 BUS 430 Summer 2013 Dr. Rajiv Krishnan Kozhikode

 Critical reflection report 1  Critical reflection report 2  Comparative Political Systems

o Each government is different – i.e., idiosyncrasies exist o But there are greater similarities between some governments o These similarities can guide classification of political systems o But for classification to be meaningful, It should NOT look at peripheral characteristics, such as regions It should look at actions and observable behavior

 A political system can be understood by answering the following o What actions are performed by the system of roles? o Why is it done? o How does it affect the actions and behaviors of others?  Roles are the micro-unit of analysis in a political system system  Roles are an actor’s orientation which constitutes and defines his/her participation in an interactive process… o These roles include: government agencies, political parties, pressure groups, media, public at large.  Roles are enacted based on a set of complementary expectations – i.e., actor’s own actions and those others that an actor interacts with.  Such expectations are backed by coercion  A political system comprises of a pattern of interacting roles affecting decisions backed by the threat of coercion

 Orientation to political action determine the what and why questions  Embedded in patterns that determine the how question  Hence, political culture refers to a political system that is embedded in a particular pattern of orientations to political action

 Anglo-American  Pre-industrial/partially industrialized  Totalitarian  Continental European

 Highly differentiated roles  Manifest, organized and bureaucratized  High degree of stability in functions  Diffusion of power and influence within the whole political system  But there could be multiple cultures within a same system  Or, multiple systems for a same political culture.  Existence of a rational political market for votes and in exchange for policies.  Broadly shared ideas of a secular political culture o Freedom, mass welfare and security o With differing emphasis on either.

 Mixed political cultures  Mixed political systems  Modernization leads to Anglo-American system  But loss of traditional values creates uncertainty  Leads to political instability  Some charismatic leaders might emerge  So a combination of modern and old world

 Manufactured homogeneity  Cannot be fully coercive  Some amount of benevolence needed  Tries to create illusion of political inclusion through one party elections

 Again a mix  Religion based  Class based  Economic development based  Or a mix of any of these emphasis  The political market is not for exchange of political goods and services but for particularistic ends such as transformation of political system into something other than a bargaining agency.

 Should the state and religion separate?  Can it be separate?  What are the evidences? o Secularization has be prophesied but not taken off o Fundamentalism has emerged in many places  How should we look at it then? o Market for religion o Different religions co-exist because not all religions cater to the needs of the entire society

 No role for religion in state/politics  Modernization will lead to scientific thinking and avoid traditional superstitions  Multiple religions preach different ideas about reality, so disagreements will lead people to neglect religion altogether.

 Ironically, it is modernization  People face uncertainty in the absence of religion  There is resistance to scientific approaches  There is also identification perhaps in the presence of multiple religions  There is need to consider the existence of a market for religions, just like there is a market for ideologies  How organized are the religious institutions to warrant political clout?

 Next session we will look at: Different IR systems