1. Major Topics of
Comparative Politics

2. First, What is Politics?
 It is the process by which
communities pursue collective goals
and deal with their conflicts
authoritatively by means of
government.

3.  More than anything , politics is about
how people organize their
communities….
 The community in CP focuses on
national communities, i.e. countries
and their national governments.

4. Goals setting:
 Physical security ( of the population
and territory )
 Material well-being ( improved
standard of living )

5. They could also be:
 Maximizing individual freedom
 Improving social welfare
 Cleaning up the environment
 Building powerful military
establishments

6. What about dealing with conflict?
 Conflict is asserted as the driving
force of politics
 Deal through negotiation, bargaining
and compromise; or bloody
demonstration, terrorism, or outright
warfare

7.  Politics involves “dealing” with conflict
not “resolving” it.

8. Democracy and Authoritarianism
 Political History has been dominated
by these two regimes
 Regime means (also) form of
government

9. In a Democracy:
 The essential idea is that the people
have the right to determine who
governs them, how they make who
accountable, and that in democracy,
legal limits on government’s authoriy
exist.

10.  Argued by others to encourage too
much conflict between social groups,
political parties, and other
competitors in the democratic
process; freedom undermines unity
and promotes a level of disorder
bordering on chaos.

11. Authoritarianism:
 Dictatorship
 Places government officials above the
people
 People have little ( or none at all )
say on who governs them

12.  The idea of authoritarianism is
particularly attractive to rulers who
believe that the vast majority of
people are too ignorant, too selfish or
too incompetent to govern
themselves wisely, ERGO, they need
strong dictators to tell them what to
do.

13.  Dictatorial rule is necessary to
maintain domestic order and
discourage potential aggressors
( advanced by Adolph Hitler )

14. Several different types of
Authoritarianism
 Traditional monarchy ( oldest )
 Dictatorship ( like that of Hitler )
 Military high command ( Myanmar )

15. P o l I t I c a l P r o c e
s s

16. Broadly, Political Process consists
of:
 Bargaining
 Coercion

17. Bargaining…
 A process in which individuals and
groups pursue their goals and deal
with their conflicts through direct
negotiation or indirect forms of
exchange
 This is a relatively peaceful process

18. Coercion…
 Means the use of force or the threat
to use it.

19. How are they related to Democracy
and Authoritarian regimes?

20. Both…
 Employ bargaining and coercion in
their political process
 Democracies tend to favor bargaining
( voting as an example ); however
democracies also engage in coercion (
enforcement of law )

21.  Autoritarian regimes are strongly oriented
toward coercion( outright force, i.e.
intimidation and terror to stay in power )
 They also sometimes engage in bargaining
( i.e providing social welfare to gain
approval from people, power sharing with
another to stay in power )