Foundations of
Comparative
Politics – Key
Concepts
Spring 2016 Review!
Power,
Sovereignty, &
Authority
Key
Concepts
Power
 The ability to direct the behavior of
others through coercion, persuasion,
or leadership
Authority
 Legal right to exercise power on behalf
of the society and/or government
Sovereignty
 Independent legal authority over a
population in a particular place
 The degree in which a state can
control its own territory and
independently make and carry out
policy
Sovereignty (cont.)
 External sovereignty—means the right to
make binding agreements (treaties) with
other states
 Internal sovereignty—means the right to
determine matters having to do with one’s
own citizens
Nation
A group of people who identify
themselves as belonging
together because of cultural,
geographic, or linguistic ties.
 Nations need not, and often do not have,
sovereignty in order to exist
State
A political system that has
sovereignty (political power)
exercised over a population in a
defined geographic territory
through a set of public institutions
Nation-State
An independent state that exists
for a single nation, it is the
ultimate goal of most nationalists
 The cases in which national identification and
sovereign political authority largely coincide
Regime
 A political system with a specific
pattern of relationship between the
state, society, markets, and the world
at large
 A pattern of organization for a
government (often described in a
constitution or supreme law)
Types of Regimes
Democracy
 A system of government by the whole
population or all the eligible members of a
state, typically through elected
representatives
 Refers to a political system in which citizens
enjoy basic rights and in which leaders are
elected in free and fair elections and
accountable under the rule of law
Substantive/Liberal Democracy
 Competitive Elections
 Civil liberties
 Rule of law
 Neutrality of the judiciary
 Open civil society
 Civilian control of the military
Democratic Deficit
 A democratic deficit occurs when ostensibly
democratic organizations or institutions in fact fall
short of fulfilling what are believed to be the
principles of democracy
Illiberal Democracy
 A procedural democratic regime where the
citizenry does not benefit from the full array of
rights and freedoms that one would expect in a
democracy
 Example: competitive elections but lack of civil
liberties and rights
Authoritarian Rule
 A system of rule in which power depends
not on popular legitimacy but on the
coercive force of the political authorities
Oligarchy
A system of governance
dominated by a small powerful
and wealthy group in a state
 Rule by few
 Important political rights are withheld from the
majority of the population
 Example: South Africa during apartheid
Military Rule
Military control of the government
by armed forces
Totalitarian Systems
 A political system in which the state
attempts to exercise total control over all
aspects of public and private life, including,
the economy, culture, education, and social
organizations, through an integrated
system of ideological, economic and
political control
 Usually rely on terror as a means to exercise
power
Totalitarian Systems (cont.)
 Government systems in which the
government constricts rights and privacy of
its citizens in a severe manner
 Most authoritarian and totalitarian regimes
have lost legitimacy today
Theocracy
 A state dominated by the clergy, who rule
on the grounds that they are the only
interpreters of God’s will and law
Government
 The part of the state with legitimate
public authority
 The group of people and organizations
that hold political authority in a state
at any one time
Legitimacy
 Defined as citizens belief in the government’s right to rule
 IT IS THE VIEW OF THE GOVERNMENT FROM THE BOTTOM UP!—THE
PEOPLE’S VIEW OF THEIR GOVERNMENT
 A belief that a regime is a proper one and that the government has the right
to exercise power
 In the contemporary world, a state is said to possess legitimacy when it
enjoys consent of the governed, which usually involves democratic
procedures and the attempt to evenly distribute resources
 Legitimacy of the political system also provides foundation for a
successful political process
 Legitimacy is based on different things in different countries
Rational-Legal
 Legitimacy based on well-established laws and
procedures
 Code Law: based on written rules/codes of law
(China, Mexico, Russia)
 Common Law: based on tradition, past
practices, and legal precedents (Britain)
Constitution
 A supreme law that defines the structure of
a nation-state’s regime and the legal
processes governments must follow
 When followed, this establishes rule of law
 Needn’t be one document
 Contains a set of decision rules
Rule of Law
 A governance system operating predictably
under a known and transparent set of
procedural rules (laws)
 Also know as, constitutionalism
 In all disputes, no matter how important or
influential the person is, “the piece of paper
wins!”
Charismatic Legitimacy
 A form of authority based on the general
population’s personal attachment to a
particular leader
Political
Structures &
Institutions
Key
Concepts
Supranational Organizations
Organizations in which nations
are not totally sovereign actors
 Examples:
 NATO
 European Union
 NAFTA
 OPEC
 United Nations
Three Basic Geographic
Distributions of Power
1. Unitary System
2. Confederal System
3. Federal System
The difference between the three has to do with how
power is distributed over a geographic area
Unitary State
Concentration of political power in
a central government as opposed
to federalism
 EX: The United Kingdom, Iran, China
Devolution
 A process in a unitary system of delegating
some decision making to local public bodies
 The UK is doing this with Scotland and Wales.
 This is also a sign of fragmentation
 Usually done to reverse or quell separatist
movements
 Could be described as moving from a unitary
system to a federal system
Confederal System
A system of government that
spreads power among many subunits (such as states), and has a
weak central government
Ex: European Union
Federal System
 A system of governance in which political
authority is shared between the national
government and regional or state
governments
 EX: The United States, Mexico, Nigeria,
Russia (Asymmetric)
How Devolution Differs
From Federalism:
 Power can be taken away in a unitary system
(by the central government)
 Subnational government’s powers are not
constitutionally protected
 In a unitary system decentralization is not
necessarily symmetrical
 Local legislature/government can be dissolved
in unitary systems but not in federal systems
Three Basic Forms of
Governments
1. Parliamentary System
2. Presidential System
3. Mixed Presidential-Parliamentary
System
The difference between the three has to do with the origins of
power and the relationship between the executive branch
and the other branches of government
Parliamentary System
 A system of governance in which the head of government
is chosen by and serves at the pleasure of the legislature
 The legislature rules over all!
 Prime Minister is NOT directly elected by people , but by the legislature
 Because the prime minister and the cabinet are also leaders of the
majority party in the legislature, no separation of powers exists
between executive and legislative branches—instead they are fused
together
 Fusion of Power!
 Executive power is separated between Head of Government (PM) and
the Head of State (royalty, president)
Parliamentary System
 Characteristics:
 High Party Discipline
 Majority party almost always gets its
policies implemented
 Cabinet is VERY powerful—initiates
legislation and makes policy
 No fixed terms of office—PM must call for
election or as the result of a vote of no
confidence
Fusion of Powers
 A system of governance in which authority of
government is concentrated in one body
 The executive branch is born of the legislative
branch of government
 In Britain, Parliament is the supreme legislative,
executive, and judicial authority
 Common pattern in parliamentary systems
Vote of Confidence
 A vote in parliament expressing support for
a government
 A government losing a vote of confidence is
often expected to resign
Presidential System
 An electoral system where citizens vote for
legislative representatives as well as for executive
branch leaders, and two branches function with
separation of powers
 The chief executive is elected in a national ballot
and is independent of the legislative branch
 The roles of the head of state and head of
government are given to one person—the president
 Three branches of government are therefore
separate from one another and can check each
other’s power
Presidential System
 Characteristics:
 Separation of Power
 Power shared equally between legislature
and executive
 Lower party discipline
 Have fixed terms
 Since power is diffused, policymaking
process is slowed because one branch
may question decision made by other
groups
Separation of Power
 An organization of political institutions
within the state in which the executive,
legislature, and judiciary have autonomous
powers and no branch dominates the others
 Common pattern in presidential systems
Checks and Balances
 A governmental system of divided
authority in which coequal branches can
restrain each other’s actions
Impeachment
 The process provided legislatures in most
presidential systems that provides for the
removal of presidents before their term is
up, but typically only if they are guilty of
serious criminal or other wrong doing
Mixed Presidential
Parliamentary System
 A democracy that has some characteristics of a
presidential system and some characteristics
of a parliamentary system
 Also referred to as semi-presidential
 System where a prime minister coexists with a
president who is directly elected by the people
and who holds a significant degree of power
 Russia is perfect example of powerful president
Institutions
 In order to carry out public policies, government
structures such as parliaments, bureaucracies, and
administrative agencies perform functions, which in
turn enable the government to formulate, implement,
and enforce policies
 There are many types of institutions: parliaments,
congresses, administrative agencies, political parties,
interest groups, legislatures
Key Parts of All Governments
1. Executive
2. Legislature
3. Judiciary
4. Bureaucracy
All of AP6 countries have these structures, how they
function varies greatly
Executive
 The executive office carries out the laws
and policies of the state
 The chief executive is the most important
person in the policymaking process,
initiating new policies and playing an
important role in their adoption
 Presidential system has veto power, in
parliamentary system does not
 Central authority on in foreign policy
Head of State
 The head of state is a role that symbolizes
the and represents the people, both
nationally and internationally, and may or
may not have any real policy making power
 The chief public representative of a state
 Commonly royalty or a president
 KEY POINT: In presidential systems the
president is both the head of government
and the head of state
Head of Government
 The office and the person occupying the office charged
with leading the operation of a government
 The head of government deals with the everyday tasks
of running the state and usually directs the activities of
other members of the executive branch
 In Britain, the Queen is Head of State and the Prime Minister is
the Head of Government
 In the U.S., the president is both head of government an head of
state
Cabinet
 Refers to the group of leaders (often called “ministers” or
“secretaries”) of all major departments (sometimes called
“ministries”) into which the executive branch is divided
 The cabinet is the most important decision-making body in most political
systems
 In parliamentary systems the cabinet is the key organization that forms policy
proposals
 The cabinet in parliamentary systems is typically selected by the head of
government & can be dismissed when a government loses a vote of confidence
 In presidential systems, the cabinet is selected by and can be dismissed by the
president
Legislature
 The legislative is the branch of
government charged with making laws
 Either bicameral or unicameral
Bicameral Legislature
 A legislature with two houses with decision
making power
 Most common form of legislature
 Usually there is an “upper” and “lower” house
 Found almost always in federal systems
 EX: UK (House of Lords & House of Commons); Russia
(Federation Council & Duma); Mexico (Senate & Chamber
of Deputies); Nigeria (Senate & House of Reps)
Unicameral Legislature
 A legislature with only one house with
decision making power
 Examples: China (The National
People’s Congress), Iran (Majles)
Judicial Review
 The power of the judiciary to rule on
whether laws and government policies
are consistent with the constitution or
existing laws
Bureaucracy
 Bureaucracies consist of agencies that
generally implement government policy
 In democracies provide continuity over time
 In authoritarian regimes, head of gov’t
exercises control; patronage system
 Because of the complexity of legislation,
bureaucracies often play a quasi legislative
role in making policy
 Bureaucrats are the experts in their field
Bureaucracy
 Basic characteristics of:
 Non-elected positions—appointed
 Impersonal, efficient structures, but become
inefficient as they grow
 Formal qualifications for jobs necessary
 Hierarchical organization
Civil Service
 A system of carefully describing tasks involved in
performing government jobs, evaluating
applicants for those jobs (civil service exams), and
hiring people from among those applicants based
on skills and experience rather than political
factors
 These are bureaucrats (internally) and diplomats
(externally)
Electoral
Systems &
Party Systems
Key
Concepts
Electoral System
 A legal system for making democratic choices
 Create two-party, three-party, multiparty systems
 Rules by which elections are conducted
 Determine who can vote, how people vote, and how the
votes get counted
 Two Main Kinds of Systems
1.
Competitive
1.
2.
2.
Single Member District Plurality (SMDP) and (First-Past-the-Post)
Proportional Representation (PR)
Authoritarian
Plurality
 The number of votes cast for a candidate
who receives more than any other
candidate but does not receive an absolute
majority
 “More than anyone else, but under 50%.”
Single Member District Plurality
 An electoral system in which candidates run for a single seat from a
specific geographic districts
 An electoral system in which voters chose an individual running for
office in a single legislative district (also called “first past the post“)
*Example: U.K. and United States
 The winner is the person who receives the MOST votes, whether or
NOT that is a majority
 Increase the likelihood of a two-party state
 Common in the United States, rarely used in continental Europe or in
Latin America
 A variation on this is the majority runoff system (or double ballot)
First-Past-the-Post
 An electoral system in which winners are
determined by which candidate receives the
largest number of votes (regardless of
whether or not a majority is received)
 SAME as Single Member District Plurality!
Two (Double) Ballot System
 An electoral system where two rounds of
voting may take places to ensure a majority
winner
 Several candidates my be on first ballot, if
no majority is chose, second ballot is runoff of top two vote getters
 Also called the majority runoff system
Proportional Representation (PR)
 An electoral system in which voters select parties rather
than individual candidates and parties are represented
in legislatures in proportion to the shares of votes they
win
 Representatives are elected based on the proportion of the
electorate that voted for them
 Encourages a multi-party system
 Closed-list PR system: voters don’t know people chosen by party
 Open-list PR System: voters chose from list of candidates given
by parties
Proportional Representation (PR)
 How Proportional Representation system works:
 A country is divided into a few large sections
 The competing parties offer lists of candidates
 The number of legislative representatives a party wins
depends on the overall proportion of the votes it receives
 Sometimes parties must meet a minimum threshold of
votes in order to receive any seats at all (5% or 7%)
 KEY POINT: PR system leads to multiparty legislatures
 (Exception: Russia’s raising of threshold to 7% has resulted
in less representation of regional parties)
Minimum Winning Threshold
 The minimum percentage of votes a party
must receive in order to be seated in a
legislature
 Sometimes parties must meet a minimum
threshold of votes in order to receive any
seats at all (5% or 7%)
Duverger’s Law
 Maurice Duverger: French political scientist
 States that there is a systematic relationship between
electoral systems and party systems, so that singlemember district plurality (SMDP) election systems (“first
past the post”) tend to create two-party systems in the
legislature, while proportional representation (PR)
electoral systems generate multiparty systems
 SMDP (first past the post) = Two Party System
 Proportional Representation = Multiparty System
Duverger’s Law
 Mechanical Effect: In SMDP systems, second and third
place finishers in each district get NO representation in
legislature
 Psychological Effect: In SMDP, people don’t want to vote
for a known loser, so they chose their second or third
choice, so as to block their worst case scenario
 Strategic Voting: The act of voting for your second or third
preference to avoid an even worse case scenario
 Example: Voting Democrat instead of Green, so as to avoid
Republicans gaining seats in legislature (Strategic voting)
Competitive Party
Systems
 Political systems in which parties can form and compete freely
 The role of competitive parties in interest aggregation depends
on the type of party system
 Interest aggregation in a competitive party system occurs in
several stages
 Parties develop positions that they believe are backed by a large block of
voters
 In a two party system, it is important for a party to win the majority, so
targeting the center of the electorate is often necessary to win enough
votes.
 In systems with many parties, each party seeks a distinctive and cohesive
electoral base, meaning that party policies may reflect the preferences of
specific groups
Multiparty System
 A party system with several important
political parties, none of which
generally gains a majority of the seats
in the national
 Mexico, Nigeria
Two-Party System
 A party system in which two main
parties compete for majority control of
the government
 Small parties may exist but play no
significant role in national electoral
outcomes
 UK
One-Party Dominant System
 A party system in which one large
party directs the political system, but
small parties exist and may compete in
elections
 Russia (& Mexico in the past under the
PRI)
One-Party System
 A party system in which one political
party controls the government and
voters have no option to choose an
opposition party (China)
Elite Recruitment
 Refers to the selection of people for
political activity and government offices
 In a democracy, competitive elections play
a major role in political recruitment
 In authoritarian systems, recruitment may
be dominated by a single party, as in
China, or unelected religious leaders, as in
Iran
Referendum
A general vote by the electorate on
a single political question that has
been referred to them for a direct
decision
Interest Articulation
 The methods by which citizens and
groups can express their desires and
make demands upon government
(political participation, lobbying,
protests, etc.)
 Involves individuals and groups expressing their
needs and demands
Interest Aggregation
 Ways in which demands of citizens and
groups are combined into proposed policy
packages (leadership, political parties, etc)
Interest Articulation
 The most common form is voting in an election—
found in democracies and totalitarian regimes
 Other forms of interest articulation: community
groups, political groups, protests, any from of group
which articulates its opinion to the government
 In large, established political systems, formal interest
groups are a primary means of articulating political
interests
 As societies become more complex and scope of
government grows, quantity and methods to
articulate public interests have grown as well
Pluralist Interest Group
Systems
 Multiple groups may represent a single
society interest.
 There is a clear separation between interest
groups and the government
 Group membership is voluntary and limited
 Groups often have a loose or decentralized
organizational structure
 United States is perfect example
Corporatism
 A state in which interest groups become an
institutional part of the political structure
 HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BUSINESS! ZERO! GET
THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND!
Neo-Corporatist Interest
Group Systems
 A single peak association normally represents each
societal interest
 Membership in the peak association is often
compulsory and nearly universal
 Peak associations are centrally organized and direct
the actions of their members
 Interest groups are often systematically involved in
making and implementing policy
 Key Point: Interest group part of policy process!
Controlled Interest Group
Systems
 There is a single group for each social sector
 Membership is often compulsory
 Each group is normally hierarchically organized
 Groups are controlled by the government or its
agents in order to mobilize support for
government policy (Communism!)
 Key Point: Groups exist to facilitate government
control of society!
Patron/Client Networks
 A usually informal alliance between a person
holding power and less powerful or lower
status people
 The powerful patron provides power, status,
jobs, land, goods, and/or protection in
exchange for loyalty and political support
 Also: Clientelism, Prebendalism
Citizens,
Society, &
the State
Key
Concepts
Ethnicity
 Refers to a group who share a belief in their
common descent and common shared traditions
 Ethnic groups have been the source of a large
number of political conflicts around the world
 Language can be a source of social division that
may or may not be associated with ethnicity
Political Cleavages
 Factors that separate groups within a society
 May be based on ethnicity, religion, social class, region,
etc
 The wider and deeper the cleavages, the less unified the
society
 Coinciding Cleavages: cleavages which reinforce each
other (pit the same people against each other on many
different issues)
 Cross-cutting Cleavages: when the groups that are divided
share a common interest on one or more issues
Political Culture
 The collection of history, values, beliefs,
assumptions, attitudes, traditions, and
symbols that define and influence political
behavior within a state
 The more a political culture is shared, the
easier it is to live in peaceful coexistence
and engage in activities for mutual gain,
such as commerce
Consensual Political
Culture
 Citizens tend to agree on the
appropriate means of making political
decisions and to agree on the major
problems facing society and how to
solve them
Conflictual Political Culture
 The citizens are sharply divided, often on
both the legitimacy of the regime and
solutions to major problems
 When a country is deeply divided in political
attitudes, distinctive political subcultures
may develop.
Political Efficacy
 Political efficacy is a citizen’s belief that he
or she can understand and influence
government or political affairs
 It indicates a citizens' faith and trust in
government and their own belief that they
can understand and influence political
affairs
Transparency
Transparent government operates
openly
More transparent, less corruption
Social Capital
 Refers to skills, norms, and networks
that are a part of civil society and
facilitate the ability to solve economic
and political problems
Political Socialization
 How citizens learn about politics in their
country – it sticks!!
 Involves schools, families, communications,
media, religious organizations, and all the
various political structures that develop,
reinforce, and transform the political
culture, the attitudes of political
significance in the society
Political Protest
 Can also focus political interests and can have
influence on public policy
 Tend to be high-pressure activities that can both
mobilize the public and pressure political elites
 Grassroots politics, or people working together to
address a common problem, represents an other
Civil Society
 Is a society in which people are involved in social and
political interactions free of state control or
regulation
 Refers to the space occupied by voluntary
associations outside of state control
 THE GOVERNMENT DECIDES! NOT THE CITIZENS!
 For example, professional associations, trade unions,
student groups, women’s groups, religious bodies
and other voluntary association groups
Civil Society
 Any type of citizen-organized group is considered
to be a part of civil society
 This includes community groups, voluntary
organizations, and religious groups
 It could also include a group that is not so civil,
like an anti-government group.
 Civil society is linked to globalization, as groups
connect to other groups in the global community,
such as groups within the environmental
movement
Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs)
 Global civil society
 Examples: Doctors Without Borders,
Amnesty International, Red Cross
Post Materialist Values
 Beliefs in the importance of policy goals
beyond one’s immediate self-interest, as well
as one’s prosperity and security
 Examples: Environmentalism and cultural
diversity
 Citizens in industrialized democracies are more likely to
have “higher order” concerns, such as improving
education and the environment
 Another major trend in political culture
Political &
Economic
Change
Key
Concepts
Reform
Method of changing some of the
methods that political/economic
leaders use to reach goals that
society generally accepts
Does not advocate overthrowing
basic institutions
Revolution
 A process by which a political regime
is overthrown and replaced because
of a broad popular support and
participation in the process
 A forcible overthrow of a government
or social order for a new system
Coup D’etat
A forceful replacement of a
regime or a government by a
small elite group or groups
Use of force, often by military
Democratization
The spread of representative
governments to more countries
and the process of making
governments more
representative
Political Liberalization
Process by which a state goes
from procedural democracy to
substantive democracy
Market Economy
Economy in which laws of supply
and demand determine
allocation of resources
Private ownership of
resources/property
Command Economy
Economy in which the state owns
most economic resources and
makes all major economic
decisions
Economic Liberalization
Process of limiting the power of
the state over private property
and market forces
Privatization
Transfer of state-owned property
to private ownership
Neoliberalism
 Term used to describe government
policies aiming to promote free
competition among business firms
within the market
 Includes privatization, reducing
trade barriers, balancing
government budgets, and reducing
social spending
Import Substitution
Industrialization
Employs high tariffs to protect
locally produced goods from
foreign competition, govt
ownership of key industries, govt
subsidies to domestic industries
Structural Adjustment
Programs
World Bank programs which offer
financial and management aid to
poor countries while demanding
privatization, trade
liberalization, and governmental
fiscal restraint
Globalization
The increasing
interconnectedness and
interdependence of people,
cultures, economies, and nationstates facilitated by technology,
trade, and cultural diffusion
Fragmentation
The process or state of
breaking or being broken into
small or separate parts
Modernization
 The major cultural trend that has
transformed the world is modernization
 World wide more people are moving to
cities and are exposed to modern political
cultures, which have an impact on citizens’
attitudes
Modernization Theory
 The view that a country’s move from
underdevelopment to modernization can be
understood from and modeled after
development in the West
Public Policy
Key
Concepts
Policymaking
 Policymaking is the conversion of social
interest and demands into authoritative
public decisions
 Rules usually set by constitution
Policy Implementation
 The carrying out and enforcement of public
policies
Rentier State
A country that obtains much of its
revenue from the export of oil or
other natural resources
Impact: Government doesn’t
have to be accountable to citizens
for income
Rent-seeking
The practice of political leaders
who, for the purposes of remaining
in a position of power, “rent”
public access (resources or tax
support services) to patrons who
profit from those public assets
Economic Indicators
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
 All the goods and services produced
by a country’s economy in a given
year, excluding income earned
outside country
GNP
 Gross National Product
 GNP is the total economic output of a
country per person
 Like GDP, but also includes income citizens
earned outside the country
 Used to compare the economic status of a
country
Purchasing Power Parity
(PPP)
A different measure of the
economic status of a country, and
it takes into account differences in
price levels from one country to
another
GINI Index
Measures the amount of economic
inequality in a society
Human Development
Index (HDI)
Measures the well-being of a
country’s people by factoring in
adult literacy, life expectancy,
educational enrollment and GDP
Welfare State
A state which provides a wide
array of social services to its
members
Freedom House
Measures political rights & civil
liberties
Free, Partly Free, Not Free