Comparative Politics Flashcards
What is comparative politics?
Sub-discipline of political science that asks causal questions about political outcomes, seeks answers of comparative significance.
It mostly asks why… (why did things turn out the way it did)
What kind of explanations does comparative politics often search for?
Causal explanations - why did it happen? - asks questions about political outcomes (e.g. why the French Revolution?)
Any questions of description are generally only preliminary to a search for causal explanation - and comparative politics does not pose normative/evaluative questions (i.e. what’s best)
What is a theory?
A theory is a set of logically consistent statements that tell us why the things we observe occur with a set of causal relationships between variables.
What is the dependent vs independent vs intervening variable?
Dependent variable - what one is trying to explain (successful or failed repression of mass uprising)
Independent variable - the cause(s) (revolutionary versus non-revolutionary regime origin)
Intervening variable - intermediate steps in a causal chain (basis for security service affiliation to regime)
What is deduction vs induction?
Deduction - The movement from more general to more specific. Move from theory to testable hypotheses and the confirmation or rejection of initial idea.
Induction - The movement from the specific to more general (generalisation). Observation comes first, patterns appear and then hypotheses are formulated to test it with the result being some general conclusions or theories.
What is epistemology?
Knowledge generating. The theory of knowledge and how to gain knowledge to achieve certain outcomes.
What is ontology?
Putting things into categories. Seeing the world as it actually is. Not trying to make it better but trying to explain it.
What is a causal mechanism?
An explanation of how a cause produces an effect - correlation is not causation
What is an example of a bottom-up model?
The cleavage model - parties are formed and sustained by social cleavages (primary aim is to promote the interests of their supporters)
What is an example of a top-down model?
The strategic actor model. Parties are formed by like-minded politicians - they aim to appeal to pivotal voters with the pursuit of getting into office over all (prioritised over policy)
What is a counterfactual?
Something that did not happen but could have… ways to test a hypothesis
What are the advantages of comparison?
-Provides meaningful contrast
-Promotes reflection in the role of external circumstances, not just the role of individuals
-Encourages formulation in generalisable terms, allowing for knowledge accumulation
-Etc… (test intermediate steps, distinguishes crucial elements within a complex web of factors…)
What can be some limits of comparative politics?
-Monocausality
-Endogeneity (systems internally decided by the system… e.g. electoral systems)
-Establishing internal validity (confidence in methodology that a causal relationship is really there)
-External validity (degree to which findings of a study can be applied to other situations - generalisability)
-Selection bias (case selection)
-Confirmation bias (confirming pre-conceived notions)
How can you address the issues with comparative politics?
-Clearly identify the variation you want to explain
-Define and measure key concepts and variables
-Compare quite similar or different systems (with as many factors constant as possible - isolate the one that matters)
-Study critical cases (pick most unlikely case - if it works then it will be even better elsewhere, pick most likely case - if it fails there then it will fail even harder in other situations)
-Show the causal mechanism (need to avoid assuming correlation is causation)
What are some of the key factors in shaping political preferences?
-Socialisation (e.g. family)
-Class (and economic standing)
-Education
How does class generally link to their view on economic politics?
The lower someone’s class position = in favour of left-wing economics (redistribution)
The higher someone’s class position = in favour of right wing economics (laissez-faire)
General and traditional link!!! Many exceptions, e.g. champagne socialists…
How is class and politics drifting? Do political parties traditionally tied to the working class still have a strong link?
Through a process known as class-party dealignment
Working class drifting from being in favour of economic distribution since the collapse of traditional industries in 80s and 90s.
Being working class is no longer indicative of voting labour, but more putting reform.
Why has there been a decline in class voting?
-Deindustrialisation (post-industrial transformation)
-Changes in the class structure (decreased size of the trad working class and the growth of a new service middle class)
-Changes in the party system (top down structuring of cleavages)
-Changing relationship between voters and class groupings
-Changing relationship between class groupings and political parties
-Voters now up for grabs (a new market for votes) - parties have more chance of attracting dealigned voters (right has moved to more social conservatism)
How can we explain the shift of the lower classes to new right-wing parties?
Economic: losers in modernisation and globalisation (i.e. loss of traditional jobs to abroad)
Political: distrust of and dissatisfaction with political elites
Cultural: hostile attitude towards immigrants
What is the biggest determiner in attitudes towards immigrants?
Education level.
Weak position in the labour market = anti-immigration (competitive threat theoretical model)
How can we explain the link between education levels and views on immigration?
Economic: egocentric economic evaluation (labour market competition theory) and socio-tropic economic evaluation
Cultural: immigrants have an impact on the national and cultural character of a society (higher-educated people tend to have higher self-esteem and confidence, and attach higher values to cultural diversity)
How can we often explain a link between a demographic factor with political views?
A cultural and/or economic explanation
In the UK how did education level link with voting patterns in 2024?
Lower level of education = more likely to vote reform or tory
Higher level of education = more likely to vote for labour, Lib Dem, or green
Gradient scale with the medium educated in the middle
How can we explain the link between education and a propensity to hold liberal attitudes?
Psychodynamic model: psychological security and control over own life (don’t need to control others)
Socialisation model: transmission and internationalisation of liberal values
Cognitive model: sophisticated reasoning
Is class still more important than education?
Arguably not - there is a declining relevance of class and a growing relevance of education
What is socialisation?
A lifelong process by which people form their ideas about politics and acquire political values.
Who are some key agents of socialisation?
Primary groups (individuals closest to you)…
-Family
-Peers/friends
Secondary groups (organisations…)
-Schools
-Mass media
-Church
What is the role of family in socialisation?
Family is the most important agent of socialisation. They are involved in both direct and indirect transmission.
Social learning theories - BUT there is a hypothesis that this is a spurious relationship? Parents and children share the same socio-economic background is the confounding variable
Are there differences in the strength of intergenerational transmissions of political attitudes?
Yes
-Daughters, sons, mothers and fathers all have different roles in socialisation.
-Depends of family’s level of political engagement
-Family’s educational resources
-Parents who hold similar partisanship are more influential (power of 2!)
Some revisionists of the family socialisation thesis suggest young people have an affect on the political views of their parents!!!
Do families often hold one political view?
Often, yes…
Party preference homogamy (form of marital homogamy): tendency to choose partners who are similar in various respects (class, education, race, age, religion, etc.)
Partners often also have mutual influence on each other.
What is a general conclusion over the role of big factors like social class, etc…?
There is a decline of long-term predispositions based on social position - there is now more of a market for the electorate that political parties can try and win and so there is a growing importance of short-term factors - such as candidate image and characteristics
Is the term ‘civil war’ used consistently?
No - especially not outside of academia.
Used as a metaphor for major (not necessarily violent) conflict
Euphemisms often used instead of the term - e.g. “the troubles”
Often semantically contested - one group’s civil war is another’s terrorist campaign
What is a common definition of civil war (Small and Singer)? Why is it good?
“Any armed conflict that involves (a) military action internal to the metropole, (b) the active participation of the national government, and (c) effective resistance by both sides.”
-Distinguishes CWs from interstate and extra-state wars (civil wars are intrastate)
-Distinguishes CWs from communal wars, pogroms… general wars with no state intervention
-Distinguishes CWs from state terror, mass killings, genocide, and other forms of civilian victimisation
What is another common conceptual definition of civil war?
A war including…
-Internal armed conflicts involving heavily armed rebel groups and frontlines (symmetric conflicts)
-Internal armed conflicts involving lightly armed rebel groups (insurgencies, guerrilla wars, asymmetric conflicts)
-Most cases of revolution
-Ethnic wars (assuming the state is an actor)
-Sustained peasant insurrections
How can civil wars be meaningfully sub-divided in different ways?
Centre-seeking civil wars - the rebels aim to overthrow the central government or substantially change the government (e.g. impose a new regime)
Separatist/secessionist civil wars - the rebels aim to secede and form their own state or join a different state, or the rebels aim at a greater degree of internal autonomy
There are several key differences between centre-seeking and separatist civil wars, such as…
Location - rebels aim to capture the capital vs fought in the periphery
Strength of rebel group - smaller/weaker groups rarely seek to overthrow the gov’t, but they may seek secession
What are the historical patterns of civil war?
Civil wars have been rising since the 1940/50s whilst extra state wars fell with civil wars by far the most prevalent - civil wars (with a low violence threshold) are around their historical peak in the modern period - 90s saw breakup of USSR and Yugoslavia and the 2010s saw increased extremism in the islamic world.
Where are intrastate conflicts most common?
The global south - Middle East, South/Southeast Asia and Africa
Which are more severe conflicts? Interstate, extra state or intrastate armed conflict
Interstate, then extra state then intrastate.
So… intrastate wars (often civil wars) are more prevalent but less severe - centre-seeking civil wars are more severe than territory-focused civil wars
What are the two main explanatory logics for civil wars?
-Grievance based explanations
-Opportunity based explanations
What is grievance theory?
The idea that grievances play a central role in the explanation of many civil wars. Grievance theories are motivation based (popular discontent causes violent mobilisation)
What is a possible limitation to grievance theory?
There are many forms of discontent, and not all give rise to civil wars. Grievance theorists therefore need to identify the kinds of discontent that likely lead to civil war.
What is often the most influential grievance?
Ethnic grievances - grievances of people with particular shared identities - can develop into civil war in the name of protection of, or increasing the power of, the group
How many civil wars are fought on ethnic lines?
Approx. half of centre seeking civil wars and practically all separatist civil wars (by definition)
Does ethnic diversity equal ethnic grievances?
No not necessarily - ethnic differences alone do not give rise to conflict (in many places ethnic groups coexist peacefully). There are different motivations, with political exclusion being one of the most influential.
What is the problem with nationalism (nationalism of a majority group) in relation to ethnic grievances?
Nationalism demands that ethnic likes should rule over ethnic likes and also demands the ideal of a ‘nation-state’ with political and national unity held in harmony.
The problem is that the number of ethnic groups in the world exceeds the supply of states (e.g. Kurds, Bretons, Basques… stateless).
What are the three different ethnic power constellations?
- Ideal nation-state - Group A (one group) in government in one state
- Power-sharing - Group A and B in government in one state
- Political exclusion - Group A in government and Group A and B in one state
What are the consequences of political exclusion?
-Violates the nationalism principle (makes one group feel alien in a state)
-Has concrete material and political disadvantages (e.g. ethnic favouritism in gov’t jobs, access to gov’t services, provision of ethnic rights such as language rights…)
-Perceptions of unjust treatment by the state leads to incentives to challenge the state (such as calls for autonomy or outright secession - i.e. separatism)
