Exam 1 Flashcards
1
Q
Welfare State
A
- a system whereby the government undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits. The foundations for the modern welfare state in the US were laid by the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- This discussion of public goods leads us to the broader subject of social expenditures—the state’s provision of public benefits, such as education, health care, and transportation, or what is commonly called welfare or the welfare state.
- expenditures? Strictly defined, social expenditures are provided by the state to those who find themselves in circumstances where they require greater care: the unemployed or underemployed, children, the elderly, the poor, and the disabled.
2
Q
Fascism
A
- Definition: A political ideology that asserts the superiority and inferiority of different groups of people and stresses a low degree of both freedom and equality in order to achieve a powerful state.
- Fascism conceives of society as an organic whole, a single living body, and the state as a vital instrument to express national will.
- State autonomy and capacity must therefore be high, and democracy, no matter how it is defined, is rejected as anathema, just as freedom and equality are rejected.
- fascism rests on the idea that people and groups can be classified in terms of inferiority and superiority, justifying a hierarchy among them.
- No fascist regimes currently exist in the world, although fascism is well remembered from the Nazi regime that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. More recently, parties with a fascist orientation have resurfaced in Europe, such as Golden Dawn in Greece and Jobbik in Hungary, and have done surprisingly well in some elections.
3
Q
Social Democracy
A
- (1) A politicaleconomic system in which freedom and equality are balanced through the state’s management of the economy and the provision of social expenditures;
- (2) a political ideology that advocates such a system
- A state with strong capacity and autonomy is considered important to social democrats to ensure greater economic equality through specific policies like job protection or social benefits like medical care, retirement, and higher education.
- This commitment to equality means that social democracy may limit freedom more than liberalism does, through such mechanisms as regulation or taxation.
- Social democracy recognizes the importance of individual liberty as complementary to equality.
- In much of Europe, social democracy, rather than liberalism, is the guiding political regime. Many environmental parties, which seek to balance human and environmental needs, also have social democratic influences.
4
Q
Human Development Index (HDI)
A
- The Human Development Index (HDI), created by the United Nations Development Program, not only looks at the total amount of wealth in a society and its distribution but also gives equal weight to income, health (life expectancy), and average years of schooling.
- By looking at such data, we can consider whether the wealth generated in a country is actually used in a way that provides a basic standard of living for all
- Norway was ranked at number one and the Central African Republic came in at the very bottom.
- The HDI does show a strong correlation between standard of living and a country’s GDP, as shown in Table 4.2. The countries with the highest national incomes also show the highest levels of education and life expectancy in the world.
- The countries with the highest national incomes also show the highest levels of education and life expectancy in the world.
5
Q
Democracy
A
- Democracy comes from the Greek words demos, meaning “the common people,” and kratia, meaning “power” or “rule.”
- Athenian and other early Greek democracies are important because they provide the foundation for the concept of public participation.
- A political system in which political power is exercised either directly or indirectly by the people
- And the exercise of power typically takes three forms: participation, through means such as voting and elections; competition, such as that between political parties; and liberty, such as freedom of speech or of assembly.
- Modern day democracy is an indirect democracy where the public participates indirectly through it’s elected representatives
6
Q
State
A
- (1) The organization that maintains a monopoly of force over a given territory; (2) a set of political institutions to generate and execute policy regarding freedom and equality
- One of the most important elements of a state is what we call sovereignty, the ability to carry out actions and policies within a territory independent of external actors and internal rivals.
- Needs to secure control for both other states and control the people that it governs as well
- Thus, to secure control, a state must be armed. To protect against international rivals, states need armies. And in response to domestic rivals, states need a police force. In fact, the word police comes from an old French word meaning “to govern.”
- The public views the state as legitimate, vital, and appropriate. States are thus strongly institutionalized and not easily changed. Leaders and policies may come and go, but the state remains, even in the face of crisis, turmoil, or revolution
7
Q
Private Goods
A
- A private good is a product which must be purchased to be consumed. Private goods are possible to exclude others from using and consumption of these products reduces their availability. Markets are effective at creating private goods, but free riders exist. Free riders enjoy the benefits of a good or service without paying for it.
- But most modern societies question the moral and practical implications of allowing these goods to belong only to a few.
- The privatization of such goods may limit economic development: a network of privately held roads might impede trade or fail to reach certain parts of the population.
8
Q
Mercantilism
A
- A politicaleconomic system in which national economic power is paramount and the domestic economy is viewed as an instrument that exists primarily to serve the needs of the state
- Although this system may seem a strange outlier in the debate over the proper balance between freedom and equality, since it seems to emphasize neither, mercantilism is the oldest of the four political-economic systems we have covered.
- The British Empire’s policy that its colonies trade only with the home country is a good example of mercantilist practices at work. In fact, Britain only embraced liberalism well after mercantilism had helped enrich the country. More recently, mercantilism has been used to great effect in Asia.
- One way that mercantilist states attempt to achieve state economic power is through an active industrial policy. Economic ministries seek to direct the economy toward certain industries and away from others through such policies as taxation and subsidies.
- In some cases, they may rely on partial or full state ownership of specific industries (sometimes called parastatals), attempting to create or control businesses that are viewed as critical for international competitiveness.
- Another complementary method is the use of tariffs, nontariff barriers, and other trade regulations. Here the rationale is that foreign goods drain away wealth and promote an increased dependence on foreign economies.
9
Q
Citizenship
A
- An individual’s relationship to the state, wherein citizens swear allegiance to that state and the state in return is obligated to provide rights to those citizens
- citizenship is a political identity, developed not out of some unique set of circumstances or ascribed by birth but rather developed explicitly by states and accepted or rejected by individuals.
- Citizenship can also convey certain obligations, such as the duty to serve in the armed forces or pay taxes.
- Citizens are therefore defined by their particular relation to one state rather than to one another.
- Citizenship may confer a host of benefits, such as education and health care, or relatively few, depending on the state. In addition, one state may not necessarily grant citizenship to all those born on its territory, while another may allow citizenship in more than one country.
- Purely political and thus more easily changed than ethnic identity or national identity.
10
Q
Nationalism
A
- National identity can create nationalism, a pride in one’s people and the belief in their own sovereign political destiny that is separate from those of others.
- Nationalism may vary as seen in both Germany and Japan that have a lower degree of nationalism due to past high national pride that resulted in catastrophe
- If we can have ethnicity without leading to national identity, can we have national identity without ethnicity?
- Yet Americans are bound by certain common historical symbols, such as flags, anthems, a constitution, and common cultural values (recall our discussion of baseball in Chapter 1). Thus it could be argued that even in the face of great ethnic diversity, the United States is indeed a nation, whose people are bound together by, among other things, a sense of pride in certain democratic ideals.
- Finally, we should recognize that nationalism is not inherently bad, as is often believed. Nationalism carries in it a tension with those who are outside the group, but it can also be seen as a vehicle for much of what we consider modern civilization.
11
Q
Equality v Freedom
A
- Politics is bound up in the struggle between individual freedom and collective equality and in how these ideals are to be reconciled.
- When we speak of freedom, we are talking about an individual’s ability to act independently, without fear of restriction or punishment by the state or other individuals or groups in society. At a basic level, freedom connotes autonomy; in the modern world, it encompasses such concepts as free speech, free assembly, freedom of religion, and other civil liberties.
- Equality refers to a material standard of living shared by individuals within a community, society, or country. The relation between equality and freedom is typically viewed in terms of justice or injustice—a measurement of whether our ideals have been met.
- Freedom and equality are tightly interconnected, and the relation between the two shapes politics, power, and debates over justice.
- How much should any individual or group be allowed to influence others or impose their will on them? Who should be empowered to make decisions about freedom and equality? Should power be centralized or decentralized, public or private? When does power become a danger to others, and how can we manage this threat?
12
Q
Federal v Unitary state
A
- As we noted in Chapter 1, individual freedom is typically associated with the decentralization of power, whereas collective equality usually accompanies a greater centralization of power.
- Under federalism, powers such as taxation, lawmaking, and security are devolved to regional bodies (such as states in the United States and India, Länder in Germany, and provinces in Canada) and to local legislatures that control specific territories within the country. These powers are defined in the national constitution and therefore not easily constricted or eliminated by any government. Here the argument is that federalism helps represent local interests as well as check the growth of central power (which may be viewed as a threat to democracy).
- Federalism is A system in which significant state powers, such as taxation, lawmaking, and security, are devolved to regional or local bodies.
- In a Unitary State, most political power exists at the national level, with limited local authority
- In unitary states, by contrast, political power is concentrated at the national level, and local authority is limited. The central government is responsible for most areas of policy. Territorial divisions in unitary states like China, Japan, and France have less bearing on political power.
- argument for a unitary state is that local interests can be represented without recourse to regional political institutions. Federalism may weaken state efficiency by dispersing power among too many competing authorities, and exacerbate, rather than weaken, ethnic or regional conflict.
13
Q
State Capacity and Autonomy
A
- A strong state that is able to fulfill basic tasks, such as defending territory, making and enforcing rules, collecting taxes, and managing the economy
- A weak state has difficulty fulfilling basic tasks, such as defending territory, making and enforcing rules, collecting taxes, and managing the economy
- Comparative politics builds on the categories of weak and strong states through the use of two other terms: Autonomy and Capacity
- Capacity is the ability of the state to wield power in order to carry out the basic tasks of providing security and reconciling freedom and equality. A state with high capacity is able to formulate and enact fundamental policies and ensure stability and security for both itself and its citizens.
- High capacity requires not just money but also organization, legitimacy, and effective leadership.
- In contrast, autonomy is the ability of the state to wield its power independently of the public or international actors. This is closely related to the idea of sovereignty. In the case of sovereignty, we are speaking of a state’s formal and legal independence. In the case of autonomy, we are speaking of the informal, practical ability to act on that independence. In other words, if an autonomous state wishes to carry out a policy or an action, it can do so without having to consult the public or worry about strong public or international opposition that might force it to reverse its decision.
- Groups. Scholars sometimes describe states with low autonomy as “captured” by certain interests that control specific issues or policies.
- Strong states with a high degree of capacity and autonomy may be able to execute major policies relatively easily. A case in point is China’s infrastructure, including new roads, rails, and dams, which it has been able to construct despite technical challenges, enormous cost, and sometimes domestic opposition. High capacity and autonomy, however, may come at the expense of individual freedom
- By contrast, states with high capacity but lower autonomy may have widespread powers but are more subject to public intervention. The United States and Canada are good examples of states with lower autonomy, facilitated by their federal structure.
- Significant because: speaking of state power in terms of autonomy and capacity can help us better understand stateness: what states are and are not able to do, and why. However, we should note that the degree of a state’s autonomy and capacity may vary widely depending on the issue at hand.
14
Q
Relative Deprivation Model
A
- Model that predicts revolution when public expectations outpace the rate of domestic change.
- According to this model, revolutions are less a function of specific conditions than of the gap between actual conditions and public expectations.
- Improving economic or political conditions might even help lead to revolution if, for example, such changes cause increased public demands that go unmet and thus foster discontent.
- It has been suggested that the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution are examples of relative deprivation at work. As Iran experienced rapid modernization in the decades before the revolution, its progress only increased people’s expectations for greater freedom and equality, especially among young adults. This is what is meant by relative deprivation: it is not absolute conditions that instigate revolution but rather how the public perceives them.
15
Q
Terrorism
A
3 Key elements
* Carried out by non state actors
* Target civilians
* Has a political goal or intent
Why do people act in terrorism?
They may feel the state is not responsive or capable to creating the changes that they want.
State capacity and autonomy are week.
Mechanisms for public participation are poorly institutionalized.
Ideational Explanations for Terrorism
Specific religios ideology
Feelings of alienation or humiliation
Terrorists seldom achieve their policy goals
It can bring attention to
* Economy: depresses such things as tourism, foreign direct investment, and stock markets
* Society: Increases anxiety and insecurity
* Politics: erodes state legitimacy, destabilizes politics
