Theories of Political Science
Dr. Sujian Guo
San Francisco State Unversity
Email: sguo@sfsu.edu
http://bss.sfsu.edu/sguo
Comparative Political Institutions
• What is the political institution? A political
institution is a structure with established and
important functions to perform, well-defined roles
for carrying out those functions, and a clear set of
rules for governing the relationships between the
people who occupy those roles. (An organization
is a group of individuals working together to
undertake actions and achieve certain goals. A
system is a structure all of whose parts are
interrelated with one another, having behavioral
regularities and identity over time.)
For example:
U.S. Executive
Foreign policy making
Civil services
Presidency
Bureaucracy
George W. Bush
A group of individuals/officials/offices
Where are the political institutions?
Political Institutions (legislatures, executives, and judiciaries)
Demand
Decisions
Input
Output
Support
Policies/rules/
Feedback
Environment (culture, religions, ethnics, and international factors, etc.)
The Basic Structures of Government
•
Unitary systems: unitary systems have the concentration of power
in the central government and the central government has a
significant control over local authorities. A unitary government
usually touches people’s daily lives in more ways than a federal
government would. Ex. In France, elementary school curricula are
drawn up by the central ministry of education in Paris in order to
reduce regional differences.
•
Federal systems: federal systems have the decentralization of
power while at the same time allowing the federal government
enough power to run the country. The key of a federal system is that,
first, local governments have a considerable degree of autonomy
and authority in policy making and their powers cannot be easily
overridden by the federal governments, and second, local
governments have equal representation at the national legislative
level.
The Basic Structures of Government
•
Legislature: the main purposes and functions of legislative bodies are to formulate
the laws or make the rules that govern society. Legislatures initiate laws, propose
constitutional amendments, ratify treaties, control tax revenues, and act as a check
on the other branches of government.
•
Executive: the main purpose or function of executive bodies is the execution and
enforcement of the laws enacted by the legislature. Executive bodies also make and
execute public policy decisions, perform administrative leadership, and provide civil
services, regulations, and “housekeeping.” Executive bodies play a variety of
governmental roles in running the country on the daily basis, because the executive
branch of government consists of the head of government and the head of state, the
cabinet, and the bureaucracy.
•
Judiciary: the main purpose of judicial bodies is to handle day-to-day
administration of the law, determine and clarify the meaning of laws and rules,
mandate penalties for violations of laws, review the constitutionality of legislative
enactments, ensure that the terms of the Constitution is not violated, and act as a
check on the other branches of government.
•
Constitution: can be defined as the body of fundamental laws, customs, and
conventions that define the composition and powers of political institutions and that
regulate the relations of the various political institutions to one another and to the
private citizens.
The United States vs. Great Britain:
Two Models Compared
1.
Constitution: US constitution is “documentary,” and basic
principles and relationships of three powers are clearly defined
and regulated in written for them to follow. UK constitution is
“non-documentary,” with a collection of custom, tradition, rules
of parliamentary performance, and nothing in written to
regulate the power structure and the ruling principle.
2.
Parliamentary, executive, and judicial relationships: US political
system is based upon separation of powers which have checks
and balances on each other, whereas UK political system is
based on the fusion of powers, the head of executive power is the
leader of the majority party in the parliamentary, and carries
out the policy of the majority party.
The United States vs. Great Britain:
Two Models Compared
3. Power structure: US is federal system, the
state power protected by the constitution,
and the states are more autonomous,
whereas UK is unitary system, local
governments and their policies are
controlled by the central government and
can be modified by the central government
on the nationwide base.
The United States vs. Great Britain:
Two Models Compared
4. Executive leadership: (1) UK executive cabinet is responsible to the
parliament, in contrast to US President’s cabinet which is responsible
to the President himself. It is the UK cabinet to make policy decision,
whereas in contrast in US it is the president to make policy decision; (2)
UK bureaucracies are easier to dominate the policy-making in contrast
to their counterparts in US, since the UK cabinet offices and civil
services play a more significant role in policy making than their
counterparts in US; (3) UK government’s legislative proposals or bills
would be almost enacted into laws and the government can get what it
wants since the prime minister is the leader of the majority party, with
a highly party discipline, whereas US government’s legislative
proposals or bills would face great challenges by the congress since the
president is not the representative of any party policy, and no party
discipline constrain the political behavior of party members in the
parliamentary; (4) UK parliament has very weak check on the
executive, whereas US congress has a real check on the executive.
The United States vs. Great Britain:
Two Models Compared
5. How to get power. UK prime minister is elected
by the majority party in the parliamentary, in
contrast to US president who is popularly
elected.
6. UK parliament has upper house and low house,
and the upper house is composed of peers who
serve British crown, which has nominal power
in decision-making, whereas US has senate and
congress, both of which has effective power in
decision-making.
France: a Hybrid Model
1. A mix of US presidential and UK
parliamentary systems, with head of the
state and head of the government in two
persons. French president is more
concerned with foreign policy, appoints
prime minister, while prime minister is
more concerned with domestic affairs,
and picks the members of cabinet and
controls the bureaucracy.
France: a Hybrid Model
2. Strong president and weak parliament. French president has great
power at his disposal that no US presidents ever have. French president
is 7-year term, but with no limit on terms; president is endorsed with
an emergency power that allows him to rule by decree for 6 months;
president can dissolve the parliament; president appoints prime
minister and have a say in the composition of the cabinet. French
parliament is relatively weaker than its counterpart in US, because the
role of the French parliament has been reduced significantly in the 5th
Republic as legislations are narrowed down and the power of
parliament in spending or raising money is weaker than the 4th
Republic. The parliament often does little more than establish “general
principles” and leave them to the government to fill in the details by
decree. The parliamentary standing committees are narrowed down to
only 6, and work within limited period of time and are forbidden to
produce “counter-bills” to government bills.
France: a Hybrid Model
3. Power structure. France is a traditionally centralized
government with a unitary system. National
government is divided in 94 departments, below which
there are thousands of communes, whose
responsibilities can be defined and modified at the will
of the national government. Decision making power is
highly centralized. Bureaucracies play a much more
significant role than US and UK, and are recruited
from upper classes and well trained, provided by a
large number of institutions specialized in training
experts and specialists for government offices and civil
services. They have a reputation of more efficiency.
France: a Hybrid Model
4. France has multiple-party system similar to UK but
different from US. However, French political parties have
different families at left/center/right wings, emphasizing
the interests of particular classes, which often lead to no
single dominant party and more government turnovers.
Parties are both ideological driven and issue-specific
oriented; issues are more debated. France has a long
ideological tradition and is more oriented to ideologies in
elections, while Americans tend not define political parties
in terms of ideology and not to vote in terms of particular
ideological orientation.
Germany
1. Basic law is the name of German postwar new constitution, which
creates a political arrangement to prevent those anti-democratic
political parties from coming into politics, prevent centralization of
government, protect political and civil rights, forbidden the
discrimination of all kinds. German law is a codified law, based on
Roman law.
2. Legislative: lower house, “Bundestag,” is popularly elected, and
has the power to dismiss the head of executive, “chancellor,” while
upper house, “Bundesrat,” is not popularly elected but composed
of the heads of the state governments, “L nder”
(political/geographical districts), which represent the interests of
the states in the national policymaking process, but not in the
partisan political ground.
Germany
3. Executive: a divided executive, with head of the state and head of the
government in two different persons, but it is closer to UK than to
France, since the president, like British Queen, is largely ceremonial,
and serves a symbolic function. The chancellor, similar to UK prime
minister, is the chief executive responsible for government policies and
responsible to the parliament, and the leader of the majority party in
the lower house of parliament. If no one party enjoys an absolute
majority, a coalition government will be formed and choose the
chancellor. The chancellor can be dismissed by parliamentary vote of
“no confidence.”
4. Parliamentary system is a combination of two electoral systems – a
proportional system and a plurality system – one half of the
parliamentary delegates are chosen on the proportional basis while the
other half are elected on the plurality basis. The voters have two ballots
– one for a district candidate, and the other for a party.
Germany
5. Power structure: Germany is a federal system, composed of
16 states, “L nder,” which serve as a permanent check on
the power of the center. However, German federalism has a
number of unified features that make the states more
powerful than American states and make the policy
implementation function remarkably well. (i) state
governments have their extensive inputs into the nationallevel legislative process their membership in the
Bundesrat; (ii) the laws and rules of procedure for state
governments are unified and standardized, unlike
American federalism; (iii) differences between resources
and expenditures in different states are made up by the
system of tax redistribution or revenue sharing, and the
states receive a large proportion of taxes.
Russia
1. The 1993 constitution outlines a presidential system of government,
with a dual executive, with the head of state and the head of
government in two different persons. It is more similar to France in
many respects, such as strong president, weak parliament, and
multiparty system, but the president has far greater powers than his
French counterparts. The president is the head of state and
commander-in-chief, and has the power to issue edicts, declare war,
declare a state of emergency, schedule elections to the lower house of
the Assembly, State Duma, and call a referendum. The president
appoints the prime minister (which must be approved by the lower
house; if three appointments are rejected, the president can dissolve the
lower house and call for a new election), also appoints deputies and
ministers (who are responsible to the president, not to the prime
minister), the chairman of the central bank, the prosecutor-general, and
all high-court judges.
Russia
2. The president powers are great, but not without limit. For
example, the Federal Assembly, the upper house, can
impeach the president, but only for treason or a serious
crime. The State Duma, the lower house, can pass a vote of
no confidence in the government, but the president can
reject the vote. If it is passed again within three months,
the president must either dismiss the prime minister or
dissolve the lower house and call for a new election. The
president cannot dissolve the house if it is considering
impeachment, during a state of national emergency, or
within a year of a vote of no confidence.
Russia
3. The legislature. A Federation Council (upper house), with
178 members, two from each of the 89 regions and
republics of Russia, has jurisdiction over relations between
the federal government and the republics, can examine all
laws passed by the State Duma, and can reject any laws
involving economic and defense issues. A State Duma
(lower house), with 450 members, half elected by
proportional representation in which each party puts
forward a list of candidates and receives seats proportional
to the number of votes it wins and half on a winner-take-all
system from single-member districts.
Russia
4. Power Structure. Russia is a federal system. Russian federal system is
more similar to Germany than to U.S., but the federal government has
more powers than its German counterpart, in the sense that the
Constitution allows the federal government to appoint leaders, delegate
authority, or interfere in local politics if deemed necessary.
5. Russia has multiple-party system similar to France and Italy. Russian
political parties have different families at left/center/right wings or proreformist (Russia’s choice, Yabloko, Women of Russia, Russian Unity
and Accord, and the Social Democratic Party), centrist/reformist (Civil
Union), and anti-reformist (Liberal Democratic Party, a neo-fascist
party or right-wing nationalist movements, the Communist Party, and
the Agrarian Party). Parties are both ideological driven and issuespecific oriented, and issues are more debated than their U.S.
counterparts.
Japan
1. The 1947 Japanese constitution was imposed by the United
States and its Occupation Authority after its victory in
WWII. The constitution seeks to construct a system of
representative democracy, with the emperor remains the
head of state, but merely as a ceremonial figure. The
constitution guarantees the fundamental rights of citizens
and also pledges that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as
other war potential, will never be maintained,” but this
provision has not prevented the government from building
“self-defense forces,” which was actually allowed to
expand during the Cold-War U.S. and Soviet
confrontation.
Japan
2. The legislature: Japan is a parliamentary system in contrast to the
US presidential system. The Japanese parliament is the Diet, which
consists of two Houses––the House of Representative and the
House of Councillors. The primary power in the Diet rests with the
lower house. Although the Diet is bicameral (a bill becomes law
only when it is passed by both chambers), the lower house has the
power to override, by a two-thirds vote for a second time, any
attempt by the upper house to negate actions of the lower house.
Moreover, the lower house chooses the prime minister and has
virtual control of the budgeting process. In general, when the
upper house makes a decision different from the lower house and
when no agreement can be reached or when the upper house fails
to take final action within a certain time, the decision of the lower
house becomes that of the Diet. These are all general features of
parliamentary forms of government similar to those found in all
parliamentary systems.
Japan
3. Executive, parliamentary, and judicial relationships: US political system is
based upon separation of powers which have checks and balances on each
other, whereas Japan’s political system, which is similar to the British
tradition, is based on the fusion of powers, stressing more cohesion between
the executive and legislative functions. The tradition of consensus seeking is
deeply rooted in Japan’s political culture which is collectivistically based. The
head of executive power (the Prime Minister) is indirectly elected by the
parliament and he is the leader of the majority party in the parliament who
names a cabinet that runs the various state ministries and carries out the policy
of the majority party. The cabinet is recruited from the Diet and is largely
made up of senior members of the majority party or members of coalition
parties in the absence of a one-party majority. Both the prime minister and the
cabinet members are responsible to the Diet, and all ministers must resign en
masse if the House passes a no-confidence resolution or rejects a confidence
motion. All supreme court justices, except the Chief Justice who is designated
by the cabinet and nominally appointed by the Emperor (a symbolic
figurehead), are appointed by the cabinet without the disguise of a bow to the
Emperor. The Supreme Court, however, like the U.S. counterpart, enjoys the
power of judicial review and can declare the legislation unconstitutional.
Japan
4. Power structure: Japan is traditionally a centralized
bureaucratic state modeled on the Chinese Confucian
tradition and such a structure remains in today’s Japan. US
is federal system, the state power protected by the
constitution, and the states are more autonomous, whereas
Japan is unitary system, local governments (47 prefectures
or counties) and their policies are largely controlled by the
central government and can be modified by the central
government on the nationwide base. For example, local
police and school issues are overseen by centralized
administrative boards. Borrowing by local governments
must be approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which
is the national agency that oversees local governments.
Japan
5. Electoral system: after 1994, the House of Representative
has 500 members. 200 are elected by the proportional
representation system and 300 are elected from single-seat
constituencies or single-member-district plurality system.
The House of Councillors has 252 members who serve sixyear terms, but half of the total number is elected every
three years. That is to say, the Japanese electoral system is
similar to that of Germany, which is a combination of
plurality and proportional representative systems. In both
houses, voters have two votes in elections, one for a party
and the other for an individual.
Japan
6. Party system: The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) used to dominate
Japanese politics from 1955 to 1993, although many other parties did
exist, such as New Frontier Party, Democratic Party of Japan, Japan
Communist Party, Social Democratic Party, and other smaller parties.
However, Japan’s one-party domination was shattered by the 1993
election, which produced no clear majority and therefore generated a
coalition government of eight centrist, center-left, and leftist parties,
even though voters gave the LDP the largest number of seats in the
Diet (from 211 seats before 1996 to 240 seats in 1997). The once
highly stable party system became a more fragmented and
unpredictable multi-party system, but a broader representation is
achieved.
China
Key features of Chinese political institution
1. Party/state/military are highly combined and intertwined into one, which is called
“party-state”
2. The CCP basically leads and controls every branch of the state.
3. Government branches carry out the party policies and orders
4. Fusion of powers takes place at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
5. The party-state institutions make laws, and laws are defined in the Party’s ideology,
norms, political goals, and policy needs. No independent judicial system.
6. No clear link between the top leaders and the people who are supposed to elect them.
The politburo acts like the CEO, no check and balance systems in place.