Politics

Question 1

Juan Linz’s four warning signs for potential authoritarians…

Answer 1

(1) Do they reject the “rules of the democratic game”?
(2) Do they deny the legitimacy of opponents?
(3) Do they encourage or refuse to condemn violence?
(4) Do they have a readiness to curtail civil liberties and the media?

Question 2

Levitsky and Ziblatt: democracies can die in two ways…

Answer 2

(1) From a coup
(2) From being dismantled from the inside (like Hitler)

Question 3

Levitsky and Ziblatt: democracies are upheld by two crucial norms:

Answer 3

(1) Parties accept each other as legitimate rivals
(2) Parties don’t play “hardball” and take full advantage of being in power to change the rules in their favour

Question 4

Levitsky and Ziblatt: democracy is underpinned by two norms…

Answer 4

(1) Parties treat each other as legitimate rivals
(2) Parties don’t play so hard that they change the rules in their favour when they have power

Question 5

Timothy Garton Ash’s four categories of reason in favour of free speech:

Answer 5

STGD
(Self, Truth, Government, Diversity)

Question 6

Timothy Garton Ash: Three reasons why we should focus more on norms than laws when it comes to free speech

Answer 6

Interconnectivity, ineffectiveness, and dignity

(1) In an interconnected world, national regs achieve less
(2) Law is powerless to influence the mass of human communication
(3) Overregulating us treats us like children

Question 7

Two functions of the state distinguished by Corey Brettschneider:

Answer 7

Coercive and expressive functions

Question 8

Timothy Garton Ash: law and norms are like…

Answer 8

Ice and water (not like fire and water)

Question 9

Gary Stevenson: three reasons for the increase in inequality:

Answer 9

(1) Tax cuts overall for the rich
(2) Increased integration of Western economies with more unequal places like China and India
(3) The mishandling of crises like 2008 and Covid so as to transfer money to the rich

Question 10

Andrew Hurrell on norms:

Answer 10

The relationship between agreement and foundations will always be indeterminate: Do we agree because it’s right, or is it right because we agree?

Question 11

Herman and Chomsky (1988) - The “Propaganda Model”: five filters

Answer 11

(1) Media ownership is concentrated
(2) Advertising
(3) Reliance on gov’t / “official” information sources
(4) Flak
(5) Anticommunism as state religion

Question 12

For Walter Russell Mead, what are the four schools of though in American foreign policy which have been in tension throughout US history?

Answer 12

Hamiltonian: promoting trade and business opportunities

Jeffersonian: cynicism about big schemes or foreign adventures

Jacksonianism: populist desire for military strength

Wilsonian: idealism