Roots of Comparative Politics

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Roots of Comparative Politics
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Aristotle

• Sees the importance of equality of conditions
  and the middle class to achieve freedom and
  friendship between the people.
• a city ought to be composed, as far as possible,
  of equals and similars and these are generally
  the middle classes. Wherefore the city which is
  composed of middle-class citizens is necessarily
  best constituted in respect of the elements of
  which we say the fabric of the state naturally
  consists. (308)

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Aristotle, Politics, Book IV

• government... Is the subject of a single
  science, which has to consider what government is
  best and of what sort it must be, to be most in
  accordance with our aspirations, if there were no
  external impediment, and also what kind of
  government is adapted to particular states.
  (Aristotle)

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The Origins

• Aristotle (normativeempirical investigations) In
  Book II of his Politics, Aristotle depicts both
  the ideal (Ch. 1-8) and the best existent
  states (Ch. 9-12), in which he considers Sparta,
  Creta, and the Carthaginian.
• Comparative study of 158 Greek constitutions

• Plato (normative political theory, or the ideal
  city)

The combinatin of both theory and empirical
studies makes Aristotle the founder of Western
political science
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Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, Ch. 1

• All states and all dominions that have had and
  continue to have power over men were and still
  are either hereditary or they are new. And the
  new ones are either completely new, as was Milan
  for Francesco Sforza, or they are like members
  added to the hereditary state of the prince who
  acquires them, as is the Kingdom of Naples for
  the King of Spain.

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Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, Ch. 1

• Dominions taken in this way are either used to
  living under a prince or are accustomed to being
  free and they are gained either by the arms of
  others or by ones own, either through Fortune or
  through cleverness.

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Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, Ch. 1

• I shall set aside any discussion of republics,
  because I treated them elsewhere at length. I
  shall consider solely the principality... And I
  shall discuss how these principalities can be
  governed and maintained. (79)

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Alexis de Tocqueville

• The more I advanced in the study of American
  society, the more I perceived that the equality
  of conditions is the fundamental fact from which
  all others seem to be derived...

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Alexis de Tocqueville

• I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere,
  where I imagined that I discerned something
  analogous to the spectacle which the New World
  presented to me. I observed that the equality of
  conditions is daily progressing towards those
  extreme limits, which it seems to have reached in
  the United States... It is evident to all alike
  that a great democratic revolution is going on
  among us (Introduction, p.3)

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The aim of practical politics is to surround any
given society with the greatest possible number
of circumstances of which the tendencies are
beneficial, and to remove or counteract, as far
as practicable, those of which the tendencies are
injurious. A knowledge of the tendencies... gives
us to a considerable extent this power. It
would, however, be an error to suppose that, even
with respect to tendencies, we could arrive in
this manner at any great number of propositions
which will be true in all societies without
exception. (John Stuart Mill)
John Stuart Mill, The System of Logic (1843)
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Main Approaches

• Curtis
• Systems Theory
• Communication Theory
• Structural Functionalism
• Behavioralism
• Rational Choice
• Institutional Analysis
• Statistical Analysis
• Political Development
• Dependency Theory
• Political Culture
• Political Attitudes
• Political Cleavages
• Globalization

• Lane
• Behavioral Revolution
• Developmentalism/Dependency
• The Return of the State
• (Historical and Rational Choice) New
  Institutionalism

They differ in the way of posing problems, the
choice of relevant dimensions, and their
methodological orientations
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Concepts Methods
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Giovanni Sartori Concept Misformation in
comparative politics.

• Concepts are our Data containers
• Despite the computer revolution and the
  availability of increasingly sophisticated
  statistical methods,We cannot measure before
  conceptualizing
• Concept formation stands prior to quantification

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Concepts Classifications in Comparative Politics

• Curtis Dimensions
• Background factors that influence politics
• Political process,
• Political institutions, and
• Public policy

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Party systems

• One party
• Two-Party
• Two party qualified (there is a 3rd important
  party)
• Multi-party
• Multi-party with dominant party
• Multi-party with dominant party

Can democracy flourish within a one-party system?
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Types of authority/leadership according to Max
Weber

• Charismatic
• Traditional
• Rational (Bureaucratic)

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Contemporary Classification of Regimes

• Constitutional Democracy
• Free elections, party competition, civil and
  political freedoms, subordination of the
  military, rule of law, judicial review
• Authoritarian Systems
• (minoritarian elites, generally military or
  supported upon the military, with no popular
  support economic but not political freedom)
• Totalitarianism
• Party regime supported on a strong leader.
  Totalizing controls over peoples behavior and
  activity, even economic
• Communist Regimes
• One party rule, state or collective ownership of
  the means of production

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Division of Powers (Functions)

• Legislative Involves discussion of public
  affairs and enactment of general rules and laws.
• ? Executive Involves the application of general
  rules to specific cases and the formulation of
  policy based on those rules.
• Judicial Involves resolution of disputes between
  individuals or between individuals and the state.

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?Forms of the Executive

• Parliamentary-Cabinet government the executive
  power derives from the legislative (exercised by
  a prime minister with the aid of a cabinet whose
  members belong to the parliament).
• Presidential System the head of the executive is
  elected independently of the legislature, and
  s/he appoints the cabinet.
• Consociation Democracy Sharing of government
  between different groups (coalition). Each group
  keeps autonomy in certain issues.
• Council Government Colective executive
  leadership, elected by the legislature.

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Political Representation

• Functional. Individuals are represented as
  members of a group. Ex French Third Estate,
  Corporatism and Neo-Corporatism, ethnic and
  linguistic groups.
• Territorial.
• Single Member Constituencies. Small geographic
  areas that elect only one representative. Ex
  U.S. Advantage more direct accountability.
  Disadvantage Tends to create a two- or even
  one-party system. Paradox the absolute of
  votes can be turned into a minority by this
  system
• Multimember Constituencies. Larger areas where
  representatives are chose according to the size
  of the population. (PR) Seats are allocated
  according to the share of the electoral vote.
  Advantage more political views are represented.
  Disadvantage Direct access to representatives is
  more difficult.

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Unitary vs. Federal (Forms of State)
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Basic Methodologica Jargon(Chart)
Variable
Unit of analysis
Indicator (i.e. Question How much money do
people in your household make every year?)
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Basic Methodological Jargon

• Unit of analysis. Objects on which we collect
  data. Ex countries, households, individuals,
  protests, etc.
• Variable. Concepts whose values change over a
  given set of units (ex sex, wealth, economic
  growth, party identification, etc.)
• Dimensions. sub-variables in complex variables
  whose values contribute to define the value of
  the variable (ex indicators of Human
  Development) .
• Valor. It is the state the variable assumes for
  each unit, and may be expressed in a number, a
  word, or an image (ex female, poor, 34,000
  per year.)
• Indicator is the procedure used for generating a
  value for the variable (ex a question in a
  survey)

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Variables Levels of Measurement.

• Nominal Variables Qualitative properties that
  characterize the unit of analysis (ex gender,
  nationality).
• Ordinal Variables qualitative properties that we
  can rank (ex poor, middle-class, rich grades
  A,B,C,D,E,F)
• Interval Variables the distance between the
  attributes is meaningful (it can be measured).
  (ex scores 92, 87,85, 65,56).

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Levels of analysis (units)

• Macro countries, governments, social classes,
  revolutions.
• (holism)
• Micro individuals
• (methodological individualism)

We can always aggregate data collected on a lower
level of analysis, but we cannot disaggregate
data collected on a higher level
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Dependent and Independent Variables

• Dependent variables are those whose variations we
  are trying to explain.
• Independent variables are those we use to explain
  portions of variation in the dependent variable.

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Quantitative /Qualitative Methods

• Quantitative methods show differences between
  units of analysis expressed in numbers.
• Qualitative methods show those differences
  expressed in kind.

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Many cases, a few cases, single case studies?
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Many Cases

• The majority of studies that compare many
  countries use quantitative methods.
• Variable-oriented examine the relationship
  between variables at a global level of analysis.
• The more cases we have, the stronger the
  inferences we can make.
• Helps to identify deviant cases.
• The qualitative study of many cases is difficult
  (generally historical, requires A LOT of data)

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A few Cases

• Need of carefully selecting the cases.
• 2 main approaches (drawn from John Stuart Mills
• Most similar systems design (MSSD) seeks to
  identify the key features that are different
  among similar countries and which account for the
  observed political outcome. Suited for Area
  Studies (ex Latin American Democracies).
• Most different systems design (MDSD) comparison
  of cases that only share a certain political
  outcome, and one or two explanatory factors
  considered crucial to generate the outcome.
  Comparisons accross different regions

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Single Case Studies

• The study of a single case is considered
  comparative if it uses or develops concepts
  applicable to other cases, and/or seeks to make
  larger inferences.
• Contextual description
• clinical studies in medicine.
• Ideal to examine deviant cases, to generate
  hypotheses, to develop new classifications.
• Inferences based upon one case are less secure