Comparative%20Politics%201%20POL1010

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Comparative Politics 1POL1010

• Lecture 4
• 28th October 2004, 3-4pm
• Classifications of Political Systems and
  Comparing Governments

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Essay Deadlines 2004/05

• Formative Essay Tuesday 16th
• November 2004
• Summative Essay 1 Thursday 3rd
• February 2005
• Summative Essay 2 Tuesday 26th
• April 2005

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Lecture Plan

• Why Classify Political Systems?
• Aristotles Classification
• Aristotles Ideal Type
• The 18th Century and the Development of
  Constitutional Systems
• The 20th Century and the Three Worlds Typology
• The Fall of the Three Worlds Typology
• Regimes in the Modern World
• Contemporary Regime Classification

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Why Classify Political Systems?

• it is essential to boosting our understanding of
  politics and governments
• to facilitate evaluation of political systems

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Aristotles Classification

• Democracy
• Oligarchy
• Tyranny
• Aristotle formulated his classification by
• asking two questions
• who rules?
• who benefits from the rule?

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Aristotles Six Forms of Government
Tyranny Oligarchy Democracy
Monarchy Aristocracy Polity
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Aristotles Ideal Type

• Tyranny was the worst form of government possible
  as it reduced citizens to slaves.
• Monarchy and Aristocracy were impractical systems
  as they were based on a willingness to put the
  interests of the community before the rulers own.
• Polity rule by the many for the interests of
  all, was accepted by A as being the most
  practicable form of systems
• The ideal type of political system was one which
  had elements of both democracy and aristocracy
  mixed constitution which left government in the
  hands of the middle classes.

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18th Century and the Development of
Constitutional Systems

• Three specific political systems ensure that
• Aristotles classification was outdated
• Constitutional republicanism established in the
  USA via the War of Independence (1775-1783)
• Democratic radicalism unleashed in France via the
  French Revolution of 1789
• Parliamentary government which emerged in the UK

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18th Century and the Development of
Constitutional Systems (contd)

• From the 18th century governments were
• increasingly classified as
• Monarchies or republics
• Autocratic or constitutional regimes

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The 20th Century and the Three Worlds Typology

• During the 20th century these distinctions
• have been sharpened further.
• Collapse of political systems post-WW2 led to
• The three worlds typology in the 1960s. The
• three worlds classification of political
  systems
• dominated with systems seen as either
• 1. a capitalist first world
• 2. a communist second world
• 3. a developing third world

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The 20th Century and the Three Worlds Typology
(contd)

• The three-world classification had economic,
• ideological, political and strategic
• dimensions
• Economic
• 1. Industrialised regimes were first in
  economic terms
• 2. Communist regimes were capable only of
  satisfying their populations most basic needs
• 3. Less developed countries of the third world
  were third in the sense that they were
  economically dependent

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The 20th Century and the Three Worlds Typology
(contd)

• Ideological
• First world vs. second world
• Capitalism vs. Communism

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The Fall of the Three Worlds Typology

• The 1970s and the emergence of the fourth world
• Democratisation in Latin America
• Fukuyama the end of history (1989) and the
  triumph of western liberal democracy

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Regimes of the Modern World

• Criteria for a new typology
• Who rules?
• How is compliance assured?
• Is government centralised or fragmented?
• How is power acquired?
• What is the balance between state and individual?
• How is economic life organised?
• Is the regime stable?

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Contemporary Regime Classification

• constitutional-institutional approach
  distinction between presidential / parliamentary,
  federal / unitary
• structural-functional approach developed out of
  systems theory which was prominent in the 1950s
  and 1960s
• economic-ideological approach again a system
  approach which focuses upon the level of material
  development in a country and also its broader
  ideological orientation

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Contemporary Regime Classification

• It is by virtue of the systems approaches that
• five regime types can finally be delineated,
• regime types which are fit for contemporary
• world we live in
• Western Polyarchies
• Post-Communist Regimes
• East Asia Regimes
• Islamic Regimes
• Military Regimes

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Western Polyarchies

• The term polyarchy was first coined by Robert
• Dahl and Charles Lindblom in their 1953 book
• Politics, Economics and Welfare
• Polyarchical regimes have two essential
• features
• relatively high tolerance of opposition seen as
  a means to check the power of government
• it ensures that participation in politics should
  be open and responsive to the public

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Polyarchies in Practice

• Arend Lijphart distinguished between two
• types of Western polyarchy majority
• democracies and consensus democracies
• (1984, 1990).
• Majority democracies include Westminster
• model, UK, NZ, Australia, Canada, Israel
• and India

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Majority Democracies

• Majoritarian Systems are often marked by
• Single-party government
• A two-party system
• Simple plurality or first past the post voting
  system
• Unitary or centralised government
• An uncodified constitution

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Consensus Democracies

• In contrast to the majority systems above,
• consensus or pluralist western polyarchies
• are characterised by the diffusion of power
• throughout the governmental and party
• systems e.g. USA
• Consociational democracies Netherlands,
• Belgium, Austria and Switzerland

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Consensus Democracies

• Consensual (Pluralistic, Consociational) Systems
• are often marked by
• Coalition governments
• A separation of powers between executive and
  assembly
• A multiparty system
• Proportional representation voting system
• Federalism / devolution
• Constitution and bill of rights

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Terminology

• Preference for the Term Polyarchy over
• Democracy
• The reason that the word polyarchy is viewed
• as being preferable to liberal democracy is two-
• fold
• it avoids the normative implications of LD
• the term realises the reality that very often
  regimes fall short of the goal of democracy

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Postcommunist Regimes

• The collapse of communist regimes of
• eastern Europe between 1989-1991 opened
• a whole process of democratisation that
• drew heavily upon the western liberal
• Democratic model.
• Two central features of this democratisation
• process, the need for
• Multiparty systems
• Market-based economic reforms

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East Asian Regimes

• In the second half of the 20th century the
• worlds economic focus has shifted from the
• West to the East.
• Eastern Polyarchies
• These systems are focussed more around economic
  than political goals
• This is broad support for strong government and
  state
• Support and heavy identification with the leader
  Confucian stress on loyalty

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Islamic Regimes

• Two ways of coming into being
• 1. those states where the existing political
  order has been overtly challenged Iranian
  revolution of 1979. Similar stories in Sudan and
  Pakistan
• 2. cases where regimes have been deliberately
  constructed along Islamic lines e.g. Saudi
  Arabia which has been Islamic since its inception
  in 1932.

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Military Regimes

• This last regime classification is one in
• which the system is dependent upon the use
• of military power and coercion.
• Two different categories that we can place
• these in
• Classical form is the military junta
• Military-backed personalised dictatorship

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Bibliography

• Aristotle Politics Oxford Clarendon Press
• Dahl, R. and Lindblom, C. (1953) Politics,
• Economics and Welfare New York, NY
• Harper and Row.
• Fukuyama, F. (1989) The End of History? in The
• National Interest Summer.
• Hobbes, T. 1651 (1968) Leviathan Penguin.
• Lijphart, A. (1984) Democracies Patterns of
  Majoritarian
• and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries
• World Bank (1985) World Bank Development Report
  1985
• Washington, DC World Bank.