Political Science: Key Concepts

Key Concepts of Political Science

• Politics involves negotiation and competition to make and execute shared decisions.
• Distribution and manipulation are key aspects
• Power means capacity to bring about certain effects.
• Authority means the right to rule.
• A political system is how a society reaches and enforces collective decisions.
• Democratic systems influenced by forces like interest groups and the media.
• Authoritarian systems often are dominated by a single individual or clan.
• Governance is the process of making decisions and policies, potentially without formal institutions.
• Good governance must be accountable, transparent, efficient, responsive and inclusive
• Government refers to the institutions and structures governing a society.

Discipline of Comparative Politics

• Comparative politics: a subfield that studies political structures and processes by analyzing them empirically across political systems.
• Comparative politics involves gaining knowledge about other countries
• Classification/Typologies are a part of it. Ex: Three Worlds System.
• It involves hypothesis testing
• prediction is possible through generalizations derived from comparisons of political outcomes
• Concepts are tools for thinking and analysis with clear definitions.
• Concepts separate us from practical politics
• Comparative methods define rules and standards for comparative analysis.

Issues in Comparative Politics

• Comparative politics focuses on various units of analysis.
• There is no single comparative method

Types of Comparative Politics Methods (Lijphart)

• The case study method involves intensive examination of a particular case for understanding larger situations
• A represesentative case study is typical of the category already studied
• Theory-testing/Prototypical case studies probe new contexts
• Deviant case studies identify and examine exceptions to existing theories.
• Exemplary case studies create the category
• Critical case study: if it works there, it works anywhere
• Comparative/Qualitative methods use systematic analysis of a small case number
• Comparative/Qualitative methods have issues like too few cases, many variables (MSSD)
• Selection bias is also an issue and can occur accidentally (MDSD)
• Understanding differences in meaning across countries is essential.
• Statistical/Quantitative method: comparing via statistical analysis of large numbers of cases/variables.
• The historical method studies past cases, focusing on development over time.

Democratic and Non-Democratic Regimes

• Democracies choose rulers through competitive, free, regular and fair elections.
• Stable political institutions with checks and balances are key
• Open, responsive government is key for democracies
• Freedom is a key element to democratic regimes
• Independent media is an important establishment
• Dimensions present are contestation and inclusiveness
• Established through democratization of stable institutions
• "Quality" ranges from Liberal/Full to Electoral/Flawed democracies
• Direct/Deliberative democracy involves citizens debating and making decisions. Ex: Athens.
• Representative democracy has elected officials ruling indirectly with accountability.
• Liberal democracy has scope limited by protection of individual rights.
• The first wave of democracy occurred 1828-1926 including countries like the Netherlands, France, UK and US
• The second wave of democracy included Italy, West Germany and Japan (1934-1964)
• The third wave started in 1974 including Hungary and South Africa
• Non-democratic regimes have centralized power, non-competitive selection of rulers.
• Rulers in non-democratic regimes are not accountable to citizens and are not subject to rule of law.
• Limited mass participation maintains control
• opposition and media are coerced with violence
• Legislatures and judiciaries are under-resourced/ineffective
• Non-democratic regimes vary in pluralism, mobilization, leadership
• Totalitarian regimes exist
• Authoritarian regimes with leadership from mass organizations exist.
• Sultanistic/Neo-Patrimonial regimes feature personalistic leadership, no mobilization, some pluralism. Ex: Mobutu
• Hybrid regimes are between democratic and non-democratic regimes
• competitive authoritarianisms can be democratic appearing but have manipulation from elites
• Elections happen however are undermined
• There is no alternation in power
• A leader holds the power stronger than institutions
• Mechanisms inclue patronage, administration manipulation and politicization of institiutions
• Hybrid regimes transforming to norm for nondemocratic regimes

Political Participation

• Political participation: actively influencing government composition/policies.
• Voting takes place
• Petitions take place
• Demonstrations take place
• Boycotts take place
• Terrorist acts take place
• Engagement is essential for democracy
• the paradox of voting occurs
• Women are underrepresented in most forms of formal political participation, excluding voting.
• Factors include reluctance to vote for women, obstacles to running for office, gendered institutions.
• Rates of participation vary more widely than in democracies, especially between countries

Modes of Political Participation

• Conventional (participating in a political party)
• Unconventional (joining a rebellious group)
• Legal and permitted by law as is voting
• Illegal however sometimes tolerated as is boycotting
• Low key, something which does not require a major effort as is engagement on social media
• Intensive, something which requires a more major effort like protesting

Public Opinion

• Public opinion: views held on an issue of public concern by community members.
• Measurement can take place via opinion polls and surveys
• There is a limit such as they offer few detailed policy prescriptions
• the public is informed ill
• trade offs are not considered
• there are inaccurate perceptions of political opinion
• it is significant only when changing

Voter Turnout

• Voter turnout happens via conventional, legal and low key participation
• Voting is decreasing around the world, specfically in the EU
• There was an include of "Spitzenkandidaten" to fix the issue
• Institutional Arrangements such as compulsory voting increases participation
• Registration requirements increases participation
• Electoral systems impact votes
• Social media increases engagement however does not increase particiaption across the board

Political Culture

• A sum of individual values and norms with political influence
• It will influence what individuals think about parties, candidates, policies and leaders
• Problems are people wrongly taking the elite political culture as the whole political culture.
• This has compactness/cohesion and norms for a people group
• Ecological fallacy: a group has same characteristics that all integrants have
• Multiple cultures exist in countries

Cultural Explanations for Participation

• Interpersonal trust builds stable democracies
• There is great important in interpersonal trust that effects support for democracy
• Increases propensity for collective actions
• Post-materialism shifts value orientations, leads to green parties.
• Deeper cultural change will effect growth with growth of green parties
• Globalization plays a key role in spreading these values
• Voter participation rises alongisde political trust

Elections

• Lie at the heart of democractic process as a key for regularity and arithmetic
• Manipulation occurs in certain authoritarian states
• elections occur
• voting occurs
• bribery occurs
• Election systems are systems that govern the rules in an election

Aims of Electoral Systems

• To provide a system of proportionality, effectiveness, simplicity and responsiveness

Electoral Systems

• Majoritarian: elections in single member districts where the candidate with the most votes takes all.
• in Plurality systems, the candidate witthe most votes in each district takes all
• is simple and responsive
• the majority system (France, Australia) involves voters voting and for winning there requires a majority
• the two-round system means the winning candidate will need a majority of the votes that that is attainable
• Proportional Representation (PR) involves multiple districts, and allocations proportional to the amount of received votes
• differentiaed through choice of candidates, the voter cannot see candidates
• there are various kinds of lists: closed, senimi-open, completely open
• Thereshold effects % for winning seats
• DIstrict magnitude impacts how representative the system is
• The seat of allocation formula (impacts smaller or larger countries usually)
• Mixed systems are those that combine the featers of both
• Parliaments will have party and regions
• There is Majoritarian electoral systems, usually with larger countries

Consequences of Electoral Systems

• Proportionality - representatives with small % of vote will get elected
• thresholds impact party systems and proportional rep. in parliament
• Duverger (countries with majoritarian = double party system)
• critisic are there are other examples with the solid double such as Malta
• the systems has psychological and technical effects on voters and candidates

Minority Representation

• Easy to manipulate electoral systems because constitutional precednts will change and be hard to get around
• Manipulations of district included apportionment
• Malapportionment: ignored, deliberate changes
• Gerrymanderging (redrawing a border)
• Increase of affect small parties impacts legal threshold

Other Forms of Political Engagement

• Electorate enagages trough the system in devices like this, with engagement
• Referendums allow the electorate to vote on a key issue like the constitutional amendment
• Directness and helps understand voter
• increases the vote and provides citizens with confidence
• provides for political inform politics
• Expensive, complex, contorversial
• Timing of the votes can be critical
• There is an initiative to give a popular vote for the initiative to place popular vote

Classic theories of electoral behaviour

• party identification - long term and associated with the political
• impacts by organizing and mobilization Voters
• there is a stabilization of behavior of voters
• comes with socializations and institutions
• however does not effect or is as explanatory as it does with american voters
• Cleavage Theory (behavior from social group with division of identity
• expression in organization for social
• owner to worker or church to state
• theories have to be long trem
• there needs to be attachment and decreased with less society
• decreases with religion
• decreases with mass media increase

More Electoral

• Split ticket voting indicates how strong voters or politicians are bonded in some movement and political system
• Volatitlity a measure of change in support
• In Authoratian regimes, people influenced restricted or manipulated into shaping the system

Political Parties

• A political party: a collection identified by a group who fields and promotes
• “Parties are inevitable, no free country has been without them - Lord Bryce
• Parties and modern democractic are related
• Undavoidable to democracy
• Diatatorship comes as repression

Functions of Parties

• mobilized and has representation in electorate
• are the organizers to aggregation
• there is parliement and gov
• there should be balance

Features of party organizations

• what is the origin of the system?
• what is organized by party?
• the members the the organization?
• What pays to keep the act together

Types of party organization

• There are cadre parties
• there are formed members that join legislature together
• parliamentary origine
• they are elites
• donations
• the mass parties
• orginate outside legislation and formed with objectives for groups
• very intensitve and orginization based
• memberships are homogenous fees for members
• the cater call parties resond and mobolize
• that comes via mass media

Party Systems

• What is the conflagation of parties relative to interaction
• Democratic party type - the two party, alternating coalations multi alternating ones as well
• poliarized multi with not much of an alternation for parties very strong
• party leaders do well to control the govt