Ubc poli 101 Canadian Politics

What is Politics? Why Study it?

• Politics, Government, and Law are amazing:
• Millions of people, huge distances; differences of values, religions, experiences, economic situations
• Making decisions collectively that bind each other to laws
• Fundamentally, law reduces uncertainty: about economic transactions, security, and now for health, income, etc.
• The power to make these decisions and enforce them is immense
• So… Who gets that power?
• By force, or by agreement (law)
• Holding and turning over that power without violence is a considerable accomplishment in such large, diverse societies
• Doing it democratically means all citizens decide, and the most preferred group (party) takes power

• What would happen if all governments in Canada just got up and quit, and citizens believed that the Constitution had no authority?
• Yikes!

What does ‘Politics’ cover?

• Simply put: Everything
• Governments regulate food, water, transportation, environment, economy, marriage/divorce/child custody, education, communication…
• And they enforce all this by a monopoly on the legitimate use of force
• Around 40% of the economy
• “Politics is about who gets what, when, and how” (Laswell)
• Politics is conflict (peaceful or violent) over the leadership, structure, and policies of government
• Or, in some places, over the most powerful force (military)
• But… Not quite everything
• We have a liberal democracy, which implies that there is a private sphere which politics (the State) can’t intrude on
• But what is private? Educating one’s children? Abortion? Marriage? Economic Dealings?
• The limits of politics are themselves political questions!

What is Government?

• Government is the term used to describe the institutions and procedures through which a territory and its people are ruled. We’ll study Canadian government.
• Different forms of government are defined by who governs, and how much government control is permitted.
• Forms of government defined by “who governs” include autocracy/monarchy (rule of all by one), oligarchy (rule of the few or elite), and democracy (rule of all by all).
• Forms of government defined by the degree of government control include constitutional, authoritarian, and totalitarian governments.
• Canada has a liberal-democratic constitutional monarchy
• How do we understand government and politics?
• A: We use social scientific techniques

Logistics / Announcements

• Tutorials are on. You should be going. Next week, they will be focussed on the reading and lectures from THIS week.
• The course now has a coursepack of 8 required readings. You should by it at the bookstore(±$17)
• there may still be a few web readings in addition
• More information on papers is now on the website.
• let’s have a look
• Tuesday, Jan. 11 from noon-1pm in the Meekinson Arts Space (Buch D140)… Vancouver Councillor Peter Ladner speaking on “What’s Happening in Vancouver Civic Politics”
• Education in the Middle East

Social Science

• Social science is an attempt to understand human behaviour by describing regularities in that behaviour, so that behaviour can be predicted. And all of that behaviour takes place in society - interpersonally.
• economics, political science, sociology, parts of psychology, human anthropology
• Standards and goals differ from those of the natural sciences and of the humanities

Social Scientific Terms & Concepts

• Theory is the key element of the social scientific enterprise: “a theory is a statement linking specific instances to broader principles.” A story without proper names.
• Empirical statements – address the way things are; descriptive. These are necessary before theory.
• Normative statements – address the way things should be, judgmental. (relating to “norms” or expectations)
• Theories provide explanation and prediction
• but they need to be tested if we’re going to trust them to predict behaviour

Political Science

• Political science: study of the political world, its institutions and behavior, in a systematic way
• description, explanation, analysis, sometimes prediction. Particular emphasis on the state and individual interaction with the state.
• Political science is also analysis and argument about the values, principles, and identities that form the basis for much of political behaviour and the policies of governments (e.g. national identity & unity)
• At this point, Political Science doesn’t have overarching theories that have great success at prediction, as in the natural sciences. But understanding of behaviour and institutions has grown.
• e.g: cooperation increases when likelihood of future interaction increases

Canadian Political Science

• Like other ‘domestic’ political science
• Goal is to understand, explain, and predict, and sometimes criticize how Canadian politics and government work.
• Preoccupation with unity: Quebec and national identity, regional grievances, political parties as ‘brokers’ keeping the country together, the Charter of Rights as a unifying symbol, multiculturalism, etc.
• But also study of citizen behaviour, party organization, elections, media, policy formation, policy effectiveness, political economy, foreign policy, equality and inequality, etc.

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