Law, Constitution, Federalism

• law-bounded state
– codified limits on exercise of power and predictability
– legal monism: alternative sources of rules eliminated by modern states
• Rule by law
– creating laws to regulate behaviour
• Rule of law
– Everyone expected to obey the law

• The specific legal document that lays down:
– the basic institutions of state
– procedures for changing them
– basic rights and obligations of citizens
• Written or unwritten

• Three branches of state
– The executive: President and/or the government
– The legislative: The Congress, Assembly...
– The judiciary: Court system

• Constitutions contain a list of fundamental rights of citizens
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

• Territorial decentralization of power
• Constitutional division of power among different authorities at the central and local levels
• Two-chamber parliament
• Constitutional court
• The risk of civil wars
• The risk of paralysis

• Deep ethnic and sectarian cleavages among people
• Manage diversity through power-sharing
– Grand coalitions representing all the main communities
– Autonomy of communities in specific policy areas
– Minority vetoes applied
• Requires small states
• Temporary solution

• Voting for obtaining the majority view
• How? Election systems decisive
4
6
No. Of voters 1st choice
8 A
4
B
C
C
A
B
2nd choice
B
A
C
A
3rd choice
C
B

• Plurality or first-past-the-post system
• Whoever gets more votes wins
• Individuals elected rather than party lists
• Favours majority governments
• Can exclude minorities
• Possibility of wasted votes discourage voters

• Proportional Representation
• Priority is representing public opinion in general
• Favours minorities and small parties
• Tend to lead to coalition governments

• Alternative member model/ mixed member proportional representation
– Half of the seats plurality, half proportional
• Two rounds/ runoff voting
– When the first round does not produce over 50%
– In the second round two strongest candidates are up for vote again

• Democracy -> Parliaments (legislatures)
• Representational function
• Voice of societal groups
• Parliamentary immunity
• Constituencies
• Same number of reps for big and small states or proportional?

• Governmental function
• Forming government, making policy
• Parliamentary system (more than one party)
– The parliament decides on the head of government
– The parliament elected by the people
• Presidential system (winner takes all)
– The head of state (president) either serves as the head of government or chooses the head of government
– Both President and Parliament elected by the people

• Governmental function (cont’d)
• Legislation
– Executive (President/ Government) source of legislation
– In Europe, the EU Commission is the source
– Parliaments debate and vote on bills
• Ensuring accountability
– Vote of no confidence
– Impeachment

• Unicameral/Bicameral
– Influence of tradition (UK House of Lords)
– Federalism (different levels of government represented)
– Better legislation (two houses agreement)
• Committees (permanent or ad hoc)

• 5 percent rule:
• Electoral threshold for parties to enter the
Bundestag is 5% of the votes
• Constructive vote of no confidence
• Bundestag can bring down the chancellor (the prime minister) by a vote of no confidence. But they have to vote for the replacement too

• Constitution aims to limit the ability of the federal government to control citizens’ lives through:
– Federalism: federal government, states can limit each others actions
– Checks and balances (executive, judicial, legislative) can limit each others powers

• Economic policymaking
• Choosing economic objectives
• How the state and economy interact.
– Economy influencing government:
• The relationship between economic growth and electoral success.
– Government influencing economy:
• The level of state intervention in economy.

• People’s concerns boil down to:
– Prosperity and economic growth (performance)
– How economic benefits are spread (distribution)

• Increase in Gross Domestic Product:
– Does the GDP (total amount of all economic transactions in the state) increase?

• Increase in GDP PER CAPITA!
– Does the GDP divided by the number of people in the country increase?

• GDP not designed to be comprehensive measures of prosperity and well-being.
• We need adequate indicators to address global challenges of the 21 st century such as
– climate change, poverty, resource depletion, health and quality of life.

Human Development Index- Inequality
Higher the number higher the inequality

• Natural resources
• Policies and politics
– Rent
– Strategies
• Import-substitution industrialisation
– State discouraging imports
– Protecting domestic industries
• Export-led growth
– State guiding investment
– Protecting domestic industries
– National champions pushed to export

Economic Policy II: controlling inflation and unemployment
• Inflation: general rise in prices
– Too much money available, short supply of goods
– Governments can fight by increasing interest rates
– The amount of money declines
– Economic activity declines
• Unemployment rises in the short term

• How to fight unemployment?
– Creating jobs through short-term government projects
• How to ensure that will remain short-term?
– Training displaced workers for new jobs
• Does not prevent all unemployment

Economic Policy III: Managing distribution
• Government can distribute resources for greater equality by:
– Subsidies and aids for the poor
– Progressive taxation

• Tool: Independent central banks
• Set up by the states, to coordinate policies of private banks and control interest rates
– US Federal Reserve, German Bundesbank, etc.
• Why independence?
– Anti-inflation policies are unpopular policies
• How independent?
– Laws
– Transparency of its work

• Limit: Corruption
• Bribes, state capture, personal gain, etc.
• Especially at times of major transition
– Russia- oligarchs
– China- anti-corruption policies

• Free market and laissez-faire policies
• BUT with important exceptions:
– Agricultural subsidies (minimum price and export subsidies)
– Historically used military power to maintain markets
• Distribution of income is unequal
• In 2006 1 in 7 Americans did not have health insurance  Obama reform
• Regressive social security tax

Example: German Political Economy
• Framework regulation of the market
– Guidelines set by the state, market forces operate freely
• High-wage, skilled labour through vocational training
• Trade surplus (usually)
• Bundesbank prioritized anti-inflationary policies partly due to the 1920s inflationary experience.
• Generous welfare spending

• Origins: Independently elected representatives trying to find ways to cooperate in passing legislation (1700s)
• Structures and facilitates legislation process
– Groups are less time-consuming
– Groups are more predictable
– Groups are more reliable

• Industrialization led to class divisions between capital and labor (1850s->)
– Mass parties
• Since WWII (1945->): catch-all parties aiming to attract the median voter
• A political party is an institution that seeks influence in a state often by occupying the government, and usually consists of more than a single interest in the society.

• Legitimation of the political system
• Mobilization of citizens
• Representation
• Structuring the popular vote
• Aggregation of diverse interests
• Political competition and providing leaders for offices
• Formulation of policy programmes

• Liberal: free market, civil and political rights, equality, minimal state intervention
• Conservative: traditional form of social relations, hierarchy, free market
• Christian democrats: Christianity, traditional family values, free market, state spending on welfare
• Social Democrats: Achieving workers’ control through democratic elections initially. Today, free market+state welfare

• Communist: Achieving workers’ control through revolution, attached to Communist International in Moscow
• Regional Parties: Interests of a region, usually want independence
• Environmental Parties: Skeptical of free market, social justice.
• Nationalist parties: National values, independence
• Islamic Parties: Based on Islamic values or Islamic
Law

Civil Society
– include all non-market and non-state organizations outside of the family
– Ex: village associations, environmental groups, women’s rights groups, faith-based organizations, labour unions, professional associations, independent research institutes and the not-forprofit media.

• Popular use at the end of the 1980s
– Waves of people’s protests against communism in
Eastern Europe  bring down Soviet Union in
1991
• Is civil society always a force for good?
– How civil?
– GONGOs?
– Mafia organizations?
• How independent from the state?

• Those organisations in civil society that are formed to promote a particular interest in the political system.

• Mearsheimer and Walt: Israel Lobby in the
USA
– Israel is the largest recipient of US financial assistance in total since World War Two, to the tune of well over $140 billion (in 2004 dollars)
– Since 1982, the US has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel.
– the US gives Israel access to intelligence it denies to its other allies

• The Israel Lobby: organisations and individuals pressuring the US government to a pro-Israel policy
• Lobby leaders coordinate policies to advance with
Israeli government.
• The US form of government offers activists many ways of influencing the policy process
– elected representatives and members of the executive branch, make campaign contributions, vote in elections, try to mould public opinion
– Weak pro-Arab interest groups

• Influence perceptions of politics and the state
– CNN effect
• Upholds freedom of speech and expression
• New communication technologies create a new public space for civil society activity:
– Help people organize easily
– Allow diverse views to be heard
• Twitter and facebook? Identi.ca?
– Offer possible transformation of decision-making

• https://identi.ca/