Intro. To Comparative Politics Journal Entry 1

Comparative Politics Domestic Responses to Global Challenges by Charles Hauss Chapter 1:
I. What is Comparative Politics?

a. Politics around the world matter

b. The stakes of political life vary tremendously from place to place and time to time

c. Content-
i. We look and try to understand similarities and differences among nations

d. Method-
i. This gives us a way to look at and understand politics.

e. Science-
i. Attempts to develop a theory that covers an entire area or discipline.

II. The State: One Focus Among Many

a. 3 classifications
i. Industrialized Democracies- most resources, and has the greatest potential for creating and sustaining powerful states.
a. Has the strongest restrains on the use of its power.
ii. Communists- state is strong, but not enough to keep state indefinitely strong.
iii. Less developed countries- poor, have high rates of illiteracy, the government has not been able to generate courts or bureaucracies.

b. strong and weak states- strong states have more responsibilities and usually carry out these responsibilities out effectively.
i. strong states are usually wealthy, have popular support , and usually the government works well together.

c. Core concepts:
i. regime- set of institutions and practices the happen when one government is replaced by another.
ii. System- the regime and the government of the day.
iii. Democracy and capitalism
iv. Political cultures: reflects values of people
v. Identity- how a country defines themselves in racial, linguistic, ethnic or religious terms.
vi. Political Participation- elections, interest groups
vii. Public Policy- regulate what citizens can do
viii. Imperialism- the policy of colonizing other countries
ix. Totalitarianism
x. Globalization- the shrinking of social, economic, environmental and political life.

III. 3 templates:
a. Political system- 5 concepts: input, decision making, outputs, feedback, and the environment.

b. Inputs- the way citizens and groups interact with political life
i. Two types of activities 1. People who support 2. People who make demands of the state.
ii. Types of organizations: 1. Interest groups- deal with limited issues and represent a small amount of the population 2. Political Parties- tries to bring the interest groups together to help gain control over government

c. Decision Making- two main angles: the institutions structure and the beliefs, skills, and personalities of the leaders.
i. Institutions matter more in older, established regimes like Britain.

d. Output-public policy in system theory

e. Feedback- the process through which people find out about public policy and the ways in which their reactions to recent political events help shape the next phase of political life.

f. Environment- everything outside the political system.

IV. Historical and contemporary factors:

a. Imperialism- imposition of western political, economic, and cultural institutions on the rest of the world.

b. Globalizations-used to describe hoe international economic, social, cultural, and technological forces are affecting events inside individual countries.

V. States, Society, and globalization:

a. Inverse relationship. If the power of one increases, then the other must reduce.

Key Themes:
• Politics matters all around the world
• The stakes of political life vary from place to place and time to time
• There are similarities and differences between governments
• There are three different types of states, industrialized democracies, current and former communist regimes, and less developed countries, each has benefits and drawbacks.
• Globalization affects both large and small states by limited states from being able to do whatever they wish. Most states are beginning to lose their abilities to shape their own destinies due to globalizations.
• The government is important and is also used to term people in power at a certain time.
• In government the regime and the system are important parts that make up an important government.
• System theory has 5 key concepts: inputs, decisions making, outputs, feedback, and the environment.
Questions after reading?
• When the book talks about reasons the communist’s style regimes failed. I wonder what it is about giving people slight freedom that made them loose their repression. I would like this further explained.
• What makes it so hard for countries outside of Europe and northern American to democratize and create a market based economy besides wealth?
• Hauss talks about strong and weak states. I would like to know which states he considers weak and strong? I wish he would have gave examples of strong and weak states.

New events:

1. USA Today 1/25/10
States Go After Texting drivers- twenty-three states are working on legislation to ban texting and driving. Nineteen states have already passed legislation to prohibit it. The interest in this has come up due to the public disapproval of the accidents caused from using cell phones and driving.

2. USA Today 1/26/10
Teen Pregnancies, abortions rise- since 2006 the rise in teen pregnancies has risen 37%, this has also lead to higher abortions among girls ages 15 to 19. Even though the government has almost doubled spending on abstinence education the rise in these pregnancies still is increasing. This is important because the government is spending millions of dollars to try and reduce pregnancy rates, but is it really working? Also, this can be considered when discussing about pro life or pro choice.

3. USA Today 1/28/10
Obama Vows to Make Job creation Immediate Priority- Obama’s immediate goals for the country are to reduce business taxes, rebuild roads and rail lines. He has but regulating health care and climate change on the back burner. These are important because they are decisions that are will affect not only the country as a whole, but decisions made by Obama and the government will be ones that will personally affect each individual.

4. USA Today 1/28/10
Crew begins to raze Haiti hotel’s remains- construction crews have started removing the remains in Haiti. This has raised some controversy because some people still believe that their loved ones could still be trapped inside.

5. USA Today 1/29/10
Driver phone bans impact doubted- a new study shows that of traffic crashes have not decreased in some states that have banned cell phone use while driving. This is important since many states are considering banning the use of cell phones while driving, this article makes us question if banning the use of cell phones will really lower the number of automobile crashes.

6. USA Today 1/31/10
Army’s suicide crisis- army suicide rates have increased and to help prevent further suicides the army is taking special efforts to make sure that the soldiers believe that they are valued and wanted. In 2009 there were 160 confirmed suicides in the army. This is important because the with the ongoing war and suicide rates being up, we need to make sure we take extra precautions to make sure that soldiers feel that what they are doing is helping to serve their country and that they are greatly needed.

7. USA Today 2/1/10
States Keep up Spending Levels
State and Local government spending is up 0.1% since 2009 even though many programs were cut off, the spending still seems to have increased. They are worried about 2011 when federal aid will start to decrease.
USA Today 2/1/10
Lessons Learned in Alexandria
Obama is trying o decided where to hold the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected conspirators. They do not want to hold the trail in Manhattan. They are searching for a civil court where the location can remain unknown.

8. USA Today 2/2/10
Big Dollars, Big Tasks for Budget
In Obama’s $3.8 trillion dollar budget proposal he is focusing on school funding increases, war spending, and middle class families and business to receive tax cuts. Items that will not be the main focus are the $100 billion dollar plan to return astronauts to the moon, raising taxes on wealthy people, and reducing the budget deficit.

9. USA Today 2/2/10
FFA proposes $2.5 M penalty on airline
The federal aviation administration is considering giving American Airlines a penalty of $2.5 million dollars for not giving accurate information to crew members about the weight of their baggage. This is important to address because the weight of the plane is very crucial and the exact weight has to be known.

10. USA Today 2/3/10
Shirt seen on role of military "mentors"
In a reaction to the increased rate of military suicides the defense secretary, Robert Gates, will be adding a mentor experience, where retired officers can talk with and give advice to current officers.