Theory
Political attitudes refers to...
How one feels about change:
Radical
liberal
conservative
reactionary
Tell me the difference between patriotism and nationalism.
Patriotism can be described as devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty
Nationalism is usually a negative connotation, where can be described as the policy or doctrine of asserting the interests of one’s own nation viewed as separate from the interests of other nations or the common interests of all nations.
If I want to measure political development, what indicators would I use?
Regular free and fair elections, transparent elections / strong democratic institutions and political culture, etc.
Etc
Give me an example of a "true" anarchist state.
Trick question. There aren't any. In fact, it's kind of an oxymoron.
This framework aims to answer:
Methodology
Name the Political Economic system which focuses on...
Struggle between classes of owners and laborers
State controls production of goods
Centralized economic decisions (prices, wages, production, exports, imports, subsidies)
Communism
How we would describe liberal in the United States VS how we would describe liberal in the context of political economy
Liberalism in the US favor a greater state role in limiting inequality, close to social democracy
Economic neoliberalism favors free markets, lower rates of taxation, and deregulation.
If we are pursuing whether or not democracy contributes to economic development in Norway...
What would be the IV?
What would be the DV?
What is the N?
DV: Economic development
IV: Democracy
N= 1, Norway
Give an example of rent-seeking behavior.
Rent seeking behavior is is using non-market power (like political power) to extract value in excess of the value you are creating.
Let's say the government build a bridge and maintains it, and you bribe the government so you can charge a toll, without you doing anything to maintain the bridge or give a share of your profits to the government, that's rent seeking. Your goal is to simply collect the money and you neither directly nor indirectly contribute anything productive.
Operationalization
When do we consider something to be a revolution?
There has to be a wholesale regime change for something to be really considered a revolution.
As well as there has to be some form of public participation
GDP VS GDP Per capita
GDP: Total market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period
GDP Per capita: GDP/population. Economic output per person
If I say it seems that the per capita consumption of cheese correlates with the number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets, what exactly am I implying?
That they're just simply correlated. This doesn't mean there's a causation because then that means that consumption of cheese can cause death via being tangled in bedsheets.
Give me an example of populism in action.
Populism refers to appealing to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
Examples include Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Donald Trump of the US, Evo Morales of Bolivia, etc.
High freedom, low equality
Liberalism
Modernization theory is...
Consider the process. Industrialization to urbanization to growing education + wealth in middle class in a system with greater social mobility (this is called socioeconomic development) to democratic development OR sustenance of a democratic regime
associated with these characteristics:
secular, rational, materialistic, technological, bureaucratic, more concerned with freedom than equality
State autonomy vs state capacity
Autonomy: Ability of the State to act without constraints from domestic or international factors
State needs some autonomy to enact policies and not merely be a tool for special interests
A State with total autonomy may contravene the democratic rights of citizens
Capacity: ability of the State to "carry out the basic tasks of providing security and reconciling freedom and equality".
State has the recourses, organisation, legitimacy and leadership to implement its decisions
If I want to measure economic development, which indicators could I use?
GDP, GDP per capita, PPP, etc
Give me an example of..
traditional legitimacy
charismatic legitimacy
legal-rational legitimacy
traditional legitimacy: It exists and is assigned to particular individuals because of that society’s customs and traditions. EX Saudi Arabia
charismatic legitimacy: tems from an individual’s extraordinary personal qualities and from that individual’s hold over followers because of these qualities. EX Hitler
legal-rational legitimacy: derives from law and is based on a belief in the legitimacy of a society’s laws and rules and in the right of leaders to act under these rules to make decisions and set policy. EX the US and its rule of law
What is the resource curse?
The concept that states resource-rich states tend to have lower economic and political development.
EX: Venezuela, Angola, Saudi Arabia
Political ideology refers to...
Political ideologies refers to your beliefs about the ideal balance between freedom and equality.
EX Communism, liberalism, etc..
Democratic regimes VS non-democratic regimes
Democratic regimes tend to have aspects of Competition (multiple viable parties, representative legislature, separation of powers), Participation (voting rights, free and fair elections), and Liberty (freedoms)
Non-democratic regimes tend to have weak rule of law, elections that are neither free nor fair, powerful and persistent executive, weak legislative and judicial branches
What are control variables? How do we use them in Comparative Political Systems?
Control variables are things that are consistent across your cases. If X is the same in all of your cases, then it is not causing the effect in the DV.
In Comparative, control variables are what you don't do anything to. This is how you can figure out if your changes do anything.
For instance, if we want to figure out what affects authoritarianism, maybe we can have culture and language for our control variable. This way, we can see what other factors (that are not culture and language) can affect the levels of authoritarianism in that region.
Give me an example of a pure capitalist state
Another trick question! There is no "one size fits all" theory that countries run on. There are only mixed economic and political systems. However, a state can lean towards one ideology more than others.
What is social capital?
Social capital usually refers to social circles. An example is how rich/successful people tend to have rich/successful friends who can help them with career opportunities. Or a blue-collar worker might have social capital by being friends with mechanics and plumbers, and thus never has to pay for repairs.