cps midterm

Question 1

how have dictators managed to survive?

Answer 1

consolidate power by alienating large swaths of population // social revolution

Way

Question 2

how to form a theory

Answer 2

social science theory; must be falsible, concrete, and have observable implications

King, Keohane, Verba

Question 3

how to conduct comparative analysis

Answer 3

most occurances can be explained through historical & contextual factors (Mill’s Method of Difference/Mill’s Method of Agreement)

Mahoney, Villegas

Question 4

what causes social revolutions?

Answer 4

occurs when there’s a major upheaval driven by a revolt from lower social classes -> France, Russia, China -> military threats from int’l community + slow economic growth + administrative/military breakdown + class conflicts -> leards to mass movements that challenge existing power structures

Skocpol

s: indicates profound changes in a society’s class & social structure

Question 5

what historical developments permit state formation?

Answer 5

“war makes the state and state makes war”

Bates

Question 6

last generation = no tragedy of the commons

Answer 6

make this the last generation

Singer

Question 7

competitive authoranitism

Answer 7

democracies can be deceptive; have democratic rules on paper but lack true democratic practices. the presence of democratic institutions does not guarantee genuine democratic governance (ex. Russia; has democratic elections but limited media freedom, restrictions on opposing parties, etc)

Levitsky, Way

democracies can be deceptive; they can have democratic rules on paper but lack true democratic practices

Question 8

personal rule

Answer 8

“Big man” image deeply embedded in political culture (coups, plots, purges, corruption, succession → typically seen as defects, but in Africa are viewed as integral elements of the personal rule system)

Jackson, Rosber

insight into the dynamics of presidential leadership

Question 9

conflict between groups produce pressures for individual liberty

Answer 9

development of human liberty (Product of series of power struggles (church/state, protestant/catholic, business/state))

Zakaria

Question 10

what is a state/citizen

Answer 10

citizens make up the state, humans are political animals, citizens ahve to play a role in govt. (not jsut as spectators, ie. Ancient Greece), true forms of govt. emerge when leaders prioritize common interest

Aristotle

s: understanding active particiption in government

Question 11

what is politics

Answer 11

politics serve the state; “a monopoly on the legitimate use of force”, 3 types of legitimacy: 1) tradition (customs & ancient recognition) 2) legally 3) charasmatic (personal confidence/heroism)

Weber

Question 12

what is science/true knowledge?

Answer 12

knowledge is built by refuting false claims (make bold claims and do everything you can to refute them)

Popper

Question 13

political gap/decay // why do countries differ with government efficancy?

Answer 13

social mobilization & economic growth outpace political organizations, creating a political gap & mismatch between social & economic factors, leading to instability & disorder (ex. Africa)

Huntington

s: refers to the disparity between social & economic factors that political systems struggle to address simultaneously

Question 14

what is a nation?

Answer 14

imagined political community that is inherently limited & soverign, members will never know all other members so “imagined”, community; horizontal comradeship exists, cultural identity but not governing a soverign territory -> Kurds in Western Asia, an Iranian ethnic group

Anderson

Question 15

coordination game

Answer 15

ppl work together based on shared identity & mutual interests (ex. Spain; ppl have diverse backgrounds but the shared identity of speaking spanish becomes a unifying factor), tipping models (when ppl see a critical amount of ppl going from point A to B, many will follow to B)

Laitin

s: reveals a fundamental concept in understanding how societies cooperate

Question 16

like-over-like // nationalism

Answer 16

!! to address identity-based needs to promote peace & stability within socieities, ppl tend to associate w those they percieve as similar to themselves, ppl tend to prefer govt. from those who share their identity, and can lead to conflicts when their preferences are not met (ex. the American Revolution)

Wimmer

s: teaches us about the complexities of social harmony, emphasizing the importance of addressing identity-based needs to promote peace and stability within societies

Question 17

why comparative politics should take religion more seriously

Answer 17

religion provides mechanisms which symbols, traditions, and rituals can influence social and political interactions

Grzymala-Busse

Question 18

clash of civilizations

Answer 18

gone is ideological war; now there’ll only be cultural clashes, pessimistic view on globalization; no more ideological or eocnomic differences, only cultural (Pakistan and India)

Huntington

s: teaches us about the nature of global conflicts

Question 19

tragedy of the commons

s: encourages institutions

Answer 19

challenges of shared resources (ex. overpopulation, climate change, pollution), free-rider problem -> nobody wants to suffer if others aren’t

Hardin

Question 20

end goal of humanity is to reach point of democratic society

Answer 20

final end goal of humanity is to reach point of democratic society (“providential fact”); used America as a prime example of such democracy

De Toqueville

Question 21

electoral, plurality, majority, and proportional representation systems

Answer 21

electoral system - how votes translate into seats
plurality systems - “winner take all” (could win with less than 50% as long as it’s more than others)
majority systems - require majority of votes to win (more than 50%)
proportional representation - if party wins 40% of votes it gets 40% of seats (party list system and single transferable vote, rank choice)

King

Question 22

parliamentarism is better than presidentialism for developing countries

Answer 22

due to presidentialism issues (deadlock, lack of coalitions, individualistic strategies, two party system, more likely to collapse)

Cheibub

Question 23

groups must share power and democracy/a presidential system is the best way to go

Answer 23

Power sharing all notable groups have a share in decision making, group autonomy, authority of groups over their own internal affairs.

Lijphart

Question 24

E: what creates national unity?

Answer 24

!! McNamara, banal authority: idea that authority is increasing overtime behind the scenes that people don’t necessarily recognize (symbols, physical space)
! Wimmer: shared history, shared political future
Nationalism elevated the status of the common people by making them the new source/center of sovereignty.
! Anderson: nations are imagined communities that are inherently limited and sovereign, “horizontal sovereignty, horizontally integrated” -carnes
AGAINST:
Laitin: self interest, nationalism creates national unity, coordinated set of beliefs
Huntington “states of war” “like over like” people choose to associate themselves they feel most similar, creating a national identity

Question 25

E: Where does the state come from?

Answer 25

Anderson - imagined communities
Laitin - coordination game (self interested), coordination set of beliefs about cultural identities form a nation based on those beliefs, what you want to profit from
Wimmer - like over like (society as a whole), resource competition, produces state and drives politics within state
Mcnamara - nations make a state because it’s a supernational state that’s slowly becoming sovereign (an international group of states that gives the union negotiating authority to interfere in matters concerning each member state’s sovereignty)
Aristotle - humans need society, their telos intro point
NOT nations or war:
Weber - monopoly on the legitimate
Stalin- expands on Weber, territorial control
Bates - economic control (guns and butter)

(nations or war) cultural & constructivist approach

Question 26

E: is democracy inevitable?

Answer 26

YES:
Toqueville (linear, democracy is ordained by god)
Zakaria (linear, goal of democracy)

^they’re both saying there is progress in political life which culminates in democracy

McNamara (to join the EU you have to meet certain rules of democracy, countries want to liberalize to gain the benefits of the eu)

NO:
REFUTE Karl and Schmitter (overshadowed, reversed, democracies can die)
REFUTE Collier and Levitsky: maybe we call too many things democracies
(your argument can be that maybe it’s not linear but it’s going towards democracy)