POS 203: Introduction to Political Science 09172008

1
POS 203 Introduction to Political Science
09/17/2008

• Course Agenda
• Course website.
• Due this evening
• Presentation assignment.
• Paper assignment 1.
• Discussion Questions
• What is the chief aftermath of empire that Howe
  identifies?
• How would you apply concepts from Landman Chapter
  4 to either Hauss or Howe?
• Hauss Chapter 2 critical thinking question 4 How
  did the great transformation of Western history
  help shape democracy?
• Discussion of concepts introduced by readings.
• Howe, Hauss, Landman.

2

• Howe, Chapter 4.
• Ends and Aftermaths of Empire.
• Post-World War II decolonization.
• Rapid creation of 100 sovereign states.
• Remarkably non-violent on the whole.
• Intense conflicts.
• French and British colonial holdings.
• Domestic consequences for imperial cores.
• French political system Algerian conflict.
• Colonialism self defeating enterprise (p. 108).
• Former colonial areas, now states, attempted to
  form federal or regional alliances.
• Non-Aligned Movement (118 states).
• 14th Conference Havana Cuba, 9/11-16, 2006.
• OAU now African Union.

3

• Howe, Chapter 4 - 2.
• New empires for old?
• Age of formal empire is over.
• Maintaining client states not effective.
• Informal empire.
• Superpower spheres of influence.
• Very difficult to maintain.
• US has power capabilities.
• Iraq invasion/occupation demonstrates perhaps
  not.
• Rome/US comparison.
• US universal/civilizing mission.
• Bush IIs Global Democratic Revolution.
• Globalization and Empire.
• States still powerful.
• Political and cultural hegemony not complete, nor
  unidirectional (core/periphery interaction not
  one way transmission.

4

• Howe, Chapter 5.
• What is distinctive about European empire
  building?
• Rarely a grand plan for empire.
• Means of empire vs. culture and ideology of
  empire.
• Overestimation of the importance of empire.
• Importance vs. moral approval of empire.
• Harsh judgment of empire (racism/genocide/underdev
  elopment).
• Benefits of empire?
• Economic development, stability.
• 21st century relevance of empire.
• Globalization and empire.
• National vs. imperial approach to global history.
• Imperial vs. global citizenship.

5

• Hauss Industrialized Democracies.
• 4 Elections used to set up discussion.
• Themes.
• Elections determine who governs in all
  democracies.
• Democratic regimes stable.
• Not all elections are alike (e.g. proportional
  representation vs. first past the post
  systems).
• Freedom Forum
• 2/3 of countries today are democratic
  overestimation using Hauss definition.
• Basics of Democracy.
• Rights.
• Competitive Elections.
• The Rule of Law.
• Civil Society and Civic Culture.
• Capitalism and Affluence.

6

• Hauss Industrialized Democracies.
• Key questions.
• Why did democracy emerge in these countries?
• Why did democracy become so remarkably durable in
  the second half of the twentieth century?
• Why is there so much debate about public policy
  in the industrialized democracies in the first
  years of the twenty-first century?
• Origins of the Democratic state.
• Domestic concerns predominate.
• Europe and N. America impossible to disentangle.
• Democracy took a long time to develop.
• Evolution of Democratic thought.
• Enlightenment.
• Hobbes.
• Locke.
• Expansion of the suffrage.

7

• Hauss Building Democracies.
• Democracy result of how great transformations
  handled.
• Creation of nation and state.
• Religion in society and government.
• Development of pressures for democracy.
• The industrial revolution.
• Cleavages between church and state in Italy and
  France obst..acle.
• Late democratizers and war pressures to catch up.
• Post World War 1 liberal regimes established
  quickly collapse into fascism.
• Post World War 2 democratic states
  reconstructed political systems and Cold War
  strong democratic states subsidized.
• Civic Cultures.
• Deeply felt sense of legitimacy.
• Legitimacy despite low turnout and participation.
• Putnam social networks Zakaria tolerance and
  institutions that foster mutual respect.

8

• Hauss Political Parties.
• Left Right spectrum.
• Left to Right.
• Communist.
• Social democratic.
• Liberals/radicals.
• Christian Democrats.
• Right.
• Catch-all parties.
• Centrist political parties post-ideological
  new divisions appear.
• Postindustrial society and postmaterialist
  voters.
• Greens as example.
• Right wing reaction Frances National Front.
• Realignment.
• Preceded by dealignment.
• Right may have head start but recent elections
  make it unclear.
• Political Protest.
• Important in democracies but dont question
  regime legitimacy.

9

• Hauss The Democratic States.
• Presidential versus Parliamentary Systems.
• President more constrained than prime minister.
• Parliamentary systems cabinet responsibility and
  votes of confidence.
• Parliamentary systems less disciplined if rests
  on coalition of parties.
• The Rest of the state.
• Bureaucracy.
• Different attitudes regarding iron triangles.
• Public Policy.
• Degree of state intervention.
• Privatization of state services.
• Foreign Policy.
• Cold War support for United States.
• Post-Cold War drift.
• 9/11 support then again drift.
• Feedback.
• Great but confusing proliferation of news
  sources.
• Cynicism about media reflection of general
  cynicism.

10

• Landman Chapter 4.
• Intentional selection significantly smaller than
  a global selection.
• Always greater than or equal to two.
• Maximum number of countries selected depend on
  usual factors including resource constraints
  (time) imposed on researchers.
• Assumptions countries represent units on which
  comparable data and information can be collected
  features can be measured events and outcomes in
  each country independent.
• Differences
• Intensive focus on variation between countries.
• Lower level of conceptual abstraction.
• Ability to engage in qualitative analysis.
• Comparison of few countries case oriented not
  variable oriented.
• Intensive not extensive comparison.
• Ideas operationalized in ways which fit
  contextual specificities of countries used in the
  comparison.

11

• Case selection and research design.
• Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD).
• Identify key features different among similar
  countries which account for observed outcomes.
• Most Different Systems Design.
• Compares countries that do not share any common
  features apart from the political outcome to be
  explained and one or two important explanatory
  factors.
• Difference between two systems resides in choice
  of countries.
• MSSD well suited for area studies.
• MDSD outcome does not vary across different
  countries.
• Selecting on the dependent variable.
• Permissible if seeking to test for necessary
  conditions for an outcome of interest.

12

• Case selection and research design.
• Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD).

13

• Extending MSSD and MDSD.
• MSSD reaches limit of variables that can be held
  constant as more different countries are added.
• MDSD reaches limit of countries that have
  experienced outcome of interest.
• Negative cases.
• Excellent addition to study but encounters
  problem of irrelevant case.
• Skocpol example
• Theory to be valid peasant revolt and state
  breakdown must be present for social revolution.
• Matrix summarizes the logical combination.
• Identifies cases that need examining.
• Identifies cases for exclusion allowing for more
  secure inferences from few cases.

14

• Case selection and research design.
• Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD).

15

• Boolean truth table.
• Qualitative comparative analysis offers a
  powerful tool for comparison of few countries.
• Allows for inclusion of information not measured
  precisely.
• Uses logics of binary variables in Boolean
  algebra to simplify complexity of the world.
• Allows for assessment to demonstrate how certain
  causal conditions contribute to an outcome.
• Identifies necessary and sufficient conditions
  and allows for assessment why outcome did not
  occur in certain cases.
• Limitations.
• Few countries involves significant and
  intentional choices which limit the inferences
  made possible.
• Problem of selection bias looms large.
• MDSD somewhat weaker than MSSD.

16

• Case selection and research design.
• Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD).

17

• Questions for next week 9/30
• How would you apply concepts from Landman Chapter
  5 to Hauss?
• Hauss Chapter 3 critical thinking question 3
  Select a hotly debated domestic policy issue in
  the news and analyze it in light of the themes
  developed in this chapter. Is the United States
  having trouble solving it? Do you see evidence of
  the American cultural reluctance to use
  government to solve social and economic problems
  Do you see evidence of the conflict between
  legislative and executive branches? Other
  examples of the weakness of the American state?