SESS0017 2023 Lecture 1

Introduction: Political Science
Understanding Politics II: How Politics Works (SESS0017)
Lecture 1
Peter Braga
Associate Lecturer in Politics
UCL SSEES
Before We Start
• Please—try not to take notes in this lecture
• Anything in an image is not essential—it is decorative/thematic
• If something is important, it will be quoted in text with a citation
• Today’s lecture is a 30,000-feet-style overview of the module
• We are slowly re-engaging political science after our break
What To Take Away From Today’s Lecture
• A description of the key characteristics of “Politics” and “The Political”
• When someone says “Political Science”—be aware of what the
“science” part refers to
• If a topic in political science seems complicated or vague, consider:
 What are key concepts being discussed?
 How are these concepts being used/defined?
 What are the evidence and methods supporting the claims?
• Have an idea of what the module will cover

• Module logistics—tutorials, assessment, etc.
How does politics work?
A failing discipline?
A failing discipline?
Not so fast…
Important and useful?
 Example: Comparative Constitutions
Project
 Collected information on every state
constitution and amendment from the end of
the 18th century to the present day
 Analyse, e.g., those features that make
constitutions more conducive to democratic
survival or collapse
 Information used to craft new constitutions,
e.g., Iraq
 Stoker (2012: 677): “we need to become
more of a solution-seeking science”
Lecture overview
1. Recap: What is politics?

2. Political science’s central question
3. Concepts
4. Scientific method
5. Other ways to study how politics works
6. Course details and logistics
What is politics?
1. Please go to www.menti.com
2. Input the following code: 5643 0276
3. Input words or phrases that
describe what politics is
Understanding Politics 1 Recap: What is politics?
 Rule-making – “[T]he activity through which people make, preserve and

amend the general rules under which they live” (Heywood 2013: 2)
 Resource distribution – “Who gets what, when, how?” (Lasswell 1936)
 Relationships – “[P]ower-structured relationships, arrangements whereby

one group of persons is controlled by another” (Millett 1969)
Diversity and scarcity
 Influential perspective – there are two core

features that give rise to “the political”:
1. Diversity
2. Scarcity
Conflict and cooperation
 If people with diverse preferences want to control scarce
resources, this will likely lead to:
1. Conflict
2. Cooperation
 But cooperation can be difficult to set up and sustain – collective action

problem (e.g., Prisoner’s Dilemma)
 If we all had aligned preferences, and resources were

limitless, would politics “exist”?
 Centrality of power to both conflict and cooperation – and,

therefore, politics
 Steven Lukes (1974), Power: A Radical
View
 1st face/dimension – decision-making
Three “faces”  E.g., Dahl (1961)
of power  2nd face/dimension – agenda-setting

 E.g., Bachrach and Baratz (1962)
 3rd face/dimension – ideological

 E.g., Lukes (1974)
Who is the most powerful person at
UCL?
1. Please go to www.menti.com
2. Input the following code: 6769 7962
3. Choose your answer
What Form of Power Did I Just Use?
• I limited your range of choices to six people
• I chose the people
• I framed the question
• Therefore, I used:
 Primarily, agenda setting power
 Some decision making power
Central question
 David Runciman, Professor of Politics, University of Cambridge – talk, ‘How
Democracy Ends: Thinking the Unthinkable’, Churchill College, Cambridge,
27 November 2017
 ‘[F]or the last 50 years, the central question of political science has
been, How on earth does democracy work?, because it seems like
such an unlikely system of government.’
 ‘People have to trust each other, people have to buy into it. The rich
have to trust that the poor won’t take their money; the soldiers have to
trust that the civilians won’t take away their guns. All these people who
could bring it down have to agree not to bring it down.’
 ‘So, you build this fragile system in which all these players who have
strong incentives to bail out don’t bail out. Somehow, you lock them
together. And political scientists have spent about 50 years trying to
work out what makes that happen, and there are lots of competing
answers to do with institutions and historical accidents, and so on. But
when it works, something magical happens – it’s like alchemy.’
Democratic backsliding?
Concepts
 Concepts are key
 The abstractions that relate to “real-world”
politics
 E.g., the topics in this course – “the
executive”, rather than “the current
executive in Poland”
 Gallie (1955): “essentially contested

concepts”
 “controversy about them runs so deep that
no neutral or settled definition can ever be
developed” (Heywood 2013: 20)
How do we know what (we think) we know?
QU: How can we be confident in our conclusions about how politics
works?
 Scientific method:
 “hypotheses are verified (proved true) by testing them against available evidence”
(Heywood 2013: 12)
 E.g., centrality of research design – case selection, methods

 E.g., precise measurement
 But awareness that we can never eradicate error with complete certainty
 Testing and replication – a community exercise, e.g., academic peer review

When peer review goes wrong…
 Michael LaCour – former UCLA PhD student
 2014 article in Science – the leading natural science
journal, which occasionally publishes social science
research
 Research question: Can voters’ minds be changed
about same-sex marriage through a brief conversation
with a gay canvasser?
 Research design: Randomised placebo-controlled
trial – 972 voters; 22 gay messengers, 19 straight
messengers; (persistent) attitude change?
 Finding: Yes!
 But…
 LaCour falsified the data
Beyond political science
 There’s also a wealth of knowledge about politics that has
absolutely nothing to do with political science
 E.g., political histories of particular states
 Difference between political science as general

approach/research culture and political science as a cover-all
term for the contemporary study of politics
 “[M]uch of political science […] is not science” (Kramer 1986: 11)

“Our region” and political science
 Significant research
design opportunity
following collapse of
communism
 Common starting
points (in some
respects)
 “Natural” experiments
SSEES-specific vs. general politics
Scepticism
 Political science is a particular approach to studying how politics
works
 Maintain a critical distance when reading research results
 Do the claims made make sense?

 Might there be a simpler explanation for the phenomenon of interest?
 Is the question being asked interesting and important?
Module overview
Week 2 The State
Week 3 Executives
Week 4 Political Parties
Week 5 Elections
Week 7 Political Participation
Week 8 Legislatures
Week 9 Federalism and Regionalism
Week 10 Civil Society and Political Culture
Week 11 Democracy and Authoritarianism
What we won’t cover
 International Relations
 Every important piece of political science scholarship for a given

topic (of course not!)
 Feel free to draw on these additional works during class discussions
and in the exam (more on which below)
 “Do-it-yourself” methods training

 See 2nd-year and 3rd-year courses
Variety
 Variety of previous student experience of,
and interest in, academic study of politics
 Please look at the reading advice on Moodle

for different levels
 Don’t hesitate to ask me or a PGTA for

further reading suggestions or help with
the assigned reading
Tutorials
 Thursdays and Fridays—see UCL Timetable
Please attend the class
indicated on your personal
 Opportunity to discuss weekly topic, UCL timetable
concepts, and readings with fellow students
*** You will not be admitted
and the PGTA to other classes without
prior permission ***
 3 concepts this week:

Anarchy
Collective action problem
Research design
Summative assessment
 Coursework—up to 2,000 words
 2 sections:
 Section A: Two concepts
 Section B: Two essays
 Due by 15:00 on Thursday 4 May 2023

Formative assessment
 Practice 2,000-word coursework
 Written in groups – submitted in tutorial after Reading Week

(23/24 February 2023)
 Feedback from:
 One other student group – using feedback form and UCL marking
criteria
 PGTA
 Me
Next week
 The State
 Why this topic?

 The state is often regarded as the fundamental unit of
modern political life
 But what, in fact, is a state?
 Why are states formed, how do they function, and
why do they sometimes fail?
 The state is also a key example of a
political institution
 But what is an institution?
 Who creates them and what purposes do they serve?
Contacting me
 Don’t hesitate to get in touch
peter.braga.15@ucl.ac.uk
Office hours: Fridays 16:00–18:00, SSEES room 536
Book via email, please

Thank you!

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Introduction: Political Science

Understanding Politics II: How Politics Works (SESS0017)

• Have an idea of what the module will cover

1. Recap: What is politics?

 Rule-making – “[T]he activity through which people make, preserve and

 Resource distribution – “Who gets what, when, how?” (Lasswell 1936)

 Relationships – “[P]ower-structured relationships, arrangements whereby

 Influential perspective – there are two core

 But cooperation can be difficult to set up and sustain – collective action

 If we all had aligned preferences, and resources were

 Centrality of power to both conflict and cooperation – and,

of power  2nd face/dimension – agenda-setting

 3rd face/dimension – ideological

 Gallie (1955): “essentially contested

 E.g., centrality of research design – case selection, methods

 Testing and replication – a community exercise, e.g., academic peer review

 E.g., political histories of particular states

 Difference between political science as general

 “[M]uch of political science […] is not science” (Kramer 1986: 11)

 Maintain a critical distance when reading research results

 Do the claims made make sense?

 Every important piece of political science scholarship for a given

 “Do-it-yourself” methods training

 Please look at the reading advice on Moodle

 Don’t hesitate to ask me or a PGTA for

 3 concepts this week:

 Due by 15:00 on Thursday 4 May 2023

 Written in groups – submitted in tutorial after Reading Week

 Why this topic?

 Don’t hesitate to get in touch

Office hours: Fridays 16:00–18:00, SSEES room 536

Book via email, please

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