Summary Comparative Politics 

University Leiden 

Year 1, Block 3, Politicologie 

Lecture 1: What is comparative politics 

Objectives: 

1. Define comparative politics 

2. The role of comparison

3. Recognise different theoretical approaches

Comparative Politics 

• addresses how factors influence others, what drives behavior including multi level politics. 

• There is a scientific reason to compare: does X influence Y? is there causality or correlation?

  • Statistical control: mathematically estimate the effects when changing one variable 

  • Comparative controle: Select cases in such a way that we can eliminate alternative explanation 

  • Qualitative Methods: Small cases but a lot of information

  • Quantitative methods: Statistical solvability by mathematical comparisons using graphs 

Single case studies according to leiphart:

• A-theoretical 

• Interpretative

• Hypothesis building 

• theory infirming 

• Deviant case study 

Comparative in this case means comparing your study to all other cases which accort to a specific theory 

Comparative research consists of:

• most similar system 

  • selecting cases which are as similar as possible but contain different outcomes 

  • look for the differences which determine the different outcomes 

  • This formes an independent variable 

• Most dissimilar systems design:

  • select different cases but similar outcomes 

  • look for select similarities within different cases in cofounding potential 

  • This forms the reason of the similar outcome 

Challenges of comparison

• Too many variables and too little cases

• Biased selection

• Survivorship bias: only accord for the surviving states 

• Confirmation bias: selecting cases which for your theory

• Value bias: selecting cases which accord to your outcome 

Lecture 2: The State

Objectives: 

1. Define and outline the differences between the key concepts of politics, power and authority 

2. Discuss the classical definition of the state 

3. Outline discussions surrounding the role of the state in the global south including notions of state capacity and weakness

Theories consist of

1. A filter: what is important 

2. Explanatory reasoning: What is the explanation

3. Prediction: What is likely to happen 

Theoretical approaches

• Institutionalism: institutions provide a framework within which decisions are made 

• Rational choice: Individuals make decisions on maximizing self interest

• Structuralism: relationships between parts of the political system form a structure that is more important than the individual parts

• Cultural: Politics and government are influenced by culture

• Interpretivism: Politics are decided by the opinion of the participants

Politics: about the allocation of resources 

Power: One actor has the possibility to project his will upon others despite resistance 

Authority: defines rightful rule

• Traditional: always been that way

• Charismatic: appeal

• Legal-rational: legitimate in a preset of rules 

The state: a human community that successfully claims the monopoly over the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory

The state is defined by intern and extern legitimacy

• Government

• Population

• Legitimacy

• Territory

• Sovereignty

Lecture 3: Democracy and democratization

Objectives:

1. different definitions of democracy

2. Difference between direct, representative and liberal democracy is 

3. Stage model of democratization in waves 

Democracy: Political system in which government is based on a fair and open mandate from all qualified citizens of a state 

Direct: all members of the community take part in making the decisions 

representative: members of the community elect people to represent their interests to make decisions

Liberal democracy: Indirect democracy in which democracy only exists in the constitutional protection of individual rights

There is a procedural minimum for democratic political regimes:

1) Control over policy decisions is vested in elected officials

2) Elections are frequent, free and fair 

3) Universal suffrage 

4) Universal right to run for office 

5) Freedom of expression 

6) Freedom of information 

7) Freedom of association

Regime: The rules and procedures which regulate 

(1) Who can access political power, 

(2) how political power is accessed; and 

(3) how power is executed. 

Authoritarian regime

(1) Access to political power is limited 

(2) competition for popular support does not determine who accesses power 

(3) exercise of power is not limited by law. 

Democratic regime 

(1) Access to political power is universal in principle 

(2)competition for popular support determines access

(3) exercise of power is limited by rule of law.

Seymour M. Lipset (1959): “The more well-todo a nation, the higher the chances that it will sustain democracy.” 

Adam Przeworski et al. (2000): Countries beyond a GDP/capita of 6,055 USD do not suffer democratic breakdown 

Dietrich Rueschemeyer et al. (1997): Democratic development presupposes a developed working class 

thus Economic development is necessary for democratization

Regime change consists of three phases:

• Regime Breakdown: exogenous shocks, elite conflict or uprisings

• Transition: The moment between regimes

• Consolidation: institutionalization of new rules 

Lecture 4: Why does participation matter

“Because there is a decline in traditional forms of participation, a crisis of democracy.” 

Reasons to participate in a democracy 

• Oversight

• Prevention

Public opinion

• The range of views held on an issue of public concern by the members of an affected community 

• Opinion poll: a series of questions asked in a standard way of a systematic sample f the population in order to gauge public opinion

• Focus group: moderated discussion among a small group of respondent on a particular topic used to explore the thinking and emotions behind people’s attitudes

Public participation has different conceptions 

• Involves peoples as citizens

• activity

• voluntary

• is intended to influence politics

definition: Activity by individuals formally intended to influence who governs or the decision taken by those who do 

Conventional/not conventional political participation: what the political system decides to be legal or illegal to participate. 

Lecture 5: Parties and the Party system 

Define the  concept of a political party

outline the functions of political parties

describe the development of political parties and the structure of party systems

What is a political party? 

• “A party is any political group identified by an official label that presents at elections and is capable of placing through elections candidates for public office”

Why political parties?

• “The political parties created democracy and modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties.”

National states: “relatively centralized, differentiated organizations the officials of which more or less successfully claim control over the chief concentrated means of violence within a population inhabiting a large, contiguous territory.” 

“War made the state and the state made war”

States in Europe were founded by:

• State making: Elimination of internal rivals

• War making: Eliminating or neutralizing rivals outside of a defined territory

•  Protection: Eliminating the rivals of their clients

• Extraction: Acquiring the means to carry out the other functions

A nation 

• Nation describes a group of people who share a common history and culture

  • Limited: contrast against other nations

  • Sovereign: the nation as the ultimate holder over sovereignty

  • Community: sense of common interests despite differences

State capacity: the ability of a state to control its territory

Juridically states share:

• Constitutions

• Ministries

• Armies

However states differ in practice: absence of existential military pressure and the availability of external sources of revenue leads to low levels of state capacity.

What do political parties do?

Government > Providing a foundation for the exercise of power by governments offering them direction.

Guidance > Giving voters coherence and contrasting sets of policies from which to choose, giving effect to the idea of liberal democracy.

Aggregation > Aggregating interests, filtering many specific demands into manageable and prioritized packages of proposals

Mobilization > Encouraging citizens to take part in politics by campaigning raising funds or voting.

Recruitment > Recruiting and preparing candidates for public office.

Also control

Not all parties do all of these things. Autocratic parties will focus more on control. 

Origin and development of political parties

• Externally mobilized: parties are established by leaders who do not occupy positions of power in the prevailing regime and who seek to bludgeon their way into the poitical system by mobilizing and organizing a mass constituency. These are created from mass movements

• Internally mobilized: Parties are founded by politicians who occupy leadership positions in the prevailing regime and who undertake to mobilize and organize a popular following behind themselves. 

19th century > cadre/caucus parties > internally mobilized by MPs under conditions of limited suffrage; conservative vs. liberal. 

1880-1960 > Mass parties > Externally mobilized, extension of suffrage; class cleavage; contagion from the left. New representatives from people who just gained suffrage. 

1945> > Catch-all Parties > Large parties converge in the center, diminishing the role of party activists but rely more on the media. 

1970> > Cartel Parties > Parties increasingly financed by the state, parties in power form a cartel to keep newcomers out. 

Parties move over time from the civil society to the state 

 Party System: The overall configuration of political parties based on their number, their relative importance, the interactions among them and the laws that regulate them. 

• Two party vs multi party

• polarization

Genealogy of party systems:

• Bottom line: modern political parties emerged from cleavages created by the national and industrial revolutions

• National revolution: increasing administrative centralization and cultural standardization

• Industrial revolution: Increasing transition to urban-based manufacturing

National revolution 

• Center-periphery cleavage 

• State-church cleavage

Industrial revolution

• Rural-urban conflict

• Capital-labor conflict

Critical junctures in history 

• Reformation 

• Democratic revolution

• Industrial revolution

freezing hypothesis states that the parties of 1960 represent the cleavages from 1920

How do cleavages produce party systems?

• Latent Cleavages: social conflict where nobody does something about

• Cross-cutting and reïnforcing cleavages: 

• Institutions: systems lead to specific party compositions

Materialist vs post-materialist parties

• Emerged in 1960s

• Rise of the green parties 

Globalist vs. anti-globalist

• Emerged in the 2000s

• Right-wing and left-wing populism

Form of party systems

• The number of effective numbers N = 1 / Sum 

Types of party systems

• No-party systems

• Single-party systems

• Dominant party systems 

• Two party systems

Lecture 6: Election and Electoral Behaviour 

cross-cutting cleavages are likely to create more parties 

latent cleavages are not institutionalized, not weak but not acted appon

Cleavages are no part of a party system 

Objectives:

• describe and contrast the main families of electoral systems

• Outline debates around the determinants of voting behavior

• define the concepts party identification, party alignment and …

Majoritan vision: elections produce clear results based on well-defined alternatives between governing teams and their political programs leading to stable governments and concentrated power

proportional vision: elections determine representatives who bargain on behalf of their supporthers thereby guaranteeing all social groups are represented and power is dispersed. 

electing legislators:

• plurality voting

  • Relative majority wins a seat 

  • Dispropotionality, a lot of majorities without vote majorities

• Duverger’s Law 

  • mechanical effect: party B and C will not be represented

  • psychological: actors anticipate and form coalitions and avoid voting for hopeless parties

• Majority voting

• The person with the majority wins, otherwise force a majority with a second round 1v1

     -      Tactical voting 

• Proportional Representatives

Several constituencies

• voters vote for party lists

• These can be decided by voters or parties. 

• high proportionality, but risk of instability by difficult coalitions

Mixed systems

• several constituencies roughly proportionate

• voters vote for party lists and direct candidates, two votes

• addition seats are added when winners exceed proportional seats 

presidential elections:

• People in the US identify themselves a lot with the party which provides a filter for political events. 

Partisan dealignment: people don’t identify themselves with a party anymore

Class alignment measured by: 

• the goldthorpe system

• Employment type

• Contracttype 

• alford index 

The religious vote: voting on a party because it is part of a certain religion

It is getting harder to predict what people will vote for because: 

• Issue voting

• Short term factoren

• not adequate information

• not caring about specific policies

• is there a difference between candidates

Economic voting: 

• How do voters measure the economy

• Do economic incentives turn into vote buying

Personalization

• voters make decision based on the personality of the candidates

• particular circumstances

• particular importance of personality traits judged important for office

Turnout

• the more participation there is in decisions, the more democracy there is 

• elections decide issues of lesser importance than earlier elections did.

Lecture 6: Review Session (Two, one in the middle and one in the end of the course)

Review lectures consist of answers to questions asked by students and are mostly not necessary information for an Exam. However, it still is interesting :)

Three ideal parties

• Charismatic    (appeal by characters)

• Cliëntelist       (Voter buying)

• Programmatic  (policy implementing)

(Eastern European) degree of programmatic competition

• System time (How long does the democratic system exist)

• Political structure (In what degree is personalization part of the system)

• Structure of rule and transition

• Timing of industrialization and political mobilization

Cleavages (Eastern European)

• Universalist vs. Ethno-culturalist

• Liberalism vs. authoritarianism

• Free market vs. economic populism

Candidate selection

• Selectorate: those who control the selection of candidates for elections 

• inclusive vs exclusive selectorate 

•  (open/closed primary, party members, party committee, party leader

Lecture 7:  Interests groups and social movements

• Outline the role of interest groups in different political systems

• Describe the most common types of interest groups 

• Discuss the role of social movements under democratic and non-democratic regimes

Civil society and state society relations

civil society: the arena that exists outside the state or the market and within which individuals take collective action on shared interests.

• state power vs market profit vs family personal

Authoritarian executives

Autocracies are political regimes in which a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones. 

Military regime - coup

Party-based regime - revolution

Personalist Regime - civil war

Lecture 8: Executive-Legislative Relations 

Objectives:

1. Define the most common types of executive-legislative relations

2. Types of governments and coalitions in parliamentary democracies

3. Outline different forms of executive powers

Presidential system: Head of state = head of government, separate elections for legislature and executive, also separate survival

Semi-presidential system: Head of state = head of government, Separate elections President can dissolve legislature, president co-exists with seperate elected prime minister.

Parliamentary systems: Head of state is not the head of government, executive emerges from legislature. Mutual dependence for survival 

Presidentialism is less stable than parliamentary systems because:

• Competing claims of legitimacy (deadlock)

• fixed term limits 

• zero-sum mentality

• Style of leadership

• chances of political outsiders

but: the presidential system doesn't have to be zero-sum or polarizing + there is no causal connection between presidentialism and instability. Presidential systems are more common in political inhospitable land.

Different forms of representation:

• Formalistic Representation: What rules determine who represents? How are representatives held accountable?

•  Symbolic Representation: How do constituents relate to representatives? Are representatives considered as representative? 

• Descriptive Representation: Do representatives share important social or identity traits with constituents? 

• Substantive Representation: Do representatives act in the interest of their constituents?

representation can be seen as:

• Delegate: representatives are the mouthpieces of voters

• Trustee: Representatives get the autonomy to act in the greater good

• Partisan: Representatives are members of a party and decide in line with the party

Deliberation:

• debating legislature: floor debate is the central activity 

• Committee-based legislature: most work takes plays in committees

Gamson’s Law: cabinet portfolios will be distributed among government parties in strict proportion to the number of seats that each party contributes to the government’s legislative seat total

Coalition building

• A minimal winning coalition is one where there are no party’s that are not required to control a legislative majority

• A least minimal winning coalition is the coalition with the lowest number of surplus seats

• A connected coalition is one with the most ideologically connected parties

Structure of cameralisms

• Bicameralism: 

  • Weak bicameralism: Arises when the lower chamber dominates the upper, providing the primary focus for government accountability. (unitary parliamentary countries)

  • Strong bicameralism: Occurs when the two chambers are more balanced, as in federations with presidential executives. (Federal and presidential countries)

Authoritarian executives:

Autocracies are political regime “in which a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones.” (Linz 1964, 255) 

originates from:

• Military 

• Party

• Clique

Lecture 9:  Multilevel Governance 

1. Outline the notion of multilevel governance

2. Describe and contrast unitary states and federations as well as dual and cooperative federalism

3. Define deconcentration, delegation and devolution

two trends:

1. Increasing importance of sub-national level

2. Increasing importance of supra-national level

Self rule: The authority that a subnational government exercises in its own territory

Shared rule: The authority that a subnational government co-exercises in the country as a whole

Multi-Level governance: administrative system in which power is distributed and shared horizontally and vertically among different levels of government, from the supranational to the local with considerable interaction among the parts

• an arrangement for making binding decisions that engages a multiplicity of politically independent but otherwise interdependent actors

• Different levels of territorial aggregation

• Does not assign exclusive policy competence or assert a stable hierarchy of political authority

Four systems:

• Unitary system: one in which sovereignty rests with the national government and regional or local units have no independent powers 

• Federal system: One in which sovereignty is shared between two or more levels of government. each with independent powers and responsibilities. 

• Quasi-federation: system of administration that is formally unitary but has some of the features of a federation. 

• Dual federalism: National and local levels of government function independently from one another, with separate responsibilities. 

Cooperative federalism: the layers are intermingled and it is difficult always to see who has ultimate responsibility

Deconcentration: central government tasks are shifted from employees working in the capital to those working in the regions or local districts 

Delegation: Central government responsibilities are shifted to semi-autonomous bodies accountable to central government 

Devolution: Central-government transfers some decision-making autonomy to lower levels. 

Lecture 10:  Constitutions and Courts

objectives:

1. Outline the functions of constitutions

2. Describe the role of courts in politics referring to the supreme court and constitutional court models

3. Discuss the issues of constitutional review and judicial activism

The structure of constitutions:

• preamble: seeks popular support

• Organizational section: seeks the power and structures between governmental institutions

• Bill of rights: covers individual rights and group rights including access to legal redress

• Procedures of amendment: outlines the procedure for revising the constitution\

  • Entrenchment: the question of the legal procedures for amending a constitution

• Rigid constitution: one that is entrenched, requiring more demanding amendment procedures 

• Flexible constitution: one that can be amended more easily often the same way that normal legislation is passed

Supreme court: 

• Is a part of the normal court system, with appeals you end up in the supreme court. 

• Concrete review: based on referrals from lower courts or appeals

Constitutional court: specialized, Only makes rulings about the constitution. 

• Concrete review: based on referrals from lower courts or appeals

• Abstract review: Based on request from federal or state government, or ¼ of MPs

Common law 

• Uncodified (No book)

• Judicial precedents are binding (making rulings)

• Judges make rulings, building on and setting new precedent

• Main source is case law

• The system is adversarial

Civil Law

• Codified (book)

• Judicial precedents are not binding (past doesn’t matter)

• Judges establish the facts of the case and apply the applicable code

• Statutes are the main sources (Written laws)

Perspectives prorogue

Rule of law: courts as guarantors of equality before the law

Judiciocracy: courts are undermining parliamentary prerogatives and therefore democracy

Judicial Activism: judicial involvement in politics

Judicialization of politics: the reliance on courts and judicial means for addressing core moral predicaments, public policy questions and political controversies - is arguably one of the most significant phenomena of late twentieth and early twenty-first century government (Hirschl 2008) 

Reasons for judicial activism: 

• functionalism: proliferation of levels of government and administrative agencies favors judicialization

• Rights revolution: judicialization from below as social actors increasingly use legal means to secure their rights 

• Institutionalism: the spread of democracy and the emergence of supranational courts favors judicialization

• Judges: judiciaries have become politicized and judges actively seek to expand their purview

• Judicialization from above: politicians profit from shifting blame to courts

Lecture 11: Political Economy

1. Outline the varieties of capitalism and welfare states in advanced economies

2. Remember core issues in the political economy of development

3. Outline the resource curse and rentier state arguments

Political economy: is about the comparative study of distributional outcomes across countries 

basic functions the state:

• Provide security

• Protect private and property rights, enforce contracts

• Currency

Additional: 

• Provision of public goods (transportation and infrastructure) 

• Mitigate market failures 

  • Externalities

  • incomplete information

  • Monopolies

Political functions:

• Workers Rights (minimum wage)

Scale from state controlled till the free market 

• Karl Marx vs Adam Smith 

  • Marxism: critique of capitalist mode of production

  • class differences inherent in capitalism will lead to revolution

  • workers will seize the means of production

  • class distinctions will dissapear

• Keynesianism: capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work together for the benefit of all 

  • Counter-cyclical spending

  • State should encourage growth even when there is a deficit or inflation

•  

• Neoliberalism:

  • State intervention in the economy breeds political tyranny and serfdom

  • State should just provide the rule of law

  • All economic activity should be free of regulation

  • Since Raegan and Thatcher in 1980s

Varieties of capitalism

• Liberal market economies

  • Market mechanisms

  • low unionization, interest group pluralism 

  • minimal welfare state, lower taxes

  • USA

• Coordinated market economies

  • Coordination

  • High unionization, interest group corporatism

  • Stronger welfare state, higher taxes

  • Germany

Welfare states:

• Three dimensions:

  • Liberal, conservative, social democratic

  • De-commodification, redistribution, primay mechanism

Development

• Comparative advantage: if each country produces what it can produce well, this will maximize economic efficiency and well-being 

• Import-substituting industrialization: development policy relying on state intervention to protect nascent industries in developing countries: leads to trade barriers (Brazil as succes) 

• Structural adjustment programs: development programs based on neo-liberal principles relying on reduced state intervention and privatization (Chile and southeast asia as succes) 

  • Leads to slow growth of developing countries 

  • Increased poverty sometimes

One Important question always on the exam :): 

What is Duverger's law consist of?

• Mechanical effect: Under the plurality (FPTP) rule, party A wins the seat—parties B and C are not represented 

• Psychological effect: Actors anticipate the mechanical effect and therefore (1) form electoral coalitions (in the example B and C will join forces) and (2) avoid voting for hopeless parties