Assoc. Prof. Murat Somer, CASE 153
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3:00-5:00 pm
Learning Objectives
 Define key concepts such as political institution,
democracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism,
and federal versus unitary systems.
 Explain the role of a constitution, and understand
the concept of constitutionalism.
 Discuss the general type of political system and
important constitutional issues in the TIC cases.
 Categorize each TIC case as having either a
unitary or a federal system.
What are Institutions?
Liberal Conceptions
Formal Definition:
Institutions are the rules of
the game in a society or,
more formally, humanly
devised constraints that
shape [regulate] human
interaction.
(Douglas North)
How are Organizations Different from
Institutions?
 Organizations are the players
 Institutions are the rules of the game
 GS, BJK, UEFA and MHK are organizations
Rules of the game are institutions
 Municipalities and contractors are
organizations
Rules that determine their relationship are
institutions
 Political parties are players (organizations)
Electoral rules are institutions
 Courts are organizations
The laws they apply, the rules that determine
their salaries, promotion, accountability, and
powers are institutions
What Do Institutions Do?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Determine who are the winners and who are the losers
Define boundaries such as property rights
Determine standards
Provide incentives and disincentives
Enforce contracts
Monitor behavior
Punish violatiors and reward cooperators
Provide information
Reduce uncertainty
Produce trust and facilitate human cooperation
Prevent free riders
Institutions can be:
 formal
 informal
 social
 political
 economic
(constitution)
(tradition)
(customs)
• The constitution and actual working of the system
define a country’s regime
• Regime: The basic nature of the way a society is
governed. Who governs and how? E.g. Democracy,
liberal democracy, semi-democracy,
authoritarianism, totalitarianism.
• Who comes to rule and how?
• The nature of the relationship between the rulers and
the ruled
• Functional and territorial distribution of power
• Rule of Law is “must” for democratic
regimes, may also exist partially in some
authoritarian regimes:
• Ruling according to legitimately made laws that
meet universal standards of justice.
• Government itself is restricted by the law,
especially the constitution.
• Cannot make policies not authorized by
legitimately made laws.
• Kanun devleti (state of law) vs. rule of law
• Constitutionalism
□ A central concept in the U.S. and other
democracies
• Constitutions are designed to limit the power
of government
• Government officials must follow the laws of
the land
• Upholding these limitations and following
these laws is a key source of legitimacy
 Tradeoff between institutions and identities?
 Identities and institutions to some extent compete as a
source of legitimacy and regime-compliance.
 Why are people loyal to a regime/political system?
 Because of (i) identity (traditonal/charismatic
authority, national-ethnic identity, tradition, culture
etc ) and/or (ii) institutions (legal-rational authority,
the rules make sense and are enforced well)
 You need both but..
 If you overemphasize identities: High traditional and
charismatic authority but low legal-rational authority.

 People obey their communities, leaders and tradition
but not the rules.
 Extreme nationalism against other countries.
 Polarization as loyalty shifts from common rules and
law to different ethnic and religious groups
 If you overemphasize institutions: High legal-
rational authority but low traditional and charismatic
authority .

 System becomes «cold» Why make any sacrifice for
your country?
 People may feel their identities, tradition ignored.
 Minorities may feel their ethnic-religious differences
are not recognized.
 But they can coexist. Happy medium.
 Institutions can recognize identities. They can have
rules to honor and protect identities.
 Identities can respect institutions. First respect the law
then your community-tradition.
Levels of Government
 Functional separation of power
 Executive
 Legislature
 Judiciary


Elected officials
Appointed officials (bureaucracy)
Levels of Government
• Territorial distribution of power
• Unitary versus Federal Arrangements
□
□
Unitary: Regional governments have no powers
reserved to them.
Federal: Regional governments have constitutional
status and autonomy, share powers with the central
government, have certain reserved powers of their
own and are represented in the federal (central)
government.
• Local Government
□
□
Exists in both federal and unitary systems
Oversees “day-to-day” municipal governing
• Devolution transfers Powers from Central
Governments to local Levels. But unlike
federalism, local governments do not have a
seat in the federal government.
Regime Types
 Totalitarianism









Seeks the atomization of society (Arendt)
Emphasizes mass mobilization
Official ideology
Single political party
Reliance on terror to maintain order
Control of communications
Control over the means of force in society
Command economy
North Korea, Nazi Germany
Regime Types
 Authoritarianism







Presence of a dominant leader or small group of
leaders
Main logic: government not changing; no rotation
of power
Limited political participation
Degree of autonomy of society from state control
Lack of ideology
Limited control over the economy
Variants of authoritarianism
 Military, party, bureaucratic
 Syria, Egypt under Mubarak
Political Institutions
 Regime (Political System) Types
 Semiauthoritarianism/Semidemocracy


Semiauthoritarianism: Democracy is incorporated
into an otherwise authoritarian system
Semidemocracy: Or authoritarianism is
incorporated into an otherwise democratic system
 Regime (Political System) Types
 Democracy





Main logic change of governments, rotation of
power
Selection of government officials through free and
fair elections
The balance of majority rule and minority
protection
Limitations on government action
Variants of democracy
 Majoritarian, consensus
 European, Westminster, American and Latin
American models
Free & Fair Elections
Free Elections:
 Individuals have the ability to vote,
 Their votes are made in secret,
 Candidates have the ability to run for office,
 Candidates have the ability to campaign for
office by providing information to voters.
Free & Fair Elections
 Fair Elections:
 Voters to have access to impartial coverage of
the campaign in the media,
 Voters to have reasonable access to polling
places,
 The vote of each eligible voter -and only of
eligible voters- to be counted,
Free & Fair Elections
 Fair Elections (Cont’d):
 The vote of each eligible voter to be counted
equally,
 The losing candidate to acknowledge and
accept the results,
 The electoral process to be administered and
monitored by an impartial body of electoral
specialists.
Look at the list of criteria associated with
free and fair elections. How do Turkish
elections measure up based on these
criteria?
 Consensus democracy: A democratic system that unites
proportional representation elections, a multiparty
system, and diffusion of power across branches and
levels of government. More veto points in the system
 Majoritarian democracy: A democratic system
combining strong executives, few checks on the
power of the majority to pass laws and amend the
constitution, and conflictual politics between two
major political parties. Fewer veto points.
Table
5-1 p132
Topic in Countries
 The United Kingdom
 “Westminster democracy,” highly majoritarian
 Constitution is not in a single written document; a
collection of acts, legal opinions, and customs
 Despite significant devolution of powers to
regions, remains a unitary state
■
Veto Points
□ Individuals or collective political bodies who can stop
or delay a policy or law by rejecting it
□ Parliamentary systems generally have fewer veto
points than do presidential systems and unicameral
(single-chamber) legislatures have fewer veto points
than bicameral ones
□ Thatcher took advantage by making significant
social welfare policy changes
Topic in Countries
 Germany
 Consensus democracy; combination of coalition
governments, federalism, and corporatism
 The constitution (Basic Law) lays out both social
welfare protections and limits on government
 “Cooperative federalism” with significant powers
for the Länder
Topic in Countries
 India
 Parliamentary democracy; system has evolved
from one-party dominant to multiparty
 Constitution is long, detailed, and heavily
amended; federal system with strong central
government
 Federal system (28 federal units), but the central
government has strong powers; three levels of
government
Topic in Countries
 Mexico
 Party-authoritarian system (by PRI) until 2000; today
an unconsolidated democracy
 Constitution originally written in 1917; prohibits the
president and legislators from running for reelection;
provides for checks and balances that became
important when PRI lost its dominance
 Federal system with 31 federal units (estados) and one
federal district; estados dependent on central
government for revenue
Topic in Countries
 Brazil
 Has alternated between democracy and military
authoritarianism; remains an unconsolidated
democracy with traditional elites maintaining
significant power
 Current constitution written in 1988; enshrined
privileges for the outgoing military government
 Federal system with 26 federal units (estados); more
power for lower levels than in Mexico; preserves
power of local elites
Topic in Countries
 Nigeria
 Combination of majoritarian and consensus democracy; has
alternated between democracy and military authoritarianism;
democratic status is increasingly unclear
 Most recent constitution written in 1999; emphasis on the
need for unity in a country with prevalent identity and
political divisions since independence
 Formerly an ethno-federal system; now more of an American-
style federal system; provides a certain degree of cross-cutting
identities among the otherwise complementary identity
divisions
Topic in Countries
 Russia
 Failed democratic transition following collapse of
USSR. Semi-presidential according to constitution
 Creeping authoritarianism after Yeltsin fell and Putin
came to power in 2000; semiauthoritarian regime
today
 Federal system; since Putin came to power, central
government has increased its power versus the
regions (which now number 83)
Topic in Countries
 China
 Under Mao Zedong, often considered a totalitarian
system; since Deng Xiaoping, more like a partyauthoritarian system
 Evidence that a constitution, even one that is
somewhat followed, does not equal democracy
 Unitary state with 31 regions; some devolution, but
still not a federal system
Topic in Countries
 Iran
 Theocracy combined with republicanism and aspects
of democracy; under former President Khatami,
attempts at reform; under President Ahmadinejad, a
return to hardline policies
 Constitution after the Revolution implemented a
theocracy, including the position of Supreme Leader;
overhauled in 1989 (abolished prime min.)
 Unitary state with 30 regions; powerful provincial
leaders; central government has overseen “controlled
decentralization”
Country
Summary 5-1a p155
Country
Summary 5-1b p156
Country
Summary 5-1c p156