POL101 Multiple Choice

Defining Politics – Lecture  

• Politics 

• The negotiations between the state & civil society, centered around power with the intention of building shared life  

• Meaning of Life 

• Meaning – Purpose – Order  

• The State 

• States want to be perceived as legitimate and desire for society to be legible 

• Roots of Legitimacy – tradition, charisma, the rule of law  

• Have a monopoly on the use of force  

• The only entity that can form a military, police force etc. This is a fundamental difference between the state & civil society 

• Civil Society 

• Apart from the state 

• Freedom of association 

• Voluntary, plurality of activities, negative border (exists where the state does not) 

• Separation of church and state 

• Against the state 

• Politicizing the nonpolitical 

• In dialogue with the state 

• Public sphere  

• Dialogue within this sphere is a response/critique as to what is happening in the political sphere  

• In support of the state 

• Schools of citizenship 

• The state cares about whether YOU care  

• In partnership with the state 

• More governance, less government – civil society providing what would normally be provided by the state  

• Beyond the state 

• Global civil society  

Building Governments – Lecture  

• Democracy 

• “Rule by the people” 

• Democratic power is legitimate only when the holders of power are representative of the people  

• Direct Democracy 

• Citizens directly make decisions 

• Representative Democracy 

• A representative is elected to make decisions on behalf of the citizens  

• Electoral Systems 

• Majoritarian – under a majoritarian electoral system, elections produce clear winners/losers and advantage large parties over smaller ones (political stability) 

• First Past the Post  

• Winner is the candidate that receives the most votes, even if that amount is less than half of the total votes cast  

• Two-Round  

• Two rounds of voting – in the first round, 2 finalists are isolated and in the second, the candidate who receives the most votes will win  

• Alternative  

• Voters rank candidates from top-bottom in initial vote – important distinction here is that instead of multiple rounds of voting, there are multiple rounds of counting  

• First count – if a candidate has more than 50% first choice votes, they win; if this is not achieved then the candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated  

• Second count – the eliminated votes get distributed to the voter’s second ranked candidate, and the count continues until a winner is produced  

• Single Nontransferable Vote  

• Districts have multiple seats; is the only majoritarian system in which there is more than one winner  

• Proportional – under a proportional electoral system, elections divide legislature based on votes with the imperative of ensuring all parties have a percentage of seats in legislature roughly equal to their percentage of votes 

• Party-list  

• Voters vote for a party, not a candidate 

• More than one winning party + seats are allocated based on proportion of votes received  

• Single Transferable Vote 

• Voters rank candidates in order of preference; a quota is established to determine the number of votes needed for a candidate to be elected 

• Count begins with first preference votes, if a candidate meets/exceeds the quota they are elected  

• If no candidate meets quota after this initial count, candidate with lowest votes is eliminated & their votes are transferred  

• Any votes for elected candidates beyond the quota will be transferred to the next-preferred candidates  

• Process continues until all seats are filled  

• Mixed 

• Mixed Member Majoritarian 

• Vote 1 – Constituency seats, decided through FPTP  

• Determines party seat allocation 

• Vote 2 – Party seats, closed-party list, seats are allocated based on proportion of votes 

• Mixed Member Proportional 

• Vote 1 – Constituency seats, decided through FPTP 

• Vote 2 – Party seats, closed-party list, seats are allocated based on proportion of votes 

• Legislature reflects party representation  

The Problem with Democracy – Lecture  

• Democratic Theory 

• The idea that equality and fairness are necessary for representation 

• Challenges 

• Marxist argument – capitalism is inherently contradictory to democratic principles; one is concerned with equality whereas the other brings about inequality 

• Libertarian Capitalist argument – democracy interferes with the production of capital 

• Individualization – increasing trend of “issue voters” because of a lack of representation within political parties  

• Backsliding 

• A process that aims to remove “constraints on accountability” for democratically elected leaders 

• Democracies backslide when they have failed to protect institutions  

Political Participation – Lecture  

• Defining Political Participation 

• The mechanism through which the negotiation of power between the state and society takes place; it is shaped by the regime under which the participation takes place 

• Authoritarian Political Participation 

• Power sharing is seen as a threat 

• The legitimacy of authoritarian regimes rests in the head of state; legitimacy is maintained through the exercising of force 

• Regime falls if it is exposed as weak/incapable of protecting its interests through force  

• Fall of Mubarak (key factor – decision of the Egyptian military to relinquish their monopoly on the use of force)  

• Democratic Political Participation 

• Power sharing is seen as a virtue 

• The legitimacy of democratic regimes rests in the people  

• Institutionalized Participation 

• Formal/structured ways through which individuals engage with politics; it is regular and embedded within the political framework 

• Voting, being a member of a political party 

• Problem – social & institutional factors can create inequalities in this type of participation 

• Weber’s Iron Cage – individuals are trapped within structures/rules that constrain their behaviour in ways that favour the elite  

• Non-Institutionalized Participation 

• Political engagement occurring outside of formal political structures/institutions  

• Contentious Politics – involves interactions in which actors make claims bearing on the interests of other actors, leading to coordinated efforts on behalf of shared interests 

• Defending existing political identity  

• Social Movements – collective challenges based on a common purpose/social solidarity; precedes contentious politics because they create political actors  

• Establishing political identity 

• A politics of despair (in which people no longer see themselves as actors, merely subjects) is born in the absence of non-institutionalized participation  

How Ideas Shape Politics – Lecture  

• Ideologies 

• How we interpret the world around us 

• Beliefs, values, discourse  

• “Supply/Demand” of political ideas 

• Demand – the pursuit of answers to questions/problems; opens a political space 

• Supply – the competition between alternative solutions to current problems  

• Ideational Change 

• How individuals, groups and societies exchange old ideas for new ones 

• Ideational Approach 

• Political actions/decisions are primarily influenced by underlying ideas, not material needs or institutional structures 

• Populism 

• At the core of populist contestation is its appeal to morally relevant emotions (anger, wrath, indignation, resentment) - this is one of the most powerful forces to mobilizing political action 

• In this way, populism simplifies complex political issues through slogans that appeal to sentiments of justice/fairness 

• Populist rhetoric can cover up contradictions with the intensity of its emotional appeal  

• Ex – Trump champions himself as a spokesperson of the working class, but his lifestyle is not reflective of this at all  

• Ideological Manipulation 

• Cult of Personality - “Stalin’s kindness illuminates the future of our children”, ensured that a betrayal of Stalin was a betrayal of the revolutionary cause  

Climate Change – Lecture  

• 4 Challenges to Addressing Climate Change 

• North/South divide 

• Unequal distribution of burdens between global north & south 

• Political polarization 

• Partisan divide 

• Tension between international cooperation and national sovereignty  

• China vs. USA 

• Tragedy of the commons  

• Self-interest harms the collective good 

• COP29 – “finance” COP set to address monetary issues, debt crises in global south etc.  

American Politics – Lecture  

• Federalism – the division of power between the federal government and the states 

• The United States operates under a system of decentralized federalism, in which states have more authority  

• This means variation on policy across states – ex. healthcare, housing, minimum ages (drinking, driving)  

• Article 6 – Supremacy Clause, established that in the case of conflict between federal and state law, federal law wins  

• Branches of Government  

• Legislative – pass federal laws (House of Reps, Senate) 

• Executive – enforcement of laws (President) 

• Judicial – interpretation of the laws (Supreme Court, federal courts) 

• Federalism & Voting 

• While the federal government sets a general framework for voting rights (ex. age, citizenship), it is individual states that administer elections 

• States decide whether to enact voter ID laws  

• States decide whether to provide early voting mechanisms  

• These decisions can disproportionately disenfranchise voters who are marginalized (race, class) 

• Electoral College 

• Has been petitioned for abolishment many, many times 

• 538 electors with one electoral vote; electors are bound by law to vote for the candidate elected by their state 

• Presidential candidates need only win enough states to get 270 electoral votes; electoral votes are distributed to states based on size 

• “Winner takes all” 

• Primaries – basic purpose is to elect major party candidates who will run in the general election 

• 3 objectives – disincentivize new party formation, influence media coverage, influence voter turnout 

• Rational Choice Theory 

• Voters are self-interested, short-term maximizers 

• Presumes decisions are made based on cost/benefit analysis that maximizes benefit  

• Paradox of voting – the idea that any one voter would be the one to cast the winning vote is infinitely small; therefore, the rational voter would choose NOT to vote 

• Social Cleavage Structure  

• Voters are more likely to vote for candidates that represent their group/interests  

Identity – Lecture 

• Voter Behaviour 

• Interest-based 

• Policy stereotyping 

• Ideological stereotyping 

• General group 

• Identity-based 

• Affinity voting – voting based on representation 

• Need for positive self-esteem 

• Favoritism  

• Ideal Type Voters 

• Rational – maximize accuracy in voting; fully informed 

• Constrained Rational – gathers information on candidates most likely to win and assesses this based on lived experiences 

• Fast & Frugal – limits considerations to ½ major issues 

• Identity – votes to reaffirm partisan identity; has expanded to include race and gender 

• Intuitive – limits the amount of info needed to decide 

• Emotional – when candidates generate enthusiasm, voters focus on partisanship and when they generate anxiety, they focus on learning 

• The Modern Gender Gap 

• More women than men voting democrat (trend shift from 1960s) 

• Identity & Contentious Politics 

• Identity politics is the negotiation of the place of identity within relationships of power (individual, state, society) 

• Framing  

• Presentation of movements  

• ex – Civil Rights vs. BLM 

• BLM failed to present a “master frame”, one in which numerous groups can articulate their causes within the same frame  

• A master frame is preferred because it is a central ideology that encompasses multiple issues  

Political Hope – Lecture  

• Evolution of Hope 

• Ancient Greek thinkers did not like the concept of hope 

• Early Christian thinkers were the first to assign a positive role to hope in our everyday lives 

• Modern thinkers believed hope to simply be an emotion 

• Kant – first thinker to understand hope as a rational reaction to politics 

• Hope in Politics 

• Shapes how people think of their roles in democracy 

• Hope is instrumentally valuable  

• It is a precondition for politics 

• It is used to justify institutional arrangements 

• Some scholars argue hope is undesirable / unavailable 

• Black nihilism – a politics of hope preserves the structures that sustain black suffering 

• Climate despair  

• Natality  

• Only humans can birth what is not already there; as capable as we are of destruction, we are even MORE capable of rebirth  

• Moral Imagination 

• The capacity to imagine ourselves in a web of relationships that include our enemies; the ability to sustain a paradoxical curiosity that embraces complexity without reliance on dualistic polarity, the fundamental belief in and pursuit of creativity, and the acceptance of the inherent risk of stepping into the unknown 

• Capacity to dream, speak in the future tense & engage in political hope