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Politics International Studies Semester 2

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All the lecture readings, plus reading notes and some extra information here and there

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  • May 27, 2021
  • 62
  • 2020/2021
  • Class notes
  • Tim stacey and andré gerrits
  • All classes
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Politics I
Exam: 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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