STUDENT NOTES 1 INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS

What Are We Comparing? Concepts Countries and their institutions, policies, and events The AP 6: – UK (or Britain) Not “England” – Russia – China – Mexico – Iran – Nigeria

I. The Comparative Method The process by which different cases are compared in order to better understand their qualities, and to develop hypotheses, theories, and concepts Typology:Typology: A system of classification based on groupings or types with common sets of attributes Comparative politics Comparative politics—field within political science that focuses on domestic politics and analyzes patterns of similarity and difference in political systems Social system involved in making authoritative public decisions.

I. The Comparative Method Two basic ways to make comparisons – Normative Comparisons: – Normative Comparisons: Focuses on philosophies, norms, or “should” “Should all democracies offer universal health care?” – Empirical Comparisons: – Empirical Comparisons: Drawing conclusions on the basis of facts, measurement, or observation. “Do all democracies have universal health care?”

What are normative labels that a conservative British politician might apply to the regime of the United Kingdom? – A good system to protect individual rights; limits on private economic activity too strict; criminal and political activity of non-citizen immigrants tolerated too much; government spending and borrowing too high… Russian Federation? – Corrupt system dominated by former Communists; an undemocratic regime… People's Republic of China? – Dictatorship of Communists; too much government control of economic activities; too much restriction of individual rights…

What are some empirical labels that political scientists would apply to the regime of the A. United Kingdom? – Constitutional monarchy; representative government; multi-party system; single-member districts for House of Commons elections; plurality electoral system… B. Russian Federation? – Formal federation; presidential-parliamentary system; proportional electoral system for legislature; majority electoral system for president; a multi-party system dominated by a single party… C. People's Republic of China? – Single party dominates government; democratic centralism dominant mode of political organization; small integrated governing elite; national legislature is indirectly elected by subnational legislatures

I. The Comparative Method Comparative politics through much of the Cold War (late 1940s–early 1990s) was dominated by the – Three Worlds System: – Three Worlds System: The typology that prevailed during the Cold War, dividing states into three groups: the democratic world, the Communist World, and the poor (as measured by HDI or per capita GDP). – Developed Countries, Developing Countries, and Least Developed Countries.

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Developed Countries; industrialized democracies – High per capita GDP, HDI, well-developed infrastructure, healthcare, and education systems – Consolidated democracies

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Developing Countries – also know as Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) or Transitional democracies Rapid economic growth, but still rather low per capita GDP, weaknesses in infrastructure, healthcare, and/or education

UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES Least Developed Countries – Low to no economic growth, poorest of the poor. Little development in infrastructure, healthcare, and education

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX Human Development Index (HDI) Measures the well-being of a country’s people by factoring in life expectancy (health), mean & expected years of school (education) and GNP per capita (living standards) Health + Education + Living Standards = HDI Index Scale Index scale is 0 – 1 (decimal score) Scores over.80 = high levels of HD Scores under.50 = low levels of HD

GINI INDEX A statistical formula that measures the level of inequality in a country 0 = perfect equality 1 = perfect inequality