1/24/17 – 1/26/17

How do changes in population affect politics?

Texas Tech University Comparative Politics Week 1 Notes 

 Political Development:

∙ how politees ( many people under the same gov’t) change over  time

 Modernization: access to water, education, advancement, etc. o as things get more modern, usually a country gets more  modern and as the country get more modern, it implicitly gets more democratic

 Regime Type and Change:

∙ regime: a set of rules about who governs

∙ formal rules: explicitly stated rules that is backed by the law ∙ informal rules: rules that eventually over time becomes a rule (not  necessarily a certified rule)

∙ regimes are bounded by time (ultimately a new regime will arise) ∙ The U.S. has a democratic regime

How does one decide on policies?

 Example: Chile has a military dictatorship regime. They were a  big series of protest in the 80s and a new regime of democracy  came into place (1989)

∙ Either a state is a democracy or an authoritarian (anything that is  not a democracy)

 Participation and Representation:

∙ who gets represented in the government

∙ Who’s voice is heard in the government

∙ How active can one be in the government  If you want to learn more check out What is the definition of intercourse?

 Policy Making:

∙ How does one decide on policies?

∙ How does one integrate policies?

∙ What policy is going to work best?

 Political Economy: The interaction of politics and the economy ∙ Example: Greece

What policy is going to work best?

 went through a huge economic catastrophe  

 country went bankrupt

 many people were homeless

 people decided to overthrow the main political parties and  brought in an outside third party  We also discuss several other topics like What is pattern recognition?
We also discuss several other topics like What is the concept of social construction of reality?

 this is an example of how the economy can effect politics  3 Faces of Power:

1. Basic Face of Power. Primarily number based.  

 Example: In a war, whichever side kills more people wins  Example: In an election, whoever receives the most votes wins

1/24/17 – 1/26/17

2. How do the rules of power work? Finds aspects of the rules and uses them to their advantage

 Example: The 2016 election. Hilary Clinton won the popular vote (1st face of power), but Donald Trump won the overall election  because he received more Electoral College votes (2nd face of  We also discuss several other topics like What does a piezometer measure?

power). Donald Trump used this system to his advantage. It  doesn’t matter if you gain more popular votes, it matters if you  gain more electoral votes.

3. Looks inside people’s minds. Getting people to change their mind  and how they think. How people conceive a problem and which side  of it they’re on

 Case Studies:

∙ Single case study- most of the time looks at one particular case at a time.

∙ Comparative case study- compares two cases and tries to explain  why one thing happened in one country and not the other. ∙ Most similar systems- comparing two countries that are very similar  with one major difference We also discuss several other topics like What is the concrete­ operational period?

∙ Most different systems- comparing two countries that are very  different but have a major similarity

 when doing a case study, it is best to look for lots of cases to get  your information more accurate

 Use of statistics is needed

 Units of analysis is sometimes used

 Variables( cause & effect: dependent variable; cause:  

independent variable)

 3 Key Questions:

∙ What Explains Political Behavior?

 Why do individuals act politically?

 Why do they vote the way they do?

 How do they vote the way they do?

 How do the politically elite act politically?

 Why do they endorse some policies and not others?

∙ Who Rules?

 Assumptions:

o Elitist theory: the elites control everything and control the  resources and economy  

o Pluralist theory: the “regular” people of society are controlled  by the elite and work for them.

∙ Where, When, and Why

 Welfare State:

o in contrast with the welfare state

1/24/17 – 1/26/17 If you want to learn more check out What is the difference between sensation and perception examples?

o welfare state: anything a country does to make the welfare  state of its people better

 Coalition of Casualty (3 Ways of Thinking)

∙ individual motivations

 Rational choice- the idea that every individual person makes a  rational choice based on their own interest or preferences

 Psychological (“irrational”) choice- people are making choices  based on other influences. Make decisions “irrationally” based on fear, hopes, and threats

∙ Group, culture, ideologies, theories, and influences

 Culture: how culture influences people or a region politically.  Culture takes ques from around them: what’s normal, what’s  right? Civic culture has to do with the way of being (democracy).  Civic culture also has to do with being engages in one’s  

argument.