-led economy, with raw materials like lumber, fish, fur and minerals being extracted and exported to the metropole (Britain), which meant that the nation's institutions were developed primarily to extract and exploit these materials

Canada and the world

• idea that Canada was a "peacemaker" within the global order. We have formal sovereignty within our state, but that does not remove the legacy of racialized hierarchies

• We can be both a liberal democracy and a part of a global system imbued with racism.

What do the actions of Canadian mining companies abroad today say about the way Canada uses its power internationally?

• Today Canada uses its power internationally in a neo-colonial way to extract from other regions

- Canada's support for Eritrea raises questions about Canada's values of human rights and liberal democracy if its mining companies choose to, and are allowed to support dictators

Another way that Canada played an important role in global processes that link racism, capitalism, and colonialism was through our ____________

Banking System

Canada's banks still operate in the Caribbean today, and their presence is a reminder of the legacy of what?

the colonial roots of that banking system

How does Hudson initially characterize the role of the Royal Bank of Canada in the Caribbean?

• Characterizes them as heavily involved as an intermediary for the United States Government and dictatorships in the Caribbean region

• characterizes them as heavily involved with sugar production in the Caribbean

What drastic measure did Edson Pease of RBC advocate in 1916?

He argued for the annexation of the West Indies to Canada and Newfoundland

How did RBC engage with existing racial hierarchies in the Caribbean?

• RBC supported and strengthened existing racial hierarchies in the caribbean and used these racial hierarchies to their advantage to exploit the local peoples

• RBC wiped out local banking, took their best students (brain drain) and then brought them back to the Caribbean to work in RBC banks

What do the RBC letters tell us about colonial power after formal empire ends?

• neo-colonialism continues through the idea of providing less developed countries with stability and economic development

• Canada's banks still maintain economic control through their repression of local banking

• There has been the reproduction of colonial control through RBC activities, control through trade relations and ownership of debts

There is a dissonance within Canada's actions on the international level meaning that...

Canada can appear to be equal and a liberal democracy, but it also can exercise colonalsims, racism and paternalism

policing is inherently

political

how is policing political?

It operationalizes a desire by some citizens to have other citizens perceived as "social problems," removed, or contained

negative outcomes of policing have disproportionate effects on who?

racialized and poorer communities

Debates about police reform are actually debates about what?

Who gets to use the coercive power of the state in urban environments

police reform efforts unfold along two trajectories

• Sector-wide initiatives: "community policing"; "evidence-based policing" — schools of thought that aim, through refining practice and emphasis, to reshape the way policing is conducted

• Organizational-level initiatives: anti-bias training; body cameras; ensuring officers have university-level education

forms of police governance & oversight by external bodies

• Municipal police service boards

• Provincial police review boards and civilian oversight agencies like the SIU

• Federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC)

Criticisms abound of police reform efforts

• Practical application of system-wide ideas like "community policing" have been uneven at best

• Organizations charged with oversight responsibilities frequently accused of bias

• Typically lead to intensified investment and focus on policing, leaving other crucial social and community services underfunded and unsupported

• No statistical evidence that demonstrates these reforms have had any meaningful impact on reducing racialized use-of-force, surveillance, disproportionate rates of incarceration and death at the hands of police forces across the country.

street checks

• when police stop and interrogate a person in public, often asking that person for identifying information that is logged in a police database

• the prevalence of this form of surveillance falls along racial lines

defunding the police as a challenge to urban governance

defunding asks whether policing should remain the central solution

Policing maintains the current order of society and our societal structures and institutions which...

re-embeds racial tensions and racism within a particular policy context

Comparative takeaway from policing and urban governance

• Across highly different cities, Black residents are disproportionately surveilled, stopped, and criminalized

• The form varies by place, but the pattern persists

• This suggests a structural problem at the root of urban governance

race is not peripheral to politics, it structures

authority, exclusion, and coercion

What is protest trying to do politically?

Raise awareness; shape public discourse, render certain political claims visible to the public sphere

What shapes the tactics movements choose?

the political opportunity structure

social movement (recap)

sustained and concerted effort to make political claims against or alongside political actors

protest (recap)

A visible act of political claims making meant to challenge, pressure or persuade audiences

political opportunity (recap)

the degree to which the political environment makes political protest easier, harder, safer or riskier

repertoires of contention (recap)

• the set of tactics that people use to make claims, specific tactics, and choices these movements to use these claims

• a series of moves the protest can make to portray a particular message through performance

social movements make claims through a ____________

repertoire of contention

repertoires of contention

• Social movements make claims through a repertoire of contention

• Those tactics reveal much, including how the state will respond

• As protest becomes visible, disruptive, and costly, the attendant response may intensify

• States often shift from toleration to criminalization, repression and surveillance

How do movements choose tactics?

• institutional access or exclusion

• media attention

• organizational capacity

• lessons from other movements

• level of repression (from the state)

State repertories

• Toleration

• Negotiation

• Surveillance

• Crowd control

• Arrests

• Criminalization

• Legal restrictions

• Emergency powers

when repertoires break the norms of what is seen as acceptable protest...

these actions are not widely accepted and states may do what they can within their power to respond

repression includes:

actions and policies that raise the cost of protesting to

disincentivize mobilization

in the digital era, repression can look like:

deplatforming, content restriction, legal limits on speech and assembly, and surveillance