INTR

ODUCTION T

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COMPARAT

IVE P

OLITIC

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ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED

• Why do we study politics• (what is politics and why is it important to study it)

• How do we study politics (methods of studying comparative politics)• Normative approach • Empirical approach: experimental, statistic, comparative, case studies

• The nature of comparative political analysis• Most similar and most different system designs• what we study: public policy, political behav., governmental struc. • Nation states

• The political system• Analytic system: super-system, system, subsystem

• Political culture• System, process, policy cultures

• Globalization• Economic globalization

What do you associate with the term politics?

WHY DO WE STUDY POLITICS

Lets first understand what is politics

Aristotle: Politics is the interaction between individuals and groups in a society

Interactions that involve power and authority

Hobbes: Power refers to the general capacity to attain goals in a society

Lasswell: Politics is about “who gets what, when, and how?” (share of resources)

HOW DO POLITICS IMPACT YOUR DAILY LIVES?

WHY DO WE STUDY POLITICS

To understand for example, why A given election is won by one party, but not the other one

To learn about issues, such as Justice How policies are made

comparative politics along with the other social disciplines tries to help us understand the complex world around us

HOW DO WE STUDY POLITICS

Lets first understand the difference between comparative politics and area studies

Area Studies Politics in a single area, f.e., Germany

Comparative Politics compares different cases, such as Germany, Turkey, and Japan (in terms of politics)

The goal in comparing is to find similarities and differences between political systems, institutions, behaviors, or cultures in different countries

HOW DO WE STUDY POLITICS

Normative Approach Philosophies or “shoulds”

Empirical Approach Measurements and observations

HOW DO WE STUDY POLITICS (NORMATIVE VS. EMPIRICAL)

Normative Explanations seeks to answer f.e.,

What is justice What is a just society How do we decide what is just and what is not Does the concept of justice ever change so Should there be free education, etc.

Empirical explanations tries to answer f.e., What is… Do all people have access to free education in a society (quantifiable) Do all judges feel the same way about a particular law (quantifiable) What is the relationship between the voting behaviors and SES

(quantifiable)

HOW DO WE STUDY POLITICS: EMPIRICAL APPROACH (4 METHODS)

Experimental Method

Manipulates one variable in order to observe its impact over another variable. For example, the medical studies and experiments on patients

Case study method

Intensive study of individual cases, such as individuals, interest groups, institutional groups, regional groups

Comparative method

More than one case is compared. For example, voting behavior in Germany, Turkey, and Japan

Statistical method Quantitative data is used, public opinion polls, survey research etc.

How is case study different than area study?

HOW DO WE STUDY POLITICS

Comparative method can be carried out in two ways (Przeworski and Teune)

Most similar system design Highly similar nations with different policy outcomes (Canada vs.

Australia) there must be a difference between them that causes the difference

in policy outcome.

Most different system design Highly different nations with some similar political outcome (England

vs. Saudi Arabia) then some aspects of these nations must be similar.

THE NATURE OF COMP. POLITICAL ANALYSIS

What do we study?

Public policy Deals with what governments do, For example, agricultural, fishery, or fiscal policies

Political behavior If we understand why people behave the way they behave, then it will be

easier to understand the political system within which they operate Voting behavior, political leader, etc.

Governmental structure Deals with the governmental institutions, such as legislatures, courts,

militaries, executives, and political parties

THE NATURE OF COMP. POLITICAL ANALYSISThese are all about Nation-states, so what is nation-state

• Nations: a group of people with the shared characteristics

• States: political entity, created by people, has accepted boundaries.

• States’ borders might change

• Can we have nations without states?

THE NATURE OF COMP. POLITICAL ANALYSIS

• two crucial features of nation-states

• Sovereignty: • having the right to make the final decision regarding policy

• Legitimacy: citizens of that state have loyalty to it lack of loyalty rebellions, civil wars, and revolutions (give an

example)

the other states diplomatically recognize the state, and agree that it has the right to exist

lack of recognition wars and conflicts (give an example)

THE NATURE OF COMP. POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Three common mistakes political scientists do

• Political Ethnocentrism (Example, US Democracy export to Iraq)

• Individualistic fallacy (individual level analysis)

When you meet a South-African with PhD, it would be wrong to assume that South-Africans are more educated than the Americans in general based on this observation.

• Ecological-Fallacy (Aggregate level analysis)

As a result of a survey if you find that Americans are more educated than South-Africans in general,

But, it would be wrong to assume that Americans are more educated than every individual South-Africans.

Ex: American vs. East German legislatures in terms of passing laws

THE POLITICAL-SYSTEM

Analytic Systems Refers to groups of objects that are connected with one another in

an analytic way.

What connects different parts of the American governmental system is the power that is provided by the constitution for each of the institutions making up the government.

THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

Easton’s political system theory : Demands and support (input) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (political machine)

authoritative decisions and actions (output)

POLITICAL CULTURE

Three dimensions of political culture

System culture attitudes towards nation, regime, and authorities as well as values related to national identity, regime change, etc.

Process culture: the role of individuals in the political arena

Policy dimension: attitudes towards the outcomes of the political system (policies)

GLOBALIZATION Increasingly economic activity in the world takes place between people living in different countries.

Nations, individuals, firms, and institutions are interconnected more than ever.• Capital moves around the world as if there is no nation-state;• People easily go and invest in another nation-state.

Therefore, issues such as international trade, foreign direct investment, environmental policy, and human rights are more relevant in daily life.

GLOBALIZATION

The position of the world bank is that Globalization is not knew Globalization does not effect all nations in the same way, or same extend Globalization in economic sense is different than globalization in other

senses.

Some problems related to globalization: Difficulty for the governments in planning and controlling national

economies. Multinational companies and job drains.

What are some factors accelerating globalization?

INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH

Institutions survive longer than individuals

It is easier to generalize by observing institutions

It is easier to find observable and measurable data on institutions.

Thus, the text book uses an institutional approach.