summaries comparative government and politics
article by Kruikemeier is important:
1. main argument
2. theory
3. hypotheses
4. measurement of main independent variables
5. result
● the control variables will not be in the article.
chapter 1: key concepts pp 1-9 11-16
- concepts is an idea, term or category that need to be defined and understood in
order to provide us with our points of references.
- political science is the study of the theory and practice of government and politics,
focusing on the structure and dynamics of institutions, political processes and
political behaviour.
● democracy as a concept can be defined as a political system in which
government is based on a fair and open mandate from all qualified citizens of
state.
- social science is the study of human society and of the structured interactions
among people within society.
- government are the institutions and structures through which societies are
governed.
● in order for greater groups to work and structure we need institutions those
are formal organizations of practices with a political purpose or effect, marked
by durability and internal complexity.
● according to Hobbes governments provides us with protection from the harm
that we could otherwise inflict on each other on our way to gain and glory.
- political system the interactions and organizations through which a society reaches
and successfully enforces collective decisions.
● a political system is more than just the government.
- governance is the process by which decisions, laws and policies are made, with or
without the input of formal institutions.
● it highlights the collective decision making part.
● it is the activity of ruling, not the government itself.
● good governance should be accountable, transparent, efficient, responsive
and effective.
- politics is the process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of
making and executing shared or collective decisions.
● three aspects of politics:
1. it is a collective activity, occurring between and amongst people.
2. it involves making decisions regarding a course of actions to take, or a
disagreement to be resolved.
, 3. once reached, political decisions become authoritative policy for the
group, binding and committing members.
- politics can come in two forms:
1. peaceful negotiations between people and get collective decision making, like
the Athens model.
2. politics can also be seen as a competition for acquiring and keeping power, a
process that yields winners and losers,
● Laswell e xplained politics as “who get what, when and how”
- at the heart of politics lies power this is the capacity to bring about the intended
effect the term is often used as a synonym for influence, but is also used more
narrowly to refer to more forceful modes of influence notably getting one’s way by
threats.
● power is also achieving things so not only power over others but also making
a statement like refugees do.
- three different dimensions of power:
1. first dimension decisions are made on issues over which there is an
observable conflict of interests. a person should have the same views as his
actions, so who stays the same when conflict arises.
2. second dimension focuses on the capacity to keep issues off the political
agenda by preventing the emergence of topics which would threaten the
values or interests of the decision makers.
3. third dimensionpotential issues are kept out of politics, whether through
social forces, institutional practices or the decisions of individuals.
- authority the right to rule, authority creates its own power, so long as people accept
that the person in authority has the right to make decisions.
● it is the acknowledged right to act so within your power thing.
● you can have authority because of 3 things: tradition, charisma and appeal to
legal rational norms.
- legitimacy is the condition of being legitimate. a legitimate system of a government
is one based on authority and those subject to its rule recognize its right to make
decisions.
- comparative politics is the systematic study of government and politics in different
countries, designed to better understand the by drawing out their contrasts and
similarities.
● two main purposes: broadening our understanding of the political world and
predicting political outcomes.
- broadening understanding through comparison we can pin down the key features
of political institutions, processes and actions and better appreciate the dynamics
and character of political systems.
● you have to compare in order to understand your own political system and
also others.
- predicting political outcomes comparison helps us make generalizations that can
help us predict the outcome of political events.
, ● with comparisons of the same systems you could predict political outcomes
with a high accuracy.
● however there are critiques because you can never be sure if you are correct.
- typology is a system of classification by which states, institutions, processes,
political culture and so on are divided into groups or types with common sets of
attributes.
● it is hard to make a typology to which countries can belong because they
have to belong to that category and that is really difficult to keep it neat and
clean.
● three world system is a political typology that divided the world along
ideological lines with states labelled according to the side they took in the cold
war. it was clean and neat and every country could be selected into one
category.
1. first world, wealthy, democratic industrialized countries.
2. second world, communist systems.
3. third world, poorer, less democratic and less developed states.
- gross domestic product is the core measure of the size of economie, calculated by
giving a monetary value to all goods and services produced within a country in a
given year, regardless if who owns the different means of production.
chapter 3: comparative methods pp 36 & 40
- comparative method is the process by which different cases are compared in order
to better understand their qualities and to develop hypotheses, theories and
concepts.
● methodology is the systematic analysis of the methods used in a given field
of enquiry. Also used to describe the body of methods used, or the means
used to reach a particular set of conclusions.
● unit of analysis is the object of study in comparative politics.
● level of analysis is the level of study in comparative politics, ranging from te
macro level to the micro level.
- hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon that can be supported or
refuted through observation.
- variables is a changeable feature, factor or quantity, or element.
● dependent variable the factor or element we wish to explain.
● independent variable is the factor or element believed to influence the
dependent variable.
chapter 5: democratic rule pp 70-77
- democracy is a political system in which government is based on a fair and open
mandate from all qualified citizens of a state.
article by Kruikemeier is important:
1. main argument
2. theory
3. hypotheses
4. measurement of main independent variables
5. result
● the control variables will not be in the article.
chapter 1: key concepts pp 1-9 11-16
- concepts is an idea, term or category that need to be defined and understood in
order to provide us with our points of references.
- political science is the study of the theory and practice of government and politics,
focusing on the structure and dynamics of institutions, political processes and
political behaviour.
● democracy as a concept can be defined as a political system in which
government is based on a fair and open mandate from all qualified citizens of
state.
- social science is the study of human society and of the structured interactions
among people within society.
- government are the institutions and structures through which societies are
governed.
● in order for greater groups to work and structure we need institutions those
are formal organizations of practices with a political purpose or effect, marked
by durability and internal complexity.
● according to Hobbes governments provides us with protection from the harm
that we could otherwise inflict on each other on our way to gain and glory.
- political system the interactions and organizations through which a society reaches
and successfully enforces collective decisions.
● a political system is more than just the government.
- governance is the process by which decisions, laws and policies are made, with or
without the input of formal institutions.
● it highlights the collective decision making part.
● it is the activity of ruling, not the government itself.
● good governance should be accountable, transparent, efficient, responsive
and effective.
- politics is the process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of
making and executing shared or collective decisions.
● three aspects of politics:
1. it is a collective activity, occurring between and amongst people.
2. it involves making decisions regarding a course of actions to take, or a
disagreement to be resolved.
, 3. once reached, political decisions become authoritative policy for the
group, binding and committing members.
- politics can come in two forms:
1. peaceful negotiations between people and get collective decision making, like
the Athens model.
2. politics can also be seen as a competition for acquiring and keeping power, a
process that yields winners and losers,
● Laswell e xplained politics as “who get what, when and how”
- at the heart of politics lies power this is the capacity to bring about the intended
effect the term is often used as a synonym for influence, but is also used more
narrowly to refer to more forceful modes of influence notably getting one’s way by
threats.
● power is also achieving things so not only power over others but also making
a statement like refugees do.
- three different dimensions of power:
1. first dimension decisions are made on issues over which there is an
observable conflict of interests. a person should have the same views as his
actions, so who stays the same when conflict arises.
2. second dimension focuses on the capacity to keep issues off the political
agenda by preventing the emergence of topics which would threaten the
values or interests of the decision makers.
3. third dimensionpotential issues are kept out of politics, whether through
social forces, institutional practices or the decisions of individuals.
- authority the right to rule, authority creates its own power, so long as people accept
that the person in authority has the right to make decisions.
● it is the acknowledged right to act so within your power thing.
● you can have authority because of 3 things: tradition, charisma and appeal to
legal rational norms.
- legitimacy is the condition of being legitimate. a legitimate system of a government
is one based on authority and those subject to its rule recognize its right to make
decisions.
- comparative politics is the systematic study of government and politics in different
countries, designed to better understand the by drawing out their contrasts and
similarities.
● two main purposes: broadening our understanding of the political world and
predicting political outcomes.
- broadening understanding through comparison we can pin down the key features
of political institutions, processes and actions and better appreciate the dynamics
and character of political systems.
● you have to compare in order to understand your own political system and
also others.
- predicting political outcomes comparison helps us make generalizations that can
help us predict the outcome of political events.
, ● with comparisons of the same systems you could predict political outcomes
with a high accuracy.
● however there are critiques because you can never be sure if you are correct.
- typology is a system of classification by which states, institutions, processes,
political culture and so on are divided into groups or types with common sets of
attributes.
● it is hard to make a typology to which countries can belong because they
have to belong to that category and that is really difficult to keep it neat and
clean.
● three world system is a political typology that divided the world along
ideological lines with states labelled according to the side they took in the cold
war. it was clean and neat and every country could be selected into one
category.
1. first world, wealthy, democratic industrialized countries.
2. second world, communist systems.
3. third world, poorer, less democratic and less developed states.
- gross domestic product is the core measure of the size of economie, calculated by
giving a monetary value to all goods and services produced within a country in a
given year, regardless if who owns the different means of production.
chapter 3: comparative methods pp 36 & 40
- comparative method is the process by which different cases are compared in order
to better understand their qualities and to develop hypotheses, theories and
concepts.
● methodology is the systematic analysis of the methods used in a given field
of enquiry. Also used to describe the body of methods used, or the means
used to reach a particular set of conclusions.
● unit of analysis is the object of study in comparative politics.
● level of analysis is the level of study in comparative politics, ranging from te
macro level to the micro level.
- hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon that can be supported or
refuted through observation.
- variables is a changeable feature, factor or quantity, or element.
● dependent variable the factor or element we wish to explain.
● independent variable is the factor or element believed to influence the
dependent variable.
chapter 5: democratic rule pp 70-77
- democracy is a political system in which government is based on a fair and open
mandate from all qualified citizens of a state.
