POLS 550 Comparative Politics

Week Three LectureA Primer on Structural Approaches

October 12, 2006

Structural Approaches to

DemocracyA Primer on Structural Approaches

Structural approaches are based on the idea that human actions are partly and even largely determined by underlying, often invisible forces, over which we have little or no control

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

“Structure” is a fairly ambiguous term: It is used to refer to concrete institutional arrangements (such as the system of checks and balances in the American political system),

… to less formal, but still powerful institutional arrangements such as the institution of slavery

… to long-standing cultural practices (for example, patriarchal structures that discriminate against women)

… to entire historical systems (e.g., capitalism or feudalism) … to abstract structures such as the anarchic international

system

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

“Structures,” in short, are pretty diverse, but a common element is that ….

… each constrains and enables the actions of individuals who occupy the structures

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

Each structure, in other words, determines what we can and cannot do, both in a micro sense (at the level of individual decisions), but more importantly in a macro sense (at the level of an entire society or country)

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

Another way to understand the structural approach is to recognize that it is concerned with relationships, which themselves exist within a broader framework or system of action

What does this mean?

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

Structures as deeply embedded games

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

In comparative politics, most structural arguments are historical, which means that structures are never permanent, but capable of changing

What is the significance of this?

Structural Approaches to

Democracy A Primer on Structural Approaches

One last point: the structural tradition is a broad church. There are hard and soft structuralists, historical and ahistorical structurualists, Marxists and modernization theorists, and so on