Political Science

1. Drivers of Change: Refining the Analytical
Framework
A Framework for Political Analysis
By Greg Kleponis, PhD Candidate,
University of Bolton, UK

2. Human Collectivities
• Politics is a necessary and pervasive feature of
all human collectivities.
• “Economic systems” -- to generate and sustain
livelihoods
• “Political Systems”-- a set of processes and
institutions, whether formal or informal which
shape how decisions are made about the use,
reduction and distribution of resources.

3. Political Systems
• Some Successful/Some not- some enhance growth and
development –some do not. Some function to create stability-
some do not
• All are embedded in wider environments of economic, social
and cultural structures (internal & external)
• Agents/Agencies formed which promote policies and
programs in pursuit of collective goals and interests.
• Power defines interactions between agents & agencies

4. Political Schematic
The Components
• Conceptualize the political system as a series of components
and the interaction among them.
• Analyze the relations between a political system and its
structural environment
• Identify:
– Agents of change
– Agents of resistance
• Key: Address and organize the relations of power. The political
system as a set of linked processes
– Decisions are taken about how resources are used, produced and
distributed will explain where stagnation, crisis and collapse have
occurred.

5. Political Systems in Developing States
Developing the Analytical Framework
• Considerations in the analytical framework:
– Countries, polities, political practices and the developmental
trajectories
– Must be “Regime Neutral”
– Able to address successful, ailing and failed polities
– How both formal and informal institutions interact in the political
process and decision making
– How informal sources of power impact on the political process
– Applicable to sub-national, regional or local level politics (sectoral
domains)
• This should provide us a framework for tracing how and
where social and economic interests operate on, in and
through the political system. How do the ‘political system’ ,
‘economic system’ and ‘social system’ interact with each other

6. Further Considerations
Countries, States & Regions
• Challenges for Comparative Political Science
– Variety of political, socio-economic, cultural and ideological characteristics
of countries being studied.
– Level and form of economic development
– Characteristics of their social and political structures
– Prevailing cultural patterns and ideas
– Ethnicity
– Regionalism
– Religion
– Revenue sources?
• Single source export resources)
• Agriculture
• Broad Based diversified economies – industrial /services

7. Assumption Underlying All Frameworks
• Activities of cooperation
• Conflict & Negotiation involved in:
– Decisions about the use, production and distribution of resources
– Politics is and essential, necessary and unavoidable process or set of
processes in all collective human activity.
• Political processes are formally differentiated from other
‘non-political’ processes
• ‘Public’ is more sharply marked off from the ‘Private’
• Some systems facilitate cooperation, integration and stability
• Some systems are pathological and have led to failure,
disintegration or collapse

8. Rational Choice Institutionalism
• Concerned with explaining the patterns of micro-political
behavior as shaped by the prevailing institutional
arrangements and incentive structures which influence it.
• Has dominated contemporary academic thought in
comparative political system analysis.
• Uncovers the ‘micro-foundations’ of macro-processes and
events
• Offers little or no guidance about how different institutional
spheres relate to one another.

9. Economic, Social & Economic Agents
• How do they interact?
• How do they advance their agendas?
• What role do institutions play in moderating potentially
competing agendas
• Dynamics that produce outcomes?
• How do some ideas rather than others prevail?
• What are the processes that produce those outcomes?

10. The Political System in Broad Terms
• Political system represents a stylized abstraction of the
political process – it is not an independent , isolated realm
• Human society must have a set of institutional arrangements
to regularize and make predictable human interaction
• These institutions, formal and informal, consist of procedures
or processes for making rules and deciding how resources are
used, produced and distribute.
• The political system serves that function

11. Political System & Environments
• Economic
• Social
• Cultural
• Ideological systens
• Regional & International Contexts
• Process
– Populated by agents and agencies who drive the dynamic
of the political process in, through and behind the
institutional arrangements

12. The Political System
Legitimacy ?
Inputs
Influences
Demands
Oppositions
INPUTS
Supports
Withdrawals
Modes
Modes
Policy Formation
Power Map
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Capacity & Politics
Of Implementation
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Feedback Loop
Lobbying
Legitimate/Non-Legitimate
National Environment
Economy Social System International Environment Cultural System Ideologies

13. Political Systems & Legitimacy
• Legitimacy- is the acceptance of the rule s of the game or general
support for the process whereby decisions are made and
implemented by the broad parameters of the socio-economic
system.
• Seldom sustained by a monopoly of force in the hands of the
dominate elite.
• Inputs- socially disaffected groups, communities, or regions may
withhold or withdraw legitimacy by refusing to accept the rules of
the game and the state itself with far-reaching implications for
continuity, stability and development.
– Secessionists
– Irredentists
– Revolutionaries

14. Gatekeepers
• Critical figures at a number of points and in a number of
institutions who may encourage, discourage, allow or deny
access of people, ideas, demands and influences
• Need to be alert to interests and ideas which may not get
heard, aired or through because of these structures of power
(ideological power) and the role of gatekeepers in the process
– Politicians
– Civil Servants
• Easton’s “Withinputs” – when the gate keepers and internal
agents input on their own to the system.

15. Lobbying
• Policy formation influenced by this – “outputs”
• By the way – does anyone know where the term came from?
• Legitimate & Open:
– Interest Groups
• Multi-national and National Corporations ( Big oil, Big Tobacco etc)
• Interest Groups
• NGOs
• Registered Groups (AMA, ABA, Etc)
• Behind the Scenes:
– Wealthy Individuals
– In less open political systems influential persons drive outputs
• Outputs – precipitate both support and opposition and can
affect levels of legitimacy.

16. Political Systems- Formal & Informal
• Political System needs to be understood as a set of processes
– Formal Institutions
– Informal Institutions
• Interactions
• Processes
• Pressures
• Practices
– Which collective and binding decisions are made.Power is not a single
source phenomenon, it is an expression of a relationship between
parties each disposing of a certain power resource.
– Caciques
– “Big Men”

17. Politics Defined
• All activities of cooperation, conflict and negotiation
involved in decisions about the use, production and
distribution of resources, the political system (at least
for a given unit of analysis) is that set of dynamic,
formal and informal institutionally-shaped
interactions, practices and processes through these
activities occur.

18. Constitutionalist (Old Institutionalist)
Approach
• Approach to politics in that it provides space for the impact
and interaction of both formal and informal sources and
forms of power and influence
• Provides a framework for identifying where and how they are
deployed.
• Different to a ‘political economy’ approach in that it starts
from the premise that political systems and processes need,
first to be conceptualized independently of economic ones,
but only so that the way in which they interact with each
other can be much more directly traced and illustrated.

19. Conceptual Blocks of the Political System
• A system or structure, practical or theoretical is by definition a
set of relations of the parts that constitute it.
– Political systems – no exception
• Applicable in all societies – irrespective of political or socio-
economic structures

20. Political Systems (Basic Elements)
• Environment
• Legitimacy (geographical, constitutional, political)
• Inputs
– Demands, influences and oppositions
– Supports and withdrawal
• Modes (of demand and action by agents)
• Gatekeepers
• Policy formation power map
• Lobbying
• Decision – making
• Outputs
• Feedback Loop
• Capacity and politics of implementation

21. Environment
• Refers to the overall structural context of the political system
and includes both national and international features.
– Socio-economic
– Cultural
– Ideological
– Political cultural environment
• Can include:
– Natural environmental features
• Climate
• Location
• Complex when considered in combination

22. Legitimacy
• Refers to the general level of acceptance of the rules of the
political game
– Not the exclusive monopoly of democratic politics
– Found in all political systems from African Chiefdoms to Monarchies
• Geographical Legitimacy:
– Acceptance of the boundaries within which they live
• Constitutional Legitimacy:
– Acceptance of rules of the political game (formal and informal)
• Political Legitimacy:
– Refers to the acceptance that the rules are fairly applied. For example
Secessionist or irredentist movements indicate low or zero legitimacy

23. Demands, Inputs and Influences
• Examples of demands:
– Lower taxes
– Land Reform
– Accessible clean water
– Fewer Regulations
– Nationalization
– Trade regimes
– Better schools
• Influences
– As previously discussed- politicians, lobbyists, interest groups,
influential individuals, voters etc

24. Legitimacy ?
External Agents
IMF/World Bank
EU
Corporations
WTO
Regional
Internal Agents
Parties, NGOs,
Media
Patrons
Business/Unions
Modes
Modes
Policy
Formation
Power
Map
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Capacity & Politics
Of Implementation
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Feedback Loop
Lobbying
Legitimate/Non-Legitimate
Supports
Withdrawals

25. Legitimacy ?
External Agents
Military
Political
Financial
Alliances
Trade Blocs
Corporate
Internal Agents
Popularity/Unpop
Secessionism
Irredentism
Military
Modes
Modes
Policy
Formation
Power
Map
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Capacity & Politics
Of Implementation
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Feedback Loop
Lobbying
Legitimate/Non-Legitimate
Influences
Demands
Oppositions
Supports
Withdrawal
Environment

26. Modes
• Means and methods by which and through which demands,
oppositions and influences may be expressed.
– External: sources may use conditionality, threats, terms of admission
to organizations (e.g. EU and it’s condition with Turkey on Civil rights)
– Internal: agents and agencies have a wide range of modes – depends
on the freedom and autonomy of the political culture
• Voting
• Campaigns
• Public discussions of issues and ideas
• Stikes, sit-ins, go-slows,
• Riot & Rebellion

27. Gatekeepers

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