Sie sind auf Seite 1von 24

Concepts and Problems of

Comparative Politics

Politics

Focuses on human decisions


Power
Who gets what, when, where and why?
The authoritative allocation of values for a
society?
Political science the study of human
decisions

Why Governments?
What are the functions of government?

Enhance security, community, nation building


Secure order
Protect property
Promote economic efficiency and growth
Addresses problems of market failure (electricity, water,
sewer)
Public good(s) issues

Non-excludable
Not rival (consumption does not detract from someone elses)
Subject to market failure
No incentive for private production (clean air, national security)

Why Government?
Protect the weakest members of society
Provide parameters of social justice
Formally defined:
Governments are organizations of individuals legally
empowered to make binding decisions on behalf of a
community.
OR

Governments are the formal institutions that make


decisions about public policy and the processes and
procedures of decisionmaking.

Why Government?
Comparative Politics:
is thus the comparative study of
decisionmaking in political systems
Related to a given territory (national territory)
Backed by authority and coercion (self-defense
or expansion)

Nature of Man in Social Groups


Thought:
Hobbes and Weber; Rousseau and Locke
Weber
The defining characteristic of government is its
monopoly over the use of force

Hobbes
State of nature inhospitable (condition of man without
government)
Man in conflict against all
Nature is barbaric and fear filled
Government is the only solution to inevitable chaos
Concerned with internal and external security

Nature of Man in Social Groups


Rousseau

State of nature brutish without law, morality


Men ally to form society
The Social Contract agreement on membership
Government is a source of power and inequality and thus human
alienation and corruption
Questioned assumption that majority will always correct
Government should act morally. Should ensure freedom.

Locke
State of nature not in conflict until the creation of property
Property is the source of conflict (Its mine!)
Government with a limited role (protecting property) is good
Must have an agreed upon social contract
Establish and enforce property rights and rules of economic exchange.

Government as the Problem?


Critics: Anarchists and Libertarians
Anarchists:
Communitarians who see societies as communities
of people who in their natural condition are equal
Governments lead to corruption in these
communities which leads to oppression and
alienation
Alternative is voluntary cooperation

Government as the Problem?


Libertarians:
Individualists who see society as composed of
human beings with some fundamental rights
(property, freedom of speech)
The more government gets involved, the more prone
it is to violate basic rights; e.g. law enforcement.
Alternative is a society of unfettered individualism
Ayn Rand

Government as the Problem?


Destruction of Community
Does government build or destroy communities?

Violations of Basic Rights


Define basic rights?
Does the power held by governments allow them to
violate rights?

Economic Inefficiency
Surplus? Deficit?

Government as the Problem?


Government for Private Gain
Rent Seeking benefits created through government
intervention in the economy
Tax revenue or profits created because government restricted
competition

Food subsidies
Gas/oil/energy subsidies
Influence trading? (insider information)
One persons gain is anothers (or societys) loss

Vested interest and inertia


Once rents are created, difficult to abolish
House of Lords in Great Britain

Alternatives to Government?
Markets and Voluntary coordination
Very small government
Extreme decentralization
Free market, individual property rights
Thoughts????

Political Systems Properties of


Two Elements:
Independent parts with environmental boundaries
A set of institutions that formulate and implement the
collective goals of a society or groups within it?

Defined: A particular type of social system


involved in making authoritative public decisions
that has sovereignty.
Decisions are backed by legitimate coercion and
compellance (power)
Legitimacy: those who are ruled believe that their rulers
have a right (by law or custom) to implement their
decisions by force if necessary
The right to rule
May ebb and flow over time

States

Internal and External Sovereignty


Old and New States
Classification by Developmental Status
Classification by Size
Classification by Governmental or Political
System Type
A particular type of political system that has
sovereignty

Internal and External Sovereignty


Sovereignty
Independent legal authority over a population in a
particular territory based on the recognized right to selfdetermination
Kuwait

Internal Sovereignty
Right to determine matters regarding ones own citizens
without intervention

External Sovereignty
Right to conclude binding agreements with other states

Sovereignty Today
Traditional forms joined by new forms
Supranational organizations
European Union
North American Free Trade Agreement
United Nations
Eg: 1994 17 peacekeeping missions, 100,000
peacekeepers

United Nations subunits or related orgs:


FAO, WHO, UNESCO, IMF, World Bank

Old and New States

1945 - 68 states; increased by 117 by 1999


1999 185 member states in the U.N.
1990s - 20 new states
Taiwan, Switzerland, Vatican not members of the
U.N.
First, Second and Third World:
Advanced industrial democracies, Communist bloc,
underdeveloped/developing nations
Still useful as a categorization?

Does Size Matter in Politics?


Big and Small States:
Russia 17 million square kms
Vatican City > sq km and >1,000 residents
China 1.2 billion population

Does size determine politics?


Does area and population determine economic
development, foreign policy and defense issues?
Geographic location important to defense; central
location means you need a large army; to do this you
need high level of resource extraction =>authoritarian
regime?

Population growth rates and implications for


economic development
Economies need to keep pace with population growth

Building Community
Common identity and sense of community among
citizens important
Without a unifying factor cleavage can dominate
Japan: example of a population that is ethnically
homogeneous with shared language, little religious
diversity and strong political history; in addition, enjoys
relative geographic isolation from neighbors
Nigeria: extremely large and diverse population; no
common pre-colonial history; sharp religious divisions;
250 ethnic groups; language diversity

Nations, states, nation-states?


Nation a group of people with a common identity
(how people identify themselves)
Nations do not necessarily have government or state
Some nations have close correspondence with state e.g.;
Japan, France, Sweden
Nationhood as culture?

State political system with sovereignty


Nation-state cases in which the scope of legal
authority and national identification coincide
What about multinational states?
U.S.S.R, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia

Nationality and Ethnicity


Ethnicity Weber humans who entertain a
subjective belief in their common descent because
of similarities of physical type or of customs or
both
Croats, Serbs and Muslim Bosnians groups
which differ by religious custom, marriage and
historical memories but are physically similar;
may believe themselves to be descended from
different ancestors and thus genetically different
Jewish population of Israel today heterogeneous
from a homogeneous start culture endures but
not genetic homogeneity

Other sources of division

Language
Religious differences and fundamentalism
What happens when divisions persist?
How do these sources of difference impact
politics?

Cross-Cutting Cleavage
Political cleavage
When national, ethnic, linguistic and other divisions
systematically affect political allegiances and policies

Cross-cutting cleavage
Groups that share a common interest on one issue are
likely to be on opposite sides of different issues
Eg: Netherlands class and religion cross-cut
Catholics and Protestants are equally likely to be rich or poor
and discrimination does not focus solely on Catholics

Cumulative Cleavage
Cumulative cleavages the same people are
pitted against one another over and over
again on a wide variety of issues.
Eg: Northern Ireland; Catholicism and poverty
and history of discrimination: Protestantism and
wealth and no history of discrimination

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen