Chapter 12: Challenges

and Questions in
Comparative Politics

OER materials provided with support from the Academic

Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) Open
Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)
Chapter Outline
• Section #12.1: Challenges and Questions
• Section #12.2: Pressure From Above: Globalization
• Subsection #12.2.1: Economic Globalization
• Subsection #12.2.2: Political Globalization
• Subsection #12.2.3: Cultural Globalization
• Section #12.3: Pressure from Below: Fragmentation
• Subsection #12.2.1: Economic Fragmentation
• Subsection #12.2.2: Political Fragmentation
• Subsection #12.2.3: Societal Fragmentation
• Section #12.4: Conclusion
12.1 Challenges and Questions
• Given increasing global complexity, is there still a value of studying
comparatively?
• The direct answer is yes
• Pressures from above and pressures from below make it even more
important for comparative politics to exist and grow as a subfield and area
of research
• The state remains the central actor in this production
• When global trends and processes impact us, we often try to understand
from our national point of view
12.1. Global Health Security Index
12.1 Challenges and Questions
• Can the world really be globalizing and fragmenting at the same time?
• The answer we believe is yes, and that this has been occurring for a
while
• Tribalism and globalism have been happening at the same time, and
sometimes in the same place
• Barber notes that neither force is democratic
• McWorld requires “order and tranquility” and not necessarily freedom
• Jihad is “grounded in exclusion”. It is parochial by its definition and achieves
solidarity through warfare
12.2 Pressure From Above: Globalization
• Globalization: An overarching international system shaping the
domestic politics and foreign relations of virtually every country
• Defined by Steger as growing worldwide interconnectivity
• Glocalization: Defined by Steger as the “thickening of the global-local
nexus”
• Globalization has a number of ramifications for comparative politics
• Muddying of the boundaries between comparative politics and
international relations
• Given the complexity of globalization, study of related phenomena is often
divided by discipline
12.2.1 Economic Globalization
• Discussion on globalization usually begins with economics
• Neoliberalism: The driving ideology in contemporary globalization
• It promotes free-market capitalist principles worldwide
• Also been referred to as the Bretton Woods System
• World Bank
• International Monetary Fund
• World Trade Organization
• Washington Consensus: The collective efforts of the World Bank, the
IMF, the WTO to promote neoliberalism
• Also referred to as market globalism
12.1. Growth in Wealth Uneven
• Source:
Global Income Distribution in 1800, 1975, and 201
0
via Our World in Data is licensed under CC BY)
12.2.2 Political Globalization 1
• Political globalization has called into question the future role of the
state

• International Institutions: Bodies of authority above the state that

codify, maintain and sometimes enforce, sets of rules that govern
state behavior

• Global Governance: The collective efforts of the world’s countries to

find lasting solutions to global problems through the constellation of
international institutions

• Multilateralism: The formal cooperation between three or more states

on a particular issue
12.2.2 Political Globalization 2
• Non-State Actors: Political actors not associated with a government

• Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs): Private, voluntary

organizations that unite, usually for action on specific issues

• Discourse of political globalization has focused on the process of

democratization

• Bureaucratic authoritarianism may develop as a viable alternative to

democratic governance
• Management of a country through a strong bureaucratic organization that
excludes the popular will of the people, and where decisions are made by
technocrats, or subject matter experts
12.2.3 Cultural Globalization 1
• Cultural globalization can be understood in a number of ways:
• The flow of people that have occurred in the last three decades
• The ever growing flow of information brought on newer technologies

• Global Imaginary: Refers to people’s growing consciousness of global

connectivity, where people think of themselves as global citizens first
• Migrants: People who move from one place to another, usually between countries

• Intentional Migration: Migrants who choose to move from one place to

another
• Immigrants: Migrants who willingly and legally left their home countries to work
and live in another country
• Sojourners: Migrants who temporarily live in a place & return to their home country
12.2.3 Cultural Globalization 2
• Unintentional Migration: Migrants who
do not choose to move from one place
to another
• Refugee: A person who is outside his/her
country of nationality or habitual
residence who has a well-founded fear of
persecution because of his/her race,
religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group
• Temporary Asylee: A person who intends
to stay in a new place for a brief time, but
is subsequently unable to return home
• Internally Displaced People (IDPs):
Unintentional migrants who have not
crossed a border to find safety
12.2.3 Cultural Globalization
• Internet: An interconnected global computer network that allows for
communication and information sharing that rose to prominence in
the 1990s
• Digital Natives: People who were raised with technology
• Digital Immigrants: People who did not grow up with today’s technology
12.3 Pressure From Below: Fragmentation
• Fragmentation: Understood as the fracturing of established orders, be they
political, economic, or cultural

• Great Unsettling: Earlier ways of acting and knowing that have been
upended through globalization, causing uneasiness among people

• Devolution: When the central government in a country deliberately

transfers power to a government at a lower level

• Economic Nationalism: Defined as actions taken by a country to protect its

economy from outside competition & influences

• Geopolitics: Defined as the study of the geographical aspects of political

phenomena
12.3.1 Economic Fragmentation 1
• Economic fragmentation is intimately
linked to globalization
• There has been significant backlash
against globalization as for many,
globalization has not benefited them
economically

• Global growth over the past four

decades shows that globalization has
shown a curvilinear relationship
between income growth and income
group by percentile
12.3.1 Economic Fragmentation 2
• Workers in countries such as the U.S., UK, Singapore and other similar
countries suffer from lower levels of social protection, employment
rights and democratic participation in their economic decision-making

• Economic Marginalization: An environment where workers feel like

they have no control over their economics, and to a lesser extent,
their lives
12.3.2 Political Fragmentation 1
• Populism: Denunciation of the elites in a
country and the idea that politics should be
an expression of the general will

• Leftist-populism: Characterized by a
combination of populism with some form
of socialism. In leftist-populism, the
‘worker’ needs protection from
globalization

• National-populism: Characterized by a
combination of right-wing populism with
nationalism. In national-populism, the
‘nation’ needs protection from
globalization
12.3.2 Political Fragmentation 2
• National-Populism centers on three “threats”:
• Threats to one’s employment (economic threat hypothesis)
• Threats to one’s cultural or national identity (cultural threat hypothesis)
• Threats to one’s personal security of physical safety (security threat
hypothesis)

• The common thread among all right-wing national-populists is the

rejection or containment of immigration
12.3.3 Societal Fragmentation 1
• The Global Financial Crisis exposed serious cracks in the global civil
society
• Contributed to the Arab Spring, particularly in Egypt, where the crisis
affected wages
• Protest movements developed in Greece fueled by the debt crises
• US where the Tea Party movement took to the streets
• Anti-government protests in India, Iraq, Hong Kong, Lebanon and most of
Latin America

• 2019 became known as the “Year of Protests”

12.3.3 Societal Fragmentation 2
• Brexit: The term used to describe the
UK’s decision to leave the European
Union
• 2016 Brexit Referendum: Leave (Red),
Remain (Blue)

• Supranational: Where member-

states agree to give up or share
sovereignty on particular issue areas
• The European Union (EU) is an
example
12.4 Conclusion
• Chapter 12 highlights the continuing importance of comparative politics

• Globalization has made the world a smaller place, where political, social and
economic forces can affect everyone and everything on the planet
• The world feeling “smaller” is not inherently a bad thing

• Comparative politics is unique in that it is the job of comparativists to make

systematic and intentional comparisons on political phenomena, especially
those issues that are critical to global and regional security and stability

• The ability to drill-down to gather deep meaning in political phenomena is a

strength of the comparative field, and one that provides fertile ground for
new scholars and researchers to continue the traditions of the field with new
and powerful areas of inquiry