Week 4: Political Systems Presented by Team 4: Herlinna Chung Xindi Li Katrina Cheney Lina Liu

Agenda  Overview of Almond and Hewitt’s Articles  Analysis Almond vs. Inglehart Hewitt vs. Kurzman Almond vs. Hewitt  Factbook Application  Conclusion  References  Q&A/Review Team

Gabriel A. Almond Comparative Political Systems  Introduces the major types of political systems and its role structures  Concepts: A political system is a system of action Legitimate monopoly of physical coercion over a given territory and population System and interdependence Orientation to political action

The Anglo-American Political System

The Pre-Industrial Political System Mixed role structures

The Continental European Political System

The Totalitarian Political System

Almond vs. Inglehart  “ Political Culture and Democracy: Analyzing Cross-Cultural Linkages ” by Ronald Inglehart democracy is an attribute of nations  Individual-level attitudes are aggregated to the nation level for demostation Inglehart finds that the linkage between political culture and effective democracy is remarkably strong

Almond vs. Inglehart  Factors that promotes democracy: political culture of tolerance, trust and other components of self-expression values self-expression: emphasis on freedom,tolerance of diversity, and participation Other three self expression values:  Liberty and participation, public self-expression and tolerance of diversity

Almond vs. Inglehart  Article conclusion: Societies with higher level of interpersonal trust, tolerance and life satisfaction are more likely to have democratic institutions An effective democratic institution is only a consequence rather than a precondition of a democratic political culture

Almond vs. Inglehart Comparison  Almond Homogeneous Secular Freedom and security Autonomy Structural differentiation  Inglehart Interpersonal trust Life satisfaction Liberty and participation Public self-expression Tolerance of diversity  Same definitions of political culture  Inglehart tries to determine what type of political culture democracy thrives in

Christopher Hewitt The Effect of Political Democracy and Social Democracy on Equality in Industrial Societies: A Cross National Comparison

Christopher Hewitt  Previous research Functionalism  Industrial and technological changes lead to the development of stratification system, not politics Marxism  Economic power determines stratification system, not politics Jackman  political democracy and socialism do not have any significant effect on social or economic equality

Christopher Hewitt  Invalid Variables Proportion of GNP in social service expenditures Intersectoral income inequality Mobility rates

Christopher Hewitt  Political democracy’s effect on equality Social Democratic Hypothesis Simple Democratic Hypothesis

Christopher Hewitt  Hypothesis: Democracy will lead to economic equality  Hewitt claims that this is true based on his findings  However, critics argue that once economic development is considered in this equation, this relationship may be weak or false  So, who’s right?

Hewitt vs. Kurzman  “Democracy’s Effect on Economic Growth: A Pooled Time Series Analysis”  Democracy stimulates economic development However, its effect is small, indirect and very gradual  So, does democracy promote equality even when economic growth is concerned?

Hewitt vs. Kurzman  Yes!  Overall, it was found that despite a country’s economic development (which may have been somewhat stimulated by democracy), democracy tends to promote income equality and egalitarianism over the long run.

Almond vs. Hewitt  Both agree that existing classification of the political systems is not useful Hewitt criticizes systematic comparison  Both agree that political systems can pretect freedom and provide welfare Hewitt’s article supplements Almond’s article

Factbook Application  Level of democracy  Change in democracy  Level of social instability  Eg. Democratization of Iraq

Conclusion  Political culture affects political system  National sense of trust, tolerance and life satisfaction leads to democratic nation  Democracy affects economic development slowly Investment State expenditure Social unrest  Democracy will promote equality in the long run

References  Almond, G. (1956). Comparative political systems. The Journal of Politics, 18(3),  Hewitt, C. (1977). The effect of political democracy and social democracy on equality in industrial societies: A cross-national comparison. American Sociological Review, 42(3),  Inglehart, R. and Welzel, C. (2003). Political culture and democracy: Analyzing cross-level linkages. Comparative Politics, 36(1),  Kurzman, C., Werum, R. and Burkhart, R.E. (2002). Democracy ’ s effect on economic growth: A pooled time-series analysis. Studies in Comparative International Development, 37(1), 3-33.

Q&A