Political Regimes in the Past and Present Flashcards
Political system or regime?
- Government: institutions involved in: maintaining public order, making and implementing collective decisions
- Political system: Government plus broader structures and processes of interaction within society
- But: Is the ‘system’ the right metaphor?
- Input → Processing → Output
Better: government, regime, and state
- Government: Officials charged with routinely exercising power
- Regime: Fundamental rules and procedures determining who may exercise power and how
- State: Basic institutional context within which these rules apply
Within the context of the:
- Way the economy is organized
- Distribution of wealth and power in society
- Society’s ideology and culture
Degrees of institutionalization
- State: More permanent institutions exercising public authority
- Change is exceptional
- System is based on the idea that the territorial state are here to stay and the international community should uphold the status quo
- Regime: Rules determining distribution of power within the state
- Who has the right to govern? = election winners, eldest sons of the family dynasty
- Change is unusual – By revolution, war
- Government: Officials holding power, based on election win, legitimate succession, coup d’état
- In a democracy, democratic changes are common
Government or regime?
- Regime – Brings new rules and procedures (governments winning elections likely do not change the regime)
- Government – When the people ruling change
Classical regime classification
Who rules? In whose interest?
According to Aristotle, what regime is best?
- Mixed regime
- Polity plus aristocracy
England 17th -19th centuries
Mixed regime, ruled by:
- One (monarchy)
- Few (House of lords)
- Many (House of Commons)
Challenges to the classical approach
State formation raised issues of sovereignty:
- Need for leviathan
- Where does sovereignty reside?
Leash that leviathan?
- Locke: clear constitutional restrains
- Montesquieu: separation of powers
Three worlds classification
Based on:
- Shifting understanding of ‘the west’
- Western economic and political advancement relative to ‘the east’
- 20th century – The west against: totalitarianism (nazism and communism), communism alone during the cold war
First world
- Democratic
- Capitalist
- Developed, industrialized
Second world
- One-party dictatorship
- Command economy
- State-led industrialization (second best)
Third world
- Subordinated to Cold War logic
- Generally traditional dictatorships
- Varied and shifting economic systems
- Underdeveloped
Recent challenges to the three worlds
- Economic: Development in the third world
- NICs (Newly industrializing countries)
- BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
- Rise of China
- Political: third wave of democracy since 1974, fourth wave as of 1989-91
- Strategic: collapse of the USSR (end of the second world), partial integration of china (but no new second world)
The end of history (Francis Fukuyama)
- First world, only world?
- Bring forth a wave of liberalism, capitalism, democracy
- No, complex world (people will still fight for influence and control)
A new framework? (Western polyarchies)
Robert Dahl:
- Rule of law
- Competition
- Increasing participation
Liberal individualism
A new framework? (new democracies - complex and often incomplete transitions
- Weak state
- Ethnic tensions
- Economic problems
- Democracy under pressure
A new framework? (East Asian acceptances)
- State-led development
- “Strong” government
- Social cohesion over liberal individualism
- China is an outlier
- Ruling Communist Party, separates from countries that have become democratic
- “Market Stalinism”, China still structuring its economy
- China is capitalist, but capitalist in a distinctly Chinese way
- Still more agrarianism
A new framework? (islamic regimes)
- Import Islamic way of life to the political sphere
- Theocracy
- Can feature liberal and democratic elements
A new framework? (military regimes)
- Access to power can depend on positions within the military
- Junta
- Military-backed dictatorship
Defining authoritarianism
- Rule by a small group of individuals or a small organization
- Not accountable to the public – public has no role in selecting the leaders
- Restricts freedom, represses dissent
Varieties of authoritarianism
- Monarchy
- Personal dictatorship
- Military rule
- One-party rule
- Theocratic rule
Monarchy
- Family has a lock on succession
- Ruling – before liberal democracy
- Non-ruling – within many -liberal democracies
- Still ruling – mainly in the Arab world
Personal dictatorship
- Direct personal relationship to ‘the people’
- From Julius Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte to Juan Peron
Military rule
- 19th century Latin America
- 20th century to Africa and Asia
- Often coup d’état against weak civilian rulers
One-party rule
- Fascism, communism – modern regimes
- Totalitarianism – state power used to subordinate and transform society
- Extended to less ambitious post-colonial African states
Theocratic rule
- Resurgent since the late 20th century
- Fusion of religious and political leadership
