1. INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS
STUDENT NOTES 6
INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS

2. When classifying governments, you can ask five questions to help you classify them:
Who can participate?
How is power distributed?
How are the legislative, executive, and judicial branches structured?
What is the relationship between the legislative and executive branch?
What type of electoral systems do they have?

3. Two Main Kinds of Systems
III. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 5.) What type of electoral systems do they have?
A legal system for making democratic choices
Create two-party, three-party, multiparty systems
Rules by which elections are conducted
Determine who can vote, how people vote, and how the votes get counted
Two Main Kinds of Systems
Competitive
Single Member District Plurality (SMDP) and (First-Past-the-Post)
Proportional Representation (PR)
Authoritarian

4. III. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 5
III. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 5.) What type of electoral systems do they have?
Types of Electoral Districts
Single Member Districts. AKA “winner take all”, “first past the post”
Follow plurality election rules
Single Member systems tend to favor two-party rule.
Proportional representation is where the nation is divided into a few, large districts and competing parties offer a list of candidates rather than a single candidate. The number of representatives in the legislature is proportional to the percentage of votes it gets
Most proportional systems have a minimum threshold for a party to win seats – ie. 7% of the vote in Russia.

5. Plurality
The number of votes cast for a candidate who receives more than any other candidate but does not receive an absolute majority
“More than anyone else, but under 50%.”

6. Single Member District Plurality
An electoral system in which candidates run for a single seat from a specific geographic districts
An electoral system in which voters chose an individual running for office in a single legislative district (also called “first past the post“)
*Example: U.K. and United States
The winner is the person who receives the MOST votes, whether or NOT that is a majority
Increase the likelihood of a two-party state
Common in the United States, rarely used in continental Europe or in Latin America
A variation on this is the majority runoff system (or double ballot)

7. First-Past-the-Post
An electoral system in which winners are determined by which candidate receives the largest number of votes (regardless of whether or not a majority is received)
SAME as Single Member District Plurality!

8. Electoral Systems
Plurality systems encourage large, broad-based parties because…
no matter how many people run in a district, the person with the largest # of votes wins
this encourages parties to become larger, spreading their “umbrellas” to embrace more voters
Parties without big groups of voters supporting them have little hope of winning

9. Two (Double) Ballot System
An electoral system where two rounds of voting may take places to ensure a majority winner
Several candidates may be on first ballot, if no majority is chose, second ballot is run-off of top two vote getters
Also called the majority runoff system

10. Proportional Representation (PR)
An electoral system in which voters select parties rather than individual candidates and parties are represented in legislatures in proportion to the shares of votes they win
Representatives are elected based on the proportion of the electorate that voted for them
Encourages a multi-party system
Closed-list PR system: voters don’t know people chosen by party
Open-list PR System: voters chose from list of candidates given by parties

11. Proportional Representation (PR)
How Proportional Representation system works:
A country is divided into a few large sections
The competing parties offer lists of candidates
The number of legislative representatives a party wins depends on the overall proportion of the votes it receives
Sometimes parties must meet a minimum threshold of votes in order to receive any seats at all (5% or 7%)
KEY POINT: PR system leads to multiparty legislatures
(Exception: Russia’s raising of threshold to 7% has resulted in less representation of regional parties)

13. Minimum Winning Threshold
The minimum percentage of votes a party must receive in order to be seated in a legislature
Sometimes parties must meet a minimum threshold of votes in order to receive any seats at all (5% or 7%)

14. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
An electoral system in which political parties compete in multi-member districts
Voters choose b/t parties and the seats are awarded proportionally

15. FIRST PAST THE POST Single member district Winner take all
Candidate with the largest share of the vote wins the seat

16. Types of Elections Election of public officials Referendum Initiative
Votes on policy issues
Examples?
Plebiscite
A non-binding vote to gauge public opinion on an issue
Initiative
Vote on a policy initiated by the people

17. Multiparty System
A party system with several important political parties, none of which generally gains a majority of the seats in the national
Mexico, Nigeria

18. Two-Party System
A party system in which two main parties compete for majority control of the government
Small parties may exist but play no significant role in national electoral outcomes UK

19. One-Party Dominant System
A party system in which one large party directs the political system, but small parties exist and may compete in elections
Russia (& Mexico in the past under the PRI)

20. One-Party System
A party system in which one political party controls the government and voters have no option to choose an opposition party (China)

21. Elite Recruitment
Refers to the selection of people for political activity and government offices
In a democracy, competitive elections play a major role in political recruitment
In authoritarian systems, recruitment may be dominated by a single party, as in China, or unelected religious leaders, as in Iran

22. Supranational Organizations
Supranational Organizations are those who have been given some sovereignty because nations have shifted their powers upwards to them. This shift took place after WWII.
*Even though these organizations are important, the state is still the most important political system in the world!*
EXAMPLES:
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
European Union
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
United Nations

23. IV. CITIZENS, SOCIETY & THE STATE
Civil society:
Formal and informal organizations that are NOT part of the state but operate in public
The web of membership in social and political groups that some analysts believe is needed to sustain democracy
A society in which people are involved in social and political interactions free of state control or regulation
Social, charitable, religious, community – advance own cause

24. Voluntary Associations and Organizations
Professional and Business Organizations
Trade Unions
Charities
Social Clubs
Environmental Groups
Churches
Women’s Groups
Community Associations
Youth Clubs
Consumer Groups
Arts, Science, Leisure, Sports Clubs
Civil Society: arena outside of the state and family (i.e., mainly voluntary organizations and civic associations) that permits individuals to associate freely and independently of state regulation

25. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Global civil society
Examples: Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Red Cross

26. POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION
The process by which individuals acquire their political attitudes and behaviors
Family, school, media

27. POLITICAL CULTURE
History, culture, values, beliefs, traditions that influence political behavior
Defines the public’s expectations toward the political process and its role within the process

28. POLITICAL IDEOLOGY
A set of political values about what the goals of government should be

29. LIBERALISM
An ideology that favors a limited state role in society and the economy and places a high value on individual freedom
SUPPORTS
limited government
individual freedom
social toleration
the redistribution of resources

30. LIBERTARIAN
Prefers little government interference in the economy or personal freedoms

31. CONSERVATISM
A political attitude that questions the need for change and supports the current order

32. RADICALISM
Favors dramatic and revolutionary change

33. REACTIONARY
Someone who seeks to restore the institutions of a real or imagined earlier political or societal order

34. CLEAVAGES Factors that separate groups
May be based on ethnicity, religion, social class, region, etc
The wider and deeper the cleavages, the less unified the society

35. CROSS CUTTING CLEAVAGE
Divisions that cut across differences
When the groups that are divided share a common interest on one or more issues
Crosscutting cleavages bring groups together in a society that might not otherwise have much in common
The PRI in Mexico united rural peasants and urban dwellers for much of the 20th century
Religion in some societies – like Iran and Mexico – can be a crosscutting cleavage

36. COINCIDING (CUMULATIVE) CLEAVAGES
Divisions that strengthen feelings of difference and discrepancy
Cleavages which reinforce each other (pit the same people against each other on many different issues
Coinciding cleavages create tension in a political system
Religion in Nigeria
Class in most countries

37. POST MATERIALIST
The theory that younger voters tend to favor issues such as the environment and feminism
Propelled by the idea that in advanced societies basic needs are met so citizens can concentrate on higher goals

38. V. Political & economic change
ECONOMIC VARIABLES
There is an intimate relationship between politics and economics, such that there is an entire field of study—political economy—that examines the links.
Political economy: The relationship between political activity and economic performance.
The most fundamental comparative measure is economic size; this is expressed using gross domestic product (GDP).
Gross domestic product (GDP): The total value of all goods and services produced by a state in a given year.

39. PURCHASING POWER PARITY
PPP
An estimate of buying power using the US as a benchmark

40. MARKET ECONOMY
An economy that relies on the interaction of supply and demand to allocate resources and set prices

41. NEOLIBERAL ECONOMICS
Focuses on introducing free market reforms and has few restrictions on economic and property rights
Economic liberalization

42. MARXISM
A political/economic system based on public ownership of the means of production
Goal: classless country and the “withering away of the state”

43. V. Political & economic change
Communism
Socialism
Values equality over freedom
Believe that the inevitable outcome of competition for scarce resources is that a small group will come to control the government and the economy. (i.e. “the rich”)
Advocate a takeover of all resources and abolishing private property to ensure true equality
Values equality of communism BUT promote private ownership of property and free market principles.
The state should have a strong role to play in regulating the economy and providing benefits to the public sector.

44. V. Political & economic change
Mixed/Hybrid Economies
In reality, most economies are mixed. The state plays an important role in most economies, yet many decisions are made by private individuals and businesses.
Import Substitution Industrialization
A method used by developing nations to spur economic development
Characterized by government subsidies and tax breaks, tariffs to protect domestic businesses
Neo-liberal Market reforms/neoliberalism/economic liberalization
The introduction of market mechanisms into an economy. Often this is done through the removal of price controls, the elimination of subsidies, and reduction/elimination of protective tariffs.

45. Import Substitution Industrialization
Employs high tariffs to protect locally produced goods from foreign competition, govt ownership of key industries, govt subsidies to domestic industries

46. STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT
Structural adjustment programs require countries to increase taxes and cut spending (austerity measures) to improve budgets.

47. DEPENDENCY THEORY
The idea that colonial rule left a legacy of political and economic dependence making it difficult for former colonies to improve their economies and democratize.

48. WELFARE STATE
The creation and maintenance of social welfare programs; a school of thought that the state should assume primary responsibility for the welfare of citizens

49. COMMAND ECONOMY
An economy in which the allocation of resources is centrally made with little regard for supply and demand

50. Command vs. Mixed vs. Market Economies
More Centralization
Less Centralization
COMMAND
ECONOMY
MIXED
ECONOMY
MARKET
ECONOMY
Right to own property is greatly restricted
All industry is owned by the govt
Competition and profit are prohibited
Elements of command and market economies are present/mixed
Right to own property is accepted/guaranteed
Most industry is owned by private individuals.
Competition and profit are not controlled by the govt

51. RENTIER STATE
A country that obtains lucrative income by exporting a raw material or leasing out a natural resource to foreign countries
Income from rents of foreign companies