Culture, institutions, & explanation Why do countries ratify the Kyoto Protocol? 1

Note on last class… Culture as VARIABLE –E.g., hyper-inflation averse culture How do we define it? How do we test it? 2

Which country is CULTURALLY most similar to the US? United Kingdom Mexico Taiwan 3

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2 years ago… 5

Last year 6

Culture Often used as an INDEPENDENT VARIABLE Can also be the DEPENDENT VARIABLE Do institutions shape culture? Malapportionment, Gasoline Taxes, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Broz & Maliniak (PEIO 2010) 7

A defining feature of the United States of America: Our Car Culture 8

UK v. US Similar –Cultural –Foreign policy –Legal traditions –Car Culture??? Opposite ends of the spectrum on –gasoline tax policy –addressing climate change 9

Car culture: gasoline taxes and prices per liter in 31 countries (2004): 10

Who needs the most gasoline per capita? Urban v Rural 11

Does “need” translate into policy preference? 12

Policy outcome? We’ve got Interests & Incentives Now, to get the policy outcome,… We interact interests/incentives with a domestic political institution: Malapportionment! 13

Malapportionment tends to weigh RURAL preferences more than URBAN (i.e., Proportional representation tends to weigh URBAN preferences more than RURAL) Does this have an effect on NATIONAL policy? 14

Test: Does malapportionment affect: –Gasoline prices –Kyoto ratification 15

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Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Stabilize atmospheric “greenhouse” gas 1997 (enter into force: 2005) 2009: 187 states ratified Commitment to reduce greenhouse gases: –carbon dioxide –methane –nitrous oxide –sulphur hexafluoride 17

Ratifiers, signers, and non 18

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Which came first? Car culture? Malapportionment? Once created, however, car-culture may reinforce malapportionment Car-culture may have other effects: –Crash –2006 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing –WRITING TIP: FIRST LINE is always important in great work! –It's the sense of touch.... Any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people. People bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something. Hypothesis: car-culture exacerbates racial/ethnic tension Operationalized: automobiles/capita  inter-ethnic/racial violent crime 21

Other great first lines: The Prince All states, all powers, that have held and hold rule over men have been and are either republics or principalities. – Plato’s Republic I went down to the Piraeus yesterday with Glaucon, the son of Ariston, to pray to the goddess; and, at the same time, I wanted to observe how they would put on the festival, since they were now holding it for the first time. – 22

Main take-home from last time: What is it to explain? –to state the conditions under which it always or usually takes place (perhaps probabilistically) The BRIDGE –The BRIDGE between historical observations and general theory is the substitution of variables for proper names and dates 23

Take-homes Goal of this class: –Substitute variables for proper nouns/dates Culture & institutions shape each other Malapportionment –Weighs rural preferences more –Rural voters have greater reliance on gasoline –So, malapportionment  lower gas taxes less likely to ratify Kyoto Protocol 24

Thank you WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN! 25

Religion vs. Science (Faith vs. Skepticism) RELIGION & SCIENCE both respond to mystery Both deal with faith and doubt In the end, the answer in religion is faith –in the religious hierarchy –in the Bible –in the Koran –Clear your mind of questions; there is no “why” In the end, there is no answer in science – only continued skepticism –theories must be tested, and tested, and tested –we never achieve “Truth” with a capital T –we never “prove” 26