Politics,%20Regimes%20and%20Democracy

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Politics, Regimes and Democracy
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Politics and Power

• Politics can be treated as a process that
  regulates conflicts within a society. Political
  systems are often able to manage conflicts
  peacefully.

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Categories of conflict

• 1. Conflicts over beliefs and general truths
  (morals)
• 2. Conflicts over the appropriate goals for the
  society
• 3. Conflicts over resources and their allocation
• Can you think of examples of each?

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Uses of Power

• Power can be given expression through
• coercive or
• persuasive means
• Power is needed to enforce the terms of the
  conflict-ending agreement.
• What if agreements could not be enforced?

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Mutual Protection as the Root of Government

• Hobbesian state of nature
• To end a single ruler must possess unquestioned
  authority to guarantee the safety of the weak
  from the strong.

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The Roving Bandit Settles Down

• What's the difference between a government and a
  bandit?
• Longer-run approach to its victims.
• Incentives roving versus stationary bandit

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Property Rights

• state is rooted in the protection of property
  rights
• institutionalized standards of behavior
• reduces uncertainty and thus transaction costs

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Government

• The institutions empowered with the legitimate
  use of force within a given territory to control
  human behavior.

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Legitimacy

• A status derived from a popular belief that
  governmental actions are an appropriate use of
  power by a legally constituted authority.
  Legitimacy reduces the costs of obtaining
  compliance.

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Sources of Legitimacy

• Tradition/Habit
• Identity
• Results/Charisma
• Rational-Legalistic or Bureaucratic Institutions

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Regime Types

• Democratic
• Authoritarian
• Totalitarian
• Post-Totalitarian
• Sultanic

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Dimensions of Regimes

• Pluralism
• Mobilization
• Charismatic Leadership
• Pervasive Ideology

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Democracy

• A system or regime type in which the ultimate
  political authority is vested with the citizenry

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Types of Democracy

• Presidential
• Parliamentary
• Semi-Presidential

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Two basic requirements for a functional democracy

• Participation
• Contestation

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Democracy vs. Republic

• In a republic, sovereignty is vested with the
  people who elect agents to represent them.

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Decision Making in Democracies

• Direct Democracy
• Representative Democracy
• Representative as Delegate
• Representative as Trustee

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Limited Government

• As a protection of minority rights against a
  tyranny of the majority, the United States has
  a constitutionally-limited government.
  Restrictions on government are written in a
  binding document (Constitution) and checks are
  placed on the individual organs of government.
• American Constitutional Limits by
• Checks balances
• Federalism (states rights)
• Civil liberties (individual rights)

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Ideology

• A comprehensive and logically ordered set of
  beliefs about the nature of people, institutions
  and the roles of government.

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Three Basic Values

• 1. Order
• 2. Freedom (liberty)
• 3. Equality
• Competing in a two-dimensional space.
• Place yourself on the chart with IDEAlog
  http//idealog.org/index.asp

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Liberalism

• Please note that the United States has an odd
  usage of the word liberalism focused upon the
  advocacy of positive governmental action to
  improve public welfare whereas in most of the
  world adherents champion freedom and limits on
  government.