Social Sciences En Politieke En Sociale Wetenschappen
Introduction To Political Science
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Samenvatting/Summary Introduction To Political Science
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Introduction To Political Science
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
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Social Sciences En Politieke En Sociale Wetenschappen
Introduction To Political Science
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Introduction to Political Sciences
SUMMARY
BA1 | January 2022
pag. 1
,Table of contents
Class one: What is politics?
o Defining politics
§ Politics as the art of government
§ Politics as public affairs
§ Politics as compromise & consensus
§ Politics as power
o Studying politics
§ Approaches
§ Concepts
§ Models
§ Theories
Class two: Nation States
o What is a state?
o Key features of states
§ Territory
§ Sovereignty
§ People
§ Monopoly legitimate use of force
§ Rule of law
o Why do we have states? Development & functioning
§ Constitutional approach
§ Pluralist approach
§ Conflict approach
o The origin of states
§ Transformation
§ Unification
§ Secession
o Development of states
§ State formation
§ Nation building
§ Mass democracies
§ Welfare states
o Globalization and the relevance of the state
Class three: Democracy
o What makes a democracy?
§ The definition of democracy – procedural vs substantive definitions
§ Polyarchy
§ Modern democracy
o What forms can a democracy take?
§ Features of democracy
§ Not a democracy
o What are the requisites of sustainable democracy?
§ Modernization
§ Political institutions
§ Political culture
o Is there a global spread of democracy?
PAGINA 1
, § 1st wave
§ 2nd wave
§ 3rd wave
o What are contemporary challenges to democracy?
§ 4 sings of a ‘crisis of democracy’
§ Despite crisis, democracy is also resilient
Class four: Political Ideologies
o What is the nature of ideology?
§ Common core of ideology
§ Criticism
o Liberalism
§ Origins and development
§ Characteristics of liberalism
o Conservatism
§ Origins and development
§ Characteristics of conservatism
o Christian democracy
§ Origins and development
§ Characteristics of Christian democracy
o Socialism
§ Origins and development
§ Characteristics of socialism
o Nationalism
§ Origins and development
§ Characteristics of nationalism
o Feminism
o Green political thought
§ Origins and development
§ Characteristics of green political thought
o Populism
§ Thin ideology
§ Characteristics of populism
o Are we witnessing the ‘end of ideology’?
§ Critiques
Class five: Public Policy & The Bureaucracy
o What is policy?
§ 4 types of outcomes in policy making
o The process of policy making
§ Policy initiation
§ Policy formulation
§ Policy adoption
§ Policy implementation
§ Policy evaluation
o Functions and organization of bureaucracies
§ 3 functions
§ Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy
§ New public management model
o Difference between politicians and bureaucrats
o Power of bureaucrats and how can they be controlled?
§ Logistical power
§ Power problems
§ Power control mechanism
Class six: Political Behavior, pressure groups & social movements
PAGINA 2
, o Political behavior and its forms
§ Functions of political behavior in democracy
§ Forms of political behavior
o Patterns in political behavior
§ Finding one: most people are not political
§ Finding two: overall participation rates are rising
§ Finding three: conventional participation seems to be in decline
§ Finding four: there is a continuous expansion in forms of participation
§ Finding five: some people participate more than others
o Pressure groups and social movements
§ Civil society
§ Differences between pressure groups & social movements
§ Difference between PG/SM and political parties
o Functions of pressure groups & social movements and their power
§ Two main functions
§ How do they operate?
§ What determines their power?
o Different systems of pressure groups
§ Pluralism
§ Corporatism
o Influence on democracy by pressure groups & social movements
§ Robert Putnam
o The importance of political culture
§ Why is it important?
§ 3 types of political culture
§ Civic culture
§ Inglehart
Class seven: Political parties & Party government
o What is a political party?
o Party organization & its change over time
§ Caucus parties
§ Mass parties
§ Catch-all parties
§ Cartel parties
§ Electoral-professional parties
o Main party families?
§ Left-right concept
o Party systems & different party systems
§ How to identify ‘significant parties?
§ Types of party systems
§ Why should we care about party systems?
o Coalition governments & how they are formed
§ Which coalitions are formed?
§ Are one-party governments better than coalition governments?
o Are parties good or bad for democracy?
§ Argument one: parties are bad for democracy
§ Argument two: parties are good for democrac
§ Iron law of oligarchy (R. Michels, 1911)
Class eight: Voters & Elections
o What are democratic elections?
§ Threats to democratic elections
o Who votes and why?
PAGINA 3
, § Voter turnout
§ System factors
§ Individual factors
o Different voting/electoral systems
§ Plurality/majority system
§ Proportional representation system
o Voting systems linked to party government
§ Party system
§ Composition of government
o How to explain vote choice?
§ Sociological theory – Columbia school
§ Psychological theory – Michigan school
§ Rational & bounded rationality theory
§ Economic voting
§ Religion, race & gender
Class nine: Legislatures & Executives
o Separation of powers
o Legislatures & their organization
§ Parliamentary system
§ Presidential system
§ Unicameral versus bicameral
o Functions of legislatures
§ Representation
§ Legitimation
§ Law-making
§ Scrutiny
o Executives & their functions
§ Head of state versus Head of government
§ 3 main functions
§ Rising power?
o Relationship between legislatures & executives
§ Presidential systems
§ Parliamentary systems
§ Semi-presidential systems
Class ten: Multi-level government
o What is multi-level government?
§ Pressure challenges
§ 4 layers of government
o Which different forms of territorial organization exist?
§ Unitary states
§ Federal states
§ Confederations
o Is there a ‘better form of territorial organizations?
§ Unitary versus federal
o Position & role of the local government
§ Democracy versus efficiency
o How do states interact in the international arena?
§ Role of power (Bipolarity – unipolarity & hegemony – multipolarity)
§ How states engage (multilateralism – bilateralism – unilateralism)
PAGINA 4
, Class one: What is politics & politics as a science
1. Defining politics
Politics is hard to define because of two key issues:
I. Politics is a loaded term
II. Politics is an essentially contested concept
If we try to define politics, we can distinguish two broad conceptions:
Defining politics
Arena Process
(= where politics (= how decisions
is taking place) are being made)
1. Politics as the 3. Politics as
2. Politics as 4. Politics as
art of compromise &
public affairs power
government consensus
a) The art of government – narrow arena view
Politics is what concerns the state or government
It is a traditional view on politics, but it leaves a lot out!
An advantage is that we will agree that what we discuss is political.
b) Public affairs – broad arena view
Politics is what concerns the state + public life/sphere*
*Public sphere = social space to which the public has access and where private citizens can engage in
debates pertinent to the public interest without interference from the state.
Broader view on ‘the political’:
ð Political = government, political associations, interest groups, NGOs, social movements,
voluntary associations, community groups, social media, …
ð Non-political: private = personal, family, domestic life etc.
The line between ‘the political’ and ‘the personal’ is not always easy to draw.
ð Variations between countries and cultures
PAGINA 5
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