1) Nation 2) State 3) Regime 4) Government 5) Sovereignty 6) Legitimacy 7) Political Culture

 A nation is defined as a group with a common language, culture, history, and or religion, residing in a specific geographic territory  Don’t confuse nation with country or state!  Does every nation have its own country or state? NationCountry/State Japan KoreaSouth Korea, North Korea Palestine? TibetChina InuitCanada QuebecCanada BasqueSpain

 A state is defined as political body which has a monopoly of force over a territory  There are approximately 190 states in the world today. Many are nation-states such as Japan, South Korea, and Germany. Others, such as Canada, USA, Australia are NOT nation-states.  Not every nation has its own state.  States last longer than regimes or governments.

 States which have full control over their territories  Strong states are able to provide a wide array of government services (welfare, infrastructure, courts, etc.)  Generally high income states  Examples: USA, Canada, Japan, France

 States which have a limited capacity to provide social services to its citizens  Weak states may not be able to protect property rights  Generally low income states  Examples: Chad, Ethiopia, and a number of other African states

A state which is unable to maintain a monopoly of force over its entire territory cannot guarantee the security of its citizens. Afghanistan and Somalia are two such examples

 A regime is defined as the practices, norms, institutions, and rules created to organize the state  Regimes create the rules of the game: elections, constitution, rights, freedoms, etc.  Regimes last longer than governments but a state may go through several regimes

Meiji Restoration ( ) Taisho Period ( ) Showa Period ( ) Constitutional Monarchy (1947- present) Imperial Modern Authoritarian Oligarchy Imperial Democratic Imperial Authoritarian Militaristic Democratic Parliamentary

Democracy  Rule by the People  Freedoms, civil liberties Examples Parliamentary: U.K., Canada, Japan Presidential: US, France, Mexico, Russia

Absolute Monarchy  Rule by the King/Queen  Authoritarian  Limited freedoms Examples: Chinese Dynasties, France and England before their revolutions

Totalitarian Dictatorships  Authoritarian  One Man/ One Party  Limited freedoms  Attempts to transform society Examples: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, China under Mao, the Soviet Union, North Korea

Theocracy  Rule by religion  Authoritarian  Totalitarian Examples: Iran, Afghanistan under the Taliban

A government is defined as the elites (elected or unelected) who run and operate the regime  Governments come and go and are far less institutionalized than the regime or state Japanese Regime Constitutional Monarchy, 1947-present Governments Yasua Fukoda (Liberal Democratic Party), Taro Aso (Liberal Democratic Party), Yukio Hatayama (Democratic Party) Naoto Kan (Democratic Party), Yoshihiko Noda (Democratic Party) present

 Sovereignty is defined as the ability of a state to exercise decisions internally (domestic) and externally (foreign) For example: States in the midst of civil war have limited internal sovereignty

 State sovereignty can either be concentrated at the national level in a unitary state or distributed regionally in a federal state  Unitary State: most states are unitary states the central or national government dominates decision making; provinces, or regions have limited power- examples: U.K., France, China, Japan  Federal State: provinces/ regions have constitutionally protected powers which the central government cannot take away- examples: Germany, Canada, USA, Nigeria, Mexico, Russia

 Membership in a supranational organization such as the European Union (EU)  Civil war  Military occupation by a foreign state  Trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)  Economic pressure particularly from larger states  Military alliances  United Nations actions (resolutions, sanctions, interventions)

 Legitimacy is defined as the people’s belief in the government’s right to rule

 Traditional: people follow the rules because it has always been that way Example: Chinese dynasties  Charismatic: people follow a leader because they have been mesmerized, persuaded- Example: Nazi Germany  Rational-legal: people follow laws, rules and a constitution because they believe this system to be just and fair Examples: Japan, South Korea, Canada, USA

 Anytime the government/regime uses coercion (violence) to put down protest  Corruption  War  Economic misery/depression  Failure to reform

 In democratic states, citizens normally choose another party  In authoritarian states, however, this normally leads to: rebellion, revolution, or coup d’etat

 Political culture is defined as the prevailing attitudes people in a state have toward government and authority  What rights and freedoms do citizens believe are important?  Who should or should not have power?

American political culture:  Values freedom and individual liberties  Republican democracy  Capitalist  Christian traditions Chinese political culture:  Respects authority  Values the group/community  Communist one party system  Authoritarian history  Mixed economy

Source: Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, "Changing Mass Priorities: The Link Between Modernization and Democracy." Perspectives on Politics June 2010 (vol 8, No. 2) page 554. Mapping political culture States with the highest self-expression values tend to be the most individualistic. What else do these states have in common?

 What is legitimate in one state might not be legitimate in another  Much of this (but NOT all) has to do with political culture  For example: in the U.K. there is support and respect for an unelected hereditary monarchy; there also tends to be more respect for unelected bureaucrats and government officials and a general belief that they will do what is best for the state  In the USA, on the other hand, nearly every government office is elected, and politicians tend to be mistrusted; the general belief is that their power must be restricted and checked by the people