POS 203: Introduction to Political Science 10082008

1
POS 203 Introduction to Political Science
10/08/2008

• Course Agenda
• Course website.
• Midterm Exam Review Guide distributed end of
  class.
• Presentations.
• Discussion Questions
• How would you apply concepts from Landman Chapter
  6 to Hauss?
• Hauss Critical Thinking p. 102 6 How does the
  parliamentary system enable British governments
  to act quickly and decisively?
• Hauss Critical Thinking p. 139 3 Democracy did
  not develop as quickly or as smoothly in France
  as in the United States or Great Britain. Why do
  you think that was the case?
• Video Case France, Algeria, and Decolonization.
• Discussion of concepts introduced by readings.
• Hauss, Landman.

2
Public Policy The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions

• Domestic politics
• Margaret Thatcher
• The retreat from the commanding heights
  Nationalizing and privatizing
• Rolling back the welfare state
• Thatchers supporters say she saved the British
  economy by bring both inflation and unemployment
  under control and by creating a more dynamic
  private sector.
• Thatchers detractors say she created new
  problems and exacerbated existing ones by
  widening the gap between rich and poor and by
  allowing public services to deteriorate.

3
Public Policy The Thatcher and Blair Revolutions

• Domestic Politics, cont.
• Tony Blair
• Not rolling back Thatchers and Majors reforms
• Government spending as a percentage of GNP shrank
• Welfare that gives recipients skills to find jobs
  rather than just benefits
• The New Deal
• Tuition increase
• Tolling London drivers to reduce traffic
  congestion
• Blairs supporters say he has create the Third
  Way combining the best aspects of the socialist
  goals commitment to equality with a market
  economy.
• Blairs detractors say he sold out the left and
  created Thatcher lite.

4
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5
National Liberation and Empire France and Algeria

• Video clip FLN and French Counterinsurgency.
• Consequences
• France.
• Crisis strengthened De Gaulles power.
• War crimes/human rights abuses.
• Algeria.
• Elections in 1991 first multiparty elections.
• 1992 Military Coup to keep Islamic party from
  controlling country.
• Violent conflict on-going 1992-1998 75,000 dead,
  20,000 disappeared.
• Islamist insurgency and Algerian
  counterinsurgency, human rights abuses.
• Discussion Question Apply Howe to understanding
  the Algerian independence/national liberation
  struggle.

6

• Landman Chapter 6
• Research Problem
• Are wealthy countries more democratic? If they
  are, why are they?
• Does economic development create favourable
  conditions for the emergence of democracy?
• Once democracy is established, does continued
  economic performance help maintain democratic
  institutions?
• Democracy dependent variable economic
  development independent variable.

7

• Landman Chapter 6

8

• Landman Chapter 6

9

• Landman Chapter 6

10

• Landman Chapter 6

11

• Landman Chapter 6

12

• Landman Chapter 6
• Comparing Few Countries.
• Qualitative Macro-Historical Studies uncover the
  black box of the relationship between economic
  development and democracy.
• de Schweinitz unique configuration of historical
  conditions relating to availability of natural
  resource, mobility of population ideology, and
  the locus and sequence of development accounted
  for the emergence of the democratic political
  order.
• Moores three routes - democracy dependent on
  violent break with the past.
• Rueschemeyer et al working class main agent of
  democratization in countries in study in advanced
  countries.
• In Latin American countries key to maintaining
  democracy and political stability is an
  institutionalized party system that protects the
  interests of the elites.
• Few countries methods allows for intensive
  examination, highlight historical sequences and
  specific historical events.

13

• Landman Chapter 6
• Comparing Many Countries.
• Reviews many studies reveals stable positive
  relationship between socio-economic development
  and democracy.
• Questions left
• Does development cause democracy? Or relationship
  more complex.
• Endogenous democratization economic development
  unleashes social and economic changes that lead
  to democratization in line with modernization
  theory.
• Exogenous democratization once democracy is
  established in a wealthy country it does not
  collapse presence of factors other than
  economic development that explains the emergence
  of democracy.

14

• Questions for next week 10/15
• How would you apply concepts from Landman Chapter
  6 to Hauss?
• Hauss Critical Thinking p. 171 3 Democracy in
  Germany developed much more slowly and far more
  tumultuously than in France, let alone the United
  States or Great Britain. Indeed, Germanys
  difficulties extended far beyond Nazism and the
  Third Reich. Why was that the case?
• Hauss Critical Thinking p. 195 4 What is the
  democratic deficit? Why does it exist? What
  difference does it make for the EU today?