Central Concepts

American politics

American:

• Political behavior

• Political institutions

• Public law

• Public policy

• State and local politics

Question purpose

Describe, explain, or predict

Scientific Method shortcomings

• Only allows for the exploration of data-driven questions

  • This field is becoming increasingly narrow

  • The use of the scientific method often neglects important normative questions

• There are understudied assumptions and judgements that underlie commonly used data

• Research may change the field of study by studying it, a problem especially common in the social sciences

  • Research often influences behavior

  • Eg. the Democratic Peace Theory has become US foreign policy, causing the overthrow of regimes in attempting to spread electoral democracies, creating conflict

Observational studies

• Data already exists in the world, the researcher gathers it

• Researcher observes patterns of connection between independent and dependent variables

• Researcher must figure out ways to control for other factors influencing outcomes

Experiments

• Researcher manipulates the independent variable to create new data

• Researcher accounts for other factors through random assignment to treatment and control groups

• Experiments provide higher rates of internal validity compared to observational studies but sacrifice external validity since they are not conducted in the “real world”

• The researchers can manipulate the independent variable

Types of observational research

Surveys, statistical analysis, qualitative methodologies

Types of experiments

Experimental surveys, games, field experiments

Collective action goals

Bring about social, political, or economic change

• By pooling resources, knowledge, and efforts, collective action can have a greater impact than individual actions

• Successful collective action requires effective communication, organization, and leadership

Climate change

Collective action problem example

• Everyone will suffer the consequences regardless of how much or how little they contributed to causing it

  • Consequences, however, are not equally distributed

• No single state can address alone

• States can’t agree on the share of responsibility that each state has

Solving collective action problems

• Build trust through in-person communication

• Create viable enforcement mechanisms

• Acknowledge capacity for generosity and fairness

• Equal reciprocity

American political ideology

• American liberalism

  • More socially progressive

• American conservatism

  • Less socially progressive

• Both ideologies combine a set of values and ideas, and it’s not possible to draw a strict line between them

• Both ideologies to some extent lack strict internal coherence to a common set of values

Liberalism

Political ideology

• Democracy is the “proper” form of government

• Intellectual freedom is a right

  • Freedom of speech, press, religion

  • Individuals have responsibility over their own values

• People have a right to make their own financial decisions

• The primary goal of government should be to guard against abuses of power

• Government should be as minimal as possible; one person should not make decisions for another

• Society is defined by the sum of its parts — the happiest society occurs when all individuals within it are the happiest

• Values individualism

Classical liberalism

Political ideology

• Societal progress

• Focus on individual wellbeing

• Limited state power

• Economic freedom takes precedence over combatting economic inequality

Modern liberalism

Political ideology

• Liberty is expansive

• Economic equality may undermine the liberty of low income people

• Government intervention is sometimes necessary to protect freedom

Conservatism

Political ideology

• Society is defined by more than the sum of its parts — groups create more happiness as groups than members could individually produce for themselves

• Values order and structure

  • Stability is important, people must know where they stand within the society

• Develop/maintain standard religious and moral values

• Primary goal: “the maintenance of ordered community and of common values”

Classical conservatism

Political ideology

• Societal progress

• Focus on individual wellbeing

• Limited state power

• Economic freedom takes precedence over combatting economic inequality

Burkean conservatism

Political ideology

• Developed by Edmund Burke

• People are irrational and need guidance from authorities

  • Too much choice can lead to isolation and unhappiness

• Traditional morality takes precedence over individual liberties

Socialism

Political ideology

• Support of the working class over the upper/ruling class

• Shares liberal support of equal individual rights but believes in more government involvement in and regulation of society to protect those rights (especially relating to labor and economics)

• Many revolutions occurred in Europe in the early 20th century against the upper classes in the name of instating socialism and communism

  • Generally done by Communist or Democratic Socialist parties

Marxism-Leninism

Political ideology

• Politics is shaped by the conflictual relationships between capitalists and wage laborers

  • This relationship is inherently exploitative and fundamentally harmful to the working class (”common man”)

• There exists a need for a centralized, vanguard party

  • Not democracy since it’s always exploited by the upper/ruling class

• Imperialism has shaped the development of capitalism

Social democracy/democratic socialism

Political ideology

• Socialism is compatible with democracy, they’re not mutually exclusive

• Economic oppression is just as harmful as political oppression

• Socialism can be achieved through peaceful, democratic means

Facism

Government function

• Rejection of modern life

• Strengthening of national identity and nationalism

  • Often led by a charismatic figurehead and political leader

• Dictatorial rule

• Glorification of “mythical war-based societies of the past”

• Reactionary movements against social change

  • Eg. anti-capitalism, anti-communism

• No strong ideological underpinnings common to fascism as a whole, but individual fascist movements are formed by strong ideological underpinnings

• Generally anti-intellectual and nativist

• Anti-democratic

• Accepts use of force

• Associated with totalitarianism

Neoliberalism

• Embraces radical liberalization

  • Everything is susceptible to corruption, so minimalist government control is ideal

Nationalism

• Focus on group national identity over individual identity

• Exacerbated by the prevalence of nation-states in modern society

Social contract origins

• Can be traced back to thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, who explored the idea of a mutual agreement or contract between individuals and their society

• Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who popularized the term in "The Social Contract" (1762)

Social contract functions

• Forms the basis of democratic governance, as it asserts that political authority is derived from the consent of the governed

• Establishes the rule of law, protects individual rights, and promotes social order

• Helps to maintain the balance between individual freedom and collective well-being

Procedural justice

Seeks to answer 3 major questions

1. Is governmental action arbitrary?

2. Are special basic rights (survival, free speech, privacy) violated?

3. Are special overriding social needs present?

Due process

Steps:

• People can’t be accused of crimes unless they could have been aware of the law before the crime was committed

• When people are accused of crimes, they must be told what they’re being charged with and with what evidence, and they must be allowed to gather and present their own evidence to counter the charges

• Judges may not interest or bias and must remain attentive

• Once a judgement has been made, means for later consideration (appeals) must be available

Peace of Westphalia

• Ended the 30 Years War (in the Holy Roman Empire) and the 80 Years War (in the Spain and the Dutch Republic)

• Created sovereign states without an international superior governing entity

• Individual states largely decide their own systems of law making/enforcement and dispute settlement

• The primary goal of international law is to create minimal rules of co-existence

  • Enduring relationships are optimal but individual states’ needs come first

• Cross-border violations should be settled privately

• All states are legally equal

• Differences may be settled by force

• The primary goal of the states as a collective should be maximizing their own freedom

Europe

Place where early economic/political development included

• Pre-modern agriculture produced little if any surplus, and poor transportation limited trade by land to a roughly 20-mile radius

• There were some exceptions to this limitation

  • Nobles violently seized control of regions and controlled mills to get surpluses

  • Kings wanted to monetize the micro-economies in order to get surpluses directly from peasants and create a bureaucracy to challenge the nobles

  • Merchants monetized the economy through trade and established armed trading cities

• Because there were extensive coastlines and waterways in Europe, merchants were a lot more powerful (relatively) compared to kings

Structural functionalism

IR theory emphasizing

• Political socialization, recruitment, and communication

• Interest articulation and aggregation

• Policy making, implementation, and adjucation

Policy making

• Conditions and constraints include GDP, the state’s penetration of society, the state’s economic resources, and power relations

• Concerns include defense, internal order and security, the allocation of economic resources, research and development, health, education, and social welfare

Sources of power

• Natural resources

• Human resources

• Moral authority and relationships

• Industrial, technological, and military capability

• Money

  • Extremely versatile — fungible across many different realms

• Institutions, rules, and structures

Lobbyists

Hold informational, relational, and monetary power