Politics Compilation Document
Contents
How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’..........................................................4
Early signs of decline...................................................................................................................4
Warning bells?.............................................................................................................................5
Is populism finally coming to Japan?.....................................................................................................7
What went wrong? Taiwan fails to legalise same-sex marriage............................................................9
Politics, protest and young people......................................................................................................12
Chapter 3 – defining and measuring political participation and young people...............................12
Introduction...............................................................................................................................12
Defining political participation: period and beholder sensitive meanings.................................12
Evolutions in defining and measuring political participation.....................................................13
enter studies focusing on young people and digital technologies.............................................16
Conclusions: thinking outside the box.......................................................................................18
The Battle to Defeat Confessional Politics, in Lebanon and Beyond....................................................20
The Growing Costs of Confessional Politics in Lebanon..................................................................20
The Regional Struggle Over the New (and Old) Lebanon................................................................21
Is a Political Revolution Possible or Preferable?.............................................................................23
Hong Kong’s Dilemma: Fight or Resist Peacefully................................................................................24
How governments can use cyber tools irresponsibly to preserve power............................................28
Why now?.......................................................................................................................................28
The Rise of Politically Assertive Religion..............................................................................................30
Before modernity: the friendly merger of religious and political authority....................................30
Early modernity: from friendly merger to friendly takeover...........................................................31
liberté, égalité, and the state’s hostile takeover of religious actors...............................................33
The hostile takeover consolidated: the middle of the 20 th century................................................34
The rise of politically assertive religion...........................................................................................34
Tracking religion’s political ascendancy..........................................................................................35
South Africa’s New Gender-Equal Cabinet...........................................................................................36
South Africa’s Revolutionary Move................................................................................................36
1
, Quotas for Women in Government................................................................................................36
Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction.........................................................................................36
Essentials of comparative politics........................................................................................................38
Chapter 1 – introduction................................................................................................................38
Chapter 2 – states...........................................................................................................................41
Chapter 3 – nations and society.....................................................................................................44
Chapter 4 – political-economic systems (page 110 to 118)............................................................50
Chapter 5 – democratic regimes.....................................................................................................52
Chapter 6 – nondemocratic regimes...............................................................................................56
chapter 7 – political violence..........................................................................................................59
Chapter 8 – developed democracies..............................................................................................61
chapter 9 – communism and postcommunism...............................................................................62
Chapter 10 – developing countries.................................................................................................66
Chapter 11 – globalization and the future of comparative politics.................................................69
Deng Xiaoping: the statesman.............................................................................................................72
Deng’s leadership in foreign affairs................................................................................................72
the re-drawing of china’s national interest.....................................................................................73
Deng’s adaptation to the changes in international politics.............................................................74
Deng and china’s modern problems of statehood..........................................................................76
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................76
Have We Got Machiavelli All Wrong?..................................................................................................78
Summary........................................................................................................................................80
Fire and Fury in the Chilean “Oasis”....................................................................................................82
Populism and Representative Politics in Contemporary Europe..........................................................85
Introduction....................................................................................................................................85
Populism in contemporary Europe............................................................................................85
Views of populism.....................................................................................................................86
Populism and representative politics.........................................................................................87
The politics of the heartland......................................................................................................87
The empty heart of populism....................................................................................................88
Populism and the sense of crisis................................................................................................89
2
, Self-limiting mobilisation...........................................................................................................89
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................89
Russia’s Recent Elections Could Signal Hope—or a Warning...............................................................92
The good, the bad and the political.....................................................................................................94
Summary........................................................................................................................................97
The global political consequences of corona.......................................................................................98
The Prince by N Machiavelli summary...............................................................................................100
Chapter XV (page 53) – of those things for which men, and particularly princes, are praised or
blamed..........................................................................................................................................100
Chapter XVI (page 54) – of generosity and miserliness.................................................................100
Chapter XVII (page 57) – of cruelty and mercy, and whether it is better to be loved than to be
feared or the contrary..................................................................................................................100
Chapter XVIII (page 60) – how a prince should keep his word......................................................100
Chapter XIX (page 62) – of avoiding being despised and hated....................................................100
chapter XX (page 72) – of whether fortresses and many things that princes employ every day are
useful or harmful..........................................................................................................................101
Chapter XXI (page 76) – how a prince should act to acquire esteem............................................101
chapter XXII (chapter 79) – of the prince’s private secretaries.....................................................102
chapter XXIII (page 80) – of how to avoid flatterers.....................................................................102
chapter XXIV (page 82) – why Italian princes have lost their states.............................................102
3
, How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are
Flashing Red’
Amanda Taub | November 29, 2016
WASHINGTON — Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr.
Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the
bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will
stay that way.
His research suggests something quite different: that liberal democracies around the world may be
at serious risk of decline.
Mr. Mounk’s interest in the topic began rather unusually. In 2014, he published a book, “Stranger in
My Own Country.” It started as a memoir of his experiences growing up as a Jew in Germany, but
became a broader investigation of how contemporary European nations were struggling to construct
new, multicultural national identities.
He concluded that the effort was not going very well. A populist backlash was rising. But was that
just a new kind of politics, or a symptom of something deeper?
To answer that question, Mr. Mounk teamed up with Roberto Stefan Foa, a political scientist at the
University of Melbourne in Australia. They have since gathered and crunched data on the strength of
liberal democracies.
Their conclusion, to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Democracy, is that
democracies are not as secure as people may think. Right now, Mr. Mounk said in an interview, “the
warning signs are flashing red.”
Early signs of decline
Political scientists have a theory called “democratic consolidation,” which holds that once countries
develop democratic institutions, a robust civil society and a certain level of wealth, their democracy
is secure.
For decades, global events seemed to support that idea. Data from Freedom House, a watchdog
organization that measures democracy and freedom around the world, shows that the number of
countries classified as “free” rose steadily from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. Many Latin
American countries transitioned from military rule to democracy; after the end of the Cold War,
much of Eastern Europe followed suit. And longstanding liberal democracies in North America,
Western Europe and Australia seemed more secure than ever.
But since 2005, Freedom House’s index has shown a decline in global freedom each year. Is that a
statistical anomaly, a result of a few random events in a relatively short period of time? Or does it
indicate a meaningful pattern?
Mr. Mounk and Mr. Foa developed a three-factor formula to answer that question. Mr. Mounk
thinks of it as an early-warning system, and it works something like a medical test: a way to detect
that a democracy is ill before it develops full-blown symptoms.
The first factor was public support: How important do citizens think it is for their country to remain
democratic? The second was public openness to nondemocratic forms of government, such as
military rule. And the third factor was whether “antisystem parties and movements” — political
4
Contents
How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’..........................................................4
Early signs of decline...................................................................................................................4
Warning bells?.............................................................................................................................5
Is populism finally coming to Japan?.....................................................................................................7
What went wrong? Taiwan fails to legalise same-sex marriage............................................................9
Politics, protest and young people......................................................................................................12
Chapter 3 – defining and measuring political participation and young people...............................12
Introduction...............................................................................................................................12
Defining political participation: period and beholder sensitive meanings.................................12
Evolutions in defining and measuring political participation.....................................................13
enter studies focusing on young people and digital technologies.............................................16
Conclusions: thinking outside the box.......................................................................................18
The Battle to Defeat Confessional Politics, in Lebanon and Beyond....................................................20
The Growing Costs of Confessional Politics in Lebanon..................................................................20
The Regional Struggle Over the New (and Old) Lebanon................................................................21
Is a Political Revolution Possible or Preferable?.............................................................................23
Hong Kong’s Dilemma: Fight or Resist Peacefully................................................................................24
How governments can use cyber tools irresponsibly to preserve power............................................28
Why now?.......................................................................................................................................28
The Rise of Politically Assertive Religion..............................................................................................30
Before modernity: the friendly merger of religious and political authority....................................30
Early modernity: from friendly merger to friendly takeover...........................................................31
liberté, égalité, and the state’s hostile takeover of religious actors...............................................33
The hostile takeover consolidated: the middle of the 20 th century................................................34
The rise of politically assertive religion...........................................................................................34
Tracking religion’s political ascendancy..........................................................................................35
South Africa’s New Gender-Equal Cabinet...........................................................................................36
South Africa’s Revolutionary Move................................................................................................36
1
, Quotas for Women in Government................................................................................................36
Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction.........................................................................................36
Essentials of comparative politics........................................................................................................38
Chapter 1 – introduction................................................................................................................38
Chapter 2 – states...........................................................................................................................41
Chapter 3 – nations and society.....................................................................................................44
Chapter 4 – political-economic systems (page 110 to 118)............................................................50
Chapter 5 – democratic regimes.....................................................................................................52
Chapter 6 – nondemocratic regimes...............................................................................................56
chapter 7 – political violence..........................................................................................................59
Chapter 8 – developed democracies..............................................................................................61
chapter 9 – communism and postcommunism...............................................................................62
Chapter 10 – developing countries.................................................................................................66
Chapter 11 – globalization and the future of comparative politics.................................................69
Deng Xiaoping: the statesman.............................................................................................................72
Deng’s leadership in foreign affairs................................................................................................72
the re-drawing of china’s national interest.....................................................................................73
Deng’s adaptation to the changes in international politics.............................................................74
Deng and china’s modern problems of statehood..........................................................................76
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................76
Have We Got Machiavelli All Wrong?..................................................................................................78
Summary........................................................................................................................................80
Fire and Fury in the Chilean “Oasis”....................................................................................................82
Populism and Representative Politics in Contemporary Europe..........................................................85
Introduction....................................................................................................................................85
Populism in contemporary Europe............................................................................................85
Views of populism.....................................................................................................................86
Populism and representative politics.........................................................................................87
The politics of the heartland......................................................................................................87
The empty heart of populism....................................................................................................88
Populism and the sense of crisis................................................................................................89
2
, Self-limiting mobilisation...........................................................................................................89
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................89
Russia’s Recent Elections Could Signal Hope—or a Warning...............................................................92
The good, the bad and the political.....................................................................................................94
Summary........................................................................................................................................97
The global political consequences of corona.......................................................................................98
The Prince by N Machiavelli summary...............................................................................................100
Chapter XV (page 53) – of those things for which men, and particularly princes, are praised or
blamed..........................................................................................................................................100
Chapter XVI (page 54) – of generosity and miserliness.................................................................100
Chapter XVII (page 57) – of cruelty and mercy, and whether it is better to be loved than to be
feared or the contrary..................................................................................................................100
Chapter XVIII (page 60) – how a prince should keep his word......................................................100
Chapter XIX (page 62) – of avoiding being despised and hated....................................................100
chapter XX (page 72) – of whether fortresses and many things that princes employ every day are
useful or harmful..........................................................................................................................101
Chapter XXI (page 76) – how a prince should act to acquire esteem............................................101
chapter XXII (chapter 79) – of the prince’s private secretaries.....................................................102
chapter XXIII (page 80) – of how to avoid flatterers.....................................................................102
chapter XXIV (page 82) – why Italian princes have lost their states.............................................102
3
, How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are
Flashing Red’
Amanda Taub | November 29, 2016
WASHINGTON — Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr.
Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the
bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will
stay that way.
His research suggests something quite different: that liberal democracies around the world may be
at serious risk of decline.
Mr. Mounk’s interest in the topic began rather unusually. In 2014, he published a book, “Stranger in
My Own Country.” It started as a memoir of his experiences growing up as a Jew in Germany, but
became a broader investigation of how contemporary European nations were struggling to construct
new, multicultural national identities.
He concluded that the effort was not going very well. A populist backlash was rising. But was that
just a new kind of politics, or a symptom of something deeper?
To answer that question, Mr. Mounk teamed up with Roberto Stefan Foa, a political scientist at the
University of Melbourne in Australia. They have since gathered and crunched data on the strength of
liberal democracies.
Their conclusion, to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Democracy, is that
democracies are not as secure as people may think. Right now, Mr. Mounk said in an interview, “the
warning signs are flashing red.”
Early signs of decline
Political scientists have a theory called “democratic consolidation,” which holds that once countries
develop democratic institutions, a robust civil society and a certain level of wealth, their democracy
is secure.
For decades, global events seemed to support that idea. Data from Freedom House, a watchdog
organization that measures democracy and freedom around the world, shows that the number of
countries classified as “free” rose steadily from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. Many Latin
American countries transitioned from military rule to democracy; after the end of the Cold War,
much of Eastern Europe followed suit. And longstanding liberal democracies in North America,
Western Europe and Australia seemed more secure than ever.
But since 2005, Freedom House’s index has shown a decline in global freedom each year. Is that a
statistical anomaly, a result of a few random events in a relatively short period of time? Or does it
indicate a meaningful pattern?
Mr. Mounk and Mr. Foa developed a three-factor formula to answer that question. Mr. Mounk
thinks of it as an early-warning system, and it works something like a medical test: a way to detect
that a democracy is ill before it develops full-blown symptoms.
The first factor was public support: How important do citizens think it is for their country to remain
democratic? The second was public openness to nondemocratic forms of government, such as
military rule. And the third factor was whether “antisystem parties and movements” — political
4
