Week 4: Political Systems
Presented by Team 4:
Herlinna Chung
Xindi Li
Katrina Cheney
Lina Liu
Agenda
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Overview of Almond and Hewitt’s Articles
Analysis
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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:
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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
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“Political Culture and Democracy:
Analyzing Cross-Cultural Linkages” by
Ronald Inglehart
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democracy is an attribute of nations
 Individual-level
attitudes are aggregated to the nation
level for demostation
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Inglehart finds that the linkage between political culture
and effective democracy is remarkably strong
Almond vs. Inglehart
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Factors that promotes democracy:
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political culture of tolerance, trust and other components
of self-expression values
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self-expression: emphasis on freedom,tolerance of
diversity, and participation
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Other three self expression values:
 Liberty and participation, public self-expression and
tolerance of diversity
Almond vs. Inglehart
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Article conclusion:
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Societies with higher level of interpersonal trust,
tolerance and life satisfaction are more likely to
have democratic institutions
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An effective democratic institution is only a
consequence rather than a precondition of a
democratic political culture
Almond vs. Inglehart Comparison
Same definitions of political culture
Inglehart tries to determine what type of political culture
democracy thrives in
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Almond
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Homogeneous
Secular
Freedom and security
Autonomy
Structural
differentiation
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Inglehart
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Interpersonal trust
Life satisfaction
Liberty and
participation
Public self-expression
Tolerance of diversity
Christopher Hewitt
The Effect of Political Democracy and Social
Democracy on Equality in Industrial
Societies: A Cross National Comparison
Christopher Hewitt
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Previous research
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Functionalism
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Marxism
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Industrial and technological changes lead to the
development of stratification system, not politics
Economic power determines stratification system, not
politics
Jackman
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political democracy and socialism do not have any
significant effect on social or economic equality
Christopher Hewitt
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Invalid Variables
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Proportion of GNP in social service expenditures
Intersectoral income inequality
Mobility rates
Christopher Hewitt
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Political democracy’s effect on equality
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Social Democratic Hypothesis
Simple Democratic Hypothesis
Christopher Hewitt
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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
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“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
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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
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Both agree that existing classification of the
political systems is not useful
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Hewitt criticizes systematic comparison
Both agree that political systems can pretect
freedom and provide welfare
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Hewitt’s article supplements Almond’s article
Factbook Application
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Level of democracy
Change in democracy
Level of social instability
Eg. Democratization of Iraq
Conclusion
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Political culture affects political system
National sense of trust, tolerance and life satisfaction
leads to democratic nation
Democracy affects economic development slowly
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Investment
State expenditure
Social unrest
Democracy will promote equality in the long run
References
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Almond, G. (1956). Comparative political systems. The Journal of Politics, 18(3),
391-409.
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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), 450-464.
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Inglehart, R. and Welzel, C. (2003). Political culture and democracy: Analyzing
cross-level linkages. Comparative Politics, 36(1), 61-79.
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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