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Chapter One
Review
Issues in Comparative Politics
Tiananmen
Square, Beijing China 1989
What is Politics?
• Politics – all human decisions
• Political Science – study of these
decisions
• Decision are public, not private
• Decisions are authoritative, done w/ formal
power
Governments
• Governments – legally empowered to make
decisions
• Night Watchman State – protect property,
safety, that’s it
• Police State – authoritarian
• Welfare State – provide social services,
education, safety net, healthcare, retirement
• Regulatory State – Rules and regulations
• State of Nature – pre-government, free but
unsafe
Why Governments?
• Political cultures grow around values, symbols into a
nation-state
• Need for security and order – to protect property rights
• Promote economic growth and efficiency
• To provide public goods – goods that people can’t
provide easily on their own in a private market e.g.
police, fire department, military
• To protect against externalities or market failures such
as pollution
• To promote social justice – tax and welfare policies
• To protect a society’s weakest members
When Does Government
Become the Problem?
• Critics: libertarians who want
very little government and
anarchists or communitarians
who want NO government
• Argue government harms
community, violates rights,
inefficient economically,
promotes private gain through
rent – seeking
• Rent seeking: seeking benefits
for individuals or groups using
government policies e.g.
taxation
• Government merely caters to
vested interests
• Voluntary associations and
private markets would do better
Political Systems
• An authoritative systems with interdependent parts and
boundaries that make decisions
• Political systems contain governments
• And also contain political parties, interest groups, mass
media, think tanks (private research institutions),
universities, etc.
• State – a political system w/ sovereignty
• Sovereignty – independent legal authority over a
territory/group of people
• Nation-state – state with contiguous territory and
common national identity
• 196 in the world at last count
Building Community
• State and nation are used interchangeably,
unfortunately
• Nation = self-identification among a people, culture,
language, may cross borders
• States = may contain single national identity or may
have more than one
• Ethnicity = identification based on racial, cultural or
historical characteristics – based on subjective belief
• Language – 5000 exist, but only 8 truly international,
English considered most international, source of conflict
• Religion – big source of conflict, Christianity most widespread, Islam most rapidly growing
• Religious fundamentalism – use of religion to ward off
modern world
Cumulative and CrossCutting Cleavages
• Political cleavages – systematic use of
linguistic, religious, cultural divides affect
political allegiances and policies
• Cumulative – pits the same people
against each other on many issues
(Northern Ireland, Lebanon)
• Cross-cutting – group that agree on one
issue, but disagree on another (The
Netherlands)
Fostering Development
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Gross National Product – total economic
output for a nation
Gross Domestic Product – total
economic output for a nation w/in its
borders
Per capita GDP/GNP – economic output
per person
Used to compare rich versus poor
countries
Measure industrialization, income,
education, life expectancy, birth rates,
access to health care in addition to
GNP/GDP
Income inequality can lead to political
instability
Population growth, economic
development and environmental
problems also impact political systems
Securing Democracy Human
Rights, and Civil Liberties
• Democracy – system where citizens
enjoy basic civil/political rights – “rule
by the people”
• Elections, free political parties, free
mass media, representative
assemblies
• Authoritarian – lack basic elements of
democracy
• Oligarchy – “rule by the few”
• Totalitarian – rights severely restricted,
government intrusive
• Nations becoming more free through
democratization
• Tyranny of the majority – use of
democratic processes to suppress
minorities