PS1101e Introduction to Politics

I know a heck ton of people have been waiting for this post. That's why I timed it for the first day of AY 2022 slash 2023. Perfect timing ain't it? Nah who am I kidding, you'll probably be here during Week 13 right before the timed finals. No matter what, all the best guys. Political Science is A LOT of fun (even though Theatre Studies is more fun) and you'll definitely enjoy it, as long as your tutorial slot is not at 8am.

Advice: Notes are very messy. To find what you're looking for, I recommend Ctrl + F and whatever week you need. Also, in the interest of privacy and intellectual property I will not post any screengrabs of slides or speakers. All of the notes here were what I actually typed by hand in Evernote. All hail Evernote.

Without further ado, here are the notes:

WEEK 1:

§ Dimensions of Power

1st Dimension of Power - "Who prevails when preferences conflict?"

• The USA forcing others to do things they don't want, by virtue of being stronger or larger or more powerful
• The litterbug is threatened

2nd Dimension of Power - "Who controls whether preferences are expressed?"

• Singapore government and self-censorship
• Agenda has already been set
• The litterbug is silenced

3rd Dimension of Power - "Who shapes preferences?"

• Most efficient way to use power: Winning the hearts and minds of the people, no need to expend resources on surveillance and enforcement
• Awareness, advocacy, persuasion
• Change the way people live
• The litterbug is convinced

Authority: The right to rule. (Hague et al, p. 9)

• Allows authority to achieve intended outcome
• The litterbug is confronted by a stranger, and says "You're not my mother!"

Legitimacy: A value whereby something or someone is recognized and accepted as right or proper. (Patrick O'Neil, Essentials of Comparative Politics, 4th Ed., p. 40)

• The litterbug tells the police that they are not a legitimate system.
• Legitimacy of behaviors and systems - Crime and legality

§Government and State

Government: The institutions and structures through which societies are governed. (Hague et al, p. 2)

• Who gets to rule? Who gets to form the government?
• How does the government make decisions? What affects the decision-making?
• What decisions does the government make?
• How do we know if the government is making good decisions?

Political systems: The interactions and organizations through which a society reaches and successfully enforces collective decisions. (Hague et al, p. 3)

The State: The legal and political authority of a territory containing a population and marked by borders. (Hague et al, p. 53)

• State sovereignty
• State vs Government:
• Governments can change via either a peaceful or violent transfer of power
• States do not change barring the annexation or independence of the state
• Singapore and South Sudan is an example of secession
• States are territorial, there are currently no legitimate states without borders
• The "sovereign" Covidiot - we cannot claim to be outside the jurisdiction of Singapore law

§International Relations

Politics between states

Actors other than states e. g. UN, IMF, NGOs

§Politics

"The process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of making or executing shared or collective decisions." (Hague et al., p. 4)

Subfields in NUS: Comparative Politics, International Relations, Governance and Public Policy, Political Theory

WEEK 2:

Agency and Structures

Colin Hay - Theory and Methods in Political Science (189-196)

Edward Royce - Poverty and Power (16-18, 251-255)

Complicated and messy human emotions that makes it difficult for political science researchers to stimulate and test hypotheses in a controlled environment (question of falsifiability)

A ball will always fall to the floor if you drop it on Earth > but a political leader may not choose to behave the same way given similar circumstances > different beliefs, personalities, conditions

Change environment to their benefit > Balls don't attempt to change gravity

Agency - "The ability or capacity of an actor to act consciously and, in so doing, to attempt to realise his or her intentions" (Colin Hay, Political Analysis, p. 94)

reasons for poverty

Agential vs Structural

Authority and legitimacy

Structure conditions agency

Agents create and shape structures

Powerful agents create structures for others

Even less powerful agents can change structures sometimes

Political Ontology - "relates to political being, to what is politically, to what exists politically, and to the units that comprise political reality"

WEEK 3: 

The State

Hague - 52 to 69

Herbst - 302 to 318

Defining the state

• The legal and political authority of a territory containing a population and marked by borders - Hague et al
• The monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory - Max Weber
• 5 main features: Population & citizens, territory, government, sovereignty, legitimacy
• As citizens of the states, we have certain rights and duties - kind of like a club membership

Zombie Apocalypse??

Justifying the state - John Locke

• The state of nature, reason and natural rights: "The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges evert one: And reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that all being equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions."
• The state and the social contract: "Man being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent." + "The great and chief end, therefore, of uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government"

Historical state formation

• War. War made the state and the state made war.
• Need to extract resources from population and territory to eliminate external and internal challenges.
• State develops a bureaucratic and coercive structure, along with a set of policies and regulations.
• Consolidation of authority and defining territorial borders

*Postcolonial states*

The Nation State

Nation - A cultural and historical concept describing a group of people who identify with one another on the basis of a shared history, culture, language or myth

Nationalism - The belief that a group of people with a common national identity has the right to form an independent state and govern itself free of external intervention.

• Right to self determination

UNGA Resolution 1514 - Rejection of colonialism

Can a state fail? Weak governing institutions, often deep internal divisions, and where the basic needs of people are no longer met

Quasi States - States that exist but do not have positive sovereignty (government cannot control much of their territory under their jurisdiction)

juridicial statehood vs empirical statehood

De facto states - not recognised by international law but has positive sovereignty

Negative sovereignty - Sovereignty granted by international community

Positive Sovereignty - Sovereignty earned through legitimacy of government

WEEK 4 and WEEK 5:

Libertarianism, Conservatism and Marxism

Libertarianism - That every individual has the capacity for rational thought and reasoning, and therefore are entitled to decide how they should live and be governed

Conservatism - A reaction to the violence of change that comes with libertarianism, that the preservation of the family unit and traditional system is key, status quo is best

Marxism - Communist deconstruction of slavery system

Popular sovereignty - Democracy, power to make political decisions in all the people rather than some or one of them (Ranney)

Political equality: "Each adult citizen has the same opportunity as every other adult citizen to participate in the political decision-making process" (Ranney)

Voting

• One person one vote
• No electoral fraud
• All voters are equally able to vote
• Voters have a genuine choice during elections

Running for office

• Citizen
• Minimum age?
• Other requirements?

Popular Consultation

2 requirements:

• Polity must have institutional machinery through which public officials learn what public policies the people wish adopted and enforced
• Public officials must put these preferences into effect (issue of accountability)

Majority Rule

• Acting on the wishes of the majority
• Protect democracy from majority
• Limited majority rule - government cannot infringe on individual rights and civil liberties - Liberal democracy
• Inalienable rights - sphere of rights that the government may not access

Participatory vs Accountable Elites Models

Advantages of participatory democracy

Rule by the people

Stronger sense of community and civic responsibility

Authoritarianism - Imposes its values and policies on society regardless of the people's wishes

Absolute monarchy - Saudi Arabia

Personal Rule - Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe

Ruling Party - CCP

Military government - Myanmar

Theocracy - Iran

Totalitarianism - Stalin's USSR, North Korea

Hybrid regimes (some democracy but also significantly undemocratic): probably the PAP lol

Descriptive models - What is a perfect democratic or authoritarian system like?

Why Democracy?

Legitimacy

Peaceful disagreements, accommodation of diversity

Peaceful mechanism for transfer of power

Self correcting system

Populism - The Will Of The People

• The people, virtuous but oppressed
• The Other, enemy of the people

WEEK 6:

Recall: Government = The institutions and structures through which societies are governed

Four Principles of Democracy: Popular Sovereignty, Political Equality, Popular Consultation, Majority Rule

Reagan (1989): "Man is not free unless government is limited"

Constitutionalism

Separation of powers + checks and balances

The 3 branches of government:

• The executive
• The judiciary
• The legislature

CONSTITUTIONALISM

Constitution: A set of fundamental and authoritative principles, rules, and procedures that the government has to abide by

• Limits the power of government
• Constitutions can be codified or uncodified
• Ideal of something being "unconstitutional"
• Singapore's Constitution: "This constitution is the supreme law of the Republic of Singapore and any law enacted by the Legislature after the commencement of this Constitution which is inconsistent with this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void."

What do constitutions do?

• They set out fundamental principles, values and aspirations of the state
• They define the nature of the relationship between the state and the citizen
• They set out the institutional structure and processes of government

BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT AND SEPARATION OF POWERS

3 branches of government

• Different functions
• Have different powers
• Able to act relatively autonomously from each other

Executive: Implements laws and policies of the state

Head of state (ceremonial) vs Head of government (chief executive)

Functions of the Executive

• Setting government's objectives
• Spokesperson for the people
• Formulates policies and strategies
• Supervises and controls a bureaucracy that implements and administers public policies

Judiciary: Interprets laws, determines whether laws have been violated, and the type of remedies and sanctions required

Different types of law:

• Civil law, criminal law, international law
• Constitutional law or statutory law - Power of judicial review

Checks and balances

Judicial independence

Legislature:

Bicameral vs Unicameral

Members of parliament represent the citizenry

Deliberation

Pass laws

Authorize budget

Oversight of the Executive

• Scrutinize executive performance
• Impeachment and removal of executive

Fusion or Separation of Powers

Parliamentary Model:

• Chief Executive appointed by legislature

Presidential models of democracy

• Chief executive appointed independently of legislature

Fusion vs Separation of Powers

• Decision-making and implementation
• Checks and balances

Growth of executive power

• Complex task of governing - Executive has greater capability and more resources
• Political influence - Organized interest groups
• Ability to rally public support

Executive has more streamlined and unified structure compared to legislature

Institutionalized checks on the Executive may not work well

War-making powers?

WEEK 7:

Democratic Transitions - top down and bottom up transitions

Case of Sudan

BOTTOM-UP DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS

Popular revolution leading to democratization

Requires collective action

Needs enough people to participate in order to succeed in achieving public goods

Public good - Non excludable and non rivalrous

Free riding

1989 fall of the berlin wall

Stability of authoritarian regimes

Free rider problem

High costs of participation

Use of force and coercion in authoritarian systems

Fewer limits to government's power in authoritarian systems

Prevent falsification - Individuals don't reveal their true preferences publicly due to fear of reprisal

Authoritatian governments often try very hard to find out the real preferences of the people

e. g. Cultural Revolution, China

Revolutionary threshold - the size of protest at which an individual is willing to participate

Revolutionary cascade - When a protest grows large enough to pass many individuals' revolutionary thresholds and passes a tripping point, a critical mass of people will reveal their true preferences by joining protests

Tipping point model explains why popular revolutions are difficult to anticipate

Top down transitions

Authoritarian elite introduces liberalizing reforms that become a slippery slope, leading to democratic transition

• Liberalizing reforms not intended to lead to democratization
• Softliners vs hardliners

E. g. Perestroika and glasnost by Gorbachev

Democratic opposition can respond either by accepting or rejecting changes

Incumbent power can then respond by repression or further democratization

Game theory: Strategic interactions between players

WEEK 8:

Types of policies

• foreign policy
• domestic policies - education, health, social welfare, transportation, environment
• distinction between foreign and domestic policies is often artificial and there are no strict boundaries on each one

Deciding to decide

Deciding how to decide

Issue definition

Forecasting

Setting objectives and priorities

Options analysis

Policy implementation, monitoring and control

Evaluation and review

Maintenance, succession or termination

Markets, voluntary organizations

Conservatives vs liberalism (American)

Who has agenda setting power?

• Government
• Political opposition
• Lobby groups
• Media, influential opinion makers
• Civil societies, advocacy groups
• The people

How does something become a public policy issue?

Cuban Missile Crisis: Policy-making

Executive leaders take the lead

WEEK 9:

(sorry I skipped this lecture)

WEEK 10 and WEEK 11:

Democracy, Security and Freedom

Trade off between security and freedom - but not always!

Nuclear states in IR

- Prestige, Security, Mutually Assured Destruction

Three Normative Effects: Regulative, Constitutive, Permissive

I'll be posting my PS1101e essays too so stay tuned for those.