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| Harold Laswell's interpretation of political systems |
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| the struggle over who gets what, when, and how. Highlights that politics revolves around the people's wants and needs. |
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| determines the distribution of goods and services to satisfy interests. |
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codified constraints on behavior when people work together to make collective decisions.
Types of Institutions:
a. Branches of Government- Congress, the President, and Federal courts.
b. Organizations- political parties, interest groups, and the electoral college.
-Determine who can legally do what, when, and how. This affects how the political system distributes benefits and costs to the people.
-the term refers to the procedures for decision-making or to organizations that make democracy work.
-addresses difficult collective problems among a diverse group of people with different interests.
-determines how policies and laws are made and enforced (i.e. Constitution)
-some are designed by people who believe such institutions will help them achieve their policy goals.
-shape the operation of the overall political system |
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| Federalism (federal systems) |
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| made up of multiple levels of government with independent authority over important areas of policy. |
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is the setup within a society that organizes and manages its politics across various levels of authority.
*a diverse group of people pursuing their interests. |
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| the social dilemmas arising in social factions that require a certain degree of authority. |
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| a conflict between group goals and individual self-interest. This issue cannot be resolved without the presence of some authority or incentive to resolve issue. |
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Thomas Hobbes' philosophy says that without a sovereign a society becomes a war of all against all...chaos!
*sovereign- a decision maker and enforcer which is needed for a stable society, or so says the Hobbster. |
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government is essential for solving collective dilemmas in every day life by establishing rules for decision-making or creating institutions that mitigate and control collective dilemmas and principal-agent problems, but a debate arises when talking about the amount of government involvement in a person's economic, social, and personal life. (i.e. forcing labor unions and cooperations to hold up agreements made)
Liberals vs. Socialists:
-Liberals: believe in limited government involvement. Gov. should only address collective social dilemmas such as transportation and defense.
-Socialists: believe in heavy government involvement. Gov. should provide an extensive social safety net, such as free healthcare and childcare. |
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| a benefit provided TO a group of people such that each person can enjoy without necessarily paying for it, and such that one person's enjoyment of it does NOT inhibit the enjoyment of it by others. (i.e. Public transportation, parks, and national defense) |
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a product or benefit provided such that its enjoyment can be limited to specific people, and one's consumption of it precludes others from consuming it. (i.e. movie tickets or road usage)
Characteristics:
1. Rejectability- All private goods and services can be rejected by the final consumer should their tastes and preferences change.
2. Excludability- Consumers of private goods can be excluded from consuming the product by the seller if they are not willing or able to pay for it.
3. Rivalry-With a private good, one person's consumption of a product reduces the amount left for others to consume and benefit from - because scarce resources are used up in producing and supplying the good or service |
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| Benefitting from a public good while avoiding the costs of contributing to it. (i.e. the states after the American Revolution under the Articles of Confederation avoided paying taxes and contributing to the paying off the debt accumulated.) |
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| Collective-action problem |
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Definition
(multiperson versions of prisoner's dilemma) a situation in which people would be better off if they all cooperated; however, any individual has an incentive NOT to cooperate as long as others are cooperating.
Solution: with effective enforcement, public goods can be produced with fair systems of payment or contribution by all those who enjoy them. (i.e. IRS and taxes) |
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| an interaction between two strategic actors in which neither actor has an incentive to cooperate even though both would be better off if they did. Group goal is disrupted by self-interests. (i.e. arms race between competing businesses) |
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any situation in which each individual in a group prefers to act in common with others, but!
1. Fundamental disagreement over the best action to take due to the multiple possibilities.
2. Difficulty coordination single, cooperative action due to lack of communication
*i.e. Political party picking candidate for election |
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an instance in which any voting coalition in favor of an alt. can be divided by the consideration of other alternatives. (i.e. coalition raiding -> forming a coalition in the face of competition can be tricky due to other leaders making better offers).
*can be stabilized by external enforces, agenda setter. |
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| Minimum Winning Coalition |
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| smallest size coalition necessary to achieve your goal. |
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an authority that controls what options are decided by a group, which is essential to avoiding coalition raiding.
-Manipulative agenda setter: rigs results to get their way.
-Beneficent agenda setter: through enforcement powers, will ensure a fair scheme, rejects minimum winning coalition, instead creates a consensus through a unanimous coalition. |
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(AKA delegation problem) an instance in which one principal contracts an agent to act on the principal's behalf, principal and agent do not share same preferences/knowledge/interests, and the principal lacks means to observe all of the agent's behavior. (i.e. mechanic and contractor or bureaucracies and government)
*NOT a collective dilemma because it does not involve a conflict between group goals and self-interests.
Solution between government and bureaucracies:
*Politicians create incentives so that agents have to do what the government wants to do through rewards or strict rules and regulations. |
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| any government employee who is not part of the ruling powers. |
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| an agency or office devoted to carrying out tasks for the government in manner consistent with the law. |
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| programs and decisions by the government that are enforced by the rule of law. (i.e. sales taxes) |
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| institutional decisions made early on that deeply affect current and future policy decisions. (i.e. the Great Compromise of 1787) |
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| a political system in which there is NO expectation that the government represents the people and the institutions of government do not give the people a direct voice in who will lead. (i.e. communism) |
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| an authoritarian political system in which sovereign power is vested in one individual - Fidel Castro of Cuba. |
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| a pol. sys. in which a ruler is chosen by virtue of being the heir of the previous ruler - Saudi Arabia and Great Britain |
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| power resides in a small segment of society - Middle Eastern monarchies |
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| one party controls the government and actively seeks to prevent other parties from contesting power - China's Communist Party |
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| ruled by the people; elective chosen by popular election - 'Merica is unique due to its combination of federal and presidential structure. |
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| (most democratic countries are republics) public officials are chosen to represent the people in an assembly, makes policy decisions. |
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a nonprofit organization that monitors democratization of countries, standards:
1. Political rights- degree to which a country's political process allows for open participation of citizens.
2. Civil liberties- to which degree a country's people are free to express their views and organize into political parties. |
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