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Comparative Politics 3600 Exam 1

Terms in this set (54)

What is comparative politics ( 2 things it is)
Comp. politics is a subject and a method of study.

* focuses on foreign countries
*compares parts around the world

The method: uses a non quantitative way to emulate scientific experimentation. Quasi experimentation. A method develops a control.
what is the definition of comparative politics given in class
comparing phenomena that take place with in a state, society, country, or political system to similar phenomena in other countries (or inside a single country)
(ex: riots, revolutions, democratization, political culture)
how does comp. politics differ from IR?
*IR is concerned with issues between countries
(such as trade war etc.)
* IR measures dyad: or relations btw. 2 countries. Comp. politics measures units like ethnic parties, or a year that has riots.
what are some overlap btw comp. pol. and IR
comp pol. looks at foreign policy analysis and IR looks at decision making process of leaders

civil war is a comp. pol. unit of measurement and IR looks at elements like ruling regime ??
when and where did the study of comp. politics take off
* mush of early scholarship in comp. pol. was DESCRIPTIVE as in no math used.
* mostly Eurocentric or focused on Europe.

BUT AFTER WWII
* questions came about how to build a democ.
then followed
THE COLD WAR: here we decided we need understand leadership of the communist countries and how they spread. With the goal of maintaining stability.
how did the "behavioral revolution" try to change the structure of comp. politics
A desire to employ
*scientific method from natural science particularly on theory and empiricism
* emphasize interdisciplinary to explain political phenomena. (it was necessary to focus on non-institutional explanations for politics like sociology etc)
*use scientific method and math
* most controversially they wanted to use value-free nature of science
*determine a concrete set of terms to ease the process
what is the dependency theory rooted in and what is the main theory?

Dependency theory is also called what?
-World systems theory
Rooted in Neo-marxist approaches of Latin american scholars.
*they rejected the liberal free trade theories that said it promoted econ. development in the world

**The theory here is that decreases in the wealth of poor countries correlated with the increasing wealth of the rich industrial countries.
* believed that the international capitalism lead to the the "de-development of the developing world.
what theory challenged the modernization theory
the dependency theory
who influenced the dependency theory
Karl Marx
who first introduced the American Audience to the concept of dep. theory? And what was his claim?
Gunder Frank and he held that the ties btw. the core and periphery should be severed if development is to occur in Latin america/de-developed countries.
2 key terms of dependency theory
core and periphery
3 dependency trajectory theories
-19th century imperialism: the west creates the capitalist market. and the core send manufactured goods to periphery in exchange for raw materials.

-20th century NEO-imperialism; core sends loans FDI (foreign direct investment) and manufactures goods to periphery in exchange for raw materials (issue is that the finished products are sold in the US And they make the most profit not the cheap labor countries)
*includes the IMF known as MODERN IMPERIALISM
what is ISI under dep. theory
Import Substitution Industrialization and it means the self reliance in the production of manufactured goods.
at the core modernization is an approach that attempts to explain what and what did it grow out of ?
how economic modernization is related to political development
-grew from the beh. revolutions desire to focus on factors outside of the inst. to explain political development
what is the premise to Modernization theory?
that changes in the economic environment have a profound effect on the type of political system that emerges.
theorists in modernization theory

Also based on Karl Marx
(based on Karl Marx)
-but also Emile Durkheim----> who held that industrialization made societies more complex-----> and transitions to a more advanced industry can bring chaos and disorder and it could create SOCIAL ANOMIE which is a sense of rootlessness

-Seymore Martin Lipset THE BIGGEST NAME IN MOD> THEORY! held that economic development is a social requisite for democratic development. Econ dev. ----> leads to changes in norms.
Specifically econ. develop creates a big middle class and levels of literacy go up and that can make for the creation of democracy
* Lipset ; economic development leads to political democracy

-Karl Deutsch----> held that modernizing societies experienced social mobilization --->advanced non-traditional practices, in culture, and technology and economic life are introduced and accepted
econ dev.---> social mobilization ---> democracy
***AND THE FUNDAMENTAL PREMIS THAT IN ORDER TO MODERNiZE and LEAD TO A DEM> you MUST CAST ASIDE TRADITIONAL VALUES

-Almond and Coleman: ARGUE That ECONOMIC Modernization creates CRISES that systems must resolve. What results from modernization and social modbilizatio depends on how exisiting systems deal with crises. these include
*identity crisis
*legitimacy crisis
* the penetration crisis
* the distribution crisis
pretty much says that societies are under-developed b/c of their own decision to stick with traditional values.
what is missing from modernization theory and dependency theory?
the states as political actors . Brings states back into the explanation of development and underdevelopment.
what phenomena could not be explained by the dependency theory or the modern. theory
the Asian Tigers
Japan, Russia, Turkey, pre dated the Asian tigers who were Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea.
what is at the heart of the statism approach
Weberian conception. The liberal conception of the state, the state is considered an arena in which various interest compete. Max wevver says that the state is a human community which claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force with a given territory.

Paramount interest is the need to survive and thus the need to have a strong military.
POLITICS---> is the cause for economic transformation .
what is endogeneity
the idea that instead of an independent variables action causing a reaction on the dependent variable, the situation is reverse.
why is ethnic heterogeneity bad for democracy?
*could create cultural and ethnic strife
* past ethnic strife existing

* most importantly the creation of ETHNIC political parties: which are parties that appeal to a specific ethnic group to the exclusion of other groups.
what is civic nationalism
establishment and protection of the nation state is the HIGHEST political goal.w
what is ethnic nationalism
commitment to ethnic groups: ethnic group could be language, religion, genetic history, culture, and non of these are mutually exclusive.
what are the 2 types of nations
1) civic nationalism
2) non-ethnic
what is dependency overview/premis
also called WORLD systems theory, and is the rejection of LIBERAL FREE TRADE theories as the best approach to achieving economic development.
what problem could modernization theory and dependency/world systems theory FAIL TO explain
Asian tigers jumping from the periphery to the core.
Out of the Arab Spring what is the only country that successfully built a democracy
Tunisia
what is wrong with "society centered" approaches
they fail to consider the role of the STATE
what is the premis of the statist approach
that politics is a cause of economic environment------> the state needs to survive this and compels a state to pursue industrialization -------> industrialization a way to increase military capacity.

(modernize military by industrialization)
what is the capitalist peace idea
that capitalists markets trading increases peace btw countries. similar to democratic peace.
modernization approach premis
modernization -------> economic development ------> happens when modern values are adapted; people are more literate and engage in politics.
what does modernization breed
social mobilization and transforms a society and a democratic nation emerges
what is political culture
essentially it involves the basic values, ideas, beliefs, and orientations about politics.
flow chart for modernization theory
economic development -----> happens when mod. values adopted
flow chart for dep. theory
econ. develops -----> happens when international economic order changes
statis theory flow chart
economic dev. ---> the result of the voluntaristic action of the state (doesn't require a change of values in society/ Asian tigers)
what is crucial for the emergence of a democracy
is a general consensus
economic environment in which political environment occurs is crucial for the emergence of political democracy
what is the concept and the author of post materialism
Ronald Inglehart: The idea that before a country modernizes they are focused only on obtaining things for survival such as food,(
economic growth is focused on economic growth and national security)
* but over time as a country develop economically and acquire greater wealth-----> material affluence leads to a change in VALUES away from material needs to POST MATERIAL

(post material such as freedoms, and clean environment)
post material values create a stable political system with political value
who authored the idea that political culture is hard to separate from culture and thus political culture is an explanation of "last resort"
Elkins and Simeon
what is post-modern
concerned with political values, such as tolerance and permissiveness it does include 'post material" values but it concerned with tolerance/fighting for what you believe in.

social and cultural concerns such as abortions, human rights, etc.

modernization ---->leads to culture change

Author is Inglehart
most of the world remains what type of political culture
materialist
what caused many western countries to shift from materialism to -----> post materialism
rapid economic expansion following WWII
what are the 3 types of political culture as defined by Almond and Verba
* parochials: no benefits, or participation, role in political system

* subject political culture: people who are aware of how it operates but see themselves as subjects to it

* participant: know a great deal about the political system but also are positively oriented towards both input and output processes . They both want and receive the benefits of policy
what is civic culture
pg 93
the mix of all 3 political cultures is known as civic culture
what is comparative method
unique approach designed to address a methodological problem in pol. sci. IS a set of strategies that one uses to deal with situations of having too few cases and too many potential explanatory factors.

* Uses a control group and an experimental group who gets the "causal factor". And the control of the explanatory factors, by doing this one can assess the true effects of the stimulus.
what is the similar systems design
similar to comparative method (pg. 6). Compares different cases which only differ because of different dependent variables.

This allows one to control the number of factors.
what is the most different systems design
pg 7. To find the common circumstance which is present in all the cases that can be regarded as the cause. IT compares very different cases but all have the same dependent variable.
who authored the idea of "ethnic outbidding" what is the concept
Chandra

* the idea that ethnic outbidding is where ethnic parties compete for votes and exclude others from voting. Through the use of INFLAMMATORY RHETORIC. They exclude other groups and create a competition. This is unstable for democracy.(only can be sustained by institutions that foster multiple dimensions of ethnic identity)
why is ethnic heterogeneity detrimental to democracy
it leads to ethnic outbidding and thus unstable for democracy. (uses inflammatory rhetoric and aims at excluding others)
what is a civil society
labor unions, professional, guns clubs, athletic organizations etc.
Social capital
authored by who and what is the concept
non-political organizations promote bonds, shared values and trust that builds social capital. This also acts as a check on the government. Social capital holds society together.

Authored by Putnam: who also argued that America is now BOWLING ALONE
who coined the idea that democracy in America and its ties to civic life . Civic associations are necessary for democracy to thrive
Alex De Tocqueville
what is the systems approach who is the major thinker of this approach
who modified it and how did they modify it

pg 17-19
The idea that we should study politics in the same way as biological systems. Political systems don't exist in isolation and should not be studies as such.

WE should study political systems in their environments and they are surrounded by physical, social, and economic environments.
WE have intra social vs. extra social.

inputs emerge from these environments which are our demands on government

outputs are what government puts out like policy and benefits. such as new highways or schools and healthcare.


Major thinker: Easton

Then modified by Almond and Coleman
modified the approach to reflect a common set of terms and concepts to more effectively compare. This was called STRUCTURAL functionalism

They also examined the functions performed by the political system as a whole
what was Putnam's 3 reasons for america's decline in social capital
* women in workplace
* mobility
* technology
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