Chapter 1 CPO2002 Lecture

Good SocietiesChapter One

Pearson Publishing 2011

Good Societies

• Our potential is constrained not only by our innate talents but the kind of society we live in.

• LBJ: “It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing upon a little infant, the child, and finally the man.”

• Dire circumstances can limit people regardless of their natural gifts.

• Premise of this textbook: some countries are better than others at creating conditions that permit citizens to realize their potential.


Comparative Politics

• Comparative politics examines why societies are organized in different ways and what effects those differences may have.

• Example: In 2008, infant mortality rates were twice as high in Zimbabwe as in Botswana.• Life expectancy was 15 years shorter• Zimbabwe’s GDP per capita was $200 compared to almost $14K

in Botswana.• Why is quality of life so much better in Botswana?

• We can make other comparisons: Thailand and Ghana• Thirty years ago they were roughly at the same developmental

level, but now Thailand has progressed further and faster than Ghana.


Comparative Politics

• By making comparing these countries we can try to identify what it is that might explain such divergent outcomes in the quality of their citizens’ lives.• We must search for ways in which they differ, such as policies

their governments have followed or different historical legacies.

• Comparative politics enables us not only to compare different countries, but to appreciate what is distinctive about our own.

• Comparative politics is a subfield of political science and is distinct from International Relations.

• Comparative politics studies politics within countries while IR studies politics among them.


The Logic and Practice of Comparative Political Analysis

• We compare all the time.• However, comparative

political analysis is different in that it uses systematic procedures.• Formation of hypotheses:

these statements present relationships that we expect to find among these variables.

• “if, then” – if a country’s wealth increases, then its citizens will be healthier.

• Dependent variables• What we are trying to explain

• Independent variables• What we believe explains the

dependent variable• Operationalization • Finding specific, concrete

alternatives to use in place of abstract concepts like wealth and health

• Controls• Hold other factors constant in

order to see whether we still obtain the same results or if they were spurious due to other intervening factors


Comparative Political Analysis: Does Gender Equality Help Girls Do Better in School?

• Problem: Comparisons of girls and boys in different countries who took the same math test found that girls on average had lower scores than boys? Why? Socialization?

• Methods and Hypothesis: Recent study uses comparative analysis of 40 countries to answer whether sexist expectations influence girls’ performance.• Found great variation in performance – big gaps to no gaps.

• Hypothesis: more gender equality (I) in a country the small the gender game in test scores (D).


Comparative Political Analysis: Does Gender Equality Help Girls Do Better in School?

• Operationalizing Concepts: Define what it means to “be better at math” and “gender equality.”• “math test scores” used results of a math test administered to 15

year olds in 40 countries in 2003.• Gender equality measured by using the World Economic Forum’s

Gender Gap Index (GGI). The index measures economic, cultural and political opportunities for women as compared to those of men.

• Results: Confirmed the hypothesis. In countries where there is a large gender gap, such as Turkey, there is a large gap in math scores between boys and girls. In countries where there is gender equality, such as Sweden, the gap disappears.• Why do you think this is so?


Three methods to test hypotheses

•Case study

•Comparative cases method

•Comparing many countries instead of just a few or just one


Figure 1.1Pearson Publishing 2011

Value of Comparison

• Offers us insight into how countries’ political conditions differ and the consequences those differences have for them.

• Permits us to check our intuitions about a country’s politics by examining whether they apply in other circumstances.

• Permits us to check our intuitions about a country’s politics by examining whether they apply in other circumstances.


Value of Comparison

• Permits us to evaluate and form judgments that help us make sense of the world around us.• Empirical and objective

• Normative and moral

• Helps us get to the heart of the question: What constitutes a good society and why are some countries better than others at creating one?


Visions of the Good Society: GNP & Gross National Happiness

• There are certain examples upon which we can all agree are not good societies:• Society based on slavery• Society where one group slaughters another group from a

different ethnic or religious group• Society where thousands of children die from preventable

diseases…• These are not hypothetical examples. They exist today.• Thailand, Rwanda, Angola• We can agree that none of these constitute good societies.



• But what are general criteria we can use to determine what are good societies?

•What is the merit of using wealth and happiness as a criteria?



• By this criterion, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg were some of the most successful in the world.

• Least successful, Democratic Republic of Congo.• While GDPs do indicate countries that have money to

send children to school rather than work, and provide other benefits to society, political leaders are often dissatisfied with this measure.

• Problem: treats money spent on desirable goods and services as equivalent to money spent on less desirable ones – example: cleaning up an oil spill.



• GDP treats money spent on prisons the same as money spent for education.• Focus on growth alone may ignore its hidden costs.• Example: China increase in economic growth, but cost to

increasing inequality, destructive environmental impacts, and corruption.

• Second problem: omits behavior many of us consider desirable.• People caring for aging parents; unpaid work.• Only measures cold, hard cash.

• Third problem: may hide considerable differences in how money is distributed.


GNP vs. GNH

• Economic development and wealth is important but it is only a means to an end.

• Happiness as a goal of a good society.• Wealth can help achieve this

happiness.• More is better only if it

makes us happier.

• Bhutan, located between China and India• New constitution in 2008• Government programs

judged according to the happiness they produce.

• Four pillars• Economy, culture,

environment, and good governance.

• Developed complex mathematical formula for measuring happiness.

• World Values Survey• Investigates how happy

people were in different countries.


GNP vs. GNH

1. The happiness standard suffers from many of the same flaws that afflict the wealth standard.• Overlooks the different ways in which

people find satisfaction. Genghis Kahn example.

2. While happiness is a good thing, it is not the only thing.• Sustainable environment; hardship and

sacrifice

3. Different cultures do not attach the same value to happiness.• Happiness is also a function of

expectations; Depends heavily upon one’s reference group.

There are good reasons to be skeptical of happiness as an indicator of the good society:


In Brief: Criticisms of GNP & GNH as Measures of the Good Society

GNP• Treats all spending as the

same (of equal value) regardless of the purpose for which it is used.

• Is not sensitive to issues of distribution and equality.

• Devalues activity that is not bought and sold.

GNH• Is indifferent to the ways

people might find happiness.

• Discounts that people’s sense of satisfaction may depend more upon their reference group or expectations than upon their actual circumstances.

• Ignores cultural differences in the approval or sanction given to happiness.


So what is a good standard?

• Neither is satisfactory as a standard to evaluate government performance and the quality of life of a country’s citizens.

• So what standard is appropriate by which to measure the good society?• Most important goal of governments is to provide

individuals with the freedom to develop their potential.

• A good society “enhances the capabilities of people to pursue the goals important to their own lives, whether through individual or collective action.” – Hall and Lamont


Capabilities & the Quality of Life

• Precise concept/measurement required.

• Four dimensions that are essential to making people free to live the life they choose, which apply in all countries:

1. Meet their physical needs

2. Live in safety

3. Make informed decisions

4. Exercise civil and political rights


Capabilities & the Quality of Life

• Physical well-being• Nourishment, health

care, and housing – enough to support a long life.

• How to measure? Poverty? Not available across countries- and varies across cultures. Poor in U.S. might be rich in a third world country.

• Infant mortality rates• Newborns highly

susceptible to poor diet, deadly disease, and extreme weather.

• Sweden and Japan fewer than 3 newborn babies die per 1,000 births.

• Sierra Leone there were 154 deaths for every 1,000 babies born in 2006.

• In Afghanistan nearly 20 percent of babies died before their first birthday.


Informed Decision-making

• Today, the ability to make choices to improve one’s quality of life depends on access to information and the skills to understand its meaning.• India – right to information law

• Literate and numerate: without skills individuals are “blind” and cannot make many occupational choices; taken advantage of by others.

• A Quiet Revolution by Martha Chen – illiterate women in Bangladesh’s lives were changed when they learned to read.

• One way to assess informed decision making is to compare literacy rates across countries.


SafetyPearson Publishing 2011

• Profound differences across countries in terms of security. Homicide rates are a good means to measure these differences in standard safety.

• War measures the impact of violent political conflicts.• Example from the Congo: Only a fraction are combat-related; most of

the loss of life occurred because war can ruin the economy and health care services. Produces starvation and disease.

Democracy

• Without influence over the laws that govern them, people cannot press for improvements in any of the other areas: physical well-being, safety, and education.

• Striking improvements in civil rights (such as right to public accommodations) that the state guarantees to all its citizens and in civil liberties (such as freedom of speech or assembly).

• Also improvements in political rights, such as holding office or voting.

• By 2000 almost all of the world’s people lived in independent countries, as opposed to colonies of others, and majority of these countries have universal suffrage and multiparty elections.


Democracy

• Still there are considerable differences across countries.

• Useful indexes to measure democracy.• U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Account program

uses various data sets on democracy to allocate aid among foreign countries.

• Indexes do vary in terms of quality.

• Best is the Polity IV index – Monty G. Marshall and Keith Jaggers.• Rates countries from zero (highly authoritarian) to ten (highly

democratic).


Caveats

• Four categories represent the minimum that people need to fulfill their potential and enhance their lives.

• And they may require tradeoffs. May not all be able to exist together at the same level at all times.

• Goal of good society is to make it possible for each individual in a country to enjoy a high quality of life, and not just for the average quality to be high.

• This approach does not specify a particular set of economic, political, or social institutions that are necessary for a good society.

• This approach does not assert that it is the state’s responsibility to ensure that all individuals thrive. It is the role of the state to create conditions in which persons can choose a flourishing life.


In Brief: Operationalizing Capabilities

1. Meeting physical needs: infant mortality rates

2. Safety: homicide rates

3. Informed decision-making: literacy rates

4. Civil and political rights: the Polity IV Democracy index


Responding to Criticisms of the Capability Approach

• Many scholars and organizations have adopted the capability approach.

• U.N. report: “Fundamental to enlarging human choices is building capability: the range of things that people can do or be.”

• Critics: too idealistic; contrary to human nature. Another view: humans are selfish, but this is a good thing according to some critics.


Responding to Criticisms of the Capability Approach

• But cultural relativism is not as innocent or impartial as it appears.• Legitimize the power of those who

have triumphed over others in the conflict of prevailing social values.• Taliban: banned education of girls

• Concept is difficult to apply with consistency.

Cultural relativists

believe that it is inappropriate to try to establish criteria for a good society that apply to all of the world’s countries.


Conclusion

• Comparative politics examines why countries are organized in different was and what consequences those differences may have.

• Proceeds systematically: hypotheses, operationally defining variables, selecting methods to test the hypotheses.

• Methodical approach to answering the question: what is a good society?

• GNP vs. GNH?• Capabilities approach: consistent standards to apply in making

normative judgments among competing values within and between societies.


Critical Thinking Questions

• What principles does your vision of a Good Society reflect? What prerequisites do you think the Good Society should include?

• We use concepts, such as democracy or freedom, all the time. Or we often say that workers in some country are more class conscious than workers in another, or that ethnic tensions are greater here than there. But operationally defining these concepts so they can be used in comparative political analysis is tricky and takes a great deal of imagination. How would you operationally define these concepts (democracy, freedom, class consciousness, ethnic tension) so they can be compared across countries?



• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different comparative methods we reviewed: the case study approach that examines one country extensively; a paired country approach that tries to find countries that are similar to each other so that other variables can be held constant; or comparisons that involve many countries so analysts can test their hypothesis against many cases? Which method do you think is best and why?



• Even if we accept that wealth (GDP per capita) is not sufficient for the Good Society, do you think it is at least, necessary?

• What criteria do you believe should be used to evaluate how states perform?


The Good Society in DepthCosta Rica : Doing more with lessPearson Publishing 2011

The Good Society in DepthCosta Rica: Doing more with lessPearson Publishing 2011

• Wealthier countries are healthier, generally, and have the lowest infant mortality rates.

• Costa Rica is an exception.• Small democratic country; 4.5 million people in Central America; one of best

infant mortality records at its income level and nearly matches the rates in the U.S.

• How do they do it? • Government’s role in providing necessities for poor mothers and infants: safe

drinking water, adequate nutrition, and basic health care for pregnant mothers and newborns.

• Has one of the oldest, most established democracies in the Americans. Competitive political parties and high voter turnout by peasants and workers.

• Government has been controlled by a political party whose leaders were determined to help the rural poor.

• Groups opposed to its policies were political weak. Doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies were publically controlled and funded, which weakened their ability to oppose the government’s policies.

Chapter 1 CPO2002 Lecture

Education

Transcript of Chapter 1 CPO2002 Lecture