Comparative Politics Charles Hauss Chapter 2 Outline

I. Four Elections
a. Two common denominators to recent electoral history in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.
1. Elections determine who governs in all democracies.
2. Even though election stakes are high none of them have all critical
issues up for debate.
b. Differences- No two democracies are alike.
1. Not all democracies run their elections in the same way.
2. In the U.S. has a presidential system with a separation and divisions of
power.
II. Thinking About Democracy
a. The Basics
1. Rights- basic rights: freedom of press, religion, associations, and speech.
2. Competitive Elections- all elections are free, regular, and fair in which people can choose between two or more candidates.
3. Civil Society and Civic Culture- stable democracies have a civic culture in which people accept not just the rules of the political game but the elites who lead them.
4. Capitalism and Affluence- democracy can only exist alongside an affluent economy based in large part of private ownership of the means of production.
III. The Origins of the Democratic State
a. Domestic concerns matter more than international ones.
b. It is impossible to disentangle the history of democracy from that of Europe and North America.
c. Democracy in these countries has taken along time to develop.
d. Thomas Hobbes- If people were left to their own devices, the competition among them would be so intense that it would lead to the “war of all against all.”
e. John Locke- the state’s role was to protect “life, liberty, and property.”
f. The way democracy is created has to do with 4 transformations:
1. The creation of the nation and state
2. The role of religion in society and government
3. The development of pressures for democracy
4. The industrial revolution
IV. Political Culture and Participation.
a. The Civic Culture?
i. reasons for the collapse of democracy and the rise of fascism- political culture
ii. In successful Democracy- people have a sense of legitimacy and accept the “rules of the game.”
iii. The feeling of legitimacy has remained despite a drastic drop in most forms of political participation and trust in politicians.
iv. Consider more than just the values and assumptions of a political culture.
b. Political Parties and Elections
i. Political parties: the organizations responsible for contesting elections and forming governments afterward.
ii. Left- remains of the communist’s party.
iii. Social Democratic- traditionally supported the nationalization of industry, extensive social welfare programs, and greater equality.
iv. Liberals or Radicals- fundamental change; separation of church and state, a market economy, and democracy.
v. Christian Democratic- relationship between church and state
vi. Right- secular conservatives.
c. Catch-All Parties
i. attempt to appeal to all voters and literally catch them all.
d. New Divisions
i. women are beginning to have an increased role in political life.
e. Realignment?
i. Two parts
1. Dealignment always precedes realignment.
2. the right has gone a long way towards redefining itself. Conservatives has kept some of their traditional voters in the fold while appealing to new right wing materialists.
f. Interest Groups
i. They seek to promote the ideas of the interest groups.
ii. Since there are so many interest groups it is hard to reach a firm conclusion about them.
g. Political Protest
i. Two trends in protest
1. The angriest and loudest protest come from groups that feel they are least well represented.
2. Virtually none of it involves people who question the legitimacy of their regimes.
V. The Democratic State
a. Presidential and Parliamentary Systems
i. both are based on critical democratic principle that free and completive elections determine who governs.
ii. the American president often has to compromise, but in a parliamentary system the prime minister usually does not have to compromise because of a secure majority party.
iii. Parliamentary systems have cabinet responsibility- requires a prime minister and government to retain the support of a parliamentary majority.
VI. Public Policy
a. The Interventionist State
i. interventionist state- offer a variety of social services including…
1. Basic health care and education
2. Subsidized and/or free education at all levels including
universities.
3. Unemployment compensation
4. Pensions and other programs for seniors
b. Industrialized democracies all have capitalist economies because most
businesses are privately owned.
c.Foreign Policy
i. “political space” has changed so now it is easier for any of the
industrialized democracies to criticize and even reject Washington’s
initiatives on issues of national security.

d. Feedback
i. it is getting easier and more confusing to find out about politics at home
and abroad.
ii. average citizens view the world in their own terms, which may be
different from those of either the politicians or the media moguls.
e. Conclusions: The Worst Form of Government Expect For All the Others?
i. democratic regimes achieve a series of balances better than any other types of government:
1. Between the governors and the governed
2. Between the political world and the rest of the society
3. Between unbridled capitalism and the interests of those who do
not benefit from it.
4. Between personal freedoms and the need to maintain order and forge coherent public policy.
3 Questions:
1. The chapter talks about how democracies need to have an affluent economic base and I just wonder why democracy seems to require capitalism to be successful.
2. Under the Origins of the Democratic State section the author knows that democracy in these countries took a long time to develop. This just makes me wonder what exactly it is about democracy that makes it such a long process.
3. This isn’t really a question, but I though it was interesting how the chapter talks about how it is important for people to feel a sense of legitimacy in the government and even if voter turn out is low democracies are successful because the people still feel they are important, even if they don’t vote.


Comparative Politics Charles Hauss Chapter 3 Outline

I. Covering (or Not) The Uninsured
a. The U.S is the only industrialized democracy that does not even guarantee basic health care coverage to everybody.
b. The government does provide Medicaid and Medicare to the elderly and poor.
c. Thinking about the United States
i. The U.S. has a federal, where the government shares power with states, cities, counties, and other jurisdictions.
ii. The U.S. has a strong system of checks and balances.
iii. The way the U.S. is set up it requires politicians to compromise on almost every issue.
iv. The U.S. shares a decline in civic engagement with other industrialized democracies.
d. The Making of the American State
i. The Constitutional Order
1. According to Seymour Martin Lipset the most important even in the creation of the first nation was the adoption of the Constitution in 1787.
2. The founding fathers decided to concentrate power in larger jurisdictions such as the national government
ii. Since the Founders
1. The biggest crisis the US has ever faced was the civil war.
2. Even though American politics change the basic institutions and principles remain intact.
e. The American People and Politics
i. The American Political Culture
1. No more than a tiny minority of Americans have questioned the regime based on the Constitution of 1787.
2. Almost all Americans accept the idea of a weak state
3. Individualism remains one of the most widely held beliefs among Americans.
ii. Parties and Elections
1. The most common form of political participation in the US is voting in national elections.
2. Americans have a two party system
3. The Democratic part traditionally represents the “little man”
4. The Republican party traditionally represents the upper and middle class.
5. Democrats traditionally do best in the industrial Northeast and Middle West and West coasts and Republicans do better in the south, agricultural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain States.
iii. Social movements
1. New Left- added new issues, promotion of the civil rights and opposition of the Vietnam War.
2. New Right- More diverse than its left-wing equivalent.
iv. The Weak American State
1. The US has one of the weakest states of any of the industrialized democracies.
2. The US generally takes more time and is generally less effective than other governments.
3. The house and senate almost never pass identical versions of a bill.
4. 5 main factors that shape the way members vote
1. The President
2. The Party
3. The Member Peers
4. the Members constituents want
5. The Members own views
5. The American state usually cannot act either quickly or coherently
6. 3 factors to contribute to making the US a weak state
1. bureaucracy
2. The US is rare in giving its courts wide-ranging powers of judicial review.
3. federal system
II. Feedback
a. people rely primarily on network TV for their political information

3 Questions:
1. I did not realize that the US was the only industrialized nation that did not provide basic health care for everybody. This made me wonder why not until more recent years has the US not had to push to provide health care to everyone?
2. The US is considered a weak state because it takes a longer period of time to make actions, but I would not necessarily consider this completely negative because since the US takes longer to get legislation through by the time the legislation passes it is hopefully a compromise of what both parties want.
3. According to the table on page 58 the gap between the percentage of popular vote for republican and democrats has been decreasing; I wonder what reasons for this are?

News Articles:

USA Today 02/23/10
Obama unveils restart on health
President Obama proposed having a 10 year $950 billion plan that is opposed by the Republicans and is not yet endorsed by the Democrats. It is unclear whether or not the Democrats will be able to pass the bill on an election year. Even if Obama won 51 votes in the senate it is uncertain if the house would pass the bill.

USA Today 02/23/10
Americans back behind the wheel
Driving has started to increase in the past few months as the economy is slowly improving. Another way that they know that driving is up is that toll collections have increased. From 2007 to 2009 the dramatic drop in driving road deaths dropped and even with the increasing in driving lately road deaths are not expected to rise.

USA Today 02/23/10
Dogs help provide support in courtrooms
Courts have begun to use dogs to help calm victims and witnesses of violent attacks when they are testifying. This began in Seattle but is gaining popularity across the country. This works especially well with children because they may be afraid to talk to adults but are not afraid to talk to the dogs.

USA Today 02/25/10
‘Gaps’ found in lactose intolerance
At a National Institutes of Health conference it was discussed how many Americans believe they are lactose intolerant when they are really not. One should not completely eliminate dairy products from their diet unless confirmed by a doctor that one is lactose intolerant because doing so could harm ones bones, heart, blood pressure, and colon.

USA Today 02/25/10
Trainer killed in show at Sea World
An experienced animal trainer was killed at sea world. They believe that that trainer slipped and fell into the tank with the killer whale. This whale is also linked to two previous deaths.

USA Today 03/01/10
In Chilean quake, a warning for U.S.
An earthquake in Chile with a magnitude of 8.8 has sent tsunami fears across the pacific. As of Sunday the death toll from the earth quake is 700. Much of the west cost of California is at risk for having an earthquake, so the government is taking notice in how Chile is responding to the earthquake and how affective their methods of prevention were.

USA Today 03/01/10
For most places, this winter was a seasonal switcheroo
This winter has caused lots of snow in places where it does not normally snow much and little in areas that it normally does. In mid-February snow covered over two thirds of the country compared to normally only half the country is covered. Meteorologists believe that the strange winter weather can be attributed to El Nino, because the ocean temperatures are slightly warmer than normal.

USA Today 03/01/10
Crosby denies USA another miracle
The Americans received the silver metal at the Olympics after the Canadians scoring another goal in overtime. The NHL has sent it players four times to the Olympics, and Canada has won the gold twice.

USA Today 03/02/10
Postal service Seeks 5-day delivery
The U.S. Postal service is moving towards switching from delivery six days a week to five days a week. This week they will submit a request to the Postal Regulatory Commission and if they approve it, then it will have to be approved by congress. The suggestion for this decrease in days is because since more Americans can make payments online the postal service has continued to decrease the amount of mail it delivers.

USA Today 03/02/10
Weedkiller upsets frogs’ hormones
A herbicide used to kill weeds has been found to chemically castrate frogs, producing gender-bending effects. The effects of this are that it is causing many of these frogs to be unable to reproduce. About 75% or stream water samples done by the U.S. Geological Survey contain atrazine, a herbicide. Discussion of this chemical use being discontinued is being talked about as a precaution.