Summary Comparative Analysis Political Systems - IRO

Jim Hiddink 08-01-2022



 Chapter 1 - introduction
 Comparative politics
o The study and comparison of
politics across countries
 States
o Organizations that maintain a
monopoly of violence over a
territory
o Differ in
 Origin
 Length of existence
 Strength
 Historical development
 Country
o Encompasses the territory and
people living within a state
 Government
o The leadership or elite that
administers the state
o Ways in which states differ
 Size
 Population
 Origins
 Historical development
 Natural endowments
 Resources such as oil
 Level of organization
 Level of effectiveness
 Level of stability
 Level of legitimacy
 Sources of legitimacy
o Traditional legitimacy
 The state is obeyed because it has a long tradition of
being obeyed
o Charismatic legitimacy
 Identification with the magnetic appeal of a leader
or a movement
o Rational-legal legitimacy
 On the basis of a system of laws and procedures
that become highly institutionalized
 Ability to preserve their sovereignty
 Strong states

, o Can perform the tasks of defending the borders from
outside attacks and defending their authority from internal
nonstate factors
 Weak states
o Have trouble carrying out those tasks
o Often suffer from
 endemic violence
 Poor infrastructure
 Inability to collect taxes and enforce the rule of law
 High levels of corruption
 Failed states
o Experience a complete loss of legitimacy and power
o May be overwhelmed by anarchy and violence
 The degree to which they centralize or disperse political power
 Unitary states
o Concentrate most of their political power in national capital
o Allocate little decision making power to regions or local
authorities
o May be stronger and more decisive than federal states
 May create local resentment and initiate calls for a
devolution of power to regions and localities
 Federal states
o Divide power between the central government and regional
or local authorities
o Often find that their dispersal of power hampers national
decision making and accountability
o Often suffer from more corruption due to giving local
officials greater access to resources
o Political regimes
o The norms and rules regarding
 individual freedoms and collective equality
 The locus of power
 The use of that power
o Often described in constitutions
 Democratic regimes
 Have rules that
o emphasize a large role for the public in governance
o Protect basic rights and freedoms
o Attempt to ensure the basic transparency of and
accountability for government actions
 Authoritarian regimes
 Limit the role of the public in decision making
 Often deny citizens basic rights
 Restrict freedoms
o Democratic political institutions
 Executive

,  Branch of government that carries out the laws and policies of a
given state
 Performs two duties
o Head of the state
 Symbolizes and represents the people, both
nationally and internationally, embodying and
articulating the goals of the regime
o Head of government
 Deals with the everyday tasks of running the state
 Formulates and executes policy
 Legislature
 Branch of government formally charged with making laws
 Differ considerably from country to country
 Two types of legislatures
o Unicameral legislature
 Consist of a single chamber
o Bicameral legislatures
 Consist of two legislative chambers
 One represents the population at large
(lower house)
 One reflects certain geographic subunits
 Judiciary
 Branch of government that is concerned with dispensing justice
 Constitutional court
o Highest judicial body to rule on the constitutionality of laws
and other government actions
o Formally oversees the entire judicial structure
 review
o Judicial review
 The mechanism by which the court reviews laws and
policies and overturns those seen as violations of
the constitution
o Concrete review
 Allows the high court to rule on constitutional issues
only when relevant disputes are brought before it
o Abstract review
 Allowing the high court to decide on questions that
do not arise from legal cases
 Sometimes even allows it to make judgement on
legislation that has not yet been enacted
 Models of legislative-executive relations within democratic regimes
 Parliamentary
o Features an executive head of government
 Elected from within the legislature
 Hugely cerimonial duties
o Cabinet

,  The body of chief ministers or officials in
government in charge of such policy areas as
defense, agriculture and so on
o ^Both charged with formulating and executing policy
 Presidential system
o Combines the roles of head of state and head of
government in the office of the president
o Features a directly elected president
o President holds most of the government’s executive powers
 Semi-presidential system
o An attempt to avoid the weaknesses of parliamentary and
presidential systems
o Includes a prime minister approved by the legislature and a
directly elected president, both sharing executive power
o Tend to produce strong presidents akin to those in pure
presidential systems
 Exact balance of power varies from case to case
 Electoral system
o Determines how votes are cast and counted
 Proportional representation (PR) (netherlands)
o Relies on multimember districts (MMDs)
 More than one legislative seats are contesred in
each electoral district
o Also single-member districts possible (SMD)
 One person per party and constituency
 Mixed electoral system
o Voters given two votes
 One for party
 One for candidate
o Candidates selected through SMD
o Rest is selected through MMD votes for parties
o nondemocratic regimes
 Types
 Personal dictatorship
 Military regime
 One-party regime
 Theocracy
 Illiberal regime
o Retains the basic structures of a democracy but does not
protect civil liberties
 Communist regimes
o One party regimes
o Economy and political world controlled by the regime
 Totalitarian
o Feature a strong official ideology that seeks to transform
fundamental aspects of the state, society, and economy,