Comparative Politics

Civil Society

A society in which people are involved in social and political interactions free of state control or regulation Access to free communication and information Global civil society associated with interconnectedness

Authority

-formal power rests with individuals or groups whose decisions are expected to be carried out and respected. Legal right to rule. -decisions are binding on the political system

Coercive access channels and tactics

-frustration, discontent, anger -riots, -strikes -poltical terror tactics

Interest articulation: types or forms of citizens' participation

-Voting is most common activity -Working with others in community -Direct contact with government -Protests or other contentious action -Political consumerism

System/political system

-has two properties: 1. set of interdependent parts 2. boundaries towards the environment with which it interacts -particular type of social system- makes authoritative public decisions

Legitimate constitutional channels of access

-mass media -political parties -legislatures -government bureaucracies

What is comparative politics?

-subfield of political science and is distinct from international relations -studies politics within countries while IR studies among -enables us to compare diff countries and appreciate our own

What is comparative politics 2?

-subject of study- comparing politics and the political process across different political systems -method of study- how and why we make such comparisons

Three definitions of politics

1. "Politics is the science of who gets what, when, and how." 2. The authoritative allocation of resources and values within society." 3. Struggle for Power

System functions

????Functions: activities necessary for policy to be made and implemented in any political system

Power

A's ability to get B to do something that B would not otherwise do.

Types or categories of interest groups

Anomic Groups: spontaneous group Nonassociational Groups: common interests, rarely well- organized, activity is episodic Institutional Groups: formally organized, political parties, business corporations, bureaucracies, churches Associational Groups: trade unions, chambers of commerce, ethnic associations

Political culture (definition)

Political culture: public attitudes toward politics and their( public's) role within the political system

Duyerger's law (systematic relationship between electoral systems and party systems)

Duverger's Law states that there is a systematic relationship between electoral systems and party systems, so that plurality single-member district election systems tend to create two-party systems in the legislature, while proportional representation electoral systems generate multiparty systems.

Global Civil Society

Global civil society associated with interconnectedness

Agents of political socialization

Individuals, organizations, and institutions that influence political attitudes. Primary Family Schools Religious institutions Fundamentalism Peer groups Secondary Social class Interest groups Political parties Mass media Global influence; most people in the world watch television to learn about the world

Channels of political access

Legitimate, constitutional channels of access Illegitimate, coercive channels of access

Marketization

Marketization Greater public acceptance of free markets and private profit incentives, rather than a government-managed economy

Modernization

Modernization normally involves education, urbanization, rapid growth in public communication, and improvement in the physical conditions of life. 3. Modernization produces an increasing diversity of life conditions and a specialization of labor as people work in many types of jobs - a process that leads to the formation of large numbers of special interests.

Pluralist interest group systems: characteristics

Multiple groups represent single interest Group membership is voluntary, limited Often have loose or decentralized organizational structure Clear separation between interest groups and the government

Aristotle's Classification system

One ruler-- kingship--- tyranny few rulers-- aristocracy-- oligarchy many rulers-- polity-- democracy

The types of political culture (participant, subject, parochial)

Participants are involved as actual or potential participants in the political process. Subjects passively obey government officials and the law, but they do not vote or actively involve themselves in politics. Parochials are hardly aware of government and politics.

Interest group system

Relationship between interest groups and government policymaking institutions is important feature of political process

Diversity of States (ex china is the most populous country, russia the biggest land mass)

Since WWII 125 new countries have join the 68 states that existed in 1945. Largest group of new states is in Sub-Saharan Africa More than 20 new countries formed in the 1990s Mostly the successor states of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia These states share many characteristics, but they also vary in many ways that shape their politics. Big and small states Vatican City - smallest legally independent entity in geographic size and population Russia - largest landmass China and India - largest populations Political implications of geographic and population size? Big countries not always most important Small ones can be: Cuba, Israel, Vatican City Area and population do not determine a country's political system. Geographic location can have strategic implications.

Single member plurality system

Single-member district plurality (SMDP) election rule First past the post Variation on this is majority runoff system

Proportional representation

The number of representatives that a party wins depends on the overall proportion of the votes it receives, though no system is perfectly proportional.

Electoral systems

The rules by which elections are conducted are among the most important structures that affect political parties. 2. These rules determine who can vote, how to vote, and how votes get counted. The rules that determine how voter choices are translated into election outcomes and how votes are converted into seats are especially important.

Government and the state of nature (social contract theory)

condition of humankind if no government existed

Political socialization (definition)

involves families, schools, communications media, churches, and all the various political structures that develop, reinforce and transform the political culture, the attitudes of political significance in the society Political socialization: how individuals form their political attitudes and thus, collectively, how citizens form their political culture.

Outputs

of a political system- its extractions, distributions, regulations, and symbolic acts- its policy performance.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

optimist

Thomas Hobbes

pessimist

Types of political structures

political parties, interest groups, legislatures, executives, bureaucracies, courts

Legitimacy

psychological feeling by the people that ruler's rule is fair and just

John Locke

somewhere in the middle. No leviathan, rather limited government

The three levels of political culture (system, process, policy)

system-- pride in nation, national identity, legitmacy of gov process- role of citizens, perceptions of political rights policy- role of government, gov policy priorities The system level involves how people view the values and organizations that comprise the political system. The process level includes expectations of how politics should function and individuals' relationship to the political process. The policy level deals with the public's policy expectations for the government.