Gov unit1

Introduction to Comparative Politics

 Activities associated with the control of public
decisions among a given people in a given territory
→ decisions are authoritative and done with formal
power
→ decisions are public, not private
Political science is the study of these decisions

Government:
 organization of individuals who are legally empowered
to make binding decisions on behalf of a particular
community
 group of institutions and people authorized by formal
documents to have a set of powers

• Night Watchman State – government provides basic
law & order, defense and property protection, but little
else (limited government, 19th century)
• Police State – seen in authoritarian government,
especially communist & fascist
• Welfare State – programs of social welfare,
unemployment, insurance, pensions, etc.
• Regulatory State – similar to welfare state but with
stricter regulations

Condition if no government existed
• Thomas Hobbes – felt state of nature was chaos &
conflict; government provided order & control
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau – felt state of nature was ideal;
government corrupted society
• John Locke – in the middle; felt government was
necessary for protection, but favored a limited
government

• Community & Nation Building – stability, peace, a
common culture
• Need for security & order – protect from internal &
external attacks
• Protection – property and social & political rights
• Promote economic efficiency & growth – public &
private goods, limit market failures (monopolies, i.e.)
 Social Justice – redistribute wealth & resources, protect
the weakest members of society

 Destruction of community (economic or political
reasons)
 Basic rights violations
 Economic Inefficiency – restrictions, governmental
monopolies, etc.
 Private Gain – rent seekers are people who use political
pursuit for private gain
 Critics of government – anarchists (want no
government) libertarians (want limited government)

• Set of institutions that formulate & implement the
collective goals of society or of groups in society
(legislative bodies, interest groups, courts, etc.)
• Shaped by domestic and international environment
• A collection of related and interacting institutions and
agencies
• More successful with higher legitimacy

 A state is a political system that has sovereignty → the
right to govern
 All individuals and institutions that make public
policy, whether they are in government or not (interest
groups, i.e.)

 Internal Sovereignty – deals with matters of citizens
 External Sovereignty – deals with matter of other
states

 Country – distinct, politically defined territories that
encompass political
institutions, cultures, economies, and ethnic and
other social identities
Historically the most significant source of a people's
identity
 State – a cluster of powerful political institutions; key
institutions responsible for
making, implementing, and enforcing policies
Often synonymous with “government”

 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: Mongolia
 Small ones can be: Cuba, Israel
 Area and population do not determine a country’s
political system.
 Geographic location can have strategic implications.

 Pressures from Above
A state loses some of its sovereignty from
supranational entities
 NAFTA, EU, IMF
To get an IMF bail out Mexico had to privatize many of its
1,155 state-owned enterprises
 Pressures from Below
A state cedes sovereignty to regional (sub-national)
entities
 Devolution in the UK
 Regional Cleavages

 193 States are currently recognized by the United Nations
 States can be multinational
Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia
 Nations can be larger than states
Germany
China
 Nations can be divided into distinct states
Korea
East & West Germany
 Nations can have no state
The Kurds
The Basques
The Palestinians

• 1st world – capitalist democracy
• 2nd world – communist (mainly Soviet)
• 3rd world – remaining states that weren’t rich, western
or communist
• 4th world – lack of resources, appear doomed
These terms are outdated → today we use…..
– North States – rich, capitalist democracies
– South States – developing states

 Gross National Product (GNP) – output per person that
is a citizen of a nation, regardless of where they live
(most common)
 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – output per person in a
nation, regardless of where they are from
 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) – measures price levels of
nations; most accurate
 Also measure industrialization, income, education, life
expectancy, birth rates, access to health care in addition
to GNP/GDP
 These are used to compare rich versus poor countries
 These are important because income inequality can lead
to political instability

 Building community
 Fostering economic, social & political development
 Securing a democracy and civil liberties

 Nation – group of people with a common identity
(language, history, race, culture)
 Most states are multi-national (can be culturally diverse or
explosive with conflict)
 Ethnicity- identification based on racial, cultural or
historical characteristics
• Religion plays a role
– Christianity is largest religion, Islam is fastest growing
– Religious fundamentalism is on the rise (reject modern
testaments/views)
 Language – approximately 5000 languages spoken today
 8 world languages:
English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, French, Germa
n & Chinese

 Political systems must have economic development to
satisfy citizens
 Rich & poor countries differ in
health, education, media and industry
 Many states have internal economic inequality
 Environment has suffered from
industrialization, economic development &
population growth

 Nation-State is when the national identification & legal
authority coincide
 Old states (pre WWII) were mostly European
 New states (post WWII) are mainly African and post-Soviet
Union
 Old & New
68 states existed in 1945
By 2005, 125 new countries had been created

 States – the organizations that control a territory
 Country – includes the territory and people living
within a state
 Government – the leadership or elite that administer
the state
The Obama administration

 Regimes are the norms and rules regarding individual
freedoms and collective equality, the locus of power,
and the use of that power
“The rules of the game governing the exercise of power”
 Democratic Regimes
 Authoritarian Regimes
 Illiberal – partly free, some personal liberties and
democratic rights are limited

Cleavage- deep and long-lasting political divisions
 Political cleavage is when national, ethnic, linguistic &
religious divisions effect policy
 Cumulative cleavages are when the same people
oppose one another on many issues
 Cross cutting cleavages are when groups with a
common interest on one issue are on opposite sides of
another issue
→ Cumulative cleavages are more destructive

• Democracy - leaders are elected in free and fair
elections; citizens have basic rights & freedoms
• Democratization - the process of developing
democratic states

Samuel Huntington’s “3rd Wave of Democratization”
 1st wave was after WWI
 2nd wave was after WWII
 3rd wave started in mid-1970’s
 Democracy is the fastest growing political system

 Environmental issues
 Economic inequality and instability
 Ethnic differences
 Religious differences

Gov unit1

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