Instructors Manual and Test Bank

Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank to accompany

The Good Society:

An Introduction to Comparative Politics Third Edition Alan Draper Ansil Ramsay 1 / 4

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Comparative Politics and the Good Society 1

Chapter 2: The State 25

Chapter 3: State and Society 52

Chapter 4: Political Culture

and Identity 77

Chapter 5: Political Economy 111

Chapter 6: Authoritarianism 1

40

Chapter 7: Democracy 1

64

Chapter 8: Economic and Human Development 1

90

Chapter 9: Developed Countries and the Good Society 218

Chapter 10: Less -Developed Countries and the Good Society 2

50

Chapter 11: Communism, Postcommunism, and the Good Society 2

85 2 / 4

Copyright © 2016, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.1 Chapter 1. Comparative Politics and the Good Society Chapter Overview The chapter begins with the question of why some countries are better than others at creating conditions in which citizens can achieve their potential. It then suggests comparative politics can help answer this question. The introduction to the chapter explains what comparative politics is and how it differs from international relations, with which it is often confused.The second section of the chapter introduces students to the logic and practice of comparative analysis. It begins by discussing hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, operationalizing variables, and using controls. It then explains three methods of comparative analysis: using case studies, comparative case studies, and comparing many countries. It provides examples of how each method has been used. This section explains the difference between correlation and causation and between empirical and normative judgment.The third section considers two visions of a good society, one using GDP per capita as a measure of success and the other using national happiness as a measure of success. It finds both wanting.GDP per capita includes goods and services that are not indicators of a good society, omits behavior many believe is desirable, and does not take into account how income is distributed in a population. Happiness measures do not examine the different ways people find happiness, have difficulty separating out cultural effects on how people report happiness in surveys, and discriminate against very deprived citizens who tend to have lower standards for judging their happiness than wealthier people.The following section makes the case that the capability approach provides the most useful way of measuring the good society. The approach focuses upon individuals’ freedom to live the kind of lives they value. Doing so requires four basic capabilities: physical well-being, informed decision making, safety, and being able to participate effectively in the political choices that determine one’s life.The final section of the chapter responds to criticisms of the capability approach. The section argues that the approach is not too idealistic, is not contrary to human nature, and is not guilty of cultural imperialism, using culturally-biased ideas argued from the United States and Europe to judge and evaluate other countries.Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, students will be able to do the following:

1.1 Define comparative politics and illustrate the value and usefulness of studying it.

1.2 Outline the steps involved in doing comparative political analysis.

1.3 Analyze wealth and happiness as measures of the good society.

1.4 Define and apply the capabilities approach.

1.5 Analyze criticisms of the capabilities approach. 3 / 4

Copyright © 2016, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.2 Chapter Outline

I. INTRODUCTION

• Some countries do a much better job than others at creating conditions in which

their citizens can live well and fulfill their potential.

• These differences have dramatic consequences for people’s lives.
• In 2008, twice as many infants died in their first year of life in Zimbabwe than

in neighboring Botswana in Central Africa.

• Citizens’ life expectancy was 15 years longer in Botswana than Zimbabwe.
• Why do such differences exist?
• Comparative politics provides a way to answer this question by examining why

societies are organized in different ways and what effects these differences have.

• Comparative politics is a subfield of political science that is sometimes confused

with international relations.

• Comparative politics focuses on politics within countries.
• International relations focuses on politics among countries.
• The border between the two subfields is porous, however, and politics among

countries can affect politics within countries.

II. THE LOGIC AND PRACTICE OF COMPARATIVE ANALYIS

• Doing comparative analysis is not limited to a course in comparative politics.
• People do comparative analysis throughout their lives.
• Students compare colleges when deciding where to apply.
• Men and women make comparisons when they decide who they want to date.
• Comparative political analysis differs from comparison in everyday life by using

a systematic process. Its main components are:

• Hypotheses
• State relationships that we expect to find among variables.
• They often take the form of “if, then” statements, such as “if a country’s

wealth increases, then its citizens will be healthier.”

• A hypothesis has a dependent variable, or what we are trying to explain, and

an independent variable, or what we believe explains them. In the hypothesis, “the wealthier a country is, the healthier its citizens are,” wealth is the independent variable, and health is the dependent variable.

• To test hypotheses, we need to operationalize variables by finding specific,

concrete ways of measuring concepts.

• We can define health, the dependent variable, by using life expectancy.
• We can define wealth, the independent variable, by using gross domestic

product (GDP) per capita.

• Correlation is not causation.
• In the example we have just used, GDP per capita is correlated with life

expectancy; the higher the GDP per capita, the longer the life expectancy, but this correlation does not prove that increases in GDP per capita cause longer life expectancy.

• Ice cream consumption was correlated with the number of polio cases in

the 1950s. This did not mean that ice cream caused polio.

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