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Chapter 1: Part Two
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| government | part of state with legitimate governmental authority |
| regime | pattern of organization of government; characteristics are rules a state follows in exerting power |
| nation | group of people, identify as belonging together because of cultural, ethnic ties |
| nation-state | territorial unit controlled by a single state and governed by a single government |
| democracies | "will of the people;" usually 'indirect' where elected officials representing people, or 'direct' citizens have an immediate say (ex: Athens) |
| authoritarian | RULE BY COERCION; decisions made by political elites without much citizen input; have a lot of autonomy |
| executives / executive branch | carries out laws and policies of state; 2 kinds: head of state and head of gov - can be combined |
| head of state | symbolizes/represents state; may(not) have policy making power |
| head of government | deals with everyday running of state; directs activities of executive branch members |
| bureaucracies | agencies that implement government policy; a part of executive; expand as countries modernize; response to needs to improve health, security, welfare of citizens |
| characteristics of bureaucracies | hierarchial authority structure (chain of command); task specialization; clear goals; merit-based (performance based on productivity not connections) |
| legislative branch | makes the laws; bi or uni cameral; members determined in diff ways; some directly elected by voters, others selected by political party or by gov officials |
| bicameral | 2 houses - most usual; traced to GB's House of Lords/Commons |
| unicameral | 1 house |
| presidential system | citizens vote for president and separately for legislature; result is separation of powers that can lead to legislature gridlock |
| parliamentary system | citizens vote for only the leg. (parliament); prime minister emerges from leading party; results in fusion of powers that can expedite legislature |
| judiciary branch | adjudicates / interprets laws |
| civil code | if x happens, y is punishment; Russia, Mexico, China |
| legal precedent | look to other similar cases |
| judicial review | not necessary for democracy; ability to review laws and executive actions for constitutionality |
| tiers of court | original court, appellate, final court of appeal |
| institutionalization | political power is temporary unless turned into political institutions; dictators rarely are |
| poorly institutionalized | 3rd world countries; extra legal changes in leaders by revolutions or coups |
| well institutionalized | evolved over 100s of years; Mexico only started in 1920s |
| confederal system | spreads power among many sub units; weak central government; ex: switzerland |
| federal system | divides power between central gov and subunits; ex: US, russia, nigeria |
| unitary system | concentrates power in one geographic location; ex: china, iran, gb |
| social cleavages | divisions in society that interact with political system and implement policy; how are they represented? is selection of poli elites based on cleavages?; lead to instability |
| cumulative or polarizing cleavages | 2 opposing sides, strong fighting, separated |
| cross-cutting cleavages | all mixed up; pulling in all sorts of directions |
| social movement | organized collective activites by citizens; aim at changing or resisting policies; often feature leaders who step outside traditional mainstream society to affect social change; civil rights, anti-aparthied |
| civil society | organizations outside of state; helps people define / advance own interests; strong in democracy; composed of organizations that represent class, religion, ie interest outside of gov control |
| civil society cont. | act as check on power of state to prevent tyranny of majority or tendency to ignore rights/liberties of minorites; web of interest group outside government that holds it accountable |
| linkage institutions | identify groups that link citizens to government; political parties, interest groups, print and e-media |
| political parties | bring different people and ideas together for interest articulation and to hold politicians accountable; most dem have multi-party, 2 party is unusual |
| electoral systems | rules that determine how votes are cast, counted, and translated into selection for political office; first-past-the-post, proportional, mixed |
| first past the post | constituencies are divided into single-member districts in which canidates compete for single representative seats; plurality or winner takes all system; winner doesn't need majority, just more than everyone else |
| proportional representation | creates multi-member districts; more than one leg. seat is contested; voters cast ballot for party, not canidate; % of votes receives determines how many seats party will have; consensus democracy |
| mixed system | combines some seats elected by fptp and others by proportional |
| political implications of fptp | creates majoritarian democracies characterized by conflictional politics btw 2 major parties combined w/a strong executive and few checks on the majoirty to pass laws and amend the constitution (US) |
| poli implications of proportional and mixed | tend to create consensus democracies characterized by a multiparty system w/diffusion of power across branches and levels of gov; create conditions for coalition gov since no party has a sufficient majority to rule w/out support of smaller parties; weaker |
| relationship of state and citizens | pluralism vs corporatism vs clientalism |
| pluralism | state where poli power is dispersed among a large # of groups and interests; substantive democracies - no one group monopolized power; standard of social-welfare state (GB) |
| corporatism | state where major interest groups participate in state's decision-making process; key groups negotiate directly w/gov to determine economic and social policies; Mexico |
| clientalism | state where powerful patron offers resources to less powerful clients (voters) in exchange for support; patron-client relationship; roots in feudalism; Iran, Russia |
| political change in state | citizens may interact with state in attempt to affect political change in following ways: reform, dissidence, revolution, coup d'etat |
| reform | doesn't advocate overthrow of basic institutions, seeks to change some methods that political leaders use to realize society's goals; change from inside |
| dissidence | anti-gov behavior, falls short of toppling existing political regime of state; may not only be in pursuit of democracy as some may wish to replace one form of dictatorship with another |
| revolution | overthrow of one system of government of state and its replacement by another system; usually impact more than 1 area of life; more longterm than a coup d'état |
| coup d'etat | sudden overthrow of a gov usually by violent means; typically occur in countries where gov institutions are weak, leaders take control by force; PRAETORIANISM |
| economics | study of how people and societies allocate scarce resources (natural resources, goods, etc) |
| rational choice theory | people act on basis of calculated self-interest to increase own gains; economic activities benefitial to one person is usually negative for others |
| political economy | study of how communities pursue collective economic goals and deal with conflicts over economic factors in authoritarian way by government; relationship btw economy and state; how does eco affect politcs and vice versa |
| laissez-faire captialism | leaves people alone in business; true form: no gov regulation (business= good, workers=bad), most unregulated eco |
| market economy | ecosys where prices are determined by supply and demand "invisible hand"; Adam Smith, David Ricardo (iron law of wages), Malthus (not enough food) |
| social darwinism | society as whole would only improve if it encouraged individual economic achievement |
| centrally planned economies | societ union - all factories, farms, services controlled by gov agencies; fusion of state and economy, aka "command economy;" facilitates poli elites control over country |
| mixed economies | combines private & state involvement; diff degrees of capitalism; gov control can be direct or indirect |
| keynesianism | state's use of FISCAL AND MONETARY measures, public spending to promote growht in an economy in an eco dominated by private enterprise |
| public enterprises | state-owned firms; manages work force employed directly by state |
| privatization | transfer of state-owned enterprises to private |
| bureaucratic coordination | state plays direct and constant role in coordinating activities of private firms for natl. purposes |
| welfare states | type of mix eco where state assumes responsibility of welfare of population; ex: Nazi, New Deal; expanded post WWII; staglation = doubts in system; have difficulty coming up with the $ |
| GDP (Gross Domestic Product) | size & structure of eco; measure of eco size, $ value of all goods & services produced by a country in a year; not value of indiv. wealth or wealth of country, measure of productivity; can be misleading - difficult to give value of every eco affair |
| PPP (Purchasing Price Parity | doesn't account real value of natl currencies, over or undervalued relative to US$; to counteract, use this which corrects for anomalies in value of diff currencies; calculates GDP according ot purchasing power of natl currentcy |
| Per capita GDP | GDP most common of natl eco wealth, but doesn't account for pop size; this gives better idea of relative eco wealth in different countries; general gauge okay but can be misleading w/top 1% wealthiest |
| inflation | general increase in nation's price levels; tested by CPI (Consumer Price Index) |
| deflation | general decrease in nation's price levels |
| staglation | stagnant eco growht and inflation |
| fiscal policy | spend and taxing; purview of national legislature with greater or lesser guidance by executive |
| monetary policy | control interest rates and money supply; conducted by central band; may/not have less or greater autonomy |
| Questions to ask about political economy: | What produce? How? For whom? How they answer = economic system |
| capitalism | means of production, privately owned; supply/demand and prices; business free to direct resources into activities promising greatest profits; limited gov intervention; susceptible to business cycle (boom/bust) |
| Adam Smith | father of capitalism; Wealth of Nations = advantages of free market economy; laissez-faire; competition based on supply/demand "invisible hand" |
| socialism | gov. owned/operated, prices playing major role in allocation of resources; markets have some control; democracies w/elected officials, people direct allocation at resources in key industries; social-welfare state post WWII, combines socialism & capitalism |
| communism | pure= poli & eco control; property=collectively owned, labor for common good of community; "dictatorship of proletariat"= marx, Engles, becomes dictatorship; "COMMAND ECONOMIES" aspects of eco under direction of communist leaders |
| command economy | right to own property greatly restricted; industry owned by gov; competition and profit prohibited |
| market economy | right to own property = accepted, guaranteed; most include private owned by individual; competition/profit are not controlled by gov |
| neoliberal(ism) | big L Liberal, harking back to Adam Smith; laissez-faire style economics; less government involvement and control |
| Keynesian Fiscal Policies | Great Depression= failure of laissez-faire; instability of great d. from collapse of business spending could be offset by increased gov spending; keynesian eco came to stand for gov fiscal policies (taxing and spending policies) to stimulate the economy |
| monetarism (monitary policy) | control of money supply matters most cuz of it's impact on overal state of economy; reaction to inefficiencies of fiscal policies of Key-welfare state; MILTON FRIEDMAN; federal reserve should let money supply grow @ constant rate to avoid destablizing eco |
| quality of life index | relate to quality of life that affect policies |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | ranks countries as developed, developing, under-developed on per capita GDP, education, life expectancy |
| GINI index | measures income inequality; higher # over 0 = higher the inequality and the score of 1.0 (of 100) = total inequality where only 1 person controls all of a country's income |
| Gender Related Development Index (GDI) | indicator of standard of living in country among men and women; life expectancy, education level, estimated earned income; used with HDI |
| Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM): | inequalities between women and men in a country based on political participation and decision making, economic participation and decision making; power over eco resources |
| Corruption Perception Index (CPI) | published annually, ranks countries on scale of 0-100 to degree of corruption perceived among public officials; higher = less corruption |
| Environmental Performance Index (EPI) | quantify and numerically benchmarking enviro performance of a country's policies |
| Freedom in World ranking | state of political rights and civil liberties around the world used by policy makers, journalists; 1.0-2.5 = free; 3.0-5.0 = partly free; 5.0-70 = not free |
| ideologies | political culture shapes the ideologies; set of beliefs about function of politics and society; political values |
| elements of ideologies | perception, evaluation, perscription, movement |
| perception | things are going wrong, society going down wrong path |
| evauluation | of why; criticism of all or part of system |
| prescription | or cure for problem; moderate ideologies advocate reforms; extremists urge revolution and overthrow of current system |
| movement | formed to carry out cure; w/out party/movement, ideologies are just talk |
| types of ideologies | liberalism, communism, socialism, fascism, religious belifes |
| liberalism | emphasis on individual political and economic freedom; max freedom for all: speech, religion, association; citizens have right to disagree w/state decisions and act to change decisions of their leaders; public opinion generally has some political impact |
| communism | values equality over freedom; lib.dems are created by rich for rich; eliminate inequality and expolit by takeover of all resources of state; state insures eco equality, no private ownership; individual liberties give way to needs of society as whole, |
| socialism | value equality, influenced by value of freedom; unlike comm, accept private ownership, free market ideas; unlike dem state has strong role in regulating eco and providing benefits to public (ensure measure of equality); strong in Europe |
| fascism | ultranationalism, loyality to charismatic leader; accepts idea that people/groups have degrees of inferiority; state has right ot mold society and eco to eliminate obstacles (incl people) that might weaken it |
| religious beliefs | source of group identity; adv. dems have separation of church and state, but religion serves as basis for interest gorups and voluntary associations w/in civil society; plays varying roles |
| attitudes toward political change | marxist, social democratic, progressive, moderate, conservative, libertarian, reactionary |
| radicalism | belief that rapid, dramatic changes need to be made in existing poli sys; current sys can't be saved, overturn and replaces w/something better |
| liberalism | reform and change rather than revolution; liberal attitude doesn't mean liberalism as poli ideology; system is broken, but work through sys, not against; gradual change is best |
| conservatism | less supportive of change in general; change as disruptive, can bright unforeseen outcomes; state/regime= important sources of law&order that might be threatened by making significant changes |
| reactionary beliefs | further to protect against change than conservative beliefs; oppose revolution and refrom, find status quo unacceptable; turn back clock to earlier era, reinstate old institutions; more willing to use violence than liberals or conservatives |
| social democrats | historically supported nationalization of major industries, stopped short of overthrow of capitalism; today, abandoned nationalization, concentrating on benefits of social welfare state |
| marxists | advocate gaining control of government in name of working class; collective ownership of property |
| hybrid economy | social democratic/Marxist |
| conservative | smaller government supporting stronger property rights, less regulation of economy, less income redistribution; less involved, no dramatic change |
| liberatarian | emphasize minimal role for government in people's lives; oppose gov poli desinged to remake society, like efforts @ income/wealth redistribution |
| reactionaries | advocate a return to a more traditional society; turning clock back |
| policymaking | pivotal process where bill becomes law, edicts issued by rules |
| constitution | set of rules/principles adopted by gov; doesn't need to be one document; based on rule of law; decision rules |
| rule of law | government can't act if not authoritized by law (gov not above law) |
| decision rules | gov how decisions are made; confers power to propose policies to specific groups of institutions; inclusive or exclusive |
| inclusive decision rules | more voters involved; more protection of rights of minorities, prevents hasty decisions |
| exclusive decision rules | less voters involved |
| making consitutions | post WWII period & fall of SU, # of new govs and constitutions created; rise to debate about powers that they confer on certain branches of gov and efficacy |
| democracy vs authoritarian | most importatn distinction; dem= indirect participation in policymaking, delegated to elected officials; author= policymaking chosen by military councils, hereditary families, dominant parties; citizens either ignored/pressed into symbolic assent of polic |
| differences in decision making dimensions | 1. separation of powers among different branches of gov 2. geographic distribution of authority btw central (natl) gov and subnational units 3. limitations of gov authority |
| separation of powers: democratic president | exec & leg separate; branches have fixed terms; ultimate power to authorize legislation in leg. branch; executive powers of prez can vary; coordination essential btw branches; Mexico, Nigeria |
| separation of powers: parliamentary system | exec & leg interdependent; only leg directly elected; PM/cabinet emerge from leg; neither branch has fixed term but can be voted out of office @ any time when PM fails vote of confidence; less likely to be divided (fusion of powers) - no separation |
| separation of powers: semipresident regimes | combines both; prez & leg separately elected in prez system, prez has power to dissolve leg like pari sys; PM/cabinet may be appointed by prez, as in prez pregimes, but are subject to dissmissal by the leg as under parl; Russia |
| geographical distributions of government power | unitary, federal, confederal |
| unitary | most common; power in concentrated in one geo. location; GB, China, Iran |
| federal | national gov shares power w/sub-national units; Russia, Mexico, Nigeria |
| confederal | power is shared equally among sub-national units; Switzerland |
| limitations on gov power | dems have some; written constitution, statutes, customs are basis of many limits on constit. regimes; civil rights protected by gov; courts= independent, judicial review, deter if gov have exceeded powers allocated by constitution |
| GB's constitution | acts of Parliament, common law, tradition; far less decision rules than US |
| stare decisis | previous judicial decisions create binding precedence |
| public policy | authoritative public decisions that govs make; output or activity of political institutions |
| criteria used to judge political parties | based on normative citeria - "political goods and values" |
| how do govs differ as producers of goods and services? | communist= gov controls industries as private ownership not allowed (China exception); capitalist= free market societies, gov controls small # of producers of goods/services; socialist=gov often owns large # of critical producers of goods and services |
| 4 outputs of pub policies | extraction of resources; distribution of monetary goods and services; regulation of behavior; symbolic policies |
| extraction | taxation- most common, no immediate benefit; progressives (higher income, higher the tax) vs regressive (lower income, affects you more); issue: equity (how %, who gets benefits) |
| direct taxation | income and property tax |
| indirect tax | sales, VAT, excise taxes, customs duties |
| quantity of what is / who benefits (devolped vs developing) | developed= allocate 50% of gov expenditures to education, health and welfare; developing countries spend very little on health and education (Catch 22); spending on natl security varies among developed and developing countries depending on threats |
| trends in distribution of policies since 20th century | + in distrib poli, esp in "welfare states;" emphasize achieving equity by providing services (old age pensions, health care), distribute benefits accompanied by high rates of taxation |
| regulation | excercise of political control over behavior of indiv and groups in society; grown due to demands from industrialization; 1- aspect degree; 2- limitations on enforcement; 3- sanctions used to compel compliance |
| symbolic policies | justify legitimacy - further natl identity, civil pride, gov trust; encourage citizens to pay taxes, comply w/laws; ranges from appeals by leader to parades, indoctrination, monuments, etc |
| measures domestic welfare outcomes | examine effectiveness of pub.poli by examining welfare outcomes (sanitation, health, education); developed countries have higher literacy rates, lower mortality, fertility rates than developing countries do |
| measure domestic security outcomes | w/out, conduct of personal, economic, civil life impossible; |
| high crime rates | development of rural migration into cities, inequality of incomes, unemployment |
| low crime rates | strong and fair law enforcement; Japan = homogeneous and hierarchical |
| why do international outputs vary | spending on intnl activities, economy, diplomatic etc have strong effects; economic aid may be tied to domestic production & boost domestic eco benefiting the gov w/higher taxes; military outputs = strong defense but limit welfare outputs |
| issues w/public policy | equity, conflict/debate, effectiveness |
| equity | how fair are policies to citizens; equally or disproportionate advantages or burden; ex: taxes |
| conflict/debate | how public policies address c/d over issues in society; policies reflect majority or small interest groups; ex: gay rights, civil rights |
| effectiveness | how effective are govs in the implementation of public policies; ex: Obamacare |
| democratization | transition from nondemocracy -> procedural democracy -> substantive democracy |
| conditions for democracy | 1. selection of elites based on free/fair elections; 2. poli parties free to exist/compete 3. due process/transparency in gov polimaking 4. all citizens have civil/pli rights, incl vote 5. powerful, indie judiciary, protect citizen rights |
| procedural (transitional) democracy | newly established and are lacking 1 or more conditions for dem gov; Nigeria, Russia |
| consolidated (substantive) democracy | long established dem institutions w/adherence to dem principles; GB |
| preconditions for consolidation democracy | 1. civil society/civil culture; 2. poli society of rules, institutions, processes; 3. rule of law; 4. professional, permanent, apolitical bureaucracy; 5. eco society has freedom w/in limits |
| civil society | web of membership in social and political groups; free of state control, outside state; web of interest groups outside gov that is conducive to dem, can be groups or individuals; HOLDS GOV ACCOUNTABLE |
| qualifications of democracy | 1. can be inequitable; 2. no country is 100%; 3. contentiousness of issues often result in loser believing decision is illegitimate; 4. eco inequalities stack deck against poor; 5. diff institutional types of |
| democratization | process by which a nation-state moves from non-democracy thru procedural to fully consolidated substantive dem |
| 3 big times of democratization | 1. 19/20th century (US, UK, France, Canada, etc) 2. post WWII, empires crumbled and fascism failed 3. 1970-90s communism and USSR failed, authoritarian regimes saw corrupt leaders lose legitimacy |
| illiberal democracy | the appearance of dem, Potemkin Village; underlying factors don't exist to much extent |
| electoral authoritarian | non-democracies who pretend to be democratic |
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