General Resources

Comparative Federal and Unitary States

Comparative Political Economy

Comparative Constitutional Preambles

Comparative Elections

Four exercises are provided, which instructors may assign for outside study or students may want to go through to get ideas for themes or expand their awareness of comparative politics. The exercises are set up to help students develop discussions or papers comparing political systems, using the Principles of Political Analysis as described in Power & Choice, 6th Ed., by W. Phillips Shively.

In the exercises, frameworks for analysis are provided, which are based, in large part, on chapters from Power & Choice.

Background

In a federation, a national government shares power with regional governmental units (referred to as states, provinces, republics, etc.)

"...In a federal system, separate governmental units coexist on the same territory, each with its own constitutionally set areas of policy. In a unitary system, by contrast, the central government is given the authority to make all policies, although it may deputize other governmental structures to act on its behalf. From this, we can see that in at least a formal sense, political power is more centralized (concentrated more on a central authority) in unitary systems than in federal ones.

"However, politics is filled with surprises, and there are many informal arrangements that modify the centralizing tendency of the unitary state and the opposite tendency of the federal state."

For more background see, Chapter 10 of Shively; Chapter 4 of Principles of Politics and Government, Sixth Edition, Edwin M. Coulter; or Federalism Web Site: Philosophy of Federalism

Framework of Analysis

What is degree of centralization (examination of constitution may help answer for a particular country)?

What kind of responsibilities do regional governments have?

How well does the country's system promote liberty of citizens?

How effectively is the country's system in getting government work done?

Assignment

After going over background materials suggested above and below, choose some federal and unitary states to examine using framework of analysis provided above to prepare paper or discussion.

Background

A constitution's preamble is analogous to a corporation's mission statement or a book's preface. It is a statement of purpose and core values. Not all constitutions have a preamble, below there is a sampling below of ones that do. The well constructed preamble can provide a guide by which to draft and amend the body of the constitution.

See Chapter 10 of Shively for more background, or other McGraw-Hill books covering constitutions.

Framework of Analysis

As a statement of purpose and core values, a preamble can help the drafters to "not brake drastically," as Shively advised, "with long-standing traditions of government," or to assure that "'incentive compatibility' should be built in as much as possible, so that the holders of power will find it personally advantageous to do what society as a whole needs from them."

Assignment

Explore some of the samples of constitutions with preambles. Look for characteristics, such as, historical emphasis, brevity or verbosity, or clarity of values stated. Then looks to see if there is any trends in how preambles are constructed and the resulting body of the constitutions. Also use the General Resources section to look up history and current status of the particular countries to see how well, or not so well the countries have carried out the values and purposes stated in their preambles.

Background

Elections not only serve the purpose of allowing citizens to choose their leaders, but also they can provide a means to rally support for a government's institutions and leaders. The latter purpose would explain why one-party dictatorships would still hold elections. Factors effecting elections, would include number and relative strengths of contending parties, the mechanisms used for electing officials, and level of participation by various demographic groups and the total electorate.

See Chapter 11 of Shively, or other books from McGraw-Hill covering comparative elections for more background.

Framework of Analysis

Take note of some of the following factors and results when investigating elections:

Factors:

• Mechanisms of election
  "In the SMDP [single-member-district plurality] system, the state is divided into a set of districts, usually having roughly equal populations. One representative is elected from each district to be a member of the legislative body of the state; and whoever gets a plurality of the votes wins the seat. (A "plurality" is the largest number of votes cast for any candidate; if there are many candidates running, the plurality may be less than a majority of votes cast.) Hence the name: A single member is elected from each district by a plurality of votes...
  
  "Britain is an SMDP system, and these systems tend to be limited, worldwide, to Britain and such of her former colonies as the United States, Canada, India, and New Zealand.
  
  "Most electoral democracies of the world use versions of proportional representation (PR). PR is simple. Though various formulas and methods are used to calculate the proportional result, the basic principle of PR is that political parties' representation in the legislative body is set roughly proportional to their strength in the electorate. That is, if the Fundamentalist Neopejorative Party got 18 percent of the votes cast in the election, it would get roughly 18 percent of the seats in the legislative body; if it got 30 percent of the votes, it would get roughly 30 percent of the seats.
  
  "This may not seem an unreasonable result, but PR was invented precisely because SMDP does not give such a proportional result. Instead, SMDP generally favors large parties and hurts small ones. This is because a small party, if its voters are spread evenly geographically, will have only a small number of voters in each district and may not have enough in any one district to achieve a plurality and win there."
  
  (Heads of government, if elected, may be elected directly by the people in a variety of fashions, by electors, or by members of parliament.)

• Nature of Party System
  There may be a one party system, such as in traditional communist countries; a two party system, such as in the United States, where two parties dominate; or a multi party system, in which there is three or more competitive parties.

• Campaign Rules
  There may be limits on length of campaigning, and/or on ways in which campaigns are financed.

• Level of Participation
  Total percentage of eligible voters casting votes; voting percentages by demographic groups; how reflective campaign workers are of the electorate; and how reflective candidates are of the electorate should be considered.

Results:

• How many parties are represented in legislatures?

• How responsive are the legislatures, and chief executives to the citizenries?

• How peaceful are the elections and transfer of powers?

• How effective are campaigns and resulting elections in rallying support of citizenry?

• How much do special interest groups influence elections?

Assignment

Explore election results in several countries. Investigate similar and contrasting factors, as outlined above.Explore respective political party links. Look for relationships between nature of elections and responsiveness of governments, as suggested above. Comparative Ben's Almanac is a good place to start to since it notes election types of 15 different countries in the context of general information and links to further information.