POLSC 20 Notes PDF

“The personal is political” Politics - A feminist slogan which emerged in the - derived from the Greek word ‘polis’ 1960s meaning ‘city-state’ - Focusing on politics in the public sphere...

“The personal is political” Politics - A feminist slogan which emerged in the - derived from the Greek word ‘polis’ 1960s meaning ‘city-state’ - Focusing on politics in the public sphere - Modern form → what concerns the ‘state’ excludes women from political life - Politics occurs in the private space - in homes Approaches to politics (heywood) - If we dismiss politics that happen in private Arena approach: politics happening only within spaces, we ignore half of the population, we certain spaces, limited to certain approaches ignore the things that happen right in our - Politics as the art of government homes. - Politics as public affairs Process approach: politics as a mechanism, Process Approach political behavior and can take place in any context - Politics as compromise and consensus Leftwich: Politics comprises all the activities of - Politics as power and the distribution of cooperation, negotiation , and conflict, within and resources between societies, whereby people go about organizing the use, production or distribution of human, natural and other resources in the course Arena approach of the production of their biological and social life. Politics as the art of government - Centered on the government - Production where we can observe - Focused on how the polity works (how processes of conflict, compromise, and values are allocated) consensus because of scarce resources - Restricted to what takes place in the - Present anywhere government - Mediated by power Polity - system of organization upon the machinery - Opportunities for cooperation and sharing of the government (Heywood) or the exercise of authority The process approach summarized People → Resources → Power Public policy - anything that the government wants to do (Dye) David Easton defined politics as the authoritative Politics as compromise and consensus allocation of values. - Politics as a means of resolving conflict through compromise, conciliation, and Politics as public affairs negotiation (Heywood) - There is a distinction between public life and - Politics as a solution to the problem of order private/personal life which chooses conciliation rather than - Restricted view of politics violence and coercion (Crick) - A ‘political” solution Public realm - state/government or politics, - Politics is equated to electoral choice and commerce , work, art, culture party competition Private/personal realm - civil society (business, trade unions, families) or family and domestic life - Can exist in friend groups Politics as power and the distribution of resources - Politics concerns the production, distribution, and use of resources in the course of social existence (Heywood) resources can be material or nonmaterial: land, wealth, water / cultural capital, clout, popularity  - Politics as who gets what, when how? - Power does not have a single expression or form. There struggle over scarce resources (Laswell) are four: - Power as a means through which this 1. Compulsory struggle is conducted 2. Institutional 3. Structural - Politics discusses oppression and 4. Productive subjugation but also politics as an emancipating force to challenge inequality - Doesnt mean its always about conflict Compulsory power - Exercised directly through the interaction of specific actors Global Governance - Dahl (1957): “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would - States and peoples are able to cooperate not otherwise do.” on econ, envi, security, and political issues, - Bachrach and Baratz (1964): power as settle their disputes in a nonvio manner, and agenda-setting advance their common interest and values. - Power as a zero sum game - Thought to bring out the best in int - relations of interaction that allow one actor to community and rescue it from its worst have direct control over another. It operates, for example, when one state threatens another and pedigree says “change your policies, or else” Governance - rules, structures, and institutions that guide, regulate, and control social life, features that are fundamental elements of power. Institutional power - is in effect when actors exercise indirect control over others, such as when states design Power international institutions in ways that work to their long term advantage and to the - Power is an essentially contested disadvantage of others. concept (W. B. Galilee) - Exercised indirectly or through diffusion through - the production, in and through social relations, of the interaction of specific actors effects that shape the capacities of actors to - Institutions can be formal or informal - rules, determine their own circumstances and fate norms, or values (Barnett and Duvall) - Constrain interest-seeking behavior of actors - Cannot be “possessed”, only dominated Production in and through social relations → Power is produced or practiced in relation to other people Of effects that shape → power is about observable change Structural power The capacities of actors → human beings possess - Exercised directly through social relations of power in varying capacities, power can be gained and constitution. taken away - Steven Lukes: power as To determine their own circumstances and fate → preference-shaping power is situated in a specific time, place, and - Determination of social capacities and relationship interests, differential capacities allocated by structures. - Maintains unique social privileges & capacity - concerns the constitution of social capacities and interests of actors in direct relation to one another. One expression of this power is the workings of the capitalist world economy in producing social positions of capital and labor  with their respective differential abilities to alter - Refuses to assume that some their circumstances and fortunes. essence is at the root of human - Structural constitution; the production and subjectivity reproduction of internally related position of - Every ordering of social relations super- and subordination by actors. bear some cost in the form of violence Productive power - “The self and the others” by - Exercised indirectly through social relations of Levinas (‘di to kasama sa constitution reading pero its a good - the socially diffuse production of subjectivity in additional read) systems of meaning and signification. - Both productive and structural power are From power to resistance attentive to constitutive social process that are - Human inclination to resist in the face of not controlled, but affected by the outcome of power the practices or actions of actors. - Taxonomy of power generates a taxonomy - More generalized and diffuse social processes of resistance - Constitution of all social subjects with various - Compulsory power fosters the power that social powers through systems of knowledge enables them to counter; resist and discursive practices of broad and general scope. - Structural Power generates resistance by - Motioning away from power structures the subordinates to reduce inequality - networks of social forces perpetually shaping - Resistance almost always take the form of one another solidaristic action by the marginalized - Looks beyond (or is post) structures - I.e. transnational labor and - Target: identity of subjects anti-globalisation campaigns, and - Determines subjects and capacitates them to the decolonization and new change or maintain these categories international economic order movements Difference of direct and diffuse - Productive power fosters resistance as - Productive power concerns discourse,the attempts by actors to destabilize, transform, social process, and the systems of or disrupt social practices knowledge through which meaning is - I.e. fundamentalists, violent produced, fixed, lived, experienced, and extremists transformed; Habermasian notions of - Resistance include how knowledgeable communicative action actors become aware of discursive - Discourses are sites of social relations of tensions, and use that knowledge to resist power - Resistance is a multifaceted conceptual - Discursive processes produce social field, ranging from direct and indirect to identities and capacities as they give actors, structures, practices, and meaning to them. understandings. - Foucault: Humans are not only power’s intended targets but also its effects; Colin hay: divided by a common language? discourse is socially productive. Conceptualizing power - Structural and productive power differs in “Political scientist remain divided by the terms of SUBJECTIVITY. common language of power”’ - Structural Power → Constitution, hierarchies How is Power Conceptualized? - Productive Power → Boundaries of social Power is to political analysis what the identity and the inclination for action economy is to economics  The political domain cannot and should not Faces of power controversy be held coextensive with that of power itself - Pluralist conception of power was ○ In-discipline of an inchoate and transparent, unambiguous, and empirically unfocused discipline demonstrable in the bureaucratic process (power-centered) - Divided pluralists and elite theorists Arena of government as distinct from the practice or exercise of power Decision-making: the 1st face of power Power can be understood in a variety of - One-dimensional view of power more or less inclusive ways. - Power as decision making Foucault-habermas debate - Power is understood in terms of its effects Key debate in the postwar period over the - Power is an attribute of individuals, nature and definition of power: exercised in their relations with other Foucault-Habermas Debate. individuals – it is behavioral - Power is associated with domination or power over – it is not so much a capacity to affect outcomes, but to dominate others in so doing - Consequently, power is unproductive or zero-sum – some gain only to the extent that others lose out. - There is a radical distinction between having access to a political resource and successfully wielding that resource in the determination of a particular outcome’. - if we want to know who is powerful we Faces of power or community studies tabulate exhibited patterns of influence in controversy the decision-making process ○ Definition of the concept of power - 1950s ○ Centers around the extent it could - Visible, transparent, and easily measured be solved methodologically - Policy making Can it be measured easily? - More liberal and carceral approach The debate concerns the extent to which power is ubiquitous Agenda-setting: the second face of power The debate is on a definition of power so - Bachrach and Baratz (motivated to defend narrow, yet easy to operationalise in political Floyd Hunter). They proposed the analysis and, on the other, a more subtle two-dimensional view of power. and complex conception of power yet one - Power can be invisible which is almost impossible to measure and - Methodological critiques; eventually quantify. empirical Power is understood in rather pluralist and - demolish the grand if fragile edifice of behaviorist terms as an essentially classical pluralism inter-personal relationship - Power, for if there can be no possibility of liberation - they argued, is Janus-faced, its complex from power, then arguably critical theory nature merely obscured by a narrow loses its emancipatory potential. concentration on the decision-making process. - Decision-making is not the end of the story. - Power is also exercised in “non decision making” Indirect power - Creating or reinforcing sociopolitical values - Context-shaping and institution practices that limit the scope - Influences actions and choices of other of the political process individuals or groups - mediated by - A non decision is a decision— that results in structures challenging the values or interests of the - Redefines the parameters of what is decision maker possible - Selection of what is and what is not subject to formal political deliberation is a highly THE ORIGINS, DEVELOPMENT, AND POSSIBLE political process (overlooked by pluralists) DECLINE OF THE MODERN STATE - ‘the common knowledge that certain deci- - sions would be unacceptable to the local Keywords: sovereignty, capstone government, “godfather” is sufficient to remove whole institutionalism, quasi-states,Westphalia ranges of potential options from the agenda of the town- meeting entirely’ Differentiating early & modern states Premodern states State formation from tribal to kin based societies ○ Authority were based on blood/family/race; personalities Emphasize how formal authority structures replaced personalistic rule ○ Ruling, not by blood - Expansion of tribal affinity Associational criteria Preference-shaping: the 3rd face of power Separation between ruler and ruled; second - Lukes, Marxists, neo-Marxist, and radical transformation elitists/pluralists Key features distinguish early states from - Actions and in-action implicated when your the variants that we know today. thoughts are shaped and/or altered Early statehood - Power has the ability to shape the interests ○ Kingship you exhibit ○ Aristocracy - Structural conditions can shape your Weakly defined market interests economies and property - Power is largely invisible - power distorts rights perceptions and shapes preferences Universal empires recognized only material - Public policy frontiers, not borders ○ Romans and Chinese do not Polsci as divided by a common language (Hay) recognize borders back then Feudal States Direct power Constitution Of capstone governments - Conduct shaping ○ Ruling elites were often integrated - Without value judgment and dispersed throughout the area - A getting B to do something they would not of control, but society remained necessarily do relatively untouched. [fuck the - Immediate, visible, and behavioral bourgeosie]  In short, the capacity of early states Economic explanation for the rise of the state remained relatively limited. Their abilities to tax, to raise troops, and to forge any sense Institutionalist view of the modern state of national identity remained weak.Early states ran wide but not deep. Transition to modern statehood Contemporary relevance of discussion on the origins First took form in late medieval Europe of the state [Kasalanan ng europeans lahat] Governments developed institutional Wither the state capacities beyond the capstone polities of the premodern States become synonymous with sovereign territorial rule How can we view politics and power in our daily Transplanted from Europe to other areas lives? [Kasalanan ulit ng europeans lahat - Politics as inherently social - highly realness] dependent on context, process oof End of feudal era, to shed light on the determining our political being is contemporary state system [GRRRRR] impacted by power and our relations Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Church with others leaders; theocracy - Understanding power as a lens to Middle of fifth century interrogate how we can resist these ○ Economic transactions and public embedded notions of power security thus became highly - Understanding politics and power have also localized with a large degree of been the driving force for collective action barter ex- change, and the use of and social change coin declined greatly. Advancement of Military, Markets, Economy, etc. —- French Rev What is a state? The whole chapter is basically a crash According to Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention of 1933, a course on history LOL state needs to contain the following: A government Theoretical explanations of the emergence A permanent population of the modern state A definite territory Capacity to enter into relations with other states Linear macro historical transformations Unilinear evolutionary; myriad of polities that - Has institutional power emerged IN RESPONSE to major historical - Expressed by government department, agencies events Per Bernas, Philippine writers: state is a community of Variation in institutional types and looking at persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a the micro level definite portion of territory, independent of external control Capacity of the state over institutional logic of state sovereignty Statehood and its limitations War as the catalyst for state formation Territorial boundaries, legal identities, and Division of territory, rulership often the names of states were the Military Power; CHIVALRY!!! creations of colonial rule. Trace italienne The independence of some states reveals Army of France that even countries with questionable Hundred Days War viability and capacities can be preserved by an international society  Power dynamics in who DEFINES what and - State: set of institutions such as the who a state is executive, legislative, civil service, ○ Palestine and judiciary that are distinct from Diplomatic representatives civil society. States have an embassy - Responsive to group pressure What is a nation? - Site of conflict between departments Nation VS State representaing various interest State as a legal concept, nation is an ethnic groups concept - Dahl: power is fragmented but Heywood (2013) defines this as “groups of partially concentrated in the hands of people who speak the same language, have the state (mayor), but is held the same religion, are bound to share the accountable through competitive past” selection. Not given by nature, socially constructed by a mixture of objective and subjective Pluralism and the state (Smith, 1995) features. Politics is a constant process of negotiation that Nation sees itself to be a distinct political ensures conflicts are resolved peacefully (Dahl, community with collective political 1967) aspirations (versus an ethnic group). - Conflict in society because of idiffering access to resoures - Conflict does not lead to political instability Nation-states - Political society held by a consensus Assumption of homogeneity–a nation defining limits to political actions and governed by its own sovereign state–where the framework of policy outcomes each state contains one nation. Power is non-cumulative and dispersed All modern states are nation-states– political What are the problems with defining power and apparatuses, distinct from both ruler and state action in this way? ruled, with supreme jurisdiction over a demarcated territorial area, backed by a claim to a monopoly of coercive power, and What is neopluralism enjoying a minimum level of support or What are the problems with the pluralist loyalty from their citizens. theorization of the state? (Smith, 1995) National identity usually serves as the ○ Political power might be cumulative backbone for the states’ legitimacy In multiple sectors and industries Perspectives on the state ○ The ease of access to the policy process might be overestimated ○ Society might not be underpinned by Neopluralism - Macfarland a consensus of values; consensus itself might not be politically neutral Pluralism ○ The states own interest might be The pluralism is neopluralism underestimated Pluralism - Theory of political power set Neo - new, revived, modified forth by Robert Dahl (1961) Fragmentation of power → unrepresentative Basic concepts and assumptions of govt interests Pluralism and the state (Smith, 1995) Look into “a complex welter of group Role of the state → Regulation of conflicts participation in public policy making” in society; neutral in the face of diverse (Mcfarland, 2007) interests  ○ Business groups may have a Reliance on Actors’ Definition of Their Own Interests privileged position in policymaking ○ Elite coalition may control specific MULTIPLE-ELITE THEORY Oligarchal coalitions tend to control a issue domains without checks & particular area of policy-making balances ○ Power can be held by different groups across domains ○ Political power as cumulative, potentially concentrated and structural Marxism Marxism as a Theoretical system: Role of the state → resolves conflicts, Principal alternative / challenge to liberal but may be seen to pursue specific rationalism in western culture interests Marxism as a political force: communism As a political actor, it can be seen as a as the rival of Western capitalism. power (or even the most powerful) interest Based on the ratings of Karl Marx and group in society Friedrich Engels found in the Communist May pursue bureaucratic interests or Manifesto (1848) interest of client groups “Scientific socialism” as a political Many interest groups =/= fair representation philosophy Acknowledges agenda-setting power & influence in political agenda Essential Elements: ○ How are issues framed? What are The social world as a totality the values that underpin decisions Materialist conception of history understood and policies? through the dialectical method Marxism vs Neopluralism ○ Economic base determines the social, ○ No marriage with structural power political and ideological super structures ○ State can regulate; and have its own ○ Social being determines consciousness and agenda not the reverse (in contrast to idealism) ○ History as propelled by struggles related to Models of power each other in different processes of Dahl’s political theory, production Lowi’s pluralist theory ○ Throughout history there are different of sub governments, clientelism, and relationships between economic and social interest group liberalism, structures Elitism vs neopluralism ○ Historical/Dialectical Materialism - Defined by social realities. Dahl’s pluralism : four basic concepts Power as causation Causing changes from a to b The political process model Behavioral revolution Empirical and innovative Separate domains of political processes Superstructure reflects the interest of the ruling class.  Commitment to emancipation: driving force politics or indirectly through the exercise of of historical change was dialectic ‘pressure on the state’ (Gold, Lo, and ○ “The history of all existing society is the Wright, 1975) history of class struggles” (Manifesto of the communist party, 1848) Primacy of class The state as an ideal collective capitalist ○ Class “The modern state, no matter what it’s for, is A group of persons belonging essentially a capitalist machine, the state of to the same relationship capitalists, and the ideal personification of vis-a-vis the means of the national capital” (Engels, 1878) production View of the state as one who is able to ○ Four-fold alienation of labor in the regulate and mediate between social capitalist mode of production classes Alienation from the product of labor The state as a factor of cohesion within social formation Alienation from labor of the Classes with conflicting economic interests, act of production shall not consume themselves and society Alienation from from in fruitless struggle, it became necessary to species-being have a power seemingly standing above Alienation from other human society that would moderate the conflict and beings and society. keep it within the bounds of ‘order’ (Engels, 1884) Marxist conceptions of the state Viewed that the state may also maintain informal institutions, the state is above class The Capitalist state (Heywood, 2013) conflict and emphasizes that the state is The state cant be understood separately able to maintain a set of informal from the economic structure of society (two instructions who are able to views) sanction/maintain how things are. The state ○ View 1: State as part of the is able to maintain social cohesion (to superstructure determined by the maintain social norms and a type of economic base. social order) ○ View 2: State can enjoy relative autonomy from class system Gramsci: role of hegemony in maintaining dominant class Hay (1999): state as nodal point in network of power relations. Incorporates human subjectivity into Marxist philosophy What gives capital the capacity to reproduce The state as the repressive arm of the bourgeoisie and reassert its dominance over time “The state… Comes into existence insofar despite its inherent contradictions? as the institutions needed to carry out the Hegemony - “predominance by consent” common functions of society require, for ○ Hay (1999): Presentation of moral, their continued maintenance, the separation political and cultural values as of the power of forcible coercion from the societal norms - ideologically general body of society” (Draper, 1977:50) endangered “common sense” Gramsci: power of capitalist class not in the The state as an instrument of the ruling class state as apparatus of.bourgeoisie “Functioning of the state is understood in but its ability to influence and shape the terms of the instrumental exercise of power perceptions of subordinate classes. by people in strategic positions, either directly through the manipulation or state Ontology - nature of social reality (what is, what exists, broad epistemological positions being) - the ‘political question’ in political science. Scientific - What defines the political Follows the empiricist tradition, emphasis on explanation & an objective and Epistemology detached observer - processes or the act of knowing or acquiring Hermeneutic knowledge, including the knower (what can Focused on meanings of behavior, we hope to know about the reality being emphasis on UNDERSTANDING, observer investigated?) is SUBJECTIVE, and involved in what is - The “science question” in political science being observed - Answers the question: is it possible for there to be a science in politics? What are methodological approaches? Quantitative Methodology Test hypothesis that researcher begins with - Bridges the ontological and epistemological Concepts are in the form of distinct assumptions and positions to the choice of variables data collection and analysis methods… Measures are symmetrically created before data collection are standardized - Data are in the form of numbers from precise measurement theory is largely Module 2 causal and is often deductive - Procedures are standard, and replication is Broad … assumed Scientific - Analysis proceeds by using statistics, tables, or charts and discussing how what - Empiricist tradition they show relates to hypotheses. - Social science as (generally) analogous to Qualitative natural science Capture and discover meaning once the - Identification or causes of social behavior, researcher becomes immersed in the data and emphasis on explanation Concepts are in the form of themes, motifs, - Objective, detached observer generalizations, and taxonomies Measures are created in an ad hoc manner Hermeneutic and are often specific to the individual - Focus on meanings of behavior setting or researcher - Social science is not analogous to natural Data are in the form of words and images science from documents, observations, and - Emphasis on understanding transcripts. - Observer is involved in what is being - Theory can be causal or noncausal and is observed (the ‘double hermeneutic’) often inductive - Research procedures are particular and Broad ontological positions replication is very rare Foundationalism - Analysis proceeds by extracting themes or - Real world exists independently of our generalizations from evidence and knowledge of it organizing data to present a coherent, Anti-foundationalism consistent picture. - Realities that are local and specific, actively constructed through interaction Ontology → Epistemology → Methodology ○ True test of theory is through falsification and not verification What have been the key questions and debates in defining the “political” in Political Science? Critical realism Arena approach vs Process approach Follows from a foundational ontology Heywood: does expanding the political Crafting a causal statement about social render it useless and meaningless? phenomena is possible Hay: we don’t imply that everything Knowledge is theory-laden is ONLY political, but everything can ○ Theory is always for someone and be for a specific purpose Dichotomy between reality and appearance: What is the ‘political’? - Debates in defining politics (arena vs ○ There are deep structures which process approach) cannot be observed - Conventional concepts of politics as ○ What can be observed may offer a ‘government’, ‘power’, ‘political behavior’, false picture of have been challenged by male-centric… phenomena/structures and their - effects Social phenomena can exist outside of our Ontology Foundationalism interpretation of them → BUT our interpretation and understanding of them Epistemology Positivism Realism can affect outcomes Agents can interpret and change structures Methodology Quantitative privileged Quantitative and Qualitative Mixed method → there is an objective reality that can be measured but the positivism outcomes can also be shaped by social Follows from a foundationalist ontology: the constructions world exists independently of our knowledge of it Ontology Anti-foundationalism Natural science and social science are Epistemology Interpretivism broadly analogous ○ Establishing regular relationships Methodology Qualitative privileged between social phenomena, using theory to generate hypotheses, Philippine Political Science compared to American PolSci which can be tested by direct - Leans towards to privilege in positivism, mainstream outlook is on formal legalistic notions of politics observations ○ The world is what-you-see-is-what-you-get Interpretivism (WYSIWG) - Anti-foundational ontology: The world is ○ Belief is neutral to be an objective socially or discursively constructed observer - Interpretations/understandings of social Aim of social science: explanation phenomena affect outcomes Dichotomy between empirical and - Knowledge is theoretically or discursvel normative questions laden Example: Positivists will observe the quality - Double Heremenutic of democracy but WILL NOT explore how to - The world is interpreted by actors improve democracy. and their interpretations is Critiqued by the logic of falsifiability interpreted by the observer  What makes something scientific? ○ What are the limitations of each Scientism as the foundation → knowing whether a approach claim/teaching has a basis, eradicating all possible answers to our query Structure - Functionalism A tool for comparing political systems Rationalism: Belief that our understanding of Almond (1965: social structures and things comes from our ability to reason; logic of institutions as performing functions in induction systems Empiricism- belief that our understanding of things Based on the notion that all political is derived from our experience; the logic of systems had political stupructures, and that deduction the same functions needed to be performed in all political systems Logic of positivism Society = system, composed of parts and - Tells us the existence of general theoretical mechanisms that allow it to exist,work, and statements or law-like statements, to be thrive derived inductively from empirical Rooted in functional system theory regularities between observed phenomenon (Paraons, Levy) which implies the following Criterion of ‘falsifiability’ conditions ○ Functional requisites: tasks that - Refutability of test ability to gauge the enable the system to persist soundness of a claim or understanding ○ Interdependence: the system gets - The real process of science is to continue to affected by changes in any of its “falsify” claim (Karl Potter) components ○ Equilibrium: tendency to preserve Critique of positivism: can political science be like character over time the natural sciences. ○ Boundary conditions Social structures (unlike natural structures) However, there are times do not exist independently of the activities where boundaries are that they govern closed. From a social to an Social structures (unlike natural structures) economic system (from do not exist independently of the agents home to work) conceptions or constructions of what they ○ Exchanges or actions across are doing in their activitiy boundaries Social structures (unlike natural structures) Oriented towards comparisons between change overtime structure Why do we need to study these approaches to The political system (David Easton) politics Each approach has assumptions and gaps that color the way chosen phenomena are analyzed Each approach has implications on the types of questions being asked and the choice of methodology Questions: ○ What are their assumptions? ○ What types of questions does each approach ask?  - Rule-making - Rule-execution - rule-adjudication Dysfunctional inputs Inputs that can cause changes in the political system Varies in terms of ○ Quantity ○ Substance/content ○ Intensity ○ Source ○ Kinds Limitations Very top down than bottom up Surface level The political system BEHAVIORALISM The political system is where rules are SCIENTIFICATION OF POLITICAL SCIENCE made to respond to outputs - Bond (2007) arhiues for the presence of the use of the scientific method as early as the Types of functions of political systems (Almond, 1965) 1920s in the discipline Capabilities functions: the system’s total - Studies on political parties, function via other systems (or its American Justice System, Boting environment) Behavior which quantified the study Conversion functions: functions internal to of politics the system - Early 1960s - “Behavioral revolution” towards “new political science” Capability functions - Movement away from traditional political science Extractive: how can the political system - Incorporating scientific method extract resources effectively? (development & testing of theories Regulation: how the pol system is Abel to intro studying political phenomena regulate individual and group behavior - American Political Science Distributive: allocation of goods, services, Assosciation opportunities etc. - Election studies, voting behavior Symbolic: how effective is a political system - Key question: why do people behave the in making people believe in symbolic ideas way that they do? Measured through Surveys - Nature of political events are largely determined by the nature and behavior of System maintenance and adaptation people - Political recruitment - Spans not just voting patterns, bu t - Political socialization the behavior of states, organiztions, and polpar Conversion functions - Emphasis on explanation and causality - Interest articulation (Sanders) (Roskin) - Interest aggregation - Observable behavior - Political communication  - Popper’s logic of falsifiability - Commitment to Rational choice theory - Systematic use of all relevant How people behave with the assumption empirical evidence rather than a that they will make the choice that seeks limited set of illustrative supporting their best self interest examples Assumptions (Burns & Roszkownska) - Logic of falsification ○ Self interest (max gains, preference - Importance of operationalization for order and stability) - Behavioralist’s assume that by ○ Preference for order. Stability, understanding people’s behavior, you will be predictability, and survival within a able to understand the larger context. context of volatility - Why do people behave the way that they ○ Equilibrium do? In a game theory, a set of - Nature of political events are largely strategies one for esch - Two ways by which we can understand the player sucht hat no player world can increase his/her payoff - Empirical Theory by changing strateg given - Within your theories, these that no other player changes abstract statements and strategy hypothesis are connected RCT: Act out of self-interest - Any empirical theory has to ○ Utilitarianism - public good, common align with other knowledge good produced ○ Rational choice action is caused - When you put together your (motivated) bu the self-interest of the hypothesis and assumptions, individual oriented to the you will need to test the consequences as she perceives or product defines n them” - Explanation Assumes the self-interested - Production of explanation actor is able to distinguish - Are contrasted against the costs and benefits of topologies alternative actions - Causal claim about the (consequences or outcomes) phenomenon that has a Events/actions/social non-tautological set of processes can be explained antecedent necessary through rational choices of individual agenda Criticisms to behaviolarist approaches Alternative that is chosen has Objections to the claim that statements the most utility or most net which are neither definitions (useful gain tautologies) nor empirical are meaningless Limitations and criticisms of RCT Tendency towards mindless empiricism ○ Assumes the agent’s preferences Concentration on observable phenomena are complete, consistent and rather than structural forces that can transitive promote stability and/or change Some choices made under Assumed independence of theory and incomplete conditions mean observation irrational actions can be ○ Can the study of political science be pursued value free?  ○ Disregards how embedded human action is (context, community) One Ruler Few Many Collective action, Rulers Rulers cooperation, altruistic behavior Rulers Tyranny Oligarchy Democract Adherence to social norms, benefit external environment that Monarchy Aristocracy Polity People changes behavior benfit ○ Limited in understanding how - Existing within the public sphere humans make choices ○ Assumes that actors have full New Institutionalism knowledge of their own situation, Emergence of new approaches that sees alternatives, and the consequences institutions as becoming dynamic, ○ Blindness to moral orientation of autonomous, as an arena of contestation, individuals and interactive Modifications to RCT ○ Concept of “Bounded rationality” What is an institution? Acknowledges the limits in Set of formal, informal rules, norms, and knowledge of individuals practices, embody values and powerl and Inidividuals are not oriented are contextually embedded towards “utility maximizing” Institutional Power: Consgtrain but “satisficing” given ones interest-seeking behavior (barnett and circumstances duval) ○ Burns et al: Perspective of social How do institutions shape politics and our embeddedness of human agents political actions? Emphasizes culturally or Interactive with actors, reshaping, shaping relationally specific interactions and actors shaped by rationalities institutions Context dependent rationality Institutions shape actors, but actors can (re)shape institutions Institutionalism and new institutionalism Old instituionalism Normadtive, structuralist, historicist, legalist and holistic approach Structures determine political behaviior Politics as an arena Merely observe and study formal rules and organizations by describing its constitutions, legal; Very unreflective and descriptive, instructing New in new institutionalism political sceientists to merely observe and Why institutionalism? study formal rules & organizations by Product of new approaches describing its constitutions, legal systems, Emergence of different strands under a and government structures broad new instituionlist approach which Perception of an institution was very formal developed in tandem with other theoretical & legalistic traditions (e.g. behavioralism, feminist, marxism, &c)  Institutions as dynamic and stabalizing Feminist institutionalism March and olsen (1989): Institutions are How gender norms operate within best seens as creating and sustaining institutions and how institutions are islands of imperfect and temporary constructed to maintain gendered power organization in potentially inchoatte political dynamics worlds Explaining how institutions affect behavior Existence of rules does not imply that all Modes of institutional constraint parties comply, and that this will not change ○ Rules over time ○ Practices ○ Reform ○ Narratives Institutions as embodying values and power Embody values and power Reflections of power relation ○ Shaping ideas, interests, beliefs and Power dynamics behind the creation, incentive structures maintenance, and change in institutions ○ Frame likely policy choices (booth, Competition between different institutions 2011) Institutions are contextually embedded ○ Power dynamics embedded in - They do not exist in a vacuum instituions - Institutions are connected to a wider set of institutions which can either reinforce or undermine its effects New institutionalisms Normative institutionalism Institutions influences actors’ behaviors and identities through values and norms Rational choice institutionalism Institutions affect the structure of a situation where choices are made Institutions constrain interest seeking behavior Why do institutions persist, and why do they change? Product of human action geared toward Institutional genesis, and change might be collective action accounted for by: Maximizing utility ○ Intentional design Historical institutionalism ○ Accident Institutions reflect and reinforce the power ○ Evolution relations, changes in institutions are Naturally evolve response to shifts and adjustments within Central steering: national government’s ○ Corruption being embedded in how responsitibility to advance decentralizationl institutions are made out capacititate local governments (neopluralism ?) Constructivist institutionalism Strong arming: concept of despotic power: Insitutions shape behavior through frames state elites favor and affect the society; of meaning (ideas and narratives explain exercise of power of state elites over civil political action) society groups ○ How an organizations perception is differnt from others; diffused through different things