STUDENT NOTES 6

INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS

When classifying governments, you can ask five questions to help you classify them:

1. Who can participate?2. How is power distributed? 3. How are the legislative, executive,

and judicial branches structured?4. What is the relationship between the

legislative and executive branch?5. What type of electoral systems do

they have?

III. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS5.) What type of electoral systems do they

have?• A legal system for making democratic choices• Create two-party, three-party, multiparty systems• Rules by which elections are conducted

– Determine who can vote, how people vote, and how the votes get counted

• Two Main Kinds of Systems1.Competitive

1. Single Member District Plurality (SMDP) and (First-Past-the-Post)

2. Proportional Representation (PR)

2.Authoritarian

III. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS5.) What type of electoral systems do they have?

► Types of Electoral Districts► Single Member Districts. AKA “winner take all”,

“first past the post” Follow plurality election rules Single Member systems tend to favor two-party rule.

► Proportional representation is where the nation is divided into a few, large districts and competing parties offer a list of candidates rather than a single candidate. The number of representatives in the legislature is proportional to the percentage of votes it gets

Most proportional systems have a minimum threshold for a party to win seats – ie. 7% of the vote in Russia.

Plurality

• The number of votes cast for a candidate who receives more than any other candidate but does not receive an absolute majority

• “More than anyone else, but under 50%.”

Single Member District Plurality

• An electoral system in which candidates run for a single seat from a specific geographic districts

• An electoral system in which voters chose an individual running for office in a single legislative district (also called “first past the post“)

• *Example: U.K. and United States• The winner is the person who receives the MOST votes,

whether or NOT that is a majority• Increase the likelihood of a two-party state

– Common in the United States, rarely used in continental Europe or in Latin America

– A variation on this is the majority runoff system (or double ballot)

First-Past-the-Post• An electoral system in which winners

are determined by which candidate receives the largest number of votes (regardless of whether or not a majority is received)

• SAME as Single Member District Plurality!

Electoral Systems

• Plurality systems encourage large, broad-based parties because…• no matter how many people run in a district, the person with

the largest # of votes wins• this encourages parties to become larger, spreading their

“umbrellas” to embrace more voters• Parties without big groups of voters supporting them have little

hope of winning

Two (Double) Ballot System

• An electoral system where two rounds of voting may take places to ensure a majority winner

• Several candidates may be on first ballot, if no majority is chose, second ballot is run-off of top two vote getters

• Also called the majority runoff system

Proportional Representation (PR)

• An electoral system in which voters select parties rather than individual candidates and parties are represented in legislatures in proportion to the shares of votes they win

• Representatives are elected based on the proportion of the electorate that voted for them

• Encourages a multi-party system• Closed-list PR system: voters don’t know

people chosen by party• Open-list PR System: voters chose from list of

candidates given by parties

Proportional Representation (PR)• How Proportional Representation system works:

– A country is divided into a few large sections– The competing parties offer lists of candidates– The number of legislative representatives a party wins

depends on the overall proportion of the votes it receives– Sometimes parties must meet a minimum threshold of

votes in order to receive any seats at all (5% or 7%)

• KEY POINT: PR system leads to multiparty legislatures

• (Exception: Russia’s raising of threshold to 7% has resulted in less representation of regional parties)

Minimum Winning Threshold

• The minimum percentage of votes a party must receive in order to be seated in a legislature

– Sometimes parties must meet a minimum threshold of votes in order to receive any seats at all (5% or 7%)

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

• An electoral system in which political parties compete in multi-member districts

• Voters choose b/t parties and the seats are awarded proportionally

FIRST PAST THE POST

• Single member district• Winner take all • Candidate with the largest share of

the vote wins the seat

Types of Elections

• Election of public officials

• Referendum– Votes on policy issues– Examples?– Plebiscite

• A non-binding vote to gauge public opinion on an issue

• Initiative– Vote on a policy initiated

by the people

Multiparty System

• A party system with several important political parties, none of which generally gains a majority of the seats in the national

• Mexico, Nigeria

Two-Party System

• A party system in which two main parties compete for majority control of the government

• Small parties may exist but play no significant role in national electoral outcomes

• UK

One-Party Dominant System

• A party system in which one large party directs the political system, but small parties exist and may compete in elections

• Russia (& Mexico in the past under the PRI)

One-Party System

• A party system in which one political party controls the government and voters have no option to choose an opposition party (China)

Elite Recruitment

• Refers to the selection of people for political activity and government offices

• In a democracy, competitive elections play a major role in political recruitment

• In authoritarian systems, recruitment may be dominated by a single party, as in China, or unelected religious leaders, as in Iran

Supranational Organizations► Supranational Organizations are those who

have been given some sovereignty because nations have shifted their powers upwards to them. This shift took place after WWII.

► *Even though these organizations are important, the state is still the most important political system in the world!*

• EXAMPLES: • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)• European Union• NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)• OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)• United Nations

IV. CITIZENS, SOCIETY & THE STATE• Civil society:• Formal and informal organizations that are

NOT part of the state but operate in public • The web of membership in social and

political groups that some analysts believe is needed to sustain democracy

• A society in which people are involved in social and political interactions free of state control or regulation

• Social, charitable, religious, community – advance own cause

Civil Society: arena outside of

the state and family (i.e.,

mainly voluntary organizations

and civic associations) that permits individuals to

associate freely and

independently of state

regulation

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

• Global civil society• Examples: Doctors Without

Borders, Amnesty International, Red Cross

POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

• The process by which individuals acquire their political attitudes and behaviors

• Family, school, media

POLITICAL CULTURE

• History, culture, values, beliefs, traditions that influence political behavior

• Defines the public’s expectations toward the political process and its role within the process

POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

• A set of political values about what the goals of government should be

LIBERALISM• An ideology that

favors a limited state role in society and the economy and places a high value on individual freedom– SUPPORTS

• limited government• individual freedom• social toleration• the redistribution of

resources

LIBERTARIAN

• Prefers little government interference in the economy or personal freedoms

CONSERVATISM

• A political attitude that questions the need for change and supports the current order

RADICALISM

• Favors dramatic and revolutionary change

REACTIONARY

• Someone who seeks to restore the institutions of a real or imagined earlier political or societal order

CLEAVAGES

• Factors that separate groups

• May be based on ethnicity, religion, social class, region, etc

• The wider and deeper the cleavages, the less unified the society

CROSS CUTTING CLEAVAGE

• Divisions that cut across differences• When the groups that are divided share

a common interest on one or more issues

• Crosscutting cleavages bring groups together in a society that might not otherwise have much in common– The PRI in Mexico united rural peasants and

urban dwellers for much of the 20th century– Religion in some societies – like Iran and

Mexico – can be a crosscutting cleavage

COINCIDING (CUMULATIVE) CLEAVAGES

• Divisions that strengthen feelings of difference and discrepancy

• Cleavages which reinforce each other (pit the same people against each other on many different issues

• Coinciding cleavages create tension in a political system– Religion in Nigeria– Class in most countries

POST MATERIALIST• The theory that younger voters tend to

favor issues such as the environment and feminism

• Propelled by the idea that in advanced societies basic needs are met so citizens can concentrate on higher goals

V. Political & economic change

• ECONOMIC VARIABLESECONOMIC VARIABLES– There is an intimate relationship between

politics and economics, such that there is an entire field of study—political political economyeconomy—that examines the links.

• Political economy: Political economy: The relationship between political activity and economic performance.

– The most fundamental comparative measure is economic size; this is expressed using gross gross domestic product (GDP).domestic product (GDP).

• Gross domestic product (GDP): Gross domestic product (GDP): The total value of all goods and services produced by a state in a given year.

PURCHASING POWER PARITY

• PPP• An estimate of buying power using

the US as a benchmark

MARKET ECONOMY

• An economy that relies on the interaction of supply and demand to allocate resources and set prices

NEOLIBERAL ECONOMICS

• Focuses on introducing free market reforms and has few restrictions on economic and property rights

• Economic liberalization

MARXISM

• A political/economic system based on public ownership of the means of production

• Goal: classless country and the “withering away of the state”

V. Political & economic change

CommunismValues equality over freedomBelieve that the inevitable

outcome of competition for scarce resources is that a small group will come to control the government and the economy. (i.e. “the rich”)

Advocate a takeover of all resources and abolishing private property to ensure true equality

SocialismValues equality of

communism BUT promote private ownership of property and free market principles.

The state should have a strong role to play in regulating the economy and providing benefits to the public sector.

V. Political & economic change

Mixed/Hybrid Economies

• In reality, most economies are mixed. The state plays an important role in most economies, yet many decisions are made by private individuals and businesses.– Import Substitution Industrialization

• A method used by developing nations to spur economic development– Characterized by government subsidies and tax breaks, tariffs to protect

domestic businesses

– Neo-liberal Market reforms/neoliberalism/economic liberalization• The introduction of market mechanisms into an economy. Often this

is done through the removal of price controls, the elimination of subsidies, and reduction/elimination of protective tariffs.

Import Substitution Industrialization

–Employs high tariffs to protect locally produced goods from foreign competition, govt ownership of key industries, govt subsidies to domestic industries

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT

• Structural adjustment programs require countries to increase taxes and cut spending (austerity measures) to improve budgets.

DEPENDENCY THEORY

• The idea that colonial rule left a legacy of political and economic dependence making it difficult for former colonies to improve their economies and democratize.

WELFARE STATE

• The creation and maintenance of social welfare programs; a school of thought that the state should assume primary responsibility for the welfare of citizens

COMMAND ECONOMY

• An economy in which the allocation of resources is centrally made with little regard for supply and demand

Command vs. Mixed vs. Market Economies

More Centralization Less Centralization

COMMANDECONOMY

MIXEDECONOMY

MARKETECONOMY

• Right to own property is greatly restricted

• All industry is owned by the govt

• Competition and profit are prohibited

• Elements of command and market economies are present/mixed

• Right to own property is accepted/guaranteed

• Most industry is owned by private individuals.

• Competition and profit are not controlled by the govt

RENTIER STATE

• A country that obtains lucrative income by exporting a raw material or leasing out a natural resource to foreign countries

• Income from rents of foreign companies