Introductionto Comparative Political

SystemsSystems

Meelis Kitsingmkitsing@polsci.umass.edu

Two Faces of Politics

Harold Lasswell defines politics as “who gets what, when, and how.” David Easton suggests that “politics is the authoritative allocation of scarce resources.” Politics is a contest over scarce resources –Politics is a contest over scarce resources –money, power, prestige or security.

Politics also means cooperation because our survival depends on people’s ability to work together to achieve common goals for the community’s good.

Conflict and Cooperation

Conflict management is at the heart of good government. Governments play referee. They make and enforce the rules, but because of this, political conflict centers on control of the government. Coercion, persuasion and economic rewards are the three tools winners of the political conflict have at their disposal – but how they use rewards are the three tools winners of the political conflict have at their disposal – but how they use them varies from country to country. So do the relationships between the winners and the losers. Stable, long-lived governments are those in which winners have persuaded the people of their legitimacy to rule, e.g. that letting them govern is in the people’s best interests and the rules the winners set down should be voluntarily followed.

Two Definitions of Politics

– “Politics is the process of deciding “who gets what, when, and how.”Harold Lasswell (1958)Harold Lasswell (1958)

– “Politics is the authoritative allocation of scarce values.” David Easton (1953)

Comparative Analysis

Through comparison of different countries’ political processes it is possible to understand what, for example, leads some democracies to succeed and others to fail, democracies to succeed and others to fail, as well as characteristics of one system that might be useful to adapt in another.

States, Governments, andPolitical Systems

• This critical subsection is divided into several components. Governments are institutions that determine who gets what, when and how. They control states with internationally recognized borders, and populations and resources that fall within those borders. There are three basic types of governments: democratic, quasi-democratic (mixed) and authoritarian. Each type has numerous variants and each has strengths and weaknesses.

Types of Political Systems and Variants

• Democratic Political Systems– Presidential

• (1) Two-party (United States)

• (2) Multiparty (Brazil)

– Parliamentary– Parliamentary• (1) Westminster model (Britain).

• (2) Coalition model (Japan)

• (3) Single-party dominant (India)

– Mixed presidential/parliamentary system (France)

Types of Political Systems and Variants

• Authoritarian Political Systems– Totalitarian (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union,

North Korea)

– Dictatorships – Dictatorships • Military (Sudan)

• Civilian (People’s Republic of China)

– Monarchies (Saudi Arabia)

– Theocracies (Iran)

Types of Political Systems and Variants

• Quasi-Democratic Political Systems– Some democracy, but military dominant

(Egypt)

– Some democracy, one-party dominant – Some democracy, one-party dominant (Russia)

– Some democracy, monarchy dominant (Jordan)

Democratic Political Systems

• Five fundamental requirements for democracies are:

– 1) leaders elected through free and fair elections;

– 2) elections be held regularly; – 2) elections be held regularly;

– 3) voters can choose from a “meaningful” slate of candidates;

– 4) sufficient information available to the voters to make informed choice;

– 5) those elected must, in fact, rule.

Three Basic Elements ofGovernments

• Legal and organizational structures

• Decision makers (elites)• Decision makers (elites)

• Administrative officials (bureaucrats)

Democratic Political Systems

• There are two major democratic models: the U.S. presidential and the British parliamentary. Others are hybrids. The basic differences are whether power is dispersed throughout the system, as in the U.S. with its three branches of system, as in the U.S. with its three branches of government, or power is concentrated in the Prime Minister through control of parliament as in the UK. Regardless, democracy needs political parties, pressure (interest) groups, and a free and active media. These factors equate to civil society.

Authoritarian Regimes andQuasi-democratic Systems

• Power is concentrated in the hands of a dictator or a clique of powerful individuals. Strengths lie in the efficiency to develop and implement a particular goal – such as rapid economic particular goal – such as rapid economic development – and to retain the state as a whole, rather than allowing it to fragment into mini-states. Weaknesses include the lack of checks, or ways to keep the leadership from pursuing disastrous policies, or to get a government back on track if it has jumped the rails.

Authoritarian Regimes andQuasi-democratic Systems

• Authoritarian states include traditional monarchies (Saudi Arabia), totalitarian societies (like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany), theocracies (Iran), and military dictatorships. Quasi-democratic systems: These states combine elements of democracy and authoritarianism. Most possess weak legislatures with power lying in a dictator.

Transitions from AuthoritarianRule to Democracy

• Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, 50 new democracies have emerged. Of today’s 192 independent countries, 64% are democracies. But many fail to live up to western standards. They are plagued by weak legal systems, endemic corruption and influential systems, endemic corruption and influential oligarchs. Authoritarian tendencies are well entrenched, problems are many and reversion is all too easy despite internal pressures for reform and western pressure, particularly US, to democratize. For others, pressures towards representative government are ignored by powerful elites as in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Components of ComparativePolitical Analysis

• Political institutions, actors who make them function, the economic, cultural and international environment. Elites, political international environment. Elites, political parties, interest (pressure) groups and the people (the masses) are all part of the picture.

The Structures of Government

• Legal and organizational structures, decision-makers or elites, administrative officials (bureaucrats). Political structures tend to favor some groups over others. Complex needs require more political institutions. The more adaptable these institutions are, the easier the state can these institutions are, the easier the state can change to meet new demands. Democracies tend to be more flexible, dictatorship more rigid. Flexibility leads to evolutionary change; rigidity to violent change. Modern political institutions try to check excessive power and corruption through a maze of laws and procedures. But too many restrictions cause paralysis.

Five Fundamental Requirements ofDemocracy

• Leaders are elected in fair and free elections

• Elections must be held regularly

• Voters can choose from a “meaningful” slate of candidates

• Sufficient information must be available to the voters to make an informed choice

• Those elected must, in fact, rule

The Human Dimension ofPolitical Institutions

• How a political system operates depends on the people who run it: the skills of the leaders and the bureaucrats who implement decisions. Institutions take on implement decisions. Institutions take on lives of their own: they develop organizational cultures that pass from one generation to another.

Actors in the Political Arena• The people and groups who direct the political process are

called actors. The subsections of this chapter describe their characteristics. The most important are

– 1) the elites who dominate the political process and a country’s resources;

– 2) the bureaucrats who not only implement political – 2) the bureaucrats who not only implement political decisions but often determine which policies will be implemented because of their specialized knowledge;

– 3) the masses – or the public – who may, or may not, make coordinated demands on the political system;

– 4) interest, or pressure, groups that influence governmental policies and provide links between the elites and the masses; and

– 5) political parties and party systems.

Actors in the Political Arena

• Political parties differ from interest groups because the former seek to gain control of the government whereas the latter seek to influence the government’s policies. There are various types of political parties – the catch-all parties such as those in the U.S. that subordinate ideology to those in the U.S. that subordinate ideology to winning elections, the devotee parties with well defined ideological goals and tight organizational structures such as early Communist parties, the social-democratic parties that come in between, and the single-issue parties such as the Greens. In the third world, single dominant political parties were designed to confine conflict within the boundaries of a single party.

Major Types of Political Parties

• Catch-all parties that relax ideology to appeal to a broad spectrum of the voters - e.g. U.S. Republicans and Democrats

• Devotee parties with well defined ideological • Devotee parties with well defined ideological goals that expect members to devote their lives to achieving those goals – e.g. early Communist Parties

• Social Democrats - e.g. somewhere in between

• Single- or limited issue parties – e.g. the Greens

Political Parties and Political Analysis

• Classification is difficult, but most political analysts consider ideology most important, a practice that began in France after the 1789 revolution and reflected where political groupings sat in the French parliament from right to left. The right consisted of the church and the monarchy. The left consisted of advocates of popular democracy. Over time as the advocates of popular democracy. Over time as the middle class grew, the in-between parties - the moderate, or democratic, right (usually Christian Democrats) and the moderate left or Social Democrats - competed for the middle. The extreme left was ceded to the Communists. Political systems with strong centers are more stable, moderate and democratic than those where parties are polarized on the extreme right and left.

Political Parties: Right, Left, and Center

Far Left Center Left Center Center Right Far Right

Communist parties

Social Democratic parties

Middle-class parties

Conservative, business-oriented parties

Monarchist parties

Parties advocating a

Christian Democratic parties

advocating a religious or quasi-religious government

Parties advocating extreme nationalism

The Context of Politics:Economics, Culture andEconomics, Culture and

International Independence

Economic Systems andComparative Politics

• Political analysts who see economics at the root of political behavior disagree strongly over how to achieve a prosperous, equitable society. There are prosperous, equitable society. There are three major approaches:

– 1) Marxist,

– 2) Adam Smith’s free market capitalism, and

– 3) state capitalism.

Economic Systems andComparative Politics

• Karl Marx, writing in the middle of the 19th century, argued that man’s nature was basically good, but that industrialization forced workers into economic servitude and poverty, that religion and nationalism distracted them from religion and nationalism distracted them from their true economic interests and that the solution was for the workers to come together as a class and seize power. Engels, Marx’s colleague, argued that the state would eventually “wither away” once a communist system had been established and a workers’ paradise would take its place. Marx believed that he had found – through his theory of class conflict – a scientific principle of social evolution.

Economic Systems andComparative Politics

• Adam Smith (1776) thought people looked out for their own economic interests, the price of goods and labor depended upon supply and demand – the “unseen hand” of the market demand – the “unseen hand” of the market place and that the free market encouraged social and economic development. Smith’s modern day counterparts are neoclassical economists who believe monopolistic price fixing should be prohibited, but that the role of government should be reduced.

Economic Systems andComparative Politics

• The political process in most western states is a continual struggle for balance between free-market competition and the need to regulate its excesses. The many need to regulate its excesses. The many variations of state capitalism support capitalist competition as the engine of economic growth but do not agree that the free market can effectively regulate an economy.

Economic Systems andComparative Politics

• Most political economists see political conflict as economic. They believe that prosperity reduces conflict, states are limited in what they can do by financial limited in what they can do by financial constraints, wealthier people usually have more influence than poorer ones, most parties and groups promote their members’ economic interests, and an individual will act in accordance with his or her economic interest.

Culture and Comparative Politics• Culture determines what a person considers

important, defines standards of right and wrong, provides people with their identities and assigns them roles in life. It also provides them with religion and ideology. Culture has external and internal faces. The external one contains national myths, ideologies, religions and other national myths, ideologies, religions and other beliefs a society uses to “socialize” its citizens. Socialization is the process of indoctrinating people into their culture; it begins at home and in the schools. Culture’s internal face contains the predispositions, values and attitudes with respect to how people view the world. These internal values provide short-cuts, or a cultural map for making political and other choices.

What Is Culture?• The way people respond to their political leaders and

political institutions depends upon what they consider to be important. It is culture that tells people what they should consider important, that defines standards of good and bad and right and wrong, and that provides individuals with an identity. It tells individuals who they are and what they are. Culture also defines the roles that an individual is they are. Culture also defines the roles that an individual is to play in life and explains how those roles are to be played (Douglas and Wildavsky 1982). It tells individuals what is expected of them and how to get along with other people (Gross and Rayner 1985). Beyond that, culture provides individuals with religions and ideologies that explain how their society came to exist, why it is the best of all possible worlds, and why some individuals should have more of the good things of life than others.

International Interdependence andthe Evolution of Globalization

• The balance of power system developed in the 17th century and lasted until World War I. It grew out of the development of the nation-state. In a balance of powersystem, if a single country becomes too powerful, others will join together to keep it in check. As industrialization will join together to keep it in check. As industrialization blossomed in the 19th century, many European states sought colonies to provide cheap markets in which they could sell their products and extract raw materials. England and France were the biggest winners in the colonial game, but others – including the U.S. – sought their own empires. The vindictive peace that followed the end of World War I produced a resurgent Germany in Europe and a voracious Japan in East Asia.

International Interdependence andthe Evolution of Globalization

• The “peace to end all peace” led to World War II. WWII’s aftermath resulted in a bipolar world with the democratic and capitalist U.S. and the Marxist Soviet Union possessing enormous arsenals of nuclear weapons aimed at each other. The newly created United weapons aimed at each other. The newly created United Nations was hopelessly divided, but the “balance of terror” resulted in a stable world for over 40 years. With the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the U.S. became the only remaining superpower and the uni-polar world was born. Challenge to this new world order soon came in the form of terrorist attacks by Islamic “Jihadist groups” that plot revenge against the U.S. and its allies for domination of the Islamic world and support for Israel.

Globalization: Economic,Cultural, Political

• Regardless of the 9/11 attacks, globalization is real. Large corporations operate globally and with impunity. Cultural boundaries are blurred by satellite television and the Internet. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the G-7/8 manage world Trade Organization and the G-7/8 manage world economic affairs. The debate rages as to the beneficiaries of the world capitalist system, but Palmer suggests that globalization has increased the wealth for a broader segment of society than before, but failed to eliminate poverty for the poorest. There are ways to mitigate the disparities, but the U.S and other wealthy countries fail to play by their own rules.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)and the World Bank

The World Bank and IMF loans are designed to facilitate the economic development of the states of the third world and to assist them in paying their debts to their creditors, most of whom reside in the first world. The World Bank makes long-term loans, and the IMF specializes in short-term loans. The World Bank has also placed increased emphasis on stimulating democracy in the states that it assists. Both organizations are controlled by member countries with voting power reflecting the size of a state’s financial countries with voting power reflecting the size of a state’s financial contribution. Countries that follow the “rules” of the international system receive loans, and those who break them do not. As most third world states are hopelessly in debt, the IMF and the World Bank exert enormous influence over their domestic politics.

The World Trade Organization (WTO)The WTO is designed to regulate the level of tariffs that countries can place on the exports of their competitors. As in the case of the international political system, the international economic system works best when the major powers are in agreement. Nothing can be imposed on a major power against its will (Ranis 2005).

Globalization: Economic,Cultural, Political

• Cultural globalization began under colonialism, but cultural globalization today has become a code word for American popular culture – from McDonald’s to MTV popular culture – from McDonald’s to MTV and films – not deeper American values. Cultural globalization supposedly acts as a homogenizer eroding the world’s cultural diversity, but it also helps promote economic and political globalization.

Globalization: Economic,Cultural, Political

• Political globalization: There is no world government. The United Nations and the World Court are only as powerful as the member states allow. A massive international NGO (non-governmental organization) network has governmental organization) network has developed to assist with humanitarian services and lobby for environmental and other causes that are linked to national chapters across the globe. The U.S. could play a dominant role in pressuring other countries to live up to international rules. However, the U.S. has been no model citizen itself.

Terror and its Causes

• There is no single definition of terror, but terrorism is often defined as “politically motivated acts of violence committed by an individual or small groups of individuals.” Their objective is to frighten leaders into supporting the terrorists’ political goals. Some definitions of terrorism blend it with guerilla warfare whose of terrorism blend it with guerilla warfare whose perpetrators battle government troops. Other definitions of terrorism emphasize that when terror is used by governments it is called state-sponsored terrorism. Globalization opponents argue that the rapid pace of globalization tears at the fabric of societies, increasing unemployment and “shattering social safety nets.” The promises of a better life under democratic capitalism have not occurred, and moderate third world reformers have been incarcerated.

Islam and the War on Terror• Blanket accusations by the U.S. government and its allies linking

Islam and terrorism are understandable, partially accurate, and sometimes wrapped in crusader language. These accusations have sent Muslims the message that the U.S. has declared war on Islam. Most Muslims hate violence, want to live in a peaceful environment and must be enlisted as allies of the west if the militant Jihaddist groups are to be defeated. Islam is the world’s second largest religion and westerners need to understand the basics of this religion and its relationship to Christianity and basics of this religion and its relationship to Christianity and Judaism. Muslims, like Christians and Jews are “people of the book.” They see Islam as the successor to Christianity and Judaism. The term jihad has two meanings: 1) to protect the faith; and 2) a personal internal struggle against the forces of evil. The relationship between Islam and the West includes long histories of tolerance as well as a tradition of conflict when one faith expanded into the other’s territory. Today, the vast majority of world “hot spots” are found in the Islamic world. The war on terror will be lengthy because the frustrations and psychological problems that fuel it will likely increase.

Two Meanings of Jihad

• A war, or struggle, to expand and protect the Islamic faith

• A struggle within oneself or against the • A struggle within oneself or against the enemy that lies inside because the temptations of the Devil never cease so the jihad, or internal struggle for purity must be just as unrelenting

Putting the Parts Together:Analyzing Total Systems and

Using This Text

• Each component of the political system described in Chapter 1 is important, but politics is greater than the sum of its parts. The political process operates as a calculus – always moving – never resting. To understand calculus – always moving – never resting. To understand or predict politics it is necessary to examine as many of these elements as possible. Chapter 1 concludes with a list of countries covered in the text and explains the organizational structure of each subsequent chapter, e.g. history, political institutions, the actors involved, the broader cultural, economic and international context and the challenges each country faces.