POLI227 Flashcards
(49 cards)
Politics
Broadly activities associated with the process and institutions of government, or the state, but in the context of wider power relation and struggles.
Domestic Political traits of LDCs (4)
- Tendancy toward totalitarian rules
- Military
- Single rulling party
- Personal dictatorship
- Severe instability
- Internal conflicts
- Endemic corruption
explanation : war made state and state made war
+ who ?
+ preconditions
Charles Tilly propose that in order to make the war you have to
- raise an army (forcing them to fight)
- collect taxes (make them pay)
- build infrastructures
- rally around the flag effect (sense of patriotism and identity)
purpose of the state (3)
- solving collective action problem
- protecting domestic population from foreign attack
- protecting citizens against each others
GINI coefficient
to measure inequalities :
100 high inequalities
0 = no inequality
5 political system capabilities
- extractivism (drawing material and human resource)
- regulative (exercising control)
- distributive (allocation of goods to social groups
- symbolic (effictive symbols i.e. statues and flags)
- responsive (responsiveness of inputs and outputs
colonization left legacies (4)
- economies reliant on natural resources
- countries remain tightened to what they were exporting
- cotton sugar cane, coffee
- economies geared toward export for international market (not for local consumption)
- social and political marginalization dark skin people
- coercion of labour force (cheapest workforce as possible)
Context modernization theory
- decolonization period : emergence of new state
- cold war : make sure every country become liberal and not communist
porus borders
A situation when the country’s border is not protected. As result, people cross it unchecked.
“The biggest challenge facing the world is the increasing income gap between rich and poor. Between countries and between groups)
World Economic Forum of 2013 in Davos (Switzerland)
diamond shaped society
modern societies
most of people in middle class
UPWARD MOBILITY opportunity

dependency theory
- It is not a matter of culture (as modernization theory implies with the traditional society) : it is because of the history of exploitation of the developing world.
-
Developing countries :
- exporter of primary commodities with low value
-
Developed
- exporter of manufactured products with high value
- “Rich countries need poor states to stay healthy and vice-versa”
Foreign direct investment (FDI)
4 problems that political capabilities helps
- state building (structure that penetrate society)
- nation building (need to build culture of loyalty and commitment)
- participation (pressure from groups to participate in decision-making
- distribution (pressure for redistribution of welfare)
Boko Haram’s problems (6)
- British drew borders arbitrary, creating a country that makes no sens
- Radical group that doesn’t reflect the real Islamic values and does not represent the views of the people they claim to represent
- Kidnapping news of hundred of schoolgirls went viral and then International (e.g. michelle obama’s movement “protect our girls”
- High oil revenue that creates corruption and unequal distribution
- no economic opportunity and it can be easier for people to join the group (not a religious interest but rather a practical one since you get fed + accomodation + power/arms)
- Perception that the group is brutal but not any worse than the military.
Modern society keywords
- Urban
- Secular
- secondary mode of production
- mobile (can move through social class)
- access to education
- individual familly
- lot of people in middle class (diamond shaped society)
Samuel Huntington view :
recommend modernization as a prerequisite to democratization
Those who argued that democracy had to come after modernization tended to make the point that if you democratize while not many resources because the country is poor, you might get chaos
Better to have an authoritarian government to oversee the modernization process
Modernization theory : when
1950
Traditional society (keywords) 6
- Rural
- Subsistence
- custom/religion
- extented families
- primary mode of production
- rely agriculture
- pyramidal society
path dependency
when states have difficulties changing their trajectory after formative experiences of colonialism
Scramble for Africa countries (7)
- France
- Britain
- Spain
- Portugal
- Italian
- Belgian
- US
Globalization
The process of increasing interconnectedness between societies.
Events in one part of the world can have consequences on people far away
Pyramidal society
traditional societies
few richs
few middle class
lot poor

2 role of colonial state
- control/ administrate territory
- extract resources