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Politics International Studies Semester 2
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International Studies Politics important readings and final exam
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International Studies Politics lecture notes
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College aantekeningen (Lectures) Politics (5181V7PO) Essentials of Comparative Politics, ISBN: 9780393624588
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Politics IExam: Definitions, O’neill key terms/theories, lecture material, structure, for and against, build an
argument, examples, look into lecture slides, might use external sources (not necessary). Focus on
demands of question and !attempt!, citation (: Author, Year, Page number), 6 questions only answer 4,
end answer with conclusion which goes back to question, 350 words
Chapter 1:
Politics is the pursuit of power in any organization, and comparative politics is the study of this
struggle around the world
Comparative politics: the systematic search for answers to political questions about how people
around the world make and contest authoritative public choices.
Hypothesis: an argument linking cause to effect.
Falsifiable: the possibility that a hypothesized relationship can be shown to be incorrect
Comparative model: compare cases and draw conclusions, a way to examine patterns of facts or
events to narrow down what is important in terms of building a convincing comparative politics
argument.
Correlation: a measure of observed association between two variables.
Causation: a process or event that produces an observable effect.
Types of research:
– Quantitative method: Gathering of statistical data across many countries to look for
correlations and test hypotheses about cause and effect. Emphasis on breadth over
depth
– Qualitative method: Mastery of a few cases through the detailed study of their
history, language, and culture. Emphasis on depth over breadth.
– Mixed methods research: uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques, in an
effort to build convincing claims about the relationships between attributes and
outcomes.
Inductive reasoning: examining a country eventually form hypothesis because just one country
is analysed, there is not enough evidence to test the hypothesis
Deductive reasoning: hypothesis test a number of cases
Multicausality: many variables interact and produce particular outcomes
Selection bias: only study countries with i.e. evolution through inequality, but not countries with
inequality that did not lead to revolution
Endogeneity: problem of distinguishing cause and effect
,Problems in Comparative Research
Controlling a large number of variables.
Controlling for the interaction of variables (multicausality).
Limited number of cases to research.
Limited access to information from cases.
Uneven research across cases and regions.
Cases selected on the basis of effect and not cause (selection bias).
Variables may be either cause or effect (endogeneity). IN FOCUS
Trends in Comparative Politics
1. Traditional approach:
Emphasis on describing political systems and their various institutions.
2. Behavioural approach:
The shift from a descriptive study of politics to one that emphasizes causality,
explanation, and prediction; emphasizes the political behaviour of individuals more
than larger political structures and quantitative more than qualitative methodology;
modernization theory predominates.
Institutions
Organizations or patterns of activity that are self-perpetuating and valued for their own
sake.
Embody norms or values that are considered central to people’s lives and thus are not
easily dislodged or changed.
Set the stage for political behaviour by influencing how politics is conducted.
Vary from country to country.
Exemplified by the army, taxation, elections, and the state.
Lecture 1: Gerrits
• What is politics about:
– Ideas (i.e. Marxism impact on Communism)
– Organizations (govts, UN, military)
– Morality (legitimacy of pursuing power what is good/bad/acceptable)
• Politics definitions:
– O’Neil: “struggle in any group for power that will give one or more persons
the ability to make decisions for the larger group” (neutral, touches only upon
power)
– Lasswell: “who gets what, when and how” (also focuses on power material
dimensions of politics
– Easton: “authoritative allocation of values for a society” symbolic
dimension
What is power?
• Dahl: the ability to get others to do something that they would not otherwise do
(classical)
- Element of force (possible), BUT – also threat of force
, - Thomas Hobbes: life as “nasty, brutish and short” defends right of state to limit our
freedom through our consent or even force
Types of power:
– Hard power: force
– Soft power: power of attraction (no force involved)
• (i.e. Iran and Sanctions)
• Legitimacy: deep consent among citizens that the government in place
has right to be there (i.e. Trump)
Understanding political science:
– PoliSci concerns systematic study of politics provides us with tools to
generate knowledge and understand politics, political world, unpredictability
of human behavior, etc.
Nature of political knowledge:
– Descriptive: describes major features of politics
– Explanatory: answers the “why”
– Prescriptive: element of prediction
• Ultimately limited because human behavior/history is unpredictable
Definitions of power and influence:
1) Power as resource (capability): attribute, possession (material, immaterial*) →
conversion / application → outcome
2) Power as outcome (relationship): About skills, strategies, and perceptions; The Putin
‘example’, the ‘power’ of small states
3) ‘Institutional’ power: to be able define the rules of international institutions /
organizations *E.H. Carr: ‘power over opinion’ (The Twenty Year's Crisis, 1919-
1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations, London, 1939)
4) And…Hard, soft and smart power
Comparative Politics:
• Aims, Concepts, and Methods
• Aims: To study and understand domestic political phenomena (O’Neill: formal and
informal political institutions); to explain differences and similarities among states,
regions and other political ‘entities’; in order to become better citizens (O’Neill, p.5)
• Concepts: assumptions and theories that guide research (e.g., people behave
rationally; formal and informal institutions)
• Methods: how we do research (gather, analyse data, how do we draw conclusions,
how do we test them?), e.g. comparative method, based on inductive (from a case
study to a general hypothesis) or deductive reasoning (from hypothesis to evidence);
establish correlation, causality (linking cause and effect), multi-causality, quantitative
and qualitative research; single case, large-N research, mono- and multi-disciplinary
research, etc.
, Lecture 2: political philosophy Gerrits
Political philosophy: emphasizes what “ought” to be normative
Political science relates to
- Political theory:
– Empirical theory: supports explanation and description (interest group
theory, rational choice theory, totalitarianism) (‘what is?’): interest group
theory, rational choice theory and game theory (part of the ‘behavioural
revolution’), modernization theory, totalitarianism, etc.
– Normative political theory: what ought to be (sovereignty, democratic peace
theory) oldest form of theory
- Political ideology
– Political attitudes: views regarding basic scope of political and social change -
about the circle (not continuum) from radical to liberal, conservative,
and reactionary…
– Ideologies: basic (universal) values about fundamental goals of politics or a
set of ideas beliefs about politics in the world (about the ‘isms’: liberalism,
socialism, Marxism, Islamism)
– Political culture:
– Is different from culture in politics
– Political culture: refers to society’s norms for political activity (i.e.
individualism, presidentialism, welfare state)
– What political ideas and activities are considered normal, proper,
preferable, which can be linked to ‘deeper’ collective (societal)
religious, ‘national’, ethical norms and values: individualism,
collectivism, compromise, presidentialism and parliamentarism, state
and religion, strong leadership (strong state), welfare state
– Culture in politics
– Creative culture in politics: pop culture, powerful images and its impact on
politics (arts, architecture, music, literature, etc.,)
– Culture as condition/variable of (good) politics (i.e. Clash of Civilizations) ,
which can be linked to another understanding of ‘culture’, as in Samuel
Huntington’s understanding of ‘culture’ in The Clash of Civilizations
and the Remaking of World Order (1996)?
– Case (food for thought): The extent to which (prospects for)
democracy and authoritarianism are determined by socioeconomic
(level of economic development; presence of a middle class (‘No
bourgeoisie; no democracy’) and ‘cultural’ conditions (ethnic diversity,
religion, etc.)
Political Philosophy
• 2 dimensions: critical and practical:
• Critical - systematically studies, discusses and questions relevant (‘timeless’) political
issues, revealing the origins, development and the challenges of our contemporary
political ideas, practices and institutions: citizenship, sovereignty, democracy, state
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