NOETS Comparative Politics PDF

NOETS Tuesday, 20 August 2024 11:26 pm MODULE 1: History, Theories, and Perspectives in Comparative Politics COMPARATIVE METHODOLOGY...

NOETS Tuesday, 20 August 2024 11:26 pm MODULE 1: History, Theories, and Perspectives in Comparative Politics COMPARATIVE METHODOLOGY makes sense of domestic contexts and realities 19/08/2024 Course Outcome: Meta-Theory (why) develop diplomacy materials to address identified contemporary governance and development issue in a Model the framework or set of rules that defines the context within which theoretical concepts are constructed in a United Nations setting specific scientific domain ability to engage in diplomatic debate and negotiations in a Model United Nations Methodology (how) the overall approach or strategy for conducting research no 1st,2nd,3rd world countries only = advance economy OR transitioning economy bridges the gap between metatheory and method. Method (what to use) we will systematically generate patterns and to determine the prospects for governance and development in the PH and the techniques or procedures used to gather and analyze data the rest of the world. Comparative Politics how do we understand the political system of individual states and the state society interactions within them? → inward it often focuses on understanding the internal dynamics of specific countries or regions. what appropriate method and methodology can be utilized in analyzing socio-economic and political phenomena in both International Relations advanced and transitioning nation states? → outward it focuses on the interactions between different states, societies, and cultures. Unlike comparative politics, which often delves into the internal dynamics of a single country or region, IR examines the broader global context. Comparative Inquiry - PS has its beginning when an observer notes that another people is not governed as we are and Prominent People that made CP the way it is now asks the question why (Rose, 1991) - An awareness of diversity provides the starting point for comparative enquiry (Hague and Harrop, Baron de Montesquieu 2001) - Emphasis on human political experience and pluralism of causation - Comparison is inherent in all science including the social sciences….. (Lor, 2011) - Comparativisim - Without comparisons to make, the mind does not know how to proceed. (Tocqueville, 1830) Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859) Only through comparative methods do we understand the nuances. - Method of comparison - Without comparison, the mind does not know how to proceed Comparative Politics Devin Griffiths - Stages in the development of CP did not unfold in an orderly and episodic manner + a field acutely - Comparative method: in dissent because it is in transition from one style of analysis to another (Apter & Eckstein, 1963) ○ Crucial to the history of humanities - CP existed long before it became a recognized subfield of the modern discipline of political science ○ Comparison and analogy (Daalder, 1993) ○ Network of filiated practices, not a stable object The timeline depends on the author ○ Internalization and reformulation by social science ○ Active network of research practices; interdisciplinarity produces similarity Politically Defining Moments (Gerardo Munck) Gerardo Munck - 19th: CP as a distinct field of PS Behavioral Revolution Post Behavioral Period 2nd Scientific Revolution - 20th: CP as an international enterprise 1921-1966 1967 - 1988 1989 - present - CP is punctuated by two revolutions: ○ Behavioral revolution + scientific revolution - Standard for research in CP is based largely from US academia; APSA in 1903 PoSc = Comparative Bringing back formal Three-pronged New Government institutions Agenda Comparative Politics (TIMELINE) Jean Bondel's Comparative ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Government 1921: Publication of a manifesto for a new science of politics by Prof. Charles Merriam; Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE) Subject: STATE as the highest of all communities Three main phases in the study of 1952: Creation of SSRC's Committee on Comparative Politics chaired by Gabriel Almond Approach: Inductive, Empirical, Historical CP: Sociology: dominant metatheory Machiavelli and the Renaissance Constitutionalist (Aristotle - 1900s) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: STATE as a work of art 1967: Publication of "Cleavage Structures, Party systems, and Voter Alignments" by Lipset and Stein Approach: Inductive, Empirical, Humanist Behavioralist (1940s - 1960s) Rokkan Montesquieu and the Enlightenment Institutionalist (1970s - ) 1976: Publication of "Parties and Party Systems" by Giovanni Sartori Subject: right GOVERNMENT as a matter of sociology and ecology (social laws) Behavioralists' Reductionism: widely shared critique - To have the right government we have to ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- have the right social laws Scientific Theorizing and Methodology: rational choice theory (logical rigor) + statistical methods of Approach: Inductive, Logical, Observational empirical testing Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Impact: rational choice + formal theory + quantitative method Subject: CONSTITUTION -> 'new world' -> POLITICS 1991: reinvigoration of qualitative methodology by David Collier Approach: Behavioral, Interdisciplinary, Democratic-Developmental, Structural- Trends: pluralism; cross-fertilization of researches; mid-range theorizing Functionalist ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status Quo RECORDED LECTURE Features of State - Sovereignty Present-day comparativists are sitting at different tables, eating from different menus, and not speaking The State and the Political System - Public to each other -- not even to acknowledge their common inheritance from the same distinguished - Has legitimacy ancestors. (Almond 1990) State - Is a territorial association - Instrument of domination - The state is made up of: Realizations ○ People Apter, David & Eckstein, Harry. (eds.) (1963) ○ Territory Limitations of a very state-centered analysis - Excludes the analysis of pre-states Evolving Diversity ○ Government ○ The exclusive definition of the modern state - Today, CP is characterized by nothing so - Disagreement and Divergences are great in ○ Sovereignty - State refers to the officials of government or to the much as variety, criticism and regard to absolutely basic preconceptions and ○ Recognition by the family of Nations government itself and not to the political aspect of the disagreement. orientations ○ Degree of Civilization whole community The state according to Poultantzas Plurality - Inadequacy of the state concept (i.e. thru denotation ○ Undecipherable mystery - Tasks are so many and so difficult as to unlikely achieve satisfying results instead of connotation) ▪ if it is so how can we study the state? By studying the specifics ○ Unsatisfactory definition of the state ○ Modern concept That the future of comparative politics should diverge to some degree at crossroads (Philippe C. ○ Implies that PoSc is interested in studying a ▪ Institutionalized power Schmitter 2009) particular type of organization and not the activity □ Something we can study within the state that is expressed in variety of institution Power: capacity of a social class to realize its specific objective interests Considerations Material condensation (locus) of the relationship of forces among classes (on the study of comparative politics) What do States do? (Allen T and Thomas A.) (expressed within a State in a specific form) - CP to continue for a foreseeable future to bear major responsibility for the objective description of - Conduct peaceful and warlike relations with other states Solution: processes and events in other people's countries - Claim a monopoly over the use of forces within their - Refer to its functions, the functions of the state, is how it operates vs how it is not supposed to operate - Best research method: boundaries ○ Comparison between 'real existing polities' - Can provide identity and cohesion through processes of State - Most unlikely for CP to taper in a single peak but rather it will go around amongst three distinctive legitimation - Is equal to state apparatus paths. - Acts as agents within society and structure the actions - Institutions ○ Complexification of other agents ○ The government, administration, military, police, judiciary, sub-central government and ▪ Towards to the left of the GT - Sustain relationships with other spheres of an activity parliamentary assemblies ○ Institutionalism and groups and classes - State elite ▪ Center of the GT ○ Of which the relationship with the economy is ○ Those who occupy leading positions in institutions ○ Simplification most important - Only a sub-system of a broader system ▪ Towards the right of the GT - Sates are not unified organizations but rather (GT = Genealogical Tree) ensembles of institutions and processes which are extremely various, conflictual and complex. Complexification Political System 1. Accept far fewer and less restrictive initial assumptions What state cannot do - Institutions - One important aspect of the conflictual / contradictory / 2. Are convinced that adequate micro-foundation in the present world context can not only be based ○ parties and pressure groups, which are of major importance in the political process, and which complex / dynamic nature of states is that they never on individual person vitally affect the operation of the state system achieve completely what they claim in Weber's ○ Captures data from a singular person from a group of people 3. Choose to rely upon 'reasonableness' rather than rationality definition: Easton's Political System Properties: ○ The sate 'asserts a monopoly of legitimate force 4. Consider that the usual fallacies of composition can be converted into novel 'laws of composition' - Units which does not (and cannot) have' 5. Have a healthy respect for real data ○ Political actions - Focusing on its activities within a given territory and 6. Insist upon endogenizing as many potentially casual variables as possible even those notoriously - Boundaries upon members of a particular nation because its difficult to measure such as 'preference' a. Endogenizing = to appeal to the people ○ environment boundaries are challenged and its national identity - Inputs contested Institutionalist ○ Demands, support - It claims a monopoly of legitimacy only because this - Adding more 'neo neo neo' prefixes as it permutes into more specialized approaches - Outputs legitimacy is contested ○ The permutation is there to establish its specialization ○ Authoritative decisions (policy) - On the one hand it is autonomous and separates public ○ Permute to explain better and to maintain relevance - Differentiation rather than private; on the other hand the universality Simplification - Integration of its compulsory jurisdiction m-eans that it permeates MODULE 1 Page 1  difficult to measure such as 'preference' a. Endogenizing = to appeal to the people ○ environment boundaries are challenged and its national identity - Inputs contested Institutionalist ○ Demands, support - It claims a monopoly of legitimacy only because this - Adding more 'neo neo neo' prefixes as it permutes into more specialized approaches - Outputs legitimacy is contested ○ The permutation is there to establish its specialization ○ Authoritative decisions (policy) - On the one hand it is autonomous and separates public ○ Permute to explain better and to maintain relevance - Differentiation rather than private; on the other hand the universality Simplification - Integration of its compulsory jurisdiction m-eans that it permeates - Limited initial assumptions + exclusive reliance an individualistic 'micro -foundations' and structures the whole of society. ○ Deductive presumptions about how these actors behave with regard to each other + proof by stylized facts or mathematical formulae that characterize the path known as rational or public choice System Approach Comparative Politics - Refers to the subject matter, a field or specialty within Coping Strategy The appropriate approach would be a systems approach the academic study of PolSci - Method or approach to the study of politics Increased System - The study of foreign countries or a plurality of countries Interdependence - Synistanai - It pertains to the family of strategies and techniques ○ Greek word meaning to bring together or combine with advance understanding within the field - A set or assemblage of interconnected, interdependent things that form a complex whole - It is a master strategy for drawing inference about Increased causation in any area of study by uncovering the Complexity Systems Theory of Politics (Heywood, 2002) relationship of cause and effect Complex - Political system as a self-regulating mechanism responding to 'inputs' (demands and supports) by issuing Interdependence authoritative decisions or 'outputs' (policies) A reawakened interest in large-scale comparisons, a relatively How to address Application: the political system will tend towards long-term stability as the outputs of the government ___ broad conception of the nature of politics, what is relevant to noisy and brought into line with the ____ _____ place upon it (integration) politics, and a growing emphasis upon solving middle-range messy world theoretical problems concerning the determinants of certain David Easton's Model and Almond and Powell's Model kinds of political behavior and the requisites for certain kinds of political institutions (Eckstein) Filipino Version of the Political System: Remigo Agpalo's Model - An approach in testing and validity of a theory - Testing different parts of an interactive process within Schmitter the comparative method - That comparative political analysis has to reflect the 'real existing' environment from which it - Falls into the category of scientific research should draw its observations and to which it should refer its findings - Cannot make casual explanations based on the comparative method alone. Like all other methods, the comparative method depends on pre-existent relevance criteria, which are provided by analytical concepts, AFFECTING Production of similar effects hypothesis and theories Increased across units with equivalent - As a method of study, compol is premised on Complexity measures being compared comparison ○ As a subject of study, compol focuses on understanding and explaining political phenomena that takes place within an state, society, country, or political system - Comparative Politics is, appropriately enough, concerned with political phenomena. It is not only Increased AFFECTING Making independent the units characterized but defined by a comparative method of Interdependence being compared in terms of analysis. (Lim, 2010) cause-effect relationship - Is definitely a method, not just a convenient term symbolizing the ____ of research interest Does State Politics (Still) Matter? - One of the basic scientific methods, not THE scientific method State Nomenclature (according R.M. Maclaver) - A method discovering empirical relationships among - It stilll matters because the state acts through the law, government; the state could be studied through variables, not a method of measurement power and how it can maintain social order - A broad-gauge, general method, not a narrow ○ As long as these four factors are talked about then the state is still relevant. specialized technique Complex AFFECTING Determination of independent - A basic research strategy, not a mere tactical research Interdependence cause and independent political Politics, Political System, and State (T. Bottomore) (Lijphart, 1971) capacity thru compound Politics and Political Activity condition - Struggles for power among individuals and groups in relation to their own interests and to the general Comparative politics… regulation and orientation of collective life - are found in all societies (even the most primitive) That potentially paralyzing or distracting divisions among - Every society has some sort of political system comparativists, which hamper progress in the field, will only ○ A body of rules and practices which constitutes the framework within such struggles normally take be overcome in as much as comparativists appreciate both place, but not all societies have a state. the depth of the roots of comparative politics in a humanistic tradition and the vital importance of its scientific aspirations What are States? (Munck, 2006) - It is easier to define what a state is not than what it is! ○ A state is NOT It is a conscious desire to move away from traditional concern ▪ Government with political institutions towards preoccupation with political ▪ Regime and social developments generally and within democratic ▪ Nation systems in particular (Daalder, 1993) ▪ Public sector ▪ Political system ▪ State apparatus □ Instrument that aids int the operation of a state On the Medieval Origins of Modern State (J. Strayer 1975) - Stateless societies ○ Pre-state societies ○ Collapsed states ▪ Can be because the state is invaded or whatnot - A state exists chiefly in the hearts and minds of its people; if they do not believe it is there, no logical exercise will bring it to life. Basis of State Power - Is on the legitimacy being provided to it by the sovereign people Max Weber (1919) - A state is an institution which (successfully) claims to exercise a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. - Argues that a force which constitutes the primary (not the only) attribute which makes the state a state. ○ Implication ▪ Administrative apparatus where administration means the extraction of resources, control and coercion and maintenance of the political, legal and normative order of society. Perspectives of the State (Heywood, 2002) Idealist Functional Organizational Idealist - Tells us the state functions and that function begins with the: ○ Family ▪ What happens in the state we can attribute it to the contributions of the families in each community ▪ The biggest role to play ▪ Particular altruism □ If you group together all the different families you will create the: ○ Civil Society ▪ Universal egoism ▪ When civil societies come together with one set of objective they create a: ○ State ▪ Universal altruism □ An ethical community underpinned by mutual sypathy □ If there is something wrong with the state, there is something wrong with the civil society in turn has something wrong with the family. It has limitations - The fostering of uncritical reverence for the state ○ The center of accountability will be on the family not on the state Functional - Focuses on the role and purpose of the state's institutions or structures - How the roles, functions, and purpose of the state will help maintaining social order - Modern Marxists say: the state ensures the survival of the capitalist system Limitations: it associates any institution that maintains order with state itself If something bad happens you go back to the institution that allows it to operate The function is as good as the role and purpose you have clarified. Organizational MODULE 1 Page 2  Organizational - Set of institutions that are recognizably 'public' in that they are responsible for the collective organization of social existence and are funded at the public's expense. - How the different organizations in the state help each other. ○ The only way to do that is to create an agreement - Modern notion of state started in the Treaty of Westphalia ○ States need to have sovereignty but that has to be geared towards order and must be used legitimately MODULE 1 Page 3