comparative politics midterm

Question 1

logic

Answer 1

learning to be careful about how we construct and evaluate arguments

Question 2

argument

Answer 2

a set of logically connected statements, typically in the form of a set of premises and conclusion

Question 3

argument is valid when

Answer 3

accepting its premise compels us to accept its conclusions

Question 4

argument is invalid if

Answer 4

when we accept the premises of the argument, we are free to accept or reject its conclusion

Question 5

what is politics

Answer 5

-not just abt government.
-involves all types of social interactions
-central to our everyday lives and relationships
-involves power
-about winners and losers

Question 6

EVL theory

Answer 6

-response to negative change in one’s environment
1. Exit- accepting change and altering behavior
2. Use Voice- not accepting the change, instead “persuading” government through action to reinstate original environment
3. demonstrate loyalty- accepting the negative change and not changing behavior

Question 7

E1Lc

Answer 7

E=citizens exit payoff
1=value of benefit taken from the citizen by the government
L=government’s value from having a loyal citizen who does not exit
c=cost of using voice

Question 8

what happens in evl theory

Answer 8

-choices aren’t random, both sides anticipate the response of the other side to the action made (consequence of their action). process is referred to as backward induction.

Question 9

insights from EVL theory

Answer 9

1. citizen has power over government when a) the citizen must have a credible exit, and government must be dependent on the citizen
2. absence of a credible exit plan . citizen has no options, so the government takes away the benefits and the citizen stays . gov can also seize unfair advantage. Taking away benefits in the case of “special interests
3. Its difficult to learn much from looking at real-world political situations

Question 10

Most economic explanations for democracy are linked to a
paradigm known as

Answer 10

Modernization Theory

Question 11

According to modernization theory, economic development
leads to

Answer 11

the growth of the industrial and service centers, and causes the agricultural sector to shrink

Question 12

Transformation in the structure of the economy can change the

Answer 12

balance of power by increasing the value of citizen ( the ruled)
exit options

Question 13

Institutions like — provide a location where the ruled
with exit options can negotiate with the rulers who are
dependent on the citizens

Answer 13

assemblies

Question 14

The two important conditions for economic development to promote democracy

Answer 14

1. The ruler must be dependent on the people. In cases where there the economy is dominated by the natural resources sector; the rulers can generate the revenue they need to stay in power with little or no cooperation from the ruled
2. Economic development must increase the value of people’s exit options for dependent rulers to feel compelled to seek their consent to govern

Question 15

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Answer 15

measures the value of all goods
and services produced in a country during a given year. It’s an
indicator of a country’s economy “size”

Question 16

The constrained state that is a result of the ruler being dependent on enough people with valuable exit options, takes on the features of

Answer 16

modern democracy

Question 17

Economic development is expected to increase

Answer 17

the number of
societal actors with mobile assets and therefore exit options

Question 18

Modernization theory asserts that every society goes through

Answer 18

a similar series of political and economic stages. The society also goes through structural changes such as the relative size
of the size of economy

Question 19

As countries grew, manufacturing and service sectors

Answer 19

developed and became greater than the agricultural sector, People’s assets became more mobile, less legible and less
appropriable by the state

Question 20

In England, the ability of the ‘gentry’ to hide their wealth
changed the balance of power. The Crown could no longer count on predation. The new economic elites used their power to

Answer 20

strengthen parliament, which helped aggregate their
interests. The elite enjoyed credible exit options

Question 21

Institutions such as parliaments are built not only to solve informational problems, but to also solve

Answer 21

credible commitment
problems

Question 22

Economic development often leads to

Answer 22

an increase in the
number of people in the society with credible exit threat over time

Question 23

Modernization theory

Answer 23

does not predict equal political influence. Rulers and the states they govern are more dependent on some people more than others- wealthy/ middle-class vs poor. And some people enjoy more influence than others – labor vs capital

Question 24

Modernization theory asserts that

Answer 24

economic development
promotes democracy by transforming the economy so that it’s increasingly dominated by sectors in which people have mobile assets

Question 25

For economic development to promote democracy, two conditions must be met

Answer 25

1. The ruling class must be dependent on the people. A ruling class that is autonomous and can generate the revenue needed to stay in power without input or cooperation from the ruled, has no reason to constrain its predatory behavior 2. Economic development must increase the value of people’s exit options sufficiently enough that rulers are compelled to bargain with them and ask for their consent

Question 26

Natural resources

Answer 26

* Empirical evidence shows that governments in natural resource rich countries, and depend on revenue from the natural resources do not become stable democracies (Ross, 2015) * According to political science scholars, countries with natural resources are likely to be dictatorships, corrupt, have poor governance, civil war and low-quality institutions

Question 27

Why a dictatorship?

Answer 27

* They are not dependent on citizens. They can generate revenue by digging out income from the ground and do not have to bargain with citizens or face constraints on their political power in exchange for revenue * Th government does not need to give a positive response to citizen’s demand for greater representation * Governments do not need to tax citizens making the demand for representation by citizens very low * Income generated from natural resources can be used by the leaders to consolidate power

Question 28

The extent to which the government depends on the natural resources for revenue.

Answer 28

It is a country’s dependence on the natural resource revenue, and not the abundance of natural resources that affects its regime type

Question 29

Is more about the emergence of democracy than it is about the survival of democracy (Ross, 2015). This is because

Answer 29

 In a democracy, natural resources are discovered after a country has institutions that can hold the government accountable  Popular oversight in a democracy prevents a government from using natural resource revenue for coercion and patronage

Question 30

Foreign Aid Is

Answer 30

he voluntary transfer to capital, goods or services from one country to another in form of a gift, grant or loan

Question 31

Aid optimists vs Aid pessimists

Answer 31

* Some argue that foreign aid is similar to the political resource curse * Key difference – Foreign aid makes governments less dependent on their citizens and more dependent on their foreign aid donors

Question 32

Donor countries often value achieving

Answer 32

strategic goals with their foreign aid at least as much as they value obtaining democratic reforms in the recipient countries

Question 33

The extent to which aid donors can enforce demands for democratic reform depends on if they have

Answer 33

credible exit threats

Question 34

Foreign aid will only be effective in advancing democracy when

Answer 34

the donor country has not strategic interests in the dependent recipient country

Question 35

Foreign aid promotes democratization only when

Answer 35

* The recipient country is dependent on the aid * The aid donor wants to promote democratic reform in the recipient country * The aid donor can credibly threaten to withdraw aid if its demands are not met

Question 36

For economic development to promote democracy, it must

Answer 36

increase the value of people’s exit options sufficiently that dependent rulers feel compelled to bargain with them and seek their consent

Question 37

The extent to which economic development affects the value of people’s exit options depends on the

Answer 37

role of the state in the economy. If state driven, the citizens might find themselves dependent on the state, in this case economic development increases support for authoritarian regime and hinders the emergence of democracy

Question 38

Economic development should advance democracy if it happens in a

Answer 38

diversified economy with a private sector that plays a significant role

Question 39

Rulers in high-capacity states can

Answer 39

monitor and control economic activity that people’s exit options don’t increase enough with economic development to compel the state to bargain with them

Question 40

While rulers in low-capacity states may find that

Answer 40

people’s exit options are now sufficiently valuable due to economic development that they can no longer engage in predatory behavior and must look for consent to govern

Question 41

Modernization theory examines the relationship between

Answer 41

economic development and democracy

Question 42

Economic development promotes democracy because of the

Answer 42

changes it brings about in a country’s socioeconomic structure. This includes improved education and growth of the service economy

Question 43

Modernization theory is conditional, it does not say that

Answer 43

economic development always leads to democracy

Question 44

cultural arguments for democracy

Answer 44

-Primordialist argument -Constructivist argument

Question 45

Primordialist argument

Answer 45

culture exists before politics and ideological guidelines that shape political behavior is responsible for the ideological guidelines that shape behavior

Question 46

Constructivist argument

Answer 46

culture is constructed or invented but not inherited

Question 47

Both arguments assert that culture has a

Answer 47

causal effect and to sustain democracy, a democratic culture is needed

Question 48

Civic culture

Answer 48

Compatible with democracy

Question 49

Parochial

Answer 49

Compatible with traditional political systems of African tribes

Question 50

Subject

Answer 50

Compatible with centralized authoritarian institutions such as the Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe

Question 51

3 Basic Types of Political Culture

Answer 51

-Civic culture -Parochial -Subject

Question 52

Civic culture attitudes include

Answer 52

1. Individuals believe that they can influence political decisions 2. Positive feelings about the political system 3. High interpersonal trust levels 4. Prefer gradual societal change

Question 53

Two major and most relevant cross-cultural dimensions today

Answer 53

1. Countries with either traditional values ( religion, traditional values, deference to authority), or secular-rational values (less value on traditional roles, values and deference to authority) 2. Countries with survival values ( physical and economic security) or self expression values ( have ethnocentric world views, and low levels of tolerance and interpersonal trust)

Question 54

Economic development matters because while it does not directly produce democracy, it

Answer 54

transforms traditional culture societies to modern culture societies

Question 55

2 distinct phases of the modernization process that produce cultural & political change

Answer 55

1. Industrialization phase 2. Post industrialization phase

Question 56

Education and valuable exit options

Answer 56

1. Citizens learn organizational and communication skills needed to collectively mobilize and fight for their political rights 2. Increased sense of efficacy gives people gives them the confidence to engage in politics 3. Promotes higher literacy, creating a market for newspapers and media that can stimulate an interest in politics and coordinate public opinion on need for change 4. May lead people to adopt new ideas and increase demand for equality and accountable government

Question 57

Industrialization phase

Answer 57

societies change from holding traditional values to holding secular-rational values

Question 58

Post industrialization phase

Answer 58

societies change from holding survival values to holding self expression values

Question 59

Demographic Transition

Answer 59

the drastic decrease in fertility rate and fall in mortality rate caused

Question 60

Demographic Transition had a great effect on the lives and freedom of

Answer 60

women:- * Less children meant women could pursue other interests * An increase in female paid employment * Change in gender norms on women working * Decrease in gender wage gap * Decrease in gender education gap * Mechanization of production lines where men had a natural advantage contributed to the decrease in the gender pay gap * Began the path to gender equality and increased freedom for women * With more freedom, women demanded a greater role in the political space. An outcome was universal suffrage

Question 61

Post Industrialization

Answer 61

* Decline of industrial sector and growth of service sector * Shift away from survival values to self expression values * People were able to channel their resources to issues such as gender and racial equality, sexual freedom and reproductive rights- “silent revolution” * Rising inequality due to the disparity between the older low- skilled industries that required little education, and the high skilled industries that required college education. This led to a rise in income inequality * The gender education gap is now reversed, with more women graduating college than men

Question 62

4 Methods for Addressing Sensitive Survey Questions

Answer 62

1. Adopt practices that build trust with respondents such as using interviewers that share demographic characteristics such as age and ethnicity with respondents 2. Use of randomized response techniques such as a coin or dice into the survey to guarantee confidentiality of responses by individuals 3. Use of list experiments by mixing sensitive items into lists that include non-sentitive “control items” 4. Use of endorsement experiments – Mixing attitudes towards a sensitive political actor with attitudes towards one or more policies

Question 63

Islamic and Confucian cultures are

Answer 63

incompatible with democracy

Question 64

Protestantism has been established as a religion that encourages

Answer 64

democracy

Question 65

Traditional definition of culture

Answer 65

a shared cluster of attitudes, values and beliefs that exist at the level of a nation, region, ethnicity or religion

Question 66

Alternative and more recent definition of culture

Answer 66

pattern of beliefs, relationships, rituals, attitudes, and obligations that give meaning to human interaction

Question 67

domain of politics

Answer 67

a subset of human behavior that involves the use of power

Question 68

the study of comparative politics focuses on --- level political behavior

Answer 68

state

Question 69

two views of the state

Answer 69

-contractarian -predatory

Question 70

contractarian

Answer 70

individuals "contract" with each other to form a centralized authority- the state- that can prevent or resolve conflicts of interest and maintain social order

Question 71

predatory

Answer 71

unintentional by-product of individuals seeking increased power. unless countered by competing forces, those seeking power aim to form a centralized political hierarchy that concentrates power in the hands of an elite few

Question 72

state vs nation

Answer 72

state requires a given territory, while a nation is a group of people with a shared identity such as religion, language and ethnicity. No requirement for a geographical location in a particular place

Question 73

the social contract view of the state

Answer 73

hobbes description of the state of nature- a war of every man against every man, in which life was "solitary, poor, brutish, and short"

Question 74

for the state to be a solution to the state of nature as a social contract according to theorists-

Answer 74

1. punishment imposed by the state for stealing is sufficiently large enough to deter individuals from stealing 2. The tax rate charged by the state in exchange for policing (and providing protection) is not so large that individuals prefer the state of nature to civil society.az