Comparative Politics Final

Comparative Analyses and Approaches to Comparative Politics 

What are the five steps of the scientific method 

1. Identify an important research question 

2. Articulate a theory 

3. Form a hypothesis 

4. Test your hypothesis 

5. Evaluate and critically think about your results 

What is a theory? What are the components of a theory? 

• A theory is a model of the world, composed of independent and dependent variables. 

• A causal theory explains why a cause (independent variable) is related to an effect (dependent variable). 

Independent and Dependent Variables 

• Dependent variables: A phenomenon that you want to explain 

• Independent variable: The phenomenon you believe causes the outcome 

The Modern State 

What is a state? What are the 4 key characteristics of a Modern State? 

• A state has an ongoing administrative apparatus that develops and administers laws and policies and generates and implements public policies in a specific territory 

Modern States have 2 key characteristics 

1. Territory 

   • States have defined geographic boundaries

2. Internal and External Sovereignty

   • To what extent can a state exercise power over its citizens and territory 

     • External: relative to outside powers that is legally recognized by international law 

       • Do other states recognize and allow a state’s right to exercise power over its citizens? 

       • Is there foreign intervention in the political affairs of a state? 

     • Internal: The sole authority within a territory is capable of making and enforcing laws and policies. 

       • Do the citizens within a territory accept a state’s right to exercise power and laws? 

3. Legitimacy 

   • Legitimacy is the recognized right to rule 

     • Partly comes from traditions, or laws outlined in country’s constitution or historical precedent 

       • Example: we accept elections as a legitimate means of choosing our next president 

     • Legitimacy enhances sovereignty 

       • A legitimate state has strong internal sovereignty 

       • Threats to internal (and possible external) sovereignty diminish legitimacy 

4. Bureaucracy 

   • A large set of appointed officials whose function is to implement laws 

   • Effective bureaucracy strengthens sovereignty 

Strong, weak, and failed states 

• Strong states can provide goods to its citizens 

• Weak states can only partially provide political goods to its citizens 

• A failed state is so weak that it loses effective sovereignty over part or all of its territory 

The State Fragility Index 

• Measures state strength 

• Index is comprised of: 

  • Economic indicators (uneven economic growth, poverty) 

  • Political indicators (legitimacy, rule of law, factionalized elites, quality of public service) 

  • Social indicators (refugees, sustained human flight, demographic pressure, group grievances) 

    • Score from 0 (strongest) to 120 (weakest) 

Murtazashvili - Why did Afghanistan fail as a state? 

Main argument: Afghanistan’s state failed due to a lack of legitimacy. The legitimacy crisis had 4 interrelated sources: 

1. The constitution created a system of governance with few opportunities for Afghan citizens to participate 

2. International coalition focused on fighting insurgency not building democracy; goals were often at odds 

3. Authoritarian behavior of President Ashraf Ghani 

4. Pakistan support of Taliban - but without the other three sources, this would not have been enough 

Identity, Citizens, and Regimes 

What are regimes? 

• Set of formal and informal political institutions that define a type of government 

  • More enduring than governments but less enduring than states 

We categorize regimes based on their political ideology 

• Political ideologies make claims about the appropriate relationship between a state and its citizens 

  • Who should be allowed to participate? 

  • How should they participate? 

  • How much power should they have? 

What are citizens? 

• A citizen is a member of a political community or state with certain rights and duties 

  • Civil rights: individual freedom and equal, just, and fair treatment by the state 

  • Political rights: those associated with political participation - the right to vote, run for office, and participate in political activities 

  • Social rights: basic well-being and socioeconomic equality, such as public education, pensions and healthcare 

What is civil society? 

• Civil society - the sphere of organized, nongovernmental, nonviolent activity by groups larger than individual families or firms 

• Participation occurs in organized groups of civil society 

• Depending on regime type, these civil society groups have some amount of influence on policy making 

• Popular sovereignty - connects citizenship to regime legitimacy; states claim to be ‘speaking for the people’. 

Liberal Democracy and Citizenship 

• Liberalism is based on social contract theory 

  • Social contract theory: legitimate governments are formed when free and independent citizens join in a contract to permit representatives to govern over them in they common interests 

• Central doctrine of liberalism: a regime is only justified when it preserves and protects the core liberties of autonomous, free, and equal individuals. 

  • State rarely infringes on these liberties. The preservation of rights is essential and severely limits what governments can do. 

Liberal democracies provide 8 guarantees to citizens: 

1. Freedom of association

2. Freedom of expression 

3. Right to vote 

4. Broad citizen eligibility for public office 

5. Right of political leaders to compete for support 

6. Alternative sources of information 

7. Free and fair elections 

8. Institutions that make government policies depend on votes and other forms of citizen preferences (accountability) 

How have definitions of citizenship changed over time? 

• Which individuals were historically permitted to participate? Who did these guaranteed rights apply to? 

  • Originally only applied to citizens, and citizens only applied to mail property owners. 

  • Other groups demanded the same rights to freedom and autonomy as male property holders. 

  • This produced the largest political struggles of the 19th and 20th centuries; exposed real inequalities in political and social citizenship 

How does identity affect citizenship? 

• Political leaders can gain legitimacy and power by proclaiming their nationalism and shared identity. 

• All states use identity to develop and gain legitimacy - what does it mean to be American? 

• The ‘wrong’ identity can threaten the existence of a state 

  • Can be fundamentally incompatible or perceived that way 

• Some identity groups do not threaten the existence of a state but raise fundamental questions about equal citizenship, especially individual vs. group rights. 

  • Ex: women rights, gay rights, disabled rights movements 

Politics of recognition 

• Politics of recognition - the desire for the state and society to recognize them as distinct groups with unique and legitimate concerns 

• Identity groups’ universal demand 

• Usually seek rights at least equal to those of other citizens 

  • Autonomy: ability and right of a groups to partially govern itself within a larger state 

  • Representation and full participation in the political process 

  • Better social status: identity groups that mobilize to demand change begin in a socially marginalized position: typically poorer, less educated, and socially segregated. 

What is the policy debate around identity? 

• Tradeoff: States must recognize and meet demands of large identity groups, at least to some extent. But the demands of different identity groups can be opposed → conflict 

• Debate: Liberal democracy is based on individual rights and equal treatment of all citizens regardless of their personal, cultural, or social differences. Liberals have traditionally focused on equalizing political rights and assimilating new groups into the political status quo. Contemporary groups ask: is that enough? 

Fukuyama and Coates - Main Arguments 

Fukuyama 

• Politics have become defined by identity instead of economy or ideology 

• Identity focus → fragmentation → breakdown of democratic values of deliberation and collective action 

• Liberal democracies need to foster universalist identities 

  • Theoretical and logical arguments 

  • Some statistics 

  • Comparison between Europe and US; comparison over time 

Coates 

• African Americans have been denied full citizenship through discrimination and racism 

• Redlining and housing policy → exacerbated segregation → wealth gap 

• Reparations are a way to extend full citizenship to African Americans 

  • Personal interviews and historical narratives 

  • Housing policy and data 

  • Income data 

  • Archival content for history of groups, public opinion 

  • Comparison with Israel 

Political Systems (Constitutional Structures, Electoral Systems, and Political Party Systems) 

Three thematic questions: Use these three questions to evaluate the three components of political systems - constitutional structure, electoral systems, and party systems. 

1. How does the system affect vertical and horizontal accountability? 

2. How much power is given to the majority? How much should be given to the majority? 

3. What is the trade off between political participation in government and representation of many viewpoints vs. effective governance? 

Question 1: Accountability 

• Political accountability: the ability of the citizenry, directly or indirectly, to control political leaders and institutions 

  • Horizontal accountability: the ability of the state’s institutions to hold one another accountable 

    • Constitutional structures 

  • Vertical accountability: the ability of individuals and groups in a society to hold state institutions accountable. 

    • Electoral systems 

Question 2: Majority Rules 

• In a democracy, theoretically, the majority rules 

• How much power should the majority have over minorities who disagree? This is a fundamental question of democracy 

Question 3: Representation vs. Effective Governance 

• Greater number of different viewpoints represented in government – > greater representation of citizens’s views 

• More viewpoints also means more conflict → less efficient policymaking 

Majoritarian - Consensus Spectrum 

• Can think of democracies as a spectrum from majoritarian to consensus 

  • Majoritarian democracies: concentrate power in a single place and office; they have a single party executive, executive dominance over the legislature, a single legislative branch, and constitutions that can be easily amended 

  • Consensus democracies: have multiparty executives called coalition governments, executive- legislative balance, bicameral legislatures, and rigid constitutions that are not easily amendable 

Constitutional Structures  

 3 Main Types of Constitutional Structure 

• We define constitutional structures in terms of the relationship between the executive branch and legislature. 

  • There are three main types of relationships:

1. Parliamentary systems 

   1. Elected by parliament, less accountability but more parties (horizontal accountability), more effective policy making, more stability  

2. Presidential systems 

   1. Elected by people, more accountability, less effective policy making, less stability 

3. Semi presidential systems 

   1. President is elected by people, prime minister is the head of majority party or coalition in legislature, prime minister is appointed by President but must gain majority support in legislature, the accountability depends on president’s powers and number of parties, the effective policy making depends on if the president, prime minister, and legislative party are the same or not, there is more stability

Parliamentary Democracies  

• Fusion of power between executive and legislative branches 

  • Five Features of Parliamentary Systems 

1. Parliament elects Prime Minister 

2. Power is centralized in the cabinet 

3. Political parties play a central role 

4. Cabinet responsibility to parliament 

5. Government discretion over elections 

Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies 

• Citizens elect legislature (parliament), legislature elects executive (PM), executive selects cabinet 

• Executive is not directly accountable to the people 

• Parliament holds executive accountable by calling elections to vote on confidence in executive 

• If a majority votes ‘no confidence’ then the PM is kicked out 

Coalition Governments and Government Stability 

• Parliaments need a majority support to form a government 

• If no party wins a majority of seats in the legislative elections, then a coalition government forms 

• Coalition governments can also form to call elections and votes of no confidence 

• In a majoritarian government, the majority power has the power to elect the PM, call an election, vote no confidence, and replace the PM with another party member → stability 

• In a coalition gov, very different parties might work together to support a vote of no confidence, but then compete against each other to form a new gov and elect a new PM → less stability 

Presidential Democracies 

Separation of the executive and legislative branches 

• Three characteristics

1. The chief executive is popularly elected 

2. The terms for the chief executive and the assembly are fixed by law 

3. The president has some law-making authority 

What about a national crisis?

• Examples: a national security threat, an economic crisis, or a pandemic? 

  • More efficient policymaking → less effective policy making (presidential systems) 

    • Is there a tradeoff between the fastest and best response? 

    • How much do citizen preferences matter in a crisis? 

Electoral Systems 

Definitions 

• District magnitude - the number of seats available in an electoral district 

• Personal/preference vote-seeking - emphasize personal characteristics of individual candidates 

• Party vote-seeking - emphasize party platform and characteristics 

• Proportionality - how well does the distribution of seats among parties match the distribution of votes among parties? 

How are seats allocated in a majoritarian electoral system? 

• Single Majority Plurality Districts 

  • One round of voting 

  • Voters choose one of several candidates 

  • Candidate with plurality of votes wins 

• Second Ballot or Runoff Systems 

  • First round - many candidates, if any candidate gets a majority they win 

  • If not, move to a second runoff with fewer candidates 

    • Two round majoritarian: two candidates move on, majority wins 

    • Two round plurality: all candidates meeting some threshold move on, plurality wins 

• Ranked Choice Voting Systems 

  • One round of voting, voters rank all candidates in order of preference 

  • Count first preference votes for each candidate, if any candidate has a majority they win the seat 

  • If not, the candidate with the fewest first preferences votes is eliminated; those votes are redistributed to the second preference candidates 

    • Example: my ballot ranks candidate A first and candidate B second. If candidate A is eliminated, my vote is transferred to candidate B 

• Continue until someone has an absolute majority and wins the seat 

How are seats allocated in proportional electoral systems 

• List PR systems 

  • Voters choose from different parties based on party lists - ordered lists of candidates 

  • Seats are allocated to parties: % of the votes roughly equals % of the seats 

  • Parties then allocate seats to candidates in order of their place on the list 

    • Ex: Party A has 10 candidates, won 5 seats, candidates 1-5 are selected

• Open, flexible, and closed list PR systems 

  • Closed: voters cannot see any names, or can only see a few names - lots of power for party leaders 

  • Flexible (most common): voters can see names, change ranking, and cross off candidates - parties do better with more popular candidates higher on the list. 

  • Open: same as flexible but voters can also choose a particular candidate (but few do) - seats are assigned to the candidates with the most votes on each party list 

• Single Transferable Vote  

  • Alternative Vote (ranked choice) but in a proportional system 

  • Voters numerically rank preferences of candidates within and across parties 

Effects of Ballot Structures in List PR 

• The choice of open vs closed lists affects party discipline, accountability and the number of parties in a system 

  • Closed list 

    • Voters choose parties only → party leaders have a lot of power 

    • High party discipline, MPs accountable to party leaders; fewer parties 

  • Open list 

    • Individual candidates and rankings affect votes → party leaders have less power 

    • Less party discipline, MPs accountable to party leaders and voters, more parties 

Political Parties 

What are political parties?

• Political parties are associations that seek to formally control the government. In democracies, parties seek to control the government by elections. They bring together individual citizens and discrete interests into a coalition of broadly shared interests that can help overcome the collective action problem. 

Key elements of political parties 

• Their objectives: obtaining political office, obtaining political power, advancing issues, representing interests 

• Their methods: organizing, mobilizing (and hopefully) creating supporters, contesting electrons, and forming governments. 

What are the roles of political parties 

• Mobilize citizens 

• Recruit and train political elites 

• Clarify and simplify voter choices 

• Organize government 

• Provide opposition to current government

What are party systems? Three types 

• Characterize party systems by the strength and number of parties 

1. Dominant party system: multiple parties contest free and fair elections following the electoral rules in a country, but one party is popular enough to win every election 

2. Two party system: Only two parties can garner enough votes to win an election, though more may compete. 

3. Multiparty system: More than two parties could potentially win a national election and govern. 

Origins of mainstream parties – 4 traditional social cleavages 

1. Center periphery: regionalist parties fight centralization of power 

2. Church-state cleavage: Christian democratic parties succeed with policies rooted in religious beliefs 

3. Urban-rural cleavage: Agrarian parties represent the interests of rural areas 

4. Class cleavage: After the industrial revolution, socialist and communist parties represent workers’ rights, while conservative and liberal parties represent the interests of capital owners. 

How do parties overcome the collective action problem? (also known as the social dilemma: a group of people would be better off if they work together as a group but individual interests and beliefs prevent them from doing so).

• What is the difference between programmatic and clientelist mobilization 

  • Programmatic - mobilize voters based on beliefs and ideology 

  • Clientelist - appealing to citizens via provision of material resources in exchange for political support 

• What is the relationship between countries' GDP and clientelism? 

  • Lower GDP → higher clientelism; citizens more likely to need and accept material goods in exchange for support 

Populism 

• A political approach that strives to appeal to the ordinary people who feel like their concerns are being disregarded by the elite. 

• “We define populism as a thin centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic camps, “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite”, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people” - Cas Mudde 

  • Not based on left or right, but contrast between ‘good’ ordinary citizens and ‘bad’ corrupt elite 

Features of populist philosophy 

• Can think of populist philosophy as a loose set of ideas with three core features: 

  • The people: can generate a shared identity between groups and facilitate their support for a common cause 

  • The elite: people holding positions within police, the economy, media, and arts. This excludes the populists themselves. 

  • The general will - Rousseau’s general will, defined as the capacity of the people to join together into a community and legislate to enforce their common interest. 

Definitions of “the Right” 

• The right - encompasses all ideologies, individuals, and groups that believe that social inequalities are natural and should be protected rather than overcome by the state 

The “Far Right” - radical right and extreme right parties 

• Radical right parties 

  • Right-wing ideologies that accept democracy but oppose fundamental values of liberal democracy, notable minority rights and pluralism 

• Extreme right parties 

  • Rejects the essence of democracy (popular sovereignty and majority rule) 

  • Justify all policy positions on socioeconomic issues based on ethnic nationalism. Pits an ‘in-group’ against an ‘out-group’ based on ‘blood, creed, and common descent’

Relationship between party decline and populism 

• Traditional parties have failed to address challenges of globalization, economic crises, stagnating/declining incomes, cultural and social divides. 

  • More people are dissatisfied with traditional parties, do not feel represented, look for alternatives 

  • Less support for traditional parties → space for populist parties to emerge. 

Contentious Politics - Social Movements 

What are social movements? 

• Social movements are part of civil society; they take well or loosely defined organizational structures and represent people who perceive themselves to be outside formal institutions, seek major political changes, and may employ non-institutional forms of collective action 

  • Properties of social movements: 

    • Contentious collective challenges 

    • Common purposes 

    • Social solidarity 

    • Sustaining contention 

Theories of Social Movements’ Emergence 

• Three main theories 

1. Relative deprivation theory 

   • A group of individuals belief that they are not getting their share of something of value relative to others 

     1. Ex: American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s 

2. Rational choice and resource mobilization theory 

   • Problem: Collective Action problem 

   • Solution? Resource mobilization - organization is the solution 

   • Types of resources: moral cultural, social-organizational, material, and human 

3. Political process theory 

   • Elements that constitute and explain the development of social movements: 

     1. Political Opportunity Structures 

        1. “The degree to which groups are likely able to gain access to power and to manipulate the political system” 

     2. Cultural Frames 

        1. Cultural frame constitute a source of meaning that actors in movements use to simplify and condense the world out there 

     3. Networks and Organizations

        1. Will “provide movements with strategic and tactical leadership, and with a focal point for the interaction of activists’ that will further help in the recruitment of new members and mobilization of resources and tactics for protest 

Revolutions 

• Revolutions are everywhere 

  • On the streets of Caracas, and Tehran, in the rhetoric of groups like Podemos and Black Lives Matter, and in the imaginaries of popular culture, from Star Wars to Hamilton 

• Yet contemporary revolutions often appear more as minor disturbances than as projects of deep confrontation and systemic transformation 

  • Small ‘r’ revolutions next to the big ‘R’ revolutions associated with France, Russia, China, and other major uprisings 

Case Studies with Revolutions 

• Egyption revolution 1952

  • Ruled by military background rulers since then 

    • Gamal Abdal Nassar (came as a result of a coup). 

    • Anwar Sadat 

    • Hosni Mobarak 

    • Al Sisi 

    • Mohammad Morsi 

      • Egyption revolution 2011

        • As part of the “Arab Spring” (mass, widespread protests in the Middle East and North Africa). 

Revolution 

• “A collective mobilization that attempts of quickly and forcibly overthrow an existing regime in order to transform political, economic, and symbolic relations” 

  • Lawson points out that no revolution fully succeeds at achieving the transformations it seeks

• A revolution is the forcible overthrow of a government through mass mobilization (whether military or civilian or both) in the name of social justice, to create new political institutions. 

Reconsidering the definition of Revolution 

• An effort to transform the political institutions and the justifications for political authority in a society, accompanied by formal or informal mass mobilization and noninstitutionalized actions that undermine existing authorities 

  • People now say that political change through violent means is the single defining characteristic of revolutions 

    • Criticism to that: 

      • It denies the possibility of non-violent revolutions 

      • Gives the impression that force and violence are not ever present aspects of the political process 

        • What changed our understanding of this definition? 

          • Color Revolutions 

            • Early 2000s, mainly in Eastern Europe 

            •  Overturned governments not by civil or guerilla war or by violent insurrections, but by using the predominantly peaceful repertoire of social movements - demonstrations, marches, strikes, and occupations 

            • Mainly as a result to election results : perception of corrupt, rigged, unfair elections

            • Eg. Orange revolution in Ukraine 

            • Belarus also witnessed protests in 2002, but failed 

Regime Changes: Revolutions 

• Political revolutions : the fundamental transformation of an existing regime, instigated and primarily carried out by a social movement or armed group 

  • Rarest form of regime change 

  • Ukraine 2014

• Societal Revolutions : the fundamental transformation of a regime and social structure, instigated and primarily carried out by a social movement or armed group 

  • Even rarer than political revolution 

  • 1989-1990 collapse of communism in Eastern European countries 

Twelve Components of Revolutionary Process 

1. Elite defection and the formation of opposition 

2. Polarization and coalition building 

3. Mass mobilization 

4. Initial regime change 

5. Further polarization 

6. Counterrevolution 

7. Civil war 

8. International war 

9. Radical regime change and terror 

10. Revolutionary moderation 

11. Renewed radicalism and terror 

12. Regime consolidation 

When revolutions occur? General theories of Revolutions? 

• Psychological Approaches 

  • Misery breeds revolution 

  • Only when one expects a better life, and those expectations are frustrated 

    • Modernization 

  • Deprivation and aggression 

  • Huntington (1968): added that deprivation may not only be material 

    • Where people come to expect greater political participation, but are denied the institutions for such participation, resentment and revolt are likely 

Example: 2010 Incident for Tunisian Revolution 

• Tunisian street vendor sets himself on fire after harassment by local authorities 

  • Economic grievances : widespread poverty, unemployment, and inequality 

  • Political grievances : Corruption among ruling family, lack of democratic rights 

  • Social grievances : Heavy censorship, intimidation, and arrest of prominent internet voices 

• Organizational Approaches 

  • Discontent and conflict are a normal part of politics 

  • A revolution is likely only when opponents can mobilize the massive resources necessary to take command of a geographical area and effectively wrest power from the old regime 

  • Focus on the means for translating grievances into action 

    • Shifted attention back to the realities of political power 

• Changing focus - state elite 

  • Skocpol 

    • Social revolutions have not arisen mainly from the acts of a powerful revolutionary opposition 

    • BUT from internal breakdown and paralysis of a state administrations, which rendered states capable of managing normal routine problems of governance 

  • In a similar manner but before Skocpol 

    • Moore argued that understanding social change and revolution required a close examination of the differences among societies, and demonstrated that variations in the relations between landlords and peasants were crucial in determining the course of political change 

Plato observed that : “all political changes originate in division of the actual government power ; a government which is united cannot be moved”. 

They arise only 

• When rulers become weak and isolated 

• When elites begin to attack the government rather than defend it 

• When people believe themselves to be part of a numerous, united, and righteous group that can act together to create change 

Examples: 

• The protesters managed to overthrow the Ben Ali regime, ruling from 1987 to 2011 

• Only ‘success’ story of the Arab spring (initially) because the military sidelined with the protesters and not the regime 

Authoritarian Regimes & the Dictator’s Dilemma 

Authoritarian regime : is lacking democratic characteristics, ruled by a single leader or small group of leaders 

• A democracy is a regime in which citizens have basic rights of open association and expression and the ability to change the government through some electoral process 

Types of Authoritarian Regimes: 

• One party system: a system of government in which a single party gains power, usually after independence in post colonial states, and systemically eliminated all opposition 

  • Example: Algeria was ruled by a single part from independence in 1962 until the approval of a new constitution in 1989 

• Military regime: system of government in which military officers control power 

  • Example: Chile from 1973 to 1990 under Pinochet 

  • Egypt since 2014 under Al-Sisi 

• Electoral authoritarian regime: Type of hybrid regime in which formal opposition and some open political debate exist and elections are held; these processes are so flawed, however, that the regime cannot be considered truly democratic 

  • Russia under Putin 

  • Turkey under Erdogan 

  • Hungary under Orban 

Explaining Electoral Authoritarian Regimes 

• Why do most authoritarian regimes allow some sort of legislature and opposition parties to exist and participate? 

  • All authoritarian leaders rule through some combination of repression, co-optation, and efforts at legitimization 

The Dictator’s Dilemma 

• An authoritarian ruler’s repression creates fear, which then breeds uncertainty about how much support the ruler has; in response, the ruler spends more resources than is rational to co-opt the opposition 

  • Military 

  • Creation of formal institutions (legislatures and parties) 

  • Technology and Artificial Intelligence 

Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes 

• Leaders cannot rule by repression alone 

  • They must care about gaining the support of potentially rival elites, and ideally, some legitimacy front the general populace 

    • Elections 

    • Political Parties 

    • Civil society 

    • Clientelism

• Most authoritarian regimes hold regular elections to ensure continued rule 

  • This serves as a facade for democratic legitimacy 

  • Information for ruler about opposition and local needs 

    • Helps disturbing patronage - spendings increase during elections  

• Party systems are very limited : ruling party is always the most important and strongest 

  • Parties are used to 

1. Rule the country 

2. Provide patronage 

Clientelism 

• Clientelism is prevalent when civil society is weak and parties and elections are mainly aimed at ensuring elite cohesion and regime survival 

• Citizens can gain access to some resources, power, or influence by becoming clients of powerful patrons 

• Clientalism exists in part because avenues for collective action are at best limited 

• Rebecca Tapscott sees the arbitrary nature of authoritarian rule, what she terms “institutionalized arbitrariness”, as a means of limiting collective action while maintaining citizen loyalty, or at least fear. 

Examples of clientelism: 

• Mexico’s PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) 

  • Founded: 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1946 

  • Dominance: Held uninterrupted power in Mexico for over 70 years, from 1929 to 2000

    • One of the longest ruling parties in the world 

  • Origins: formed after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) to unify competing revolutionary factions and bring stability, 

    • It aimed to create a single party system to prevent violent conflicts between leaders 

Problems 

• No client is ever guaranteed anything 

• Discorages organizing on the basis of collective interests 

Civil Society 

• Civil society is non-governmental and non violent organized activity by groups of individuals 

• State corporatism: state controls the interest groups and chooses which ones to recognize 

  • Corporatism: each component (or interest) in society should be represented by one organization 

Examples of State Corporatism : Mexico and PRI 

• Labor Unions and the CTM (Confederation of Mexican Workers): Established in 1936, the CTM became the largest labor union in Mexico 

• The state supported the CTM and granted it exclusive bargaining rights for workers, effectively controlling labor movements. 

• In return, union leaders mobilized workers to support PRI policies and candidates, creating a dependable voting bloc and limiting independent labor actions.

Consultative authoritarianism 

• Authoritarian regimes allow civil society groups to improve overall governance by providing services regulated by the regime 

  • On the other hand, the regimes must ensure civil society stays within certain bounds to maintain regime control 

  • They use a combination of positive and negative incentives to do so, minimizing repression to the extent possible 

  • The result is improved governance for citizens on a daily basis but little chance that civil society will foster regime change towards democracy 

Digital Authoritarianism 

• Digital Authoritarianism is the use of the internet and related digital technologies by leaders with authoritarian tendencies to decrease trust in public institutions, increase social and political control, and/or undermine civil liberties  

  • Digital Authoritarianism in China : 

    • Internet control within China are at an extreme after the implementation of Cyber Security Law in 2018 and upgrades to surveillance technology 

    • Requires local and foreign companies to immediately stop transmission of banned content 

    • Hundreds (maybe thousands now) of new directives to fine tune what netizens can and cannot do online 

Current event: Uyghurs in Xinjiang 

• There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang 

• Speak their own language, similar to Turkish, and are ethnically and culturally close to Central Asian Nations 

• Mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by the state to dilute the minority population 

Chinese State Surveillance in Xinjiang 

• Human rights groups believe that China has detained more than one hundred million Uyghurs over the past few years in ‘re-education camps’ and have sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms 

• Reports that China has been forcibly sterilizing Uyghur women to suppress the population 

• Children are separated from families, and their cultural traditions are 

Military Coups and Democratic Backsliding 

Regimes and Regime Change 

• Recall: a regime is a set of formal and informal political institutions that define a type of government 

• Regime change is the process through which one regime is transformed into another 

  • Democratic backsliding (autocratization) 

  • Military coups 

  • Democratization 

  • Revolutions 

Regime changes can be a gradual process, not always result of military coups, or other overt interventions/crisis 

Post cold war there was an increase in regimes falling through elections, uprising, insurgency, and foreign intervention, rather than coups. 

The military in politics: Coups D’Etat 

• Coup D’Etat: when the military forcibly removes an existing regime and establishes a new one 

• Coup-proofing: co-opting major armed factions, counterbalancing them by creating multiple military institutions, or relying on information ties of loyalty within the military, such as ethnic affiliations 

Why do coups happen? 

• Political and institutional structure, e.g. low levels of legitimacy, corruption, etc. 

• Military as an institution - to advance its interests and defend their professional status, e.g. Higher pays, larger budges, more autonomy 

Coup success rate 

• Powell and Thyne’s research shows that coup attempts in the past decade have had a far higher success rate than those of previous decades. So, while coups are becoming less frequent around the world, they are also becoming more effective 

When are Coupss Successful? 

• Three factors affect success of coups: 

  • Rank of the leadership in the coup attempt 

  • Whether or not there is a precedent of successful coups in a country 

  • Communication 

Turkey 

• Founded in 1923 as a republic 

• Modernization effort, single party rule (1923-46), multi-party since 1950

• Democratization and then backsliding, back and forth 

Turkey - once a model 

• Muslim society, with a secular nation state 

• On the margins of Europe - EU membership process 

• Muslim society with a working democracy - Turkish model 

Turkey has had a history of Coups 

• In 2016 also there was a failed coup attempt 

Democratic Backsliding 

• Main dangers that major democracies face 

• Incremental erosion of institutions, rules, and norms that result from the actions of duly elected governments. 

• Unlike before, in the 21st century, the danger is not overt, and democracies do not die in a quick move. 

• Rather slowly and from the inside 

  • Even by the hand of their main representatives 

Four key indicators of Authoritarian Behavior 

• Rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of the game 

• Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents 

• Toleration of encouragement of violence 

• Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including the media 

Authoritarianism and populism 

• Populist outsiders tend to test positive on the litmus test for authoritarianism 

• Recall: populists are anti-establishment politicians who claim to represent ‘the people’ and wage war on the ‘corrupt and conspiratorial elite’

Democratic Backsliding 

• The assault on democracy begins slowly and can be imperceptible for many citizens 

• The erosion of democracy takes place in baby steps 

Levitsky and Ziblatt use a soccer analogy to show how elected authoritarians consolidate power 

1. Capture the referees 

   1. Judicial system, law enforcement bodies, and intelligence, tax, and regulatory agencies 

   2. By quietly firing civil servants and other nonpartisan offices and replacing them with loyalists 

2. Sideliken some or all the oppositions star players 

   1. Buy them off with bribes and payments 

   2. The government can use their control of referees to legally sideline the opposition by imprisoning protestors and using libel or defamation suits against the media 

      1. Creates self censorship 

3. Rewrite the rules of the game to lock in their advantage 

   1. Authoritarians can reform the constitution, the electoral system, and other institutions in ways that can disadvantage or weaken the opposition. Because this involves constitutional and legal changes, these reforms are long lasting. 

Gradual process turning points in Turkey 

• 2007 elections 

• 2008-2009 ergenekon trials 

• 2010 constitutional referendum 

• 2011 elections - 3rd term of the akp rule 

• 2013 Gezi Park protests 

• 2015 elections - AKP lost 9% votes, rerun elections in November 

• 2016 failed coup event and its aftermath 

• 2017 transition from parliamentary to presidential system 

Political Parties as Gatekeepers of Democracy 

• Successful gate-keeping requires that mainstream parties isolate and defeat extremist forces, a behavior called distancing 

  • Prodemocratic profit can keep would-be authoritarians off the party ballots at election time 

  • Root out extremists in the grass roots of their own ranks 

  • Avoid alliances with anti-democratic parties and candidates 

  • Act to systemically isolate, rather than legitimize, extremists. Politicians avoid acts that help to ‘normalize’ or provide public respectability to authoritarian figures. 

  • When extremists emerge as serious electoral contenders, mainstream parties must forge a united front to defeat them. 

Comparative Political Economy 

• A market economy is an economic system in which individuals and firms exchange goods and services in a largely unfettered market

• Capitalism is the combination of a market economy with private property rights 

• Virtually all countries have some form of a capitalist economy today, although the degree to which the market is unfettered varies widely 

A Major Debate 

• To what extent should a state intervene in an economy to shape market exchanges and property rights? 

  • A modern state typically intervenes in the market economy to perform three roles: 

    • Essential roles 

      • Provide national and personal security 

      • Protect property and contract rights 

      • Provide a currency 

    • Beneficial roles 

      • Provide public goods 

      • Mitigate market failures 

    • Politically generated 

      • Improve working conditions 

      • Redistribute income 

Essential roles 

1. Provision of essential public goods 

   1. Goods or services that cannot or will not be provided via the market because their costs are too high or their benefit too diffuse 

      1. Example: national defense, clean air, clean water 

2. Protection of property rights and contract rights 

3. Providing a currency to facilitate economic exchanges 

Beneficial role 

• Provision of beneficial public goods: 

  • Infrastructure 

  • Education 

  • Healthcare 

• Correcting market failures: when markets fail to perform efficiently 

  • Reasons for market failure: 

    • Externalities 

    • Monopolies 

    • Imperfect information 

Politically Generated Roles 

• Politically generated roles are citizen demands that the state take action in what is most commonly referred to as a modern welfare state 

  • Such as: 

    • Government regulations requiring improved working conditions (minimum wage, 8 hour work day, etc) 

    • Policies that redistribute income 

Key Economic Debates 

• Keynesianism: John Maynard Keynes 

  • The state could and should do more to manage economic crises 

  • During economic downturns there is a lack of demand for goods and services → the government could and should revive demand and stimulate the economy 

    • Believed in deficit spending to stimulate demand 

  • Also, recognized market failures and believed that the government should correct them 

• Neoliberalism: Milton Friedman, Friedrich Haydek 

  • Minimal government intervention - the market can allocate resources as efficiently as possible to maximize wealth generation 

    • Market failures are rare and most government intervention is harmful 

  • Cutting back most government regulations (de-regulation), downsize the government 

Capitalist Economies 

• The world isn’t divided between just capitalism and socialism. There are several ‘varieties of capitalism’ 

  • US, UK, some others : “Liberal Market Economies” 

  • West European Countries : “Social Market Economies” 

    • And there are other models (China ‘State capitalism’) 

  • The European Social Market economy provides a model - very different from the US model - that combines market capitalism with greater social equity 

Liberal Market Economies 

• Rely more heavily on market relationships 

  • Firms interact with other firms and secure sources of finance through purely market based transactions 

• Firms hire and fire employees with ease 

  • Low rates of unionization, flexible labor laws 

• The government’s role in LMEs: 

  • To ensure market relationships function properly 

  • Guarantee that all buyers are privy to the same information 

    • Fairly stringent anti-monopoly laws and rules governing stock exchanges 

Coordinated Market Economies

• Capitalist economies in which firms, financers, unions, and government consciously coordinate their actions via interlocking ownership and participation 

• Codetermination : unions are given representation on the supervisory boards of firms with more than 2,000 employees and gives unions the power to influence employers’ policies. 

  • Coordinated market economies are not socialist!!! 

    • Socialism is the idea of equalizing the redistribution of wealth 

      • Collectively owned businesses and forms of government, in which workers and government have more control over the means of production and distribution of goods, versus the private ownership and free market that drives capitalism 

        • North korea, China Cuba 

        • Scandinavian countries are not socialist countries!!

Social Market Economy 

• The social market economy is an economic system that is capitalist but that: 

1. Provides for robust government intervention to protect the vulnerable and to reduce inequality 

2. Involves considerable coordination between economic stakeholders 

   1. Best examples found in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway 

Taxes in Social Market Economies 

• In short, taxes are higher in social market economies. 

• In Europe, most pay between 36%-44%, but up to 60% (highest wealth bracket in Sweden). 

• In US, most people pay approximately 28% tax 

  • BUT we also have to pay for real estate taxes, social security, and state/local taxes, PLUS tuition, insurance premiums, co-payments, childcare, sick leave, parental leave, etc. 

Example of Countries and their Economies 

• Key economic phases 

  • Post WWII State Led Economy 

    • The labour government expanded the role of the state 

      • By nationalizing industries, creating the National Health Service, and providing public housing 

    • A strong welfare state and powerful trade unions defined this era 

      • Egalitarian ideals stemming from wartime solidarity 

    • The ‘Winter of Discontent” 

      • Economic stagnation and high inflation in the 1970s → widespread strikes and a crisis in governance 

  • Thatcher’s Neoliberal Revolution 

    • Conservative party wins 1979 elections, Thatcher becomes the PM 

    • Dismantled many aspects of the postwar consensus

      • Targeting union power, privatizing industries, and reducing taxes for individuals and corporations 

• Privatization led to economic flexibility but also increase unemployment and inequality 

• 25% of the population living on less than half the national income by the late 1980s 

• Blair’s Labour Government 

  • A mixed approach, maintaining Thatcher’s neoliberal framework while emphasizing social programs 

    • GDP growth averaged 2.6% annually, driven by a booming financial sector 

    • Investments in education and antipoverty initiatives reduced unemployment to 5.5% and lifted over one million children out of poverty between 2005 and 2007 

• Cameron’s Austerity Era 

  • In response to the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron adopted austerity measures to cut the deficit: 

    • Government spending was reduced by 19%, targeting welfare programs, housing, and policing while sparing NHS and education 

    • The VAT was increased, and benefits were capped to one year, exacerbating income inequality

    • By 2015, the deficit fell from 11% of GDP to 4%, but growth remained sluggish, and public backlash intensified. 

Postwar Japan: A unique CME Model 

• Japan developed a distinct CME model, termed the “Developmental State’. 

• Achieved rapid growth, becoming a global economic power 

• State-guided economic growth with collaboration between government and large conglomerates 

• Challenges arose with globalization, leading to economic stagnation post-1990. 

Economic Milestones 

• 1950-1990: Rapid growth, becoming the world’s second largest economy

• 1990: economic bubble burst, initiating stagnation and deflation 

• 1990s-200s: Shift toward a more American corporate model 

• 2013-2018: Modest recovery efforts under “Abenomics” policies