PO221 Study Guide - Final Guide: Reference Group, Proportional Representation, Ethnic Nationalism
Document Summary
What is the study of comparative politics: political development, nation. System of government: participation and representation, civil society, policy making, political economy, political behavior and political change. Why do we study comparative politics: understand politics within states, to use this info to learn lessons that might be applied to different situations, to test and develop theories, explain, predict, normative theories. Institutions: formal rules/laws, voting ge, constitutions, checks and balances. Informal institutions: expectations of behavior, broad structures, marxism, structures (institutions) vs. agency. Rational choice institutionlists and conventions embedded in the organizational structure of the political economy or polity: assumes that actors are rational/politics are a series or collective action problems, calculus is determinate of behavior, institutions help that calculus. Institutions originate for the voluntary agreement of the most powerful actors in society and serve their interest: change comes when institutions no longer reflect or serve the interest. Sociological institutionalists institutions defined very broadly: social institutions define roles (professor, fan, family, marriage)
