Assoc. Prof.

Murat Somer, CASE 153

E-mail: musomer@ku.edu.tr
Fall 2015 Office Hours:
Tuesdays, 4:00-6:00pm
 Learning Objectives
 Define key terms covered in the chapter, such as politics,
power, the state, nation, science, hypothesis, and
(dependent and independent) variables.
 Discuss the basic steps involved in the scientific research
method, including the use of hypotheses and theories.
 Summarize the comparative method and the alternative
approaches within it.
 Describe the basic difference between structures and
choices.
 Summarize the defining features of the economic, cultural,
identity, and political structures of the Topic in Countries
(TIC) cases.
Key Concepts: Politics and Power
Politics: Some
 Definitions
 •A pre-modern definition of
politics & the state: Politics is
the master science of the good.
“…end of politics is the good for
man. For even the good is the
same for the individual and the
state, the good of the state is the
greater and more perfect thing
to attain and to safeguard.”
Aristotle
 •Aristotle defined the state &
politics by its end goal, purpose
 Would Aristotle’s definition work in a
modern society? Discuss

 Diversity of modern society. Hard to find a

“common good”

 State interests ≠ society’s interests (but of

course they do not always conflict either)
Modern definition

 • (Authoritative decisions about):

“Who gets what, when, and how?”

What matters is the means, not the ends.

 Question:

 If politics is about who gets what, why all the

talk about common good, morality and
values, nationalism and religion?
 Benign view: politics is about reconciling
self-interest (individual and group interest)
with common good. Formulate self-interest
in terms of public good. Discourse of self-
interest in terms of public good.

 Cynical view: Hypocracy. Discourse of self-

interest in terms of public good.
Key Concepts: Politics and Power
 Politics: Who Gets What, When, and How

Positive View of Politics: It is a set of

activities that help organize individuals , resolve
disputes, and maintain order in society. Positive-
sum outcomes.

Negative View of Politics: a process that

decides “who gets what” and thus produces
winners and losers. Zero-sum outcomes and
sometimes negative-sum outcomes.
Power: How People Get What They Want
 Power as Influence
 Getting people to do what you want them to
do
 Overcoming resistance
 Power as Capabilities
 What abilities allow someone to have
influence?
 Government office, money, control of military,
etc.
 Coercive versus Noncoercive Power
 Politics: Study of the state or of power?
 •The two are interrelated: Ultimate power is
that of the state in modern societies
 •“Power is the ability of A to get B to do what
A wants” (p.5)
Four Faces of Power
 1. Coercive power: A makes B do what A wants,
even though B doesn’t want to
 •2. Structural power: A structures B’s choices
such that B has no other option but to do what
A wants, even though B doesn’t want to
 •3. Soft power 1: A convinces B that to do what
A wants is good for B, even though it isn’t
 •4. Soft power 2: A defines all the concepts and
terms such that what A wants B to do is
defined as the “good thing to do,” so B does it
without thinking
Legitimacy & Authority
 Legitimacy & Authority
 Authority: Noncoercive power based on legitimacy
not based on punishments
 •Legitimacy is the belief that those giving the
orders have a “right to rule”
 •A ruler that has legitimacy has authority
Max Weber’s Three Types of
Authority:
 1)Charismatic authority: Leader’s ability
(Prophets, national heroes, etc.)
 2)Traditional authority: Monarchies
 3)Legal/rational authority: Constitution,
laws
Evolution of authority

 All authority is charismatic in origin

 •Charismatic authority turns into traditional
or legal/rational authority when the
charismatic leader dies
 •What are examples of charismatic,
traditional, and legal/rational authority
 Think and Discuss
 If power is central to understanding politics,
and politics is about “who gets what,” can
the underprivileged in society ever get a fair
deal from the government? Why?
Politics: Study of the State
 •Politics is the study of the “state,” and everything
related to the state
 •State has power over every field of life (health, traffic,
military, education, taxes, etc.)

 •What is the definition of the “state”?

The State
 State
 The basic unit of political organization in the world and
the focal point of political power
 Do not confuse with daily usage as “country”
 Territory – source of disputes
 Population
 Citizenship or nationality
 Institutions
 “Sovereignty”
 International Recognition
 Max Weber

 Early twentieth century

sociologist

 Known for his ideas about

power and politics
 Max Weber
Definition of the State
•
 Unlike Aristotle (“ends/goals” based
definition)
 •Weber defined the state on the basis of its
“means” (instruments):
 State is the organization with a “monopoly
on the legitimate uses of violence”
 Rise of the Modern State:
Monopolization of Violence

 Pre-modern states: Local, feudal nobles

could also apply violence, many armies
 •France under Louis XIII, England under the
Tudors, 16th-17th centuries, military was
centralized, violence monopolized
 •“Taxation” following mass conscription
What is a state? Exercises

 •Russia in the 1990s

 •Mafia
 •Somalia
 •Chechnya
 •Northern Cyprus
 •Iraq? Afghanistan?
 Think and Discuss
 The issue of the environment causes
problems for the concept of state
sovereignty. What other issues create
questions about whether states have the
right to control their own affairs?
Regimes, Governments, and
Leaders
 Regime
 A set of rules that determine (1) How are the ultimate
decisions made? (2) who are the ultimate decision-
makers?
 “How does the car function?”

 Government
 The ruling institutions and the people who occupy positions
of power in a state
 A political system’s chief executive and cabinet officials
 “Who gets to drive the car?”

 Leaders
The Nation
 National Identity

 The group that shares a national identity (in the eyes of

others and/or themselves) is a nation

 But what is national identity?

 Confused with daily usage of (1) “country” or (2)

ethnicity
 True or false?

 Nation refers to a large group of people who recognize

themselves as members of a group and are united by
shared cultural features

1. A. Right
2. B. Wrong
3. C. Insufficient
 Distinguishing feature:

 Members of a nation believe that they have the right to

exert political control over a certain territory.

 Nations emerge when a group of people come to

believe that they have the right to self-rule: rule
themselves in a given territory, to exert political
control over a certain territory
 Civic vs. Ethnic Nations
 A nation whose membership is based on a common
ethnic identity is called an ethnic nation
 A political nation (the national identity bond political as
opposed to ethnic) is a civic nation
 Think and Discuss

 To what extent are Turkısh people a

civic, as opposed to an ethnic, nation?
The Nation
 Nationalism
 The process of pursuing a set of rights for
a nation
 Territorial autonomy
 Nation-State
 Overlapping Homelands
 Think and Discuss
 Nationalism is often portrayed in a negative light.
Historically, it caused many wars and cost
hundreds of millions of lives. Was nationalism to
blame? Yes and no.

 But also, a core principle of national identity—

control over one’s own political affairs—is a core
principle of democracy. Are nationalism and
democracy complementary or contrasting
pursuits?
Political Science as a Science
 Scientific Research and Scientific Knowledge
 Causality – answers why things happen. Causal
relationship between two or more variables
 Theories as “causal stories”

 The Scientific Method

 Develop a research question
 Generate falsifiable hypotheses
 Conceptualize and operationalize variables
 Collect data and analyze data about the variables
Think and Discuss
 Name a type of major political outcome
that you think would make an
interesting dependent variable.
 Is this a correlation or causal relationship?!!!
Methods of Comparing to
Understand Politics
 Three Vital Questions When Designing a
Research Project
 What levels of analysis should be employed?
 What form or forms of data should be collected and
studied?
 How many cases should be examined?

 Case Studies
 Quantitative Statistical Analysis
 The Comparative Method
Case Studies and the Comparative
Method
 Case Studies
 Strong on internal validity
 Weaker on external validity (generalizability)

 Comparative Method
 Most similar approach (Ex: South and Noth Korea)
 Most different approach (Ex: United Kingdom and
Turkey)
 Causality
 Economic development causes (facilitates)
democratization.
 •What is the IV? What is the DV? How can
we operationalize the IV and DV? Measure
it? Test it?
 Examples
 •“Higher economic development measured in
terms of GDP per capita causes democratic
development in major East Asian countries such
as South Korea and Taiwan”

 •IV, DV, measurement, cases, level of analysis? Is it

falsifiable? If it is not falsifiable, then it is either a
tautology or a question that one cannot answer
scientifically
 Examples
 Example 1: More prosperous countries have
more wealth to distribute.
 Example 2: Real Muslims (or Christians or
Budhists) cannot be terrorists because true
Islam (Christianity or Budhism) rejects
terrorism.
 •Example 3. God exists.
A Framework for Understanding
Political Outcomes: Structure vs.
Choice

Structures: The basic social, economic, or

political-institutional settings surrounding a
decision maker. Structures don’t change
easily, they may only change in the long run.
 Structures, Choices, and Levels of Analysis
 For the “choice” approach, level of analysis is typically
the individual
 For the “structure” approach, level of analysis is the
state, political system, society (or a combination of
these), or the international community
 : Ex:
 Why citizens of country A mostly voted for Party B in
the last elections?
 According to Choice Approach: Rational individuals
chose to vote for Party B to maximize their benefits.
 According to Structural Approach: Due to the effects of
political,economic or institutional setting in country A.

 Contradictory or Complementary?
  Ex: Why did Turkey begin to support the opposition in
Syria, following the Arab Spring?
 According to Choice Approach: The policy preferences
of the government.
 According to Structural Approach: Because the
international structure changed after the Arab Spring.

 Contradictory or Complementary?
 Comparative politics must take structures into account
because what first seem to be unique decisons or
events often turn out to be (at least partly) products of
general structures that exist also elsewhere.
Linking Concepts and Cases through
Topic in Countries Sections
 The Purpose of the Topic in Countries Sections
 Show how the major concepts introduced in the
chapters play out in nine of the world’s most important
countries:
 United Kingdom China
 Germany India
 Mexico Nigeria
 Brazil Iran
 Russia