CHAPTER 2: Comparing Political Systems
CHAPTER 2: Comparing Political Systems
Why We Compare
- deepen our understanding of our own institutions, see a wider range of pol alternatives, and expand our awareness of possibilities of politics
- political scientist: Robert Dahl
How We Compare
- describe (conceptual framework)
- explain (associations, theories, statistical and case studies)
- predict (compare countries at diff historical periods)
Systems: Environment and Interdependence
- system: parts interacting with an environment
o political system: set of institutions and agencies that implement goals of a society
o governments or states are the policymaking parts of such systems
o inputs from (domestic and intl) environment to system ( outputs
▪ domestic economy (INPUT) pol system (OUTPUT) culture and society (INPUT) pol system (OUTPUT) domestic economy
▪ socioeconomic changes have transformed the pol demands of the electorate and the kinds of policies it supports
▪ examples...
• agriculture declines
• employment in manu industries decreases
• employment in high-tech professions and service
• improve in edu level
• transformed social bases of party system
• diff policy outputs, diff levels of taxation, changes in welfare expenditures, etc.
o interdependence within and between nations and in the actual pol system
- structures (pol parties, parliaments, bureaucracies, courts, etc.)
- function (structures enable gov to formulate, implement, and enforce its policies)
o process functions: necessary for policy to be made and implemented
▪ interest articulation : expression/ communication
▪ interest aggregation : demands must be combined into policy alternatives
▪ policymaking
▪ policy implementation
▪ policy adjudication: if violated or challenged
o system functions:
▪ socialisation ( families, schools, media, churches and pol structures that develop, reinforce and transform attitudes in society
▪ recruitment ( selection of people for political activity and gov offices
▪ communication ( flow of info through society and the various structures of the system
o policy functions (outputs) ( the implementations of the pol process, the substantive impacts on society,, the economy and culture
▪ regulation of behaviour
▪ extraction of resources (taxes)
▪ distribution of benefits and services to various groups in popul
▪ outcomes result in new inputs
- political regime = the structural-functional-policy configuration of gov´ts
Russia in 1985 and 2002
- 2 revolutionary changes:
o end of the single-party political system of the Comm party of the SU
o the dissolution of the SU into 15 member republics (with Russia as the core republic of the old union, turned into a noncomm state)
- Historical Background
o 1985: Gorbachev ( communist regime ( comm party and bureaucracy dominated process-level functions, no other parties existed, interest groups permitted only by comm party, no state presidency
o 1991: Boris Yeltsin elected President ( SU collapses
o 1993: new constitution, electing a new parliament with diverse range of pol parties
o demo tendencies competed with pressures for authori rule, mixture of pluralism with vestiges of the old state socialist order, and a reborn Comm party calling for the restoration of a strong state and more social protection
o Parliament = Federal Assembly ( policy debate and decision-making
o Mass media freer
o New organised interest groups, actively involved in policymaking
o 2002: more structures in pol process, new policymaking powers for parliament, pol parties, and regional govs, Comm party no longer monopolistic, market economy with quasi-commercial forms, presidency of Putin an important policymaking institution
Policy Level: Performance, Outcome and Evaluation
- difference between efforts (gov´s actions) and the actual outcome
- effectiveness of politics:
o gov efficiency
o corruption: cultural, econ, and techn level
o changes in conditions of internal and external environment
- outputs: extractions, distributions, regulations and symbolic acts = performance
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