Political Economy
A public good is "nonexcludable" and "nonrivalrous" as a textbook definition. What does this actually mean? Give at least two examples of common public goods.
Nonexcludable - nobody is easily excluded from using the public good.
Nonrivalrous - one person's use of the public good does not prevent anyone else from using it.
Public roads (up to a point), clean air, clean water, public safety, national security.
What term refers to the interactions between forces of supply and demand, through which buyers and sellers exchange goods and services?
Markets
How does popular connotation impact our understanding of the idea of revolution?
Revolutions are generally depicted as positive steps in humankind's progression towards something better.
How does popular connotation impact our understanding of the meaning of terrorism?
Terrorism naturally evokes strong emotions, particularly in the U.S. since 9/11, which may lead to it being applied to a wide range of violence in the public eye, whether or not that violence meets a political science definition of terrorism, for example organized crime activity.
On the other hand, terrorism can be glorified in certain cultural contexts ("one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter") which can blur the line between technical definitions of terrorism and other forms of political violence.
Which AP case country has the largest per capita GDP at PPP? Which has the smallest? Approximately what are the values for each?
UK - 41,600
Nigeria - 4,900
States with higher levels of taxation tend to have higher levels of social expenditure. What is one possible reason that a state with high levels of taxation does not deliver high levels of social expenditures to its people?
Government corruption causes tax revenue to be used for purposes other than legitimate social expenditures.
What institution do states use to adjust the supply of money in the national economy? What tools are often used to adjust the money supply, and how does this work?
Central banks.
Central banks can adjust the interest rate at which they lend to private banks. Higher interest rates will lead to fewer loans, and less money in circulation in the economy, while lower interest rates will lead to more loans and more money in circulation. More money in circulation may lead to inflation, and less money in circulation may lead to deflation.
Central banks can also decide to print new money, or to directly add or remove money from circulation through "open market operations" (buying and selling of government securities.
Name one advantage held by an authoritarian state, and one advantage held by a democratic state, in opposing political violence.
Authoritarian states have little regard for civil liberties and so have a relatively easy time identifying and stopping political movements before they can organize and become violent.
Democratic states have broad political participation which gives people a way to express their political preferences without having to resort to political violence.
Which term refers to a belief that all institutions and values are meaningless? It is often associated with the idea that violence can be desirable for its own sake.
Nihilism
Name one variable that tends to correlate positively with GDP per capita, and one that does not seem to correlate closely with GDP per capita, across our AP course countries.
Positive correlation - Human Development Index ranking
Minimal correlation - Freedom House Rating, Transparency International, Corruption Score Ranking, Gini index
Which political-economic system is most associated with capitalism and the idea of "laissez-faire"?
How would you describe the freedom-equality tradeoff in this system?
Name an AP course country exhibiting this model.
Liberalism.
High freedom, low equality.
UK, Mexico, Nigeria.
What is the difference between GDP and GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)? Does the size of a poor country's economy typically look bigger or smaller when measured with PPP?
GDP at PPP attempts to estimate buying power in a country by comparing prices with the U.S. as a benchmark. This typically makes the economies or poorer countries look larger because it adjusts for the lower prices of goods and services in these countries.
Describe the three key approaches to explaining political violence.
Which is most, and which is least, interested in the idea of agency and free will?
Which is most particularistic (focused on the specific case circumstances) and which is most universal?
Institutional - Institutional conditions constrain or enable political violence, which may be logical given the circumstances. Seek a "root cause" of the violence, and assume that if the institutional context was different, violence would be eliminated. (Least interested in free will, most particularistic.)
Ideational - Focus on rationale behind the violence, whether based on institutions or not. Ideas establish worldviews, and certain worldviews motivate political violence. Radical or reactionary ideas are more likely to result in political violence.
Individual - Focus on individuals executing violence, typically with emphasis on psychological factors (humiliation, alienation, desperation) or strategic factors, which consider violence a rational decision as a political tool. (Most interested in free will, most universal.)
What is the relative deprivation model and how does it relate to the study of revolutions?
The model describes revolutions as a function of the gap between actual conditions within a state, and public expectations. Absolute conditions matter less than how the public perceives conditions compared with how conditions COULD be.
What types of political violence have been seen in Nigeria since independence?
Terrorism - Boko Haram, IPOB (separatists), Islamic State, etc.
Coup d'etat - series of military coups between 1960s-1990s
Which political economic system is primary focused on building state wealth and national economic power?
What policy tools are often used in this system?
Name an AP course country characterized by this political economic system.
Mercantilism.
Active industrial policy including tariffs, trade regulations, tax breaks and subsidies to preferred industries, state ownership in key industries (parastatals), national champions.
Russia, China, Iran.
What is the Gini index? Do wealthy countries tend to have higher or lower Gini index levels?
The Gini index measures the amount of economic inequality in a society, with a high score indicating a high level of economic inequality and a low score indicating a low level of inequality.
While wealthy, developed countries overall tend to have lower levels of inequality, this relationship is complicated with many exceptions. Developing countries may have more inequality as they have not developed reliable systems of taxation and social expenditure which redistribute wealth. The U.S. is very wealthy but has a higher Gini index than most very wealthy countries, due to political and cultural preferences to have a relatively low taxation and low social expenditure (ie liberal) society.
Describe at least one hallmark of religious political violence. (None of these are necessarily unique to religious movements, but common to them.)
- Hostility to modernity (sense that "the West" or another outside actor is encroaching on and corrupting traditional society)
- "Cosmic war" resulting in dehumanization of the opponent, as means to overcome taboos against violence
- Messianic, apocalyptic, utopian attitudes, propensity towards martyrdom
- NOT the same as fundamentalism, which seeks theocracy but not necessarily violence
Describe the difference between guerrilla war and "regular" war. What type of war often blurs the line between these categories?
Guerrilla war is nonstate actors targeting state targets. "Regular" war is state actors targeting state targets.
Civil wars often blur this line (American civil war, Chinese civil war) as the nonstate actor is seeking recognition as a legitimate state actor. Seeking legitimacy is one reason guerrilla movements adhere to international laws or war and do not target civilians.
How does Russia's experience with terrorism over the past thirty years demonstrate the pros and cons of its approach to managing political violence?
Russia's authoritarian state offers minority groups in Chechnya, Dagestan, and other areas little voice in the political process. This may lead extremists to conclude that political violence is the only means by which they can express their political preferences. However, Russia's massive internal security apparatus is broadly effective in identifying and preventing political violence, and the country sees relatively few consequential attacks, given its size and the large number of potential agitators.
What is the benefit of international trade? Why might states want to limit international trade, and what tools are often used to do so?
Theoretically, the ability to trade allows states to produce the products in which they hold the greatest comparative advantage (the lowest opportunity cost of producing the product), and then trade for other products they require. If all states did this with no barriers to trade, the world economy would be incredibly efficient and everyone would be better off, with higher quality products at cheaper prices.
However, domestic political considerations cause states to justifiably limit trade. For example, reliance on foreign countries, particularly geopolitical adversaries, to supply key products creates major vulnerabilities. In an extreme example, we would never have China build our aircraft carriers for obvious reasons, but the same principle applies to a lesser extent for many other products.
Trade barriers also protect domestic producers of products where the country does not have a comparative advantage. This is the example of American banana-makers (or furniture makers, etc.). If these industries are not protected, they may go out of business due to low-cost foreign competition, and be angry with politicians who did not protect them.
Common trade barriers are tariffs (taxes on imports), quotas, and standards including packaging, health, safety, etc.
Why might governments decide to regulate the economy? What are benefits and drawbacks of doing so?
Governments may decide to regulate the economy in order to achieve a politically desirable balance between freedom and equality. Regulation naturally stifles economic freedom, but if used correctly can correct for injustices and inequalities resulting from unregulated markets.
For example, safety and health standards limit the ability of producers and consumers to buy and sell certain products which both agree to trade, but protect consumers from intentional exploitation by dishonest sellers.
How should we characterize state violence against civilian targets? Give at least two examples of this phenomenon.
Within the state's borders, human rights violations.
Outside of state's borders, war crimes.
These are both very gray areas, definitionally. Human rights violations blur the line with legitimate police action. War crimes face many challenges in defining intent, collateral damage, and distinguishing civilians from combatants.
Theda Skocpol's book States and Social Revolutions argues that revolutions are often set in motion by what geopolitical dynamic?
Skocpol argues that external geopolitical threat leads states to adopt internal reform to compete with the external threat, which leads to state centralization and undermines the status quo power of established elites, creates broad popular discontent, and creates the conditions for revolution.
What political economic system does China have? What policy tools does it use to maintain this system?
Mercantilism.
Tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers, preferential state funding to national champions/sectors, forced technology transfers for foreign multinational companies, state-owned enterprises.