AP Comp Gov - Intro to Comp Guided Reading

Introduction to Comparative Politics: Guided Reading

Comparing Political Systems – Chapter 2:

1. There are three concepts which your textbook will refer to throughout the chapters. Explain what is meant by a political system, a government structure, and a governments’ function.

• Political system: set of institutions and agencies concerned with formulating and implementing the collective goals of a society or of groups within it.
• Government structure: perform functions, which in turn enable the government to formulate, implement, and enforce its policies (parliaments, bureaucracies, administrative agencies, and courts)
• Government’s function: services the government provides their citizens with (establishing and operating school systems, maintaining public order, fighting wars, etc)

2. For any policy to be made and implemented “process functions” must be completed. Explain what interest articulation, interest aggregation, policymaking, and policy implementation and adjudication are and how they differ.

• Interest articulation: groups in government decide what they want
• Interest aggregation: these groups bring up the request to be discussed
• Policymaking: the government decides what action to take based on the request
• Policy implementation: the government makes a policy and votes on it
• Adjudication: a way to fix or revoke the law if it’s challenged or violated.

3. Explain the concept of “system functions” and how this process takes place.

• System functions: socialization, recruitment, and communication. Not directly involved in making and implementing public policy, but are of fundamental importance to the political system. They are referred to as system functions because they determine whether or not the system will be maintained or changed.
• Political socialization: involved families, school, communications media, churches, and all the various political structures that develop, reinforce, and transform attitudes of political significance in the society.
• Political recruitment: selection of people for political activity and government offices.
• Political communication: flow of information through the society and through the various structures that make up the political system.

Political Culture and Political Socialization – Chapter 3:

4. Define political culture. Explain the three levels of political culture (system level, process level, and policy level) and why they are significant in helping determine the nature of the state that exists within a particular country.

• Political culture: public attitudes toward politics and their role within the political system
• System level: involves the citizens’ and leaders’ views of the values and organizations that comprise the political system.
• Process level: includes expectations of how politics should function, and individuals’ relationship to the political process
• Policy level: citizens’ and leaders’ policy expectations from the government
• They all shape the country’s government and policies because power is derived from the people.

5. Define political socialization. Explain the major agents of political socialization and why each one is significant to the political process.

• Political socialization: the way in which political values are formed and the political culture is transmitted from one generation to the next.
• Family: family locates the individual in a vast social world, establishing ethnic, linguistic, class, and religious ties, affirming cultural values, and directing occupational and economic aspirations. Family has the most direct affect because they generally raise their children to believe they things they do, so that belief is entrenched in the child.
• School: provide children and adolescents with knowledge about the political world and their role in it and with more concrete info on political institutions and relationships. Also transmit the values and attitudes of the society.
• Religious institutions: carry cultural and moral values which often have political implications.
• Peer groups: social units that shape political attitudes. People often agree with their peers on political issues or may be made to agree by extended contact with them.
• Social class and gender: often significant social divisions based on class or occupation. Affects the mindset of the individual and therefore their political opinion
• Mass media: provides the public with information and opinions. Can have a significant emotional affect on large audiences, and various ways of presenting information can have a large impact on the opinions of the audience.
• Interest groups: groups, especially trade unions, have important consequences for politics. Their goal is to change public opinion and affect government, as their members believe in their cause fully.
• Political parties: generally, political parties have a set of beliefs that the majority of its members believe. Often members of a party will go with that party’s belief on a topic if they agree with others rather than figuring out their own stance on it.
• Direct contact with governmental structures: the wide scope of governmental activities brings citizens into frequent contact with various bureaucratic agencies. These personal experiences are powerful agents of socialization, strengthening or undercutting the images presented by other agents. Citizens who face a different reality than they were taught are likely to change their early learned views.

Interest Articulation – Chapter 4:

6. Explain the difference between interest groups, anomic groups, nonassociational groups, institutional groups, and associational groups. Give an example of each.

• Interest groups: social or political groups that represent the interests of their constituents. They have an enduring organizational base, professional staffs, and often participate within the political process, serving on government advisory bodies and testifying at parliamentary hearings.
• Example: The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) (Fannie Mae), expand the secondary mortgage market by securitizing mortgages in the form of mortgage-backed securities, allowing lenders to reinvest their assets into more lending and in effect increasing the number of lenders in the mortgage market by reducing the reliance on thrifts.
• Anomic groups: spontaneous groups that form suddenly when many individuals respond similarly to frustration, disappointment, or other strong emotions. They rise and subside quickly.
• Example: 1992 rioting in resident of minority neighborhoods of LA following the acquittal of police officers accused of excessive violence in the beating of an African American suspect.
• Nonassociational groups: based on common interests and identities of ethnicity, region, religion, occupation, or perhaps kinship. They’re rarely well organized, and their activity is episodic. Often have no sense of themselves as being members of a group, but are regarded by others as if they were a formal group.
• Examples: Consumers, Soccer Moms & NASCAR Dads, University students
• Institutional groups: formal and have other political or social functions in addition to interest articulation. Either as corporate bodies or as smaller groups within these bodies (legislative blocks, officer cliques, groups in the clergy, or ideological cliques in bureaucracies), such groups express their own interests or represent the interest of other groups in the society. The influence of institutional interest groups is usually derived from the strength of their primary organizational base (size of their membership, income, etc).
• Example: In the US, the military-industrial complex consists of the combination of personnel in the Defense Department and defense industries who join in support of military expenditures.
• Associational Groups: formed explicitly to represent the interests of a particular group. They have orderly procedures for formulating interests and demans, and they usually employ full-time professional staff. Often very active in representing the interests of their members in the policy process. These are organized for political activity although they also may engage in other activity.
• Examples: trade unions, chambers of commerce and manufacturers’ associations, ethnic associations, and religious associations.

7. Define the term “civil society”.

• A society in which people are involved in social and political interactions free of state control or regulation.

8. Interest groups are controlled in various ways throughout the world. Explain the three different types of interest group systems (pluralist, democratic corporatist, and controlled). Give an example of how each type works and the benefits and disadvantages of each system.

• Pluralist: characterized by several features that involve both how interests are organized and how they participate in the political process: multiple groups may represent a single societal interest, group membership is voluntary and limited, groups often have a loose or decentralized organizational structure, there is a clear separation between interest groups and the government.
• Example: the US, Canada, New Zealand.
• Benefits: Competition encourages self-improvement
• Disadvantages: Not as much collective power
• Democratic corporatist: much more organization representation of interests—a single peak association normally represents each societal interest, membership in the peak association is often compulsory and nearly universal, peak associations are centrally organized and direct the actions of their members, groups are often systematically involved in making and implementing policy.
• Example: Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden
• Benefits: More organized, helps with inflation
• Disadvantages: Less freedom—members must join unions
• Controlled: there is a single group for each social sector, membership is often compulsory, each group is normally hierarchically organized, groups are controlled by the government or its agents in order to mobilize support for government policy.
• Example: traditional Communist systems in which the dominating party organizations penetrate all levels of society and exercise close control over all the associational groups that are permitted to exist. Unions and youth associations.
• Benefits: Very organized…?
• Disadvantages: Controlled strictly by the government, little freedom

9. Explain the difference between legitimate access channels and coercive access channels. Give several example of how each works and why people may choose to use one type over the other.

• Legitimate Access Channels: used by the legitimate structures of the government, which designate the resources to be used in policymaking. In a democratic political system, an appropriate resource may be votes in the national assembly. Also, the mass media and other legal forms of channels for representing opinions in a nonviolent way.
• Examples: contacting local representatives, referendums, etc
• Why choose: It’s legal and above-board. Classy.
• Coercive Access Channels: Various groups may attempt to control legislative votes by influencing the parties that win elections, or the voters who choose them, or through bargaining, persuasion, or promises of support to incumbents. Rely more on collective violence of people, usually means skipping the steps used in traditional government.
• Examples riots, like the 1992 Riots in LA
• Why choose: sometimes easier

Interest Aggregation and Political Parties – Chapter 5:

10. Explain the difference between a single-member district plurality rule and proportional representation. Which method do you prefer? Why?

• Single Member District Plurality Rule: the legislative election rules divide the country into many election district, and the candidate who has more votes than any other win the election in the district.
• Proportional Representation: The country is divided into a few, large district, and competing parties offer lists of candidates. The number of legislative representatives a party wins depends on the overall proportion of the votes it receives. The seats are split up into percentage vote (if a group wins 4% of a vote they get 4% of the seats).
• I wouldn’t say I have enough experience to determine which is better, but because we use single member district plurality election rule, I’ll say I like that one better because it seems less complicated and easier to get things done with.

11. Explain the different types of competitive party systems. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each type. Give an example of each.

• Majoritarian Two Party System: dominated by two parties (like in the US), or they have two substantial parties and election laws that usually create legislative majorities for one of them (like in Britain).
• Advantages: power doesn’t switch around a ton, and everyone generally knows what each party wants.
• Disadvantages: minorities that don’t fall into either category are not represented
• Majority Coalition System: parties establish open pre-electoral coalitions so voters know which parties will attempt to work together to form a government. Purely multiparty systems have combinations of parties, voter support, and election laws that virtually ensure that no single party wins a legislative majority. (Germany and France)
• Advantages: nearly all people have at least some say
• Disadvantages: if the majority is uneducated or extremist it may harm the country
• Consensual party system: parties commanding most of the legislative seats are not too far apart on policies and have a reasonable amount of trust in each other and in the political system. (Britain)
• Advantages: don’t differ too much and generally agree on how the country should be run
• Disadvantages: any other group removed wouldn’t have much power
• Conflictual party system: the legislature is dominated by parties that are far apart on issues or are highly antagonistic toward each other and the political system (Russian party system)
• Advantages: constant debate may provide for the best system (if compromises are made)
• Disadvantages: disagreement can lead to bad decisions or violence

12. Explain the different types of authoritarian party systems (exclusive governing parties and inclusive governing parties). Give an example of each. Explain how authoritarian party systems deal with the issue of interest aggregation.

• Exclusive Governing Parties: Insists on control over political resources by party leadership. It recognizes no legitimate interest aggregation by groups within the party nor does it permit any free activity by social groups, citizens, or other government agencies.
• Example: Communist Party (USSR)
• Inclusive Governing Parties: recognizes and attempts to coordinate various social groups in the society. It accepts and aggregates certain autonomous interests, while repressing other and forbidding any serious challenges to its own control.
• Example: PRI in Mexico before its recent transition.
• Authoritarian party systems deal with interest aggregation by deliberately attempting to develop policy proposals and mobilize support for them within the ranks of the party or interactions with business groups, landowners, and institutional groups in the bureaucracy or military. The citizens have no real opportunity shape aggregation by choosing between party alternatives.

AP Comp: Chapter 8 Guided Reading - Politics in England

Chapter 8 Guided Reading: Politics in England

1. How has the concept of “insularity” impacted politics in the UK?

• Insularity: England’s physical isolation as an island
• The physical barrier seems to play a part in the limitations of Britain’s relationship to the European Union. It has also lead the UK to develop more ties to other English speaking countries on other continents, especially the US.
• Historically, it had an impact on how the UK was influenced by changes in politics in other European countries.

2. Describe the significance of the following historical developments:

• Reform Act
• 1832 Reform Act started a gradual process of enfranchising the masses
• By 1885, a majority of English males had the right to vote
• Concurrently, Conservative and Liberal party organizations began to contest elections nationwide
• By 1918 all adult men and women had the right to vote
• The Reform Act was the starting point for all of these progressive changes
• Keynesian welfare state
• During WWII, Winston Churchill set the foundations for the mixed economy Keynesian welfare state
• As a part of this, the government created full employment to fight the war and rationed food so everyone would have equal shares
• The Beveridge Report on social welfare, John Maynard Keynes’s Full Employment White Paper of 1944, and the Butler Education Act of 1944 all came out of this, all of which were landmarks in the development of the British welfare state
• The fair shares policy was continued following this, and in 1945 the National Health Service was established
• Additionally, coalmines, gas and electricity, railways, and the steel industries were nationalized.

3. Create a brief timeline showing the development of the UK and the devolution that has since occurred.

• 16^th century: Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and established the Church of England, settling the supremacy of the state’s power over the church
• 17^th century: civil war—Crown vs. Parliament. Parliament won, and the Monarchy was weakened
• 18^th century: Parliament gained the ability to hold the Crown accountable
• 1760: Industrial revolution
• mid 19^th century: aristocratic institutions of governance were transformed into a system that could enact and implement laws on public health and education and collect taxes needed to pay for new public services.
• 1837-1901: reign of Queen Victoria—government institutions were created to cope with the problems of a society that was increasingly urban, literate, industrial, and critical of unreformed institutions.
• 1832: Reform Act (see question 2)
• 1900: Labour Party founded to secure the representation of manual workers in Parliament
• 1906: Liberal government introduced old-age pensions and unemployment insurance; slowly these programs were expanded.
• 1940s: foundations for mixed economy Keynesian welfare state laid by Winston Churchill.
• 1945: National Health Service established
• 1960s: Labour, Liberal, and Conservative politicians denounced “stagnation” and competed in prescribing activist measures, ushering in “an age of hyper-innovation”
• 1964: Labour won under Harold Wilson, but the economy didn’t grow and they were forced to get a loan from the IMF
• 1970-1974: Britain under Edward Heath became a part of the European Community (now European Union). However, by the end of his term there was inflation, rising unemployment, and a contraction in the economy.
• 1977: Keynesian policies were abandoned when Labour relied (again) on an IMF loan to stabilize the pound.
• 1979: Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher won, believing that the market, rather than government, should make the most important decisions in society. Thatcher led her party to 3 successive election victories. However, Conservative MPs forced a ballot for the party leadership and Thatcher resigned, replaced by John Major
• 1987: Social Democratic Party merged with the Liberal Party to create the Liberal Democrats
• 1992: Major wins a fourth consecutive term for the Conservative government, but his policy of a strong British pound crashes under pressure from foreign speculators.
• 1993: Tony Blair became Labour leader
• 2001: Blair led Labour to another landslide victory over a demoralized opposition
• 2003: Blair committed to go the war in Iraq with the US, causing a division in his party. Investigations showed that he exaggerated or misread intelligence briefings, and many Britons didn’t trust him any more.

4. Compare and contrast Britain’s unwritten constitution with the United States written Constitution.

• Unwritten constitution of England: jumble of acts of Parliament, judicial pronouncements, customs, and conventions about the rules of the political game.
• The unwritten Constitution doesn’t give written guarantees to citizens, as the American Bill of Rights does; the rights of English citizens are meant to be secured by trustworthy governors.
• The US Constitution gives the Supreme Court final power to decide what the government may or may not do; in England the final authority is Parliament, where the government of the day commands a majority of votes.
• The Law Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council can resolve disputes about the interpretation of Acts of Parliament, but they can’t declare an Act unconstitutional
• The Bill of Rights in the US Constitution lets anyone seek redress through the courts until the Blair government, instead of preparing a British code of rights, simply incorporated the European Convention of Human Rights into the laws of Britain.
• Amendments to the US Constitution have to be approved by over half the states and members of Congress, the unwritten constitution can be changed by a majority vote in Parliament
• English courts claim no power to declare an act of parliament unconstitutional

5. List and briefly describe the major functions of the Prime Minister, his Cabinet, the Civil Service, and Parliament

• Prime Minister: must win elections (party elections—must be elected as leader of his or her party), campaign through the media, retain the confidence of his party, answer questions unscripted in front of parliament, and make and balance policies.
• Cabinet: consists of senior ministers, members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords and appointed by the prime minister. Usually leading members of the governing party make the Cabinet up to ensure agreement about major government policies.
• Civil Service: made up of hundreds of thousands of civil servants that administer laws and deliver public services.
• Parliament: examines and challenges the work of the government, debates and passes all laws, enabling the government to raise taxes. Made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons

6. Of all the types of political socialization found in Great Britain (family, gender, education, class, and mass media) which two do you find the most significant and why?

• I think that in any country, family is the most important type of political socialization—your attitude and views on politics most likely come from your parents and the set of beliefs that make you choose certain candidates or platforms were likely instilled in you as a child.
• Class is the second most significant in my opinion, mostly due to economics—economic policies make up a large part of which party people support, and class has everything to do with that.

7. Does Great Britain have acceptable political participation, or is this an area that needs improvement? Justify your response.

• As political participation in Britain widens, the number of people indirectly or intermittently involved in politics increased, which makes sense to me. Additionally, voters make up the largest number of people involved politically, which gives the common person a voice and make an impact, rather than the only the people working for the party (the smallest percentage of political participation) having an impact.

8. How have interest groups historically played a significant role in British politics?

• Seek information about government policies and changes in policies
• Look for sympathetic administration of established policies
• Try to influence policymaking
• Achieve a symbolic status
• In order to lobby successfully, interest groups must be able to identify officials who are most important in making public policy—therefore, they concentrate on Whitehall.
• Group members do not always agree with their leaders, and sometimes a multiplicity of identities cause conflict.

9. Explain the structure of the British multiparty system. Do you think the US should switch to a multiparty system, or remain with the two party system? Explain your answer.

• Labour, Conservatives, and Liberal Democrats are the three main parties that make up Britain’s multiparty system.
• The Labour Party has a majority in Westminster, but it competes for power in Scotland with the Scottish Nationalist Party. In Wales, it’s the Paid Cymru party, and in Northern Ireland various Unionists groups and Sinn Fein competes with it for support.
• In my opinion, the US should remain a two party system because introducing multiple parties to the degree that the UK does leads to even more contestation when making decisions. Additionally, it leads to an increased number of compromises, which may not always be best for the country.

10. Explain the difference between the first past the post system and proportional representation. Which system do you prefer and why?

• In the FPTP system, the party that receives the most votes wins.
• With proportional representation, the percentage of votes that candidates get in an election determines the number of seats they receive.
• I’m leaning towards proportional representation, because that way all of the majorities have a say and more people’s opinions are represented overall.

11. What are the significant roles that local government plays in British politics?

§ Local governments are responsible for waste management, education, libraries, social services, transport, strategic planning, consumer protection, housing, waste collection tax collection, education, police, and local planning.

12. Define and explain the significance of QUANGOS.

§ QUANGOS (quasi non-governmental organization) (coolest word ever): an organization to which government has granted power.

§ They are not governmental organizations, but they perform governmental functions. Some advise on policy-making, and others deliver public services. They make expert judgments in fields such as medical negligence or handle a large number of small claims.

13. How have popular expectations affected public policy in Great Britain?

§ Popular expectations, although often low when it comes to government, remain relatively high regarding individuals’ lives. This helps people to be less resistant to political change, though there is still widespread disagreement on what type of change should occur and how it should be carried out.