POS350
8/26/19
Why is Britain struggling to put together a Brexit plan?
o Why do some countries want to remain part of international organizations
and others do not?
o What are the possible effects and individuals and businesses s a result of
international trade negotiations
Why are country governments encouraging environmentally-friendly innovation?
o Why are some countries more proactive than others?
o How does/doesn’t a country’s population push its government to reduce
environmental degradation and pollution
How and why do a country’s political institutions and socio-political relations
affect political economic, and security outcomes?
Read syllabus
September 18 and November 6 are the simulation days, MUST ATTEND
2 exams: October 0 and December 4
Oct7 and Nob 4 are when papers are due
On Wednesday, covering the first chapters of the book
8/28/19
Democracy
o Free elections
o Free independent media
o Form of checks and balances
o Minimal censorship
Authoritarian
o State controlled media
o Pervasive state security
o Borders closed
o Rigged elections (If there even are elections)
Institutions of a democracy
o In the US, judicial, legislative, and executive
o How countries recognize freedom and equality
Politics
o Politics is about the struggle over resources and how to utilize them
Comparative Politics
o Assumes there is a specific way political outcome emerge and how
political outcomes are made
o Politics within states
Comparative method
o Take two or more countries/groups/historical periods and evaluate what is
going on with major issues
o Generate hypothesis between cause and effect
Puzzling Question
o Why something occurs that we did not expect
o In Singapore, there is not natural source of water. The government
subsidized water
Is this why it’s an authoritative state? Because the
government can control a basic life necessity like water
The more a government can make the population depend on
the system, is it more likely for them to be authoritative?
Agreement
o Method in which the outcome across comparison is relatively the same
Method of Difference
o Outcome should be different while the things leading up to it were similar
Both of these methods rely on predispositions is that really an accurate ,
way to predict an outcome
MUST VIEW TEDTALKS, THE STUFF IS GOING TO BE ON EXAM
Can correlations only be between independent variables?
9/4/19
Why the state?
o A political-legal unit with sovereignty over a particular territory and the
population that resides within its borders
o Success and stability rest on three factors
Legitimacy
Sovereignty
Efficiency
Why do we need the state?
o Modern nation-states exist to solve the balance between individual and
collective interests
o Collective action problem
A clash between individual and collective interests
o Prisoner’s dilemma
In politics our choices are related: what I choose might affect you
(and vice versa)
o Why did vaccinated people get measles at Disneyland? Blame the
unvaccinated
o How does “the state” solve the collective action problem?
Hobbes’s problem
Clash between individual and collective interests
State of nature
The Leviathan
Hobbes’s solution
Using coercion and gaining consent
The social contract
The state and its institutions guarantee that social contract
o Establishing state institutions
Sovereignty
Centralized decision-making
Possibility of coercion
Monopoly over the legitimate use of force
o Where did early states come from?
Political interests
Military context: competition over territory
Economic context: increase in agricultural and industrial
productivity
Cultural identity context: individual self interest replaces
predestination
Natural environmental impact
Population density
o Where did later states come from?
Political interests
Military context: few wars fought after 1945, except civil wars
Economic context: economic dependence
Cultural identity context: weak connection between state and
nation
Natural environment impact
Difficult terrain can create additional hurdles of governance
o Comparing states
Early states
Strong states
Process of becoming a state is slow
Increased likelihood for economic growth
Later States
Weak or failing states
Process of becoming a state is fast
Increased likelihood for corruption
Increased likelihood for civil wars
o Why compare state strength
What if we want to know if states most at risk of failure or collapse
are more likely to go to war?
State fragility index
Measures state strength as a function of state effectiveness
and legitimacy
The state as a personal computer system
o State = the machinery
The political-legal unit with sovereignty over a particular territory
and the population that resides within its borders
o Regime = the programming
The basic form of a state’s government
o Government = the operator
The organization that has the authority to act on behalf of the state
and the right to make decisions that affect everyone in the state
9/9/19
Democratic political regimes
What is democracy?
o A political system in which the rulers are accountable to the ruled
o The way rulers come to power (elections most likely)
o The practices that hold rulers accountable for their actions (rule of law)
o This definition continues to evolve and no state fits it perfectly
What is the rule of law?
o Uniform and consistent application of legal norms and rules
o Exercised through institutions of a democratic state
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
What democracy is/does not
o Does not consist of a single unique set of institutions or procedures
o Does not require a particular combination or form of state institutions
o Is not necessarily more efficient or more ‘governable’ than non-democratic
regimes
Defining democracy
o Accountability
A political mechanism that gives citizens opportunities to remove
the rulers from office
o Participation
Electorate: a group of citizens eligible to participate in the election
of government leaders
Universal suffrage: all adults citizens have the right to participate in
elections
o Contestation
Real competition for power among various parties
9/11/19
Non-democratic regime
o Regime: the basic form of a state’s government
o Two types: democratic and non-democratic
o Non-democratic regimes
The government uses institutions of the state to shape citizens’
interests and identities
Absence of free and fair elections
o Almost one in four states today have some type of non-democratic
regimes
Principles of non-democratic rule
o Selectorate
A small subset of the national population that chooses and removes
the leader or leaders
In democracies all electorate = selectorate
o Reciprocal accountability
Totalitarian vs authoritarian regimes
o Totalitarian regimes
Dominate, coerce, mobilize and indoctrinate
General goal: citizens accept the official state ideology
o Authoritarian regimes
Use coercion to de-mobilize citizens and limit political pluralism
General goal: remain in power
Use of ideology
o Ideology
A set of political beliefs or ideas that structures political interests
and that motivates people to act politically in particular ways
o Totalitarian regimes
Resemble cults
Focus on ideological indoctrination
Ideologies are overt, systematic, institutionalized, godmatic,
totalizing
o Authoritarian regimes
Not focused on promoting an ideology
More focused on maintaining control
Extent of coercive mobilization
o Totalitarian regimes: extensive
Wants society to demonstrate their compliance and support
Example
Young Pioneers program (USSR)
Komsomol (USSR)
o Authoritarian regimes: limited
Trying to demobilize the population on political issues
Coercion may occur to try and keep groups from mobilizing
Degree of social and political pluralism
o Totalitarian regimes: none
Neither social freedoms nor political pluralism are allowed
Tools to maintain control
o Authoritarian regimes: limited
Social freedoms will often be permitted
Political pluralism is not allowed
Institutions of non-democratic regimes
o Monarchies
Absolute: no selectorate, ruler is unaccountable
o Single party regimes
Single party that dominates all government institutions and restricts
competition
o Military regimes
Military officers comprise both selectorate and leadership
o Oligarchies
“rule by few”, usually economic, social, or political elite
9/16/19
Why do some authoritarian states hold elections?
o Façade of democratic legitimacy
o Highly controlled
o Placate much of society
o But there are risks…
If you go through the high risk of an election, you must suppress
the results if they do not go in your favor
Catalysts of regime change
o Long-term
Domestic
International
o Short-term
Typically apply only to a particular case
How and when does regime change occur?
o Strategies of regime change
Accommodation
Confrontation
Peaceful mobilization
Militant mobilization
o Regime change outcomes
No change
Gradual opening / reform
Quick overthrow
The future of regime change
o Illiberal democracies
Some democracy + some non-democracy
o From illiberal democracies to “Not free”?
Growth in the number of “partly free” illiberal democracies
o Case studies
Spain, Chile, Philippines
9/23/19
Political identity
o Political identity
How individuals characterize themselves and others
How you think about you and others shapes the way you see power
in the state
o Ascriptive identities
Born or raised with
o Descriptive identities
Acquired over time
Ethnic and national identity
o Ethnic identity
Not necessarily political
Not necessarily exclusive
Most difficult to change
Based on shared factors
Conflicts can cross with political and economic issues
o National identity
Almost exclusively political
Relatively exclusive
Less difficult to change
Based on the concept of nation
Conflicts tend to focus primarily on political issues and nationalism
Political identities
o Race – influences ethnic groups, race has been a long divided. More
likely to trust someone from your own race
o Gender
o Age
o Social class
o Status (student, worker, etc.)
o Education
o Religion
o Political identity influences how people think/feel/vote. You are more likely
to trust someone who shares similarities with your identity (even
subconsciously). For example, as a college student I’m more likely to trust
someone who is also college educated because we share similarities and
experiences. Another example is I know several women who voted for
Hillary Clinton for the sole reason she was a women, even some
republican women changed parties for the election because of the identity
of the candidate.
o Essentially, you’re most likely to support policies with the identities you
most strongly identify with. Most people will chose the policy that have a
shared sense of values and experiences that you identify with.
Politicizing identity: primordialism
o Primordialism
o Samuel Hunting and global conflict
o Samuel Huntington’s critics
Politicizing identity: constructivism
o Constructivism
o Political salience: the important of a political issue
o Identity and individual choice
o Identity and the social context
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