Exam 1 Flashcards
American politics
Focuses on domestic politics in the U.S.
International relations
Focuses on relations among states (trade, wars, etc.)
Political theory
Focuses on the history of political thought, the meaning of terms such as “rights,” “justice,” and “freedom,” and on how we “ought to structure politics
Normative
Q: What should be done, A: Value-based judgement
Predictive
Q: What will happen?
A: Prediction about the future
Descriptive
Q: What happened?
A: Description of events (necessary when we know little about a subject)
Casual (“positive”)
Q: Why did it happen?
A: Casual argument (X was caused by Y)
State (Political Science)
The totality of a country’s government, institutions, and organizations that generate and carry out policy
State (Weber)
“A human institution that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory”
State vs. regime vs. government (state)
Institution successfully claiming the monopoly of legitimate use of physical force within a territory (most enduring)
State vs. regime vs. government (regime)
Fundamental norms and rules of politics (ex: democratic, authoritarian, etc., or dominant ideology)
State vs. regime vs. government (government)
The leadership in charge of running the state (least enduring)
State vs. regime vs. government (civil society)
Non-state/non-government organizations
Political authority before the 1500s
Thousands of overlapping realms of authority, lives defined by personal and commercial relations, borders not defined clearly (before Cartesian maps), armies were fragmented and local, no common legal system across the territories
Where do states come from? (war)
Wars make states (better than rival organizations); wars with external rivals create pressure for rulers to raise funds, eliminate internal rivals for power, develop capacity for extraction (mapmaking and clearly defined borders), legitimacy (better able to harness the power of nationalism)
Where do states come from? (schools)
States make schools (better than rival organizations); industrial revolution created a need for unified language and standardized education, states replace religious institutions as main educator (standardized language fostered the concept of citizenship and even more legitimacy)
Dimensions of state strength (sovereignty)
Ability to carry out actions within its orders independently of external rivals and authorities)
Dimensions of state strength (legitimacy)
The right to rule; exists when people believe that their rulers have the right to rule
How do states elicit compliance? (legitimacy)
Coercion, benefits, or legitimacy
“Ideal” types
Theoretical tool, derived from observable reality but they do not conform to it in detail, “yardstick” for evaluating reality
Legitimacy type (charismatic authority)
Relies on the force of ideas; the presence of the leader; breaks rules and makes new ones; ex: George Washington, Nelson Mandela, Adolf Hitler
Legitimacy type (traditional authority)
Relies on habit, custom, tradition; “it has always been this way”; reciprocal relationships and obligations; ex: Don Corleone, Queen Elizabeth, King Abdallah, Pope Francis
Rational-legal authority
Relies on clear rules and procedures; impersonal; ex: Tony Evers, Narendra Modi
Capacity
Ability to fulfill basic tasks (such as providing secruity, taxing) and to implement policies
Autonomy
Ability to wield power independently of the public and of organized interests
High capacity, low autonomy
State able to fulfill basic tasks, but public plays a direct role in setting policy and can limit state power and scope of activity. Functioning democracies (ex: USA)
Downside: organized opposition and vested interests make policy change difficult
High capacity, high autonomy
State able to fulfill basic tasks with a minimum of public intervention; power highly centralized. Functioning authoritarianism (ex: China)
Downside: Too high levels of capacity and autonomy may prevent/undermine democracy
Low capacity, low autonomy
State lacks ability to fulfill basic tasks and is subject to direct public control; power highly decentralized among state and non-state actors. State breakdown (ex: Afghanistan, Somalia)
Downside: too low a level of capacity and autonomy may lead to state failure
Low capacity, high autonomy
State able to function with a minimum of public interference, but has a limited capacity to fulfill basic tasks. Non-functioning dictatorships (ex: North Korea)
Downside: State is ineffectual, limiting development that may provoke public unrest
Challenges to the state
Globalization, technological change, regional integration/supranational governance, ethnic/religious/regional conflict, climate change
Identity politics
Organized around social identities (defined by shared membership in a category or constellation of categories) rather than around individuals
Identity politics examples
Ethnicity, national identity, gender, religion, etc.
Content of social identity
What it means to be in the group (i.e., membership in a category or constellation of categories), meaning of group membership is often contested and changes over time
Identity politics and social identities
Social identities differ from mere groups because the meaning (content) is inter-subjectively shared
Why might social identities matter politically?
Invidious distinctions, group-based political competition, alternative foci of loyalty, tap into emotions, want to control own political destiny (nations!)
When does mobilization along social identities happen?
(1) A real difference (ex: differential access to resources) (2) Leadership who successfully link differential access to identity (3) Existence of an organization used for identity-based mobilization (4) Structural and institutional conditions favorable to identity-based mobilization
Common strategies for mobilization (identity politics)
Once mobilized, dealing with identity-based politics (cultural pluralism) is one of the persistent challenges in nearly all societies; common strategies include: repression, power sharing (representation, federalism, etc.), incentivizing cross-group cooperation, assimilation
What are nations?
An imagined community that is imagined as both limited and sovereign; nations do not equal states
State
An institution that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory
How nations relate to ethnicities (membership)
Nations are not necessarily based in ethnic groups (may have other membership criteria)
How nations relate to ethnicities (goal)
Nations seek control of their political destiny (autonomy, independence, etc.) (ex: Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland, IRA)
How nations relate to ethnicities (struggle)
Ethnic groups may struggle for power and resources, but not for control of their political destiny as a group (ex: Irish Catholics in the United States)
How nations relate to ethnicity (territory)
Nations always have a territorial component, ethnicities may not
How nations relate to ethnicity (becoming a nation)
Ethnic groups may become nations (and vice versa)
Nation-states
Borders of the nation and state are largely congruent; often the product of deliberate state policy, ex: Iceland/Poland/Japan/France, Political questions(s): how to homogenize/maintain the nation?
Multi-national states
More than one nation lives in a state; ex: Canada/Israel/Great Britain/Belgium/Indonesia/Spain, Political question: how to deal with the other(s)?/how to transform into a nation-state?
Stateless nations
Nations without states; ex: Kurds/Basques/Palestinians/Scots/Catalans, Political question: how to actualize the national project?/how to engage with the state in which we live?
Nations larger than states
Part of the nation lives outside of the state; ex: Russians/Germans/Hungarians, Political question: how to relate to co-nationals abroad?
Ethnic identity
A subset of social identity categories in which descent-based attributes are necessary for membership; also large enough to be impersonal and constitute a section of a country’s population rather than the whole
What is ethnic identity? (implications)
Ethnic identity is subject to “constrained” change, ethnic identity is always visible
Nationalism
Collective action designed to render the boundaries of the nation congruent with those of its governance unit; an ideology, a political project, a legitimating strategy
Nationalism (ideology)
Problem, solution, imperative to action
Nationalism (political project)
Political project defining the bounds of the political game (who are we? where is our homeland? what is our collective mission?)
Nationalism (legitimating principle)
Serves as the dominant legitimating principle of the modern era; movements for “national” liberation, most states claim/aspire to be nation-states; states that are not nation-states work hard to become so (nationalizing states with economic incentives, education, roads, internal homogeneity, ethnic cleansing, repression)
National self-determination
The nation-state the only legitimate form of political organization; nations have the right to their own independent nation-state; the nation-state has the right to include the whole nation; this principle is universally recognized but difficult to implement (can lead to war- self-determination for one group now comes at the explicit expense of the homeland of another group and only very few mobilized identity communities have obtained nation-states of their own)
Citizenship
Legal category indicating membership in a state
Patriotism
Love of the state
