Major Topics of Comparative Politics

First, What is Politics?

It is the process by which communities pursue collective goals and deal with their conflicts authoritatively by means of government.

More than anything , politics is about how people organize their communities….

The community in CP focuses on national communities, i.e. countries and their national governments.

Goals setting: Physical security ( of the population

and territory )

Material well-being ( improved standard of living )

They could also be: Maximizing individual freedom

Improving social welfare

Cleaning up the environment

Building powerful military establishments

What about dealing with conflict? Conflict is asserted as the driving

force of politics

Deal through negotiation, bargaining and compromise; or bloody demonstration, terrorism, or outright warfare

Politics involves “dealing” with conflict not “resolving” it.

Democracy and Authoritarianism Political History has been dominated

by these two regimes

Regime means (also) form of government

In a Democracy: The essential idea is that the people

have the right to determine who governs them, how they make who accountable, and that in democracy, legal limits on government’s authoriy exist.

Argued by others to encourage too much conflict between social groups, political parties, and other competitors in the democratic process; freedom undermines unity and promotes a level of disorder bordering on chaos.

Authoritarianism: Dictatorship

Places government officials above the people

People have little ( or none at all ) say on who governs them

The idea of authoritarianism is particularly attractive to rulers who believe that the vast majority of people are too ignorant, too selfish or too incompetent to govern themselves wisely, ERGO, they need strong dictators to tell them what to do.

Dictatorial rule is necessary to maintain domestic order and discourage potential aggressors ( advanced by Adolph Hitler )

Several different types of Authoritarianism Traditional monarchy ( oldest )

Dictatorship ( like that of Hitler )

Military high command ( Myanmar )

P o l I t I c a l P r o c e s s

Broadly, Political Process consists of:

Bargaining

Coercion

Bargaining… A process in which individuals and

groups pursue their goals and deal with their conflicts through direct negotiation or indirect forms of exchange

This is a relatively peaceful process

Coercion… Means the use of force or the threat

to use it.

How are they related to Democracy and Authoritarian regimes?

Both… Employ bargaining and coercion in

their political process

Democracies tend to favor bargaining ( voting as an example ); however democracies also engage in coercion ( enforcement of law )

Autoritarian regimes are strongly oriented toward coercion( outright force, i.e. intimidation and terror to stay in power )

They also sometimes engage in bargaining ( i.e providing social welfare to gain approval from people, power sharing with another to stay in power )