1. of Comparative Politics
The Global Challenge
of Comparative Politics

2. What is Politics? Political Science: the study of human decisions
Public/Authoritative
No such thing as Political Solitaire
Political System
Authority: power vested in individuals or groups with expectations that decisions will be carried out and respected
Political authority

3. Government and the State of Nature
Governments: organizations of individuals empowered to make decisions on behalf of a community
State of Nature: theoretical existence of the world if there was no government

4. Why Governments? Community/Nation-Building Security/Order
Political culture foster through homogenization by government’s
Security/Order
Protect Property and other rights
Promote Economic Efficiency and Growth
Social Justice
Protecting the Weak

5. When Government becomes a problem?
Critics of the Government
Libertarians: individualists who see society as composed of individual human beings with fundamental rights that must be protected
Anarchists: communitarians who believe governments and power leads to corrupt communities, oppression, and alienation

6. When Government becomes a problem?
Destruction of Community
“patronize” its citizens
Violation of Basic Rights
Economic Inefficiency
Monopolies and Job protection
Government For Private Gain
Rent-seeking
Rents

7. When Government becomes a problem?
Vested Interests and Inertia
Individual, groups or firms that benefit from “special” interest in the existing government
Once est., agencies and policies tend to live on far beyond their usefulness
Markets & Voluntary Coordination (Alternatives to Gov’t)
Free Markets
Voluntary Coordination
Anarchists
Restricting Government exist in economy
Government Regulation has been strenghtened

8. Political Systems
A set of institutions, such as parliaments, bureaucracies, courts, that formulates and implements the collective goals of a society or of groups within:
Rule of Legitimacy preferred over rule of force
Outside institutions such as churches, schools, corporations, media, etc. Make-up outside “environment” of political systems

9. What are Institutions?
Any organization or pattern of activity that is self-perpetuating and valued for its own sake
Norms or values considered central to people’s lives
Set stage for political behavior and influence politics is conducted
Common political institutions:
Army, taxation, elections, the legislature
Not easy to destroy because they are embedded in each of us.
Bond helps to create stability in society…..danger is people may come to resist even necessary change
Basic political structures are composed of institutions: army, police, legislature, courts
We see them as legit.
Taxation: belief that it is legitimate way to fund programs that society needs
Set the stage for political behavior,

10. Level of Analysis:
Focus on specific institutions and processes in different countries;
Legislature
Executive
Political parties
Social movements
Court systems
Best way to study CAP is with countries:
Countries referred to as Nation-States
Encompass political institutions, cultures, economies, and ethnic and other social identities

11. Level of Analysis:
Political institutions: the formal and informal rules and structured relationships that organize power and resources of society
Political culture: attitudes, beliefs, and symbols that influence political behavior
Political development: the stages of change in the structures of government
State is the most powerful of all of the clusters
State in the United states refers to the sates in the federal system

12. The State is…. Monopoly of force over a given territory
Set of political institutions to generate and carry policy
Highly institutionalized
Sovereign
Characterized by: army, police, taxation, a judiciary, and a social welfare.

13. State: key political institutions responsible for making, implementing, enforcing, and adjudicating important policies in a country; Sovereignty rests with political decision-makers
Internal and External
Sovereignty is never Absolute, every state has constraints on their internal/external sovereignty
Nation-states: sizable and contiguous territories and a common national identity (Treaty of Westphalia, 1648)
Claim the right to issue rule: laws, administrative regulations, and court decisions that are binding for people with in the country.

14. The State is synonymous with “government”
State institutions:
Executive: the president/or Prime Minister
Cabinet: notably advisors to the president or Prime Minister; military, and police
Bureaucracy: the legislature and courts.
The State is synonymous with “government”

15. Legitimacy: significant segment of the citizens must believe that the state is entitled to command
Political Legitimacy: affect by the state’s ability to “deliver the goods” through economic performance and distribution of economic resources
State Formation: analysis of how the institutional organization and political procedures of the state have historically
Even democratic states where top officials are chosen can only survive if they can preserve enforcement powers both internally and with regard to other states that may pose challenges
PL: legitimacy seems to require state’s represent themselves as a democratic fashion whether they are or arenot.
CAP looks at the states role in governing the economy and the pressures exerted on states to develop and extend democratic participation.
Organization of state institutions varies differences have a powerful impact on political and social life

16. Regimes…. The fundamental rules and norms of politics
Democratic: emphasis a large role for the public governance, as well as individual rights or liberties
Authoritarian: emphasizes limited role for the public in politics

17. Positive Developments:
New Millennium:
Positive Developments:
Widening opportunities associated with democratization and economic developments
Globalization: the global diffusion of investment, trade, production, and extraordinary communication technologies
September 11th: Changed our thinking of globalization
Challenged to develop more complex understanding
Framed politics and the study of comparative politics.
Globalization: promote worldwide diffusion of opportunity and enhancement of human development, reinforce the comparative advantages of the more prosperous and powerful regions and peoples, undermine local cultures, and intensify the region.
Sept. 11th: before claimed major attention; since political and military concerns have been on the forefront.
Two towers: An American Institution; Pentagon represent the American way of life and the attack was a way to show absolute hostility to the US

18. Information Technology International Governance
Globalization and Comparative Politics:
Economic Activities
Movement of People’s
Information Technology
International Governance
EU, WTO, NATO, UN, IMF, OECD, NAFTA
EA: reorganization of production and the global redistribution of the work force, increased intensity of international trade, finance, and foreign direct investment
MP: looking at migration, employment, business, and educational opportunities
IF: blur the traditional distinction between what is around the work and what is around the block; transforming cultures and eroding the boundaries between local and global.
European Union, World Trade Organization, United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, North American Free Trade Agreement
None Can preserve pristine nationals models of economic governance or distinctly national cultures, values, understandings of the world, or narratives, that define a people and forge their unity.

19. Four Major Themes in Comparative Politics:
The interaction of states with international order
The role of the state in economic management
The pressures for more democracy and the challenges of democratization
The political impact of diverse attachments and sources of group identity, including class, gender, ethnicity, and religion.
Describes and analyzes in detail the government and politics of a range of countries and identifies common themes in their development that explain the lager-term causes of both changes and continuities
Themes: useful for analyzing where countries maybe heading politically in the first decades of the 21st century.
Serve as a valuable tool for making political sense of the times, and understanding the uncertian era
Business and trade information technology, mass communication and culture, immigration and travel as well as politics, forge deep connections among people worldwide.
by comparing political institutions, values, and processes in countries around the world, students of CP you begin to think like a comparativists

20. What and how Comparative Politics Compares:
CP: refers to a field within the academic study of politics
Dates back to Aristotle
Should study Gov’t by comparing good v. corrupt
Compare ‘X’ to ‘Y’
Sub fields: not airtight
American Politics v. Comparative Politics
Changes your thinking
Richer Perspective
What makes us distinct from other governments
Aristotle: categorized Athenian city-states according to their form of political rule: rule by a single individual, rule by a few, rule by citizens
Evaluate some feature of X by comparing it to the same feature in Y
The subject matter of comparative politics is the domestic politics of countries or peoples; CP is one area of specialization.
Other sub fields: political theory, international relations, and American Politics.

21. Comparative Politics and International Relations
CP: study of what occurs within national borders
International Relations: study of interactions among states as well as the study of international institutions like the United Nations.
Distinction
Limit scope of study but not too much
Immigration, nationalism, economic development, and the conduct and impact of war straddle the fence
Interdisciplinary study

22. Comparative Politics:
Seeks to identify similarities and differences
Political institutions
Processes
Policies
We call ourselves Comparativists
Using Reliable statements
We need to make statement that are reliable: i.e. The United States has the best Health Care system: immediately wonder what kinds of health care systems exist in other countries, what they cost and how they are financed, who is covered by health insurance
What does best mean?......would consider the alternatives first then make the statements

23. How do comparativists go about comparing?
Look at similarities and differences:
States
Institutions
Policies
Conflict
“If X happens then Y will be the result
The Independent variable X : influence the outcome
The Dependent Variable Y: outcome to be explained
As X varies in one direction Y will vary in the oppsite direction.
As the total national economic product (X) decrease: then political and social conflict over economic shares (Y) increases.
Identify similarities and differences among countries and to identify significant patterns.
Differences between the sciences
1. People have a margin of Free choice, their choices, attitudes, and behavior cannot be fully explain by causal analysis
We choose in the content of material constraint, institutional dictated, and cultural perceptions
Expiermental techniques can be applied to isolate the factors to a particular outcome; politics cannot easily be isolated or manipulated (ie: it is hard to measure precisely how a person’s ethnicity, gender, or income influence choosing a candidate when casting a ballot. Or how conflicts among elites, popular ideological appeals, the weakness of th estate, the organizational capacity of rebel leaders, or the discontent of the masses

24. Despite the difficulties
Right balance between individual cases and universal patterns
Common Goal: “Middle Level Theory” a specific set of countries with the same or similar characteristics, political institutions, or processes:
Individual
Universal claims
Studying Democratic transitions
Identify political stability: institutional legacies, political culture and levels of economic development
People have a margin of Free choice, their choices, attitudes, and behavior cannot be fully explain by causal analysis
We choose in the content of material constraint, institutional dictated, and cultural perceptions
Common Goal: (Studying individual countries) understanding of patterns and similarities and differences among counties would be lost along with the important tool for evaluating what is and what is not unique about a country’s political life
Universal claims: always true in all countries we stretch the truth or ignore the increasing differences and patterns of variation.

25. Theme 1: A World of States Theme 2: Governing the Economy
Themes for Comparative Analysis
Theme 1: A World of States
Theme 2: Governing the Economy
Theme 3: The Democratic Idea
Theme 4: The Politics of Collective Identity

26. Theme 1: A World of States
Interactive effects of domestic politics and international forces
International organizations and treaties
Challenge sovereign control of national governments
Transnational corporations
Political boarders do not protect their citizens
Technology transfer
Global diffusion
Hold government to high international standards

27. Theme 1: World of States Pressure from external influences
Advantage: measured by economic development, military power, and resource base
Key feature:
impact of a state’s domestic political institutions and processes: and failures in competing economically and politically

28. Theme 1: World of States Similarities and contrast
development historically
Diverse patterns in the organization of political institutions, processes and limits of democratization
Ability of the state to control social groups and sustain power
State’s economic management strategies and capacities
i.e.: Britain and Nigeria are connected by colonial histories
China and Russia: share developmental patterns that for decades were shaped by communist ideologies, political structures, and approaches to economic organization
Politics and policies of states are shaped by diverse external factors often lumped together under under the category of globalization

29. Theme 1: World of States vocabulary
Public policy: A course of action chosen by government officials
Effective implementation of policy a function of power
Power: ability to get other people or groups to do what you want, even against their will
Strong states: Those who take on more responsibilities and generally carry them out more effectively
Weak states: those less able to define and carry out policy goals

30. Theme 2: Governing the Economy
Ability to ensure that an adequate volume of goods and services is produced to satisfy needs of the people
Russia: inadequate performance of economic system
Agriculture v. Industrial Production
Political Economy: refers to how government affect economic performance and how economic performance in turn affects a country’s political process.
Economic performance
How to measure success?
Growth v. Equity
The inadequate performance of the Soviet Union led to the rejection of communism and the dsiintergration of the Soviet Union.
How successful they are in competing with other countries that offer similar products in international markets
How a country “governs the economy” ; how it organizes production and intervenes to manage the economy
Economic Performance is at the top of every state’s political agenda: balance of the budget, stock market, production;
how should be measured: how rapidly a country’s economic grows? How it distributes the fruits of economic growth? The quality of life of its citizery, as measured by such criteria as like expectancy, level of education, and unemployment rates?
What political factors promote successful national economic performance? All economies, united states, canada, EU still have ups and downs
China has enjoys highest growth in the world since the 1990’s
Europe faces High unemployment and worries of loss of competitiveness due to the high cost of wages and social welfare protections
“there is no clear relation between economic growth and democracy in either direction” Sen
Look at responsiveness of political institutions to participation and popular pressure and approaches to economic management,,,,lead to economic success and whether any consistent patterns across countries.

31. Theme 3: the Democratic Idea
The claim by citizens that they should exercise substantial control over the decisions made by their states and governments
Development of democratic participation
Democratic appeal
Dignity and equality
Democracies vary widely: historical, institutional, and cultural dimensions
Democratic transitions
Wide gulf exists between a transition to democracy and the consolidation of democracy
Easier to hold 1st democratic election than the 2nd or 3rd
Once there is a development of democratic participation it is hard press to resist. Examples: Soviet Union, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, South Africa, and China
China: Socialist democracy: represents the interest of the vast of citizens more effectively than other democracies of capitalist societies.
Democratic appeal: to citizens in authoritarian settings because democratic regimes often rank among the worlds most stable, affluent, and cohesive countries.
Citizens are still likely to demand democracy even when dictorial regimes appear to benefit their countiries
Quote page 13
Pay close attentions to different electoral and party systems (ie: One Party dominant (Japan and Sweden; Two party Cominant: US, UK; Multiparty: Germany, Italy, France)
Democratic transitions: although authoritarian regimes are displaced and hold elections does not mean that democratic institutions will prevail or endure.

32. Theme 3: Democratic Idea
Incomplete democratic agendas
Social Movements
Actions and inactions
Democratic Idea fuels political conflict
Political Parties: an important established vehicle for representing new demands in representative democracies
In countries with the longest and most developed expierences of representative democracies.
Recently many citizens of democracy have turned against the state when their SOL were threatened by high unemployment and economic stagnation.
Social movements: targeted the state because of its actions or inactions in varied spheres as environmental regulations, reproductive rights, and race or ethnic relations.
No matter how long est. the democracies are because a large gap usually seperates democratic ideals and actual functioning of democratic political institutions
Precieve political parties as distant : citizens may invoke the democratic idea to deman that their government be more responsive and accountable.

33. Theme 3: The Democratic Idea
Responsible Party Model
Parties formulate clear and coherent programs
Voters compare and select among competing programs
The winning party translates those prgrams into policies/laws
This is the ideal against which party system performance is compared.

34. Theme 4: The Politics of Collective Identity
Political Culture: the attitudes, beliefs, and symbols that influence political behavior.
Social Class: solidarities based on the share experience of work (economic position)
Varies across countries and with in countries.
Can change over times or with seismic events
i.e. Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, 9-11)
Obsevers argues that the age old loyalities of ethnicity, religious affiliation, race, gender, and locality were being dissolved and displaced by economic, political, and cultural modernization.
Social Class: Long term democracies the importance of identities based on class membership has declines.
Political leaders exploit ethnic, religious, racial, or regional rivalries, and manipulating the issue of representation
Colonization in Nigeria: combining ethnic groups
Adequate material and resources are avaiable them maybe conflicts could be resolved earlier.

35. Theme 4: The Politics of Collective Identity
Nation: A group of people who are culturally, linguistically, ethnically, historically etc. similar and develop a common bond.
Nationalism: a political movement that emphasizes national distinctiveness and advocates the creation of a separate national state
Ethnicity: A group of individuals having a distinct culture in common.
Race: identification based on common biological characteristics
Often are hot button issues in electoral politics.

36. Classifying Political Systems
Typologies: smaller clusters
Comparison with in same type/between types
Most different case analysis
What produces the differences we observe
How do political regimes affect issues as economic development, human rights, and the role of women?

37. Classifying Political Systems
Classify by what is useful and for what purpose
After WWII
First World: Democracies
Second World: Communist States
Third World: Poor Countries
Today:
Established Democracies
Developing Democracies
Non-democracies
Imperfect system: where do you put Japan: not in the west and rapidly developing
It is used less today because a large amount of countries do not fit the framework
1st world: from Argentina to Zambia that formerly colonies or under or undemocratic states adopted dem. Institutions.
2nd world: near disappearance of communist countries and the implosion of communism in Only five countries: China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, and the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea; no longer useful
3rd world: share few features, exception is being less economically developed thatn industrialized nations. Most have become more industrialized and economically powerful (i.e. Brazil and Mexico) refers to approx countries that the UN classifies as “developing” Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Haiti: “least developed” and are so poor that the tern 4th world is sometimes used.
Based on the concept of democracy that identifies one of the most important dimensions for understanding differences

38. Classifying Political Systems
Qualifications for a democracies
Political accountability
Political competition
Political freedom
Political equality
Est. Democracies
Developing Democracies
PA: there must be formal procedures by which those who hold political power are chosen and held accountable to the people of the country. The key Mechanism for such accountability is regular, free, and fair elections in which all citizens are eligible to cast ballots to elect candidates doe office
PC: Political parties must be free to organize, present candidates for office, express their ideas and compete in fair elections, The winning party must be allowed to take office, and the losing party must relinquish power through legal and peaceful means.
PF: All citizens must possess political rights and civil liberties. These include the right to participate in the political process, free of government reprisals; freedom of assembly, organization, and political expression; equality before the law; and protection against arbitrary state intrusioon into citizens’ private lives. A judicary not subject to direct political control is a common institutional means for safeguarding these freedoms
PE: All citizens must be legally entitles to participate in politics (by voting, running for office, and joining an interest group) and their votes must have equal weight in the political process. Men and women of political, ethnic, religious, or the minority groups must have equal rights as citizens
Understanding similarities and differences among regimes, it is a fundamentally important to focus on whether a regime is democratic.

39. Organization of the Text
The Making of the Modern State
Political Economy and Development
Governance and Policy-Making
Representation and Participation
Politics in Transition