Assoc. Prof. Murat Somer, CASE 153
E-mail: musomer@ku.edu.tr
Fall 2012 Office Hours:
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:00pm
Learning Objectives
 Define key concepts such as political institution,
democracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism,
and federal versus unitary systems.
 Explain the role of a constitution, and understand
the concept of constitutionalism.
 Discuss the general type of political system and
important constitutional issues in the TIC cases.
 Categorize each TIC case as having either a
unitary or a federal system.
What are Institutions?
Liberal Conceptions
Formal Definition:
Institutions are the rules of
the game in a society or,
more formally, humanly
devised constraints that
shape [regulate] human
interaction.
(Douglas North)
How are Organizations Different from
Institutions?
 Organizations are the players
 Institutions are the rules of the game
 GS, BJK, UEFA and MHK are organizations
Rules of the game are institutions
 Municipalities and contractors are
organizations
Rules that determine their relationship are
institutions
 Political parties are players (organizations)
Electoral rules are institutions
 Courts are organizations
The laws they apply, the rules that determine
their salaries, promotion, accountability, and
powers are institutions
What Do Institutions Do?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Determine who are the winners and who are the losers
Define boundaries such as property rights
Determine standards
Provide incentives and disincentives
Enforce contracts
Monitor behavior
Punish violatiors and reward cooperators
Provide information
Reduce uncertainty
Produce trust and facilitate human cooperation
Prevent free riders
Institutions can be:
 formal
 informal
 social
 political
 economic
(constitution)
(tradition)
(customs)
• The constitution defines a country’s regime
• Regime: the nature of the way a society governs
itself
• The nature of the relationship between the rulers
and the ruled
• Functional and territorial distribution of power
• Rule of Law: A constitution adds legitimacy to a
system
• Constitutionalism
□ A central concept in the U.S. and other
democracies
•
•
•
Constitutions are designed to limit the
power of government
Government officials must follow the laws
of the land
Upholding these limitations and following
these laws is a key source of legitimacy
Levels of Government
 Functional separation of power
 Executive
 Legislature
 Judiciary


Elected officials
Appointed officials (bureaucracy)
Levels of Government
• Territorial distribution of power
• Unitary versus Federal Arrangements
□
□
Unitary: Regional governments have no powers
reserved to them.
Federal: Regional governments have constitutional
status and autonomy, share powers with the central
government, have certain reserved powers of their
own and are represented in the federal (central)
government.
• Local Government
□
□
Exists in federal and unitary systems
Oversees “day-to-day” municipal governing
• Devolution transfers Powers from Central
Governments to Lower Levels
Political Institutions
 Regime (Political System) Types
 Totalitarianism









Seeks the atomization of society (Arendt)
Emphasizes mass mobilization
Official ideology
Single political party
Reliance on terror to maintain order
Control of communications
Control over the means of force in society
Command economy
North Korea, Nazi Germany
Political Institutions
 Regime (Political System) Types
 Authoritarianism






Presence of a dominant leader or small group of
leaders
Limited political participation
Degree of autonomy of society from state control
Lack of ideology
Limited control over the economy
Variants of authoritarianism
 Military, party, bureaucratic
 Syria, Egypt under Mubarak
Political Institutions
 Regime (Political System) Types
 Semiauthoritarianism/Semidemocracy

Democracy is incorporated into an otherwise
authoritarian system
Political Institutions
 Regime (Political System) Types
 Democracy




Selection of government officials through free and
fair elections
The balance of majority rule and minority
protection
Limitations on government action
Variants of democracy
 Majoritarian, consensus
 European, Westminster, American and Latin
American models
Free & Fair Elections
Free Elections:
 Individuals have the ability to vote,
 Their votes are made in secret,
 Candidates have the ability to run for office,
 Candidates have the ability to campaign for
office by providing information to voters.
Free & Fair Elections
 Fair Elections:
 Voters to have access to impartial coverage of
the campaign in the media,
 Voters to have reasonable access to polling
places,
 The vote of each eligible voter -and only of
eligible voters- to be counted,
Free & Fair Elections
 Fair Elections (Cont’d):
 The vote of each eligible voter to be counted
equally,
 The losing candidate to acknowledge and
accept the results,
 The electoral process to be administered and
monitored by an impartial body of electoral
specialists.
Look at the list of criteria associated with
free and fair elections. How do Turkish
elections measure up based on these
criteria?
 Consensus democracy: A democratic system that
unites proportional representation elections, a
multiparty system, and diffusion of power across
branches and levels of government.
 Majoritarian democracy: A democratic system
combining strong executives, few checks on the
power of the majority to pass laws and amend the
constitution, and conflictual politics between two
major political parties.
Table
5-1 p132
Topic in Countries
 The United Kingdom
 “Westminster democracy,” highly majoritarian
 Constitution is not in a single written document; a
collection of acts, legal opinions, and customs
 Despite significant devolution of powers to
regions, remains a unitary state
■
Veto Points
□ Individuals or collective political bodies whose failure
to accept a policy change results in the rejection of
the proposed change
□ Parliamentary systems generally have fewer veto
points than do presidential systems (see Chapter 6),
and unicameral (single-chamber) legislatures have
fewer veto points than bicameral ones
□ Thatcher took advantage by making significant
social welfare policy changes
Topic in Countries
 Germany
 Consensus democracy; combination of coalition
governments, federalism, and corporatism
 The constitution (Basic Law) lays out both social
welfare protections and limits on government
 “Cooperative federalism” with significant powers
for the Länder
Topic in Countries
 India
 Parliamentary democracy; system has evolved
from one-party dominant to multiparty
 Constitution is long, detailed, and heavily
amended; federal system with strong central
government
 Federal system (28 federal units), but the central
government has strong powers; three levels of
government
Topic in Countries
 Mexico
 Party-authoritarian system until recently; today an
unconsolidated democracy
 Constitution originally written in 1917; prohibits the
president and legislators from running for reelection;
provides for checks and balances that became
important when PRI lost its dominance
 Federal system with 31 federal units (estados) and one
federal district; estados dependent on central
government for revenue
• “Old Institutionalism” in political science had
focused on describing institutions
• The behavioralism movement that began in the
1950s focused on explaining political outcomes
□ David Easton proposed that all political systems
translate inputs (demands and supports) into
outputs (policy)
□ The system responds to changes in supports and
demands
□ Easton’s model pays little attention to the design of
the institutions themselves
IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
POLITICAL CHANGE IN MEXICO AND EASTON’S
SYSTEMS THEORY
• Mexico and Easton’s Approach
□
□
□
In the latter part of the twentieth century, changes in
demands and supports put pressure on the
government of Mexico
Resulted in policy changes, including the political
liberalization of the 1970s-1990s
Even without looking “inside” the Mexican system,
Easton’s framework helps explain the changes that
led to the PRI losing its dominance over Mexican
politics
Figure
5-1 p145
Topic in Countries
 Brazil
 Has alternated between democracy and military
authoritarianism; remains an unconsolidated
democracy with traditional elites maintaining
significant power
 Current constitution written in 1988; enshrined
privileges for the outgoing military government
 Federal system with 26 federal units (estados); more
power for lower levels than in Mexico; preserves
power of local elites
Topic in Countries
 Nigeria
 Combination of majoritarian and consensus democracy; has
alternated between democracy and military authoritarianism;
democratic status is increasingly unclear
 Most recent constitution written in 1999; emphasis on the
need for unity in a country with prevalent identity and
political divisions since independence
 Formerly an ethno-federal system; now more of an American-
style federal system; provides a certain degree of cross-cutting
identities among the otherwise complementary identity
divisions
Topic in Countries
 Russia
 Democratic following collapse of USSR; creeping
authoritarianism; semiauthoritarian system today
 New constitution since December 1993; Putin not
seeking third term gave some legitimacy to the
constitution in an otherwise increasingly
authoritarian system
 Federal system; since Putin came to power, central
government has increased its power versus the
regions (which now number 83)
Topic in Countries
 China
 Under Mao Zedong, often considered a totalitarian
system; since Deng Xiaoping, more like a partyauthoritarian system
 Evidence that a constitution, even one that is
somewhat followed, does not equal democracy
 Unitary state with 31 regions; some devolution, but
still not a federal system
• Theda Skocpol’s 1979 book set the stage for a new
focus on political institutions
□ Skocpol saw state institutions as an important
independent variable, not a “black box” like in
Easton’s approach
□ Led to calls to “bring the state back in”
• China is a Main Case in Skocpol’s Book
□ Collapse of Imperial System due to the state relying
on local leaders for military support
□ Her argument has relevance today, as China relies
more and more on regional and local officials
Topic in Countries
 Iran
 Theocracy; under former President Khatami,
attempts at reform; under President Ahmadinejad, a
return to hardline policies
 Constitution after the Revolution implemented a
theocracy, including the position of Supreme Leader;
overhauled in 1989 (abolished prime min.)
 Unitary state with 30 regions; powerful provincial
leaders; central government has overseen “controlled
decentralization”
• New Institutionalism
□
□
Focuses on theories that use political institutions to explain
political outcomes
Three main variants:
•
•
•
Sociological N.I.
Historical N.I.
Rational Choice N.I.
• Rational Choice New Institutionalism
□
□
Sees political institutions as the product of rational choices by
political actors
Existing rules constrain decision makers, but they may also try
to change these arrangements
IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
IRAN AND RATIONAL CHOICE NEW
INSTITUTIONALISM
• Rational Choice N.I. and Iran
□
□
Many in the West portray Iranian leaders as irrational fanatics
But, Rational Choice N.I. would see them as much more
rational, designing the rules of their theocracy to maximize the
goals of maintaining power and controlling society
• Reformers versus Hardliners
□
□
Rational Choice N.I. explains how reformers wanting to change
existing rules are constrained
It also explains the hardliners’ use of the existing rules to block
pro-reform candidates
Country
Summary 5-1a p155
Country
Summary 5-1b p156
Country
Summary 5-1c p156