Goal

1
AP Comp Day 2 3 groups

• Goal to understand why we use comparative
  analysis in political science, to understand the
  methods of comparison available and the methods
  we will use in this course.
• Questions from homework?
• What is Politics? What will we need to analyze
  to understand politics in general and in any
  particular case?
• Why compare? What are the benefits to
  comparison according to Kesselman (textbook),
  McCormick (AR 11 p 66 - 68) and A and P (AR 9 p
  31-32)
• Review 5 Substantive Topics from pdf P5-13our
  method
• Presentation groups and country selection
• Key Terms - differentiate between state,
  government, nation and regime
• How will we compare in this course?
• Read AR 8 p 24-31 - Systems Theory,
  Structural-Functional, Historical, Typological
• Evaluate pros and cons of each method
• Finish or reread AR 11 p 67-69 how to compare?
  Why STs?

2
Politics is the processes, actions and
relationships between individuals and groups to
make collective decisions. Usually these are
focused on answering the questions 1) Who gets
what (of scarce resources), when, where and how?
(another way of asking this is what should govt
do and how should it do it?) 2) How does who
get decided?
But politics are also the effects of the answers
to these questions Conflict arises over the
answers to the above two questions and politics
are also the management of these different, and
resultant conflicts
Therefore, if the above is an acceptable answer
to what is politics, then what conclusions can we
draw about what needs to be studied in order to
understand politics and comparative politics?
3

• Need to study among other things
• processes of making policies and putting them
  into effect.
• actors involved in making and implementing policy
• Sources and methods of information used to make
  policy
• Environment (political, cultural, geographical,
  demographic, economic) in which policies are made
• Methods and biases in policy-maker selection
• Conflict and cooperation methods, prevalence,
  role, actors
• Systems and structures influencing and influenced
  by policy-making
• Therefore we will use the College Boards
  Substantive Topic framework

4
Substantive Topics and AP Terminology
Sovereignty, Authority, Power, Political Institutions Citizens, Society State Political and economic Change Public Policy

Identify the key questions that each of the above
STs asks you to understand about each of the
nation-state case studies. Use the STs to
analyze what you know of the US political system.

5
Why compare?

• Kesselman to better understand how
  globalization-caused interdependence affects us
• To help prognosticate the direction countries and
  the world are going and then how best to address
  this future
• Gain the analytical skills and tools to better
  understand ourselves and our domestic situation.
• To develop understanding about politics in general

• McCormick make sense of the world
• understand ourselves
• develop many more options to address similar
  problems
• broaden our horizons about other people,
  cultures, values and methods to break down
  prejudice and misunderstandings to lessen
  potential for conflict (or promote cooperation)
• develop rules about politics

• Almond Powell to better understand specific
  factors that have led to different aspects of
  political systems.
• Helps us develop solutions to public policy
  problems
• Helps us to understand and address changes

6

• Groups for Presentation 1 / Presentation 2
• United Kingdom/ Mexico
• Russian Federation/ Iran
• Peoples Republic of China/ Nigeria
• Debates will be between these two grouped
  countries
• You will be a team of business development
  consultants tasked with determining in which of
  the two countries a business should develop a
  foreign subsidiary.

7
State collection of all individuals, groups and
institutions involved in making, implementing and
adjudicating public policies. Government
members of the temporary administration
generally the executive branch Nation - group of
people with common language, culture, identity
and affinity to land, Regime the system of
rules under which the political system operates
8
Political System collection of institutions
involved in the creation and implementation of
public policy System-environment approach- focus
on general process and interaction between
inputs, decision-making, outputs, feedback and
the environment
Structural-functional approach focus on the
process within each step in the system - the who
and how each of inputs, decisions and outputs
AND the evaluation of the effectiveness of the
entire system in maintaining the regime and
providing for the satisfaction of its people
Typology approach focus on comparing the
various types of govt from authoritarian to
democratic. Here system theory is augmented by
categorization to better evaluate the success of
various types and their strengths and weaknesses
relative to each other
Historical Approach looking at the past to
better understand where the political system will
go in the future. Probably includes study of the
political culture as it interacts with the
political system
9
Political system
10
Regime type
structure-function
Political system
11
outcomes
System Functions
outputs
Policy functions
inputs
aggregation
implementation
articulation
Policy making
feedback
outputs
outcomes
Foreign state
12
Legitimacy

• A significant segment of the citizenry must
  believe that the state acts with some moral
  authority. People believe that the state has the
  right to issue rules binding for people within
  their borders - Kesselman

• People believe that rules should be followed
  voluntarily because they are in the best
  interests of all citizens. Palmer

• People have the feeling that the regimes rule
  is rightful and should be obeyed.- Roskin

Some key legitimizing factors Transparency,
free elections, compatibility of system with
culture, open and free press, economic success,
improved living standards, rule of law, access to
quality public services, civil rights,
responsiveness to inputs, civil society,
accountability, political efficacy,