Courses - RISE 1, Silvia Marton PDF

Title Courses - RISE 1, Silvia Marton
Course Introduction to Political Science
Institution Universitatea din București
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Summary

cluelesspoliticalscientist.wordpress/2020/08/20/politics-vocation-weber-summary/politics – policy – policiespolitics is about political parties, the state, conflict, Is a domainpolicy – is an area very specific area on a very specific issue (the Bucharest city halls policy on fighting pollution)poli...


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https://cluelesspoliticalscientist.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/politics-vocation-weber-summary/

politics – policy – policies politics is about political parties, the state, conflict, Is a domain policy – is an area very specific area on a very specific issue (the Bucharest city halls policy on fighting pollution) policies are part of politics, various policies confront in the domain of politics policies are free to meet and to confront each other

what political sciences studies study: the study of states political theory political philosophy political economy policies studies comparative politics international relations European studies There are 3-fold of science: social sciences, humanities and natural sciences Political science is a social science. For a scientific discipline you need: a name, an agreement on the object of study, institutions(universities), people, journal, peers, review

The history of political science

Democratization – many more people get the right to make politics, to vote Scientism 1880 – the first school of political science that was created by university of Colombia in USA 1886 – the first political science journal in the same school – Political Quaterly

1895 – the London school of economics – a department of economics and political science 1903 – APSA – American political science association – 1930s and after 1945 – the explosion of political science, political behaviors Political régimes The structure of authority – the way authority is exercised by those entitled to exercise upon whom A political regime describes a very specific relationships between who govern and those who are governed. Among the mechanisms of those who govern are: rules, designations, if power is separated or not or designated or not. The political system it includes the political regimes but it also includes political behaviors of individuals/groups, media. 1.What are the types of regimes? – classification. 2.How we describe the functioning of a regime? – the relationship Plato and Aristotle wrote about these things. But they also had a third question what is the best political regime? There were more criteria: the number of those who govern, the purpose of government (self-interest, interest of the group, interest of the many). For Plato the best regimes were philosopher king would rule – monarchy so he would be the only one who could rule. Plato wanted to create a utopian regime, whereas Aristotle wanted to create something possible – politeia, a mixture of democracy and oligarchy that is a government based on the many but the many do not govern but the group govern for the common good and they need to be well-educated and wealthy. For each tyranny was a bad regimes - one governs for the own self. Starting with the 15th century the modern philosophy started which is about efficiency about a regime and how it works, how it does, what it does. Nowadays we came to consider one regime is the criteria to classify all the regimes (democratic regimes and undemocratic regimes – 2 types). Varities of authoriteriam and totalitarium. Modern regimes are more direct, we designate our leaders by voting. Why do we agree to be represented? Social contract, a citizens consent (consimntamantul), we agreed to be governed(quality, time, security). Before this agreement was lonelyless, chaos, man were wolves to each other(Hobbes), insecurity. Citizens frequently throw those who rule sometimes in a peaceful way or not so. Accountability (raspunzatori in fata noastra) – this is what citizens want Checks and balances (echilibrul puterilor) – each power control each other, fundamental for democratic regimes(legislative, executive, judiciary).

Constitutionalism includes rights. 1789 – French revolution 1787 – American revolution Core rights for these revolutions: -

Right to life Freedom Happiness Equality Pluralism -------

Census – voting was limited by income The relation between the democracy and the type of economy. Is the democracy as a regime indestructible related to an economy? (Can we have a democratic regime without a free market?) (Are there democratic regimes in context in planified economies?) State intervention in an economy is not the same with the state controlling and planyfing the whole economy. The mechanisms for the separation of powers: Is not the same everywhere, we have 3 cases: 1. Parliamentary democratic regimes - Examples: Germany, UK, Hungary, etc. Historically they were the first to appear in the 18th century. How do they work? There is a head of state, dual executive: monarch or president and the prime minister. The head of state has no significant prerogative, not a big power. The prime minister is the most important one and the government and him are the real executive power and they are accountable to each institutional to the parliament. The members of government are chosen. The prime minister is the head of the winner party in the parliament. The government depend on parliament. If the parliament disagrees with the government there is a vote of non confidence. Separation of power is flexible and non-rigid. They might have 2 chambers(camera) such as UK, Germany, Italy. The president is elected by the parliament. The head of state can dissolve the parliament. 2. Presidential democratic regimes – The separation of power is rigid and not collaborative. Examples: US, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil. The executive have only 1 head and the executive power belongs to the president. There is no prime minister. The president is elected by election and it has huge power. The president appoints the members of the government. The ministers are accountable to the president. A parliament might have a different majority than the political orientation of a president and government. 3. Semi-presidential democratic regimes – it borrows elements from the previous regimes and unites them. The first regime like this has happened in France in 1958, nowadays more states are like this: Austria, Finland, Iceland, Romania. The executive is dual, a head of state and a head of

government, but unlike a parliamentary regimes the president is voted by direct election. The head of state has important prerogatives, but is not the head of government(prime-minister is) like appointing the prime minister, to dissolve the parliament and it has a huge democratic legitimacy. The government is accountable to the legislative. The parliament can ask for a new government through a vote of non confidence(motiune de cenzura). The judiciary is the most important and is there to defend the rights of the citizens and oversee that the citizens and the parliaments and executives respect the constitution (constitutional control/oversight by constitutional courts). We have two types of undemocratic regimes: totalitarian and authoritarian. Totalitarian regimes: -

We have 2 types of totalitarian regimes: communism, Nazism. The philosopher Hannah Arendt was the first writer to speak about these regimes, she underlined the compatibility between the two totalitarian regimes Germany and Soviet Union. According to her the characteristics are the novelty, historical necessity(beyond individual smth objective), omnipresence and overwhelming presence of ideology all over society(ideology has a total presence and it was there to explain it all: the past, present and future. Claimed to have a total explanation hence to the term of totalitarian), remodeling entire society and human interaction(state institution provide to do that), total domination of the state(by the only political party / pluralism was denied, the cult of the leader hitler and stalin) through violence and terror.

Authoritarian regimes: -

There are softer version of totalitarian regimes, (the diversity of authoritarian situation) 2 types of them: patrimonial(Saudi Arabia) and modernizing(Turkey after 1918) authoritarian regimes Ideology has an minor role, cohesion an repression is occasional but not that systematic(violence against groups is present but not that much), pluralism is denied and there is no control over society. The State

1. I operates within a fixed territory demarcated by borders and controls the movement of people, money and goods across the borders. 2. It has sovereignty over that territory and over the people and resources within its borders, and has the right to impose laws and taxes within its borders. 3. It is legally and polically independent and creates the system of government under which its residents live. 4. It has legitimacy, meaning that it is normally recognized both by its people and by other states as having jurisdiction and authority within its territory. Modern state is a contraction in terms meaning that states are modern and it is specific to the modern period(from 15-16’ centuries).

It control and define the territory, administrative units, defend the army, borders, various treaties, landproperty, measuring the size of a property, control and organize population, it collects revenue, mobility, IDs. The census is the method where within a territory counting the population. (was done from roman empire). Contemporary states count the population in a very specific way and nobody can hide. Until the 14-15’ century in Europe most of the population did not have a family name. They had the names given to them by the parents and then maybe the occupation or if it was short/tall, geographical, etc. Then states imposed families names, started in Italy. This process was done because the state wanted to know who paid taxes, inheritance and ownership. States controls and organize order in a territory over a population (order and defense on the outside and inside and through the judiciary which is here to protect the citizens and to punish). The relationship between state and law: Rule of law (statul de drept): state institutions exercise their power in conformity with the laws. 1. Laws are enacted to a procedure. 2. Laws are not retracted. 3. Equality in front of the law, more specifically each individual regard of their economic power, religion, etc counts the same. Nobody can be convicted without a fair trial. 4. Independence of the judiciary. 5. Society must have control over state institutions. 6. Separations of power. 7. Constitutionalism it means that the power of state institutions are limited by the fundamental rights and freedoms. The rule of law is a human nature. Natural law theorists: laws pre-exist the state. Positivist theories: the state is the only source of the laws. The government? Is checking laws and legislations in conformity to the constitution. Political parties Political parties requirements: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Political parties requires continuity in organization Permanent organization, at various levels and between this levels needs to be communication Aims to capture and hold decisions making power at various levels, in coalition or alone Seeks followers and seeks popular support

Types of parties: -

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Ideology (left wing and right wing parties). Stein Rokkan(1921-1979) explains the emergence of parties on this right-left axes in terms of cleavages(divisions): Church and states: ChristianDemocrat parties, Popular parties, Iron Guard, Legiunea Arhanghelului Mihail, - Liberal parties Institutional origin – we can classify parties according to their appearance within parliaments or outside parliaments. The 1st in 90th century was formed within parliament. Members of

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parliament want seeking reelection, starting to organize themselves, first they made parliamentary groups within the parliament and then to establish electoral committees that would help them get reelected. Parliamentary groups became permanent after these things, became connected between them and electoral committees. Internally created political parties are those one which are within parliament (ex. Liberal parties). The externally created parties that appeared outside the parliament. Emerged outside the parliaments and aimed at representing interests or social categories that are not represented by the internally created political parties. Formed in the end of the 90th century and extension by the voting rights and by the beginnings of democratization. (ex. All social democrat parties, various agrarian parties from Denmark or Sweden, Christian democrat parties) The type of organization. This typology belongs to Maurice Duvarger and he proposed two categories: Mass parties and personnel parties. Internally created parties are personnel parties. Personnel parties rely as a flexible organization, do not search to have huge number of members, the decision making within such parties tends to be more decentralized, the leader of the party has less influence in decision making and rely on important figures on personalities. Such parties are formed by influential persons and want to have influential persons. Mass parties rely on strong mobilization and numbers of members (ex. The German social democrat party in 1875, before WW1 had 1 million member; Communists parties). Label parties functions as a party whose members are trade unions, not individual members. Mass parties are more rigid and it is complex, mass parties has an executive power called committee or executive office and a legislative body usually called the congress. In the decision making the local organizations(filialele teritoriale) are subordinated by the central organizations. They are very ideological, whereas for the personnel parties are less. The members of parliament of mass parties are very disciplined, whereas the personnel parties are less disciplined. When there is a bill the party decides the members what votes. Mass parties require that the elected officials maintain the party line, in the personnel parties are more free to vote from their own beliefs. After 1970s a new category has been proposed, the catch-all-parties which are considered for most important parties, include everybody. Their ideology are less important and want to seduce the voters with interests and background. They are not watching for a specific group, to look to mobilize the workers, they do not look to mobilize any group they want to mobilize a wide range. Size=electoral results/votes. The big parties get 30% of the votes, the small parties get 5-7% of the votes.

Why do we have parties? Parties are important because they identify goals through their ideology and program. They articulate, express and aggregate social interests. (ex. Socialist parties, Green parties speak for those social categories who want to fight pollution). Parties are the means of representation. Their want channel their demands. In a democratic regimes they cannot be replaced. Parties focused too much on governing and not too much in representation – Peter Mair Party systems:

The electoral system influences the number of party in a party system. In democratic regimes we have competitive party system, within these there is opposition and in power parties. There are two party systems(USA) or a multi party system(Romania) and there is real competition between two big parties or several parties. We can have two situations: hegemonic situation(over an extended period of time the same party or a coalition dominated by the same party hold governmental power. Ex. In Japan the liberal democratic party hold power from 1955 until 1993; in USA the democrat parties in 1930 was more than 12 years hold power in the New Deal) and turn-over situation( frequent change in the party/coalition that governs). There is also a predominant party system(two big parties, but none of them can govern alone so it needs coalition). We can have non-party political systems(authoritarian regimes). The non-competitive party system(totalitarian regimes) – 1 party. ------------------mid term Ideology and propaganda All ideologies provide an interpretation of past, present and desire future. Ideologies include specific steps that can be taken in order to accomplish the goals. Ideologies are not simple group ideas or individual ideas, they are oriented to large amount of people. Ideology is more action oriented, the aim is to persuade, to convince, they want to convince people to join and want to mobilize so, are more political. Ideologies are rather presented in clear and motivational terms. Ideologies rely on language, symbols, myths. Ideologies are the main -ism’s(good jk). In the early 90’s century ideology had a pejorative meaning. Marx was the one who published many important books (1845 – the German ideology). He said that ideology is a set of ideas that tend to dominate. Each historical moment according to Marx was characterized by a conflict between the ruling class and the exploiting class. The ideologies were fabricated by the ruling class to justify its domination over the exploiting class. The capitalist ideology was the entire set-off which reinforced the capitalists over the workers(in germania/europa pe vremea lui marx). Then, Marx assigned ideologies to groups. Karl Mannheim inaugurated the non-marxism understanding of ideologies by multiple books. He distinguished between 2 understanding of ideology: 1. a particular understanding according to which ideology is a manipulation 2. a total understanding of ideology which refers to the mind of an era (Weltanschauung-spiritul unei epoci). Propaganda is the action oriented arm of ideologies. It tends to be used in pejorative terms, it has an ambiguous to negative meaning. Totalitarian regimes relied on propaganda very much, they orchestrated(?) propaganda to support the regime and it was imposed. Propaganda was a softer version of cohesion in totalitarian regimes.

Political participation The types of political participation: conventional and non conventional. 1. Conventional : voting, campaign, NGOs, protests, running for an office 2. Non-conventional: street violence, strikes Why people participate? February 3 – final exam Citizenship Is a fundamental relation between a state and an individual – a legal relationship The core of contemporary political legitimacy is citizenship. The equality of individuals was the revolutionary outcome of those events from 18th century. How does one become a citizen? 1. By being born in the territory of a state 2. Emigration, moving to another state for various reasons Citizenship can be renounced or more exclusive, some states allow double citizenship and other states are exclusive which do not allow more citizenships. Social rights and civil rights were adopted in 1960s. Convention against torture, conventions on the rights of children. Elevated the protection of rights at the international level. In Europe we have 2 legal convention: 1950-The European convention of human rights and freedoms, it has a court in Strasbourg that can analyze situations under this particular convention, its competence it is rather limited and large, it can evaluate judge on a matter if nationally know more legal steps can be taken. Romania citizens have brought many cases to this court of justice for restitutions following what the Romanian state nationalized from 1989. The first category of rights is the “right to” or classical rights. Include several other categories, both individual rights and collective, right to freedom, right to freedom of expression, of depress, of association, political rights: to vote, to run for an office, to property. The second category of rights is the “right of “, It requires more state intervention, these rights can’t exist if the states are not on their part. Right of the human dignity (from ww2) needs state protection and it is related to euthanasia, organ donation; Right of health care cannot be done without state intervention (public funding, etc); Right of education, social protection(unemployed, retired, etc.), having an employment. right to equality formal equality and real equality parity affirmative action policies anti-discrimination

Regime change and transition Regime change is present from Aristotle. Transition comes from astronomy but, in political science the term is very important and it is about that period after the regime change. The regimes that are...


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