POLI 212 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Democracy, Canada, French Third Republic
POLI 212
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
POLI 212 - Government & Politics - Developed World
01/10/2018 - Lecture 1
Topic 1: The Historical Stage: Is Democracy Europe’s Birthright?
The Long 19th Century
● Begins in 1789 and ends in 1945
● Establishing a historical narrative of how Europe developed politically
○ Where you start this narrative is important
● 1789 and 1945 tell us about the logic of this time period
○ 1789: French Revolution
○ 1945: Military defeat of national socialism, the Nazis, and fascism
● Long 19th century ridden with recurring domestic political instability and interstate war
○ Key features of long 19th century
○ 1789: French Revolution
■ In a sense a kind of democratic transition
■ Exit from old regime of France towards a democratic alternative
■ Real important challenge was not general democracy but republicanism
■ French Revolution introduces republican alternatives to both France and to
European society at large
● Embedded in this is political principle that pits republics against
monarchies
● Challenge to the principle of monarchy at large
■ To republicans old regimes were something to be replaced but
constitutional monarchs were not the solution
○ 1815: conclusion of Napoleonic Wars
■ Relatively comprehensive peace settlement
● Settles relations and territorial disputes between nations after war
● Still sought to protect and consolidate principles of old regimes ie.
monarchs
○ 1848: wave of republican challenges to old regimes across Europe
■ In large measure they fail
■ Note that Republican principle in France took a long time to be accepted
as legitimate principle of French government
● French Revolution can be seen as civil war between the party of
order and the party of movement
○ 1870-1871: marks Franco Prussian War
■ Also marks transition to the third republic in France
● This beings long march toward republican and democratic
consolidation in France
○ 1917: Russian Revolution
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
○ 1933: Hitler comes to power peacefully in Germany
○ 1945: end of World War II and military defeat of fascism and national socialism
■ Don’t get widespread consolidation of democracy in Europe until after
1945
● Long 19th century marks consolidation of the state system
○ Distinction between domestic hierarchy and interstate anarchy
■ Domestic Hierarchy - Notion that states are hierarchical organizations
with power concentrated in the center
■ Interstate Anarchy - But there is no sovereign power above European
states with power over them
○ Peace of Westphalia
■ Post-war peace settlement
■ Introduces and entrenches principle of domestic hierarchy
■ Territory becomes dominant organizing principle of politics
○ Post-1945 major European statesmen and policy makers are trying to figure out
how to avoid that which they had gone through in the 19th century
■ They saw that the combo of domestic hierarchy and interstate anarchy
breeded conditions for interstate war and instability
■ This plants the seed for the European Union
● Relationship of democratic republicanism to old regimes
○ Importance of challenge of republicanism to old regimes
● Period in which we see genesis of the “social question”
○ How will Euro societies adapt to and respond to industrial capitalism?
○ As industrial capitalism creates working classes, in what ways can these new
economic and social actors be incorporated in political institutions?
○ What sort of challenges to political regimes will be associated to industrial
capitalism?
● 1945
○ Importance is that certain forms of very conservative authoritarian politics are
pushed off the historical stage as a consequence of interstate war
○ Democratic consolidation in europe depended on the military defeat of fascism
■ A measure of the sway/importance of fascism or national socialism was
how difficult it was to remove and replace
○ 1945 also marks occupation of Germany and political separation of East and West
■ Very distinctive paths of political development between Eastern and
Western Europe
■ Post-1945 Soviet model of state socialism is exported to other parts of
Europe
○ Beginning of democratic consolidation in critical cases
■ Italy and Germany (and France to some extent)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Poli 212 - government & politics - developed world. Begins in 1789 and ends in 1945. Establishing a historical narrative of how europe developed politically. Where you start this narrative is important. 1789 and 1945 tell us about the logic of this time period. 1945: military defeat of national socialism, the nazis, and fascism. Long 19th century ridden with recurring domestic political instability and interstate war. In a sense a kind of democratic transition. Exit from old regime of france towards a democratic alternative. Real important challenge was not general democracy but republicanism. French revolution introduces republican alternatives to both france and to. Embedded in this is political principle that pits republics against monarchies. Challenge to the principle of monarchy at large. To republicans old regimes were something to be replaced but constitutional monarchs were not the solution. Settles relations and territorial disputes between nations after war. Still sought to protect and consolidate principles of old regimes ie. monarchs.