International Relation

Some basic points about the modern international political system

·         One of the most fundamental features about the modern international political system is that although it was European-centre or dominated by European states at the turn of the 20^th century, by the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the power and influence of these European states in the system had begun to decrease.

·        This steady decline of the power and influence of European states, such as, Britain, France, Austria-Hungary and to an extent Italy, from the early decades of the 20^th century to the middle of the century, and their replacement by the US and USSR, is a striking feature of the modern international political order. By the 1950s, instead of the dominant European powers which featured in both the First and Second World Wars, we had what could have been described as a bi-polar international political order, or a system dominated by two world powers, who had achieved superpower status.

·       At the turn of the 20^th century, world politics was basically dominated by two broad alliances of states. They were, the Triple Alliance, which consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy and the Triple Entrant, which comprised, Britain, France and Russia. In the tussle for world domination and influence, these two groups tried to outdo each other

·       However, when the First World War broke out in 1914, two groups of states fought each other. They were: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, on the one hand, and Russia (left Dec. 1917), France, Britain, Italy, Rumania and USA (April 1917). The first group was called the Central Powers and the latter, the Allies.

·       The main outcome of the First World War was that the Allies emerged victorious, with the US making its presence felt as the foremost Western power. However, the US did not play a dominant role in world politics until the end of the Second World War.

·       Until the outbreak osf the Second World War, the European Allies and Germany continued to play a major role in world politics, but these Western powers were steadily losing influence. However, the USSR was beginning to make its presence felt as a major world power.

·       In terms of the Treaty of Versailles that came into effect in 1919, Germany was stripped of most of its power. Germany, for instance, had to give up to the Allies her rights and titles over her overseas possessions. The German army could not exceed 100.000 men and could maintain law and order within her territory and nothing more. Germany had to also accept responsibility for war damages inflicted on the allied powers.

·       The League of Nations was established in 1919, with the hope of maintaining world peace.

 What is politics?

Some people love politics. They may relish the excitement of political events, such as elections, as they would an exciting athletic contest (a World Series or SuperBowl, perhaps). Other are fascinated with politics because they care about the issue and their consequences for people in their own communities or around the world. On the other hand, there are those who hate politics, either because it sets groups and individuals against each other, or because it involves abuse of power, deceit, manipulation, treachery and violence. Finally, there are those who are indifferent to politics, who perhaps find it boring because it has little to do with the things that matter most to them. Most of us react to politics with a mixture of these sentiments, which may change with time and events. Politics has many faces and can be a force for good as well as evil. This book is about the comparative study of politics. In order make political comparisons, we need to understand what is meant by politics as well as what it means to study it comparatively. The former is the task of this chapter, whereas chapter 2 will discuss the latter.

Politics has to do with human decisions, and political science is the study of such decisions. Yet, not all decisions are political, and many of the social sciences are concerned with decisions that are of little interest to political scientists. For example, consider a situation in which you go with a friend (a date, perhaps) to an event such as a concert or a soccer match. You have a certain amount of money at your disposal. You can spend this money on your tickets (to get the best seats possible) or on food and drink, or you can save it. Economists might be interested in what sorts of spending decisions you make. Psychologists might wish to know why you were going with this friend and not with someone else, or in how you and your friend decided what to do. Political scientists are not likely to want to study any of these questions, unless perhaps the event you attended turned into a riot (both soccer matches and concerts occasionally do), or the experience somehow changed your political outlook (which may occasionally happen at soccer matches and concerts, too, though you probably should not hold your breath).

The main point here is that not all choices or decisions are political. Specifically, political decisions are public and authoritative. To say that politics has to do with public decisions is to say that politics is inherently social. Politics always involves and has consequences for multiple human beings. There is no such thing as political solitaires, playing politics by yourself. Political decisions always take place within some community that we may call a political system. We shall discuss that concept latter.

Yet, not all social decisions are public. Most of what happens within families, among friends, or Voluntary associations belongs to the private sphere. Actions within this sphere are voluntary, not regulated, and do not bind anyone outside the group involved. In most societies, with whom you go to concerts and what food you buy are private decisions. When many people are indifferent to politics, it is largely because they value this private sphere, in which they may place their family life, friendship, faith, and nature, more highly than they regard the public domain. Societies vary greatly in the scope of the public versus the private sphere. In totalitarian societies, the public sphere is very large and private life very limited. In other societies, the private do main almost crowed out the public one. To complicate things even more, the boundaries between the public and private spheres get redrawn all the time. A couple of decades ago, the sex lives of U.S. presidents or members of the British royal family were considered private matters, not to be discussed in public and certainly not by politicians. In recent years, this seems to have changed, although in other countries the traditional standards remain. On the other hand, there was a time in British history when certain religious beliefs were in themselves considered treasonous. People who held such beliefs could be executed, as was Thomas more under king Henry III. Nowadays, most modern democracies consider religious beliefs to be private matters, though other societies may not. Yet, all societies maintain some distinction between public and private affairs. And although politics may be influenced by what happens in the private domain, it has directly to do only with those decisions that are public.

Political system

Politics take place within and between political systems. Since the term political system is the main organizing concept of this book, we shall elaborate its meaning below. Any system must necessarily have two properties: (1) a set of interdependent parts and (2) boundaries towards the outside environment.

There are many kinds of systems: mechanical systems such as automobiles, ecological systems such as the plants and animals coexisting in a single habitat and social systems such as a family. All have interdependent parts and boundaries. Political systems are a particular type of social system _namely, one involved in the making of authoritative public decisions. To put it slightly differently, the political system is a set of institutes, such as parliaments, bureaucracies, and courts that formulate and implement the collective goals of society or of groups within it.

Governments typically require obedience from their citizens, and their authoritative decisions can normally be backed up by coercion (force) if necessary. Yet, most governments much prefer that citizens comply because of legitimacy than due to the threat of force. By legitimacy we mean that those who are ruled believe that the rulers have a “right” (whether by law or by custom) to implement their decisions. The legitimacy of a political system may vary over time. The legitimacy of the U.S. political system was high just after World War II; it declined substantially during and after the Vietnam War but has since then recovered at least somewhat. In Germany, on the other hand, the new democratic system had little support just after World War II but has gradually gained in legitimacy since then. Low legitimacy may results in breakdowns in political organization and public policy failures. Policy failures in turn can cause declining legitimacy. The Soviet system collapsed in 1991 after its legitimacy had been undermined by a failed and costly war in Afghanistan, an unclear power disaster in Chernobyl, corruption, and declining economic productivity. We discuss legitimacy at greater length in Chapter 3.

Political systems features governments at their core, but they also encompass important parts of the environment in which governments operate. There is more politics than authoritative and coercive activities—for example, political organizations such as political parties or interest groups. Such organizations do not have coercive authority, unless they control the government. Likewise, the mass media only indirectly affect elections, legislation, and law enforcement. Then there is a whole host institutions beginning with the family and including communities, churches, schools, universities, corporations, foundations, and think-tanks, which influence political attitudes and public policy. The term political system refers to this whole collection of related, interacting institutions and agencies.

Political systems mold and are molded by a domestic and an international environment. The system receives inputs from these environments and shapes them through its outputs. The boundaries of political systems are defined in terms of persons, territory, and property. Most human beings belong to, and have citizenship rights in, only one country. Similarly, territory is divided between states in ways that are meant to be mutually exclusive. A given piece of land is supposed to belong to one and only one country. Much the same is true with respect to other property rights. Of course, disputes over citizenship, territory, and property are by no means uncommon and have indeed been among the most frequent cause of international conflict all through history.

Comparative politics is the study of political systems, not as isolated cases but through generations and comparisons. Chapter 2 discusses how and why we make such comparisons. There are many kinds of political systems, such as cities, states, international organizations, klans, or even influential families. In principle, comparative politics could compare any or all of these types of political systems. In practice, however comparative politics focuses on comparisons of states, or what we commonly refer to as countries. We shall therefore discuss states and their role in the contemporary world next.   

How and Why Political system change

How and Why Political Systems Change Since the creation of mankind the world has been continually changing. With each day, man develops, countries grow and political systems change. A political system is an important set of social institutions. Political systems have many functions. Political systems create resources for education, health, welfare, industry and foreign policy. Political systems have changed drastically over centuries and are still changing everyday. To understand why and how political systems change, there are many factors. Some major factors are evolution, revolution and economy. A major factor and influence on why a political systems change is due to the countries social economy. The approach in which a country deals with certain political processes are affected by internal divisions of income, wealth and occupation, also by economic dependence or poverty. There is always a positive association between economic development and equality or income. The Linearity theory states that economic development leads to urbanization which leads to communication which leads to high levels of education and in turn leads to Democracy. This theory does an excellent job in showing how economics lead to a change in political systems. Wealthier nations such as the United States, Japan and other European countries often have more equitable income distributions than poorer countries. According to Robert J. Mundt, a political researcher, “in advanced industrial nations the wealthiest ten percent of households receive about one quarter of the national income, while poorest receive forty percent and about twenty percent get only fifteen percent of the national income; in middle income countries like Brazil, the wealthiest ten percent gets forty-six percent of national income and the poorest forth percent get only eight percent.” An example of a country that social economy influenced the change in their political system would be the Russian Federation. The social economy lead to the fall of Communism. The Russian federation was a communist country believing in state owned and centrally planned government. Years ago the communists were able to keep up with the other big money powers of the world. But as time went on and they tried to catch up, their economy was too hard to control. Their products were poor quality and their quantity was created on a need basis. There was no efficiency. The people of Russia would have to wait years for cars, apartments and waited hours in lines for simple things like food and other basic necessities. The soviets began to argue with the government. In 1991, Russia had gone through the worst of its inflation and industrial problems. Eventually Russia became the Russian Federation and there was an end to Communism. Urbanization is another reason that political systems change and develop. People run out of recourses on their rural lands and are forced to flee to the bigger cities. People go to the bigger cities hoping to find a better life for their families and themselves. As more people go these cities, it creates more jobs. Industry grows and the social economy also grows. Political systems begin to create governments that work on foreign policy and trade which creates more money. Eventually the political systems shape their governments to look like those of the other bigger wealthier countries in the world. Another factor that changed many countries political systems is that of a revolutionary change. Two countries that were strongly influenced by the revolutionary change were Russian and Germany. After World War I, Russians believed the revolution lead to the collapse or imperialism and capitalism. Russia was doing well before the war. Industry was still grown and the people seemed to be happy. That did not last long though, the war changed everything. When the Russian military went to war against Germany, the tsarist government fell. As the tsarist government fell apart so did the Russian economy. The government found themselves stuck in a situation that they did not know what to do. In 1917 democratic moderates over the power of the tsar. This group hoped to make the country more modern and democratic. But in a strange turn of events, the leader of the moderate democratic, betrayed his western allies and made a peace agreement with Germany. Eventually a Russian revolution created a party with the help of Germany lead to the fall of imperialism and capitalism. Soon after Russia became a communist country. Revolutionary change is apparent when looking at China’s development as a government. China and Russia’s political change are similar in many ways. One of the biggest revolutionary movements in China was Maoism. Maoism was created by a person named Mao Zedong. Mao believed in strengthening and rebuilding China and by doing so, he and his followers believed in guerrilla warfare and in turn created a so-called revolution. Maoism believed that it was important to listen to the peasants and tried to propaganda to join his army. He believed heavily in guerrilla warfare to take over the government. Mao’s acts were unsuccessful and in 1949 Communism became China’s government. Great Britain is a country was evolutionary change and development not only influenced its own development, but also many other countries in the world. Great Britain government is considered the mother government. It is the oldest government in existence. Their evolution as a government was watched and studied by many countries. Many parts of democratic governments such as the legislative and executive branch can be seen as early as 1066 for Great Britain. Great Britain legislative branch was called the Great Council and the executive branch was called the king council. The Parliament was created early in their government and is very similar to many countries man governmental body. Great Britain created in 1689 Bill of Rights which gave people their individual rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech. Within the last few years, Great Britain has seen some decline because if the Grand Old Party. There has been no major change in years in their government and some researchers believe it is effected their economy and other problems the country is having. The legislative branch was called the Great Council and the executive branch was called the Kings Council. The Parliament was created which is Great Britain’s main government body. The Parliament can be compared to other main bodies such as the House of Representatives in the United States or the Majilis on Iran. In 1689, Great Britain created the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights created human rights for everyone. Many countries around the world have tried to create similar rights for their people. Although Great Britain economy has a slight decline within the last few years, it has proven to be one of the most stable governments in the world. The political attitudes vary from country to country as well as they always change. As countries evolve, the attitude of the people change according to what is happening. In countries that are in a strong economic standing, the peoples’ attitudes probably will lead more toward a nationalist feeling. For example, the people of Germany are upset because ever since that wall separating East and West Germany had to come down, there has been lower unemployment and fewer jobs. At first everyone was so happy to see the wall come down and now some wish that it never had. It is proven that the happier the people are with their government, the more they will participate. When more people get involved, this leads to political change. Sometimes a countries political system changes when the people are not happy with the government. People get outraged with corruption, unemployment, welfare, education, and human rights. When the people are outraged, they have been known to revolt against the government. Also the people support a leader that will change the system from the way that it is being run. An example is in Mexico decades ago. A leader stepped up that said he would represent the workers and the farmers. The people immediately fought to get this man in power, and he eventually he was elected in to power and created the PRI, which is a political party that remained in power for decades. When looking at the evolution of countries and the change in their political system, it seems as if many countries have changed their form of government to a democratic government. Many countries have adapted to the Western Countries’ forms of government. Within the past couple of decades, more and more countries are slowly moving into a democratic form of government. Democracy has not fully proven to be the answer to all country problems but has been a step closer to helping some situations. There are many theories that try prove the democratic countries are less likely to have a war and more likely to be similar and in the long run better the world economy. China is the longest standing communist country and has no desire to try to reform to democracy. Political scientists do not believe that this is a good decision for China. In China, the people have no rights, and most of the country is poor. Also you are only allowed to practice the religion the government tells you can. Right now in China thousands of people are thrown in jail and killed for trying believed in the religion of their choice. Many researchers agree that democracy is one of the most influential forms of government. As time change, so will the countries of the world. It is very hard for comparative scientist to make exact predictions on what will be the future for political systems.