Chapter 1: Five Principles of Politics

Define Oligarchy.

A form of government in which a small group of landowners, military officers, or wealthy merchants controls most of the governing decisions.

Define Public Good.

A good that: 1) may be enjoyed by anyone if it is provided and 2) may not be denied to anyone once it has been provided. More generally, a public good is one that can be "consumed" by individuals without using it up, and for which there are no means at hand to exclude individuals easily.

Define Decisiveness Rules.

A specification of when a vote may be taken, the sequence in which vote on amendments occur, and how many supporters determine whether a motion passes or fails.

Define Constitutional Government.

A system of rule in which formal and effective limits are placed on the powers of the government (example: United States)

Define Authoritarian Government.

A system of rule in which the government recognizes no formal limits but may nevertheless be restrained by the power of other social institutions

Define Totalitarian Government.

A system of rule in which the government recognizes no formal limits on its power and seeks to absorb or eliminate the other social institutions that might challenge it (Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Nazi Germany, Present-Day North Korea)

Define Democracy.

A system of rule that permits citizens to play a significant part in the governmental process, usually through the selection of key public officials

In the U.S. House of Representatives a motion to _____________ takes precedence over a motion to move the previous question.

Adjourn (and thus not vote on a measure).

Political representatives can be considered ____________.

Agents (that we "hire" to act on our behalf).

If preferences are too incompatible, it is possible that a ________ cannot be reached.

Compromise.

Institutions may _________, _________, _________ and thus _________, _________, and __________.

Institutions may discourage conflict, encourage coordination, enable bargaining, and thus facilitate decision making, cooperation and collective action

Institution Principle

Institutions structure politics

Policy Principle

Political outcomes are the products of individual preferences and institutional principles

What are some of the forms Politics may take?

Political parties and movement, lobbying, going to court, etc.

What is the central focus of Politics? Why is it sought?

Power is the central focus of politics. Power is sought for purposes (example: seek power to introduce new policies).

What is the scare resource in Politics?

Power.

Congress cannot be prevented from passing a measure, but a presidential veto can ______________.

Prevent a measure from becoming the law of the land.

Those with authority are called ___________.

Principals. Principals delegate their authority to agents.

Some forms of politics are aimed at __________, some at _________, and others with _________.

Some forms of politics are aimed at gaining power, some at influencing those with power, and others with bringing new people to power and throwing the old leaders out.

If the preferences are not too far out of line, then there were be a range of bargaining outcomes, some of which _______, others ________.

Some of which will slightly advantage one party, others of which advantage other parties.

One feature of the U.S. congress is the existence of "_____________," whose jurisdictions are carefully defined by law.

Standing committees. Committee members are granted specific authority within their jurisdiction to set the agenda of the larger parent chamber.

In the U.S. Senate, a _____________ is required to close debate and move to a vote.

Supermajority (60 votes).

Define Veto Power. Who possesses veto power?

The ability to defeat something even it has made it on to the agenda of an institution. Veto power is possessed by both the legislature and the president (the assent of each is required for a bill to become law).

The upside of delegation consists of __________.

The assignment of activities to precisely those agents who possess comparative advantage in performing them.

Define Jurisdiction.

The domain over which an institution or member of an institution has authority.

What is the focal point of politics for most Americans?

The electoral process

Explain Tragedy of the Commons.

The idea that a common access facility, owned by no one because it is available to everyone, will be over utilized. This type of problem reveals how unbridled self-interest can have damaging collective consequences.

Define Government.

The institutions and procedures through which a land and its people are ruled. Government is composed of institutions and processes that rulers establish to strengthen and perpetuate their power or control over a land and its inhabitants.

Why is much of politics informal, unstructured bargaining?

1. Many disputes subjected to bargaining are of sufficiently low impact that establishing elaborate formal machinery for dealing with them is just not worth the effort 2. Repetition can contribute to successful cooperation (a pattern of cooperation will develop over time).

What are the five principles of government?

1. Rationality principle 2. Institution principle 3. Collective action principle 4. Policy principle 5. History principle

The discipline of Political Science is motivated by what two (three?) fundamental questions?

1. What do we observe (empirical) 2. Why (analytical) 3. "Should" questions (normative)

** What two questions are of special importance in determining how governments differ from each other? What does each question determine?

1. Who governs? (Determines whether a government is an autocracy, oligarchy, or democracy) 2. How much government control is permitted? (Determines what limits are placed on the government; meaning whether it is a constitutional, authoritarian, or totalitarian government)

A bureau or agency is established by ___________, and its ___________ is firmly affixed.

A bureau or agency is established by law, and its jurisdiction is firmly affixed (example: Food and Drug Administration)

Define overgrazing.

A common resource that is irreparably depleted by individual actions.

Define autocracy.

A form of government in which a single individual rules.

One of the motions that can be made on the floor of a legislature is to "move" the previous question. What does a "move" do?

A move is a motion to close the debate and move immediately to a vote.

Rationality Principle

All political behavior has a purpose

Collective Action Principle

All politics is collective action

The requirement of participation must be balanced with the need to bring discussion and activity to a ___________________.

Close at some point so that a decision can be made.

Why can collective action be difficult to orchestrate?

Collective action can be difficult to orchestrate because the individuals involved in the decision making process often have different goals and preferences. The result is mixed motives for communication.

Collectivists arrange their business and routinize it in many ways, thereby enabling __________ and facilitating __________.

Collectivists arrange their business and routinize it in many ways, thereby enabling cooperation and facilitating political potential diversity in institutional arrangements.

Define Politics.

Conflict, struggle, cooperation and collaboration over the leadership, structure, and policies of government. The collective decisions that emerge from the political process. The process of determining who gets what, when, and how in a society (Harold Lasswell 1936). Alternative to war.

Knowing why something is true requires us to ______________.

Create a theory of how the world works.

Define Instrumental.

Done with purpose, sometimes with forethought, and even with calculation.

Define Free Riding.

Enjoying the benefits of some good or action while letting others bear the cost.

What does the first fundamental question (what do we observe) aim to identify?

Facts and patterns that are true in the world around us in an effort to observe and ascertain what is true about the political world

What are some of the levels of American Government?

Federal, State, County, City, Town, and Regional and Special Authorities. Each of these governments operates under its own rules and statutory and is related to the others in complex ways.

What prospect undermines collective action?

Free riding.

Those who exercise some form of agenda power are said to engage in __________.

Gatekeeping. Gatekeeping, in other words, consists of the power to make proposals and block proposals from being made.

Government bureaus called _________ serve as agents for ___________________.

Government bureaus called agencies serve as agents for elected principals in the executive and legislative branches.

What is the most common solution to the collective action problem?

Government! Institutions do the public's business while relieving communities of having to reinvent collective action each time it is required. Thus having a rationale for the government.

Governments vary in their _________, _________, and in their __________.

Governments vary in their institutional structure, in their size, and in their modes of operation.

What are some examples of informal agreements?

Horse trading, back-scratching, logrolling, and wheeling and dealing.

History Principle

How we got here matters

In Political Science, a theory is constructed from ________________ that ____________________________________.

In Political Science, a theory is constructed from five basic principles that help navigate the apparent chaos of politics and make sense of what we observe and to help us not only describe politics but analyze it.

Paradox of Political Life

In a dictatorship, lines of political authority may be simple, but opportunities to influence the use of power are very few; in America, political opportunities are plentiful, but how they should be used is far from obvious.

Electoral election view

In the "electoral election" view, elected politicians base their behavior on the goal of maximizing votes at the next election, or maximize their probability of winning.

But when the number of parties involved is too large to engage in face to face bargaining, what must be provided in order to get everyone to act collectively.

Incentives.

Political action involves building, combining, mixing, and amalgamating people's ____________.

Individual goals.

What is the first application of the institution principal?

Institutions facilitate (but do not always succeed in producing) collective action.

What are a few critical features of an institution?

Jurisdiction, agenda and veto power, decisiveness, and delegation

The politics of the legislative institution in the United States is affected by the way its ____________ are structured.

Jurisdiction-specific committees.

When it comes to legislation, agenda power is vested in the ______________?

Legislature.

Examples of public goods:

Lighthouse, national defense, clean air.

Formal bargaining is often associated with events that take place in ____________.

Official institutions - legislatures, courts, party conventions, administrative and regulatory agencies.

The problem to which commons are vulnerable is ____________.

Overgrazing.

Explain the policy principle.

Political Outcomes Are the Products of Individual Preferences and Institutional Procedures.

Government power is legitimate when it goes to __________.

Promote collective goals (pubic goods) that individuals cannot achieve.

Primary emphasis on the electoral motivation is premised by the fact that ___________.

Re-election is a necessary condition for pursuing any of the other objectives.

What is the quintessential instance of delegation?

Representative democracy. Citizens, through voting, delegate the authority to make decisions on their behalf to representatives rather than exercising political authority directly.

In general, the formal bargaining that takes place through institutions is governed by ___________________.

Rules that regularize proceedings to both maximize the prospects of reaching agreement and to guarantee that procedural wheels do not have to be reinvented each time a similar bargaining problem arises.

The more an organization values participation by the broadest range of its members, the more it needs _____________.

Rules.

Normative questions focus on "__________" issues. The answers to the empirical and analytical questions help ____________.

Should; formulate answers to the normative.

Was the complexity of America's government an accident?

The complexity of America's government was not an accident; it was intended by the framers of the constitution.

Define Agenda Power.

The control over what a group will consider for discussion.

Define Transaction Costs.

The cost of clarifying each aspect of a principle-agent relationship and monitoring it to make sure arrangements are complied with.

The discipline of Political Science and the study of American politics is devoted to ___________________.

The discipline of Political Science and the study of American politics is devoted to identifying patterns and regularities in all the noise and maneuvering of everyday political life.

What did the Framers of the Constitution hope that an elaborate division of power among institutions and between the states and federal government would allow?

The framers of the constitution hoped that an elaborate division of power among institutions and between the states and federal government would allow a variety of competing groups, forces, interests and ideas to have access to arenas of decision making and a voice in public affairs.

The goal of politics is to _______, ________, or _________.

The goal of politics is to have a share or say in the composition of the government's leadership, how the government is organized, or what its policies are going to be.

Define Collective Action.

The pooling of resources and the coordination of effort and activity by a group of people (often a large one) to achieve common goals.

The president has no general ___________ authority in the legislative process but he does have (limited) _________ power provided by the constitution.

The president has no general gatekeeping authority (agenda power) in the legislative process but he does have (limited) veto power provided by the constitution.

The downside of delegation is _______.

The prospective misalignment of the goals of agents with the goals of principals and thus the possibility of agents marching to the beat of their own drummers.

Explain the Principal-agent relationship.

The relationship between a principal and his or her agent. This relationship may be affected by the fact that each is motivated by self-interest, yet their interests may not be well aligned.

Define Delegation.

The transmission of authority to some other official or body for the latter's use (though often with the right of review and revision).

The reason that principals delegate their authority to agents is because of ____________. This is the rationale for representative democracy.

The virtues of decentralization and division and specialization of labor; both the principals and agents benefit from it.

What are some examples of commons?

- Political party's reputation - Forest - Oil reserve

Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776)

"Economic agents are not motivated by the welfare of their customers to grow vegetables, make shoes, or weave cloth; rather they do those things out of their own self-interest."

Retail Politics

"Retail Politics" involves dealing directly with constituents, as when a politician helps an individual navigate a federal agency, find a misplaced social security check, or apply to a service academy

"Wholesale Politics"

"Wholesale Politics" involves appealing to collections of constituents, as when a legislator introduces a bill that would benefit a group that is active in a state

List some examples of formal bargaining.

- Legislatures pass statutes, approve executive budgets, and oversee the administrative branch of government. -Courts administer justice, determine guilt or innocence, impose sentences, resolve differences between disputants, and render interpretive opinions about the meaning of the law. - Party conventions nominate candidates and approve the platforms on which they base their campaigns. - Administrative and regulatory agencies implement policy and make rulings about its applicability.

What are the disadvantages of the complexity of American government?

- Places a considerable burden on citizens who might wish to achieve something through political participation - Citizens may not be able to discern where particular policies are actually made, who the influential decision makers are, and what forms of political participation are more likely to be effective

What are the advantages of the complexity of American government?

- Prevents any single group or coalition from monopolizing power - America's political tradition associates complexity with liberty and political opportunity - The overall pattern would disperse power and opportunity, allowing many groups to achieve at least some of their goals (more opportunity for "everyone" to have a voice in politics)

How do principles benefit from this relationship? Agents?

- Principals benefit because they are able to off-load to experts and specialists tasks that they themselves are less capable of performing. - Agents benefit as well, since delegation means that there is a demand for their services, which enables them to exercise authority and receive compensation for their efforts.

What are some of the things that groups of individuals that are intent on collective action need?

1. Decision making procedures (relatively formal arrangements by which to resolve differences, coordinate the group to pursue a course of action, and sanction slackers if necessary). 2. Leadership structure (necessary to deal with a phenomenon known as free riding. A leadership structure would have to be in place to threaten, and if necessary, inflict punishments to discourage individuals from reneging on the individual contributions required to enable the group to pursue its common goals).

In many nations regional and local governments are ___________ of the national government. Is this the case in the United States?

Appendages; This is NOT the case in the U.S. America's state and local governments possess a significant level of independence and authority.

The most typical and widespread means of resolving collective dilemmas is ______________.

Bargaining among individuals.

What are some of the negative effects of each level of government consisting of an array of departments, agencies, offices, and bureaus, each with its own policies, jurisdictions, and responsibilities.

They often take on overlapping tasks and fail to share information properly. Example: On 9/11/2001 NYPD and NY Fire Rescue could not effectively coordinate their responses because their communication systems were not linked.

What is one of the most notorious collection action problems?

Tragedy of the Commons.

A principal will not bother to eliminate entirely the agent's prospective deviations from the principal's interests; this is because of _______________.

Transaction costs.

*** Famous Bargaining Dilemma:

Two individuals actually share a common goal but each person's individual rationality causes them to do worse than they needed to do. Had they only "suspended" their rationality and contributed to the common objective, then each would have been better served than when both are behaving in a fully rational matter.