MT WEEK 1: The World of Politics
Reading
Reading #1: Foundations of Comparative Politics
- Definition of Political Science:
- The study of politics in a scientific manner
- The study of politics using comparison
- Historically, a second definition of comparative politics is the study of politics in every
country except the one in which the student resides
- In the US, American politics is considered a separate subfield from comparative
politics
- International politics is the study of politics between countries
- Comparative politics is best understood as the study of politics within countries
- Understanding political behaviour through comparison of national level
attributes (cross-national perspective)
- Example: Why do some countries have 2 parties (US) whereas the Netherlands
has many?
- This chapter will focus on comparative politics surrounding democracies and dictatorships
- In 2011, mass protests had occurred with violent government crackdowns throughout the Middle
East and North Africa, leading to the removal of dictators, suggesting potential liberalisation
wave, although a new democracy wave did not occur:
- Only three countries (Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen) have seen an autocrat removal due to
domestic political pressure
- Yet only Tunisia made progress towards becoming a democracy
- Authoritarian regimes in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) were able to withstand
uprisings due to the following, which enabled authoritarian continuity
- Significant oil wealth
- Systems of hereditary rule
- Authoritarian continuity is not sufficient when external powers intervene on behalf of
the opposition:
- Example: Removal of Muammar al-Qaddafi from his position of leader of Libya in
2011 was due to foreign intervention from aerial bombing by NATO
,- However, history suggests from the 1848 Spring of Nations that revolts are generally
unsuccessful with minimal change with power largely in the same hands, creating reaction
and repression
- Regime change and political reform are difficult to predict, but can be enhanced by:
- Knowledge of economic and cultural determinants of democracy
- Strategic interaction between autocratic rulers and reform-minded opposition groups
- Institutional determinants of policy outcomes in autocracies and democracies
- Effect of constitutional design on democratic consolidation
- Party competition
- Fiscal policy
- Ethnic conflict
- Important topics for comparative politics scholars:
- What governments can and should do to encourage stable economic growth (protection
from market instability consequences)
- How to design electoral institutions to reduce the likelihood of political extremists that
oppose democracy from being elected e.g Nazi Party in Germany’s Weimar Republic
- The rise of ISIS for its worldwide caliphate in 2014 (political-religious state comprising the
Muslim community and the lands and peoples under its dominion):
- Challenges state sovereignty which has operated since the Peace of Westphalia 1648
- Challenges conception of a modern state
- Definition of Modern State:
- Organisation that uses coercion and the threat of force to control the inhabitants in a
given, well defined territory
- State Failure:
- One of the key sources of political and economic instability
- September 11, 2001 attacks were planned from Afghanistan, a failed state, in which the
Taliban provided training for al-Qaida terrorists, creating urgency to understand
international terrorism and state failure
- Economic Determinants of Democracy
- Some argue that as economies become more modern (less reliant on natural resource
exports, more productive, more industrial, more highly educated), they become more
likely to be democratic
- However, other scholars argue modernisation may only affect the survival of
democracy, hence doesn’t help dictatorships become democratic
- Democracy is unlikely to arise in economies that depend on natural resource
extraction
- Example: Iraq and Libya has vast reservoirs of oil
- Cultural Determinants of Democracy
- Some scholars argue that democracy is incompatible with certain cultures
- Cultural compatibility with democracy changes from time periods
- Islam is most incompatible with democracy
- What’s so good about democracy?
- Difficult to compare democracies and dictatorships due to variety of dictatorships
- North Korea is a personalist dictatorship is very different to hereditary
monarchies of the Gulf states
,Reading #2: The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World
- Definition of Political Science:
- An academic discipline that focuses on the study of government and politics,
concerning:
- Formal organisation and operations of governments
- Clash of power and values (politics)
- Processes of authoritative decision making
- Administration of public policies
- Embraces both normative theories (justice, freedom, good governance) and
empirical study of actual institutions and practices
- The study of power and distribution of values in societies and among nations
- Deep roots in classical Western civilisation from the Ancient Greeks
- The scientific study of politics began in the US:
- Adopted rigorous methods in concept formation and quantitative testing
- Sharpened distinction between fact and value
- Objective analysis of cause and effect
- Systematically empirical to use aspects from other social sciences, creating
behavioural revolution, fragmenting into distinct subfields
- Example: Political economy, rational choice theory, political development, political
cultures
- All political analysis must incorporate both psychological and sociological concepts
- Psychological: Need to understand the actions and attitudes of individuals
- Sociological: Explaining collective behaviour; nation-state, small groups, international
system
- Behavioural approach used logical positivist philosophy of science (scientific knowledge is
the only kind of factual knowledge)
- Strongly empirical on the analysis and actions of human agents making decisions to
advance values
- Analysis is on clash of interests and power
- Sought to identify what particular actors were doing
Structural-Functional Model
- To compare political systems, a structural-functional model (a framework for building theory
that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and
stability) of what constitutes a political system was created to tackle difficulties with comparison
due to the emergence of over 100 new states:
- All political systems have a set of interacting functions, which can be performed in
different ways, structures or institutions and by how and whom, such as:
- Socialising people into political culture
- Articulating interests
- Formulating rules
- Dispensing justice
- Example: In some systems, lawmaking function was performed by elected
legislature, another by hereditary ruler
- Approach is associated with modernisation theory to contrast traditional and modern systems
- Assumed that modern ways were different to traditional practices in performing the
functions
, - In theory, it may be possible to contrast modern and traditional categories
- In application, both systems have each of the other’s forms and practices; traditional
systems have some modern forms and practices; vice versa
New Institutionalism
- This development focused on the impact that state authority can have on historical processes
of political development
Rational choice and formal theory
- An approach which took its model microeconomic theory and asserted that the political
actions of individuals and institutions could best be analysed by presuming that they would
always seek to maximise their self-interest in competition with the interests of others
- However political behaviour cannot be simplified to the same extent as economics. It is
necessary to take into account of cultural differences and emotions
Issues in making political science more scientific
- There are not enough examples or cases to make statistically significant analysis
- Best work has only been done by area specialists and using single case studies to
test more general hypotheses to provide generalisations to test future case studies with
other countries
- Tradition of rewarding novelty and not the testing of hypotheses suggested by others
- Testing any theory or model is quickly abandoned as attention is diverted to new
formulations leading to little accumulation of findings
Division between political scientists that engage in policy research and theoretical interests
- Political scientists in policy research:
- Must use manipulative analysis; they must concentrate on variables that policymakers
can influence by their actions
- Seek to explain the likely consequences of policy choices
- Warn those in responsible positions of impending developments that should be guarded
against
- Political scientists in academic research:
- Centres analyses on factors that constitute the defining parameters (limits that define the
scope) of the problem under study
- Less concerned with policy issues, but research provides underpinning knowledge
that will be useful for future applied work
Lecture
- We will explore factors such as wealth, institutions and culture that influence the state of
liberal democracies
