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Chapter 1: The Strategic Perspective

Study

Summary

This chapter continues the discussion of the strategic perspective to politics and how it can be applied to understanding international affairs. It focuses on the selectorate theory, which is an example of the strategic approach.

Instead of viewing governments in terms of democracies, autocracies, monarchies, or military dictatorships, this chapter presents an alternative view that allows us to differentiate among and within regimes. The selectorate theory focuses on two factors: the size of the selectorate (those who have a say in choosing leaders) and the size of the winning coalition (those whose support is essential to keep leaders in office).

These two factors allow us to locate different regimes in a two-dimensional space. This helps explain how different institutions shape policies and how leaders will behave in different settings. This view not only explains differences between democracies and autocracies but also captures variations within those categories.

Leaders in polities with large winning coalitions (such as democracies) rely more on the provision of public goods, rather than private rewards, for their coalition members. Those leaders produce greater prosperity, more efficient governance, and less corruption.

Leaders whose survival in office depends on a small coalition and a large selectorate (such as rigged-election autocracies) rely on the provision of private rewards to the members of their winning coalition. They do not produce good policies that benefit the majority of the population. Instead, such systems produce higher corruption, kleptocracy, and poor public policies. However, leaders in those systems tend to survive longer in office than democratic leaders.

Large winning coalition systems differ greatly from small winning coalition systems with regard to foreign policies, wars, foreign aid, and other issues in international affairs.

Study Questions

1. Define the selectorate, the winning coalition, loyalty norm, private goods, and public goods.
   



2. Why do leaders in small-W systems rely on private goods, and why, as the W gets larger, does the focus shift to public goods?
   



3. What is the perfect political arrangement from the perspective of the leader? Why?
   



4. What is the perfect political arrangement from the perspective of members of the winning coalition? Why?
   



5. What is the perfect political arrangement from the perspective of ordinary citizens? Why?