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SUSS POL 101 STUDY UNIT 1 INTRODUCING POLITICAL SCIENCE AND POLITICAL…

- - - - Public and private matters
        
        Different countries may hold different ideas about how far the government should intervene in people’s private lives. Therefore, public and private boundaries may differ.
        
        Actions conducted/ decisions made in the public realm can affect private lives (i.e. determining language, lifestyle, earnings and even behaviour)
    - - • Political Institutions – formal and informal rules that political actors have to follow – what CAN or CAN’T they do
        
        What do governments and administrations look like? Executives, parliaments, constitutions, political parties, bureaucracies, political system
      - Political Behaviour
        
        Concerns with how and why political actors (voters, politicians, political parties, interest groups) behave in that particular way
        
        Eg: What do citizens want? More employment? Good public services? High
        economic growth? More voice to participate in politics?
      - Political actors
        
        Refers to individual(s) who, to various degrees, are engaged in politics.
        
        i.e. voters, politicians, political parties, interest groups
      - • Political Outcomes – what are the results?
        • Eg: why do some countries have a welfare state policy? Why do some countries have a stronger education policy than others?
      - what is political science
        
        a set of techniques, concepts, and approaches which are applied to increase the clarity and accuracy of understandings about political phenomena
        
        (i.e. the political values and interest of cetrain political actors)
        
        Interests and values
        
        INTERESTS can be understood as what political actors wish to get
        
        VALUES, on the other hand, are beliefs about who should get what, when, and how in a social system
- - - - Problems with personal thought as a source of political knowledge
        
        There is no method for resolving differences of personal thought.
        
        This is most obvious with personal experience: Because people have different personal experiences, they are unlikely to reach the same conclusions about what is true.
        
        Even rational thought will not necessarily enable people to agree on political facts.
        
        We do not all employ the same logic and we do not hold the same belief in self-evident truths.
      - three sub categories to personal thought
        
        Intuition
        
        Here, one’s knowledge is based on feeling, on a sense of understanding or empathy, rather than on reason.
        
        example, the key slogan of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign incantation “Change we can believe in!” was essentially an appeal to feeling and hope.
        
        Rationality
        
        One's Knowledge is drawn from logic and self-evident truth.
        
        For example, the Preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence claims that there are “self-evident” truths—that all men are created equal and that they have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
        
        Personal experience
        
        You can also be convinced that something is true because of your personal experiences.
        
        For example, you might be convinced that government bureaucracies are inefficient because a specific agency handled your inquiries so ineptly.
    - - Problems with Authority as a source of political knowledge
        
        it is common, and perhaps inevitable, for authority sources to offer inconsistent or conflicting knowledge claims about the political world.
        
        It is extremely difficult to differentiate among alternative authorities or even to establish widespread agreement on precisely what political knowledge a particular authority source provides.
        
        Problems with “Everyone” as a source of Authority
        
        a political belief that is widely held might evade to careful assessment.
        
        a political belief that is widely held by one group may be rejected by another group of different cultural background
        
        Problems with General authority
        
        Sometimes even the most competent general authorities might not have access to crucial information or might rely on inaccurate data, as when they list the countries with nuclear weapons
      - Three kinds of authority sources
        
        General authority sources
        
        A general authority source is one that has a substantial influence on a large proportion of people in a society.
        
        Examples include constitutions, leaders, respected media or books, and religious teachings.
        
        General authorities are especially evident as a basis for normative political knowledge.
        
        for example, the issue of the role of women in politics. While this can be a descriptive issue, how do we determine the normative question of what the role of women should be? In some societies, there is disagreement about this question, and many look to an authority source to provide the answer
        
        “Everyone” as a source of Authority
        
        Sometimes we are convinced that something is true because it is a belief strongly held by many other people.
        
        One reason to place confidence in a belief that is strongly held by many people is the assumption that it is unlikely so many people could be incorrect.
        
        Specific authority sources
        
        Refers to key/particular figures or sources of authority such as a parent, teacher, friend, or famous person.
        
        Young people and those minimally interested in politics are especially likely to rely on specific authorities for much of their political knowledge
    - - Scientific method
        
        There are four essential characteristics of the scientific method.
        
        These four characteristics are supposed to give the scientific method some major advantages over the methods of authority and personal thought in determining whether we can agree on a knowledge claim as it provide a method of assessing information and claims
        
        Testable
        
        The method of science is testable. Its practitioners, scientists, specify the assumptions, data, analytic techniques, and inference patterns that support their knowledge claim.
        
        Other scientists look for some analysis or evidence that would invalidate (falsify) the claim. They evaluate all aspects of the claim and can repeat the analysis to ensure that the claim should be part of the accumulated knowledge..
        
        Patterns
        
        Science entails a search for regularities in the relationships among phenomena.
        
        Empirical
        
        Science is empirical in the sense that it is concerned with phenomena that are observable and/or measurable.
        
        Cumulative
        
        Science is cumulative because it tentatively accepts previously established knowledge on a subject as the foundation to further develop knowledge.
        
        One can challenge existing knowledge, but it is not necessary to reestablish the knowledge base every time.
- - - - Explanations
        
        Explanation information attempts to specify why something happens and to provide the reason or process (how) by which the phenomenon occurs. For example
        
        Why does a popular uprising rapidly overthrow the government in one country (e.g., Tunisia) but not in another (e.g., its neighbor, Syria)?
      - Prescriptions
        
        A prescription is a value judgment that indicates what should occur and should be done
        
        Normative political knowledge
        
        The prescriptive position that you select on a political issue is an element of your normative political knowledge
        
        Normative political knowledge combines three types of understanding
        
        Normative political knowledge
        
        Normative political knowledge combines three types of understanding
        
        (1) your descriptive knowledge of
        certain facts (e.g., the alternative ways that health care could be provided in a particular society)
        
        (2) your explanatory knowledge about why certain outcomes occur (e.g., the reasons why people don’t receive equal health care)
        
        (3) your priorities among competing values (e.g., your preferences regarding equality, lower taxes, and limited government).
      - Description of political facts
        
        Descriptive political knowledge is mostly
        composed of relatively straightforward political and form the basis for anyaleses. For example:
        
        The date Hosni Mubarak resigned as President of Egypt: February 11, 2011
        
        The number of states in Nigeria: 36
        
        The country with the highest GDP (gross domestic product) per capita (PPP) in
        the world in 2014: Qatar at $102,100
        
        However, is difficult to get precise information on some questions. For example:
        
        Six countries acknowledge having operational nuclear devices. However, the precise number of such weapons in each country is a state secret. Furthermore, some countries do not declare their nuclear capabilities. Thus, even the experts cannot reach consensus on the straightforward issue of which countries belong to the so-called nuclear club.
        
        Also description requires assessments that raise complicated issues about power, interests, and values, making it difficult to reach agreement about the facts
        
        Can a country legally invade another country that has not used military force
        against it?
  - - - Public policy
        
        The study of public policy is more interested in asking questions about the content of such policies.
        
        These include questions such as “Why was a certain policy chosen over alternatives?”, “For whose benefit was it designed?” and “What impact will it have on the society and the citizenry?”
      - Public administration
        
        The study of public administration is more interested in asking questions about how policies are implemented by civil servants.
        
        These include questions such as “What challenges or obstacles exist when implementing policy?” and “What leads to efficiency or inefficiency in policy implementation?”
- - - - How Normative political theorist develope ideas for political science
        
        Normative political theorists develop ideas by blending their observations about the world with detailed articulation and defense of one or more basic values, principles, or norms that shape their viewpoint.
- - - - Concerns of political ideology
        
        There are three fundamental concerns that are addressed by most political ideologies
        
        These three fundamental concerns are their assumptions and value judgments about
        
        individual human nature
        
        the proper relationship among the individual, state, and society
        
        the desirability of establishing equality among individuals
        
        Equality
        
        Depending on the political ideology that is being shaped, there are at least three kinds of ideology
        
        Material Equality
        
        An alternative position is that there should be material equality—that every person should enjoy a comparable level of benefits and goods.
        
        This position places a high value on equality of conditions, adding social and economic equality to legal equality.
        
        Conflict theory
        
        A third position posits that people and situations are intrinsically unequal and that it is neither possible nor desirable to legislate any kind of equality.
        
        Karl Marx is among those who argue most fervently that a good society is achieved only when there is substantial equality in the material conditions of all individuals.
        
        Legal Equality
        
        One position is that there should be legal equality— that every person should be equal before the law, have equal political rights, and enjoy equality of opportunity.
        
        Individual, state and society
        
        The relationship between state and society is encapsulated in the liberals and conservatism view on state and society.
        
        Conservatives seeks to maximise individual liberty and freedom of action.
        
        Liberals view is that the collective good of society is most important and individual freedom must be constrained by the state to achieve the results that most benefit the overall society.
        
        Human Nature
        
        Here, our focus is on key assumptions that a political ideology makes about:
        
        an individual’s innate nature (e.g., the extent to which individuals are selfish or sharing, violent or nonviolent, emotional or rational) and
        
        about the adaptability of individuals (the extent to which they can be taught or induced to act and think in a way that is against their innate nature)
      - Types of political ideology
        
        There are three major Western ideologies—conservatism, classical liberalism, and socialism.
        
        Although there is broad agreement about the core beliefs within an ideology, it is subject to varying interpretations across individuals and across cultures.
        
        Classical liberalism
        
        classical liberalism places the highest value on individual freedom and posits that the role of government should be quite limited.
        
        Equality
        
        Equality before the law (equality of opportunity) is important, but government should not attempt to create material equality (equality of outcomes).
        
        Even in situations of hardship, government action is undesirable because it undermines individual initiative and independence.
        
        Thus, government should have no significant role in addressing inequalities.
        
        Individual, State, and Society
        
        In the classical liberal view, no one is forced to accept the authority of the state (government).
        
        Individuals can consent to be governed—choosing to “contract” with a minimal government.
        
        The main roles of government lie in clarifying the laws of nature and enforcing the occasional violations of those laws.
        
        Each person should be free to pursue her economic goals and the overall economy is structured by the “invisible hand” (laissez-faire) of the market and free trade.
        
        The Individual
        
        Classical liberalism contrasts with conservatism in several important ways:
        
        (1) the freedom of each individual to pursue her natural rights is the highest value; and
        
        (2) each individual is rational and responsible and is the best judge of what is in her self-interest.
        
        Notice also that the classical liberal’s view of the state of nature is more positive than the one described by conservative Hobbes as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
        
        Types of liberalism
        
        Libertarians
        
        Left-liberalism
        
        Libertarians – believe that due to humanity’s natural state of freedom, governments are not justified in acting in a paternalistic manner and engaging in any sort of intervention into individuals’ social or economic choices except in the case where one directly harms another
        
        Left-liberalism – share many of the same assumptions with libertarians BUT believe that freedom can only occur when individuals can live in an environment where real choices about how one wishes to live are possible.
        
        Socialism
        
        Socialists’ primary concern is the promotion of socio-economic equality and justice.
        
        Since such goals are impossible under capitalism (the market economy), which is founded upon profit margins above all else, the capitalist system should either be
        
        highly regulated with excessive earnings being taxed for social ends (social democracy) or
        
        be replaced with an economy based entirely on collective ownership (Marxism-Leninism).
        
        Political strategy
        
        In terms of political strategy, these two types of socialists are also quite different.
        
        Social Democrats
        
        Social democrats believe that such socio-economic transformation can occur through the democratic system with the election of a socialist party.
        
        Marxist-leninism
        
        Marxist-Leninists, however, believe that the capitalist system is incapable of reform for the fact that the property-owning (bourgeois) class will use its influence in the state to violently defend its interests. As such, the only solution is an equally violent socialist revolution
        
        Conservatism
        
        Conservatism attempts to prevent or slow the transition away from a society based on traditional values and the existing social hierarchy.
        
        Importance is placed on stability, tradition, order, and loyalty to God and country.
        
        The relationship of the individual to society and an antipathy to egalitarianism (i.e., equality of conditions) are at the core of conservatism.
        
        Small government intervention.
        
        The IndIvIdual
        
        Conservatism makes two key assumptions about human nature.
        
        First, individuals are not consistently rational. In many situations, people are emotional and are unable to reason clearly.
        
        Thus, tradition and religion, rather than reason, are viewed as the most reliable sources for guiding society because they support stability and moderate change.
        
        Second, individuals are inherently unequal in intelligence, skills, and status. Some individuals and groups are superior to others, and those who are superior should be in positions of power in society and in government.
        
        Equality
        
        Attempts to force equality are unacceptable because they directly undermine individual liberty, which is of greater importance than equality.
        
        Forced equality is unwise because it disrupts the natural, cooperative hierarchy among groups, causes social conflict, and endangers the fundamental goal of order and stability.
        
        Individual, State, and Society
        
        Traditional values and ethics provide the guidelines for group cooperation as well as individual behaviour. It is the role of societal institutions (i.e. the family, the church, and the government (the state), to communicate and enforce traditional values.
        
        State military and economic power should also promote the country’s interests abroad and defend against intervention by other states.
        
        subfields of conservatism
        
        Fascist
        
        a radical right-wing, authoritarian ultra-nationalism characterised by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy
        
        Fiscal conservatives
        
        Favours the exercise of conservative values within the economical domain
        
        Social conservatives
        
        Favours the exercise of conservative values within a social/ domestic setting.
    - - Types of Political Orientations
        
        Affective orientations
        
        Affective orientations include any feelings or emotions evoked in a person by political phenomena.
        
        For example, what (if any) feelings are stimulated in you when you come across someone burning the national flag
        
        Evaluative orientation
        
        Evaluative orientation involves your synthesis of facts and feelings into a judgment about some political phenomenon.
        
        For example, you might decide whether to vote for a candidate. You might determine whether an individual has a free speech right to make negative comments on the Internet about a racial group.
        
        Cognitive orientation
        
        Cognitive orientations are an individual’s knowledge about the political world—what the person believes are political “facts.” Cognitive orientations include descriptive knowledge such as the names of political leaders; the policies supported by a particular politician
      - Political spectrum
        
        One extremely common way that political ideologies including conservatism, liberalism, and socialism are classified is the left-right political spectrum.
        
        Political left, tend to be more ‘progressive’ and receptive to change. (Socialist, Marxist)
        
        political right tend to be more ‘traditional’ and resistant to complete change (Conservatist, fascist)
        
        Nolan chart
        
        The Nolan chart incorporates the political spectrum as an x-axis with respect to Authoritarian/Libertarian
        
        Libertarian
        
        a political doctrine that emphasizes individual liberty and a lack of governmental regulation and oversight both in matters of the economy ('free market') and in personal behavior where no one's rights are being violated or threatened. Also 'classical liberal', akin to 'anarcho-capitalist'.
        
        Authoritarian
        
        The enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.
        
        Left wing Vs Right Wing
        
        Left wing
        
        Core beliefs
        
        Minority rights, economic equality, gun control, environmental protection, expanded educational opportunity, social nets for those who need them.
        
        Economic beliefs:
        
        Reduce Income equality; higher tax rates on the wealthy; government spending on social programs and infrastructure; stronger regulations on business
        
        Example of left -wing ideologies:
        
        Social Democracy; Federalism; Socialism, Communism; Collectivism; Marxism
        
        Right Wing
        
        Economic beliefs
        
        Lower taxes; less regulation on businesses; reduced government spending; balanced budget.
        
        Core beliefs
        
        Limited Government at National or Federal Level. Local Governments should have the most control over decisions affecting local population. Individual freedom and personal property rights are favoured.
        
        Examples of right-wing ideologies:
        
        Capitalism; Conservatism.
- - - - Example of political-cultural study: Inglehart and Christian Welzel 2010 Study
        
        Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel drafted a cultural-political map based on the 2010 World Values Survey.
        
        According to their study, there is a correlation between countries scoring highly in self-expression values and/or secular/rational values and their status as high-income countries and liberal democracies
        
        (i.e. secular countries with high levels of self-expression such as Sweden and Denmark were also high-income countries whereas countries which held traditional values such as Ghana and Indonesia reported low-levels of national income)