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Political Science
God save us
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Power | The ability to make others do something that they would not have chosen to do |
| Authority | A situation whereby an individual or group is regarded as having the right to exercise power, and is thereby acting legitimately |
| Constituency | An electoral district |
| Democracy | Refers to a political system in which there is self-government |
| Authoritarian | Refers to rule which is unaccountable and restrictive of personal liberty |
| Totalitarian | Refers to an extreme version of authoritarian rule, in which the state controls all aspects of society and the economy, centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state. |
| Agency | In social science literature denotes the fact of something happening or existing because of an actors action. |
| Pluralist (Pluralism) | A condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist. |
| Methodology | Refers primarily to a particular way in which knowledge is produced. Different methodologies in variably incorporate their own assumptions and rationales about the nature of knowledge, although these are not always stated explicitly. |
| Elitist theory of Democracy | According to this model, voters have the opportunity to choose between competing teams of leaders. |
| Elitism | In a normative sense refers to the rule of the most able. From an empirical perspective it refers to the existence of a ruling group beyond popular control in all societies of any complexity. |
| Political Obligation | A central preoccupation of political theorists asking why, if at all, individuals ought to obey the state. |
| State-of-Nature | A concept with a long history in political and social thought which posits a hypothetical vision of how people lived before the institution of civil government and society. |
| Social Contract | A device used by many political thinkers, most recently John Rawl, to justify a particular from of state. It is conceived as a voluntary agreement that individuals make in a state of nature, which is a society before government is set up. |
| Natural Rights | Rights which humans are said to possess respectively of the particular legal and political system under which they live. |
| General Will | A concept, associated with Rousseau, which holds that the state ought to promote an altruistic morality rather than the selfish interests of individuals |
| Civil Society | Consists of institutions, such as interest groups, which stand in an intermediary position between the individual and the state. |
| Constitutional Democracy | A means whereby the elites of different parts of a heterogeneous community can share power and integrate society |
| Deliberative Democracy | A model of democracy emphasizing the role of discussion and debate as a means of reaching rational, legitimate, and altruistic decisions |
| Parliamentarianism | The principle that governments are formed by prime ministers, rather than heads of state, who are primarily responsible for parliament. |
| Presidentialism | The principle that the president of a republic is the head of the government. |
| Cohabitaiton | Occurs when a country's president comes from one party and the prime minister from a different one. |
| Arrow Impossibility Theorem | A mathematical theorem formulated by the economist Kennedy Arrow, with shows the impossibility of determining the "optimal" ranking of preferences by members of a society when not alternative choice receives an absolute majority. |
| Proportional Representation | A family of voting systems that make their highest priority a close approximation between the votes given to all parties putting candidates and the number of seats into which this is translated in parliament |
| Alternative Member Model | A hybrid voting system that combines strength of both majoritarianism and proportional:Votes are cast both for individual candidates within a constituency and for the general list of candidates from separate parties. |
| Plurality | A simple majority in voting (Sometimes also know as first-past-the-post), as distinct from an absolute majority. |
| Sovereignty | Refers to self-government either at the level of the state, to say a state is sovereign is to claim that it has monopoly of force over the people and institutions in a given territorial area. |
| Unicameralism | The principle of having a single chamber of a national parliament (Ex. China, Sweden, UK, New Zealand) |
| Bicameralism | The principle of having two separate chambers of a national parliament (Ex. USA, Mexico, Russia, Australia) |
| Federalism | The principle that within a state, different territorial units have the authority to make certain policies without interference from the center. |
| International Society | A concept associated with the English School of International relations indicating sphere does not preclude the development of a society of states characterized by peaceful working relations. |
| Colonialism | The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. |
| Imperialism | Literally, "to command", and denoting the exercise of power by one group over another. A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. |
| Empires | A system in which one country or center of power dominates and controls other, weaker countries either directly or indirectly using either force, or some other means of coercion. |
| State | A two-level concept, 1. the government executive of a country, sometimes also known as a nation-state. 2. The whole structure of political authority in a country |
| Political systems | The totality of institutions within a state and all the connections between them. |
| Globalization | Term used to describe the process of increasing economic, political, social and cultural interdependence which has, for good or for worse, reduced the autonomy of sovereign states |
| Human Nature | Refers to innate and immutable human characteristics. |
| Civil Society | Consists of institutions, such as interest groups, which stand in an intermediary position between the individual and the state. |
| Interest Groups | Political actors who seek collectively to press specific interests upon governments. |
| Polyarchy | A term coined by Robert Dahl. Refers to society where government outcomes are a product of the competition between groups. |
| Democratic Elitism | An attempt, most associated with Joseph Schumpeter, to reconcile elitism with democracy. |
| Ontology | Relates to what exists. |
| Behavioralism | An approach that stresses the importance of the scientific method in the study of social phenomena. |
| Empirical Analysis | The measurement of factual information of what is, rather than what ought to be |
| Normative Analysis | Refers to analysis which asks "ought", rather than "is" type questions, therefore forming the basis of political philosophy. |
| Patriarchy | Male domination and corresponding female oppression |
| Max Weber | The German sociologist and social theorist, developed a threefold classification of authority. He recognized that these were ideal types, and all societies were likely to contain elements of the three types. |
| Governance | Reflects the broader nature of modern government which includes not just the traditional institutions of government but also the other inputs into decisions that steer society such as sub national and supranational institutions of government |
| Political Obligation | A central preoccupation of political theorists asking why, if at all. Individuals ought to obey the state. |
| Traditional Authority | Authority derived from traditional customs and values. A major example would be the principle of the divine right of kings, prevalent in European monarchies, whereby monarchies were said to be ordained by God to rule. |
| Charismatic Authority | Authority derived from the personality traits of an individual. This is often associated with the leaders of Authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, not least because such charismatic leaders tend to emerge in a time of crisis. |
| Legal-Rational Authority | Authority derived from the status of an office as part of a system of constitutional rules, in a democratic country, or a religious document such as the koran in Islamic regimes |
| Illiberal Democracies | Describes states where competitive elections are held but in which there is relatively little protection of rights and liberties, a state control over the means of communication ensures that governing parties are rarely defeated at the polls |
| Liberal Democracies | Describes states such as the USA, which are characterized by free and fair elections involving universal suffrage, together with liberal political framework consisting of a relatively high degree of personal liberty and the protection of individual rights |
| Direct Democracy | Refers to a system whereby the people rule directly and not through representatives. (Ex. Ancient Athens) |
| Representative Democracy | Refers to a system whereby the people choose others to represent their interests, rather than making decisions themselves. (Ex. U.S.) |
| New Liberalism | A version of liberalism that advocates a more positive role for the state. Correcting inequalities of the market can increase liberty by creating greater opportunities for individuals to achieve their goals. |
| Classical Liberalism | Emphasizes that the states rule should be limited to ensure internal and external security and ensure that private property rights are enforced. |
| Nationalism | In politics and international relations, refers to the doctrine or ideology which holds that "the nation" is more or less entitled to political autonomy, usually in a state of its own. |
| Enlightenment | A 17th and 18th century intellectual and cultural movement that emphasized the application of reason to knowledge in a search for human progress |
| Structuration | A concept derived from the sociologist, Anthony Giddens, which here designs all the factors that both constrain and also provide resources for the functioning of a political system. |
| Duverger's Law | The conclusion by the French political scientist Maurice Duveger that first-past-the-post electoral systems lead to two-party systems. |
| Citizenship | The granting of social and political rights to enable individuals to participate in state decision-making. |
| Neo-Medievalism | A system of governance resembling Europe in the Middle Ages where authority belongs to an overlapping array of local, national, and super national institutions |
| Cosmopolitanism Democracy | A system of popular control of super-national institutions and processes |
| Interdependence/ Complex Interdependence | Refers to the notion developed mainly in liberal theory. |
| Anarchy | An absence of political authority. |
| Anarchism | Belief in the abolition of all government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion |
| Federal | Having or relating to a system of government in which several states form a unity but remain independent in internal affairs. |
| Cosmopolitanism | A position which holds that humans ought to be regarded as a single moral community to which universal principles apply irrespective of national boundaries |
| Communitarianism | A strand of thought which argues that individuals gain their rights and duties within particular communities |
| Harm Principle | A position associated with John Stuart Mill, that actions are to be allowed unless the effect of them is to harm others |
| Utilitarianism | A consequentialist ethical theory which argues that the behavior of individuals and governments should be judged according to the degree to which their actions maximize pleasure or happiness |
| Natural Rights | Rights which humans are said to possess irresponsible of the particular legal and political system under which they live. |
| Epistemology | Refers to the task of establishing what can be known about what exists |
| Positivism | Believing it is possible to generate empirical statements without any evaluative connotations |
| Bourgeoisie | Term appearing frequently in Marxist analysis and referring to a merchant and/or propertied class possessing essential economic power and control |
| Emancipation | A common theme in critical theory which denotes a normative aspiration to liberate people from unfair economic, social, and political conditions. |
| Consociational (Democracy) | A means whereby the elites of different parts of a heterogeneous community can share power and integrate society |
| Developmental State | A state which prioritizes economic resources for rapid development and which uses carrots and sticks to induce private economic institutions to comply |
| Balance of Power | A system of relations between states where the goal is to maintain an equilibrium of power, thus preventing the dominance of any one state. |
| Corporatism | Modern societal or neo-corporatism reflects a genuine attempt by governments to incorporate economic interests, trade union and business interests into the decision making process |
| Night-Watchmen state | A model in which the state concentrates on ensuring external and internal security, playing little role in civil society and the economy where the economic market is allowed to operate relatively unhindered. |
| Social Democracy | An approach which, after the Russian Revolution in 1917, became associated with liberal democracies that engaged in redistributive policies and the creation of a welfare state |
| Institutions | Regular patterns of behavior that provides stability and regularity in social life |
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Fisherj10
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