Political System Notes

Revisiting Themes and Conceptualizing the Political System

Introduction

• Revisiting themes from the last lecture: the study of politics.
• Additional factors for analysis.
• Conceptualizing the political system: What is it? What does it look like? How do we understand it?
• Different approaches to political analysis (introductory).

Sources of Power and Interrelated Factors

• The study of politics is the study of power.
• Power: the ability to get someone to do what you want.
• Five interrelated sources of power:
  • Political system.
  • Voter interest.
  • Regionalism.

Regionalism Example (Canada vs. US)

• Canada: Alberta vs. Ontario (different politically, economically, historically).
• US: Texas vs. New York (different demographics, economies, histories, political culture).
• All factors are impacted by voter interest.

Additional Factors for Political System Analysis

• Coercion: Government's authority to impose its will on citizens.
  • Governments have the legal power of coercion.
  • Implemented through sanctions and penalties.
  • Example: Police officer issuing a speeding ticket.
  • Example: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) imposing penalties for fraudulent taxes.
• Representative democracy: We give authority to individuals to make laws on our behalf.
• Elite accommodation:
  • Public policies emerge from the interaction of elites.
  • Elites share common socioeconomic characteristics and values.
  • Politicians and policymakers come from similar backgrounds.
  • Historically, a white male-dominated political system.
  • Representation by visible minorities, persons of color, indigenous people, or LGBTQ is quite low.
  • Relevance to systemic discrimination, equality, and equity rights.
• Embedded state:
  • Government is connected to most aspects of society.
  • Government cannot act independently because society empowers it.
  • Society gives the government the right to implement major legal changes.
• Globalization:
  • Convergence of business, technology, and culture.
  • Pace of globalization has increased due to technology.
  • Governments have less power due to free trade agreements.
  • NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF).
  • Rise of multinational corporations (Walmart, Nike, Apple, Samsung, Ford).
  • Multinational corporations can make demands on governments.
• Government:
  • A collection of institutions that make rules and enforce collective decisions for society.
  • Can be democratic or nondemocratic (e.g., Canada, China, dictatorships).
• Power:
  • The ability of one actor to impose its will on another.
  • Actor: a person or institution.
  • Comes in various forms, legal (Supreme Court) or coercive.
• Private sector:
  • Multinational corporations (Imperial Oil, Esso, Walmart, RBC).
  • Lobby government to influence public policy.
• Public sector:
  • Crown corporations: Government-owned services (Via Rail, GO Transit, LCBO, CBC, Canada Post).

Approaches to Studying Politics

• Contextualizing events to understand dynamics of power, relationships, resources, and interests.
• Five common approaches:
  • Pluralist approach.
  • Public choice approach.
  • Class analysis.
  • State-centered approach.
  • Globalization.

Pluralism

• Common in Western democracies.
• Power is widely dispersed, not centralized.
• Individuals can use resources and organize within legal boundaries.
• Government decisions are compromises among competing interests.
• Political parties try to capture a broad range of voters.
• Increasing influence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) advocating for specific things (environmental protection, equity rights, immigration rights).

Public Choice Approach

• Political system is a bargaining process motivated by self-interest.
• Politicians adopt policies to get elected.
• Example: 2015 Canadian federal election (Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Thomas Mulcair, Elizabeth May).
• Liberal Party platform: legalization of cannabis, electoral reform, increased help for indigenous communities.
• Perception vs. reality: Politicians may not fulfill promises.
• Distorted line between perception and reality; need for fact-checkers.
• Politics involves capturing votes to attain power.

Class Analysis Approach

• Marxist/left-wing critique of capitalism.
• More money = more power and influence.
• Policies designed to increase wealth accumulation for a few.
• Gap between haves and have-nots increases (the 1%).
• Government provides education and healthcare to prevent rebellion from middle and working classes.
• Capitalism creates jobs and wealth but also extreme wealth inequality.
• Globalization as global economics removes power from governments.
• Governments can no longer take care of middle and working classes.
• Consumerism and irresponsible credit exacerbate issues.

State-Centered Approach

• The state is largely autonomous from societal forces.
• Government can do what it wants.
• Authorities decide what is good for society and design policies to fulfill their vision of the public interest.
• Politicians rely on bureaucracy for advice.
• Authorities enhance autonomy through information generation and maximizing discretion, jurisdiction, and financial resources.
• Authorities may manipulate information or use coercion.
• Example: Edward Snowden and NSA classified documents.

Globalization (Government Perspective)

• Governments must respond to demands from external actors.
• Governments cannot do what they really want due to international agreements (WTO, NAFTA, IMF, EU).
• Loss of sovereignty.
• Brexit (Britain exiting the EU).
• States increasing interaction with other states to protect common interests (NATO).
• Globalization has homogenized politics, trying to bring democracy to parts of the world where it doesn't have roots.

Conclusion

• Multiple approaches are necessary to analyze politics.
• Consider globalization and public choice together.
• Be open to different ideas and recognize that we don't have all the answers.