Presentation Transcript

1. Lecture 1:Thinking like a political scientist

   POLI 10: Introduction to American Politics Summer Session I 1 July 2013 Prof. Justin Levitt
2. Welcome to Introduction to American Politics! Glad you are here bright and early on a Monday for class! Today’s agenda: Introduction to the course and student introductions Overview view of basic concepts in research design Political Science in the social sciences Key tools from the political analysis toolbox
3. Course Overview Website: http://pscourses.ucsd.edu/poli10/ Textbook (at Bookstore): Logic of American Politics, 6th Ed. By Kernell, Jacobson, Kousser, and Vavrick Additional Readings are linked on the class website. Password for library e-reserves is jl10 Keep in mind what your syllabus says on this point! My office hours are Monday 12-2 in SSB 447 Our TA, David Searle, will hold office hours by appointment (and set hours prior to the midterm/final)
4. Course Policies READ THE SYLLABUS! ™ Prof. Galderisi Come prepared and on time. Turn cell phones to silent and come ready to focus on the class. Ask questions! I’m here to help you learn Volunteer! I like a loud class. If there’s anything I need to know about, tell me as early as possible. Home-made baked goods must be shared with the class.
5. Grading, part I This course will go by quick—midterm is Wednesday of week 3 and final is due Friday, August 2ndat noon. Participation counts for 40% of your grade This includes your attendance, participation, presentation, and reaction paper. We will assign readings for future weeks after the break—think about what you’re most interested in. Midterm is worth 25%--study guide attached to the syllabus Final is worth 35%--further details will be distributed Week 3
6. Grading, part II Readings: Always—marked on bold on the syllabus/website (generally textbook chapters) In addition, read those for the presentation and reaction paper Letter grades Over 93=A, 90-93=A- 89-87=B+, 86-83=B, 82-80=B-, same with 7x for C grades 60-69=D, under 60=F
7. Reaction Paper Answer one of the discussion questions. 1-2 pages double spaced, 10-12 point font, 1-inch margins You should read all the readings for that week, especially ones relevant to your question. You are not expected to do research beyond the course Good practice for the midterm!
8. Presentation Under 10 minutes PowerPoints are optional; send to me the night before. These should not contain more than 5 slides You should cover: What kind of article is this? The takeaway point (the thesis) The evidence Look through the syllabus; after the break we will assign. I will provide more guidance on earlier ones.
9. What should I know about American History? From “Ignorance is blitz: Mangled Moments of History from Actual College Students” by Prof. Anders Hendriksson: It is probably safe to assume the average American college freshman knows the following: At some point in the distant past, America fought a war of independence against a major European power. An extraordinary tea party was a factor. The United States still suffers the legacy of its slaveholding past. The Civil War, which took place between 1750 and 1930, was mixed up with this. Adolf Hitler was a very bad man. There was at least one World War, but no more than three.
10. What should I know about American Politics? (Seriously, though) If you have ever taken a US History or US Government class, you should be more than prepared You should know, vaguely: The American Revolution The Civil War/Reconstruction/Jim Crow/Civil Rights movement The Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society World War II, the Cold War, and 9/11
11. Do you know the answer? How many justices are on the Supreme Court? 9 Name a third party (besides Republican/Democratic) Libertarian/Green/Constitutional Union/Reform/Family Worker Who is the Secretary of State? John Kerry
12. Part II: Basic Concepts in Political Analysis
13. Ethics 101 We are often interested (and invested) in questions about how government should work However, we must always be prepared to be wrong. We cannot allow our biases—the way we want things to be—to influence what we study and what we conclude. It’s good to have an opinion, but it’s not okay to make up data or misrepresent someone else’s work.
14. Normative and Positive Thought Positive political thought asks how things do work. Normative questions ask how things should work The question “what influence does the filibuster have on policy outcomes?” is positive. The question “is the filibuster harmful to the policy process?” is normative. Neither is “better” than the other, but it is important to delineate between the two (see the previous slide)
15. Positive thought: Induction and Deduction Deduction is the process of starting with assumptions and deriving a necessary conclusion from them (sometimes called rational). Induction means starting with observable data and building a theory from connecting the data points (sometimes called empirical). In practice, research involves both induction and deduction. We may use abstract models derived from assumptions, but we always want empirical proof.
16. Induction and Deduction: Examples The statement “if democracy is defined as a system in which a majority of citizens elect their leaders, then the United States is not a democracy” is deductive The statement “these 58 countries called democracies by their own citizens all share the commonality that they elect by majority rule (and those not called democracies don’t have this feature)” would be inductive
17. Causality Causality is the probable relationship between two ideas where the first leads to second, expressed as “If we have X, then we will see Y”, where X is a cause and Y is an effect. Example: States with Progressive Era institutions are more likely to have non-partisan local elections A proposed causal link is also called a hypothesis or a model. Remember that when dealing with the real world, there’s always a chance we’re wrong, no matter how strong the evidence seems. It’s probability, not certainty.
18. Conditional Relationships Developing causal links requires that we establish the conditions needed to link the two ideas. A necessary condition is a condition that must be in place before a logical connection can be drawn. A sufficient condition is any condition that is enough to draw a logical connection. For example, we might say that a guilty verdict is a necessary condition for the death penalty, but not a sufficient condition. On the other hand, a not guilty verdict is a sufficient condition for immediate release.
19. A note on good questions Broader questions are better than narrow ones. ‘Is the vice-presidency a stepping stone for the presidency?’ will take you farther than ‘did Al Gore being the Vice President help him?’ Questions that ask for conditions are better than binary ‘Can a president win reelection with under 50% approval?’ won’t take you as far as ‘When can a president win reelection with under 50% approval?’
20. Part III: Political Science in the Social Sciences
21. Politics in the Social Sciences
22. Perspectives on Politics: Philosophy Key questions: What is the philosophy underlying the Declaration of Independence and Constitution? (Lesson 2) How have ethical dilemmas over issues like slavery, privacy, and justice shaped our history and institutions? (Lesson 3) What does ideology mean? Why do parties stand for what they do? (Lesson 7) What are the moral obligations of lawmakers? (Lessons 4-5) Of voters? (Lessons 7-8)? Of interest groups and the media? (Lessons 9-10)
23. Philosophy: Purpose of Government Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) argued that government was necessary to provide civilized society Hobbes develops the idea that government is a social contract between all the citizens in a given society. Drawing on contract law, in order for two parties to successfully do business with each other, they need an independent arbiter to guarantee the contract (the Leviathan). The process by which individuals invest this guarantor power in a third party conveys legitimacy to it. This further suggests that the third party must be authorized to do what it needs to in order to carry out its threats.
24. Philosophy: Representation John Locke (1632-1701) argued that legitimacy depends on representation If two individuals invest the third party with the authority to arbitrate the contract, this does not entail loss of all rights by the two original parties. The parties may appoint themselves or others to guarantee their rights are respected. Representation is the process through which individuals entrust their interests to others to carry out. Lack of representation—when those claiming authority lack the legitimacy to do what they claim to have jurisdiction over—is a sufficient condition to demand revolution.
25. Philosophy: The Language of Liberty We often conflate two dimensions: Liberalism and Democracy. Liberalism is the belief that a government must distinguish between a private and public sphere and maximize the liberty of its citizens by remaining limited and neutral in the public sphere Liberalism calls for freedoms like speech, association, assembly, markets, trade, bans on religious qualification, elimination of race-conscious policies, etc. Essentially, the government should not make policy that could be used to favor a particular class. Most American politicians, including Republicans, are liberal in this classical sense. How far do we go to achieve equality is a key debate in liberalism. The current usage of “conservative” and “liberal” are points on this axis. Conservatives are generally more skeptical of intervening in the market, while Liberals are more skeptical of doing so in the bedroom.
26. Philosophy: The Language of Democracy Democracy, on the other hand,is a type of government where the state’s legitimacy is based on popular, majority support. The United States is generally considered a republic, where the state’s legitimacy is based on regular elections. Unlike democracy, republicanism does not depend on a majority always being in support (e.g. the Electoral College, the Senate)—there is a limit on what Aristotle described as the tyranny of the majority (see Lesson 2) Historically, republics tend to be marked by conservative legal and political arrangements because legitimacy is closely tied to tradition. Note the difference between the substantive concern here and in liberalism. Democracy/republicanism is about the institutions of governancewhile liberalism is about the policies of the state. Thus, we can have liberal authoritarian regimes (much of 18th C. northern Europe) or illiberal democratic regimes (countless 20th C. regimes)
27. Perspectives on Politics: Historical Key questions: What were the political questions leading up the decision to rebel? (Lesson 2) How the present system of government develop? (Lessons 2-3) What are key dimensions of social conflict across time? (Lessons 3, 7) What symbols and figures from the past continue to exert influence on the present? (Througout)
28. History: Origins and Development Political Development is the study of how institutions and political culture has changed over time. Many of our current issues are the product of a series of decisions. For example, we can look at how Progressive Era institutions designed to reduce turnout continue to affect politics predominantly in the Western states.
29. History: Path Dependency Path dependency is the idea that the initial choice colors all later decisions. For example, if the Titanic had not sunk, would we have more steam ocean liners today? An American example is the “One man, one vote” doctrine. History teaches us to focus on why a policy was initially adopted or why an institution was initially designed. This initial point becomes the reversion point, from which future decisions are based
30. Perspectives on Politics: Psychology Key questions: Why do people vote? (Lesson 8) How do they select a party or candidate to vote for? (Lesson 8) How do political actors garner and process information? (Lessons 9-10) How do individuals respond to threats to the status quo or their condition? (Lessons 7-8) How do voters view their institutions? Does it matter in terms of an individual’s wellbeing? (Lessons 7, 9)
31. Political Behavior Political Behavior is the study of how and why people participate in politics at both the individual and group level. Traditionally political behavior has been almost entirely about learning, although recently social psychological and biology have begun to play an increasing role. For example, why do groups differ in their responses to immigration?
32. Perspectives on Politics: Sociological Key questions: What are the key cleavages or divisions in American society? (Lesson 7) How is power expressed? How is it wielded? (Throughout) What has been the role of social movements? What motivates people to participate in politics? (Lessons 7-8) What is within the cultural mainstream in terms of what we expect of politicians and political culture? What taboos exist? (Throughout) How are political institutions organized? What rules and norms have they developed in order to function and respond to changing demands? (Lessons 2-5)
33. Sociology: Institutions, Rules, and Norms Sociologists use the term institution to mean any sort of repeated pattern of social interaction with clearly defined codes of conduct (we will return to this later in this lecture). We can analyze the degree of formality of an institution. Formal or strong institutions, such as the thee branches of government created by the Constitution, derive rules from the text where they are spelled out. A formal institution in American Politics is the President’s veto power. Informalor weak institutions create norms from the collective decision making and valuation of the members of the society. For example, an informal institution is that politicians always wear flag pins. Not all institutions are simply formal or informal. Political parties, for example, play a formal role defined in state law as well as informal roles.
34. Sociology: Power and the Public Interest Traditional debate is between elite theory and pluralism. Elite theory holds that a single, small group of elites (“the 1%” in modern parlance, generally those with the money) hold the power in society Pluralism argues that power is distributed among various groups depending on the arena, because groups care about different things.
35. Sociology: The Faces of Power Bachrach and Bardatz (1962) Power operates at two levels First level is visible or observable power (Who gets what they want, who loses out) Above that is negative power, or agenda control (who controls what is discussed). This power is often invisible—but think about any issue on which you’ve thought, “why hasn’t anyone suggested they do this?”
36. Perspectives on Politics: Economic Key questions: What strategic decisions do political actors make? (Throughout) How do politicians and voters translate their preferences into policy outcomes? (Lessons 4, 5, 8) How do the rules of the game impact the political process? Why do the rules of the game often lead to less-than-optimal outcomes? (Lessons 2, 4) When do political actors choose to use specific strategies such as bargaining or exiting to influence outcomes? (Lessons 4, 5, 10) How do competition and coordination affect policies? (Lessons 2, 8, 10)
37. What do we want? Utilitarianism is a particular moral philosophy which seeks the greatest good for the greatest number. 18th century moral philosophers such as Adam Smith (1723-1790) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) argued that people pursue what they believe to be their own interests, or that which will maximize their own pleasure. Later Utilitarians such as John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) realize that this valuation may be subjective Today Economists and Political Scientists use the term utility to mean the net amount of happiness or pleasure a person gets from doing something. As Mill pointed out, utility is subjective, and is often informed by sociological and psychological factors.
38. Preferences: Competition and Coordination Once we know someone’s utility, we can qualify them as specific preferences, or desired policy outcomes. Because preferences vary, different individuals will desire very different policies some of which cannot be achieved together at the same time. These policies may lead to competition over who gets what they want On the other hand, even if people want similar things, it may be impossible to achieve without people working together—coordinating their actions.
39. Strategy and Game Theory Economists and mathematicians use Game Theory to model these sorts of problems Game Theory models interactions between two or more players (may be individuals, groups, nations, etc) and tries to find the best strategy to achieve a desired outcome It can also predict which strategy a person will choose
40. Part IV: The Logic of Political Action
41. Two Assumptions Politics is a process through which individuals and groups attempt to achieve their aims, which are often in conflict Politicians, organizations, and individuals are rational and behave in reasonable, predictable ways
42. 1. Politics as process This serves as a good definition of what the subject-matter of political science is. Ruth Lane argues in her 1997 book The Politics Model that politics is the study of decision-making processes that emphasize individual decisions in a collective environment. Examples include: Procedures of voting and elections The stages of law-making How issues, interest groups, and parties rise and fall Chain of command in bureaucratic agencies Relations between levels of government
43. 2. Rationality We talked earlier about people defining their own preferences In our politics as process model, this also can refer to the decision whether to get involved and when to get involved. Is the cost of getting involved greater than the cost of staying put? What’s the likelihood of the outcome being different if I get involved?
44. Collective Action—the heart of politics Mancur Olson wrote The Logic of Collective Action in 1965. Collective action problems are defined as these cases where an individual could get something closer to what they want if he or she works with others, but rationally would not get involved on his (or her) own. This book argues that the more people required to bring about change, the more difficult collective action becomes. For example, it’s easier to get a school to adopt a new textbook than a state. The challenge is keeping individuals motivated to participate in collective action
45. How to Succeed at Collective Action Collective Action requires coordination, which means keeping everyone on board A rational person assumes that may not get exactly what they want, but that all parties are working in good faith Compromise is the principle that rational individuals would prefer something to nothing Bargaining is the exchange of proposals and counterproposals Incrementalism is seeking to shift the goal posts through small changes over an extended period
46. The Rules of the Game Earlier we talked about institutions Institutions moderate action—they provide the rules of the game For example, if I want to change US law, I have to convince Congress to pass my bill and the President to sign it. A constitution is a specific law or document that sets up the formal institutions of government; the set of rules and procedures that must be followed to reach and enforce collective agreement If we work within the system (i.e. no revolution), we must be aware of the rules of the game.
47. What Governments Do Governments solve problems that require collective action Public goods provision Dispute resolution (justice)
48. The Prisoner’s Dilemma A prisoner’s dilemma is a situation where two parties are unable or unwilling to cooperate, but both would benefit from doing so.
49. Types of Market Failure A free-rider problem is one in which each individual’s contribution is so small, no one has an incentive to participate. A tragedy of the commons is when a ‘free’ resource is over exploited because there is no control over its use making everyone worse off http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1731 A tragedy of the anti-commons is when a resource is under exploited because there is too much control over it making everyone worse off
50. So how do we solve these problems? Change the rules New laws or regulation Change who decides Clarify the rules Establish rights Establish responsibilities Change the players Elections
51. How does the government manage that? Formal rules Command, the authority to get involved and direct action Veto power, the authority to stop action or block a proposal Informal rules Agenda control, the ability to decide what gets discussed Voting rules, the procedures through which decisions are made Delegation, the ability to assign someone else to perform on your behalf
52. Your Turn You and your partner have a political dilemma in front of you. What are the main things we have to consider when looking at the problem? What would you do? Why?