Summary Essentials Of Comparative Politics - chapters 1-11 PDF

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Includes summaries of all 3 required readings for the course: Essentials of Comparative Politics, Essential Readings of Comparative Politics, and Cases in Comparative Politics. - Includes summaries of all 3 required readings for the course: Essentials of Comparative Politics, Essential Readings of C...

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CHP 1 ECP ● institutions: organizations or activities that are self-perpetuating and valued for their own sake ● politics: the struggle in any group for power that will give one or more persons the ability to make decisions for the larger group. ● inductive reasoning; studying a case to form a hypothesis ● deductive reasoning; starting with a puzzle and from there generating some hypothesis about cause and effect to test against a number of cases (starts w hypothesis, then seeks out evidence) ● multicausality: many variables are tied together to produce an outcome ● area studies = regional focus ● endogeneity: problem of distinguishing cause and effect ● modernization theory: societies developed they become capitalist democracies ● behaviorialism promoted deductive, large-scale research ● Machiavelli: first modern political scientist ○ Equality vs freedom ● Tetlock: hedgehogs and foxes (views are small ideas cobbled together) CHP 1 ERCP ● comparativists insist that analysis requires explicit comparisons ● rationalists begin with assumptions about actors who act deliberately to maximize their advantage ● structuralists draw together long-standing interests in political and social institutions ● Rational choice theorists: consider reliability, the concern with the evidence required to support generalizations from the particular to sets of cases ● COPO IS DOMINATED BY RATIONALIST, CULTURALIST, AND STRUCTURALIST approaches. ● SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH HAS THESE FOUR CHARACTERISTICS ○ 1. the goal is inference ■ descriptive inference: using observations to learn ■ causal inference: learning about causal effects from the data observed ○ 2. the procedures are public ○ 3. the conclusions are uncertain ○ 4. the content is the method. ● science at its best is a social enterprise ● “complexity” is partly conditional on the state of our theory ● even unique events can be studied scientifically CHP 2 ECP: SYNERGY: STATES, REGIMES, GOVERNMENT ● distinguish between state capacity and state autonomy ● states are a cause that can shape other institutions ● state is a set of institutions that seeks to wield the most force within a territory, establishing order and deterring challengers from inside and out. ● country: combined political entities ● states seem to have emerged out of this history of violence

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modern state first took shape in europe first modern state: ○ 1. encouraged economic development. (property rights!) ○ 2. encouraged technological innovation ○ 3. domestic stability

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traditional legitimacy: history and continuity. strongly institutionalized charismatic legitimacy: power of ideas or beliefs. WEAKLY institutionalized, dies with the individual who possesses it rational-legal legitimacy: system of laws and procedures that are presumed to be neutral or rational. strongly institutionalized ○ driver’s license individual freedom is typically associated with the decentralization of power. collective equality usually accompanies a greater centralization of power.

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federalism: regional bodies get power asymmetric federalism: power is divided unevenly between regional bodies unitary states: power is concentrated at the national level DEVOLUTION: tendency toward decentralization: more popular failed state: when the structures of the state become so weak that they break down capacity: ability of the state to wield power in order to carry out basic tasks autonomy: ability of the state to wield its power independently of the public. ○ low autonomy: act largely at the behest of private individuals, states, or groups ○ less able to disobey the public will. “captured” by certain interests

CHP 2 ERCP: The State ● Fukuyama, The Necessity of Politics ○ india: powerful democracy, weak economy ○ three categories of institutions ■ 1. the state ■ 2. the rule of law ■ 3. accountable gov’t ○ denmark is the best country on fuckin planet earth ○ china alone created a modern state in the terms defined by Weber ● Weber, Politics as a Vocation ○ force is a means specific to the state ○ “every state is founded on force” ○ either one lives “for” politics or one lives “off” politics ● Herbst, War and the State in Africa ○ lessons from europe say that war is an important cause of state formation that is missing in africa today ○ war in europe played an important role in the consolidation of many now developed states, caused the state to become more efficient in revenue collection

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○ weak states were eliminated ○ MOST NOTICEABLE EFFECT: CAUSE THE STATE TO TAX ○ African states have seldom fought interstate wars ○ african states are poor, short of trained manpower ○ avg african country spends only 15.7 percent of its GDP on all gov’t functions ○ absence of strong popular identity ○ tax system: POLITICAL BARGAINS ○ other than war, no type of crisis impels citizens to accept demands ○ IMF(international monetary fund) ○ permanently weak state? Rotberg, The New Nature of Nation-State Failure ○ Nation-states fail because they can no longer deliver positive political goods to their people. ○ not intensity of violence but enduring character of that violence. ○ newer states contain a heterogeneous collection of interests is a contributor to nation-state failure ○ failed states cannot control their borders: lose authority over chunks of territory ○ indicator: growth of criminal violence ○ democratic debate is absent ○ effective educational and health systems have been privatized ○ indicator: declining NGDP ○ when state fails, local currency falls out of favor ○ citizens transfer allegiance to group leaders. ■ COLLAPSED STATE; somalia ● vacuum of authority ○ Failed states: afghanistan, angola, liberia, sudan ○ Sri Lanka is weird. civil war for 19 years but not failed? gov’t performs reasonably well. ○ indonesia: weakness avoiding failure despite widespread insecurity ○ Zimbabwe fell. ○ state failure is man-made. ○ preventing state failure helps world peace Krasner, Sovereignty ○ the sovereign state is NOT just about dead ○ Sovereignty does NOT mean final authority (anymore) ○ The peace of westphalia did NOT produce the modern sovereign state ■ (2 separate treaties, 1648) ended 30 years’ war against roman emp ■ established rules for religious tolerance in germany. didn’t give power to princes ○ Universal human rights are NOT an unprecedented challenge to sovereignty ○ Globalization does NOT undermine state control ■ become easier, not harder, for states to manage the flow of goods and services ○ Globalization IS changing the scope of state control

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in advanced states, gov’t involvement in monetary affairs declined but overall gov’t activity has increased (as % of nat’l income) ○ NGO’s are, to some extent, nibbling at national sovereignty ■ Transnational nongovernmental organizations ○ Sovereignty blocks conflict resolution - sometimes. ■ ex. Jerusalem ○ The European Union is a new model for supranational governance, only for the europeans ■ not a model that other parts of the world can imitate CCP Chp. 2: UNITED KINGDOM ● “Westminster system” that UK uses is adapted worldwide ● Third Way - political compromise between the right and left ● United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ● Citizens owe allegiance to the Crown, symbol of the state. ● Celtic fringe- UK’s area’s that kind still owned by UK ● common law - a system based on local customs and precedent rather than formal legal codes ● Magna Carta: royal promise to uphold feudal customs and the rights of England’s barons. limiting the power of british monarchs and subjecting them to the rule of law ● PARLIAMENT / CABINET / PRIME MINISTER ● The Commonwealth : UK and 54 of its former colonies and serves to maintain at least some of the economic and cultural ties established during its long imperial rule ● Industrial revolution - declining economy after WWII ● Used to have House of Lords (aristocracy) and a lower House of Commons (merchant class) ● postwar collectivist consensus ● hung parliament: no party obtained a majority of seats ● UK has highly majoritarian features: majority in Parliament has virtually unchecked power ● uk has no constitutional court ● the crown, the legislature, judiciary, prime minister, and cabinet are the main branches of government. Crown is the head of state. symbolic representative of the continuity of the British state ● collective responsibility: unwritten rule of cabinet behavior. even when individual cabinet ministers oppose a given policy, the entire cabinet must appear unified and take responsibility ● life peers: distinguished citizens ● Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Labour ● quangos (quasi-autonomous nongovernmental organizations) are policy advisory boards appointed by the gov’t that bring gov’t officials and affected interest groups together to help develop policy WEEK 3: Nations and Society ECP CHP 3

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Society refers to complex human organization, a collection of people bound by shared institutions that define how human relations should be conducted ● ethnic identity or ethnicity: a person’s relation to other members of society ○ set of institutions that bind people together through a common culture ● ascription: the assigning of a particular quality at birth ● ethnicity is a social, not political, identity ● nation: a group that desires self-government through an independent state. inherently political ● national identity: an institution that binds people together through common political aspirations ○ self-government and sovereignty ○ often but not always derived from ethnic identity ● nationalism: pride in one’s people and the belief in their own sovereign political destiny that is separate from those of others ● citizenship is a purely political identity, developed not out of some unique set of circumstances. defined as an individual’s or group’s relation to the state. those who are citizens swear allegiance to that state ● citizenship is potentially more inclusive or flexible than national/ethnic identity. ● patriotism: pride in one’s state. pride in their political system, seek to promote and defend it ethnic identity, national identity, and citizenship: origins and persistence ● emergence of these identities had much to do with the formation of the modern state ● growing ethnic identity was closely connected to state development ● nation-state, a sovereign state encompassing one dominant nation that it claims to embody and represent ● the development of ethnic and national identities paved the way for the concept of citizenship ● ethnic conflict: conflict between ethnic groups that struggle to achieve certain political or economic goals at each other’s expense ● national conflict: seek to gain sovereignty, clashing with one another over the quest to form an independent state ● Rwanda battles over gold and diamonds left 2-5 mil dead, worst since WWII Political attitudes ● political attitudes describe views regarding the necessary pace and scope of change in the balance between freedom and equality. ● Radicals (extreme left) dramatic, often revolutionary change of the existing political, social, or economic order ● Liberals favor evolutionary change, progressive change can happen through changes within the system ● Conservatives question whether any significant or profound change in existing institutions is necessary ○ skeptical that change is good in itself. instead view it as disruptive and leading to unforeseen outcomes

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Reactionaries: seek to restore political, social, and economic institutions. advocate restoring values political ideologies ● sets of political values held by individuals regarding the fundamental goals of politics: ideal relation between freedom and equality for all individuals ● 5 primary ideologies ● LIBERALISM: high priority on individual political and economic freedom. state with low autonomy and capacity, easily checked by public, low ability to intervene ○ LIBERAL DEMOCRACY: system supported by competition, participation, and contestation ● COMMUNISM: inevitable struggle over economic resources, prosperity will eventually be monopolized by a few for their own benefit. advocates that the state control all economic resources and produce true economic equality for the community as a whole. ● SOCIAL DEMOCRACY (SOCIALISM): accepts a strong role for private ownership and market forces while maintaining an emphasis on economic equality. a state with strong capacity and autonomy to ensure greater economic equality. (environmental parties have social democratic influences) ● FASCISM: hostile to the idea of individual freedom and rejects the notion of equality. hierarchy is justified between people. fascists do not see inherent potential in every person. low equality, low freedom. ● ANARCHISM: rejects the notion of the state altogether. private property leads to inequality. the state is a threat to freedom and equality, individual freedom and equality can be achieved by eliminating the state. never been realized. Religion, Fundamentalism, and the Crisis of Ideology ● ideologies emerged as an alternative or rival to religion ● “disenchantment of the world” the replacement of faith in the notion of progress ● fundamentalism: an ideology that seeks to unite religion with the state or, rather, to make faith the sovereign authority. create a theocracy ● fundamentalism seeks not to return faith to a premodern role but rather to restructure religion as an ideology- make faith the sole foundation for a modern regime Political culture ● culture is the content of the institutions that help define a society ○ social road map, providing norms and priorities that guide people as they organize their lives ○ the repository for the activities and ideas the group considers proper and normal ● Political culture : a society’s norms for political activity ● secular-rational values place less emphasis on certain values than traditional (religion, family, national pride) ● very poor countries are associated with traditional and survival values ● A society’s heritage, no matter what shaped by, leaves a lasting imprint on a society’s worldview - tend to move along a common path that reflects their shared cultural heritage politics is not a sum of individual actions but the product of a rich array of institutions that overlap one another.

CCP CHAPTER 3: The United States ● puritans: radical protestants ● american revolution (1775-83) ● articles of confederation: loose alliance of sovereign states ● civil war (1861-65) ● 13th amendment banned slavery ● Progressive era (1903-20) ○ Teddy Roosevelt attacked monopolistic businesses ○ enhanced the ability for ICC to regulate trade between states ○ Wilson took US into WWI ● FDR New Deal: Democratic party ○ social security founded 1935 ● Lyndon Johnson: war on Poverty ● Nixon signed into law a measure that provided food stamps ● Reagan: dramatically increased defense spending ● rule of law: gov’t can act and citizens can be punished only as authorized by legal statute. all citizens are equal before the law, and no one is above the law. political institutions ● the constitution ○ federalism: divides governing authority between the national and state governments ○ separation of powers: prevents any one branch or office of government from dominating through a system of checks and balances ○ oldest written constitution still in force ○ amended 27 times ● branches of gov’t ○ president, Congress (legislative) , judiciary ○ senate : given authority to approve or disapprove executive appointments and to ratify or not ratify treaties ○ both senate and house can refuse to pass legislation ○ house can impeach, senate can convict ○ The Presidency: ■ workforce is overseen by a cabinet composed mostly of the heads of key departments, offices and agencies ○ The Legislature: ■ power of the purse: sole authority to appropriate funds and thus to control the way its laws are implemented ■ 435 members of the House. 2-year terms. seats and districts per state distributed by population. each member of congress reps around 700k citizens ■ senate: 100 members. statewide. two seats per state. ■ House: exclusive power to originate tax and revenue bills ● more politicized and partisan

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The Judiciary: ■ lifetime appointments ● The electoral system: ○ single-member district plurality system ○ gerrymandering: the manipulation of district boundaries by one political party to favor the candidates of that party ● Tea Party hates taxes ● populism: idea that masses should dominate elites and the popular will should trump professional expertise ● equality of opportunity, not outcome ● proportion of GDP spent by the state ~35% ● 15% of GDP on social expenditures, lower share than that of almost any other advanced democracy ● welfare expenditures have returned to less than 3% of GDP ● about 15% of US live below the poverty line. 22% of children do (highest among advanced democracies) ● Bush Doctrine (using preemptive force against all possible terrorist threats to the US) ○ anti-americanism ○ us-led invasion of iraq ■ weapons of mass destruction and harbored terrorists (UNTRUE) ● political polarization: degree of partisanship among members of the two major political parties CHP 3 ERCP : hobsbawm, fearon and latin, alesina and ferrara HOBSBAWM : NATIONALISM ● “young” movements are symbolically of great importance: mark the disintegration of the European revolutionary movement into national segments ● great proponents of middle-class nationalism were the educated classes ● language is a crucial step in national evolution ● proto-nationalism existed in various countries of Eastern Europe ● nationalism in the East was thus the eventual product of Western influence and Western conquest. ● nationalism is the child of the dual revolution. FEARON AND LAITIN : ETHNICITY, INSURGENCY, AND CIVIL WAR ● it appears not to be true that a greater degree of ethnic or religious diversity makes a country more prone to civil war ● one can predict where a civil war will break out by looking for where ethnic or other broad political grievances are strongest. ● conditions that favor insurgency ○ a technology of military conflict characterized by small, lightly armed bands practicing guerrilla warfare from rural base areas ● measures of conditions that favor insurgency ● insurgents are weak relative to the governments that they are fighting ● recruiting young men to the life of a guerrilla is easier when the economic alternatives are worse

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more homogeneous countries to be more civil war-prone decolonization from the 1940’s to 1970’s gave birth to weak states prone to civil violence and insurgency, a mode of military practice that can be harnessed to various political agendas ALESINA AND FERRARA : ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ● Diversity can affect economic choices by directly entering individual preferences ● Diversity can affect economic outcomes by influencing the strategies of individuals ● Diversity may enter the production function ● ELF - ethnolinguistic fractionalization 1 - sum somethin squared ● the size of a country emerges from a trade-off between the benefits of scale and the cost of heterogeneity of preferences in the population ● costs of heterogeneity arise because individuals with different preferences have to share common policies so the average utility of these policies is decreasing with heterogeneity ● as freedom of trade increases, the benefit of size for economic growth diminishes ● dictators prefer large countries: larger populations to extract rents ● rich democratic societies work well with diversity ● immigration policies and local policies that may increase or decrease racial integration ● power sharing as a means of GENERATING interethnic cooperation CHAPTER 4 : POLITICAL ECONOMY ECP ● venezuela - chavez: Bolivarian socialism ● political economy : study of how politics and economics are related and how their relationship shapes the balance between freedom and equality ● markets: interactions between forces of supply and demand ● property: ownership of the goods and services exchanged through markets ● public goods: goods provided or secured by the state, that are available for societ...