POL 114 Lecture Flashcards
What is politics?
Collective action, cooperation, authority, power, accountability, institutions, exchange of stuff
Laswell politics definition
Who gets what, when, and how
Easton politics definition
The authoritative allocation of values for a society
What are the stages of development for modern political science?
1900- 1940- further discussion of politics, traditional phase, lack of comparison; described the elements of gov, focus on normative systems of governance
1950- 1960- behavioral revolution following WW2, became more comparative, unit of analysis shifted to individuals and their motives, methods became more scientific
1970- 1980- post developmentalism, world economy became modernized, studied dependency on industrialized world from developing countries, more scientific methods
What is easton’s political system?
The demands and supports inputted into the center of a system, the president, chief, collective etc, respond to the inputs with decisions and actions, no matter the scale or type of political system; creates a feedback loop in theory, every decision or action creates new demands and supports and so on
What are the elements of ideal democracy?
Multi party, competitive system, citizens have a voice, free and fair elections, representative gov, anyone capable of running for office, checks on power, accountability, competing policy platforms, protected rights
What is dahls theory of democracy?
Book polyarchy, 1971; democracy is the continuing responsiveness of government to preferences of its equal systems, should be the rule of the many (polyarchy)
What is dahls framework for mapping governments?
Square with frames which shows where governments land based on their respective amounts of liberalization (freedom to disagree and compete) and inclusiveness (who can participate). Allows for change and shows where governments move, and the gradations and types of regimes possible; creates spectrum
What is populism?
A method of campaigning, not a party or political system; leaders have common strategies: them vs us mentality, common enemies, the corrupt elites, vague policy plans, no real solutions to problems, destruction of current institutions, charismatic and energized leadership
What is the difference between a command and market economy?
Command, gov makes all economic decisions; market, free trading and individual decisions
All world economies are mixed economies, elements of both types
What are the elements of a presidential system?
Direct elections, separation of power, checks and balances, president is both head of state/ gov, fixed terms, concentrated power, law making with checks
Out of 20 richest countries, only 1 is presidential (US)
What are elements of a parliamentary system?
Indirect elections, fused executive and legislative branch, separate heads of state/ gov, mutual confidence, cabinet based government, parliamentary sovereignty
What are the problems of presidential regimes?
Fixed terms, double minority presidencies (lacks legitimate majority), inflexibility (all or nothing), dual legitimacies (questioning of power), zero sum game (winner takes all), incentive structure, election of outsiders, personalization of power (same head of state and gov)
What are the problems of parliamentary systems (bad ones)?
Less decisive, not more moderated, excessive government turnover, not less prone to personalization of power, lacks checks and balances, difficulty informing government, legislative blackmail
Why are the problems of parliamentary systems solved by strong ones?
Specific designs aid effectiveness; constructive vote of no confidence, need a strong enough coalition to build up before shooting down, minimum threshold of vote needed to enter government, reduces regionalization and prevalence of small parties, moderate election systems, need higher percentage of votes to win; design of the systems is most important factor