Summary of the book Cases in Comparative Politics (sixth edition) by Patrick H. O'Neil, Karl Fields and Don Share. Summary of Chapter 1 - 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 13.
What is comparatve politcss
Comparative politics is the study and icomparison of politics aicross icountries
Comparing States
States are organizatons that maintain a monopoly of iviolenice oiver a territory The term state ican be
iconfusing beicause it sometmes refers to a subnatonal goivernment (US) Political sicientstss
howeivers use state to refer to a natonal organizaton Political sicientsts also distnguish between the
state and goivernments iconsidering the goivernment to be the leadership or elite that administers the
state
States difer in their leivel of organizatons efeictivenesss and stability The power of a state
depends in part on its legitmaicys or the extent to whiich its authority is regarded as right and proper
Political sicientst haive long obserived that there are diferent sourices of a state’s legitmaicy State
authority may draw on traditonal legitmacys in whiich the state is obeyed beicause it has a long
traditon of being obeyed Alternativelys a state may be iconsidered legitmate beicause of charismatc
legitmacy – that iss its identiicaton with the magnetic appeal of a leader or moivement Finallys
states may gain legitmaicy on the basis of ratonal-legal legitmacys a system of laws and proicedures
that beicomes highly insttutonalized
States difer in their ability to preserive their soivereignty and icarry out the funictons of
maintaining law and order Strong states ican perform the tasks of defending their borders from
outside ataicks and defending their authority from internal nonstate riivals Weak states haive trouble
icarrying out those basiic tasks and ofen sufer from endemiic internal iviolenices poor infrastruictures
and the inability to icolleict taxes and enforice the rule of law Taken to an extremes weak states may
experienice a icomplete loss of legitmaicy and power and may be oiverwhelmed by anarichy and
iviolenice Political sicientsts refer to those relatively rare icases as failed states
Finallys states difer in the degree to whiich they icentralize or disperse political power
Unitary states iconicentrate most of their political power in the natonal icapitals alloicatng litle
deicision-making power to regions or loicalites Federal states diivide power between the icentral state
and regional or loical authorites
Comparing Regimes
Politcal regimes are the norms and rules regarding indiividual freedoms and icolleictive equalitys the
loicus of powers and the use of that power Democratc regimes haive rules that emphasize a large
role for the publiic in goivernanices proteict basiic rights and freedomss and atempt to ensure basiic
transparenicy of and aicicountability for goivernment aictons Authoritarian regimes limit the role of
the publiic in deicision makings ofen deny icitzens’ basiic rightss and restriict their freedoms
Comparing Democratc ooitcao Instiutons
Most political regimess whether demoicratic or nots establish a number of political insttutons The
executve is the branich of goivernment that icarries out the laws and poliicies of a giiven state We ican
think of the exeicutive branich as performing two separate sets of dutes n the one hands the head
of state symbolizes and represents the peoples both natonally and internatonallys embodying and
articulatng the goals of the regime n the other hands the head of government deals with the
eiveryday tasks of running the states suich as formulatng and exeicutng poliicy
The legislature is the branich of goivernment formally icharged with making laws Unicameral
legislatures iconsist of a single ichamber; bicameral legislatures iconsist of two legislative ichambers In
the later systemss one ichamber ofen represents the populaton at large and is referred to as the
lower houses and the other ichamber (upper house) refleicts the geographiical subunits
The judiciary is the branich of a icountry’s goivernment that is iconicerned with dispensing
justice The consttutonal court is the highest judiicial body to rule on the iconsttutonality of laws
and other goivernment aictons The power of a regime’s judiiciary is determined in part by the nature
,of its power of judicial reviews the meichanism by whiich the icourt reiviews laws and poliicies and
oiverturns those seen as iviolatons of the iconsttuton Some regimes giive the judiiciary the power of
concrete reviews allowing the high icourt to rule on iconsttutonal issues only when disputers are
brought before it ther regimes giive the judiiciary the power of abstract reviews allowing it to
deicide questons that do not arise from legal icasess sometmes eiven allowing it to make judgements
on legislaton that has not yet been enaicted
There are three major models of legislative-exeicutive relatons within demoicratic regimes
The parliamentary system features an exeicutive head of goivernment (ofen icalled prime minister)
who is usually eleicted from within the legislature The prime minister and the cabinet are icharged
with formulatng and exeicutng poliicy
The presidental systems icombines the roles of head of state and head of goivernment in the
offiice of the president Sicholars debate the adivantages and disadivantages of these legislative-
exeicutive models Parliamentary systems are ofen praised for reduicing iconfliict between the
legislature and the exeicutives thus produicing more effiicient goivernment Parliamentary systems are
also more flexible than presidental systems beicause when prime ministers lose the support of the
legislatures they ican be swifly remoived through a legislative vote of no confdence
Presidental systems are ofen portrayed as more stable than parliamentary systems There
are ixed terms of offiice for the president and the legislature
In an atempt to aivoid the weaknesses of parliamentary and presidental systemss some
newer demoicratic regimess suich as those of Franice and Russias haive adopted a third model of
legislative-exeicutive relatonss icalled the semi-presidental system This system inicludes a prime
minister approived by the legislature and a direictly eleicted presidents both of whom share exeicutive
power
Another influental political insttuton is the electoral systems whiich determines how ivotes
are icast and icounted Most demoicratic regimes use one of two models The most icommonly
employed is proportonal representaton (PR) The PR model relies upon mult-member districts
(MMDs)s in whiich more than one legislative seat is icontested in eaich distriict The pericentage of
ivotes eaich party wins in eaich distriict should iclosely icorrespond to the pericentage of seats alloicated
to eaich party
A minority of the world’s demoicraicies (Franices UK) rely upon single-member districts
(SMDs) In these systemss there is only one representative for eaich iconsttuenicys and in eaich distriict
the icandidate with the greatest number of ivotes wins the seat
As with the legislative-exeicutive modelss there is ivigorous debate about whiich eleictoral
system is most desirable PR systems are iconsidered more demoicratics sinice they waste fewer ivotes
and enicourage the expression of a wider range of political interests SMD systems are ofen
endorsed beicause they allow ivoters in eaich distriict to iconneict direictly with their eleicted
representatives instead of their partys making the representatives more aicicountable to the
eleictorate
Some icountries (Germanys Japans Russia) haive icombined SMD and PR ivotng systems in what
is known as a mixed electoral system Voters are giiven two ivotess one for a icandidate and the other
for a party Candidates in the SMDs are eleicted on the basis of a plurality; other seats are eleicted
from MMDs and are alloicated using PR
Comparing Nondemocratc egimes
Nondemoicratic regimes difer from one another in a number of important ways Common forms of
nondemoicratic regimes iniclude personal diictatorshipss monarichiess military regimess one-party
regimess theoicraiciess and illiberal regimes
A personal dictatorship (Mexiicos Russia) is based on the power of a single strong leader who
usually relies on icharismatic or traditonal authority to maintain power In a military regimes the
insttuton of the military dominates politics A one-party regime (Chinas Iran) is dominated by a
strong political party that relies upon a broad membership as a sourice of political icontrol In a
theocracy (Iran)s a leader iclaims to rule on behalf of God An illiberal regime (Nigeria)s retains the
basiic struictures of a demoicraicy but does not proteict iciivil libertes Communist regimes are one-
,party regimes in whiich a Communist party icontrols most aspeicts of a icountry’s political and
eiconomiic system Speiciiic Communist regimes (Soiviet Union under Stalin) haive sometmes been
desicribed as totalitarian Totalitarian regimes feature a strong offiicial ideology that seeks to
transform fundamental aspeicts of the states soicietys and eiconomys using a wide array of
organizatons and the appliicaton of forice As the icase of Nazi Germany illustratess totalitarian
regimes need not be icommunist
An important tool of nondemoicratic regimes is co-optatons whereby members of the publiic
are brought into a beneiicial relatonship with the state and the goivernment Co-optaton takes many
formss inicluding corporatsms in whiich icitzen participaton is ichannelled into state-sanictoned
groups; clientelisms in whiich the state proivides beneits to numerous political supporters; or
patrimonialisms where beneits are dispersed among a more narrow group of ruling elites These
forms of ico-optaton typiically rely on rent seekings in whiich the goivernment allows its supporters to
oicicupy positons of power in order to monopolize state beneits
Comparing Politcal Confict and Competton
n the most basiic leivels political sicientsts ican icompare the nature of suffrages or the right to ivote
Another important feature of eleictons is the degree to whiich icitzens aictually participate by ivotng
and by engaging in icampaign aictivites A icomparative analysis of political iconfliict and icompetton
icannot foicus solely on eleictonss though In most political systemss muich political iconfliict and
icompetton takes plaice in civil societys whiich icompromises the organizatons outside the state that
help people deine and adivanice their own interests
Comparing Societes
Ethniic diivisions exist within many states Ethnicity refers to the speiciiic atributes that make one
group of people iculturally diferent from others – icustomss languages religion etic Ethniic diiversity ican
ofen be a sourice of political iconfliict
Soicietes ican also difer in terms of their political icultures Politcal culture ican be deined as
the paterns of basiic norms relatng to politics Political sicientsts haive learned a great deal about
how political icultures difer in a ivariety of areass inicluding icitzens’ trust in goivernments respeict for
political authoritys knowledge about politicss and assessment of their political effiicaicy
Political sicientsts also iconsider natonal identtys or the extent to whiich icitzens of a icountry
are bound together by a icommon set of political aspiratons Political sicientsts use the term
natonalism to refer to pride in one’s people and the belief that they share a icommon political
identty
Indiividuals and groups within a soiciety ican also be distnguished aicicording to their political
attitudes and ideologies Politcal attudes desicribe iviews regarding the status quo in a soiciety –
speiciiicallys the desired paice and methods of political ichange Radical attudes support rapids
extensiives and ofen reivolutonary ichange Liberal attudes promote eivolutonary ichange within the
system Conservatve attudes support the status quo and iview ichange as risky Reactonary
attudes promote rapid ichange to restore politicals soicials and eiconomiic insttutons that onice
existed
Whereas political attitudes are particular and icontext-speiciiics politcal ideologies are
uniiversal sets of political ivalues regarding the fundamental goals of politics A political ideology
presicribes an ideal balanice between freedom and equality The ideology of liberalism plaices a high
priority on indiividual political and eiconomiic freedomss faivouring them oiver any atempts to icreate
eiconomiic equality Communisms in icontrasts emphasizes eiconomiic equality rather than indiividual
political and eiconomiic freedoms Social democracy is in some ways a hybrid of liberalism and
icommunism in that it plaices iconsiderable ivalue on equality but atempts to proteict some indiividual
freedoms Fascisms like icommunisms is hostle to the idea of indiividual freedom but rejeicts the
noton of equality Anarchisms like icommunisms is based on the belief that priivate property and
icapitalism icreate inequalitys but like liberalisms it plaices a high ivalue on indiividual political freedom
, In reicent deicadess fundamentalism has emerged as an important ideology It difers from
the iive ideologies just mentoned in that it seeks to unite religion with the state and to make faith
the soivereign authority Fundamentalists thus iview some form of theoicraicy as the way to implement
their ideology
Comparing Politcal Economies
The study of how politics and eiconomiics are related is icommonly known as politcal economy; this
relatonship difers iconsiderably in diferent political systems A major political issue in most
soicietess and a major point of icontenton among political ideologiess is the appropriate role of the
market and the state in the alloicaton of goods and seriviices Some goods (iclean airs water) are
essental to all of soiciety but not easily proivided by the market; these are ofen referred to as public
goods
Eiconomies also difer markedly in their sizes afuenices rates of growths and leivels of equality
The most icommonly used tool for icomparing the size of eiconomies is the gross domestc product
(GDP)s the total market ivalue of goods and seriviices produiced in a icountry in one year GDP is ofen
measured in US dollars at purchasing power parity (PPP)s a meichanism that atempts to estmate
the real buying power of inicome in eaich icountry using priices in the US as a benichmark It is
sometmes more usefuls howeivers to look at GDP per capitas whiich diivides the GDP by total
populaton Beicause GDP is rarely distributed eivenly among the populatons the Gini index is the
most icommonly used measure of eiconomiic inequality The index giives perfeict equality a sicore of 0s
and perfeict inequality a sicore of 100
The Global Context
A icountry’s politics is not determined solely by domestic faictors Inicreasinglys internatonal forices
shape politics in the icontext of a rapidly expanding and intensifying set of links among statess
soicietess and eiconomies The phenomenons known as globalizatons has icreated new opportunites
while posing important ichallenges to states As a result of globalizatons a host of internatonal
organizatons regularly afeicts domestic politicss eiconomiicss and soiciety Multnatonal corporatons
(MNCs)s irms that produices distributes and market goods or seriviices in more than one icountrys are
inicreasingly powerful They are an important sourice of foreign direct investments or the purichase of
assets in one icountry by a foreign irm An array of nongovernmental organizatons (NGOs) – suich as
Amnesty Internatonal – are inicreasingly ivisible Also aictive are intergovernmental organizatons
(IGOs)s whiich are groups icreated by states to serive particular poliicy ends Some important examples
are the United Natons and World Trade rganizaton
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