CPO 2001: Introduction to Comparative Politics

1. CPO 2001: Introduction to Comparative Politics Fall 2012 Michael Bernhard 313 Anderson, Office Hours: TR 9:40-11:00 TAs: AsliBaysal, BuketOztas, Kendra Patterson, Sebstian Sclofsky and Tristan Vellinga http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bernhard/coursepages/cpo2001/cpo2001.htm

2. INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS COMPARATIVE POLITICS?

3. Cause and Effect Condition A gives rise to outcome B A→B Necessary Condition: If not A, then not B Sufficient Condition: If A, then B

4. Variables Dependent variable (x), changes in response to a change in the independent variable Independent variable (y), causes a change in the dependent variable x is a function of y x = f(y) ∆y --> ∆x, but not ∆x --> ∆y (unless they are covariate)

8. POWER, THE STATE, AND DOMINATION

9. He who is active in politics strives for power either as a means in serving other aims, ideal or egoistic, or as "power for power's sake," in order to enjoy the prestige-feeling power gives. (PV, 78)

10. Power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability exists. (ES, 53)

11. Domination is the probably that a command with a given specific content will be obeyed by a given group of persons. (ES, 53)

12. There is scarcely any task that some political association has not taken in hand, and there is no task that one could say has always been exclusive and peculiar to those associations which are designated as political ones: today the state, or historically, those associations which have been the predecessors of the modern state." (PV, 77)

13. ...the state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. (PV, 78)

14. A "ruling organization" will be called "political" insofar as its existing order is continuously safeguarded within a given territorial area by the threat and application of physical force on the part of the administrative staff. A compulsory political organization with continuous operations ... will be called a "state" insofar as its administrative staff upholds the claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in the enforcement of its order. (ES, 54)

15. This system of order claims binding authority, not only over the members of the state, the citizens, most of whom have obtained membership by birth, but also to a very large extent over all action taking place in the area of it jurisdiction. It is thus a compulsory organization with a territorial basis. (ES, 56).

16. Like the political institutions historically preceding it, the state is a relation of men dominating men, a relation supported by means of legitimate (i.e. considered to be legitimate) violence. If the state is to exist the dominated must obey the authority claimed by the powers that be. (PV, 78)

17. [T]he modern state is a compulsory association which organizes domination. It has been successful in seeking to monopolize the legitimate use of physical force as a means of domination within a territory. To this end the state has combined the material means of organization in the hands of its leaders, and it has expropriated all autonomous functionaries of estates who formerly controlled these means in their own right. The state has taken their position and now stands in the top place. (PV, 82-3)

18. THE STATE AS SOVEREIGN POWER

19. THE EXERCISE OF POWER

20. Weber's Definition of PowerPower is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability exists. (ES, 53)

21. Etzioni's Classification of Power

22. THE LEGITIMATION OF DOMINATION

23. Domination is the probably that a command with a given specific content will be obeyed by a given group of persons. (ES, 53)

24. In addition every such system [of domination] attempts to cultivate the belief in its legitimacy. (ES, 213)What is important in the fact that in a given case the particular claim to legitimacy is to a significant degree and according to its type treated as "valid"; that this fact confirms the position of the persons claiming authority and that helps to determine the choice of means of its exercise. (ES, 214)

25. 1. Rational grounds -- resting on a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issues commands (legal authority).

26. 2. Traditional grounds -- resting on an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of these exercising authority under them (traditional authority); or finally,

27. 3. Charismatic grounds -- resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him (charismatic authority). (ES, 215)

28. The term "charisma" will be applied to a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a "leader." In primitive circumstances this kind of quality is thought of as resting on magical powers, whether of prophets, persons with a reputation for therapeutic or legal wisdom, leaders in the hunt, or heroes in war. How the quality in question would be ultimately judged from any ethical, aesthetic, or other such point of view is naturally entirely indifferent for purposes of definition. What is alone important is how the individual is actually regarded by those subject to charismatic authority, by his "followers" or "disciples." (ES, 241-2)

29. Charismatic rulership in the typical sense described above always results from unusual, especially political or economic situations, or from extraordinary psychic, particularly religious states, or from both together. It arises from collective excitement produced by extraordinary events and from surrender to heroism of any kind. (ES, 1121)

30. If proof and success elude the leader for long, if he appears deserted by his god or his magical or heroic powers, above all, if his leadership fails to benefit his followers, it is likely that his charismatic authority will disappear (ES, 242).

31. Every charisma is on the road from a turbulently emotional life that knows no economic rationality to a slow death by suffocation under the weight of material interests: every hour of its existence brings it nearer to this end. (ES, 1120)

32. POLYARCHY

33. I assume that a key characteristic of a democracy is the continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals. What other characteristics might be required for a system to be strictly democratic, I do not intend to consider here. In this book I should like to reserve the term "democracy" for a political system one of the characteristics of which is the quality of being completely or almost completely responsive to all its citizens. (1-2).

34. ...all full citizens must have unimpaired opportunities:1. To formulate their preferences2. To signify their preferences to their fellow citizens and the government by individual and collective action3. To have their preferences weighed equally in the conduct of government, that is, weighed with no discrimination because of the content or source of the preference (2).

35. Dahl's three axioms on the toleration of opposition

36. Reconstruction of Table 1.1: "Some Requirements for a Democracy among a Large Number of People To formulate their preferences: 1. Freedom to form and join organizations 2. Freedom of expression 3. Right to vote 4. Right of political leaders to compete for support 5. Alternative sources of information To signify their preferences to their fellow citizens and the government by individual and collective action 1 - 5 above, plus: 6. Eligibility for public office 7. Free and fair elections To have their preferences weighed equally in the conduct of government, that is, weighed with no discrimination because of the content or source of the preference 1-3 above, 5-7 above, plus: a modification of 4: 4. Right of political leaders to compete for support 4a. Right of political leaders to compete for votes • and 8. Institutions for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preference

37. VARIETIES OF EXECUTIVE POWER IN POLYARCHIES, PRESIDENTIALISM VERSUS PARLIAMENTARISM

38. Duverger’s defining characteristics of semi-presidentialism: • 1) the president is directly elected by universal suffrage • 2) the presidency has considerable powers • 3) the president shares power with a prime minister who is responsible to the legislature

39. PARTY AND VOTING SYSTEMS

40. Conditions for democratic elections • Elections take place regularly and within a prescribed time limit • Substantially the entire adult population has the right to vote and run for office. • No group in the adult population is denied the opportunity of forming a party and putting up candidates • All the seats in the major legislative chamber can be contested and usually are

41. Conditions for democratic elections (continued) Campaigns are conducted with reasonable fairness, in that the neither the law nor violence nor intimidation bars any of the candidates from presenting their views to the voters or prevents the voters from discussing them. Votes are case freely and secretly; they are counted and reported honestly; and the candidates who receive the proportions of the vote required by law are duly installed in office until their terms expire, at which time a new election is held.

42. British General Election of 1983

43. MODERN DICTATORSHIP

44. Regimes Traditional Modern Democratic Non-democratic Authoritarian Totalitarian

45. Linz's three characteristics of totalitarian regimes (191-2)1. There is a monistic but not monolithic center of power, and whatever pluralism of institutions or groups exist derives its legitimacy from that center, is largely mediated by it, and is mostly a political creation rather than an outgrowth of the dynamics of the preexisting society.

46. 2. There is an exclusive, autonomous, and more or less intellectually elaborate ideology with which the ruling group or leader, and the party serving the leaders, identify and which they use as a basis for policies or manipulate to legitimize them. The ideology has some boundaries beyond which lies heterodoxy that does not remain unsanctioned. The ideology goes beyond a particular program or definition of the boundaries of legitimate political action to provide, presumably, some ultimate meaning, sense of historical purpose, and interpretation of social reality.

47. 3. Citizen participation in and active mobilization for political and collective social tasks are encouraged, demanded, rewarded, and channeled through a single party and many monopolistic secondary groups. Passive obedience and apathy, retreat into the role of "parochials" and "subjects," of many authoritarian regimes, are considered undesirable by the rulers.

48. Linz's characterization of authoritarian regimes (164)…political systems with limited, not responsible, political pluralism, without elaborate and guiding ideology, but with distinctive mentalities, without extensive not intensive political mobilization, except at some points in their development, and in which a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones.

49. A comparison of the two ideal-types:Totalitarianism, point 1 --There is a monistic but not monolithic center of power, and whatever pluralism of institutions or groups exist derives its legitimacy from that center, is largely mediated by it, and is mostly a political creation rather than an outgrowth of the dynamics of the preexisting society.Excerpts from Authoritarianism --political systems with limited, not responsible, political pluralism... in which a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones.

50. Totalitarianism, point 2 –There is an exclusive, autonomous, and more or less intellectually elaborate ideology with which the ruling group or leader, and the party serving the leaders, identify and which they use as a basis for policies or manipulate to legitimize them. The ideology has some boundaries beyond which lies heterodoxy that does not remain unsanctioned. The ideology goes beyond a particular program or definition of the boundaries of legitimate political action to provide, presumably, some ultimate meaning, sense of historical purpose, and interpretation of social reality.Excerpts from Authoritarianism --...without elaborate and guiding ideology, but with distinctive mentalities...