Poli 220 Chapter 4

• The comparative method

  Seeks to answer questions about politics by comparing and contrasting attributes of different polities
• Positive statement

  - Must be potentially falsifiable

  - Ex) Majoritarian electoral systems generate votes-seats disproportionality

  - Measurable: Deviation between % of vote and % of seats
• Normative statement

  - May or may not be falsifiable

  - Ex) Majoritarian electoral system seems unfair

  - It's falsifiable depending on whether fairness can be measured
• Research Design: Time series - cross section


  N units over time

  - N is different units every time point

  - Second best
• Research Design: Time series


  One unit from over time t = t - k

  - Multiple time points

  - Middle
• Research Design: Cross section


  Many units (N) at time t

  - Second weakest
• Research Design: Case study


  One unit in one time period

  - One time point

  - Weakest
• International politics


  the study of political phenomena that occur predominantly between countries

  Ex) Conflict, Foreign Policy, International Organizations
• Comparative Politics


  the study of political phenomena that occur predominantly within countries

  Ex) Elections, Party Systems, Interest Groups, Legislatures

  Asking why some countries have two parties (like the United States) but others have many (like the Netherlands)?

  Why are some countries democracies whereas others are dictatorships?
• Bates theory

  -repeated interaction can constrain the predatory state if it values the future

  - adverse international context in 1990s led African rulers to discount future heavily

  - unleashed the predatory state in many African countries
• what does Rousseau's deer hunt game suggest

  the state plays an important role not simply by coercing citizens, but coordinating them
• how to sustain cooperation and escape the state of nature without the state

  repeated interaction among actors who...

  1. are capable of monitoring and punishing others for defections (i.e. grim reaper strategy)

  2. do no heavily discount the future

  - a lot to ask for
• Grim Reaper Strategy

  they cooperated as long as you did, but once you defected, they repeatedly defect to punish your behaviour
• preference ordering


  indicates how a player ranks the possible outcomes of a game
• Discounting the future


  consequences

  i.e. cutting in front of your classmate might make them get revenge in the future by coming early with a complicated order
• can cooperation occur in the state of nature?

  possible, if the state of nature game is infinitely repeated or end probabilistically
• civil society is preferred if

  1. punishment imposed is large enough to discourage stealing

  2. tax is enough that individuals will pay it and not be encouraged to steal
• cardinal payoff


  allows us to know how much more the players prefer one outcome to another
• Social contract theorists view the state as a ....

  third-party enforcer that can drole out punishment to individuals who engage in socially destructive behaviour that violates the social contract

  - punishments make steal less pleasing
• problem of moral suasion

  convinces actors to trust each other, but that cannot be guaranteed in the state of nature
• Pareto inferior

  outcome which leavers at least one player worse off
• examples of state of nature

  Iraq under US occupation, Darfur region in Sudan, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
• best reply


  - Indicate the choices that are "best" for each of the possible choices that the other player might make. "Best" refers to the choice that yields the highest payoff.
• Dominant strategy


  the strategy is a best reply to all of the other player's strategies

  - Always results in them being an equal or better outcome than other player no matter what they chose
• Observed outcome


  what actually happens based on the strategy taken
• ordinal payoffs

  SHOWS how a player ranks the possible outcome - they do not tell us how much more a player prefers one outcome to another

  - The higher the number, the more favoured the outcome is
• Benefits of limiting predation

  rulers can increase their net extractive capacity by reducing the costs of conducting business and by taking a smaller portion of a larger pie
• quasi-voluntary compliance


  a situation in which the subject feels she is getting something in return for the tax dollars the state is extracting
• Why do some rulers choose to limit their predation

  Two ways to extract resources

  1. Seize assets of subjects

  2. Extract resources through "quasi-voluntary compliance"
• how do social contract theorists differ on regarding how individuals should delegate authority to the state

  Hobbes vs. Locke

  Hobbes

  - lived through civil and religious war

  -wanted a powerful state to impose peace

  
  

  Locke

  - saw the state of nature as workable, if inefficient, wanted a limited state
• Social contract

  an implicit agreement among individuals in the state of nature to create and empower the state

  - outlines the rights and responsibilities of the state and the citizens in regard to each other
• What do social contract theorists argue

  there is something structural about the state of nature making it difficult for citizens to behave themselves
• Third world markets are

  - Smaller

  - Mostly imported goods
• advance monopoly capitalists societies are

  - Few players in the market

  - often a single organization cuts across in multiple markets

  Issue

  - Once people are comfortable with a brand, competitive market will relax making hard for new entrepreneurs
• State of Nature (Hobbes and Locke)

  - "war of every man against every man"

  - Those in the state of nature face a dilemma

  - Equality of individuals means = equality of vulnerability

  - It's better to be the attacker than a victim

  - Doesn't see it as problematic
• How is state fragility measured politically?

  State legitimacy

  Public services

  Human rights

  Security apparatus

  - Ex) Law enforcement, military

  Factionalized elites

  - The amount of divisions of values, interests etc. in a country

  External intervention
• How is state fragility measured economically?

  - Economic development

  - Poverty levels
• How is state fragility measured socially?

  Demographic pressures

  - Forces generated by population structure and size

  - Ex) lack of work force etc.

  Refugees

  Group grievances

  - Marginalization of groups

  Human flight

  - Humans ability to travel
• Issue with a economy-focused government

  While economic productivity grows a state, this focus will

  - Prevent the dominating class and governing bodies from having split interests
• State intervention and economy (Durkheim)

  - We need well-established normative principles in the market to ensure efficient resource allocation

  - Ex) if there were no government regulations on what could be sold in grocery stores, grocery stores would have to spend money trying to prove that their products are safe