CPO2002 EXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE Chapter 8 Democratic Transitions I Experiments and Culture Ultimatum game there is a proposer given money and a responder responder o Step 1 proposer offers some of the pie money to the o Step 2 The responder knowing how much the pie is worth o Outcome Responder accepts she keeps the officer and the proposer keeps the rest Responder rejects neither player rejects or accepts it receives anything Dictator game same as ultimatum but the responder is NOT given an opportunity to accept reject the offer o Proposer dictator merely dictates the division o Test of fairness What really happens o Proposers nearly always make positive offers o Responders reject a lot of positive offers Fifteen Small Scale Societies o 12 countries on five small continents In the mid 1970s an era of democratization that Samuel Huntington has called the third wave of democratization was ushered in o Third wave of democratization refers to the surge in democratic transitions that have occurred around the world since 1974 Ex Greece returned to the democratic fold in 1974 following conflict with Turkey over the islands of Cyprus and Spain finally threw off four decades of dictatorial rule under General Francisco Franco in 1977 II Democratic Transitions External Imposition Does the success of democratic nation building depend on the identity of the external force o Multilateral coalition is the best Chirac o Single country is the best Bush o UN Secretary General Annan o Bueno de Mesquita and Smith Most studies have found that intervention does not lead to democracy Bottom up democratic transition one in which the people rise up to overthrow an authoritarian regime in a popular revolution o East Germany 1989 Protests on the streets of Leipzig and Berlin forced the communist East German government to open up the Berlin Wall and allow free multiparty elections The end result was the emergence of a democratic East Germany and eventual reunification of Germany in 1990 The eventual collapse of communism in East Germany had much to do with the election of Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union in 1985 Inheriting a Soviet Union in crisis Gorbachev responded with two reform policies Perestroika or economic restructuring was a reform policy aimed at liberalizing and regenerating the Soviet economy Glastnost or openness was a reform policy aimed at increasing political openness These reform policies encouraged reformists and opposition groups in Eastern Europe instead of saving the Soviet Union In August 1989 the Iron Curtain was breached when Hungary decided to open its border with Austria Neus Forum New Forum fledgling opposition group surfaced in East Germany demanding reform Gorbachev later announced that the Soviets would no longer intervene militarily in Eastern Europe to prop up Communist governments German reunification eventually took place in October 1990 after parties promoting reunification won the elections Collective Action Theory o Collective action theory focuses on forms of mass action o Collective action refers to the pursuit of some objective by groups of individuals Typically the objective is some form of public good Typically collective action concerns the pursuit of public goods by groups of individuals o Public good non excludable and non rivalrous Non excludability means you cannot exclude people from enjoying the public good and non rivalry means that there is just as much public good for people to enjoy no matter how many people consume it o Collective action problem there are compelling reasons to doubt whether individuals will actually contribute to the provision of public goods or take collective action to achieve their common interests The difficulty that groups of individuals have in providing public goods that all members of the group desire is commonly known as the collective action free rider problem Collective action free rider problem individual members of a group often have little incentive to contribute to the provision of a public good that will benefit all members of the group Tipping Models o One explanation for mass protests that occurred in East Germany in 1989 can be found in what political scientists call tipping or threshold models Preference falsificationism not revealing one s true preferences in public Revolutionary threshold the size of protest at which an individual is willing to participate Low threshold some people are happy to oppose the government irrespective of what others do High threshold people may be willing to protests only if lots of others join in Revolutionary cascade when one person s participation triggers the participation of another which triggers the participation of another and so on This clarifies why these models are referred to as tipping or threshold models Top down democratic transition one in which the dictatorial ruling elite introduces liberalizing reforms that ultimately lead to a democratic transition o This policy of liberalization is meant to sturdy up the dictatorship but sometimes leads to democracy o The story the period of liberalization often results from a split in the authoritarian regime between hard liners and soft liners Hard liners satisfied with the status quo Soft liners prefer to liberalize and broaden the social base of the dictatorship Must decide whether to open up the political regime through a process of liberalization or to stick with the status quo o Policy of liberalization a controlled opening of the political space and might include the formation of political parties holding elections writing a constitution establishing a judiciary opening a legislature and so on o The game the prehistory of the game is that a split has developed between the authoritarian elite between soft liners and hard liners o 2 possible outcomes broadened dictatorship or the political status quo o Complete information game essentially one in which each player knows all the information that there is to know about the game o Incomplete information game a player does not know all of the relevant information about some other player s characteristics Chapter 9 Does Democracy Make a Difference I The Effect of Regime Type on Government Performance Typically theoretical arguments that attempt to link regime type to economic growth focus on three main factors o The protection of property rights o Citizens incentives to consume rather than invest o Dictatorial autonomy Hypothesized Causal Path Between Democracy and Economic
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