POLI 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Direct Democracy, Collective Action, Dealignment
17 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POLI 212 - Lecture 11
02/26/2018
Midterm
● March 14: 3:30-4:25
● 2 ID questions (of a choice of 5)
○ About two paragraphs
● 1 essay question (of a choice of 2)
○ Two or three pages (single-spaced)
Topic 5: Parties
● Recap
○ Historical Context
○ States
■ What are states? Why has the concept of states stuck around for so long?
○ Regimes
■ What are different ways in which states organize themselves?
○ Topic 5: (Political) Parties
■ How is political competition organized?
■ How are citizens’ interests aggregated?
● What is a Political Party? (I)
○ Shared value system
○ Shared ideology: ideas or beliefs about how society should be run
○ Organized structure
○ Desire to influence policy, policy outcomes
○ Aim to be in power or govern indirectly thru influence
■ Does every political party aim to govern?
○ Are parties necessary for democracy OR do parties help create democracy?
○ What is necessary for a political party
○ What is its use?
○ What makes political parties so special?
■ What differentiates them from NGO, lobbyists, or pressure group
● What is a Political Party? (II)
○ Organization that serves as a link between voters and representatives by recruiting
and nominating candidates for elected office
■ Representative/indirect democracy
■ Delegation
● As citizens in representative/indirect democracy we delegate our
duty of participating in the political process to somebody else
● As opposed to in a direct democracy
○ Goal of simplification (i.e. cognitive heuristic)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
■ Cognitive heuristic ~ shortcut
■ Party label serves as a shortcut in the political process
● Principal-Agent Model
○ Principals delegate a task
■ Ex: employers, consumers, voters
○ Agents carry out the task
■ Ex: employees, contractors, politicians
○ Principals and agents don’t have to be individuals (ex: can be institutions)
○ Chains of delegation: agents can also be principals to other agents
○ Seems simple, but there are still problems (i.e. agency loss)
■ Agency loss: mismatch between what the principal wanted and what the
agent delivered
● Not necessarily at the fault of the agent
● Maybe principal gave unclear direction or maybe agent went didn’t
follow instruction
■ How to minimize this inefficiency?
● Better ex-ante selection, monitoring, ex-post punishment
○ Ex-ante selection: select your agents better prior to
handing out the task
○ Monitoring: principal can watch every action the agent
makes to insure they do not make any mistakes
■ Ex: question period in parliament
○ Ex-post punishment: punish agents after-the-fact if they
did something wrong (e.g. don’t renew employee contract)
● But all of these options have associated costs
○ Costs are different in every context
○ Letter to the Electors of Bristol (Selected Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 4)
■ “[Constituents’] wishes ought to have great weight with [the
Representative]; their opinion high respect; their business unremitted
attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his
satisfactions, to theirs; and, above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their
interest to his own.”
■ “But, his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened
conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you; to any man, or to any set of
men living. Your Representative owes you, not his industry only, but his
judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to
your opinion.”
● Aldrich: Why Parties?
○ Parties are shaped by ambitious politicians
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
2 id questions (of a choice of 5) 1 essay question (of a choice of 2) Shared ideology: ideas or beliefs about how society should be run. Aim to be in power or govern indirectly thru influence. What is necessary for a political party. What differentiates them from ngo, lobbyists, or pressure group. Organization that serves as a link between voters and representatives by recruiting and nominating candidates for elected office. As citizens in representative/indirect democracy we delegate our duty of participating in the political process to somebody else. As opposed to in a direct democracy. Party label serves as a shortcut in the political process. Principals and agents don"t have to be individuals (ex: can be institutions) Chains of delegation: agents can also be principals to other agents. Seems simple, but there are still problems (i. e. agency loss) Agency loss: mismatch between what the principal wanted and what the agent delivered. Not necessarily at the fault of the agent.
