POL2104 - Introduction to Comparative Politics

O’Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, Introduction

● Comparative politics is the study and comparison of domestic policies across countries
● It can be contrasted with international relations. As comparative politics looks at politics
inside countries like elections and political parties, international relations focuses on
relations between countries like foreign policy, war, trade, and foreign aid.
● Comparative politics is considered through the concept of institutions, organizations that
are valued for their own purpose. They play a crucial role in maintaining the rules, norms,
and structures we live in.
● Politics is the struggle in any group for power that will give one or more persons the
ability to make decisions for their larger group.
● Power and politics go hand in hand, as power is the ability to influence others and impose
one’s will on them. Dictatorships are a good example of this; a dictator has absolute
power over the laws and people of their regime.
● Researchers who seek out problems in politics are guided by some comparative method, a
way to compare cases and draw conclusions.
● Inductive reasoning is the means by which we go from studying a case to generating a
hypothesis.
● Comparative politics can also rely on deductive reasoning, starting with a puzzle and
from there generating some hypotheses about cause and effect to test against several
cases.
● Multicausality is the result of several variables interacting with each other to produce
particular outcomes.
● Major thinkers in comparative politics are Aristotle (384-322 BCE) who separated the
study of politics from that of philosophy and used comparative method to study Greek
city-states in The Politics.
● Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) is often cited as the first modern political scientist
because of his emphasis on statecraft and empirical knowledge, and analyzed different
political systems.
● Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) developed the notion of a social construct.
● John Locke (1632-1704) argued that private property is essential to individual freedom
and prosperity.
● Charles-Louis De Secondat (1689-1755) studied government systems and advocated for
the separation of powers within government.
● Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) argued that citizens' rights cannot be taken away by
the state.
● Karl Marx (1818-1883) described a theory of economic development and inequality
which later predicted the eventual collapse of capitalism and democracy.
 ● Max Weber (1864-1920) wrote about topics such as bureaucracy, forms of authority, and
the impact of culture on economic and political development.
● The traditional approach is an emphasis on describing political systems and their various
institutions.
● Behavioural revolution is the shift from a descriptive study of politics to one that
emphasizes causality, explanation and prediction. It predicts the political behaviour of the
individual rather than large political structures.

Patrick H. O’Neil, Karl Fields and Don Share, Cases in Comparative Politics, 6th Ed,
Introduction
● States are organizations that maintain a monopoly of violence over a territory. The term
state can be confusing because it sometimes refers to a subnational government (for
example, any of the 50 states in the United States). Political scientists, however, use state
to refer to a national organization.
● States differ in their ability to preserve their sovereignty and carry out the functions of
maintaining law and order. Strong states can perform the tasks of defending their borders
from outside attacks and defending their authority from internal nonstate rivals.
● Weak states have trouble carrying out those basic tasks and often suffer from endemic
internal violence, poor infrastructure, and the inability to collect taxes and enforce the
rule of law. High levels of corruption are often a symptom of state weakness.
● Weak states may experience a complete loss of legitimacy and power and may be
overwhelmed by anarchy and violence.
● Political scientists refer to those relatively rare cases as failed states.
● Political regimes are the norms and rules regarding individual freedoms and collective
equality, the locus of power, and the use of that power.
● Democratic regimes have rules that emphasize a large role for the public in governance,
protect basic rights and freedoms, and attempt to ensure basic transparency of and
accountability for government actions.
● Authoritarian regimes limit the role of the public in decision making, often deny citizens’
basic rights, and restrict their freedoms.
● Most political regimes, whether democratic or not, establish a number of political
institutions. Students of comparative politics must learn to identify and distinguish these
institutions precisely.
● The executive is the branch of government that carries out the laws and policies of a
given state. We can think of the executive branch as performing two separate sets of
duties.
● On the one hand, the head of state symbolizes and represents the people, both nationally
and internationally, embodying and articulating the goals of the regime. On the other
hand, the head of government deals with the everyday tasks of running the state, such as
formulating and executing policy.
 ● The distinction between those roles is most easily seen in, for example, France, Germany,
India, Japan, and the United Kingdom, which have separate heads of state and heads of
government.
● The legislature is the branch of government formally charged with making laws.
● Anarchism is an ideology based on the belief that private property and capitalism lead to
inequality; however, like liberals, anarchists place a high value on individual political
freedom
● Communism is an ideology that emphasizes creating economic equality instead of
ensuring individual political and economic freedoms.
● Fascism is an ideology that is hostile to the idea of individual freedom and rejects the
notion of equality
● Fundamentalism is an ideology that seeks to unite religion with the state so as to make
religion the sovereign authority.

O’Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, Ch. 2

● Pakistan, since 2008 has been under civilian rule rather than direct military rule (although
the military retains substantial political powers)
● Despite this, Pakistan has failed to keep up with demand, which has been made worse
due to bureaucratic infighting and poor management, including the inability to collect
payments.
● German scholar Max Weber describes the state as the organization that maintains a
monopoly of force over a territory.
● One of the most important elements of a state is sovereignty, which is the ability to carry
out actions and policies within a territory independently of external actors and internal
rivals.
● The state must be able to act as the main authority over its territory and people, through
laws, rights, resolving disputes, and generating domestic security.
● A state requires power to achieve this; without power, its rivals will interfere with its
authority.
● Infighting or facing opponents in their own territory, like organized crime/rebel
movements, their rules and policies may be undermined.
● States use armies to remain in control and keep everything in line.
● The word police originates from a French word meaning “to govern.”
● A state is a set of institutions that wields the most force within a territory.
● A regime is the fundamental rules and norms of politics. It involves the long-term goals
that guide the state regarding individual freedom and collection equality, where power
should reside, and how power should be used.
● There are different types of regimes, most commonly a democratic regime and a non-
democratic regime. In a democratic regime, the rules and norms of politics give the
public a large role in governance, such as individual rights and liberties. In a non-
democratic regime limits on public participation and a favouring of power.
● Regimes differ in how power is decided and the relationship between freedom and
equality. The non-democratic regime in China is not the same as the non-democratic
regime in Cuba.
● Government can be defined as the leadership that runs the state. If the state is the
machinery of politics, and the regime is the programming of politics, then the
government operates the machinery.
● The government consists of democratically elected legislators, presidents, and prime
ministers, or can be made up of leaders who gained office through force or other non-
democratic means.
● A country is the political system that combines the state, regime, government and the
people who live in that system.
● Governments, regimes, and states, while relatively new in human history, studies show
that human organization has existed for over 200,000 years.
● Originating from tribes and families, the human population originates from Africa and
migrated outward 100,000 years ago. Around 10,000 years ago, agriculture and sedentary
communities formed in the Middle East.
● Two types of political organization are consensus and coercion. Consensus is when
individuals band together to protect themselves and create common rules, and leadership
is chosen from among the people. Security through cooperation > Democratic rule.
Coercion is when individuals are brought together by a ruler, who imposes authority and
monopolizes power. Security through domination > Authoritarian rule.
● Legitimacy is a value whereby something or someone is recognized and accepted as right
and proper.
● Traditional legitimacy is the idea that someone or something is valid because “it has
always been that way.” Meaning that legitimacy is built on certain aspects of politics are
the norm because they have existed for a long time.
● Charismatic legitimacy contrasts with traditional legitimacy in that people can persuade
the public through ideas and the manner in which they present themselves.
● Rational-legal legitimacy is a system of laws and procedures that are presumed to be
neutral or rational. Leaders/political officials gain legitimacy through the rules by which
they come to office.
● Asymmetric federalism is power divided unevenly between regional bodies, some
regions are given more power over taxation and language rights than others.
● Unitary states have political power concentrated at the national level and local authority
is limited.
● Devolution is viewed as a way to increase state legitimacy by moving political power
closer to the people.
● Federalism is the system of government in which several states form a unity but remain
independent in internal affairs.
● Capacity is the ability of the state to wield power in order to carry out the basic tasks of
providing security and reconciling freedom and equality.
 ● Autonomy is the ability of the state to wield its power independently of the public or
international actors.

01/20/26 - The Modern State

● There is no such thing as a society without institutions. Even if a formal institution does
not exist, there must be a generally accepted order for passing decisions.
● States are formal, and highly institutionalized. They follow a modern, Western European
model.
● States have permanent populations and they have the monopoly of legitimate use of force
internally & externally. For a state to officially exist, they must be recognized by other
states.
● Humans followed sedentation (nomadic lifestyle) over 27,000 years, later over 12,000
years, they adopted agriculture. This shift led to food production, animal domestication,
trade, population growth/institutionalization.
● An early large state known as Sumer, located in Southern Mesopotamia (now in south-
central Iraq)
● The philosophical origins of the modern state emerges from 3 social contract theories
created by three philosophers, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
● Thomas Hobbes’s theory explained how human nature is wicked, and the state of nature
is dangerous. Individual transfer of power to a sovereign, leading to a rule with absolute
power.
● John Locke, opposite Hobbes, states that human nature is good and that the state of
nature is mostly safe but risky. Partial transfer of power to assembly and a periodic vote
to renew the assembly.
● Jean-Jacques Rousseau theory of social contract describes human nature as good. State of
nature is mostly safe but risky. Pre-existing societies corrupt goodness.
● The historical origins begin with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. During the
middle ages (476AD - 1400s), major conflicts within clans which led to a loss of Greek
& Roman philosophy except for Christianity
● Many states competed with each other for territorial expansion. Despite this, a
renaissance led to the rediscovery of Greek and Roman heritage.
● The functions of the modern state use power as the capacity to make someone do
something or to affect the outcome of a process
● Power takes the form of force/coercion, influence, persuasion, and manipulation.

O’Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, Ch. 5

● Democracy can be defined as political power exercised either directly or indirectly by the
people through participation, competition and liberty.
● Liberal democracy indicates a system that promotes participation, competition, and
liberty. Many liberal democracies have social-democratic political-economic systems that
emphasize collective welfare far more than individual rights, thereby curtail individual
freedoms in favour of greater equality.
● The Roman Empire laid the foundation for republicanism, which established the
separation of powers within a state and the principle of representation in government.
● Direct democracy is the public participating in governance and policy making;
historically originated from ancient Athens.
● Indirect democracy is participation through elected representatives; this is the prevalent
form of democracy in the modern age.
● The head of state is a role that symbolizes and represents the people, both nationally and
internationally, embodying the roles of the regime.
● The head of government deals with the tasks of running the state, such as domestic policy
and assigning a cabinet of ministers who are charged with specific policy areas
(education or agriculture)
● The legislature is the body in which national politics are considered and debated.
● Bicameral systems are legislatures that contain two houses, whereas unicameral systems
are those with one house.
● The three branches of government are the executive, the legislative, and the constitutional
court. The executive serves as the head of state/government, and is in parliamentary,
presidential, and semi-presidential systems. Term length can be fixed (president) or not
(prime minister). Legislative is lawmaking and can be unicameral or bicameral. The
Constitutional Court determines the constitutionality of laws and acts judicial review
(abstract & concrete)
● The rule of law is the sovereignty of law over the people and elected officials.
● In a concrete review of the constitutional court, courts consider the constitutionality of
legislation only in a specific court case. Abstract review allows for the court to consider
the constitutionality without a specific court case.
● In parliamentary systems, prime ministers and their cabinets come from the legislature
and must command a majority of support to stay in office. In presidential systems,
however, the president and members of the legislature serve for fixed terms, typically
between four and seven years. Election dates may not be altered easily. Nor can
presidents or legislatures be removed by anything resembling a vote of no confidence.
● Semi-presidential systems tend to reflect the old distinction between “reign” and “rule”
that existed under monarchies. Presidents will often set forth policy but expect the prime
minister to translate those policy ideas into legislation and ensure that it is passed.
Presidents will also take the lead in foreign policy and serve as commander in chief,
representing the country in international relations.
● All democracies divide their populations geographically into several electoral districts or
constituencies—each a geographic area that an elected official represents.
 ● The term civil rights typically refers to the promotion of equality, whereas the term civil
liberties refers to the promotion of freedom, though the two overlap. Civil rights and
liberties include free speech and movement, the right to religious belief, the right of
public assembly and organization, equal treatment under the law, the prevention of
inhumane punishment, the right to a fair trial, the right to-privacy, and the right of people
to choose their own government.

O’Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, Ch. 8

● Developed democracies are politically stable, high-income countries characterized by
free, fair, and regular elections, strict rule of law, and robust protection of civil liberties.
These systems typically feature high citizen participation, pluralistic party systems, and
independent judiciaries, with examples often including Norway, Sweden, New Zealand,
and Canada.
● An intergovernmental system involves formal and informal relationships, negotiations,
and collaboration between different levels of government—typically federal,
provincial/state, and territorial—to manage policy, share information, and deliver public
services
● A supranational system is an international union where member states cede partial
sovereignty to a higher authority, which makes binding decisions on shared economic,
legal, or political matters. Unlike intergovernmental organizations that rely on voluntary
cooperation, supranational bodies can override national laws in specific areas.

O’Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, Ch. 6

● Scholars define non-democratic regimes as those in which a political regime is controlled
by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being
constitutionally responsible to the public.
● In nondemocratic regimes, the public plays no role in selecting or removing leaders from
office.
● Political leaders in nondemocratic regimes have much greater leeway to develop policies
that they dictate to the people.
● They are built around the restriction of individual freedom.
● Some nondemocratic regimes, such as communist ones, limit individual freedom in order
to produce greater economic equality.
● Totalitarianism is a form of nondemocratic rule with a highly centralized state whose
regime has a well-defined ideology and seeks to transform and fuse the institutions of
state, society and the economy. The main objective of this rule is to use power to
transform the total institutional fabric of a country to meet an ideological goal.
● There is a strong correlation between societies that lack modern institutions and
nondemocratic rule.
 ● The resource curse refers to countries that are rich in resources, which tend to be
underdeveloped or nondemocratic.
● Populism describes how elites and established institutions do not carry the will of the
people, and that a new movement, free from ideology and led by a charismatic leader, can
usher in a new order.
● Corporatism emerged as a method by which nondemocratic regimes attempted to solidify
their control over the public by creating or sanctioning a limited number of organizations
to represent the interests of the public and restricting those not set up or approved by the
state.
● Clientelism is where the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific
benefits to people in return for public support (like voting in elections)
● Rent seeking is defined as privileged economic benefits mediated by political power.
● Kleptocracy is the rule by theft, meaning that those in power seek only to drain the state
of assets and resources. Russia & Zimbabwe are good examples of kleptocracy.
● Personality cult refers to the promotion of a leader not merely as a political figure but as
someone who embodies the spirit of the nation.
● Patrimonialism is seen as a narrowed form of clientelism, since a patrimonial leader
trades benefits for political support.
● Bureaucratic authoritarianism is a regime in which the state bureaucracy and the military
share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective, and technical
expertise, can solve the problems of the country.
● Personal and monarchical rule is ruled by a single leader with no clear regime or rules
constraining that leadership.
● Military rule is ruled by one or more military officials, often brought into power through
a coup d’etat.
● One-party rule is a rule by one political party that bans or excludes other groups from
power.
● Theocracy is the rule of God, and holy texts serve as the foundation for the regime and
politics.
● Illiberal regimes are ruled by an elected leadership through procedures of questionable
democratic legitimacy.
●

01/27/26 - Democratic state/Democratization

● The conception of the word democracy comes from Greek words (demos + kratia),
meaning the people get to decide.
● The main issues of democracy are deciding who should rule, limits to power, selection
process
● The extent of freedom, and the state's's treatment of people, dissenters, and groups.
● The treatment of individuals between groups by others in society.
 ● The precursors from democracy come from Ancient Athens (400s - 300s BC), which
adopted direct democracy ( a system where citizens directly vote on laws, policies,
regulations, rather than electing representatives).
● Political participation is estimated to be around 10% - 20% of the citizens, adult male
citizens were allowed to vote, and periodic convocations for voting were put in place.
● They were divided in groups, the ecclesia (assembly), the boule (counsel), and
magistrates chosen by lottery
● The roman empire also adopted democracy (509BC - 27 BC) and chose to adopt a
representative democracy (electing members to vote on behalf of the people).
● Res publica refers to the commonwealth of the state.
● This system was divided in groups consisting of the senate, comitiae (assemblies), two
consuls, and office magistrates.

01/30/25 - Emergence of Democratization

● The emergence of democratization arose from protestant reformation , rediscovery of
Athenian & Roman texts (Renaissance), the invention of the printing press, and
capitalism. The translation of the bible was a catalyst to democracy. The emergence of
capitalism generated wealth in parts of Europe.
● The case of modern democracy comes from all these developments
● Democracy is representative, participating through people/elections.
● Elections, however, do not always mean democracy as it’s possible there is intimidation
of parties/candidates, vote secrecy, special permission for candidates, etc.
● Liberalism is fundamental to modern democracy. It puts an emphasis on freedom, on
protection of individuals and minority groups.
● It allows for civil rights such as freedom of conscience, speech, association, private
property (development of capitalism), and equality.
● Political rights include the right to choose rules, vote equality, vote secrecy, and the right
to run office.
● Illiberal democracy is democracy that you cannot define as dictatorship or authoritarian.
Prior to illiberalism, there were 3 types of regimes: liberal democratic, authoritarian
( most common), totalitarian (communist).
● Illiberalism struggles with majority rule & populism (an approach that appeals to
ordinary people so that their concerns are not overlooked in favor of the elites).
● The concept of contemporary democratization is linked to Samuel Huntington’s book
The Third Wave which identified democracy, locus of authority, purpose of political
authority, procedure to determine authority.
● Huntington defined democracy as the most powerful collective decision makers are
selected through fair, honest, and periodic elections in which candidates freely compete
for votes and in which virtually all the adult populations are eligible to vote.
 ● His “waves of democracy” go as follows, the first wave in 1826-1926, first reverse wave
1922-1942, the second short wave 1943-1962, second reverse wave 1958-1972, and the
third wave 1972-present.
● Elite pacts describe how the wealthy and powerful are never united. It is a mutual
agreement to create a political framework to institutionalize conflict.
● Mass mobilization is a large, organized engagement to civilians to affect social, political,
and economic change.
● The imposition from outside is the imposing of rules, values by a government,
organization, or foreign power. It disregards local, internal, personal priorities.
● This policy typically occurs when a country defeats another country, and occupies the
state for a period of time, most commonly in World War 2 Germany invading Poland.

02/03/26 - Authoritarian/Totalitarian States

● The most common state type is authoritarian states, still present all over the world.
● States never make changes themselves through power with coercion but require support
and a genuine respect of leaders.
● Authoritarian states are equally “left-wing” and “right-wing”.
● Non-democratic regimes are those in which a political regime is controlled by a small
group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally
responsible to the public.
● In a non-democratic state, the rules have greater freedom and are able to impose what
they believe. Their capacity to dictate laws, and rules.
● The downside of economic development is that wealth is concentrated in elites, and elite
pacts exist in authoritarianism.
● Natural resources are the #1 source of wealth but is controlled by the elites. These natural
resources are also needed by other countries.
●

O’Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, Ch. 3

● In the previous chapter we addressed the question of why Pakistan has slid toward state
failure. In that discussion, we made some comparisons with India because the two states
were part of a single country under British rule until 1947. Both countries faced similar
challenges, including poverty, ethnic diversity, a weak state, and linguistic and regional
differences.
● On independence, India was forced to contend with several major religious divisions,
including those between Hindus and Muslims and between Christians and Sikhs; at least
10 major languages; hundreds, if not thousands, of caste divisions (hereditary classes);
and the sheer size of the country, the seventh largest in the world geographically and the
second largest in population (then and now). In the course of partition, approximately 15
 million people moved between India and Pakistan, a situation that led to hundreds of
thousands of deaths from ethnic and religious violence.
● Following partition, India continued to face internal threats to its stability and
sovereignty. For example, jurisdiction of the former Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir
was contested by Pakistan because of the former state’s overwhelmingly Muslim
population. Many Indian Kashmiris have continued to seek greater autonomy within
India, unification with Pakistan, or outright independence. Adherents of the Sikh religion
(established in India in the fifteenth century) similarly agitated for greater rights and
complained of discrimination in the Hindu-majority country.
● Society is a broad term that refers to complex human organization, a collection of people
bound by shared institutions that define how human relations should be conducted. From
country to country and place to place, societies differ in how individuals define
themselves and their relationships to one another, to government, and to the state.
● Each relationship is unique; for all the surface similarities that may exist between
societies, each country views itself and the wider world around it in a distinct way. These
differences make comparative politics a rich field of study but also a frustrating one, as
social scientists seek to find similarities that are often few and far between.
● Ethnicity, nationality, and citizenship are group identities, political attitudes and
ideologies are the values individuals hold and the positions they take regarding freedom
and equality.
● Many social scientists argue that identities exist independent of any biological functions
and are a set of “social constructions” that have emerged largely in the modern era.
● When we use the term ethnic identity or ethnicity, we emphasize a person's relation to
other members of society.
● Ascription is the assigning of a particular quality at birth, or a quality about oneself that
one does not choose. People do not choose their ethnicities; they are born into them, and
their ethnic identity remains largely stable throughout life, though as with many
identities, the borders between ethnic groups may be more blurry than we think.
● Each ethnic group is characterized by a set of institutions that embody norms and
standards of behavior, and a single society can be broken up into numerous ethnic groups.
● For example, Singaporean society is made up of ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians.
Most countries in the world are not ethnically homogeneous; rarely are society and
ethnicity one and the same.
● Societies are made up of various ethnic groups—in some cases only a few, in other cases
tens or even hundreds, each with its own identity, as in the case of India.
● It is important to note that ethnicity is at its core a social, not a political, identity.
● People may identify with an ethnic group without drawing any particular conclusions
about politics on that basis. Ethnicity and the solidarity it provides is not inherently
political, though it can become so.
● In contrast to ethnicity, which may be constructed in a unique manner from group to
group and is not an inherently political concept, the idea of a nation - a group that desires
 sovereignty, often (though not always) through an independent state is largely consistent
from case to case and is inherently political.
● If ethnic identity is a set of institutions that bind people together through a common
culture, then national identity is an institution that binds people together through common
political aspirations.
● National identity can create nationalism, a pride in one’s people and the belief that they
have a unique, sovereign political destiny.
● In Québec, we find people who have a clear ethnic identity as well as elements of
nationalism, a group that desires sovereignty.
● This lack of clarity between ethnicity and national identity is also evident in other
groups, such as the Scots in the United Kingdom, who similarly held an unsuccessful
referendum for independence in September 2014 and who may put forth another vote in
the coming years.
● Citizenship can be defined as an individual's or group’s relation to the state; those who
are citizens swear allegiance to that state, and the state in return is obligated to provide
rights to those individuals or the members of that group.
● Citizenship can also convey certain obligations, such as the duty to serve in the armed
forces or pay taxes. Citizens are therefore defined by their particular relation to one state
rather than to one another. Although citizenship is often (though not always) gained at
birth, it has qualities quite separate from those of ethnic or national identity.
● Citizenship is a potentially more inclusive or flexible concept than national or ethnic
identity. Like those two identities, however, citizenship can vary in clarity and power.
Citizenship may confer a host of benefits, such as education and health care, or relatively
few, depending on the state.
● Citizenship, in turn, can give rise to patriotism, or pride in one’s state. People are
patriotic when they have pride in their political system and seek to defend and promote it.
● When we think of patriotism, some of the things that may come to mind are flags,
important historical events, wars, anthems, anything that people associate with politics
and the state. It can be hard to separate the definitions of patriotism and nationalism; in
fact, our earlier discussion of “civic nationalism” sounds very much like patriotism.
● Ethnic conflict can be defined as conflict between ethnic groups that struggle to achieve
certain political or economic goals at each other’s expense.
● Each group may hope to increase its power by gaining greater control over existing
political institutions like the state or government.
● By contrast, groups involved in national conflict seek to gain (or prevent the other from
gaining) sovereignty, clashing with one another over issues of autonomy, such as the
quest to form an independent state. In both of these cases, violence is a common tool for
using, bypassing, or destroying the coercive powers of the state.
● Political attitudes describe views regarding the necessary pace and scope of change in the
balance between freedom and equality. Attitudes are typically broken up into the
 categories of radical, liberal, conservative, and reactionary and are often arrayed on a
spectrum from left to right.
● Radicals believe in dramatic, often revolutionary change of the existing political, social,
or economic order. Radicals believe that the current system is broken and cannot simply
be improved or repaired.
● Liberals favor evolutionary change. In the liberal view, progressive change can happen
through changes within the system; it does not require an overthrow of the system itself.
Moreover, liberals part from radicals in their belief that existing institutions can be
instruments of positive change.
● For our purposes, political ideologies are defined as sets of political values held by
individuals regarding the fundamental goals of politics.
● Liberalism as an ideology (rather than as a political attitude) places a high priority on
individual political and economic freedom. Adherents of a liberal ideology believe that
politics should seek to create the maximum degree of liberty for all people, including free
speech, the right of association, and other basic political rights.
● Liberal democracy is a system of political, social, and economic liberties, supported by
competition, participation, and contestation (such as voting).
● Communism differs greatly from liberalism in its view of freedom and equality. Whereas
liberalism enshrines individual freedom over equality, communism rejects the idea that
personal freedom will ensure prosperity for the majority.
● Social democracy (sometimes called socialism, though that term often has a distinct and
separate meaning) draws from ideas connected to both communism and liberalism to
form its own distinct ideology.
● Fascism is hostile to the idea of individual freedom and also rejects the notion of equality.
Instead, fascism rests on the idea that people and groups can be classified in terms of
inferiority and superiority, justifying a hierarchy among them.
● Anarchism departs from these other ideologies quite drastically. If liberalism,
communism, and fascism differ over how powerful the state should be, anarchism rejects
the notion of the state altogether. Anarchists share with communists the belief that private
property leads to inequality, but they are opposed to the idea that the state can solve this
problem.
● Fundamentalism as an ideology seeks to unite religion with the state or, rather, to make
faith the sovereign authority.
● Political culture, in turn, refers to a society's norms for political activity.

Why Nationalism Works: And Why It Isn’t Going Away

● Nationalism has a bad reputation today. It is, in the minds of many educated Westerners,
a dangerous ideology. Some acknowledge the virtues of patriotism, understood as the
benign affection for one's homeland; at the same time, they see nationalism as narrow-
minded and immoral, promoting blind loyalty to a country over deeper commitments to
justice and humanity.
 ● German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier put this view in stark terms: "Nationalism,"
he said, "is an ideological poison."
● In a thinly veiled shot at U.S. President Donald Trump, a self-described nationalist,
French President Emmanuel Macron declared last November that "nationalism is a
betrayal of patriotism."
● At their core, all forms of nationalism share the same two tenets: first, that members of
the nation, understood as a group of equal citizens with a shared history and future
political destiny, should rule the state, and second, that they should do so in the interests
of the nation.
● Nationalism is thus opposed to foreign rule by members of other nations, as in colonial
empires and many dynastic kingdoms, as well as to rulers who disregard the perspectives
and needs of the majority.
● Over the past two centuries, nationalism has been combined with all manner of other
political ideologies. Liberal nationalism flourished in nineteenth-century Europe and
Latin America, fascist nationalism triumphed in Italy and Germany during the interwar
period, and Marxist nationalism motivated the anticolonial movements that spread across
the "global South" after the end of World War II. Today, nearly everyone, left and right,
accepts the legitimacy of nationalism's two basic tenets.
● Nationalism is a relatively recent invention. In 1750, vast multinational empires --
Austrian, British, Chinese, French, Ottoman, Russian, and Spanish-governed most of the
world.
● But then came the American Revolution, in 1775, and the French Revolution, in 1789.
The doctrine of nationalism -- rule in the name of a nationally defined people -- spread
gradually across the globe. Over the next two centuries, empire after empire dissolved
into a series of nation-states. In 1900, roughly 35 percent of the globe's surface was
governed by nation-states; by 1950, it was already 70 percent. Today, only half a dozen
dynastic kingdoms and theocracies remain.
● One of these was democracy, which flourished where national identity was able to
supersede other identities, such as those centered on religious, ethnic, or tribal
communities. Nationalism provided the answer to the classic boundary question of
democracy: Who are the people in whose name the government should rule? By limiting
the franchise to members of the nation and excluding foreigners from voting, democracy
and nationalism entered an enduring marriage
● At the same time as nationalism established a new hierarchy of rights between members
(citizens) and nonmembers (foreigners), it tended to promote equality within the nation
itself. Because nationalist ideology holds that the people represent a united body without
differences of status, it reinforced the Enlightenment ideal that all citizens should be
equal in the eyes of the law.

02/13/26 - 02/13/26 - Ethnic Identities

● Human communities have been around well over 10,000 years.
 ● Modernism was a largely Western, cultural and artistic movement in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries that broke from traditional, 19th-century conventions to reflect the
realities of a modern, industrialized society. It emphasized innovation, experimentation,
and a rejection of realism in favor of abstraction, functionality, and new forms of
expression.
● Perennialism is a traditional educational philosophy and school of thought positing that
education should focus on universal, everlasting truths and timeless ideas that have
persisted for centuries. It emphasizes developing the rational mind through the study of
"Great Books," liberal arts, and classic literature, rather than current, transient facts.
● Primordialism is a theory in sociology and political science proposing that ethnic and
national identities are fixed, natural, and ancient, rather than constructed. It argues that
deep, inherited ties, such as kinship, language, and shared history create profound
emotional bonds and immutable, inborn identities.
● Ethno-symbolism is a school of thought in nationalism studies, primarily developed by
Anthony D. Smith, that emphasizes the role of pre-existing myths, memories, symbols,
and traditions derived from earlier ethnies (ethnic communities) in shaping modern
nations. It bridges the gap between modernist and primordialist views, arguing that while
nations are modern, they are built on enduring cultural foundations.

02/24/26 - Political Culture

● Almond & Verba’s “civic culture” in 1945 focused on popular demand for participation.
● It involved decolonization, new countries, state-building, nation-building.
● The great ideas of democracy—the freedoms and dignities of the individual, the principle
of government by consent of the governed —are elevating and inspiring. They capture
the imaginations of many of the leaders of the new states and of the modernizing older
ones.” (Almond and Verba 1989[1963],p. 3)
● “The term ‘political culture’ thus refers to the specifically political orientations—attitudes
toward the political system and its various parts, and attitudes toward the role of the self
in the system.... It is a set of orientations toward a special set of social objects and
processes.” (Almond and Verba 1989[1963], p. 12)
● The first dimension of political culture is knowledge and cognitive orientation implies
what citizens know and the existence of the political system. It also entails histroical
facts, institutions and rules.
● The second dimension of political culture is feelings and affective orientation. It
describes a general and spontaneous attitude toward political objects. It studies pride in
country, expectation of treatment and consideration by government and police, openness
of state towsard popular views, duty to participate, a sense of competence and relation
with fellow citizens.
 ● The third dimension of political xculture is judgment which is evaluative orientation and
combines knowledge and feelings. Thinking through the merits and voicing opinions
when asked.
● The first type of political culture is parochial which means relating to a church parish or
parish as a unit of local government.
● It has little or no awareness of central institutions. Political life is local with little social
distance between rules and rule. Expectation of benefit from rules, expectation to be
lsitened to, ands expectation of social transformation.
● The second type of political culture is subject, which is the awareness of central
institutions. The knowledge of the political process and little expectation and attempt to
participate.
● The third type of political culture is participatory and it is the awareness of central
institutions, feelings of competence, definite feelings and judgments regarding rulers &
institutions. It comes with high expectations such as popular sovereignty and use of
mechanisms to be heard.
● There is always a mix of political culture, never pure and has political subcultures.
● Civic culture has a participatory and subject and has a congruent political culture.
● The influence* of Abraham Maslow’s work
● ◦ humanistic psychology
● ◦ source(s) of life satisfaction/happiness/meaning
● ◦ personal desires & aspirations
● ◦ group identity, group affirmation & group recognition.
● Developing & communist countries
● ◦ national independence movements
● ◦ choice of political regime & economic system Developed world (“the West”)
● ◦ already a basis for self-expression
● ◦ liberal democracy as enabling environment
● ◦ cultural fragmentation of nations ◦ not one nation
● ◦ not just three political cultures, but many phenomenon present elsewhere today

03/03/26 - 03/06/26 - Interest Groups & Social Movements

● Corporatism correlates with corporations but not in the business sense.
● Easton’s systemic model • mutually dependent entities • political system’s responsiveness
to environment
●
 ● There are two versions of corporatism, the first and original one is fascist corporations
which are state-centred interest groups and the representation of segments of society.
● It also serves as a mechanism for socializing members into official ideology.
● The newer version is called neo-corporatism in democratic states and involves
autonomous interest groups, and is recognized as the voice of segments.
● Another key feature of neo-corporatism is that it is associated with social democratic
states.
● The limits of theory to neo-corporatism is that the actors themselves recognize the
demands of the other society is legitimate. So, essentially, it requires support. Another
characteristic is that it tends to work in culturally homogeneous societies.
● Rational choice is the theory of contradictory notions like “public goods” and “self-
interest”.
● Rational choice is motivated by gain, not necessarily economically.
● Individuals join groups out of self-interest and people are hesitant to join due to public
goods or benefits without the costs of participation.
● Many people in businesses that are a part of a union, do not actively participate in the
union.
● Interest groups can be labelled as special, but the common criticism with this is that
special interest groups are “public interest” groups and not everyone shares the same
interests.
● Social movements are collectivities acting with some degree of organization and
continuity outside institutional or organizational channels for the purpose of challenging
or defending extant authority, whether it is institutionally or culturally based, in the
group, organization, society, culture, or world order of which they are a part of” (Snow,
Soule and Kriesi)
● The characteristics of social movements are having some degree of organization, outside
of institutional or organizational channels, and collective effort.
● The goal of social movements is to promote change or resist change.
● Social movements are usually leaderless for practical reasons. It is too large to organize,
and is united by an idea not a structure. Typically, they are representatives chosen to
address the crowd.

Kenneth T. Andrews, “Creating Social Change: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement”,
in Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State
● Social movements attempt to bring many different types of change. For example, in
recent years feminists have attempted to develop parallel orga-nizations, raise
consciousness, change public opinion, reform mainstream institutions, and promote
nonsexist language and informal behavior. If we considered the unintended consequences
of movements, the list would grow even longer (Tilly 1999).
● The civil rights movement has had a lasting impact in the United States through its
influence on social policies, political alignments, public opinion, and other social
movements.
● Even though many of its fundamental goals were never realized and other gains have
been rolled back, the civil rights move-ment is still viewed as one of the most influential
social movements in U.S. history. For example, Aldon Morris, in The Origins of the Civil
Rights Move-ment, argues that the civil rights movement had “a profound impact on
American society”
● Another strategy for explaining how social movements promote institutional change
examines the effects and characteristics of movement action or protest events such as
riots, demonstrations, boycotts, and other public action. Pro-test can have effects on
elected officials, courts, third parties, and counter-movements.
● These effects can derive from specific, targeted campaigns or can be the cumulative
result of widespread protest. Further, protest may be influ-ential by creating a sense of
crisis, disruption, or threat to authorities, by per-suading third parties, or by creating
sympathy for a movement’s constituency or claims.
● These alternatives suggest different mechanisms whereby protest has a lasting impact. In
addition to its direct effects, protest can facilitate periods of organizational innovation as
new groups attempt to implement or extend movement claims.
● Those organizations can extend or protect movement im-pacts through the processes
outlined in the previous section.
● Organizations are significant not just because they increase movements’ le-gitimacy or
take advantage of access to policy makers but because they may directly implement
change themselves.
● During the civil rights movement, the protest-based model sought to influence external
institutions through sit-ins, freedom rides, marches, and demonstrations. But at the same
time, movement organizations sought directly to improve conditions and develop their
own institutions. These efforts provided a basis for movement collaboration with and
pressure on nascent federal programs. For example, in many parts of the rural South,
movement activists attempted to establish economic coopera-tives (Marshall and
Goodwin 1971). The War on Poverty became one of the most significant battlegrounds
for civil rights organizations as activists at-tempted to shape its structure and content.
● Ethnic inequalities have existed for many years, and a common association of this is
slavery.
● Slavery was seen as an ownership of a person, however, then it did not mean race until
much recently (around 500 years ago).
● Legalized segregation (places where only certain people are allowed like white/black
people)
● Identity and politics are becoming increasingly intertwined together, it is an open
conflict.
 ● The conflict between equality and equity focuses on equality before the law, meaning no
one should be treated worse because of their characteristics (sex, gender, race, language)
● It is an equality of chances and by letting people compete, The problem of this is facing
problems that marginalized people encounter. Where you come from socially may or may
not make it difficult to go to school or find employment.
● Homogenous nations are fictitious, as there will always be a divide.

03/17/26 - Feudalism & Capitalism

● Humanity’s number one concern is the necessities of life like water, food, shelter.
Subsistence-oriented economy focuses on producing what they need to survive. A
growth-oriented economy is the industrialization and not only fulfilling basic needs but
more.
● Politics describes life in a community and argues of the “good life”
● Economics is derived from Greek words oikos + nomos meaning household and
management. It is how the necessities of life are produced, distributed, and used.
● Economics is also the need for shared norms and rules (property, contracts, money,
weight and measures.
● The political economy today follows 4 basic models each with state intervention: feudal
economy, free market economy, communist economy and mixed economy.
● The feudal economy is hindered by levying taxes. The free market economy hindered
with limited state intervention. The communist economy struggles with complete state
control and the mixed economy deals with some control and regulations.
● How the state relates to the market has varying degrees of intervention.
● The political economy has political and international dimensions. Domestically, the role
of political power in shaping economics and the role of economic actors in shaping
politics.
● Internationally, the political economy revolves around state trade policies and how
countries trade worldwide.
● There are four types of state trade policies: no trade (autarky), mercantilist (maximize
revenue, common in European economics), protectionist (protecting industries), and
liberal (free trade).
●