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College-aantekeningen Governance And Politics Of Social Problems (2022)
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Toetsstof Bestuur, politiek en samenlevingThe Governance and Politics of Social Problems
Hoorcollege 1
Book Comparative European politics.
Distinctive democratic systems, similar problems
➔ Differences and similarities political science and the study of governance and
public administration in European countries.
➔ Political systems and systems of government in European states, in theory
and as well in practice
➔ Manners in which common challenges are faced in the European states.
System picture: public administration and governances are combined with each
other.
Political science and public administration
Input legitimacy: democracy and participation. Because of policy decisions:
➔ Inclusiveness of decision process
➔ Democratic representation
Throughput legitimacy: process, because of state action on street level bureaucrat
discretion:
➔ State
➔ Profession
➔ Market
➔ Society
Output legitimacy, because of performance and effectiveness:
➔ Outputs
➔ Outcomes
➔ impacts
Comparative approach
Interconnectedness and distinctiveness of European democracies. Example: 2018,
refugees Italy and Spain. When there was a refugee crisis, the boat full of refugees,
was refused in Italian, because the new regime, with populist parties in it, had an
anti-refugee policy. Spain had a social government, saying that these people could
come to their country. So, the colours of governments matter for people. We are
going to use the comparative approach: how countries differ in Europe. How they
differ and how countries are connected to one another.
European countries are connected with each other, coordinated, between the EU.
This international level, how they are connected, with national elections, national
interests. International and national levels matters. You don’t understand your own
country, when you don’t know the interests and elections in other countries.
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,Cultural, ethnic, religious and economic cleavages in Europe
Europe has an enormous heterogeneity. It is a very diverse continent, also interest to
study. We have multiple states with different political structures.
The following lectures the next weeks:
➔ Comparing political systems, the transformation of the political space in
Europe: left and right-wing parties. And how the political space in Europe has
transformed.
➔ Distinctive democracies: different rules about the game. How organize
they their government, their elections? Different rules of the game. Majoritarian
versus consensus democracy. A fragmented picture. Different governments:
one party, minority, minority without enough support to pass laws, run by
bureaucrats, until election or caretaker government since last election.
➔ Governance of policy, governance, politics and market: what does it
mean, the interplay between governance, and the processes of the markets,
how they interplay with each other.
➔ Presidential systems: about populism, Trump and the mobilisation. How did
is created different presidential systems. We will use the US elections to talk
about the differences between the US and Europe. The difference in
healthcare state, political systems etc. the government that will come this
election, will also have a relation with the EU. So it will matter if Trump or
Biden is in power, for Europe.
➔ Representation deficit: democracy, political parties and voting systems in
European democracies. Euroscepticism and Brexit. Europe and the EU. The
UK is going to leave the EY, But the Balkan states and Turkey wants to come
to the EU. We have Norway, that is part of Europe, but not part of the EU. It is
a very fascinating continent. National and supranational politics and policies.
How they interact with each other.
➔ Direct democracy, citizen engagement and participation: an old idea of
the Greek government. Involving the public in governmental and political
processes. Social movements, protests, demonstrating, direct democracy via
engagement. Voting is a common practice for political presentation.
Representative democracy. But also referenda.
➔ Protest and social movement: like Black lives matter, from peaceful protest
to acts of terrorism as manifestations of discontent. Citizen participation and
how the public can protest and can expression themselves on different topics.
Political, sociological protests as examples of it. Social movement theory, and
why social movements matter and what are the consequences about it.
➔ Inequality: taxation, welfare state, retrenchment and labour markets. How
countries build up their taxations and the resources too build the welfare state
and how they are connected.
➔ The executive branch: organizing democratically legitimate governance.
Gathering a meeting about the branch, executing public policy, the
mechanisms to execute public policy, and what forms public policies and how
you legitimate this. The mechanisms we build to take care of good
governance.
➔ The governance of social problems or the social problem of governance:
discretion and the principle-agent impasse. Mechanisms to come to policies.
What happens beyond these policies? And the social problems?
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, ➔ What remains to be done: good governance in an improvising society.
➔ The last lecture with the Q and A.
Current challenges in Europe:
The book addresses political systems and public administration from the point of
crisis, problems:
➔ Eurozone financial crisis and the corona crisis.
➔ Immigration as an ongoing process of people wanted to try to come over in
European place and space.
➔ Terrorism, an extreme form of Islamic extremists and far-right extremism to
gain political goals.
➔ International instability and the aggressive policy (example from the
Russians)
➔ Conflict in the Middle East (also strongly connected with terrorism problems)
➔ Europe and the US, and military security
➔ Climate change
This lecture:
➔ Democracy (consensus versus majoritarian)
➔ Parliamentary versus presidential systems
➔ Polarisation
➔ Political discontent (left behind versus squeezed middle)
➔ Structured social and economic changes
➔ Mixed economy, welfare states
Europe today is a continent of democracies
Ann interesting element of Europe: it has the half of worlds democracies.
➔ Roughly half of the world’s democracies are in Europe. Some of them are full
democracies, some of them are flawed (gebrekkig) democracies.
Europe is mostly full of full democracies. If you look at the distribution of
democracies: almost all countries is full democratic or flawed democracy. Half of the
population lives in an democracy, but this growth is sticking, increasing, because of
communism. Many people do not released that there were a lot of communistic
countries in Europe, like Yugoslavia etc. the entire east-European part, it was a
totalitarian state.
In Europe we have still backlashes, stagnating because of historian elements, like
hybrid authoritarianism we saw in Hungary and Poland.
.
It is remarkable that a lot of countries in Europe are functioning full democratic. Italy
with the rise of populist parties has seen as a decline of democracy. Hungary and
Poland, the state were journalists are not can doing their job.
Liberal democracy
Power of government is constrained by constitutional rules which are upheld by an
independent judicial (gerechtelijk) system. It is limited to what the state can do,
instead of what a totalitarian state can and may do.
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, Flawed democracies and hybrid authoritarianism: given that many European
countries do not have a long unbroken history of democratic government, the fact
that the vast majority of countries in Europe are now functioning, stable democracies
is quite remarkable. It also highlights the fact that nothing is permanent, and we
should not automatically assume that European democracy will continue to flourish.
We are currently in the midst of dramatic political changes in several European
countries, whereby traditional party systems and political conventions are being
overturned. This makes it a fascinating time to study European politics.
Why democracies matter: strong correlation between peace and democracy
A country going to war is the worst you can do for your citizens, it destroys
infrastructure etc. between health and democracy and peace and democracy. That is
why democracy matters. Countries with more democratic systems, greater wealth
show more widespread commitment to representative democracy (representative
democracy = indirect democracy, where people can vote for the politicians).
Democracies are healthier, grater wealth show more widespread commitment to
representative democracy.
➔ Democracies are wealthier
➔ Democracies are more industrialized
➔ Democracies have more educated citizens
➔ Democracies are more urbanized
Representative democracy
Representative democracy: people are not directly involved, but you elect people
who decide for you, like the First Chamber in the Netherlands.
Balance in the US: the three powers are not independent, they are connected to
another. The US is a democracy, but a completely other democracy than the
Netherlands. A lot of discontent about democracy.
Younger people say earlier that they do not see the essence of democracy
But there is also a percentage of people who say it is not essential to them to live in a
democracy. How younger people are, how more they say that it is not essential to live
in a democracy. Maybe because of they think it is normal to live in a democracy.
Populist revolt against representative democracy
➔ Liberal elements. Post war era showed general consensus among political
elites in many countries, supporting free market economic policies and
commitment to regional integration.
➔ Populist. Critics characterised it as a party cartel, where principled opposition
became replaced, with consensus and cooperation among the major parties.
➔ Not anymore: significant differences emerged between political parties and
voter groups on issues such as immigration, European integration, free market
and climate change.
➔ Often portrayed negatively when it comes to the emergence of so-called
populist parties that challenge the traditional or establishment centrist parties.
Mudde: populism is a symptom of a democratic deficit, not the cause
➔ Key problem: many people still support central idea of liberal democracy, but
distrust established parties and politicians. Nevertheless, people are
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