COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT

Fall 2011

COMPARATIVE GOVERNMENT• Purpose: To divide government systems into categories

to make it easier and more efficient to study• Entire courses in college may be spent on one category• We are going to look the four of the major

categorizations: – Who Participates in Government…Decision Making Power– Who Controls the Power of Government…Degree of

Authority– How is Power Handed Out in Government…Geographic

Power Distribution– The Political Economy System

Who Participates in Government Decision Making Power

• Democracy– Direct vs. Indirect

• Direct: Hard to manage– Referendum (SPLOST, Lottery)– Initiative (zoning)

• Indirect: Representative• Why not a Direct Democracy type Govt for US? Georgia? Cobb County? City of

Marietta?

• Authoritarian• Parliamentary vs. Presidential Democracies

– Separation of Powers– Who would be Chief Executive of US if we had a Parliamentary System?

Democracy Authoritarian

Who Controls the Power of Gov’tDegree of Authority

• What do we Practice? Why?• Why is our Power control considered to be left of

center on the above continuum? How does the Patriot Act relate?

• What is “thaw and freeze”?

Anarchy TotalitarianLimited Govt.

TIANAMEN SQUARE MASSACREExample of “Chinese Freeze”

How is Power Handed OutGeographic Power Distribution

UNITARY SYSTEM-Central Government controls and hands out power-China-Most popular type of government in the world when it comes to distributing power

CONFEDERATION SYSTEM -Local Governments control the power-Central Government only as strong as the local government make it-CSA, Articles of Confederation, Canada

FEDERAL SYSTEM -Power is Shared by Central and Local Governing bodies-USA-What is the problem here?

The Political Economy

• Demand vs. Command– What is Produced?– How much is Produced?– At what cost is it produced?

DEMAND COMMAND

American Capitalism

Democractic Socialism

Soviet-style Communism

Philosophical Underpinnings of US System

• GREEK PHILOSOPHERS– SOCRATES,PLATO,ARISTOTLE– Greek city states– “polis”---root of politics—not so

democratic yet an emphasis on thinking and reasoning everything was questioned --- emphasis was on educated ruling class---Aristotle---(Aristocracy of Intelligentsia)

– Birthplace of Democracy--- “Demes” Divided quarters of Athens--- “cracy” Greek for rule by….loosely translated “rule by the people”

MIDDLE AGE THOUGHT 800-1300 AD

• God centered thinking• “Divine Right of Kings”• Eventually evolved into the Absolute

governments of the 17th century• Example: Louis XIV of France

Renaissance/Scientific Revolution 1300-1600

• Scientist of the period like Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler influence other thinkers.

• Rene Descartes: Philosopher that applied scientific method to philosophical debates.

• Inductive reasoning: “Cogito ergo sum” “I think therefore I am”

AGE OF REASON (ENLIGHTENMENT)1720-1790

• A shift in importance: God centered to human centered (HUMANISM)

• Seeds of thought for the American and French Revolution

• Important People: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Adam Smith

• Each of these had significant influence on the Founding Fathers of the United States