POL S101 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - International Law, Democracy, Canada
12 Oct 2018
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Department
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Professor
POL S101
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
September 16, 2014
LECTURE 1
Incoming 113th Congress
•stack deck- not representative of the people who are
voting
•who do we want to lead us? representative of everyone
or the elite people who are able to lead us
•people who answer more to organizations rather than in
congress for the general good of the people.
•Think of why these people were brought into congress or
why they got involved in congress?
•members of the house are elected by the public, therefor
this should be an accurate representation of what the
public voted for.
•gender inequality, number of women who actually ran vs.
how many are actually interested in congress.
•What can alter the idea of a neutral congress? money
(fund a campaign), race or class, dem. or rep., religious
views, personality traits, education, age
•as said by Montana (?) candidate said one of the most
important things he had to do for his campaign was
speak/do business with donors and create fundraisers/
attends fundraisers
•no formal rule of money, but informal rule
Do Ideas or Institutions come first?
•institutions are made possible by changes in the dominant ideas of any particular moment
•institutions are only made possible by the ideas that are dominate in society at that specific
time
•ideas shape institutions or institutions shape ideas?
•ideas provide “generative (create, creative) grammar” of political and institutions
arrangements, the language we use and the ideas we use to talk about politics is really
important
•embedded liberalism and the postwar compromise
•separation between religion and politics? necessary or not? may differ between countries
•ex. France- strict rule about separation, no religious identifiers can be worn in government
house
•separation between church and state refers more to how they test laws, not so much a legal
law as a written letter
•officially institutions will not have a set religion, unofficially many religions can be represented
•20th century- clash of ideologies, communism vs. capitalism
John Maynard Keynes- Welfare State, influential economist of 20th century, influential in political
sphere, british gov. and dealt with india, famously quit at Versailles, 30s published a book and
became chief architect for british government cabinet working with liberal/conservative/labour
parties. connections with Bloomsbury (boomsberry?) group. fought to bring government
intervention into the capitalist economy. Pro-Capitalist, changed is ideas that government could
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have a really important roll in stabilizing the economy. Boom and Bust (increase/decrease of
government spending in times of growth/decay). Create work projects to create jobs. Steep
progressive taxes. associated with the welfare state, take care of those who were unemployed,
etc. Disagrees with the ideas of laissez-faire economics and trickle-down economics. Critic of
the free market. promote a middle way between capitalism and socialism. how could
government support growth while still providing for those who cant take care of themselves. died
mid late 40s, after his death and WWII lots of governments took up his ideas. Not so much
america though… Roosevelt.
british government- health services, welfare spending, unemployment insurance program, state
pensions, spending in the education sector,
since 70s moved away from his political ideas
•Poverty pre-keynes: saw poverty as a crime or brought on yourself/ laziness, your
responsibility
•Poverty post-keynes: saw this as part of capitalism, victim of an economy that is unstable,
government and all of society needs to take some fault
•estimate at the height of Great Depression unemployment reached levels of 30%, interest
rates unstable, years of negative growth (fell by 6% in some years).
•if no grow at all its considered a recession in todays economy
Structures or Agents?
structures: regularized patterns or pressures that constrain human conduct and behaviour,
natural movement of following. overwhelmed by the structures and have no choice but to follow
this powerful and strict norm.
Agency: intentional and meaningful human action which reshapes basic structures, systems or
processes. behaviour that deviates from the norm. Ability to create new norms by deviating from
change.
The harper internet surveillance bill.
question or emphases- existing structures challenge and guide the human ways. or emphasis
on the decisions and agency and in which people change and create the structure or something
outside of the structure.
ex. structure-sidewalk, guides how we walk, where we walk, but once someone else cuts across
the field. cutting across the field in order to cut time- the agency. a new potential sidewalk could
arise from this path created from agency.
structural analysis can be interested in the economy and the current structure of the economy,
rigid, agency analysis would look at how or what we can change for the better within the
economy. meaningful or intentional we can understand and decided when or how we can
change this when we don’t agree with it or it is not beneficial.
where does change come from and where does it happen? structures and change. likely and
possible where change happens everyday or difficult and rare circumstances, maybe only when
the structures break down.
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