Political Analysis GOVT2991: Semester 2, 2020 Exam Notes

POLITICAL
ANALYSIS
GOVT2991
Semester 2, 2020 Exam Notes
Table of Contents
1. WEEK 1 – WEEK 2: ONTOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY...................................................................................2
1.1 ONTOLOGY......................................................................................................................................................2
1.2 EPISTEMOLOGY..............................................................................................................................................3
1.3 EXAMPLE: GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE & DISSATISFACTION WITH DEMOCRACY IN AUSTRALIA...................................3
1.4 EXAMPLE: VEGANS AND THEIR TATTOOS............................................................................................................3
1.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS...............................................................................................................................4
2. WEEK 3: RESEARCH DESIGN........................................................................................................................ 5
2.1 RESEARCH QUESTION......................................................................................................................................5
2.2 UNIT OF ANALYSIS.........................................................................................................................................5
2.3 CAUSALITY....................................................................................................................................................6
2.4 TYPES.............................................................................................................................................................7
2.4.1 True experimental design............................................................................................................................7
2.4.2 Quasi experimental design...........................................................................................................................7
2.4.3 Observational design...................................................................................................................................8
3. WEEK 4 – WEEK 7: QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DATA.......................................................................8
3.1 QUALITATIVE METHODS..........................................................................................................................................8
3.1.1 Research techniques....................................................................................................................................9
3.1.2 Qualitative data collection methods............................................................................................................9
3.1.3 Qualitative Analysis...................................................................................................................................11
3.2 QUANTITATIVE METHODS......................................................................................................................................12
3.2.1 Variables....................................................................................................................................................12
3.2.2 Types of variables......................................................................................................................................12
4. WEEK 8: INSTITUTIONALISM..................................................................................................................... 13
4.1 KEY QUESTIONS OF INSTITUTIONALISM.....................................................................................................................14
4.2 NEW INSTITUTIONALISM TYPES.................................................................................................................................14
4.2.1 Example: How Australian PM make foreign policy decisions....................................................................16
4.2.2 Example: Higher Education Reform in Australia: Institutions in Institutions.............................................16
4.3 NEW INSTITUTIONALISM IN DETAIL..........................................................................................................................17
5. WEEK 9: POST-COLONIALISM.................................................................................................................... 18
5.1 LING’S MIMICRY: CULTURAL CHAUVINISM AND THE LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL ORDER...............................................18
5.1.1 Liberal intersubjectivity: “I lead, you follow.........................................................................................19
5.1.2 Capitalist learning in Asia: Formal to substantive mimicry..................................................................20
5.1.3 Who’s accountable for what? Liberal vs Crony Capitalism..................................................................21
5.1.4 Transforming the rules: Cold War power hierarchies..........................................................................21
5.1.5 Underdeveloped heart for self and others...........................................................................................23
5.2 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................................24
5.2.1 Theory: Colonialism accelerated development....................................................................................24
5.3 RACE AS AN ORGANIZING CATEGORY................................................................................................................24
5.3.1 Race and Racism...................................................................................................................................25
5.3.2 Human rights abuses............................................................................................................................25
5.3.3 Problem with Identity Politics...............................................................................................................25
5.4 POST-COLONIAL APPROACHES........................................................................................................................26
5.4.1 Marxist..................................................................................................................................................26
5.4.2 Poststructuralist...................................................................................................................................26
5.5 ESSENTIALISM................................................................................................................................................27
5.5.1 Postcolonialism, a critique of essentialism...........................................................................................27
5.5.2 Dilemmas of postcolonial authenticity.................................................................................................27
5.6 THE WEST..................................................................................................................................................27
6. WEEK 10: FEMINISM................................................................................................................................ 28
6.1 WAVES OF FEMINISM...................................................................................................................................29
6.2 TYPES OF FEMINISM........................................................................................................................................29
6.2.1 Issue: Abortion and Power Feminism...................................................................................................31
6.3 EXAMPLE: GENDER, POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE AND DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATION: IMPACT OF LONG-TERM SOCIALIZATION
31
6.4 EXAMPLE: GENDER DIFFERENCES IN VOTING IN AUSTRALIAN ELECTION STUDY..........................................................33
6.5 GENDERED FOUNDATIONS................................................................................................................................34
6.5.1 Political Representation........................................................................................................................36
6.5.2 Women’s Suffrage in the Measurement of Democracy Problems of Operationalization....................37
6.5.3 Challenges.............................................................................................................................................37
7. WEEK 11: COMPARATIVE METHODS......................................................................................................... 38
7.1 OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS TYPES..................................................................................................................39
7.1.1 Comparative Approach.........................................................................................................................39
7.1.2 Case studies: Process tracing................................................................................................................40
7.2 METHODS OF CASE-SELECTION.......................................................................................................................41
7.2.1 Most similar (MSSD).............................................................................................................................41
7.2.2 Most different (MDSD).........................................................................................................................42
7.2.3 Problem: Selection of cases on the basis of outcome...........................................................................43
8. WEEK 12: POLITICAL THEORY.................................................................................................................... 47
8.1 WHAT IS POLITICS........................................................................................................................................48
8.2 QUESTIONS IN POLITICAL THEORY......................................................................................................................48
8.3 METHODS AND APPROACHES.........................................................................................................................49
1. Week 1 – Week 2: Ontology and Epistemology
1.1 Ontology
 The nature of being
o View on existences
o Nature of the social and political world1
 Key questions
o What is the form and nature of reality, what is there that can be known about it?
o Is there a ‘real’ world out there, independent of our knowledge
Foundationalist Anti-Foundationalist
1
Colin Hay (2006)
There is a ‘real world’ out there, independent World is socially constructed, no ‘real’ world3
of our observation of it’2
Realist4 Constructivist/Idealism
Causality operates independently of the Reality is constructed, not discovered, and
observer and can be established objectively5 they vary between individuals6
1.2 Epistemology
 What we can know about the nature of the social and political world7
Positivism Interpretivism
Foundationalist ontology Anti-foundationalist ontology
Quantitative Qualitative
Scientific method Double hermeneutic
Identify relationships, develop explanations Objective truth: Search for meaning instead
and models of causality
Generalizable data In-depth understanding to a topic
1.3 Example: Government performance & Dissatisfaction with democracy in Australia
Why is it positivist?
 Social phenomena can be directly observed and measured
> Eg. Satisfaction with democracy measured via survey
> Measurements enable comparison
 Objective researcher
> No discussion on researcher’s agenda, race or age
 Interested in causal explanations
> Eg. What caused satisfaction with democracy to decline in Australia
 Interested to discover general, universal laws
1.4 Example: Vegans and their Tattoos
Why is it interpretivist?
 No hypothesis
2
‘A Skin Not a Sweater’
3
4
Niiniluto (2002), cited in ‘A Skin Not a Sweater’
5
6
7
Colin Hay (2006)
> Only have ‘starter topics’
> Eg. Tell me about your veganism
 No definition
 Open investigation
> Free form discussion
> Thick description
 Small-N study
> 37 participants
> Keep talking until reach data saturation
Data saturation: No new insights after this point
1.5 Ethical Considerations
Key Concepts
i. Informed consent
> Participants need to know the nature of the research
> Voluntary participation
ii. Responsibility for avoiding harm to participants
> Psychological or physical
iii. Respect for vulnerable groups
iv. Respect for privacy
> Confidentiality
> Storage of personal data: Anonymity
Ethics approval needed: Human subjects

> Interviews
> Focus groups
> Ethnography
> Field survey
Ethics approval not needed: No human subjects

> Discourse analysis
> Secondary data analysis
2. Week 3: Research Design

2.1 Research question
 Answer the ‘so what’ question
o Real world relevance
1. Descriptive
 How something works/behaves
o Describe and model it
 Eg. What are Australian’s attitudes towards democracy?
2. Explanatory
 Cause of something that occurred
o Explain factors/conditions that are causally connected to a known
outcome
 Eg. What explains (dis)satisfaction with democracy in Australia?
3. Normative
 Questions about how things should be
o For political theorists
 Eg. Is it important that Australian citizens are satisfied with democracy?
2.2 Unit of Analysis

 Take into consideration
o What to measure
o Object that hypothesis describes
 Determines how a variable in a hypothesis is “operationalized”
o Operationalization: Take abstract concepts from theory and translate them into
variables that can be measured
o Variables  The effect of IV on DV controlling for CV
 All variables in a hypothesis must have same unit of analysis
Measures
i. Observable
ii. Accurate
o Valid
> If it measures what it purports to measure
> Truth in measurement
> Good fit for concept
o Reliable
> Give same result if measurement repeated
> Consistent
Examples
Concepts Measures
Economic growth Change of GDP growth over same quarter previous year
Corruption Transparency international corruption perception index
Regime type Freedom House measure/Party Free/etc
2.3 Causality
Conditions:
a. Correlation
 2 related variables
i. If 1 change, the other will change too
b. Time-order
 Which of the variables came first
c. Non-spuriousness
 No other possible factors that would cause the correlation
 Requirements:
i. Experimental design control for other factors
ii. In non-experimental designs, can statistically control other factors
Example: Ice creams cause murder

i. Correlation
> Are ice creams and murders positively correlated? Yes
ii. Time-order
> Did ice-cream sales increase before murder rates did? Unsure
iii. Non-spuriousness
> Can we rule out weather as a factor for increased murder rates? No
2.4 Types
2.4.1 True experimental design
 Quantitative
Research design
 Treatment and control groups
o Random assignment
o Measure dependent variable in each group
o Give stimulus only to treatment group
 Compare difference: Experimental effect
 Experimental environment should be controlled
o Eg. Location, time, etc
Strengths Weakness
High internal validity due to random Low external validity due to
assignment unrepresentative participants
Assume that in the beginning, participants Eg. Using students as participants does
have same idea and difference only due to not reflect real world
groupings
Confident in causal claims ---
2.4.2 Quasi experimental design

 Often quantitative
Research design
 Measure dependent variable of subjects
o No random assignment
 Allow natural exposure to independent variable
 Measure dependent variable again and compare
Useful when:
 Have 2 similar subjects: Something happens to one but not another
 Measuring effect of a certain factor on a dependent variable
 Independent variable is out of researcher’s control (Natural)
o Eg. Poor weather reduces voter turnout
Strengths Weakness
High internal validity: Higher than High external validity because it takes
observational but lower than experiments place in the real world
Have treatment and control groups Groups are not controlled and no
random assignment
2.4.3 Observational design

 Qualitative or Quantitative
Research design
 Measure dependent and independent variable
o Eg. Government performance and dissatisfaction with democracy in Australia
 Examine relationship between the variables
o Correlation
o Make assumption about time-order
o Control other factors to ensure non-spuriousness
 Variations
o Case study  Small-N design
o Population surveys  Cross-sectional
o Trend analysis  Longitudinal
Strengths Weakness
High external validity because it takes Low internal validity because no
place in the real world ‘control’ and ‘treatment’ groups
Use statistics
3. Week 4 – Week 7: Quantitative and Qualitative Data
3.1 Qualitative Methods

 Focus on single/fewer cases
o In-depth understanding8
o Explain outcomes in individual cases9
 Sources
o Case study
o Discourse analysis
8
Ariadne Vromen, Qualitative Methods
9
Mahoney and Goertz (2006)
3.1.1 Research techniques10
i. Inductive analysis
> Explanatory with open question  Not testing theory/hypothesis
ii. Holistic perspective
> Understand complex interdependence in issues of interest  No reducing
analysis to few discrete variables
> Analysis in social, historical and temporal context where data was gathered
iii. Detailed, thick data
> Adaptable to changing situations
> Use direct quotation  Capture unique perspectives
iv. Empathetic neutrality
> Complete objectivity impossible  Attempt to be non-judgemental
3.1.2 Qualitative data collection methods
Focus group Interviews Participant observation

General Group interviewing Explore social meanings Researcher participate in
and subjective activities relevant to
interpretation their topic
Explore ideas in public Not focused on To gain insider’s
setting  See how generalizations, but on perspective
people react to each broader population
other
Design Have theme with Topic of study and Pay close attention to
prompting questions Form of interview events
Researcher is Interview population Field notes will be
moderator analysed
Participants selected Method of sampling  Need access and
due to particular Purpose, relationship with people
attribute/experience representative or at site
snowballing
Strengths Good for exploring Can understand people Can see dynamics
social interactions without judgement involved
Robust and revealing More representative Not dependent on
responses  Can bring interviewees
10
Ariadne Vromen, Qualitative Methods
issue not previously
considered
Weaknesse Success depends on Potential for Surveillance and ethical
s skill of moderators interviewer or issue
interviewee to feel
uncomfortable
Explanatory, not May need to do Emotional and physical
conclusive background research demands on researcher
on participants
Documents as sources
> More info in ‘Ethnographic Methods, Karen O’Reilly, Participating and Observing’
Advantages Disadvantages
Saves money and time Time consuming and difficult
Eg. Internet sources Eg. Find specific and ‘right’ data that is
publicly available
Source materials usually not tailored to the
research question
Assessment of quality
a. Authenticity
> Is evidence genuine and of unquestionable origin?
> Eg. Legislation found on twitter vs on government website
b. Credibility
> Is evidence free from error and distortion?
> Eg. Original transcripts of interviews vs media reports on interviews
c. Representativeness
> Is evidence typical of its kind?
> If not, is the extent of its untypicality known?
d. Meaning
> Is evidence clear and comprehensible?
3.1.3 Qualitative Analysis
Discourse analysis11 Qualitative content Quantitative content

General Draw attention to Search underlying theme
formal/structural elements  Focus on content of
of language used in texts text
Ontology Constructionist  Assume No inherent meaning in Realist  Independent
that reality is socially text  All depend on reality exists
constructed context, author, etc
Epistemolog Meaning is fluid  Reality Meaning is fixed 
y constructed through use Reflect reality 
of interpretive methods Understood through
scientific methods
Data source Textual meaning  In Textual comparison to
relation with other texts, other texts  Eg.
practices of production, Overtime
dissemination and
consumption
Method Qualitative  But involves Qualitative  But Quantitative
counting involves counting
Categories Exploration of how Emerge from data, Taken for granted and
participants construct research question, data assigned to them
empirical ideas, etc
Inductive or Inductive Inductive Deductive
Deductive
Subjectivity Subjective Subjective Objective
or
Objectivity
Role of Texts understood in Texts understood in Does not necessarily link
Context discursive context discursive context text to context
Reliability Formal measures not Reliable if they are Formal measures 
relevant  Coding plausible to others  Is Ensure intercoder
justified to academic the process adequately reliability  Differences
norms  Different explained? in interpretation is
interpretations not a problematic
problem
Validity Patterns of meaning in text Valid if they show how Patters in text are
can construct reality patterns in the text are accurately measured and
constitutive of reality reflect reality
Reflexivity High  Author part of Consider the role of Not high  Author
process of meaning author in making and report objective findings
construction interpreting meaning
11
More on Barbara Johnstone, Discourse Analysis
3.2 Quantitative Methods
(If comes out, better look at Week 7 lecture notes)
3.2.1 Variables
 A characteristic of a unit being observed that may assume more than 1 set of values to
which a numerical measure/category from a classification can be assigned 12
o Eg. Income, age, weight, occupation, industry, disease
 Explains the effect of IV on DV, controlling for CV
3.2.2 Types of variables

Nominal (Categorical) Ordinal (Categorical) Interval (Continuum)
No hierarchy Some hierarchy Measured on a continuum
Example: Religion, sex Example: Has numerical values
Dichotomous variable: Income group, level of Example:
Type of nominal variables education, regime type (free, Age (actual) and income
where there are only 2 partly free, not free), age (18- (actual)
values (Eg. Whether voted 25, 25-40, 40-60, 60+)
or not, Sex)
> Independent, dependent and control = Role in the hypothesis

> Nominal, ordinal and interval = Understand the measurement
Univariate Analysis Bivariate Analysis Multivariate Analysis

Look at 1 variable, not its Look at relationship Regression analysis  Causal
relationship with others between 2 variables relationship between
variables
Way to analyse: Types of variables = How to Correlation analysis 
1. Mean (average) represent Conditions for causality;
2. Media (halfway point) 1. 2 categorical Regression analysis  Decide
and mode (most (nominal & ordinal) = a direction of relationship
occurring) Tables, bar graph (Impact of X on Y)  Make
3. Distribution of 2. 2 intervals reasonable assumption why
responses (percentage (continuum) = X came before Y  Best fit
who agree/disagree) scatterplots line, slope = regression coeff.
12
OECD definition
How to represent: 3. 1 categorical & 1 Regression coefficient = +/-
1. Tables interval = Group shows relationship, size
2. Graphs (Bar, Pie) means, line graph shows impact
Example findings: 25% of Example findings 2Cs = P-values (*) = Statistical
Australians think that people Variable is significance  P < 0.05 =
in government can be trusted positively/negatively, statistically significant
Example findings: On strongly/weakly related, 2Is Statistical significance =
average, Australians rated = ‘Correlation coefficient’ Whether results could have
ScoMo at 5.1 on a popularity measures the strength & occurred by chance  P <
scale of 1-10 direction of linear 0.05 = Can reject null
relationship hypothesis
4. Week 8: Institutionalism
New Institutionalism Old Institutionalism

Focus on the role institutions play in Focus on formal politics and institutions of
structuring political behaviour13 representation
Emerged in defiance of the domination of Understanding it is beneficial in giving a
under socialised accounts of social, political descriptive stimulus in understanding
and economic behaviour14 political institutions and political life15
Accommodate norms and informal rules that Weimar Republic of Germany: Creation of
govern political exchanges16 the ‘perfect democracy’
Have a better explanation of change  Examine forms of government and
Explain interaction between individual & institutional structure18  Don’t always
institutions 17 measure change in actions of individuals19
Reject behaviouralist assumptions that How institutions shape political behaviour
institutions are only an aggregate of and incentives
individual preferences
Institutional and individual perspective  How institutions structure normative values
‘The organisation of political life’20  Logical deduction (Presumptions made
of collective individual actions)21
13
Pay specific attention towards the way in which institutions represent VALUES AND POWER relationships
14
Grubovic (2004)
15
Grubociv (2004)
16
Elbra, A. Chapter 1 of Governing African Gold Mining
17
Grubovic (2004)
18
Knowledge from Plato and Aristotle
19
Ahmed (2020)
20
Lowndes, Marsh and Stoker (2018)
21
Ahmed (2020)
Experiment with deductive reasoning  Only Base evidence from empirical analysis
to reach general conclusions22
Constructivist account Positivist account
4.1 Key questions of Institutionalism
1. What effects do institutional structures have on things like

a. Political disaffection
b. Rise of anti-politics
c. Populist movements
2. How might we put these observations and theories into practice
4.2 New Institutionalism Types
1. Rational choice
 Actors are rational individualists
o Human behaviour is ‘driven by a logic of anticipated consequences and
prior preferences’23
 Institutions provide context for actors to make outcome-maximizing decisions 24
o Definition of institutions: ‘Humanly devised constraints that shape human
interaction’25
o Overlook importance of norms in dictating how and why rules are created
2. Sociological
 Actors are norm abiding
o Act under a logic of appropriateness
o Question of individuals: Should I act in this particular way?
 Institutions shape the way in which individuals see their world
o Institutions create meaning for individuals and provide theoretical
building blocks for normative institutionalism
 Has broader concerns with how institutional culture can shape behaviour
3. Historical
 Use process tracing to see the interplay between individual, context and rules
o It stands between rational choice and sociological and explains how
which way they go will depend on this interplay
22
Ahmed (2020)
23
March & Olsen, 1998, p. 949 cited by Elbra, A. Chapter 1 of Governing African Gold Mining
24
25
North (1990) cited by Elbra, A. Chapter 1 of Governing African Gold Mining
 Look into how choices made about institutional design influence how individuals
make decisions in the future
o Question: Why was a particular decision made?
 Useful in understanding temporal factors influencing dissemination of norms 26
4. Others
a. Normative
 Institutions that seem neutral actually embody values & determine
appropriate behaviour within certain settings27
o How norms and values embodied in political institutions shape
behaviour of individuals
 Institutions part of cycle
o Actors interpret structures through discourse
o Change structures that determine their behaviour
o Thereby creating new structures to facilitate/constrain future
behaviour
 Assumes that institutional cultures shape behaviour
o Focus on how the norms and values of an institution shapes
behaviour
b. Constructivist
 Institutions shape behaviour through frames of meaning
o Look to idea and narrative used to explain or legitimise political
action
o Actor’s desires, etc, are not a contextually given fact28
 Norm Life Cycle
c. Etc: Empirical, International, Network, Feminist (See notes for these)
4.2.1 Example: How Australian PM make foreign policy decisions
Rational choice
o Assumptions
> PM driven by rational self-interest
> PM will act within the rules of his office to maximize self interest
> Rules of office bring incentives/disincentives for adoption of particular actions
> Need information to understand preference ranking
o Approach
> Rational self-interest = Increasing power and getting re-elected
26
27
Lowndes, 2010 cited by Elbra, A. Chapter 1 of Governing African Gold Mining
28
> Policy choices would aim to placate international and domestic audiences to
increase political popularity
o Straight-forward
Constructivist
o Complex goals
> Part strategic, part socialised
> Oriented towards being actionable in the context of holding political office
o Institutions are dynamic and a products of ideas
> Not pre-given and have pre-fixed rules of the game
o Look into competition between discourses
> See how ideas are normalised
> How norms form basis of policy action
o Leaves room for pragmatic idealism which might damage political capital
4.2.2 Example: Higher Education Reform in Australia: Institutions in Institutions
Rational Choice
o A good example of government using institution to influence both, individual and
institutional, behaviour
o Individual behaviour
> Change price of degrees to encourage taking those that have skill shortages
o Institutional behaviour
> May not have the effect government is expecting
> Because Universities are also highly complex environments
> 1 small change might lead to a butterfly effect
> May lead to an effect that policymakers did not anticipate/intend
Constructivist
o Broader cultural and social context
> The fact that this policy is enacted during the tenure of a conservative
government
> Conservative government may have slightly difference ideas than a progressive,
left-wing government
o Pay attention to broader, ideational environment
4.3 New Institutionalism in detail
1. Increased emphasis on the relationship between rules and behaviour

 Eg. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has its office in Barton, ACT
o Look beyond formal roles in advancing interests of Australia
o Consider issues like dynamics of its relations with State and Territory
offices
o Consider overseas representation such as Embassies and High
Commissions
o Staff relations explained through formal documents but also through
consensus and conflict in relation to decentralised autonomy
 Relationship that rules and behaviours have on outcomes that organizations
produces
2. Informal conventions
 Eg. Banking Royal Commission
o Institutional inquiry into organizational culture
o Try to understand the informal conventions, types of behaviour &
practices that are prominent that led to negative outcomes
3. Dynamic institutions
 Static to dynamic
o Understand and acknowledge that institutions change
4. Normative contestations
 Institutional arrangements are contested & help sustain some political values
and exclude others
o Institutions express normative ideas on politics but also contested
o Not everyone will have the same idea on 1 governmental innovation
 No longer making implicit assumptions that existing arrangements constitute
good government
o Eg. The downfall of the Weimar Republic of Germany
5. Shift to explaining detail of institutions

 Explain particular aspects of institutions
o Not explaining entire systems of government
 Eg. Talk about Committee systems, role of opposition, etc instead of Parliament
as a whole
6. Institutions are historically embedded

 Institutions embedded to historical and geopolitical context
o No one-size fit all institution, independent of space and time
o Dependent on social, economic context in which they sit
5. Week 9: Post-Colonialism
5.1 Ling’s Mimicry: Cultural Chauvinism and the Liberal International Order
Homi Bhabha (1994)

 Mimicry was a survival tactic
o Allow colonized to try on the colonizer’s reflected image in the body/site of the
“native”
 Mimicry subverts the hegemonic convention that the colonizer is always separate
from and superior to the colonized
o Mimicry shocks the colonizer into accepting a possible parity with the colonized
Types of mimicry
1. Formal
 In economic development29
o Where there is no indigenous, liberal tradition
o But adopts an imposed/borrowed liberal ideology of limited state and
unfettered market
o Eg. Commercially tied aid, foreign advisors, consultants, and First World
rules
 Conventional, externally borrowed ideology
o Invites amusement, tolerance and encouragement (highest form of flattery)
2. Substantive
 Cumulative strategy of integrated, more coherent problem solving
o Produce a hybrid sense of self
 Does not improve our lives  Just resolve prevailing problems
o Eg. Highly gendered mode of economic development emerged from
Western liberal masculinist capitalism (Economic man)  East Asia
substantive mimicry sites women’s bodies for utilitarian, economic
production (Singaporean girl)
 Articulates innovative, internally developed ideology
o Provokes a punitive, disciplinary reaction
 The ‘Other’ is competing against, not just imitating the hegemonic ‘Self’
Hypermasculinity
 A cultural pathology in colonialism30
o Justifies barbaric acts of aggression as masculine while denigrating similar
caricatures of welfare as feminine
 Colonizers and colonized alike valorise hypermasculinity because it rationalized
colonialism while provoking local elites to prove their manhood 31
29
Escobar (1995)
30
Nandy (1983)
31
Nandy (1983)
o Eg, India and Britain
 Reconstructs social subjects, spaces, activities into economic agents that valorise a
masculinized, global competitiveness associated with men
o Assigns a hyperfeminized stagnancy to local women
Idea of the Chapter

 Liberals in the West could tolerate Asia’s “miracle” growth as long as it remained formal
mimicry
o Asian elites pay ideological homage to the superiority of the West’s liberal model
of capitalism
 Western liberals could not abide by substantive mimicry’s formulation of a distinctive
Asian capitalism
5.1.1 Liberal intersubjectivity: “I lead, you follow”

 Liberal democratic theory asserts its necessity, superiority and inevitability
o “Neoautocracies”: It is not whether to democratize, but when and how32
 In claiming what is, liberal capitalism slips easily into what should be
 Liberal capitalism’s implicit intersubjectivity bears specific configurations of race, gender
and class
o Eg. Western, white, male and colonial
 Ads for global telecommunications
o Replay themes of Western-style democracy  Eg. “Pick and choose”
5.1.2 Capitalist learning in Asia: Formal to substantive mimicry
Confucian mimicry of the liberal state

 Confucian governance constructs the state as family relations writ large
o State extends parental benevolence in exchange for society’s filial piety
 Produce public hypermasculinization of the state dictating policy to a privatized,
hyperfeminized society
o Nurture son-corporations  Punished if they transgress parental-authority
boundaries33
o Benefits from hyperfeminized society’s nurturing and self-sacrifice (eg. Tax
breaks) to enhance the hyper masculinized state’s reputation and glory (eg.
Greater profits)
Hypermasculine approach to a capitalist competition
32
Minxin Pei (1994) p. 102
33
Nam (1995)
 Frames developmentalism as a form of patriotic manhood
o To catch up with the industrialized West
o To gain independence from former and future imperialists
o To fight communism (Japan, Taiwan)
o To assert socialism with local characteristics (China)
 Receiving massive amounts of American military and commercia aid to deter
communism in the region
o Had to submit to American and European corporate dominance
 Promoted prostitution
o Asian capital pimped to Western capital
o Claim to shelter the region with an economic and security umbrella
o “The Japanese prostitute, when she finished with the GI, did not get up to go get
the next GI for more money but knelt down before him and pleaded with him to
help rebuild Japan”34
 To solidify Indonesia’s New Order Government
o “A harmonious and orderly household is a great contribution to the smooth
running of development efforts … It is the duty of the wife to see it that her
household is in order so that when her husband comes home from a busy day,
he will find peace and harmony at home”35
 Drew on racial stereotypes  Singapore
o Women and minorities always accused of “runaway irresponsibility” require
state-led supervision
o “Believed to be most guilty of pursuing non-economic pleasures: the female, and
the “soft” Indian/Malay citizen, whose earthly sexuality, laziness, emotional
indulgence found their way into public discourse”36
 To normalize relations (Western reaction)
o “Economist suggested that a happy marriage should transpire between “mellow”
(feminine) Japanese management practices and the cold, hard (masculine) edge
of Western analytical skills”37
5.1.3 Who’s accountable for what? Liberal vs Crony Capitalism

 West should lead and the Rest should follow
 Suggestion:
o Asians need to develop certain values such as “directness” and “transparency”
(masculine) to counter their tendencies toward “circumspection” and “secrecy”
(feminine)38
International Monetary Fund
34
Moon (1997) p. 103
35
Quoted in Blackwood (1995), p.136
36
Heng and Devan (1992), p. 347
37
Hooper (2000), p. 67
38
Quoted in Rao (1998), p. 1411
 Insist on returning capital to the crisis economic as the only way to save them 
Western capital
 IMF impose cuts in government expenditures, credit tightening and emergency bank
closures
 Example:
1. Thailand39
> IMF imposed austerity measures
> Reduce milk and school lunch subsidies by 40-50%
> Rice and bus fare doubled
2. Indonesia40
> Insist shutting down of 16 insolvent banks
> Domino into an economic free-fall
Asia’s mimicry was formal

 Use Asian blonde girl to talk about the Asian crisis in CNN
 Analogous to Asian capitalism having its moment but, ultimately, no more than a tacky
copy of the West like dyed blonde hair
o Feminized identity to the West’s strong, white masculinity
5.1.4 Transforming the rules: Cold War power hierarchies
1. Western capital dominating Asian capital
 Liberal international order intent on returning Asia to its Cold War dependency
on the West
o IMF’s structural adjustment policies have achieved this goal
 IMF has:
i. Worsened instead of alleviating the economic crises
ii. Brazenly promoted US administration interests in bilateral trade
iii. Prevented Asian countries from developing innovative responses
 Charlene Barshefsky, trade representative of the United States
o Stated outright that “we expect these structural reforms to create new
business opportunities for US firms”41
o Western capital is buying out Asian capital at bankrupt prices
Examples
a. Indonesia
> Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to sell bankrupt companies
to foreign buyers
> Arranged for Singapore-based Cycle & Carriage Group Limited (CCL) to buy
39.5% in Astra International, Indonesia’s largest automotive company
39
Bullard et al (1998)
40
Bello (1998b)
41
Quoted in Bello (1998b) p. 14
b. Japan
> Suggests replacing Japan’s small, family-based retail shops with an American K
Mart corporate model42
c. South Korea
> For the first time, Korean government allow foreign companies to buy shares
in state-run monopolies43
2. Hypermasculine state regulating hyperfeminized society
 After IMF bailout  Kim Dae Jung enacted chaebol reforms

o Develop new cooperation system between labour, business and
government to break down the chaebol’s monopoly power44
o Reform end up strengthening
 Malaysian government  Anwar Ibrahim
o The state wants to flex its muscle to liberal international order given its
constant castigation of Mahathir as a fool for rejecting IMF
o Mahathir asserted his power in a hypermasculine way by targeting an
internal link to the liberal international order, his closest political rival
Anwar Ibrahim
3. Depressed men exploiting women and other feminized subjects
 Hyper masculinizing the self requires hyper feminizing all others

a. Malaysia
 Urge women to sell jewellery and invest in bonds as a patriotic
gesture
 Women should control their impulsive consumption on foreign
luxury items
 Should concentrate on buying local products
b. South Korea
 Return father and husband back to family, but should be
pampered and cared for
 Appeal to housewives to dissuade worker-husband from going
on strikes
 Effects on women
a. Korea
 Young girls forced to early marriage to relieve financial burden
 Unwanted pregnancies increased by 77.7% since crisis
 Desperate parents selling daughters into prostitution45
42
Lopez (2000b)
43
Cumings (1998), p. 65
44
Chang (1998)
45
Symonds (1999)
b. Indonesia
 Mob violence against ethnic Chinese women in Indonesia
 Rapist self and his heirs for generations to come will not escape
the reciprocal legacy of violence induced by hypermasculinity’s
underdeveloped heart
5.1.5 Underdeveloped heart for self and others
Stiglitz, former high-level cadre at the IMF46

 “Did America push policies because we, or they, believed the policies would help
East Asia or because we believed they would benefit financial interests in the
United States?”
 “If we believed our policies were helping East Asia, where is the evidence? …
There was none”
Racialized character of the pillars of liberal democracy

 US government arrest and prosecute Dr Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese American
scientist
o Clinton administration singled out and jailed this computer scientist on
suspicion of selling nuclear program information to China
 Judge in Lee’s Case
o Apologized for unfair, demeaning and punitive treatment of defendant
 New York Times
o Has confessed to a journalistic mea culpa for its coverage of this story
o But still defend reporters as “fair-minded”
“Private vices” of racial profiling  Anti-Asian hysteria  Too often excused in the name of
liberalism’s “public virtues” of commerce
5.2 Introduction
 Anti-foundationalist ontology
o Particular attention to imperialism that underpins established knowledge
o Unpick & destabilize established knowledge
 Questions
o What is valid knowledge of ‘other’ people, outside the West
o Why do we think we know about these people?
o What went into that
Decolonising concepts
 Social, political and economic concepts
o How world is shaped by colonialism although it no longer exists
o It is unclear where it ends
46
Stiglitz (2000) p.60
 Malaysia47
o British people call them lazy
o Malaysians have internalized British myths about Malay laziness
 Language
o The use of English in colonized literature is an extension of colonisation 48
5.2.1 Theory: Colonialism accelerated development

 Culturally salient argument = Colonialism was good for colonized people
 Problem
o Native industries developing were mostly destroyed
o Colonialism had a lot of abuses involved  Consigned colonized people to do
dirty work
o Eg. Indians do dirty work for railways, but is now cited to be the major
achievement of the British Empire
5.3 Race as an organizing category

 United States
o Did not have a formal empire
o But US scholars were obsessed with colonialism as an important task of White
powers in the World
 Iraq War
o Australia and UK side with US  Configured alliance underpinned by White
superiority
 Ethnic conflict
o Used to denote non-white others  Described in non-rational terms
o ‘This is what those people do because they hate each other’
o Conflict between White powers = Rational
5.3.1 Race and Racism

 Product of colonialism
o The way in which colonial powers justify power relationships between them and
colonized people
 White Man’s burden49
o Colonized people = Captives
o Colonial administrators = Serving needs of captives
o ‘Half devil and half child’50 = Dangerous and need to be brought to Christianity
because they are untamed
47
S.H. Atlas ‘The Myth of the Lazy Native’
48
Ngugi Wa Thiong’O ‘Decolonizing the Mind’
49
Runyard Kipling
50
Used to describe colonized people
o Bringing people from bondage51 = Liberating colonized people from slavery and
all we get is blame and hatred
o Call for US to join the White world power = Like going to adulthood by becoming
a colonial power
5.3.2 Human rights abuses

 Belgian-Congo
o Rubber plantations  If don’t reach quota, hands will be severed
 Transatlantic slave trade
o Millions of people forcibly enslaved from Africa to America
o Many died in the crossing
 Whites did not see those enslaved as people
o They were not considered full human beings  Not political people
5.3.3 Problem with Identity Politics

 Unpopular term
o Refers to some sort of excessive fixation on personal/group identity at the
expense of the bigger picture of human progress
 Counterpoint to identity politics = All human beings are fundamentally the same 52
o Subject to the same pressures, experiences and have the same souls
 Tendency to claim politics of universal rights as a ‘Western’ achievement
o “Australia is one of the most tolerant, least racist places in the world, where the
institutions and values of Western civilization afford all Australians equal rights,
regardless their class, race or gender”53
o Claim equal rights is dependent on superiority of Western civilization
 Some countries are not sufficiently developed for the concepts of liberty and equality
o “Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians” 54
5.4 Post-colonial Approaches
5.4.1 Marxist
 Marxism
o Concerned with material structures
o Examines enduring inequality in the global economic system
o Distinction between core and periphery55
 Neo-Marxist’s Dependency Theory
o Look at why some countries develop faster than others
 In relation to post-colonialism
51
Used to describe colonizer
52
Gandhi ‘All Men are Brothers’
53
Institute for Public Affairs 2019
54
John Stuart Mill ‘On Liberty’ (1869)  Check notes for more
55
In this case, colonizer and colonized, respectively
o Look at how Western countries, controlled by their ideologies, repress other
countries around the world
o Ideologies give colonizers impressions about the indigenous peoples which they
indoctrinate them with  Low self-esteem
o Core manufacturers produce high value-added products using raw materials
from peripheries  Due to liberal international system’s comparative
advantage
 Emphasise groups in internal societies (bourgeoisie vs proletariat) and how the
bourgeoisie in the ‘core’ influence the proletariat in the ‘core’, or ‘sedate them’ with
products from the periphery (former colonized countries), made by exploited members
of the proletariat
5.4.2 Poststructuralist
 Poststructuralist
o To understand any object, need to study the object itself and the system of
knowledge which produces it
 In relation to post-colonialism
o Analysing the interplay between culture of the colonizer and colonized
o How the resulting force influences the culture and literature of the colonized
o Discursive structures (Eg. Race)  To understand the representation of self and
other
 View from nowhere
o The European/American view of the world as the neutral, scientific one
o Criticize identity politics of others but never realise it in ourselves  Seems
natural
5.5 Essentialism
 Reduce human experiences to simplistic, fixed “essence’
o Something about a group of people makes them, them and it will not change
overtime
 An intellectual and moral sin
5.5.1 Postcolonialism, a critique of essentialism

 Especially the racial hierarchies that aided colonisation
o Eg. ‘Advanced’ White people and 'child-like’ people of colour = Very essentialist
 Postcolonial nationalist reproduce essentialist categories of colonisation in their quest
for authenticity
o To create new positive national identities out of the ashes of colonialism
o Say there is something special/unique about their people
o Authentic ‘essence’ of our people that was suppressed by colonialism & needs
recovering
 Strategic essentialism56
o Subaltern groups mobilise essentialist identities for specific political purposes
o Without buying into the broad ontological position that the world is fixed and
essences
5.5.2 Dilemmas of postcolonial authenticity

1. Trinh T. Minha
o Recognise that authenticity is a construct from colonial relationships being
reproduced
o Experience of life  Culture you grow up in is a source of strength  A reality
that was repressed and damaged by colonialism
o Recovering culture is important for national independence and mental health
2. Ngugi Wa Thiong’O
o Language of colonizer = Continuing the neo-colonial slavish spirit
o Need to acknowledge superiority of own language to describe own experience
5.6 The West

 Understanding of the West comes from Western scholars writing about the East
o Conceptualizing everything the East is = Talking about what is not the West
o Creation of identity by comparison
 Cold War = Continued definition of what is The West
o Greece became part of ‘The West’ by being a member of NATO
o Greeks are now allowed to enter the US or Australia because are now ‘really
White’
o Mediterranean Europe considered to be fundamentally different due to its
influence by the Ottoman empire, race and weather
Teaching ‘Western Civilization’

 Demand an end to Western centric teaching
 All basis of the ‘The West’ began in the Middle East
 The West should be understood as a relational concept
o Boundaries move depending on who we are defining ourselves against
5.7 Is Australia a Post-Colonial Society?
Post-colonialism
 Colonisation has been accepted57
o Sovereignty achieved through self-determination and political recognition
 Post-colonial society
56
Discussed by Gatyari Spivak, drawing on Fanon
57
Saunders (2018)
o Equality amongst all citizens
o No longer displace and dominate people
Constant effects of colonialism

1. Marxist
> Core (coloniser) and periphery (colonised)58
2. Poststructuralist
> Investigate aspect where ‘race is one of the most enduring discursive
structures of colonialism’
> Applies very much to Australia59
‘Aboriginal Nationalism’
 Established to recognise and give ‘recognition of indigenous rights to land’
o Created as an ‘aboriginal culture and identity acceptable for national
recognition’60
 Restoration of land rights & moving towards Aboriginal sovereignty = Transition to post-
colonialism
o But not yet Indigenous Constitutional Sovereignty = Lack of recognition 61
Australian literature = Post-colonial?62

 With application of ‘post-colonial reading’, it shows how Australia is transitioning
o In the near future, Australian literature will be entangled with postcolonial
theory
6. Week 10: Feminism
Definitions
 Sex
o Biological differences between males and females
 Gender (by UNESCO)
o Roles and responsibilities of men and women that are created in our families,
societies and our cultures
o Concepts of gender include expectation about characteristics, aptitudes and
likely behaviours of both women and men
o Eg. Femininity and masculinity
 Patriarchy
o Structure in which men has power over women
58
Smith (2020)
59
Smith (2020)
60
Saunders (2018)
61
Saunders (2018)
62
O’Reilly (2010)
o Patriarchal society: Male-dominated power structure throughout organized
society and in individual relationship
 Feminism
o Belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power and opportunities
as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities intended to
achieve this state63
o Movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression. A definition which
implies that all sexist thinking and action is the problem, whether those who
perpetuate it are female/male64
6.1 Waves of Feminism65
1. First wave (1840s-1920s)

 Focus on legal and constitutional rights
 Suffrage of women in the early 19th and 20th centuries
2. Second wave (1960s-1980s)

 Workplace rights
 Family
o Domestic violence
o Reproductive rights
 ‘Personal is international’66
o International politics (tourism, nationalism , etc) are dependent upon
women’s work
o ‘International is person’  Government depend upon certain kinds of
private relationships to conduct foreign affairs
3. Third wave (1990s-?)

 Term has been used in different ways
 Including the 2nd wave’s failure to address diversity
o Include women of power
o Intersectional feminism
 Getting more women into power
 Neo-liberal brand of feminism as a generational frame
4. Fourth wave (2010s-?)

 Still up to debate as to whether it exists
63
Cambridge English Dictionary
64
Bell Hooks, ‘Feminist Politics: Where we Stand’ Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2000) p. 1.
65
Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory and Methods in Political
Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al.
66
Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases (1989)
 Online feminism
o #MeToo & Everydaysexism Movement
6.2 Types of Feminism
1. Reformist
 About women gaining equality with men67
o Emphasize gender equality
o Eg. Equal pay for work
 Break free of male domination68
o Self-determine their lifestyles
o Not end sexism, but maximize freedom
o Count on there being a lower class of exploited subordinated women to
do the dirty work
 Ally themselves with existing patriarchy and its concomitant sexism 69
o They lead a double life
o Equals of men in the workforce
o Equal of men at home when they want to be
2. Revolutionary
 Often include
o Individual black women
o White lesbians
 Alter the existing system70
o Not only equal rights, but end patriarchy and sexism
 Patriarchal mass media were less interested in the revolutionary vision
o Gain less mainstream press
o White men only consider women’s rights when it serves the interests of
maintaining white supremacy
o White women assert for freedom after black men almost gain equality in
workforce with white men
 A privileged discourse  Not available to public
 “Feminism is not about dressing for success, becoming corporate executive or
gaining office; it is not being able to share a 2-career marriage and take skiing
vacations and spend huge amounts of time with your husband and children
because you have a domestic worker who makes all this possible for you, but
who hasn’t the time or money to do it all for herself” 71
o Upturning these structures of patriarchal society
67
68
69
70
71
Carol Ehrlick.
3. Liberal
 Focus on equality of sexes
o Eg. At work, in politics, at home
 Freedom and personal autonomy
 “If women lean in and put themselves forward, then that will transform and
generate greater equality between sexes”72
4. Radical
 Emphasis on patriarchal roots of inequality of the sexes
o Opposes existing political and social organization as tied to patriarchy
o Focus on change that undermines patriarchy and associated structures
5. Intersectional
 “The view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in
varying degrees of intensity. Cultural patterns of oppression are not only
interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional
systems of society.”73
o Example: Race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity
 Think about rights of all women
o How different categories of oppression can intersect to effect women’s
experiences
o Effects of interlocking structures of power74
6.2.1 Issue: Abortion and Power Feminism75

 If feminism = End sexist oppression + Depriving females of reproductive rights (is sexist
oppression)
o One cannot be anti-choice and feminist
 Advocates for feminism can:
o She would never choose to have an abortion
o While affirming her support of the right of women to choose
 No “power feminism” if power = power gained through exploitation of others
6.3 Example: Gender, Political Knowledge and Descriptive Representation: Impact of

Long-Term Socialization76
 Explaining the gender gap in political knowledge
72
Sheryl Shandberg, COO of Facebook, Author of ‘Lean In’ and major advocate for liberal feminism.
73
Kimberle Crenshaw.
74
Weldon (2006) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al.
75
76
Dassonneville & McAllister (2018)
 The problem
o Political knowledge fundamental to functioning of democracy
o Surveys show that women consistently know less than men about politics
o Why?
 Possible explanations (Theories):
o Political interest, media attention
o Human capital (education, income, etc) differences
o Descriptive representation: Female role models in politics
 Test the hypotheses:
o Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) survey: 38 countries
o Surveys question on political knowledge, sociodemographic backgrounds
o Combine them with various information about countries and women
representation in those different countries
Evidence:
1. Estimated effect of being female
- Left of the vertical dash line =

There is negative effect
- Vast majority of the evidence

show that women have lower
level of political knowledge than
men
- Also show comparisons between

countries in different times
Effect of Percentage of Women in Parliament on Gender Gap
Potentially, more women in Parliament = more women in that society will be interested in politics
Left graph: No relationship between percentage of women in Parliament and the average level of
political knowledge
Right graph: Effect of percentage of women in Parliament when respondents were young (18-21) has a
big impact on political knowledge
 Conclusion
o Presence of women in politics matters
o Not for all women, but for younger women in particular
 Implications:
o Confirms importance of political socialization
o Suggests that as proportion of women politicians increases, the gender gap will
disappear
o Will take several generations as socialization works its way through the
population
6.4 Example: Gender differences in voting in Australian Election Study

 Overview
o Gender differences in voting in 2019 Federal Election
 Evidence
o 10% more men vote for Coalition
o 6% more women vote for Greens
 Question:
o Is this only in 2019 or is this a persistent gap overtime
 Evidence
o Show women and men voting for liberal and labour party
o What happen in 2019 isn’t how it has always been
o Rather, the gender gap has reversed over time
o In 1990s, men were more likely to vote for Labour and women more likely to
vote for Liberal
o Now, women are more likely to vote for Labour and men more likely to vote for
Liberal
6.5 Gendered foundations

 Issues of women ignored
o Women = Private sphere = Low politics
o Men = Public sphere = High politics
o Fall back on sexist stereotypes of women’s essential ‘nature’
 Distortion of the participation of women in politics77
1. Inaccurate statements not substantiated by cited material
2. Assumption of male dominance without critical examination
3. Acceptance of masculinity as ideal political behaviour
4. Commitment to the ‘eternal feminine’  Basing explanations of political
behaviour on unexamined stereotypes
 “It would appear that women… are somewhat more frequently apathetic, parochial,
conservative, and sensitive to personality…”
o On further examination, these explanation was based on ‘minute political
differences between men and women’
o Inconsistently supported by data or not supported at all
 Early feminist political scientist
o Challenge masculine biases that shape this supposedly ‘scientific’ method
o Study ‘the gendered character and the gendering effects’ of political
institutions78
Institution is ‘gendered’
 Gender
o Not used as a simple synonym for sex
o More dynamic understanding of gender as relational 79
o Poststructuralist approach  Challenge the binary sex/gender as a natural
division  Focus on bodies constructed as male/female through the repeated
‘performance’ of gender80
o A constitutive element of social relations based upon perceived differences
between women and men81
o Gender as a ‘category’ to examine/identify the socially constructed institutional
roles, identities, and practices conceived of as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ in
particular contexts82
 Constructions of masculinity and femininity are intertwined in the daily culture or ‘logic’
of political institutions83
77
Susan Bourque and Jean Grossholtz (1974) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and
Gendered Approaches’ Theory and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al, p.94.
78
MacKay (2011) p. 181 cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
Theory and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al, p.101.
79
Randall (2010) cited by cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
80
Butler (1990) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al, p.98.
81
Joan Scott (1986) p. 1067 cited by cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered
Approaches’ Theory and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al, p.98.
82
Beckwith (2005) p. 131 cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
o Rather than ‘existing out in society or fixed within individuals which they then
bring whole to the institutions’
 Institutions rely on ideas about gender to function
o They also produce and reproduce ideas about appropriate masculinities and
femininities
o They prescribe acceptable forms of behaviour, rules and values for men and
women within institutions84
6.5.1 Political Representation
1. Substantive
 ‘Acting for women’
o Promoting women’s interests
o Eg. Women’s policy interests are represented
 Recent work:
o Argue that gendered perspective can offer important insights for party
characteristics, competition and change
o Considering the challenge posed by conservative and anti-feminist
representatives who claim to act for women
 Others
o Evaluate the extent to which political parties integrate women as political
actors85
o Address women’s policy concerns
2. Descriptive
 Presence of women ‘standing for’ women
o Representatives mirror the backgrounds of the represented
o Eg. 50% of women in population so 50% women in Parliament
 Early work explaining cross-national variations in women’s descriptive
representation
o Systemic factors: Electoral systems
o Party political factors
o Individual factors: Resources and status
 Others
o Relationship between gender, voting behaviour and political parties86
83
Kenney (1996) p. 456 cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
Theory and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al, p 101.
84
Chappell (2006) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
85
Childs (2008) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
86
Chappell (2006) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
o Party strategies to increase selection and election of women candidates
(eg. Gender quotas)87
o Process of candidate selection and recruitment within parties88
 Parties resisting/blocking women’s access to political office
o Running women in ‘no-hope’ seats
o Make them have little chance of winning to practices of local patronage
o Committing electoral fraud
6.5.2 Women’s Suffrage in the Measurement of Democracy Problems of Operationalization89
Concept of democracy is gendered

 Definitions of democracy emphasis importance of universal suffrage
o Participation of all major adult groups
o Thus, women are implicitly part of democracy’s definition
 Deliberately overlooking women in the measurement of democracy
o Measurements commonly use male suffrage as the sole indicator of a country’s
transition to democracy
o Assume that achievement of female suffrage does not change a country’s score
on a graded measure of democracy
 ‘Adding women’ impact
o Change existing regime classifications
o Challenge existing theories that explain democratisation
o Eg. Switzerland democratic transition is set at 1848 but adding in women’s
suffrage moves it to 1971
Waves Countries Transition Dates Transition Dates

(Without Women’s (With Women’s
Suffrage)90 Suffrage)91
1 Australia 1828-1926 1893-1931
Canada
USA
2 France 1828-1926 1943-1966
Japan
Italy
3 Switzerland 1828-1926 1971-
87
Dahlerup (2006) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
88
Norris and Lovenduski (1995) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered
Approaches’ Theory and Methods in Political Science edited by Vivien Lowndes, et al, p.103.
89
Pamela Paxton (2000) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
90
Huntington (1991)
91
Pamela Paxton (2000)
Portugal
East Germany
6.5.3 Challenges
1. Continue to gender political science research

 Not enough to simply assert that gender bias exists in institutions
o Must move beyond description stage92
o Need systematic identification of particular gendered institutional
processes and mechanisms and their gendering effects
 Challenge has been taken up by ‘feminist institutionalism’
o Insights from institutionally focused feminist political science + new
operation & institutional theory
o Investigate the interplay between gender and the operations & effect of
political institutions93
 Address research imperative of intersectionality 94
o Eg. Analyses of race, class, sexuality, etc
o Explore interactions between them
2. Incorporate concept of gender into quantitative research

 Recent work has highlighted perceived shortcomings of standard methods and
frameworks
o Eg. Behavioural measures + Quantitative methods = Ill-equipped to deal
with “messy” and “complex” issues of gender95
 Should use diverse range of measures and methods to study institutions
o Statistical methods
o Large-scale cross-sectional studies
 To provide unique insights into wider trends and patterns
3. Comparison and its role in theory building

 While all institutions are gendered, gender relations play out differently across over
time96
o Point to the need for comparative research
92
Lovenduski (2015) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
93
MacKey et al (2010) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
94
Weldon (2006) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’ Theory
95
Mackay (2004) p.110 cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
96
Lovenduski (1998) cited by Meryl Kenny and Fiona MacKay, Chapter 6 ‘Feminist and Gendered Approaches’
7. Week 11: Comparative Methods
 How it has helped political science
o Sort out explanations for political phenomena
o Establish mechanisms by which political process work
 Number of cases depend on phenomenon studied (concept of interest)
Number of cases
Small-N Large-N
Intentional selection of cases  Easier Statistical controls  Rule out rival
testing of hypothesis explanations for an observed outcome 
May control potentially confounding factors
Concepts and ideas operationalized at a Allow extensive coverage of cases over
lower level of abstraction  Lower risk of space and time  Better highlight ‘deviant’
being stretched cases whose outcomes is unexpected
Greater confidence that concepts are Generalizations made about wider
measured accurately  Intensive analysis population  Representative
Less time consuming, easier to execute Easier to study & observe small/weak
successfully, encourage researchers to effects and interactions, high external
control over variables that drive behaviour validity
7.1 Observations and analysis types97
Statistical analysis Comparative method Case studies

Cases Many <10 1
Analysis Look for correlations Compare cases Compare existing theory
Strengths Can control different Richer understanding Study dynamic
variables (desiccation) of cases populations where
follow-up is difficult
Eliminate rival Intentional selection of Produce background
explanations cases material to a discussion
Weaknesse ‘Desiccation’ of concept More variables than Cannot compare rival
s measurements cases explanations
Difficult to show Weak ability to No contribution to
causation  No eliminate rival theory, subject to
experimental controls explanatory variables observation bias
7.1.1 Comparative Approach98

 Reason:
97
More in OneNote
o If we cannot perform an experiment, cannot control an intervention, cannot
make use of inferential statistics and do not have sufficient sample of cases,
comparative method is best
 Examples
o Cannot start multiple wars to understand effects of war
o Cannot stop war so easily to understand peace
o Cannot readily create more welfare states to better understand existing welfare
states
Problem of causal inference

 Cannot observe causal effects directly because we are not detached from the world
o Eg. To directly observe causation of 1 condition by another, need to rewind time
and run the world against with condition removed
o Eg. Need to find a parallel universe without condition and be able to watch both
universes at the same time to see if outcome would still occur
7.1.2 Case studies: Process tracing99

 Reason for using case studies
o Focus research on single case
o Contribute to general theories
o Exemplars for learning
o Psychologically satisfying narrations of established causal mechanisms
Case selection strategies

b. Diagnostic
> Interest in explaining a particular case in light of existing theories in mind
> Provide more psychologically satisfying explanations
c. Hypothesis-generating
> Associated with grounded theory and ethnographic methods
> Aim at establishing new general theories to be tested in other cases
> Problem: Can consider many events to be important to the explanation when they
are actually superfluous
d. Deviant
> Most useful strategy
> Deliberately select outlier that is known to contradict typical cases
> Tell us a lot about how we might modify general theory
e. Crucial
98
Matt Ryan, ‘The Comparative Method’, in Vivien Lowndes, David Marsh and Gerry Stoker eds., Theory and
Methods in Political Science (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 4 th Ed., 2018) p. 272-274.
99
Matt Ryan, ‘The Comparative Method’, in Vivien Lowndes, David Marsh and Gerry Stoker eds., Theory and
Methods in Political Science (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 4 th Ed., 2018) p. 298-287.
> Most controversial
> Find a case where a theory is least likely to be confirmed and observe that it is
confirmed to provide significant evidence for theory confirmation
> Sceptical whether a crucial case can serve to undermine a theory entirely
Within-case analysis
 Seeking to explain relatively unique event  Eg. EU withdrawal by UK
o Many explanations
o But which is the valid answer?
 Need ‘Causal process observations’
o Observations  Field work: Interviews, archival research and direct observation
 Process-tracing method
o Aims to provide standard test to eliminate bias when assessing the odds that
alternative hypotheses are true using within-case analysis
o Considers a set of alternative explanations of an event and ask: if this particular
explanation were true, what evidence would we expect to see?
 Give difference weight to evidence depends on:
o Whether evidence can be uniquely predicted by a particular hypothesis
o Certitude with which observed evidence in necessary for a hypothesis to be true
 Bayesian probability for new pieces of evidence
o What was the probability the explanation was true before this new evidence
came to light? (prior probability)
o What is the probability of seeing this new evidence were this the true causal
explanation? (conditional probability)
o What are the prior and conditional probabilities for all alternative explanations?
 Problems with process-tracing at small-N research
o Researcher is the major independent variable100
o Emphasis on successive observations can be infinite  Not useful
7.2 Methods of Case-Selection101
7.2.1 Most similar (MSSD)

 2+ cases are similar except for X1 and Y
o Select cases that are similar across as many independent variables as
possible but vary in outcome and the independent variable of interest
100
Peters (2013) p. 169 cited by Matt Ryan, ‘The Comparative Method’, in Vivien Lowndes, David Marsh and Gerry
Stoker eds., Theory and Methods in Political Science (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 4 th Ed., 2018) p. 287
101
More in notes
o Interested in why outcome variable is different
o Maybe X1 has a causal relationship with Y
 Explanatory if hypothesis is X or Y-centred
o Confirmatory if X/Y centred
 Should use cases that are broadly representative of the population
 Purposive sampling
o Mimic experimental methods
o Benefit from this ability to control for extraneous cultural/historic
variance
 Weakness:
o No way to know whether unmeasured variables are actually responsible
for outcomes
Example:
a. Scandinavian countries
> Can control population because they have similar demographics
> If get different outcome, can think what might be the variable that is
different
b. East Asian Little Tigers
> Countries that are developing rapidly in East Asia (South Korea, Taiwan,
Singapore and Hong Kong)
> South Korea and Taiwan end up democratizing
> Hong Kong has its own issues and Singapore did not end up
democratizing
> This might be the different variables
c. Latin American countries
> Understand democratisation
> Control the direct effect for the effects of British colonialism
7.2.2 Most different (MDSD)

 2+ cases are different except X1 and Y
o All other factors seemingly different
o Could still mean that there is another variable that is the same but was
not included
 Eliminate necessary causes  More grounds for claiming that the factor is causal
o Condition that appears along with an outcome in more diverse contexts
has more explanatory value that one that is context-dependent
o Uncover ‘eclectic affinities’
o Does not allow you to say: ‘This is definitely the causal relationship’
o Only can say there is no causal relationship between IV1 and IV2
 Useful in looking for process
o Show that the process by which case 1 and 2 give the same outcome is
the same
o Same may be because of IV3 alone or it at least has some role to the
outcome
 Weakness
o Can show that interaction of variables is same in disparate environments
BUT may not be hitting on actual causal process
7.2.3 Problem: Selection of cases on the basis of outcome
Logic of Explanation
 A & B is more developed than C-G
 Search for similarity X between A & B
 Possible hypothesis:
o X is the reason for difference
o Hypothesis is dubious if researcher did not look for X in C-G or assume C-G does
not have X
 Graph:
a. Assumption that C-G does not have X
b. If all countries examined, there may actually be no relationship between X and
rate of development
Main point
 Relationships that seem to exist between cause and effect in a small sample selected on
the dependent variable may disappear in as ample uncorrelated with position on the
dependent variable
o High probability of getting wrong answer
 Arguments
o If a historical study ends at a particular date may have different result if years
included in study are changed
 Importance of studies of cases selected on dependent variable
o How phenomena come about
o Developing insights
o Identify plausible causal variables
o Bright to light anomalies that current theories cannot accommodate
o Build and revise theories
Case Study: New Industrializing Countries

 Including
o Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico
 Theory
o Rapid growth is due to governmental extensive controls over labour, preventing
expressions of worker discontent
o Repression, co-optation, discipline or quiescence of labour = High growth
 Evidence 1
o Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico all had repressed/co-opted
labour force and very high growth rates
o All have outcome of interest and all exhibit another common trait (labour
repression)
 Problem with Evidence 1
o Other countries that have suppressed labour to the same/greater degree but not
prosper economically
 Proper study:
o To properly establish the theory:
i. Select a sample of cases without reference to their position on the
dependent variable
ii. Rate each on its level of labour repression
iii. Show that, on average, countries with higher levels of repression grows
faster
o Universe of cases = All developing countries
> Communist countries excluded
> Countries with characteristics not related to labour repression
o Measures
> World Bank: GNP per Capita
> Labour repression: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
o Score method
> 1  Unions free to organize, choose own leaders, not controlled by
government, strikes are legal, not constrained and occur reasonably often
 India, Jamaica, Venezuela
> 2  Unions free to organize, choose own leaders, not controlled by
government, strikes are legal but constrained by government regulations,
occur infrequently, but are legal  Colombia, Zimbabwe, Malaysia
> 3  Unions constrained by links to government, strikes are legal in some
cases, but subject to considerable government regulation  South Korea,
Brazil, Pakistan
> 4  Unions are illegal, or completely controlled by government, right to
strike is severely constrained, violence against workers is severe  Chile,
Syria and Benin
Figures
1. Most commonly chosen NICs
> Assume that most cases they have not examined lie in lower left quadrant
> Researchers would conclude that labour repression contributes to economic
growth
> Without any assumption on other cases  This figure shows no relationship
with IV and DV
> Jump to conclusion  Since all cases are high on both growth and repression,
repression must be cause of growth
> Problem: Selection bias  Cases selected precisely because they share the trait
one wants to explain
2. East Asia countries

> Appears that repression does contribute to growth
> General arguments about role of labour repression in growth will imply that
relationship will also characterize the entire Third World
> Location biases sample  Growth rates in East Asia are unusually high
> Problem: Geographical bias
3. Larger sample of cases including slow-growth Third World countries

> Apparent relationship disappears  Slope coefficient is slightly negative
> R^2 = 0.07  Level of labour repression has no effect on growth
4. Larger sample of cases including advanced Third World countries
> No linear relationship
> Possible interpretations of scatterplot:
i. Relationship within more advanced Third World countries is curvilinear
ii. Something unusual about Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea that
cause high growth rates and their presence give the appearance of a
curvilinear relationship
8. Week 12: Political theory
Background questions
1. What is politics
> Different answer = Different methods used
2. What questions should we ask when we study it?
3. What methods and techniques should we use in order to answer these questions?
Problem: Move too quickly to 3rd question
 Choose methods but not knowing:
o What the methods are meant to answer for us
o How they help us
o Why we choose that method rather than another
Aristotelian Hobbesian Schmittian

8.1 What is Pursuit of the highest Pursuit of peace, order Pursuit of domination
politics good and stability
"…the state or political The value of a state lies " All political actions and
community is the in its aptitude "to motives can be reduced is
highest of all produce the Peace and that between 'friend' and
communities, Security of the people, 'enemy' … A political friend
embracing all the rest, for which all states are or enemy exists only when,
and it aims at good in a instituted" (Leviathan, II at least potentially, one
greater degree than any 19) fighting collectivity of people
other, and at the confronts a similar
highest good" collectivity" (The Concept of
the Political)
Politics enable us, as Humans always fight Politics is the process within
human beings and each other unless there which the fight between 2
communities, to be is something that different groups of people
better than we prevents us from doing takes places  Essence of
otherwise would be so  That something is politics: A constant
politics combat/struggle/competition
8.2 Questions What goods should How does political action What shapes the way in
in politics pursue and how guarantee peace and which power and domination
political should it pursue them? stability? How do we is exercised in modern
theory know we have enough of political life
it?
Essential goods: What prevents civil war? What is the relationship
Freedom, community, between social/economic
justice, rights? hierarchy and political
hierarchy? Do rich people
dominate politics? Or are the
people who dominate politics
gifted in some other way?
Who should have Why do politicians allow Are the same sort of people
power? themselves to be in charge in every political
defeated? And not, system?
instead, start a civil war?
How should they Why do citizens obey the Are there any limits on the
exercise power? (Eg. law? Why accept being ways in which people
System of told what to do? What is conduct politics? Is violence
Representative going on that makes us ever okay?
Government) Should not create civil
there be constraints? disobedience?
What are the What prevents conflict? Does it stop being political
fundamental limits on Why don’t people attack when it becomes violent? Is
their power? Are there each other? Does it politics only the peaceful
certain things that having something to do struggle/fight?
politics shouldn’t try to with state? Policing
do to achieve these service? Chances we
essential goods? have in politics?
8.3 Methods and Approaches

 How to answer these questions?
o Different questions demand different methods of analysis
o BUT even scholars who agree on the questions do not always agree on the
methods required to answer those questions
o Political theory is characterized by methodological disagreement
 Different places = Different methods
a. Cambridge University: Schmittian Political Thinking
> Historical method
> Look back at how political theorists talk about issues in the past, look at
great texts and how actual conduct of politics looked
> Eg. Weimar Republic, English Civil War (How it was fought out, what
happened afterwards, how Parties emerged)
> Look at real historical events, historical political texts in that context and
make sense of situation
b. Harvard University: Aristotelian Political Thinking
> Precise philosophical approach
> They abstract out of the world  Act deep, precise questions in the
analytic moment
> Think in the abstract  Go away from reality  More likely to come up
with precise theories
c. Essex University: Hobbesian Political Thinking
> Critical Theory
> Puncture conventional observations
> Look through myths and illusions created about that world that prevents
us from seeing clearly
> Ideology critique  Stories told to us which mask how things really are
 Our jobs is to develop methods to pull away the ideology and to see
closer the actual power dynamics
d. Oxford University: Methodological pluralism
> Need to be acquainted/expert in all methods
> Historical text, examples, philosophical abstracts and ideology critique
> Bring them together to see how to make sense of a political problem
 Possible answer
o Some political theorists make an explicitly commitment to methodological
pluralism
o Different methods are, and should be, employed by different scholars
o Depend on question asking and tradition coming from
 Strengths of methodological pluralism
o Allow multiple insights
o Open-mindedness environment
o Response to change and innovation
o Ability to look at problems at different kinds of light
 Challenges of methodological pluralism
o Enable deep disagreements within organizations/institutions
o Presents students with multiple intellectual tasks

Political Analysis GOVT2991: Semester 2, 2020 Exam Notes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Political Analysis GOVT2991: Semester 2, 2020 Exam Notes

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Political Analysis GOVT2991: Semester 2, 2020 Exam Notes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

POLITICAL

1. Week 1 – Week 2: Ontology and Epistemology

1.3 Example: Government performance & Dissatisfaction with democracy in Australia

1.4 Example: Vegans and their Tattoos

Data saturation: No new insights after this point

1.5 Ethical Considerations

Ethics approval needed: Human subjects

Ethics approval not needed: No human subjects

2. Week 3: Research Design

2.2 Unit of Analysis

Corruption Transparency international corruption perception index

Regime type Freedom House measure/Party Free/etc

Example: Ice creams cause murder

2.4.2 Quasi experimental design

2.4.3 Observational design

3. Week 4 – Week 7: Quantitative and Qualitative Data

3.1 Qualitative Methods

3.1.2 Qualitative data collection methods

Focus group Interviews Participant observation

3.1.3 Qualitative Analysis

Discourse analysis11 Qualitative content Quantitative content

3.2.2 Types of variables

> Independent, dependent and control = Role in the hypothesis

Univariate Analysis Bivariate Analysis Multivariate Analysis

New Institutionalism Old Institutionalism

4.1 Key questions of Institutionalism

1. What effects do institutional structures have on things like

4.2 New Institutionalism Types

4.2.1 Example: How Australian PM make foreign policy decisions

4.2.2 Example: Higher Education Reform in Australia: Institutions in Institutions

4.3 New Institutionalism in detail

1. Increased emphasis on the relationship between rules and behaviour

5. Shift to explaining detail of institutions

6. Institutions are historically embedded

Homi Bhabha (1994)

Idea of the Chapter

5.1.1 Liberal intersubjectivity: “I lead, you follow”

5.1.2 Capitalist learning in Asia: Formal to substantive mimicry

Confucian mimicry of the liberal state

Hypermasculine approach to a capitalist competition

5.1.3 Who’s accountable for what? Liberal vs Crony Capitalism

International Monetary Fund

Asia’s mimicry was formal

5.1.4 Transforming the rules: Cold War power hierarchies

1. Western capital dominating Asian capital

2. Hypermasculine state regulating hyperfeminized society

 After IMF bailout  Kim Dae Jung enacted chaebol reforms

3. Depressed men exploiting women and other feminized subjects

 Hyper masculinizing the self requires hyper feminizing all others

5.1.5 Underdeveloped heart for self and others

Stiglitz, former high-level cadre at the IMF46

Racialized character of the pillars of liberal democracy

5.2.1 Theory: Colonialism accelerated development

5.3 Race as an organizing category

5.3.1 Race and Racism

5.3.2 Human rights abuses

5.3.3 Problem with Identity Politics

5.4 Post-colonial Approaches

5.5.1 Postcolonialism, a critique of essentialism