POLI SCI 50

MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

The Wesleyan Movement

-John Wesley
-Never intended to become an independent church, but as a reformist
movement within the Anglican Church
-Wesleyan principles:
-The culture of philanthropy
~Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can
-Effects of the culture of philanthropy
~Poorhouses: homeless shelters
~Workhouses: jobs for able but indigent workers
~Free medical clinics (century before Marxs Communist
Manifesto)
-Wesleyan Organizational Philosophy
-Reaction against both Anglican and Congregational principles
-Membership v. Congregation
-Wesleyan system: Vertical Control
~Connection
~District
~Circuit (several local churches, depended by how many
churches

could be served by an individual priest)

~Society (individual church)
*Minister did not live in the precinct of any of the churches

he served
-Later social medicine NOT revolutionary, but evolutionary
*Verticality:
-Theres a strong class basis for voting in England
-70% votes labour, 30% votes conservative
-Culture of deference carries over from Medieval times
-If you want free medical clinics, other things, etc

-(Democracy couldnt do it for many)

**Absent a strongly centralized system of political authority, you have
chaos, violence, etc
**Winston Churchill channeling King Arthur??
**Absence of political authority is our inability to defend
ourselves
BRITISH POLITICAL CULTURE: Conclusion
Strengths
-Attention to non-institutional factors
-Emphasis on non-rational sources of stability
Weaknesses
-Empirical
-Direction of causality
-Inability to explain change
-Truth v. explanatory power

REVIEW
-3 Institutional Features that allow Exec branch to discipline Legislative
1. Vote of Confidence
a. A vote called by the prime minister that determines
whether the exec can still command a loyalty of a majority
of members in the house. Vote is on any piece of
legislation, this part is insignificant
2. Rickers Iron Triangle
a. No official checks and balances, exec branch dominates
legislative
b. Exec commands committees and interest groups

3. 2 Party System
a. 2 major political parties which creates stability and room
for opposition in the middle within the legislative branch
the PM and the cabinet members are of the majority party
-Committee System of the HOC greatly reduces the policy influence of
interest group
-This is bc members of the HOC are assigned randomly to
committees and topics are randomly assigned as well. So there is no
guarantee that a member

will work on a bill that represents certain

interests. Furthermore, the

committees are NOT permanentthey

dissolve after editing particular bill.

-These characteristics make it almost impossible for interest
groups to be

represented in the HOC.

ECKSTEIN ESSAY
-Speaking in the House of Commons is like making a speech in a
beehive, people are constantly coming/going and interrupting,
members are going around looking for signatures while the orator is
speaking, etc
-Eckstein argues British political culture is characterized by a dual
mandate
-Part of the British culture approach that is made up of feudalistic
and

democratic mandates.

-Members of the HOC are always trying to mess w members of

opposing party
-Trying to screw with the heads of the ministers delivering
speeches
-No written constitution; still managed to remain effective democratic
gov
-Suffered neither the acute instability nor near paralysis that hit
the Weimer

Republic or the French Republics

-Remodeling was done within the limits of the traditional constitution

Action of british govts is not solely in the hands of the British leaders
it is attributable to the political system and not the leader
-The Machinery of the British govt alone cannot explain its
effectiveness as the French attempted to copy it with great failure
-What makes it so effective?? Its organization, and its peculiar
environment
in which the organization of the govt functions
-Cultural factor
-Gives the leader the ability to take a great amount of action
individually and not based more on the popular or
parliamentary will
-Structural
-TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
-Will inevitably produce stable govts as the parties rarely split
-Allows for united leadership backed by an obedient majority of
legislators
-Stability of British cabinets
-Allows people to learn the system without abrupt changes
-French have undisciplined multiparty system
-The British believe in civil and political liberites; they insist that public
authority be exercised in conformity with the rule of law; they believe
in binding force of popular mandate.

*British political system described as

-a hybrid presidential system
*Magna Carta is
-first major breakthrough in attaining limited monarchy
*House of Commons #
-650
*House of Lords #
-750
*British Prime Minister
-leader of the majority party in Parliament
*NOT describe british political system
-Checks and balances
*British HOC
-Small Rectangular shape
*Major political parties
-Labour and conservative
*Present govt of Britain
-COALITION of lib dems and conservatives
*British system of party nominations
-Gives party leaders great control over selection of candidates
*System of Campaign finance
- Restricts the amont that individual candidates can raise on their
own behalf
*Contemporary role of queen
-British place high value on ceremonial institutions
*HOC procedure reinforces party discipline through
-Votes of confidence
*Committee system of HOC
-Designed to prevent legislation from reaching floor of the house
*Committees of HOC chosen on basis of
-Random assignment

*Majority of House of Lords

-Elected for life
*Median voter theory states
-single member districts, no discernible party outcome
*Role of law lords could historically be described
-Supreme Court
*System of cumulative voting, voters can
-Distribute several votes bw diff candidates
*System of approval voting, voter can
-Vote yes or no for individual candidates
*System of preference voting, voter can
-rank candidates in order of preference
*1st past the post
-candidate with most votes wins
*Almond and Verba, the parochial culture
-causes us to see many problems as political
*Mace on the table in HOC symbolizes
-resolution of disputes by words not war
*Lords reform act of 1958
-created office of life peer
*Lords reform act of 1999
-Practically eliminated hereditary peers
*Political role of house of lords includes
-Can temporarily delay laws made by commons
*Next stage in reform of house of lords is
-Become entirely elected body
*If british law conflicted with human rights provisions of EU treaties
-Case referred to lords of appeal in ordinary
*Highest court in Britain is now
-independent supreme court
*Dual mandate in british political culture

-British culture is a composite of feudal and democratic

approaches
*Roman colonization in Britain lasted
-400 years
*Pax romana recalls Roman colonialism as period of
-Peace and Prosperity
*Legend of King Arthur significance
-Shows the british peoples aversion to vacuum of authority
*Signing of magna carta
-Britains transition to limited monarchy
*English Civil War dates?
-1640s; temporarily eliminated/permanently weakened monarchy
*King Henry VIII created Anglican church in
-1530s
*Methodist religious movement dates
-1740s
*Spread of the Methodist church
-Introduced concept of philanthropy to brit political culture
*Key organizational principle of Methodist faith
- key organizational principle that church organizations should
emphasize a

vertical authority pattern

*British political culture is

-Pragmatic and tolerant
*Vote of Confidence
-Requires members to file to opposite locations; if a government
loses a VOC,

it must resign and call for a general election

*Parochial
-makes personal problems seem non-political (NOT BRITAIN)
*Current prime minister
-David Cameron (Conservative)
*Celtic Fringe

-Scotland and Wales, not conquered by the Angles and Saxons

*Nick Clegg
-leader of Lib-Dems, deputy prime minister in coalition govt since
2010
*Collective Responsibility
-Requires all members of cabinet to either support govt policy or
resign
*Collectivist Consensus
-Postwar consensus bw UKs major parties to build/sustain
welfare state
*Confederation of British Industry
-UKs most important group representing private sector
*Good Friday Agreement
-treaty ending violence bw protestants/catholics in N. Ireland
*Hung Parliament
-election result in which no political party wins a majority of
parliamentary

seats

*Majoritarian
-term describing the virtually unchecked power of parliamentary
majority in UK political system
*Ed Miliband
-Leader of the opposition Labour party
*Third Way
-term describing recent policies of Labour party that embrace the
free mkt
*Trade Union Congress (TUC)
-UKs largest trade union federation
*Scottish National Party (SNP)
-Party seeking Scottish independence, currently in control of
Scottish

regional govt

*Margaret Thatcher

-Conservative Prime Minister 1979-1990

*Quangos
-Quasi-autonomous non-govt orgs that assist govt in policy
making
*Simple Run-Off
-If no majority, top two candidates face off in separate electoral
election
*Approval Voting
-Each voter submits one vote for as many candidates as he/she
wants

(typically used in single-winner elections)

*Instant Run-Off Voting (IRV)

-Voters preference top 1-3 picks; if candidate wins by majority, it
is over; if

not, candidate w lowest # of votes will transfer voters vote

to the voters

second preference

THREE KEY PROPOSITIONS:

1. Executive dominance (no checks and balances)
2. 2 Party system
3. Minimize power of special interests