Ipa Cheat Sheet

AIPA 2: UNDERSTANDING ACTORS, INTERESTS & POWER Institutions  Basic level – states exist to provide (1) defence and (2) social order  this requires the presence of a functioning economy.  State not only produces, consumes and redistributes; it’s also the main source and enforcer of “rules of games”.  “Rules of games” are institutions  institutional quality is related to economic performance.  Evidence: No country has gotten rich with bad institutions. Politics  Politics is the process of creating new institutions. Existing institutions create a constraint on this process.  Political processes can be analysed in terms of Actors involved in the processes, their interests and their relative power (AIP).  Actors: Political, Societal(land, labour, capital, business associations, unions, students, military), International (hegemon, institutions)  Interests: Assume, Deduce or Judge by stated intention and observed behaviour.  Power: voter base, past performance, military control, resource control, shared nationalism/ethnicity, moral authority, int’l support  Usually, the actor with greatest relative power wins. IPA 3: STATE STRUCTURES 1: ENDS, DECISION-MAKING & IMPLEMENTATION Ends = the ultimate end of economic policy, not necessarily what is said.  Self-enrichment - “rentier state” e.g. Zaire, Congo. Anything possible for highest bidder.  Economic Development - “developmental state” e.g. Japan, S. Korea. Risk-sharing and high intervention with bias to domestic firms.  Equal outcomes - “welfare state” e.g. Scandinavia, Netherlands. Minor state intervention, heavily regulated, little adjustments & intervention.  Equal opportunity - “regulatory state” e.g. US, Hong Kong. Minor state intervention, light regulations & adjustments Decision-Making
Bottom-Up “Pluralist” e.g. US, AngloSaxon Top-down “Statist” e.g. most countries Participatory “Corporatist” e.g. Netherlands Limited need to rely on government: do on one’s own Government can be influenced through