Legal and Political Environment

2011-10-03

Definition of a Political System
• The complete set of institutions, political organizations, and interest groups,
• The relationships among institutions, and the political norms and rules that govern their functions

International Business
Part Two
Comparative Environmental
Frameworks
Chapter Three
The Political and Legal
Environments Facing Business

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Individualism vs. Collectivism

Political Ideology

• Individualism: primacy of the rights and role of the individual
• Collectivism: primacy of the rights and role of the community

• The system of ideas that expresses the goals, theories, and aims of a sociopolitical program • Political ideology might be either singularistic (a term not used) or pluralistic.
• Most modern societies are pluralistic— different groups champion competing political ideologies

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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Political Ideology

Political Ideology

• Pluralism can arise when two or more groups in a country differ in
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• Two extreme forms of political ideology are:  Democracy; and
 Totalitarianism

Language (Belgium)
Ethnic background (South Africa)
Tribal groups (Afghanistan and Pakistan)
Religion (India)

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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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2011-10-03

Democracy

Totalitarianism

• Wide participation by citizens in the decision-making process
• Five types:
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• Restricts decision making to a few individuals • Types:
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Parliamentary (Bangladesh, India, Britain)
Liberal (Japan and Nezealand)
Multiparty (Bangladesh, Nepal)
Representative (United States)
Social (Norway and Sweden)

Authoritarianism (North Korea)
Fascism (Mussolini’s Italy)
Secular totalitarianism (China)
Theocratic totalitarianism