Politics Comparative Chapter 3 The exit, voice, and loyalty game (Table 3.1 page 58) Exit- you accept that there has been a deleterious change in your environment and you alter your behavior to acheive the best outcome possible given your new environment. Voice- you use your "voice" (complain, protest, lobby, or take direct action) to try to change the environment back to its original condition. Loyalty- you accept the fact that your environment has changed and you make no change to your behavior. Game Theory is a fundamental tool for analyzing strategic situations. A Strategic Situation is one in which the choices of one actor depend on the choices made by other actors. A Game is a situation in which an individual's ability to acheive her goals depends on the choices made by other actors. Nash Equilibrium- is a set of strategies in a game (one for each player) such that no player has an incentive to unilaterally change her mind given what the other players are doing. (no player has incentive to change their mind given what the other players are doing) In an Extensive Form Game players make their choices sequentially. In a Normal, or Strategic, Form Game players make their choices simultaneously. (pg 59) A Subgame perfect Nash Equilibrium is a set of stategies such that each player is playing a Nash Equilibrium in every subgame. (pg 65) Backward Induction - is the process of reasoning backward, from the end of a game or situation to the begining, in order to determine an optimal course of action. (pg 65)
Once we have solved the game we are interested in three things: 1.) the expected outcome of the game 2.) the payoffs each player receives 3.) the equilibrium of the game
Guest Lecture Game Theory Strategy and politics Strategic interactions (Example goal keepers, making decisions off what the other is going to do) First you must figure out in order 1.) players 2.)choice 3.)Strategy- complete contingent plan- a specification of what choice to take at every node a player has regardless of whether the node is reached. 4.)Sequence 5.) Payoff / utility Every terminal node has to show the payoff for each player. Backward induction Start from last node Exit (or E) has to hold a value of greater than 0 In a Regime if the cost of raising voice and exit is high they remain loyal as only possibility.
Ressearch and writting Short Papers propose a research question, and critically evaluate and compare at least two existing scholarly answers to it. Have the scholars whose work you've reviewed persuaded you of the validity of their claims? The begining of the paer should include: Question - Preferable to ask in the form of a question. Players - Explain their argument and how yours will differ or agree
A brief intro to your argumentA roadmap The entire paper should not simply summarize each authors argument in turn.
Citations Site at least 4 scholarly sources You may also use non-scholarly sources, but they must be reliable.
Good questions start with "How?" or "Why?" Questions should be normative (questions that start with "should" but can include "how should") future oriented (what will happen) factual (can be answered in one question and cant be debated) compound esoteric (avoid extremely specific or narrow questions) Scholarly Sources peer-reviewed journals monographs edited journals recommended readings textbook chapter references Google Scholar Lexis Nexis (SMU library)
Avoid words like :feel, believe, should, prove.
Chapter 4 Origins of the Modern State Nation state- is a state in which a single nation predominates and the legal, social, demographic, and geographic boundaries of the state are connected in important ways to that nation. Nation- is a group of people who share some sort of common identity like a language, religion, ethnicity, or shared history. State- is an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory. Failed state- is a state like entity that cannot coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given territory. Contractarian view of the state- sees the creation of the state as resulting from a social contract between individuals in the state of nature in which the state provides security in exchange for obedience from the citizen. State of nature- term used to describe situations in which there is no state dominant strategy- is a strategy that is a best reply to all of the other players strategy Dominant Stategy Nash equilibrium- occurs when both players have a dominant strategy
State and State building State- human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory Common factors 1.) A given territory 2.) The use of force to control its inhabitants All states use the threat of force to organize public life (including democracy)
What a failed state looks like Uncertainty is a looming factor
2 views of the state Contractarian Predatory
The state of Nature What would a world look like without government Hobbes- A war when everyman is in a war with everyman "life is short" o Everyone is better off if they live in peace but if violence is to occur it is better to be the attacker than the victim (kill or be killed) o Without a common power everyone will choose to kill o Everyone lives in a persistent state of fear In state of nature the Nash Equilibrium is the second worst outcome for both parties The Social contract A sovereign could enforce the players agreement, individuals would transfer power for protection Chapter 5 Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy Plato makes the argument that that decision making should be based on expertise, mobrule would reign if all people were allowed to rule in a democracy Plato thought democracy would not be government of the people, but gov't of the poor and uneducated against the rich and educated and that people would shortly surrender power to a tyrant. Aristotle believed regimes came in two forms one governed for themselves and the other governed for the rulers. Good regimes were monarchy, aristocracy and politeia. Bad regimes were tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. He believed the good regimes could be corrupted into becoming bad regimes. Plato and Aristotle both believed democracy was the most dangerous form of government. (ex. class warfare) The contemporary view of democracy is that "the people" rather than some subset of the people should rule
Substantive view- classifies political regimes in regard to the outcomes they produce Dahl believed scholars should normatively derived or substantive definitions of "ideal democracy" that "true" democracies should rule in certain ways. Dahl believed that researchers should employ a minimalist, or procedural, view of democracy, which classifies political regimes only in regard to their institutions and procedures. Dahl conceptualizes democracy along two dimensions: contestation and inclusion. Contestation captures the extent to which citizens are free to organize themselves in compelling blocs in order to press for the policies and outcomes the desire. Inclusion has to do with who gets to participate in the political process. (ex china is low in both because there is only one party and no one can vote for officials above the municipal level) Dahl used the term polyarchy to describe a political regime with high levels of both contestation and inclusion. The reason for preferring the term polyarchy was he did not believe that any country exhibited or could exhibit, sufficient levels of contestation or inclusion to rightfully be considered a true democracy. PACL Measure
The country is classified as a democracy if the following rules apply 1.) The chief executive is elected 2.) The legislature is elected 3.) There is more than one party competing in the elections 4.) An alternation in power under identical rules has taken place
A country is classified as a dictatorship if any of these four rules do not hold At a basic level contestation requires that there be more than one party. More then that the founders of PACL believe contestation requires o Ex ante uncertainty: the outcome of the election is unknown before it happens (rules out Iraq with Saddam ) o Ex post irreversibility: the winner of the election actually takes office (Algeria 1991 army prevent another party from taking power) o repeatability: elections occur at regular and known intervals (WWII Germany with Nazi party)
Although PCL accepts that some regimes are more democratic than others, they believe that those countries with uncontested political offices should not be considered even partly democratic A dichotomous measure is one that only has two discrete categories or values. (Ex. "tall" or "short") continuous A measure is one that can take on any intermediate value within a given range (Ex. "height in inches")
PACL Dichotomous Conceptualization of regime type Dictatorships More Dictatorial Less Dictatorial Democracies Less Democratic More Democratic
Dahl's Continuous conceptualization of regime type More Dictatorial More Democratic
Polity IV Polity scores range from -10(least democratic) to 10 (most democratic) 5 dimensions of Polity IV score o The competiveness of executive recruitment o The openness of executive recruitment o The constraints that exist on the executive o The regulation of political participation o The competitiveness of political participation These dimensions capture Dahl's notion of both contestation and inclusion. They also add an additional dimension with the limitations of the executive powers. Conceptualization is the process of creating mental categories that capture the meaning of objects, events or ideas Bollen and Jackman argue for continuous measure of democracy, "democracy is always a matter of degree" Alvarez says they are confused because political regimes cannot be half democratic: there is a natural zero point. (ex. women can't be half pregnant)
Chapter 8 Third wave of democratization- refers to the surge in democratic transitions that have occurred around the world Bottom up democratic transitions- one in which the people rise up to overthrow the authoritarian regime in a popular revolution Top down democratic transition- is on in which the dictatorial ruling elite introduces liberalizing reforms that ultimately lead to democratic transition Perestroika- or "economic restructuring" was a reform policy aimed at liberalizing and regenerating the Soviet economy Glasnost- or "openness" was a reform policy aimed at increasing political openness Collective action- refers to the persuit of some objective by groups of individuals. Typically
the objective is in the form of some public good. (ex. Fraternities election, fund raisers etc.) A public good has two characteristics: (a) non-excludability- a good is non-excludable if you cannot prevent those in the group who did not contribute to its supply from consuming it; and (b) non-rivalry- a good is non-rivalrous if its consumption by one individual does not reduce the amount available for consumption by other individuals in the group One example of a public good is clean air. Clean air is non-excludable in the sense that you cannot stop people from breathing it if it is around., and it is non-rivalrous in the sense that one persons consumption of it does not diminish the amount of clean air that others consume. Collective action or (free rider problem)- refers to the fact that individual members of the group often have little incentive to contribute to the provision of a public good that will benefit all members of the group. It suggest that small groups may be more effective than large groups because of the small groups increased ability to solve the free rider problem. Preference falsification- not revealing ones true preference in public Revolutionary threshold- is the size of protest at which the individual is willing to participate Revolutionary cascade- is when one person's participation triggers the participation of another, which triggers the participation of another and so on Parliamentarism, Presidentalism and mixed democracy Governments fall for Technical reasons (such as elections or if leader dies) Discretionary reason (such as intraparty conflicts or early elections) Endogenous Election Timing Political surfing- hold elections on an economic uptick Political business cycle- temporarily manipulate the economy to get reelected Signaling- hold elections before expected economic downturn Government formation Different from parliamentary regimes: Doesn't require legislative majority No certainty about formateur's cabinet
Presidents party must be in the cabinet Different "reversion point"
Mixed Democracies Cohabitation No guarantee that the president and the prime minister will come from the same political party
Consequences of Presidentialism Inexperience of presidents Slow policy making Low clarity of responsibility Concentration of power over policy Difficult to make comprehensive policy
Stepan and Skach The essence of parliamentarism is mutual dependence (reconciliation) The essence of presidentialism is mutual independence (antagonism)
Chapter 12 Electoral systems- is a set of laws that regulate electoral competition between candidates or parties or both. Electoral formula- determines how votes are translated into seats Ballot structure- is how electoral choices are presented on the ballot paper District Magnitude- is the number of representatives elected in a district Universal suffrage- is when the right to vote is not restricted by race, gender, belief, or social status. Majoritarian electoral systems- is one in which the candidates or parties that receive the most
votes win. Single member district plurality system- is one in which individuals cast a vote for a candidate in a single member district. The candidate with the most votes is elected. Alternative vote- a system of preferential voting, voters rank one or more candidates or parties in order of preference on the ballots Two round system- candidates or parties are automatically elected in the first round if they obtain a specified level of votes, typically an absolute majority Proportional representation system- a quota or division-based electoral system employed in multi-member districts List Part. Rep. -each party presents a list of candidates for a multimember district List PR systems differ in : 1.) Precise formula 2.) District magnitude Type of party list closed, open, and free list Single transferable vote- a preferential candidate- centered PR system used in multi-member districts. Mixed electoral systems- voters elect representatives through two different systems, one majoritarian and one proportional -Independent -Dependent Political party- a group of people that includes those who help get and keep them there Purposes -Structure the political world -Recruit and socialize the political elite -Mobilize the masses -Provide a link between rulers and the ruled Party systems Nonpartisan democracy
Single-party system One-party dominant system Two-party system Multiparty system
Politicized Cleavages Attributes -characteristics that qualify an individual for membership in identify categories (class, skin color, nationality,)
Politicized cleavages Cross cutting cleavages (attributes are uncorrelated) Reinforcing cleavages (attributes are correlated)
Duverger's Theory Non-proportional electoral systems limit the transformation of social cleavages into new parties Bicameralism -Can be congruent or incongruent -can be symmetrical (equal power) or asymmetrical Depends on -How the members of the two chambers is selected -Whom that membership is supposed to represent Why bicameralism? -Separate representation of social classes -Means for federal states to represent their constituent territorial Constitutionalism - the commitment of governments to accept the legitimacy of, and be governed by, a set of authoritative rules and principles laid out in a constitution Constitution's provide the formal source of state authority Codified (one clear document) or un-codified (ex. Israel) Entrenched (needs constitutional procedure or significant hurdle) or un-
entrenched Higher law constitutions vary in the: -Type of constitutional review -Timing of const. review -Jurisdiction of const. review Veto player theory- conceptualizes the institutional structure of a country in terms of its configuration of veto players Countries that have many veto players and conflicting policy preferences
Mandates A policy that the government is both authorized and obligated to carry out once in office Depends on government identifiability Achieved through prospective voting
Representation Responsiveness how well elected representatives respond to the changes in the preferences of the electorate Congruence how well elected representatives match the preferences of the electorate
Resource curse -The paradox that the countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to experience things like poor governance, low level of economic development, civil war dictatorships. Rentier states -countries that derive a large fraction of their revenues from the rent of indigenous natural resources to external clients Repression effect Self interest Response to greater ethnic and regional conflict
Cultural Modernization effect Occupational specialization Education Health
Media use Urbanization
Economic Development effect Dutch disease Economic diversity Revenue volatility Corruption