Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Comparative Politics
Politics
Why Governments?
What are the functions of government?
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
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)
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
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.
Economic Inefficiency
Surplus? Deficit?
Food subsidies
Gas/oil/energy subsidies
Influence trading? (insider information)
One persons gain is anothers (or societys) loss
Alternatives to Government?
Markets and Voluntary coordination
Very small government
Extreme decentralization
Free market, individual property rights
Thoughts????
States
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
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
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