Welcome to POLI 328B, 002 Comparative Politics: Political Theory, Ideology and Public Policy with Dr

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Welcome to POLI 328B, 002!Comparative Politics
Political Theory, Ideology and Public
Policywith Dr. Paul KershawAssistant
ProfessorFaculty of Graduate Studies, UBCHuman
Early Learning Partnership
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Just a wee bit about me

• Interdisciplinary Ph.D in Poli Sci, Law and
  Economics, especially interested in scholarship
  that merges political theory and policy.
• Love horses, kayaks, the saxophone and cooking

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Just a wee bit about HELP

• HELP Mandate To create, promote and apply new
  knowledge through interdisciplinary research to
  help children thrive.
• 150 faculty and graduate student affiliates from
  BCs four major universities and 2 university
  colleges.
• HELP Employs a cell to society approach to
  researching early childhood development.
• Im on the society side of the spectrum,
  researching how caregiving issues factor in the
  rights and responsibilities of citizenship and
  institutionalized in public policy/welfare state.

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You can find me at

• The Library Processing Centre, 2206 East Mall,
  Room 326
• Coming from Poli Sci, go past old bus loop and
  bookstore, look for the LPC on the East side of
  the Street.
• If you hit the parking lot, youve gone too far.

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Office hours

• Monday 430 530
• Thursday 100 200 (Except Sept 16 and Nov
  18)
• By appointment

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Plan for today

• Go over syllabus and course expectations/requireme
  nts
• Jump right into material the lazy lavatory
  syndrome and civic decay theory meets practice.

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What is the course about?

• Presumes that political theorists have potential
  to make an important contribution to practical
  policy debate and design.
• Were going to explore this potential!
• How? By comparing contemporary texts from
  seminal thinkers representing 5 dominant schools
  of political thought

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The five perspectives

• Neoliberalism
• Third Way
• Communitarianism
• Social Conservatism
• Feminism
• We will strive not to caricature political camps.
• Instead, we will engage with one or two of the
  best representatives of each!

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The course is about contemporary theory and
issues

• We will generally draw on theoretical research
  published since 1999 that will equip students
  with a series of normative frameworks that fall
  along, and in some cases transcend, the
  left-right spectrum.
• Apply these frameworks to concrete contemporary
  policy debates that pertain to citizenship and
  social inclusion.

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Required Textbook

• Custom course package for POLI 328B, 002

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Course Requirements

• 30 In-Class Mid-Term (week 8)
• 30 7-Page (2000 word) Paper (due week 12)
• 30 7-Page (2000 word) Paper (due Dec 13
  instead of formal exam)
• 10 Class Participation

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Grading Policy

• As per faculty of arts policy
• Grade "A" between 5 and 25 of the class
• Grades "A"/"B" combined not over 75
• Grade "F" not over 20 of the class

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Class Participation and Lecture Quizzes

• Reading requirements are modest
• So I expect you will come to class having read
  the material carefully
• I will invite students to offer comments about
  readings in class. And time set aside each class
  to ask questions ? 10 participation grade
• Pop quizzes occasionally ? 10 participation

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Discussion Groups

• Final 20 minutes of many classes will be
  dedicated to small group discussions about the
  readings.
• Groups Last names starting with A-G, H-L, M-Q
  and S-Z
• Again comments offered in these groups
  contribute to 10 participation grade.

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Attendance

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Plagiarism

• using someone elses words, ideas or work
  without giving him/her appropriate credit.
• Wont be tolerated.
• Citations are therefore imperative!
• See Faculty of Arts Policy at
  http//www.arts.ubc.ca/Plagiarism_Avoided.373.0.ht
  ml

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TurnItIn

• When handing in the seven-page papers, students
  are expected (1) to deliver one hard copy of the
  paper in class and (2) submit one electronic copy
  to TurnItIn, an internet-based service to which
  UBC subscribes.
• It is now Poli Sci department policy that all
  undergraduate papers are submitted to TurnItIn.
• For more information, see http//www.vpacademic.
  ubc.ca/learning/TurnItIn_Info.doc

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Late Assignment Policy

• Flex Days. Wooo hooo!
• 7 per day thereafter, including weekends.
• exceptions rare, but must be arranged in
  advance or supported by doctors note.

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Absent from Mid-Term Policy

• Flex-days do not apply to the in-class midterm
  exam!
• There are almost no circumstances for which the
  midterm will be rescheduled.
• In cases of serious illness or incapacity, some
  consideration may be given. Please bring a
  doctors note (ideally in advance of the exam).

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Any Questions?

• About course expectations Ive mentioned?
• Anything else?

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Theory, Ideology and Policy

• Why do I include the term ideology in the
  course title?

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What is ideology?

• Ideology refers to clusters of beliefs,
  attitudes, values and images through members of a
  group make sense of and think about the world.
• Ideologies serve as lenses that filter and, to
  varying degrees, distort our experience and
  understanding. (Glenn 1994, 9)
• Glenn, E. N. (1994). Social Constructions of
  Mothering A Thematic Overview. Mothering
  Ideology, Experience, and Agency. Glenn, Chang
  and Forcey. New York, Routledge 1-32.

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Is any theory free of a lens that filters and
makes sense of experience?

• Many very smart people believe we achieve
  objectivity if we transcend our personal
  locations, values, beliefs, etc.???
• i.e. Nagels view from nowhere?
• i.e. Rawlss original position/veil of
  ignorance?
• But can we really transcend these specific
  locations?
• epistemological question

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Alternative answer

• Values, politics and knowledge are intrinsically
  connected.
• -- this view especially prevalent in feminist
  approaches to epistemology
• e.g. Alcoff, L and E Potter eds. 1993.
  Feminist Epistemologies. New York Routledge.

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Theory/Ideology

• As the class proceeds, we will encounter works
  by seminal thinkers that suggest the alternative
  answer better tracks reality?
• Raises the question what is the divide between
  ideology and theory?

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Whats all this talk of Citizenship in the
syllabus?

• What is citizenship?
• Not just about immigration or the passport you
  hold.
• Rather citizenship articulates the terms of
  belonging in society by defining the entitlements
  and obligations that accompany full membership.

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Norman and Kymlicka reading

• N/K, 211
• Citizenship as
• legal status citizens rights-claimers in
  virtue of their status as full members of society
• identity/solidarity citizens identify with
  their political community citizenship a source
  of solidarity and primary locus of community
• civic virtue/participation citizenship
  describes members of a self-governing community.
  Thus, citizens have a duty to participate
  actively in the political, social and cultural
  betterment of their community

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Why focus on Citizenship?

• N/K, 210
• Citizenship has become one of the central
  organizing concepts for normative political
  theorizing in recent years.
• Replacing debates about Rawlsian theories of
  justice that dominated 70s and 80s.
• Rawls focuses on the major institutions
  necessary for a just society those that would
  distribute autonomy and well-being across the
  citizenry fairly.

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Focus on Citizenship

• Reflects renewed appreciation for the reality
  that the a just liberal democracy does not only
  require that we implement just social
  institutions
• but also that it consist of citizens who
  appropriate patterns of social life and
  characteristics that are necessary for liberal
  democracies to flourish.

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Lazy Lavatory Syndrome

• A peculiar, but apparently not uncommon, ailment
  in the office building in which I work. All the
  bathroom entrances and stall doors are adorned
  with
• Please Flush After Every Use.

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Lazy Lavatory Syndrome

• Lots of graffiti some of it intelligent
  political debate
• But no mention of the most jarring political
  reality signalled by the signs
• Some of the most privileged, learned citizens in
  our society are so dismissive of the obligations
  one must fulfill to sustain the communities which
  make privilege possible, they require regular
  reminders to take responsibility for disposing of
  their own waste rather than free-ride off the
  flush of fellow citizens.

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LLS is symbolic of an alleged decline of
civic-spiritedness

• In response, theorists emphasize that citizenry
  qualities, attitudes and Toquevilleian habits of
  the heart are integral to the health and
  stability of modern democracies.
• Attention to civic virtues and the social duties
  they imply emerged across political camps.
• citizens willingness to accept responsibility
  for personal choices that affect the broader
  community and environment,
• particularly the economic demands citizens make
  of the state.

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Theory meets Policy

• How does society ensure its citizens cultivate
  civic virtues and discharge their social
  responsibilities?
• N/K What are the schools for citizenship?
• the market
• civil society (voluntary organizations like
  churches, cooperatives, charities, ethnic
  associations, environmental organizations, etc.)
• families
• government

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Market as school for citizenship

• The market fosters and facilitates civic
  activity. a space where able-bodied citizens
  discharge their social responsibility to do what
  they can to support themselves and their families
  without turning unnecessarily to the collective
  for assistance.
• This view implicit in critiques that EI and
  income assistance breed passivity.
• BUT market participation can also be
  antithetical to equal citizenship and solidarity
• Reward selfish, anti-social behaviour influence
  democratic politics.

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Civil Society as school of citizenship

• Since Tocqueville, theorists have claimed that
  widespread citizenry participation in civil
  society a key to strong democracies.
• CS provides forums where citizens are especially
  likely to take an active role debating policies
  and working cooperatively to achieve shared
  goals.
• But, participation is voluntary and the
  organizations rarely exist to promote democracy
• so some cits may not participate others may
  participate only with like-minded and civic
  organizations may subscribe to NIMBY.

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The Family as school of citizenship

• Families primary place where citizens/children
  are first exposed to system of values, beliefs
  and practices.
• a seed-bed for the civic virtues that some
  theorists warn are dissipating in modernity.
• home to fundamental social attachments to kin
  and other cherished relations that become
  foundational for any sense of social belonging.
• But families may do little to prepare citizens
  for the radical pluralism that characterizes
  modern capitalist states.

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This leaves the government to play primary role
as school of citizenship

• But critics of liberal citizenship have been very
  weak in proposing concrete suggestions for
  change.
• N/K, p. 217 If the problem is an imbalance
  between rights and responsibilities, then
  presumably one solution would be either to take
  away some citizenship rights or to enforce
  additional citizenship duties.

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Timidity of citizenship theorists

• Concern about proposing heavy-handed,
  illiberal policies
• N/K, 217 Too often theorists focus more on
  describing desirable qualities of citizens, and
  less on what policies should be adopted to
  encourage or compel citizens to adopt these
  desirable virtues and practices.
• The result is that all too often in the
  citizenship literature the work reduces to the
  platitude that society would function better if
  people in it were nicer and more considerate.

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We will embrace no such platitude.

• Be Gone Timidity!
• Hence the course title Political Theory,
  Ideology and Public Policy.
• Readings in Weeks 9-12 dedicated to policy case
  studies.

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Questions????????

• There are no silly questions!