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
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
Why Governments?
• Community/Nation-Building
– Political culture foster through
homogenization by government’s
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Security/Order
Protect Property and other rights
Promote Economic Efficiency and Growth
Social Justice
Protecting the Weak
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
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
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)
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Free Markets
Voluntary Coordination
Anarchists
Restricting Government exist in economy
Government Regulation has been strenghtened
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
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
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
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
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.
•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)
• 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”
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
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
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 and Comparative Politics:
•Economic Activities
•Movement of People’s
•Information Technology
•International
Governance
•EU, WTO, NATO, UN,
IMF, OECD, NAFTA
Four Major Themes in
Comparative Politics:
1. The interaction of states with
international order
2. The role of the state in economic
management
3. The pressures for more democracy
and the challenges of
democratization
4. The political impact of diverse
attachments and sources of group
identity, including class, gender,
ethnicity, and religion.
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
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
Comparative Politics:
•Seeks to identify similarities and differences
•Political institutions
•Processes
•Policies
•We call ourselves Comparativists
•Using Reliable statements
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
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
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
Theme 1: A World of States
• Interactive effects of domestic politics and
international forces
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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)
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
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?
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
Classifying Political Systems
• Qualifications for a democracies
– Political accountability
– Political competition
– Political freedom
– Political equality
• Est. Democracies
• Developing Democracies
Organization of the Text
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The Making of the Modern State
Political Economy and Development
Governance and Policy-Making
Representation and Participation
Politics in Transition