Summary political science
Chapter 1 – Government and politics
Government-> focuses on institutions
Governance-> focuses on processes
Concept (begrip)-> a term, idea or category.
Conceptions (opvattingen)-> the manner in which something is understood or interpreted.
Political science-> the study of the theory and practice of government and politics, focusing on the structure and
dynamics of institutions, political processes, and political behaviour.
→ It helps us understand how government works, the role and authority of leaders and institutions and why people
act the way they do on political matters.
The word science-> describes the search for knowledge and understanding.
Social science-> the study of human society and of the structured interactions among people within society.
→ Political sciences is the sub-division of social science that focuses on government and politics.
Comparative politics-> the systematic study of government and politics in different countries, designed to better
understand them by drawing out their contrasts and similarities.
Only by looking at government and politics across place and time, can we build the context to be able to
gain a broader and more complete understanding.
Our understanding about political systems will always remain one dimensional unless we can place all this
information in context.
Comparison helps free us from the limitations of studying government in isolation, but also helps us learn
about places with which we are unfamiliar.
Comparison helps us make generalizations, that can help us predict the outcome of political events.
The benefits of comparison: description, context, rules, understanding, prediction and making choices.
Theory-> an abstract or generalized approach to explaining or understanding a phenomenon or a set of phenomena,
supported by a significant body of hard evidence.
Government and governance
Government-> the institutions and processes through which societies are governed.
Institutions-> a formal or informal organization or practice with rules and procedure, marked by durability and
internal complexity.-> mostly applied to the major bodies of national government.
Institution Role and purpose Examples
Executive (uitvoerende Governing, making policy, providing Presidents, prime ministers,
macht) leadership and direction cabinet.
Legislature (wetgevende Representing the interest of citizens; making Parliaments, Congresses, National
macht) law; forming governments Assemblies.
Judiciary and courts Upholding and interpreting the constitutions Supreme courts, constitutional
(grondwetten). courts.
Bureaucracy Implementing policy (implementeren van beleid) Departments, ministries,
divisions, agencies.
Political parties Offering policy alternatives, fielding Conservatives, liberals, socialists,
candidates, forming governments and greens, nationalists.
oppositions.
Thomas Hobbes-> made the classic case for government. "During the time men live without a common power to
keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war."
The risk of Hobbes's commonwealth: it will abuse its own authority, creation more problems than it solves.
In a democracy, government provides security and predictability to those who live under its jurisdiction.
Governance-> the process by which decisions, laws and policies are made, with or without the input of formal
institutions. The emphasis is on the activity of governing.
Governance refers to what the institutions of government do and how well or badly they do it.
,Politics
Politics-> the process by which people negotiate and compete in making and executing shared or collective
decisions. It is unavoidable because of the social nature of humans. It involves assessing different options and
opinions, and ideally brings members of a community together into a compromise course of action.
Three aspects of politics are clear:
1. It is a collective activity, occurring between and among people.
2. It involves making decisions regarding a course of action to take or avoid, or a disagreement to be resolved.
(Het gaat om het nemen van beslissingen over een actie die moet worden ondernomen of vermeden, of over een
meningsverschil dat moet worden opgelost.)
3. Once reached, political decisions become policy for the group, binding and committing its members even if
some of them continue to resist.
Aristotle, a philosopher: the interpretation of politics as a community-serving activity. "man is by nature a political
animal", not only politics was unavoidable, but it was also the highest human activity, clearly separating us from
other species.
‘the ideal citizens rule in the interest of all, not because they are forced to by checks and balances, but
because they see it as right to do so’.
Politics can also be seen as a competitive struggle for power and resources between people and groups.
Harold Lasswell: 'who gets what, when, how'. In this view politics is a competition of acquiring and keeping power, a
process that yields winners and losers.
Power
Power-> the capacity to bring about intended effects. The term is often used as a synonym for influence, but is also
used more narrowly to refer to more forceful modes of influence notably, getting one's way by threats. The greater
our capacity to determine our own fate, the more power we have.
Bertrand Russel: saw power as 'the production of intended ( bedoelde) effects'.
Three dimensions of power, identified by Steven Lukes:
Dimension Core question Application
First Who prevails (overheersen) Decision-making. Decisions are made on issues over which
when preferences conflict? there is an observable conflict of interests.
Second Who controls whether Non-decision-making. Decisions are prevented from being
preferences (voorkeuren) are taken on issues over which there is an observable conflict of
expressed? interests.
Third Who shapes preferences? Ideological. Potential issues are kept out of politics
altogether, whether through social forces, institutional
practices, or the decisions of individuals.
Power (to)-> the capacity to bring about intended effects: ability to achieve goals
Power (over)-> forceful mode of influence; focuses on relationships. "the ability to influence or force others to do
something that would not otherwise have done."
Authority
Authority-> the right to rule. Authority creates its own power, so long as people accept that the person in authority
has the right to make decisions.
Max Weber: suggested that in a relationship of authority, the governed carry out the command as if they had
accepted it spontaneously, for its own sake.
→ Three ways of validating political power:
1. By tradition-> the accepted way of doing things.
2. By charisma-> intense commitment to al leader and his message.
3. By appeal to legal-rational norms-> based on the rule-governed powers of an office, rather than a person.
Regimes and political systems
In democratic regimes, government is influenced by a wide range of forces.
Regime-> a political type, based on a set of principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures. Including, for
example, a democratic regime or an authoritarian regime. Describes a political type.
,Political system-> the interactions and institutions that make up a regime. Summarizes the parts that make up the
political life of a given state or community.
Typology-> the system by which the types of something are classified according to their common features.
Montesquieu identified three regime types:
1. Republican systems-> in which the people or some of the people had supreme power.
2. Monarchical systems-> in which one person ruled on the basis of fixed and established ( gevestigde) laws.
3. Despotic systems-> in which a single person ruled on the basis of their own priorities and perspectives.
Three Worlds system, based on ideological goals and political alliances ( bondgenootschappen)
1. A First World of wealthy, democratic industrialized states, most of which were partners in the Western
alliance against communism.
2. A Second World of communist systems, including most of those states ranged against the Western alliance.
3. A Third World of poorer, less democratic, and less developed states, some of which took sides in the Cold
War.
Gross domestic product (GDP)-> the value of the total domestic and foreign output by residents of a country in a
given year. To measure the economic activity.
Chapter 2 – Making comparisons
Understanding comparison
Comparative method-> the process by which different cases are compared in order to better understand their
qualities and to develop hypotheses, theories and concepts.
Critical thinking-> the careful and objective analysis of facts and data with a view to forming a judgement about a
phenomenon.-> "thinking without comparison is unthinkable."
Empirical and normative perspectives:
Empirical approach-> conclusions or inferences (gevolgtrekkingen) based on facts, experience or observation rather (in
plaats van) than logic or theory.
Normative approach-> reaching judgements and prescriptions about what should have happened or what ought to
happen.
The value of theory to comparison lies mainly in the way it can help pull together a cluster of otherwise
unstructured observations and facts into a framework that we can use to guide ourselves as we seek to
answer questions.
Origins and evolution
Aristotle is credited with the first attempt to classify political systems.
The birth of modern comparative politics took place in the US.
Behaviouralism-> an approach to the study of politics that emphasizes people over institutions, focusing on the
systematic study of the behaviour of individuals.
Grand theory-> a broad and abstract form of theorizing that incorporates many other theories and tries to explain
broad areas of a discipline rather than more focused matters. -> A response from the behaviouralism.
Rational choice approaches became popular.
Favouring quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Promoting the use of statistical modelling.
Geddes: richer countries are more likely to be democratic (but development does not cause democratization,
although modernization might). As are countries that were once British colonies, but reliance on oil reduces the
chances, as does having a large Muslim population.
One critical problem with approaches to comparative government and politics:
Their long association with Western ideas.
New generations and the arrival of woman in the scholarship, are bringing new perspectives that broaden
the value of comparative politics.
Modern-> a state with an industrial or post-industrial economy, affluence, specialized occupations, social mobility
and an urban and educated population. (een staat met een industriële of postindustriële economie, welvaart,
gespecialiseerde beroepen, sociale mobiliteit en een stedelijke en goed opgeleide bevolking.)
, Modernization-> the process of acquiring the attributes of a modern society, or one reflecting contemporary ideas,
institutions and norms. (het proces van het verwerven van de kenmerken van een moderne samenleving, of een samenleving
die hedendaagse ideeën, instellingen en normen weerspiegelt.)
Choosing cases
Methodology-> the body of methods used, or the means used, to undertake the study of a phenomenon or a
problem. Comparative politics has a choice of different approaches to methodology.
Unit of analysis-> the object of study in comparative politics. What is it what we want to compare?
Level of analysis-> the level of study in comparative politics, ranging from the macro (politic system) level to the
micro (individual) level.
Case study method-> a research method involving detailed study of a particular object and the context within which
it exists. Is one of the most widely used strategies in research. It is: 'the intensive study of a single case for the
purpose of understanding a larger class of cases'. Case studies must be understood in terms of both their scope and
their features.
o Successful case study: it has to be clear what the case represents.
Including:
o Reading the academic literature.
o Examining primary and secondary sources.
o Interviews with participants and other observers in the unit.
o Direct observations, either as a 'fly on the wall' or as a participant.
Types of case study:
Type Quality Example
Representative case Typical of the category. Often focused on the home Coalition government in Finland.
country of the researcher.
Prototypical case Expected to become typical. Chosen because it is The use of social media in US
expected to become representative. election campaigns.
Exemplary case Created the category. Look to the past, they are the The British Parliament.
archetypes.
Deviant case Exception to the rule. Is to seek out the exceptional China as a large country that is
and the atypical, rather than the usual. not a federation.
Critical case (or If it works here, it will work anywhere. Allows a Promoting democracy in
'crucial case') proposition to be tested in the circumstances least Afghanistan.
favourable to its validity. (Hiermee kan een voorstel
worden getest in de omstandigheden die het minst
gunstig zijn voor de geldigheid ervan.)
Choosing methods
Qualitative method-> a research method based on studying a few cases within their natural setting, with an
emphasis on values, opinions, behaviour and context.
Most similar system (MSS)-> a research approach based on explaining a key difference between two more similar
political systems, controlling for the similarities and isolating the causes of the difference.
Most different system (MDS)-> a research approach based on explaining a key similarity between two or more
dissimilar systems, controlling for the differences and isolating the causes of the similarity.
Quantitative method-> a research method using more cases, more variables, and attempting to explain political
phenomena using statistical analysis. Usually emphasizes breadth over depth. It tries to quantify data and to
generalize the results to a larger population.
Variable-> a changeable feature, factor, quantity or element.
Dependent variable-> the factor or element we wish to explain.
Independent variable-> the factor or element believed to influence the dependent variable.
Correlation-> a relationship between two or more variables or attributes. Correlation, however, does not always
prove causation.
Regression line-> the line of best fit in a scatterplot, summarizing the relationship between two variables.
Outliner-> the observation furthest away from the value predicted by a regression line.
