Comparative Politics CPO 2002 2 Instructor Patrick Scott Exam 2 Chapters 7 12 Know the Following Concepts Collective action class activity Patrick told the class that if a certain amount of people got up and danced in front of the class then he would give a point to every one for the first exam His point was that not every one would dance and there would be free riders even though every one would benefit from getting up Collective action theory Focuses on forms of mass action or collective action such as the protests in East Germany o Other examples of collective action include strikes elections fraternities and sororities and so forth o Typically collective action concerns the pursuit of public goods by groups of individuals Catholicism and democracy Lipset 1959 Huntington 1993 Is antithetical directly opposed to democracy Emphasis on o One church and one truth o Hierarchy in the Catholic church o Distinction between clergy and laity Poses problems for the acceptance of more socially and politically egalitarian institutions such as democracy Protestantism and democracy Weber 1904 1905 Promotes democracy because of its connection to capitalism and development modernization theory o Protestantism s emphasis on individual responsibility furthered the emergence of democratic values Lipset 1959 Islam and democracy Huntington 1993 Several arguments have been given why Islam is incompatible with democracy o Islam has a violent streak that predisposes Islamic countries to authoritarianism o Islam is unable to disassociate religious and political spheres o Islam sees woman as being unequal Ethnic diversity and democracy Countries with a large number of ethnic groups are less likely to become and stay democratic Cultural Modernization Theory Argues that socioeconomic development does not directly cause democracy instead economic development produces certain cultural changes and it is these cultural changes that ultimately produce democratic reform Civic culture Is conceptualized as a shared cluster of attitudes that includes things like o A high level of interpersonal trust o A preference for gradual societal change o A high level of support for the existing political system o High levels of life satisfaction Social capital p 219 Refers to the institutions relationships and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society s social interactions Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society but the glue that holds them together How to interpret regression results External imposition of democracy p 269 Democratic nation building by an external force Example U S invasion of Iraq by the U S military led by George Bush 2001 2009 as a single democratic state acting alone or as part of a small coalition going in to build a democratic nation May promote democratic reform in the short run but it ultimately produces political instability in the long run Public goods Have two characteristics 1 Nonexcludability If the good is provided everyone gets to enjoy it Nobody can be excluded from it You cannot exclude people from enjoying a public good 2 Nonrivalry If someone consumes the good there is still just as much for everyone else to consume no matter how much is consumed Examples Lighthouse fire station national park etc Private goods consumption of one individual prevents the consumption of another individual of that good EX If I buy a hot dog and eat it then no one else can eat it East Germany p 275 Germany was divided by the Allied powers in 1945 the eastern zone was controlled by the Soviet Union Berlin which was more than 100 miles inside the eastern zone was divided into four zones as well as Germany and had similar occupation zones as the whole country The German Democratic Republic East Germany was established on October 7 1949 o 1949 1961 Due to East Germanys dismal economic and political conditions 2 7 million people emigrated to the west In response the East German government began the construction of the ninety six mile long Berlin Wall during the night of August 12 13 1961 to close the border between the east and the west Bottom up transitions p 270 277 A process in which the people rise up to overthrow an authoritarian regime in a popular revolution Collective action problem know thoroughly o The difficulty that groups have in providing public goods that all members of the group desire are known as the collective action problem or free rider problem Refers to the fact that 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 points o Start with an individual who must choose whether to publicly support or oppose the dictatorship o The individual has a private and a public preference His private preference is his true attitude toward the dictatorship His public preference is the attitude toward the dictatorship that he reveals to the outside world o It can be dangerous to reveal you opposition to a dictatorship As a result individuals who oppose dictatorial rule often falsify their preferences in public o The tipping model suggests that things like economic recessions may cause private preferences and revolutionary thresholds to move against the regime without actually producing a revolution Top down transitions p 290 o Some transitions to democracy do not occur through a bottom up process in which the government reacts to public opposition or revolution by the people o Instead democratic transitions result from a policy of liberalization on the part of the government o This policy of liberalization is often meant to sturdy up the dictatorship but sometimes inadvertently leads to democracy The Transition game p 295 302 306 Incomplete information is one in which a player does not know all of the relevant information about some other player s characteristics p 311 320 320 323 w transition game Economic growth under democracies vs Economic growth under dictatorships p 346 economic growth o There is no strong consensus on which promote higher levels of o Comparing the two with different regimes types will only conclude to different conclusions Some were democracies were better and some were dictatorship was better o When it comes to empirical evidence it does appear that democracies produce a relatively high level of
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