Comparative Politics Exam Study Guide

A false misconception linking democracies and economic growth:

- "legislatures have more control over economic policy, which results in greater economic growth"

An analysis of the hypothesis that higher income per capita is associated with lower infant mortality rates showed that:

- $15,000 and $60,000 per capita income nations had nearly identical infant mortality rates

The World Health Organization estimates that unsafe water is responsible for ______ of the sickness in poor countries.

- 80 percent

Secondary products:

- A secondary product is a product that comes out of a production process in addition to the main product. A secondary product can be directly consumed, used as an input in another production process, disposed of or recycled. A secondary product can be a by-product, a co- product or a residue

Tolerance (definition):

- Acceptance of another person believing or doing something that you think is wrong. - Required for a Democracy

Meaning of "equality before the law":

- All people treated equally in legal system - But: Does money undermine justice?

According to political scientist Samuel Huntington, the first wave of democratization began with:

- American and French revolutions in the 18th century

Characteristics of strong states:

- Can defend their territory - Maintain order - Implement policies effectively - Can collect taxes - They also have: > Infrastructural power (Power to implement state decisions) > Authoritative power (Power to get citizens to comply with those decision)

The country that has raised the most citizens out of poverty between 1981 and 2008 was:

- China

_______ has achieved rapid economic growth since 1980 despite considerable corruption, much like the post industrial United States did earlier in its history, when its per capita income and growth rate was similar.

- China

What are the key elements of a democracy?

- Citizen Involvement - System of Representation - Rule of Law - Electoral System - Equality - Freedom, Liberty, and Rights - Education

Pluralist democracies:

- Competing interest groups check each other's power none becomes too strong. - Protects citizens from centralized power. - Recognizes, Protects, and Promotes diversity of interests within society - Overriding interest remains: stay in power! - Does not protect freedom unless freedom is in the interest of the powerful. - It maintains the status quo does not provide opportunity to change an unjust system.

Types of equality:

- Definition: sameness in relevant aspects - Disagreement over definition: > political equality > equality before the law > equality of opportunity > economic equality > equality of respect or social equality - Voting - Running for Office - Political Influence

What conclusion was drawn from the Institute of Democracy and Electoral assistance in 1998?

- Democracy is the world's most prevalent political system

Regions with most extreme poverty:

- Difference in capabilities is stark between the most and least developed countries. - Most of the countries with low capabilities are located in sub-Saharan Africa. - Has the highest percentages of citizens with the lowest capability. > Niger: in 2011, 119 of every 1,000 children died before their fifth birthday; the adult literacy rate was 42%. > Sub-Saharan Africa has highest percentage of extremely poor people. > However, the region with largest number of absolutely poor is South Asia. >>>Bangladesh, India, Pakistan >>>India has more malnourished children than sub-Saharan Africa.

Direct vs. representative democracy:

- Direct Democracy: Citizens take part personally in deliberations and vote on issues. Citizens debate and vote on all laws. - Representative Democracy: Citizens choose (elect) other citizens to debate and pass on laws.

Relationship between economic and human development:

- Economic and human development generally reinforce each other: > Economic development generates more choices for people; resources for public good. > In turn, better educated, healthier people can perform better, which promotes more economic development. > Positive correlation, but not always perfect >>>India, for example, has division between urban and rural.

Economic development:

- Economic development is the process of increasing a country's wealth by diversifying the goods and services it produces and making production more efficient. - As countries develop economically, agriculture begins to make up a smaller part of the economy and manufactured goods become more important. - Simple manufacturing to more sophisticated manufacturing. - Eventually manufacturing decreases, losing ground to service, professional and managerial activities known as post-industrial economies. - Most developed countries began this process in the mid to late 1800s. > Independent vs. colonial countries (Latin America was an exception.) > By 1980s, several newly industrialized countries emerged. >>> Singapore, South Korea > Second and third categories of less developed countries that have not had equivalent success >>>Most of the Latin American, Middle Eastern, North African, and Asian countries > Negligible development: Sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti, North Korea, Afghanistan

Elitist democracies:

- Elites (usually "experts" but not necessarily) should rule. - Citizens choose between elite proposals. - Result is a smoothly running & efficient government and society. - Politics is too complex for average citizens to be able to create good policy. - Efficiency is not as important as citizen influence on policy making. - Average citizen is capable of understanding the complexity of politics.

Models of democracy:

- Elitist theories of democracy - Pluralism - Corporatism - Participatory Democracy

Extreme poverty level globally:

- Extent of extreme poverty can be described two ways. - Percentages: The world's extreme poverty was halved in just 20 years. But: a billion people still will suffer from extreme poverty in 2015. > Sub-Saharan Africa has highest percentage of extremely poor people. > However, the region with largest number of absolutely poor is South Asia. >>>Bangladesh, India, Pakistan >>>India has more malnourished children than sub-Saharan Africa.

The 3 waves of democratic transitions:

- First wave had its root in American and French revolutions of the 18th century; began to recede in the 1930s. - Defeat of fascism in World War II inaugurated a second wave of democratization. > Germany, Austria, and Japan emerged from Allied occupation as democracies. Many former European colonies adopted democratic constitutions when they achieved independence. > Began to recede in 1960s. Return to authoritarianism in many African and Asian countries. - Third wave appeared before the second fully receded. In 1974, Portugal emerged from dictatorship, followed by Greece and Spain. > The wave moved to Latin America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil); then Asia (India and the Philippines, Korea, Turkey and Pakistan). > Finally in Europe: Berlin Wall fell—Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and finally the Soviet Union itself

Freedom vs. license:

- Freedom: the ability to do what you want within a set of rules/boundaries - License: the ability to do what you want without rules or boundaries

Main themes of Guns, Gems, and Steel:

- Geographic Success > Diamond's main theme in Guns, Germs, and Steel is that the advantage of one society over another is not based on race or intelligence as some historians have claimed but instead on geography. Certain favorable aspects of local geography allow a group of people who live in that area to more easily produce food. As these people learn to farm the land and raise specific crops rather than forage for them, they find they have more time for other activities. They create rules that benefit their existence, designate certain members to focus on tasks beyond those of pure survival, and thus set up complex societies. From this advantage over the basic nomadic lives of hunters and foragers, the more stabilized and organized communities emerge as conquerors. Diamond asserts that one group of people is not more intelligent than another but rather that the more successful group lived in an area whose environment provided for cultural advantages. In other words, those who lived in more fertile areas, such as around the Mediterranean, as opposed to those who settled in the Arctic area or in the African Sahara, had a much greater chance of success. - Geographic Failure > Diamond also focuses on the opposite side of his major theme. Instead of concentrating just on how and why societies succeed, he explores why societies fail and how those failures become permanent if certain environmental conditions are not met. Societies that are forced to be hunters and gatherers because of the geography in which they live will always be at a disadvantage. Another condition that marks a group of people for failure is the inability to create a sufficiently dense population. This might be due to an unfavorable climate or to an insufficient supply of essential raw materials. A successful community also needs to be able to domesticate crops and animals

Main points of the documentary Guns, Gems, and Steel:

- Geographic location enabled some societies to develop agriculture and complex social structures. - The failure of societies can also be attributed to geography: the need to hunt and forage rather than farm creates impediments to social development, as does a lack of natural resources or an unfavorable climate. - The ability to trade goods and ideas also increases societal progress. Isolated communities are at a disadvantage once more advanced societies invade them. - The main point of this book is that geography, and not things like race or culture, is the main factor that determines which societies have become powerful and have not. In support of this main point, there are some other major points. They include: - Societies are powerful if they have "guns, germs, and steel." - Societies get "guns, germs, and steel" only if they can become large, agricultural societies. - Agriculture can develop in some areas and not in others. - Geographical factors (like the availability of plants and animals that can be domesticated), rather than race or culture, determine which areas become agricultural and which do not. - In this way, the less important points build up to a proof (in Diamond's mind) of the main point of the book.

Gerrymandering (definition):

- Gerrymandering involves the redrawing of election district boundaries to maximize the number of legislative seats that can be won by the political party in charge of redrawing the district boundaries. Simply put: to draw a district's boundaries to gain an advantage in elections - Packing: Putting as many members of one party into one district to limit the amount of seats they win - Cracking: Splitting voters of the opposing party into two different districts

The US had the third best HDI in the world, but the 16th highest ______ in the world.

- HDI, adjusted for inequality

Human development:

- Human development is the process of expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. - U.N. Development Programme's Human Development - Index (HDI) has three components. > How healthy people are in a country, based on life expectancy at birth. > How knowledgeable they are, based on adult literacy and school enrollments. > Whether they enjoy a decent standard of living, based on purchasing power. - Norway had the highest HDI score; Mosambique's was the lowest. - HDI scores do not include indicators of safety or democratic rights. > Also created an Inequality-Adjusted Human > Development Index, the actual level of human development, accounting for inequality.

Components of the HDI index:

- Index (HDI) has three components. > How healthy people are in a country, based on life expectancy at birth. > How knowledgeable they are, based on adult literacy and school enrollments. > Whether they enjoy a decent standard of living, based on purchasing power.

Infant mortality, literacy, and homicide rates in democracies vs. authoritarian regimes:

- Infant mortality rates > Highly correlated with a state's form of government, with more democratic countries recording lower infant mortality rates. > Full democracies rated highest at 4%. > Flawed democracies performed much worse, with infant mortality rates almost 5 times as high as full democracies. > Hybrid regimes did worse, at 37%. > Authoritarian regimes performed worst of all at 45%. - Literacy rates > Performance gaps between regimes are much more muted. > In full democracies, 99% of citizens are literate. > Flawed democracies averaged 91%. > Authoritarian regimes (81%) outperformed hybrid regimes (76%). - Homicide Rates > Full democracies again performed better than their peers, but democracy made less difference the more it declined. > Average homicide rate for flawed democracies was almost six times worse than full democracies, even higher than average homicide rate found in authoritarian regimes.

Corporatist democracies:

- Interest groups are integrated into the government. - More harmonious interactions within society. - Interest groups help government make policy that reflects the common good and interests of the society. - Increases the power of unelected people - The concept is irrevocably tainted by Fascism. - Reduces citizen involvement

Historian David Landes believes that political culture was key to Japanese success, despite the fact that Protestant ethic has never been ingrained there. Why is that?

- Japan created a uniquely Japanese version of Protestant work ethic, one that had emphasized rationality, order, diligence, and productivity

Participatory democracies:

- Low voter turnout should not be "rationalized." - Advocate "Citizen Law-makers" People are more likely to follow laws they help to create. - If we must have representative democracy then we must create incentives for more participation - Impractical in large republics - Policies will less often be made by experts

Characteristics of weak states:

- Many cannot even satisfy the minimal task of maintaining law and order. - Have little authority beyond the immediate vicinity of the capital city - Strongmen, gangs, or warlords rule parts of the country - Officials often ignore rules and statutes - A key problem: > Corruption > Behavior by government personnel for private personal gain, or gain of friends, family, or allies > Takes many forms 1. Exists from capital city to civil servants 2. Economic development can coexist with corruption

Reasons for South Korea's extraordinary success:

- Military regime assumed power in 1961, set out to industrialize South Korea and succeeded. > Government-controlled banks funded development of privately owned industrial conglomerates and helped them become competitive internationally. > Puzzle: little inefficiency or theft of state funds; how did they manage to succeed? - Several factors came into play: > Threatened by two hostile neighbors, North Korea and China; had to industrialize rapidly to survive. > The military needed capitalist support to achieve its goal. > The government inherited a relatively competent state bureaucracy and a good infrastructure of roads and electricity from South Korea's years as a Japanese colony. > It received considerable economic aid from the United States. > Success developing both industrialization and capabilities. > Expansion of education and health care, although there was also repression by the military regime of civil and political rights and workers' rights. > Regime fell in 1987. Democracy emerged and these rights expanded. > In 2008, South Korea had lower infant mortality rates, longer life expectancies, and better literacy rates than the U.S.

Elements of political equality and potential problems/constraints associated with those:

- Must be a citizen - Must be appropriate age - Felons can't vote - Informal constraints: > Race and Sex > Age or physical disability

Natural rights vs. civil rights:

- Natural Rights: Rights a person has a human being - Civil Rights: Rights derived from government.

Besides Saudi Arabia, ______ is the other country shown to have a divergence between its per capita income and HDI rankings.

- Nigeria

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, in their work, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, use _______ and _______ to test their hypothesis.

- North and South Korea

Meaning of "equality of opportunity":

- Related to social stratification and mobility system. - Every individual in society will be able to move up or down within the class or status system depending on that individual's ability and application of that ability. - No artificial barriers to upward mobility. - But: what counts as artificial? race, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation?

Problem/result of non-voting:

- Result of not voting is the transference of political power to others

Adjusted for purchasing power, the per capita income of the United States is lower than that of:

- Singapore

The real meaning of "economic equality" and potential problems resulting from inequalities in this area:

- Strict definition: Same income and Living standards. - But we really mean: minimum level of social and economic security. - Without this security we get no or low participation in certain classes; poor folks vote less than rich folks. - undemocratic effects of economic inequality

According to Transparency International, the least corrupt country among Sweden, Brazil, Saudi, and China is:

- Sweden

Examples of methods used in participatory democracies:

- Term limits - Recall Elections (California)

Measuring economic development:

- The progress of economic development is measured in two ways: > Changes in the predominant economic structure, from agricultural to manufacturing to the service sector > Increasing per capita income

freedom, liberty (negative vs. positive) and rights:

- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)-People are equal in the rights they have. - Freedom: ability to act without restraint; but: "harm principle:" your freedom to swing your arm stops at my nose. - Liberty: social and political freedom. - Right: Legally guaranteed freedom.

All countries with a per capita income of over $30,000 have homicide rates lower than 5 in every 100,000 except:

- United States

In comparison with single-vote district plurality vote electoral rules, multimember districts with proportional representation have:

- a greater range of parties available to the voters

A clear-cut example of corruption:

- a postal worker in Latin America tells a business he cannot find a very important package, but that he might be able to find it for the right price

In what way did France most hamper Haitian development?

- after Haitian slaves gained independence from France in 1804, the French government saddled the nation with decades of reparation payments

Popular sovereignty:

- all power emanates from the people

Statistics on adult literacy rates show:

- authoritarian regimes perform better than hybrid democracies

For a nation to be considered a democracy, the nation must:

- be accountable to and reflect the will of the people

Why might low income nations face high rates of disease from untreated water, despite the fact that these diseases are easily preventable:

- because government elites have chosen to allocate revenues for other priorities, such as enriching themselves and their cronies

The comparison between democracies and dictatorships:

- both are able to promote economic growth

An analysis of the relationship between per capita income and adult literacy rates shows that:

- countries at very different levels of income can achieve nearly 100% literacy rates

Over the past 20 years, economic growth can be credited with ________ in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Latin America

- decreasing poverty

Countries that use proportional voting tend to:

- develop multi-party systems

"Using the standard of higher citizens capabilities for measuring the performance of many types of governments" yields to the statement:

- economic growth is a fairly poor measurement for comparing how different kinds of states develop citizens' capabilities.

In 2000, the editors of the magazine The Economist called Africa the "hopeless continent." 13 years later the same magazine termed the continent the "hopeful continent" due to:

- economic growth rates in several nations of sub-Saharan Africa being among the world's highest with as diversifying economy

Measurements of health, safety, and education show:

- full democracies perform better than any other form of government

What, according to author Jared Diamond, were some of the reasons that geography gave European nations and advantage over others, over time?

- geography gave Europe an advantage in crops, as well as the use of large animals, which lead to the development of technology and dense, stratified cities

The one in ten children who make it to their first birthday in Angola are likely to:

- have poor health care, face risk from a high homicide rate, and die before age 55

What is the main difference between presidential and parliamentary systems of democracy?

- how the head of the executive branch is chosen

Saudi Arabia is in the World Bank's top development category but is in the United Nationals Development Programme's second highest, suggesting that it has not done as good of a job at:

- human development as it has with economic development

Compared to both majority and plurality systems, systems that use proportional representation are more likely to:

- include left-winged parties in the government

Economic development can be defined as _____ within a nation.

- increasing wealth by diversifying goods and services and increasing productivity

The second wave of democratization was spurred by:

- independence movements struggling to end colonial rule

What would give you the best chance of determining whether or not a particular country is a democracy or a dictatorship:

- infant mortality rate

The United-State's backed government in Afghanistan's inability to maintain law and order in its country side, and the resurgence of Taliban control in some areas, demonstrated that the government lacked:

- infrastructural and authoritative power

What accurately describes a country with single member districts and a plurality voting system?

- it is not necessary for the winning candidate to receive 50 percent of the votes cast

What is a part of the human development index (HDI):

- life expectancy, adult literacy rates, school enrollments, and income purchasing power

South Korea's rapid industrial development after 1961 occurred under:

- military rule

The test of the hypothesis that democracies do a better job of providing safety for citizens as measured by homicide rates found that:

- most democratic regimes have the lowest homicide rate

Primary products:

- oil, copper, and other raw materials for growth. - When commodity prices were high, economies grew rapidly; when prices dropped, growth collapsed. - Primary products are goods that are available from cultivating raw materials without a manufacturing process. Significant primary product industries include, agriculture, fishing, mining, and forestry

Why is party discipline higher under proportional representation than under majority and plurality electoral systems?

- party leaders who control the ordering of the party list used in the system of proportional representation expect loyalty from party members to help them advance the party's agenda

What claim about regimes has the strongest supporting evidence?

- people have more opportunities in full democratic regimes than authoritarian regimes

Why direct democracies are unworkable in most places:

- people living in large, complex societies cannot realistically get together to participate in the law making process

What event can occur in a presidential system, but not a parliamentary one?

- people vote directly for the head of the executive branch

The percentage of people in sub-Saharan nations who live in extreme poverty dropped from 1981 to 2008, but the number of absolutely poor people has increased thanks to:

- population increases in the region

The US has poor people, but their poverty is usually not so severe that it endangers their lives. Instead, they are most likely to experience:

- relative poverty, in that they are poor in relation to other people

The region of the world with the largest number or people having low capabilities is:

- south Asia

The region of the world with the largest percent of people having low capabilities is:

- sub-Saharan Africa

________ over the past 150 years was the main force behind falling poverty levels and rising capabilities in today's high income countries.

- sustained economic growth

One researcher called this "the biggest and best story in development" of the 21st century's first decade:

- the decline in the mortality rate for children under the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa

What factor indicates that economic growth is a poor indicator of how well a government serves its citizens:

- the distribution of economic growth can be distributed in many different ways

What is one feature of a parliamentary democracy?

- the legislature is the only institution that is directly elected

What played the most important role in the emergence of democracy during the 19th and early 20th centuries?

- the middle class

Political paralysis is most likely to occur under what condition?

- the officers of the legislative and executive branches are elected separately

Belgium's experience after the June 2010 election demonstrates _____________.

- the possibilities of political dysfunction in a democratic nation

What occurrence most likely lead citizens to feel that the president is unrepresentative?

- the president is elected from a large field of candidates with a small plurality of votes

Democracies clearly outperform authoritarian governments in:

- they promote steady economic performance

The essence of "winner take all"/"first past the post" vs. proportional representation elections/electoral systems and their pros and cons:

- winner take all: (%50 + 1) US system is "Winner takes all" or "first past the post" (FPTP). - Result: Minority view is not represented - proportional representation: Seats are allocated in the legislature on the basis of percentage of votes cast for party A=%35 B = %30 C= %25 D = %10. - Governments are formed in coalition with other parties in order to make %50 + 1. - Europe

5 key factors that explain why some countries become more economically developed than others

1. Geography > Is considered the most important variable by some. > It explains a great deal in terms of advantages and disadvantages. > Rich natural resources, or none > Fertile soil or deserts > Ocean seaports and navigable rivers, or landlocked > Deadly and debilitating disease > But geography alone cannot work as an all-purpose explanation. >>> Exception: South Korea vs. North Korea 2. Culture > Culture argues that the success of different societies is determined by what is in people's heads rather than under their feet. > Protestant work ethic helps explain economic development in northern Europe (Weber) > Culture makes almost all the difference (Landes) > Japanese version of the work ethic > Social capital and trust > Culture is not an all-purpose explanation. 3. Colonialism: Formal political rule of one country over another. > Some argue that these allowed European powers to fund their own economic development while stripping colonies of their wealth and blocking their potential for growth. > Haiti was richest society in 1790; all profits went to France. > After 1804, in exchange for independence, Haiti was impoverished for centuries. > Intense debate over this theory. 4. Institutions > Economic institutions affect individuals' incentives to invest in businesses, factories, and new technologies. > Political institutions determine what economic institutions a country has. > Emerged first in northern Europe > Puzzle: why are some countries able to manage to establish these institutions while others are not? > Answer: distribution of political power >>>Geography matters, too. 5. Leadership > Leadership is not addressed by geography, culture, colonialism, or institutions. > Leadership clearly plays a role in promoting or hindering economic development. > Leaders' will and skill in choosing successful policies, constructing coalitions of supporters for these policies, and establishing effective and political institutions. > Paul Kagame in Rwanda > General Park Chung Hee in South Korea

Civil liberties (7 of those):

1. Right to Vote 2. Speech 3. Press 4. Assembly 5. Religion 6. Movement 7. Freedom from arbitrary treatment by the political and legal system.

3 main variables to understand politics:

1.Interests 2. Institutions 3. Identity & Culture