Political Science from lecture slides

Tullock (1987)

"dictators share a primary goal: hold on to office for dear life!"

Constitutional democracy

(Madisonian democracy) refers to the enforcement of a set of rights and opportunities which includes the rights of association, belief and freedom of expression.

The effects of electoral systems Why do they matter?

-A direct effect of electoral systems on structures of electoral competition (party system) • Effective number of parties • Centrifugal and centripetal competition -Duverger's laws (1951): • Plurality leads to two-party systems • Proportional formulas lead to multiparty systems -Rae (1971): magnitude (M) says it all! (Number of seats per constituency) -Mechanical effects -Psychological effects on voters (strategic voting) -Strategic behavior of parties (electoral coordination) -Embedded institutions: electoral systems interact with social structure and other institutions -The other way round: electoral system choice depends on structures of competition (Nohlen, Boix, etc.) - endogenous choice

Veto Player Theory: increasing checks and balances to avoid futile action

-A veto player is an actor whose agreement is necessary to change the status quo -It follows that a change of the status quo requires the unanimous decision of ALL veto players -Every additional veto player will increase policy stability (or leave it unchanged)

The principles of representative democracy: -accountability -responsiveness -majority rule

-Accountability: decision-makers should be made responsible for their decisions (blameworthiness). -Responsiveness: preferences of the public should be translated in the decision-making process. -Majority rule: decisions should reflect the position of the majority.

Socialization across time (cohort effects)

-Agents of socialization influence individuals differently at different stages in an individual's life. • Life-cycle effects stand for changes in the beliefs and behavior which occur at particular stages in a person's life. When a person has children, for instance, their opinions may change on certain political matters. • Period Effects stand for the impact on people of all ages caused by major historical events. • Cohort Effects stand for the influence of a historical event on one specific group of individuals such as the impact a specific war would have on draft-age men of that time period. -This can be captured through panel survey designs.

Influence of Agents of Political Socialization

-Agents of socialization may be categorized into groups by their focus and the intensity of their influence. • Primary groups are the agents of socialization with which an individual has regular face-to-face interactions (e.g., family, friends, and work associates). • Secondary groups tend to be more large-scale and diffuse (e.g., religious, civic, and professional associations). -Families exert the first and most important influence on the formation of individual values. The values which are transmitted in the early years of learning are generally kept throughout life. -Family is also one of the central influences in preparing individuals for their role in society. The process of socialization by the family begins in infancy. Children begin to develop attitudes towards authority based on how the parents treat them from birth.

The determinants of redistribution and policy outcomes

-All governments are motivated by the same thing: stay in power. Some politicians may be motivated by policy objectives rather than power, but we will assume that at least incumbent governments are "office-seeking" (and this may in turn be motivated by policy goals). • How do they achieve that? • What are there strategies to prevent challengers from replacing them? • Why do some dictators stay in power over long periods while others are removed quickly? -Selectorate Theory provides a potential answer.

Varieties of authoritarian regimes

-As democracy, which may be understood as a continuum, non-democracy (autocracy) has no single definition. -The key defining element of authoritarian regimes is limited pluralism. -However, authoritarian regimes vary along several dimensions: extent of pluralism, sources of authority and legitimization, control of society, institutions, provision of public goods and welfare programs, civil rights, repression, corruption (rent extraction), enforcement of property rights (credible commitment)... -Classification: • Traditional autocracies, often based on personal rule and inherited power (chiefdom, monarchies,...) • Modern autocracies: personal or collective (organizational) rule without explicit and repeated consent of the people. o Authoritarian regimes: strict limits on political pluralism. o Totalitarian regimes: governments attempt to control all aspects of political, economic and social life. -Alternative classifications exist (one-party rule, military rule, neo-patrimonialism, sultanism,...).

Rational Choice Theory

-Contemporary rational choice differs from Adam Smith's view of selfishness as producing the collective good. -Main results of RC: intentional and rational actors generate collective outcomes and aggregate behavior that are often socially suboptimal: free-riding (Olson), tragedy of the commons (Ostrom),... Under which conditions can the aggregation of rational behaviours produce optimal social outcomes? -Assumption: individual actors make reasoned choices given the likely choices of others and the contextual and institutional constraints in a situation of imperfect information. -RC does NOT simply consist in applying neo-classical economy to the analysis of human behaviour. Consideration of the limitation of human cognition and impossibility of collecting perfect information (bounded rationality -H. Simon-, based on the achievement of a pre-determined threshold of expected utility and not utility maximisation). -Behavioral rational choice includes the use of heuristics (i.e. rules of thumb, techniques based on experience for problem-solving that are readily accessible).

Allison's model of "bureaucratic politics"

-Decision-making is fragmented, not hierarchical. -Administrations are in competition with each other over relative power, resources, personnel etc. and this tends to determine their positions on specific issues. -Administrations rely on different resources (expertise, seniority, continuity and responsibility over certain issues), as well as constituencies. -As a consequence, bureaucratic politics leads to lack of control, responsibility and accountability.

Modern democracy aspects (conclu)

-Democracy is a multidimensional concept, based on the assumptions of accountability and responsiveness of governments. -Modern democracy as a system of government based on delegation is recent. -Modern democracy has changed significantly over its one century history (Manin, 1995):

The political determinants of consolidation

-Democracy-building is dependent both on the environment and the capacity to build effective party competition. -Importance of the stabilization of a system a political competition and development of civil society. But does democracy develop according to a certain number of steps (political modernization) or democracy is implemented with new modes in each revolution? -Key element in this process is the acceptance of defeat by incumbent elite. This is however new in the history of democracy: incumbent government re-elected 80% of the time in democracies until the 1960s. -Democracy becomes consolidated when all become habituated to the fact that political conflict is resolved according to the established norms and that violations of these norms are likely to be both costly and ineffective (Linz).

Dictatorships good for growth?

-Dictators are less pressured by special interests than democratic leaders. They may thus implement more public-regarding policies? -Counter-argument: they are also less controlled and may therefore adopt more easily predatory behavior. Democracies, on the other hand, are better at protecting property rights. -Przeworski and colleagues (2000) show that there is no systematic evidence in favor of democracies or dictatorships when it comes to economic growth.

Conclusion about authoritarian regimes and transitions

-Do we witness a final shift towards democracy? -Not certain, but number of "pure" autocracies has diminished -Democracies do not fare better than authoritarian regimes -But democracies, once established, are more resilient than authoritarian regimes

Elections and Electoral Systems

-Elections are the main mechanisms by which people are able to express their views about public decisions. -Elections are channels of interest aggregation. -Elections are the single most important invention of modern (i.e. representative) democracy, though, of course, elections are not always democratic. -Elections allow to overcome problems of information (policy complexity, etc.) and cost (time constraints, etc.). -Elections as channels of delegation, implying some form of representation and accountability from rulers. →The only form of political expression that ensures mass participation on an equal footing.

Electoral Regulations

-Electoral regulations are the set of rules that organize elections -Electoral regulations deal mainly with: • Franchise: who is entitled to vote • Candidacies: who is entitle to run as a candidate (also: minority quotas) • Office terms • Electoral campaigns: regulation of resources for campaigns (funding, access to media, etc.) -Electoral system: the set of rules that structure how votes are cast at elections and how these votes are converted into the allocation of offices

Cultural change

-Even if culture is stable, important changes have occurred in past decades (cf. World Value Survey). -Social capital has declined (Putnam: Bowling alone, 1995). Trust in government has decreased. Hence a feeling of a "democratic deficit"(disparities between the perceived performance of institutions and public aspirations). Linked to increasing demands (participation, efficiency,...) resulting from growing cognitive skills and self-expression values, coverage of government by the media, and policy building limitations. -Value orientation has changed towards post-materialism (Inglehart). Post-materialism originally measured by surveys as priority given to items "giving people more say"and "protecting freedom of speech"over items "maintaining order in the nation"and "fighting rising prices". -Change may be related initially to modernization (urbanization, education, industrialization) and then to post-industrialism (growth of the tertiary sector).

Lipjhart: rediscovering institutions -Executives-party dimension -Federal-unitary dimension

-Executives - parties dimension • 1 Effective number of parliamentary parties • 2 Minimal winning one-party cabinet • 3 Executive dominance • 4 Electoral disproportionality • 5 Interest group pluralism -Federal - unitary dimension • 1 Federalism - decentralization • 2 Bicameralism • 3 Constitutional rigidity • 4 Judicial review • 5 Central bank independence

What determines redistribution?

-Imagine a simplified version of the world ("stylized facts"): • Everybody pays a portion of her salary as taxes. The government then equally divides this tax revenue among all members of society. There is no other income than salaries. • As a consequence, all those with above-average income pay more taxes, but get the same amount of benefits as everybody else. • Hence, anyone with a below-average wage stands to be net beneficiary, while all those with above-average income stand to be net contributors. Now you know who will favor high/low taxes... • Governments supply no public goods. In fact, they do nothing more than redistribute. And dictatorships redistribute less than democracies. -The Meltzer-Richards model

Almond & Verba 1963 cont.: Parochial Culture

-Low awareness, expectations, and participation. Example: Mexico (in the late 1950s). -In this model citizens have no cognitive orientation toward the political system (i.e. no "culture"?). -Societies characterized by this type of political culture do not expect anything positive of government, nor do they expect to participate in politics because it is seen as an elite domain. -Furthermore, the government is seen as the enforcer of its own rules and consequently, the realm of politics is seen as one to be avoided whenever possible. In today's language, this is (or was) a society with low levels of trust.

Majority Rule and Condorcet's paradox

-Majority rule has emerged as the single most important decision rule. It is one of the underlying principles of democracy. -Condorcet has shown effectively that individually rational preferences need not lead to collectively rational outcomes. -This is due to the fact that there usually are many options among which to chose and many actors who have a say in decision-making. -Individuals may be rational in the sense that they • 1 have a complete preference ordering, i.e. if she can compare a set of outcomes and discriminate among them. • 2 have a transitive preference ordering, e.g. if for any outcomes x, y and z, it is the case that if x is preferred to y and y to z, then x must be preferred to z. -Condorcet's Paradox illustrates how a group composed of rational individuals does not necessarily have rational preferences as a collectivity. -Put differently, individual rationality does not ensure collective rationality. -This situation is of course very rare: if you have just three actors and three choices, it is rare to have an intransitive ordering as in this example. -But the real problem is that the real world is made up of a multitude of actors and an infinity of choices. As a consequence, durable decisions should become impossible, as long as everybody has a say! Instability becomes the rule!

Different types of referenda

-Mandatory or optional referendum. -Initiated by voters (popular initiative), legislative or executive bodies. -Relation between those calling the referendum and those whose proposal is voted on. -Rejective referenda or abrogative referenda. -Binding or indicative referendum -Existence of quorum conditions

Different types of welfare

-Many different typologies of welfare states exist. Most are based on Esping-Andersen's original threefold classification. (liberal, conservative, social-democratic) -Those are historically situated types that mirror historical compromises and decisions over the past two hundred years or more. -Common kinds in Europe are 1. Liberal (Anglosaxon) ex: UK, Ireland 2. Conservative (continental) ex: Austria, Germany, France, Netherlands, etc. 3. Social-democratic (Nordic) ex: Denmark, Sweden, Finland 4. Mediterannean ex: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece

Mixed Systems

-Mixed or mixed-member electoral systems are looking for the best of both worlds! -Usually, voter casts two votes (local constituency + regional or national party list). -Germany: seats allocated by half with each system, with compensation mechanisms between both. -Existence of compensatory mixed systems (to correct for over- or under-representation in districts): New Zealand, Venezuela; parallel systems make not direct link between both systems: Japan, Pakistan, Russia.

Cleavages

-Not all cleavages exist in all (Western European) countries: different constellations of cleavages • Homogenous constellations: predominant or over-lapping cleavages • Heterogeneous constellations: cross-cutting cleavages: various cleavages with non overlapping constituencies -From 1920 to at least 1990, remarkable stability of constellations (freezing hypothesis by Lipset and Rokkan, Bartolini and Mair) -Cleavages define electoral alignments

Welfare states and reform -Obstacles to change -Strategies for change

-Obstacles to change: • "New politics" (Pearson 2004) • Interest groups • Parties • Type of welfare state -Strategies for change • Depends on type • In sum: conservative welfare states are the most difficult to reform, because they are corporatist at the wrong level.

Almond & Verba 1963 cont.: Participant culture

-Participant culture: high levels of all three (awareness, expectation, participation). Examples: USA, UK -In this model citizens have cognitive orientations toward both the input and output aspects of the system. -Societies which possess this type of political culture tend to have citizens with high expectations and a high level of participation in politics - and not only at elections. -This type of culture is central to the principles of any democratic society.

policy change points

-Policy change is difficult and unlikely. -Policies are therefore path-dependent. • Early directions may be erratic. • But once policy is locked in(to) a given path, change will become increasingly more difficult. • But changes of direction may be more or less radical in moments of critical juncture.

Conclusions on government, delegation and decision-making

-Policymaking does not simply respond to people's demands, but obeys to endogenous forces. -Whether this is good or bad depends on the general concept of democracy. -Responsiveness and drift are at least partly determined by the institutional setup. -Therefore different institutional setups may favor different views of democracy.

Political Culture

-Political culture refers to specific beliefs, values, attitudes, habits, and behavioral patterns that characterize a political community. -Political culture is made up of cognitive, affective and evaluative orientations towards the political system. -Political culture is broader than public opinion. It works as a frame which constrains acceptable political action and discourse (social and political norms). It provides assumptions that guide public life. It is enduring, stable and cross-generational. -The essence of political culture is not agreement on issues, but the common perception of the rights and obligations of citizenship and of the rules for participating in the political process. -Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba (The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, 1963) proposed three basic models of political culture based on their cross-national survey research on five democratic countries: Italy, Germany, Mexico, US, and UK. • Political culture determined by three main factors: o 1 Awareness of government o 2 Expectations of government o 3 Political participation • Three types of political cultures o 1 Parochial cultures o 2 Subject cultures o 3 Participant cultures • Hypothesis is that congruence of political culture and institutional setting reinforces political stability. -Political culture may also tap more directly other dimensions of the polity or the policy process: • 1 Identification with nation, patriotism • 2 Secularization and religious orientation • 3 Trust in government • 4 Role of government • Yet, political culture is defined by its stability (values) and does not relate to short term policy preferences.

The Structure of electoral competition

-Political parties as central actors in the politics of representative democracies; political leaders are most of the time party leaders. Parties are important even in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. -The interaction among and between parties form the party system. -The response to a problem of collective action. -Though distrusted in many countries, parties remain the leading institutions channeling political participation and structuring government. Social movements, governance networks do not seriously challenge their dominance (yet). -Globalization (policy space shrinks) and increasing political capacities of citizens are however problematic for parties. -Party goals are of particular interest (Kaare Strom): • Vote seeking parties • Office seeking parties Policy seeking parties

Proportional Systems

-Proportional or list systems vary a lot; all achieve to a certain extent proportionality between votes and seats. -Dimensions: • Size and number of constituencies: magnitude. • Upper tiers • Allocation method: o Highest average: applying a series of divisors to a party's vote total. D'Hondt method (divisors: 1,2,3, etc. n) or Sainte-Lagu ̈e (1,3,5,7, etc.), more favourable to smaller parties o Largest remainders: a quota is computed and applied; remaining seats are then distributed to largest remainders. Hare quota (number of votes /number of seats). -Preferential vote or intra-party choice: open or preferential lists (Chile, Poland) and panachage (Swiss, Luxemburg) -Thresholds Example of Spain: -PR system with d'Hondt method allocation and a 3 per cent threshold (compared to 5 per cent in Germany). -But: 52 districts, most of which are very small. 27 elect between 3 and 5 representatives. -As a consequence, the electoral system is in fact strongly majoritarian, as small parties stand no chance of winning the the smaller constituencies. Paradoxically, this also ensures the existence of regionalist strongholds.

Dahl's polyarchy

-R. Dahl emphasizes that process and substance cannot be separated. -He proposes a set of 8 criteria to define democracy 1 The right to vote 2 The right to run as candidate 3 The right for political leader to compete for support and votes 4 Free and fair elections 5 Liberty of association 6 Liberty of expression 7 Plurality of information sources 8 Institutions of policy-making dependent on elections and other way of interest claiming

Majoritarian Systems

-Single-member plurality (SMP or first past the post, FPTP): choice of a candidate; seat awarded to candidate who receives most votes • US, UK, Canada, India, etc. -Two-round system (TRS) or runoff: choice of a candidate; if no candidate wins absolute majority of votes in first round, a second round takes place with a certain number of candidates; the rule for the second round is plurality. • France -Alternative vote (AV) and Single transferable vote (STV): ranking candidates; least supported candidates are eliminated (and vote is transferred to other candidates) so that a candidate wins a quota or a majority. • Australia, Ireland. • These methods are not necessarily majoritarian, as far as their effects are concerned.

Almond & Verba 1963 cont.: Subject Culture

-Subject cultures: higher levels of awareness and expectation but low participation. Examples: Italy, Germany (in the postwar period). -In this model citizens have cognitive orientations only towards the output aspects of the system. -This tends to crystallize in a citizenry that expects positive action from government, but that does not tend to be politically active itself. -They, too, see politics as an elite domain only to be engaged in by those with power and influence.

The Agenda-setter

-The agenda-setter is the first mover in a sequence -The veto player who sets the agenda has a considerable advantage: he can consider the winset of the others as his constraint, and select from it the outcome he prefers . -A single veto player is also the agenda setter and has no constraints in the selection of outcomes -As policy stability increases, the importance of the agenda setter declines. -And the autonomy of subordinate agents increases!

Agents of political socialization

-The family is responsible for, among other things, determining one's attitudes toward religion and establishing career goals. -The school is the agency responsible for socializing groups of young people in particular skills and values in society. In all countries, there is some degree of guided socialization through the schools. Schools attempt to mold the citizenry according to the ideals of the state - more ore less knowingly. -Peer groups refer either to a group of people who are friends or to people of similar age and characteristics (e.g., students in a college class). Peer groups are extremely influential in developing adolescents' tastes and their view of the world but they vary considerably in their political impact. -Mass Media include newspapers, magazines, radio, and films, CDs, internet, etc. We are dependent on the media for what we know and how we relate to the world of politics because of the media-politics connection. We read or watch political debates followed by instant analysis and commentary by experts. -Other Agents: State, Religion, Political Events, Art,...

From civic culture to social capital

-The notion of Social capital (Coleman 1990) provides a new understanding of civic culture (cf. Tocqueville's "vibrant civil society"!). Aims to explain institutional and democratic performance. -Social capital is different from economic capital and cultural capital (Bourdieu). -It adds two main elements to it: trust and social networks (covers associations of civil society, communities,...). -Interpersonal trust is considered as central because of its impact on political and social stability, as well as political and economic development. -Putnam (1993) about Italy: the performance of a regional government is very closely related to the civic character of social capital in this region. -Measurement issue: do you assess social capital through questions about trust (survey) or by numbers of associations. Correlation is in fact far from perfect.

Why are political systems more or less responsive?

-When the mandate is clear! -When the connection between voters and parties is precise. • High correspondence between votes and representation (high proportionality ) • Thanks to an electoral system that favors the representation of various interests (a proportional electoral systems). • Representation at various levels, to ensure a more faithful electoral mandate.

Political Socialization

-Why do people hold the political beliefs that they do? -The values and assumptions people hold about politics are acquired in a process called political socialization, i.e. the learning of political values and factual assumptions about politics. -Through (and thanks to) political socialization people understand, accept, and usually approve and support the existing political system. -Socialization happens both directly and indirectly. -The persons by which and the setting in which the process of political socialization is accomplished are called the agents of political socialization.

Cleavages stemming from the National Revolution (early 19th century, restricted electorates)

1 Center periphery cleavage because of: Administrative centralization (fiscal integration) Cultural standardization (compulsory schooling, national language) ⇒ Regionalist parties 2 State-Church cleavage: National revolution based on liberal ideology: secular institutions State-Church conflict: abolition of Church privileges →Conservative and religious parties

Main differences among autocracies

1 Extent of pluralism 2 Civil rights and rule of law 3 Nature, homogeneity, and discretion of leadership 4 Legitimization principle (tradition, religion, ideology,...) 5 Use of repression / terror or clientelism 6 Popular support and mobilization

The milestones of democratisation

1 Incorporation: mass of the citizens are (gradually) admitted as political actors (e.g. extension of suffrage). 2 Representation: parties can be organized and structure life in parliament. 3 Organized opposition: citizens are granted right to call for votes against the government and executive becomes fully responsible to the legislature

The post-industrial revolution: Towards new cleavages?

1 Materialism vs. post-materialism cleavage (Ronald Inglehart) • Conflict among generations, younger preferring more liberal and non materialistic values • →Green parties but also new social movements 2 Globalization (Kriesi): Cleavage between losers (workers, unemployed) and winners (civil servants, upper class) →Extreme right of left parties

Cleavages stemming from the Industrial Revolution (late 19th century, suffrage extension)

1 Rural-urban cleavage • Conflicts about trade policies: barriers (farmers) vs. open markets (industrialists) • →Agrarian parties 2 Workers-employers cleavage • Conflict between labor and capital • Demands of social rights and welfare provisions • →Social democratic parties. This family is later divided by the Bolshevik revolution. • This cleavage characterizes left-right alignments

Linz (1970) definition of totalitarianism

1 There is a monistic but not monolithic center of power, and whatever pluralism of institutions or groups exists derives its legitimacy from that center, is largely mediated by it, and is mostly a political creation rather than an outgrowth of the dynamics of the preexisting society. 2 There is an exclusive, autonomous, and more or less intellectually elaborate ideology with which the ruling group or leader and the party serving the leaders, identify and which they use as a basis for policies or manipulate to legitimize them. 3 Citizen participation in and active mobilization for political and collective social tasks are encouraged, demanded, rewarded, and channeled through a single party and many monopolistic secondary groups. Passive obedience and apathy, retreat into the role of parochials and subjects, characteristic of many authoritarian regimes, are considered undesirable and suspect by the rulers.

Solutions to diversity in the state (Federalism)

1. Federalism -Federalism or decentralization as a response to demands for greater autonomy (e.g. Belgium). It may also be part of the founding contract of a new country to respect diversity (US, Mexico etc.). -Legally, it entails two distinct elements: • 1 Granting some degree of decision making and even lawmaking authority to subnational units. • 2 Ensuring the participation of subnational units in federal lawmaking (typically through the Senate). -Federalism has a strong normative component: bulwark against tyranny and war. -Economists typically adopt a much larger definition of federalism, embracing almost any form of decentralization, understood as fiscal competition between more or less autonomous territorial entities ("fiscal federalism").

The Meltzer-Richards model

1. Salaries are linked to productivity and people vary in how productive they are. Because productivity has a constant effect on your wage, those who cannot earn a higher wage than welfare would provide (e.g. left of X0), will choose not to work. Very productive individuals will prefer very low or no taxation. 2. The important ones, those belonging to neither of those two categories, will usually prefer medium level taxes. 3. Income is not distributed evenly. Since it is skewed right, the mean income will exceed the median income. The relevant variables are the mean population income and the decisive person's (e.g. median voter's, or dictator's) income. • In a democracy, the voter with the median income will fix the tax rate. If this income is below the mean income, she will fix the tax rate at the level which maximizes her personal income. • If she earns more than mean salary she will set the tax rate to zero. • A dictator (or somebody who does not work) will set the tax rate at a level maximizing her income without decreasing economic output too much. -In democracies, the interest of the poor (low productivity) should be better represented. Hence, democracy bad for property rights and growth? -Problem: in democracies, the poor vote less than the rich and could thus be less represented. And dictatorships often prove dangerous for property rights. -Moreover, liberal democracies feature capitalist economies. And those ensure returns relative to investment. Yet, "profit takers" invest more and get more returns than "wage-earners" (Przeworski 1991).

Max-Weber's ideal-types of legitimacy

1. Traditional: long established customs and traditions. Ruler herself is strictly constrained by tradition. 2. Charismatic: based on individual quality of the leader; charisma is manufactured (but also short-lived). 3. Legal-rational: characteristic of large scale bureaucratic organizations; rule of law. -Legitimization generally combines rationality and rituals (Kantorowicz: The King's two bodies).

Solutions to diversity in the state (Consociationalism)

2.Consociationalism originally emerged during World War I in the Netherlands as a response to high tensions between religious and political groups. Those were not spatially separated and moreover subject to cross-cutting cleavages. Federalism was thus not an option. -The "Polder" (pillar) system adopted in 1917 ensured elite representation for each community through a complex system of quotas in addition to classical democratic institutions. -Many other countries still practice forms of consociationalism. In Lebanon, the constitution (since 1989) stipulates that the President has to be a maronite christian, while the Prime minister has to be a sunni muslim and the president of the National assembly a shia muslim. The National assembly is made up of one half of christians and one half of muslims

Solutions to diversity in the state (Multiculturalism)

3. Multiculturalism -This is not an actual institutional solution to problems of internal tensions. Rather, multiculturalist theorists often seek to enhance minority rights and ensure the recognition of difference (e.g. Charles Taylor). -It stems from demands increasingly for recognition voiced by ethnic, but also sexual minorities (women, gays) since the 1970s. This is often motivated by discrimination of all kinds within a given society. -Unlike the classical liberal approach, multiculturalism requires the state to enhance citizenship rights of those minorities in order to "right the wrongs" committed against them. -There is a great variety of approaches, but, fundamentally, culture is presented as the lens through which we understand the world (remember: aprimordialist view). Discriminating and even overlooking cultural differences may cause psychological harm and reinforce inequality. -The more radical theorists (e.g. Charles Taylor, Alisdair McIntyre) are in favor of specific citizenship rights with separate jurisdictions for cultural matters and family law. -More moderate theorists (e.g. Will Kymlicka) subordinate the exercise of such separate jurisdictions to the respect of civil liberties and rights, i.e. a common set of rules.

A possible solution: The Median Voter Theorem

Anthony Downs, An economic theory of democracy, 1957 Downs specifies the conditions under which stability can be achieved: 1 a single issue dimension, 2 an odd-number of voters (with single-peaked preferences and who vote sincerely), 3 and there are only two parties This will have an enduring effect on party competition, leading parties to compete for the median voter. This means that in terms of policy goals, parties will converge around the policy position of the median voter, leading to greater policy stability. -The status quo SQ is unsatisfactory to both the centrist group C and the right-wing group R. -Proposal A should beat SQ, supported by C and R, but it is not an equilibrium (i.e. here: a proposal which cannot be beaten by any other proposal). -Proposal B beats A, since it is closer to the preferences of both C and R. Again, this is not an equilibrium, as any proposal closer to C than B will obtain the support of C and L. -In fact the only equilibrium is C: it is the only point on the continuum for which there is no policy alternative that is preferred by a majority of councillors. This is not because it is centrist, but because the centrist groups happens to be the median voter!

The tale of the two Leopolds

Bueno de Mesquita et al 2003) -Leopold II of Belgium (1865-1909): author of progressive reforms, high amounts of public goods, stong economic growth and industrial development. -Leopold II, emperor of Congo: creator of a low-paid military force, "Force publique": • Commissions for rubber and ivory and rewards for killing "rebels". • Agents used slave labour, torture and murder to increase their salaries. -As selectorate theory predicts, Leopold worked hard to increase growth in Belgium, due to its high w/s, but adopted dictatorial behavior with high rent-extraction in Congo, thanks to its very low w/s.

Lipset on the modernisation thesis (1959)

Democracy may develop only in peaceful societies, dominated by the middle class.

Identity: Interactionism

Identity is defined by difference, definition and distance. The creation of us/them divides creates "frontiers" (F. Barth) between groups. While groups and their distinctive markers may change, the frontier may remain, as differences are regularly reinvented.

Identity: Primordialism

Identity is the fruit of our first socialization. It relies on language, rituals, beliefs, norms etc. It provides the primary lense through which we view the world and is thus not exchangeable.

Identity: Rational Choice

Identity may be used as a strategic resource by individuals, who will emphasize one specific trait or characteristic according to a situation (this assumes that some individuals are rational and others are not).

Major steps of parliamentarization

Most institutional changes are the consequence of endogenous forces • From impeachment to political responsibility • Budgetary powers • From questions to motion of censure

totalitarian

Mussolini: "everything in the State, nothing outside of the State, nothing against the State". • A new ambition: changing humans. • Totalitarian organization of all aspects of life. • Ideological indoctrination through organizations ? Thought control • Leadership and personality cult

Beyond National Cultures

National cultures are not homogeneous (measure of the compactness of cultures, remember lecture 2!). -Existence of subcultures linked to subnational identities or specific social groups. Pillars in consensual democracies represent such sub-cultures. They are often linked to socio-political cleavages (see next week Lipset & Rokkan). -Conversely, cultures may be shared across national borders. Yet, the idea of "civilizations"is based on a loose view of political culture. -Major issue is the co-existence of varying political cultures in close locations ("shock of civilization", Huntington) or under the same institutional setting (multiculturalism). Yet, trend of cultural convergence is important as well.

Huntington on the modernisation thesis

Occurs in societies which have experienced some social and economic development and where processes of political modernization and political development have lagged behind the social and economic changes. -Technological and economic changes are important as well. -Modernization entails both economic, social, and political developments. -This model is however mainly based on the development of democracy.

Robert Pape

On radicalism Compared 188 different suicide attacks between 1980 and 2001. He comes to a certain number of interesting conclusions: • Suicide attacks are not (or no longer?) necessarily irrational, nor is the phenomenon restricted to radical Islam (e.g. Tamil Tigers). • Focus of attention has to be shifted from individual irrationality to collective goals: from terrorists' characteristics to recruiters' strategies. Pape makes several major findings: o 1 Suicide terrorism is strategic and usually coercive. Attacks occur in clusters. o 2 Favorite targets are modern democracies to limit their foreign interventions. o 3 Suicide terrorism has risen because it pays (!): goals are at least partially attained in most cases. o 4 Low and medium level damage is more effective than large damage.

Parliamentary democracy

Parliamentary democracy: democracy was based on parliament; linkage between voters and representative loose and non-binding.

Party democracy

Party democracy: democracy is based on the struggle between government and opposition, structured by parties representing social-cleavages.

Defining party systems

Party systems may be understood through many lenses: penetration (importance), ideology, stance toward the political regime, number of parties and others. Giovanni Sartori has advanced that the structure of party systems is best explained by 2 major variables: 1 Party fragmentation Size and relative number of parties in the legislature. 2 Ideological distance This measure is essentially structured around the left-right cleavage, leaving aside other issues. This includes eventual anti-systemic stances of parties.

Concept of path-dependency

Pierson (2000) (based on the work of Brian Arthur) • Choices are taken in a context of strong uncertainty about their consequences. • Therefore choices are highly accidental in the early stages of a given path (or any new policy, for that matter). • Once a given path is chosen, however, it is very difficult to achieve radical changes: policies become path-dependent or are locked in. • More significant change will become likely only at critical junctures, i.e. in a context of major crisis. • Reference to path-dependence has become common in policy analysis, but is especially used in the context of welfare state studies.

The underpinnings of rational choice Critiques of rational choice

Rational choice depends on preferences and beliefs of individuals. -The origins of these preferences and beliefs are often considered to be exogenous (i.e. not studied). -Culture is one answer to the origins of these preferences and beliefs. -That is why rationality and culture may be considered as complementary rather than competitive views on political behavior. Critiques -Unrealistic sociological assumptions: • Concept of rationality may be "western-centered": what is rational may different from one place to another. • Culture as an underpinning may provide patterns not only for preferences, but also for the way people reason. • Preferences are not exogenous, they change with context and over time. • People are never alone: their preferences and perceptions are (co)shaped by reference groups.

Popular democracy

Refers to actual participation in political life and some form of responsiveness to public preferences

Modernization Thesis

State modernization is a prerequisite and the reason for revolution.

Brzezinski (1965) definition of totalitarian

The features which distinguish this regime from older autocracies as well as heterocracies are six in number. They are to recall what by now is a fairly accepted set of facts: • 1) a totalist ideology; • 2) a single party committed to this ideology and usually led by one man; • 3) a fully developed secret police and three kinds of monopolies or, more precisely, types of monopolistic control: o A) mass communications, o B) operational weapons, o C) and all organizations including economic ones, thus involving a centrally planned economy...

Weber's definition of the state

Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. [...] Specifically, at the present time, the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it. The state is considered the sole source of the right to use violence. Hence, politics for us means striving to share power, either among states or among groups within a state.

Przeworksi on the modernisation thesis

Transitions to democracy are in fact random; democratic consolidation is determined by economic development.

Sartori's 'simplified model'

Two-partism: close to the MVT, centripetal forces push parties to the center, extremism will be sanctioned electorally. Polarized multipartism: opposite of the preceding, center is weakened by drain of votes to extremist (potentially anti-system) parties in a context of government impopularity. May lead to regime collapse. Moderate multipartism: three to five parties, potentially coalition government, centrifugal forces present, but not the point of threatening regime stability. Segmented multipartism: high levels of fragmentation, but no centrifugal competition. This corresponds to societies having two or more distinct subcultures. There is thus no drive towards extremism.

Identity:Instrumentalism

View according to which identities are created or (re)activated by ambitious political entrepreneurs. Especially, in multi-ethnic contexts, entrepreneurs may chose to stress one identity at the expense of another.

Huntington waves of democratisation (1991)

Waves are defined as "a group of transitions from nondemocratic to democratic regimes that occurs within a specified period of time and that significantly outnumbers transitions in the opposite direction" • 1 First wave: 1826-1926: the building of Western democracies • 2 Second wave: 1945-1950: the aftermath of WWII and decolonization • 3 Third wave: 1974-: collapse of the USSR

Huntington's definition of a revolution

a rapid, fundamental, and violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of a society, in its political institutions, social structures, leadership, and government activities and policies.

Resoluteness

ability of a state to commit to maintaining a given policy -Political systems have to operate a compromise and sometimes a trade-off between these two policymaking objectives (decisiveness)

Decisiveness

ability of a state to enact and implement policy change

Selectorate Theory

characterizes all governments by their location in a two dimensional institutional space. one dimension is the size of the selectorate and the second is the size of the winning coalition

Audience democracy

personalization and "presidentialization"; image and spin-doctors; role of special interests (lobbying).

Foucalt

studied in some detail the notorious phenomenon of grain shortages in the late 18th century, regularly leading to revolts, especially in the cities. French governments resorted to regulatory intervention: price controls, limits imposed on storage and exports. This system, however, had terrible unexpected effects, strongly penalizing and disicentivizing farmers to cultivate grain. Foucault called "governmentalization" (gouvernementalisation) the process by which governments increased their policy-making capacities and developed a whole new set of instruments (planning, statistics etc.) that in turn required a new set of people to run them...

Three major approaches to revolutions

• 1 Class conflict • 2 Relative deprivation • 3 Modernization

construction of public problems can be seen as a threefold process

• 1 Formulation of the issue as a collective and public problem. • 2 Determine and imputes responsibility for a problem, name the causes. • 3 Voice a demand/claim towards public authorities.

The 3 class conflict approaches

• 1 If state is linked to landed aristocracy, bourgeois and peasants ally for a social and political revolution (France, Russia). • 2 If bourgeois and aristocrats ally against the state: a political revolution (UK). • 3 If state includes both aristocrats and bourgeois: no revolution.

Which are the tools to survive in power

• 1 Legitimization and indoctrination • 2 Repression • 3 Redistribution and clientelism

Two ingredients necessary for modern democracy

• 1 State formation, provides o Bureaucracy (state capacity) o Territory (sovereignty) o Fosters the emergence of a public sphere (language, identity,...) • 2 Parliamentarization o Limitation of power (checks and balances, separation of powers) o Invention of political responsibility o Invention of modern understanding of government as an institution (Foucault: "governmentalization")

The emergence of a window of opportunity (Kingdon 1984) the streams

• 1 The Problem Stream: those problems that already have obtained and that maintain attention by public authorities, thanks to indicators (e.g. unemployment statistics), specific events (e.g. the "canicule" (extraordinary heat wave) in the summer of 2003), or following feedback by other policies (e.g. the number of deaths due to traffic accidents). • 2 The Policy Stream: the (long) list of potential policy solutions that are available and likely to be championed by one or more of the relevant actors. • 3 The Political Stream: public opinion, parties and other organized political actors, the executive and collective bargaining, institutionalized or not.

5 major controversies in measuring democracy

• 1 What are the substantive essential components of the concept of democracy? • 2 Is democracy best viewed as a unidimensional or as a multidimensional concept? • 3 Is democracy best viewed as a dichotomy, or as an ordinal or interval level scale? • 4 Relatedly, should the structure of our definition (or its components) be in terms of necessity and sufficiency or in terms of family resemblance? • 5 Is it possible to correctly classify a country as democratic at a given moment in time, or is a reliable classification possible only with hindsight, e.g., only after we observe a peaceful transfer of power within some delimited time period?

Who can threaten a dictator?

• A subset of society (selectorate, is the electorate) which actually supports its authority • Society as a whole, depending on its capacity of mobilization. Yet, leaders of organized groups which can serve a a forum to coordinate with other (coordination) are able to mobilize rank and file (Bueno de Mesquita). Organizations thus decrease the cost of mobilization.

Procedural definition of democracy

• Focus on how the regime is organized and the processes by which representation, accountability, and legitimacy are ensured • Example: Schumpeter's definition of democracy (1957: 271): "the democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote" • But also visions of democracy based on the existence of accountability and post-hoc control mechanisms (e.g. accountability of decision-makers, judicial review).

Substantive definition of democracy

• Focus on the effectiveness of the regime; promotion of equality, fairness, and inclusion. Participative conception of democracy: • Participation is not only a mean but also a way to change individuals (political participation as emancipation and self-development). • Deliberative conception of democracy: discussion and debate enlighten decisions and benefit to all.

Classical parliamentary government

• Fused powers: just legislative elections, parliament elects (supports) Prime minister. • Head of state also elected (usually indirectly) or hereditary monarch, but secondary figure. • Hence, Parliament can dismiss PM, and (often) PM can dissolve lower chamber of Parliament and call for new elections.

Authoritarian regimes: Linz (1970)

• Limited political pluralism Absence of an ideology that is elaborate and/or used to guide the regime • Absence of intensive or extensive political mobilization • Limited predictability rather than arbitrary or discretionary leadership

Why does pluralism persist under dictatorship?

• Organizations are needed to seize power. Once this is done, it may prove difficult to get rid of them. • Organizations are needed to perpetuate power. Usual coordination and collective action problems. -Dictators often try to make credible commitments to existing organizations, or to curb the power of (the) dominant organization(s), or to launch new organization(s).

Classical presidential government

• Separation of powers: President and Congress elected separately. • No strong powers of control over each other. • Power is thus shared (and not concentrated in anyone's hands), but this may lead to gridlock.

State legitimisation 3 fold process 1. Territoriality 2. Nation-building 3. Imposition of authority

• Territoriality: based on a historical territory that facilitates identification. Border control becomes an additional exponent of state-capacity. Immigration control is a more recent exponent of this process in a context where border are more and more difficult to control. • Nation-building: relies on identity to increase political allegiance to the emerging state; define the population and the citizens of the emerging state. • Imposition of authority: building on the control of borders, population and allegiance, the state has to develop administrative capacity to impose authority.