POLI 100 Final

12/03/2014

The definition of democracy put forth in lecture, and what it entails in

terms of criteria for a democratic process, and the kind of institutions
democracy requires
Definition: Process of collective decision-making where all the
members of the association are considered (and treated) as
politically equal
Criteria: effective participation, voting equality, enlightened
understanding, control of the agenda, inclusion of all adults
Institutions: elected officials, free fair and frequent elections,
freedom of expression, access to alternative information,
associational autonomy, inclusive citizenship
Democracys ups and downs, and the broad trends over the last few
decades regarding the spread of democracy (from the Economist article on
democracy note, read the whole thing, not just the first section)
Recently democracy is an ideal that fails after being achieved,
autocracies are coming up in place of democracy and democracies
look weak/unorganized
2nd half of 20th century democracy growing with the fall of
communism, thought of as an inevitability
recent decades have shown that democracies have little
participation and are run by money, not very good at getting things
done/gridlock
What the Economist article recommends for getting democracy right
Too much emphasis on election and too little on building democratic
institutions
Majoritarianism needs to be stamped out (ruling party decides that
because it won it takes all)
Robust constitutions
Established democracies have to update their political systems
Further limit the government
o Tighter fiscal policy
o Requiring law renewal
o Prevent policies that could cause bankruptcy from being
written
Don't make promises you cant fulfill
What is meant by the separation of powers
Investing legislative, judicial and executive powers of government
in different bodies

What is meant by having a system of checks and balances

How separation of powers is achieved
Allows spate government powers to hold each other accountable
What is meant by social capital and why it is said to be good for
societies to have high levels of it
Social capital is the preecieved benefits (economic, social, etc.)
gained from cooperation between groups
High levels of social capital generally mean high participation in
government, more involvement means more involved voters means
a better democracy
What characterizes a first-past-the-post electoral system, and what
its main advantages and disadvantages are
Candidate receiving more votes than any other wins, no need for a
majority
Advantages: simple, encourages centrist parties, leads to two-party
system (no minority government)
Disadvantages: wasted votes, strategic voting, gerrymandering
What characterizes a proportional party list electoral system, and
what its main advantages and disadvantages are
Parties present lists of candidates and are granted seats in order of
the proportion of votes they won
Advantages: pick a party rather than a person, gender and race
representation
Disadvantages: impossible to be an independent candidate, parties
have most control over list, politicians are impersonally linked to
the land, they didn't grow up there
The main features of a presidential system of government, and its
main advantages and drawbacks
Presidential systems separate powers into judicial, legislative and
executive separately, senate and house both elected, head of
government is head of state, fixed term, cabinet served at will of
president, presidential pardons
Advantages: direct elections, speraration of powers, stability
Disadvantages: tendency for authoritarianism, political gridlock,
impediments to leadership change (fixed election dates)
The main features of a parliamentary system of government, and its
main advantages and drawbacks
Head of state/head of government different, executive accountable
to legislative
Advantages: easy leader transition, evenly spreads over minorities

Disadvantages: legislation passes too quickly, lack of election

calendar, no ability to run for prime minister- popular candidate
wont be elected for lack of party affiliation
Conservatism its animating principle as well as the key ideas that
underpin the ideology
Continuity/respect for the gathered wisdom of tradition; humility in
the face of human ignorance
Free market, less state intervention
Liberalism its animating principle as well as the key ideas that
underpin the ideology
Each person should be free to pursue their own good in their own
way
State intervention, correcting market failure,
Socialism its animating principle as well as the key ideas that
underpin the ideology
Emancipation from market dependency and class domination
Communism, social democracy
The summaries of the chapters from the textbook we read
What are the key defining features of a capitalist economy
Private ownership, market principles, wage labor, profit motive
The three varieties of capitalism we looked at
Enterprise capitalism public ownership minimum, market forces
and competition dominate, trade unions weak (wealth inequality)
Social Capitalism state insures generous benefits, market largely
free from government intervention, market forces and social
cohesion are seen as the same, neo-corporatist (insider/outsider
economy)
State Capitalism power of state with power of capitalism, statebacked firms, market-capitalist forces are harnessed (gives political
connections advantages)
The three types of welfare state regimes we looked at in lecture
Liberal- few benefits, support in case of need only (self-reliance)
Corporatist wider more generous benefits, tied to employment,
family first (benefits go to the whole family)
Social Democratic- generous benefits, many universal, distributed
to individual, increasing female workforce (individual independence)

How states manage the economy

Fiscal and monetary policy
What characterizes fiscal and monetary policy
Fiscal policy: adjustments in government tax and spending levels,
Monetary policy: controlled by central bank, target interest rates
What characterizes economic, cultural and political globalization
emergence of a complex web of inter-connectedness that means
that our lives are increasingly shaped by events that occur, and
decisions that are made, at a great distance from us
Economic: free trade agrements, common currencies
Political: UN, EU
Cultural: United states of Europe?, westernization
The financial crisis and its aftermath key points from lectures and
the textbook
The crisis: rise in private debt, complacency from policymakers,
banks and financial institutions became excessively leveraged and
vulnerable
Aftermath: government and central banks try to fight crisis through
monetary and fiscal policy, private debt overhang, sovereign debt
problems
The correct answers to the quiz on poverty & development we jointly
looked at in lecture
In 1950 there were fewer than one billion children (aged 0-14) in
the world. By 2000 there were almost two billion. How many do UN
experts think there will be in 2100? 2 billion
In the past 20 years the proportion of people living in poverty has
nearly halved
Global life expectancy 70 years
80% of adults today literate
distribution of income globally: bell curve just slightly tilted down
On average, in the world as a whole today, men aged 25-34 have
spent 8 years in school. How many years on average have women
in the same age group spent in school? - 7 years
Percent of 1 year olds vaccinated for measles 80%

 1% world energy generated comes from wind and solar

global birth rate 2.5
What is meant by extractive and inclusive political and economic
institutions, and how they are said to shape whether nations fail or thrive
Inclusive: thrives
o enforce property rights, create level playing field, encourage
investment in new technologies and skills
o distribute power widely, secure rule of law
Extractive: suffers
o Extract resources from many to the few
o Concentrate power in hands of the few
Why South Korea is an example those who emphasize the role of
economic and political institutions in development like to point to
Because the difference between north and south korea is so severe
and their geography, ethnic makeup and culture (traditional reasons
a country was said to do well) are so similar
The natural resource trap (or curse)
Should make a country thrive, End up being mismanaged/
corruption
Key factor is time of discovery: discovered before good institutions?
SOL
What is meant by the reversal of fortune with regards to
colonization, and how it ties in with the point about extractive/inclusive
institutions
Countries that were already rich received extractive institutions,
while poorer ones received inclusive ones
Reversed the fortunes of countries that were colonized, those that
were doing well did badly
How conflict and civil war relates to poverty
Poor countries are prone to civil war, civil war is lengthly,
entrenches poverty
Realism as an approach to international politics and security
Nations are the most important actors and exist in a state of
anarchy, international arena full of competition

 Sifts in the balance of power

Liberalism as an approach to international politics and security
State preferences determine international behavior, state not the
most important actor
Trade and mutual dependence, liberal democracy,
The perspective realism and liberalism gives us on a question such as:
is peace and cooperation destined to remain elusive
Realism, yes: absence of world government, security dilemma,
relative gains
Liberalism, no: interdependence, democratic peace, international
society
The economist article we read on civil war, and what it says about its
causes

Different forms of power in international politics

Military power, economic power, soft power, structural power
(shaping the rules)
Why a multipolar world is seen as potentially more unstable and
conflict prone
History of Multipolarities is full of conflict
The role of the UN and how it works
Role: maintain peace and security, develop friendly relations
between nations, achieve cooperation in solving international
problems
How it works: security council, resources and expertise
Basic role, structure and permanent members of the security council
15 members, 10 rotating 5 permanent
permanent members : US, UK, China, Russia, France
The type of factors and scenarios that tend to shape/determine
whether the UN is able to take action in response to some issue or conflict
(as discussed in the textbook and the lecture)
Major powers have conflicting interests, domestic politics prevent
action

The factors that shape how successful the UN is in its peacekeeping

missions (make sure to review the video we watched)
support from member nations + security council
coordination with locals
o local support
realistic/unrealistic goals
UN Bureaucracy
o push for reform
Peacekeeping leadership
o term too short
o lack of leadership
Review extra carefully the section Twenty-first-century world order in
the textbook
'new world order'
o cold war- bipolar world dominated by US v USSR
'balance of terror'
o post-cold war- initially optimism + idealism , cooperation,
humanitarian intervention, liberal
did not last long
"new world disorder"
o Cold War focused on external issues promoted internal
cohesion
o collapse of external threat -> internal pressures erupt: ethnic,
racial, regional conflict e.g. Yugoslavia
'war on terror' and beyond
o 9/11- real birth of 21st century not collapse of communism

o theories 'clash of civilizations' (Samuel Huntington) replaces

east-west
criticisms:
blurred cultural differences,
link btw cultural differences & political
antagonism questionable
conflict btw civilization may have economic
& political causes not cultural
3 part world - Robert Cooper
premodern- failed states
modern- effective, protective of sovereignty
postmodern- EU, beyond power politics,
international laws & agreements
some overlap with neo-con bush doctrine
new imperialism could help bring order to
chaos
o US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
raised questions about US leadership
US military fucked by guerrilla warfare
use of force weakened US soft power in middle east
unipolarity to multipolarity
o decline of USA
modern military, high destructive power
cant use it to make political achievements
slow economic decline

weakened soft power

reputation damaged, moral authority reduced
regardless, US is too OP & influential economically,
politically, militarily
o rise of China & emerging powers
China is #1 rising power
often seen as part of trend (BRICS)
problems:
China biggest problem: reconciling tensions btw
political & economic structures
BRICS problem: no one takes charge/ openly
challenges US, limited capacity to act as a single
entity because the differences btw members
changing nature of power & power relations
o diffusion of power beyond control of states
transnational corporations dominate global economy +
elude political control
NGOs proliferated & exercise increased influence in
international organizations(UN, EU)
changing nature of power
technology causes soft power to become as
important as hard power
military power is becoming less effective if
no popular support
new technology alters power balances
within+btween society
e.g. terrorist groups disproportionately
influence politics power of modern
weaponry
public opinion is influenced by mass media +
social media technology
The type of security challenges we face in the twenty-first century review extra carefully the section New security challenges in the textbook
traditional wars -> new wars

o civil wars, blurred civilian/military divide, war amongst the

people, refugee crisis
transnational terrorism
o post 9/11, globalization
o new tactics difficult to defend against, WMDs increase
potential + scope, greater willingness to use WMDs
counter-terrorism
o strengthening state security (guantanamo, surveillance)
o force based counterterrorism (war on terror)
o political deals ("appeasement" actual effective since terrorism
usually has political goals
nuclear proliferation
o horizontal proliferation
o rogue states
What Secret War one of the videos we watched tells us about the
challenges of the global war on terror
Sovreignity issues
o Countries either not cooperative with or against war on terror
o No nation to deal with in some of these locations
No leaders persay of an enemy movement
Drone issues
o Legality
o Civilian casualties
o Target selection
o Creating more enemies than you destroy
Intelligence
o Difficult to collect
o Could be misinformed, targets are given and shot, not reexamined