comp6 Flashcards
the three institutions considered as forms of checks and balances on the political system
federalism, bicameralism, constitutionalism
federalism, bicameralism, constitutionalism are seen as _
institutional veto players
what are institutional veto players
influence how easily the political status quo can be changed in a country
with institutional veto players, political scientists make distinction between democracies in terms of
the type of governments, the type of electoral system employed, and the type of party system. This chapter examines institutional dimensions of democracies
according to political scientists, countries can be
federal or unitary
federalism
countries are “federal in structure “ or “federal in practice”
With federalism in structure, A country must meet the following. criteria to be federal.
-Geopolitical division
-independence
-direct governance
-geopolitical division
the country is divided into mutually exclusive regional governments per the constitution and that cannot be unilaterally abolished by the national government
independence
the regional and national governments must have independent authority bases. this is through having the elected independent ly of one another
direct governance
the authority is shared between the two governments, so that each citizen is under at least two authorities with each government (constitutionally) given authority act independently of the other in at least one policy.
with federalism in structure, there are different variations of federalism. they can be
congruent, incongruent (ethnic federalism)
congruent
the territorial units of a federal state have the same demographic makeup. With the perfect congruent federal system having territorial units that are an exact reflection of the country as a whole. USA and Brazil are examples
Incongruent (ethnic federalism)
the territorial units differ among the units the country as a whole. Various demographic groups in a country are geographically concentrated. Examples are Belgium and Switzerland
federalism in structure can also be
symmetrical, asymmetrical
Symmetrical
territorial units of a federal county have equal powers relative to the central government. In the US, the constitution gives each state equal standing and power vis a vis the central government
asymmetrical
some units of a federal county have more extensive powers than others relative to the central government. this is to meet the needs from ethnic, linguistic, demographic, or cultural differences between the seperate sub-national units. In Canada, the french speaking quebec province has more autonomy relative to the central government than the other nine english speaking ones- pension plan. immigration and employment autonomy.
With federalism in structure, a country’s _lets us know whether a country is federal.
constitution
with decentralization (federalism in practice), the degree to which the power to make policy lies with the national or regional governments in both unitary and federal states is a -
determinant of the extent to which political scientists see these countries as centralized or decentralized. (looking at the constitution can be misleading.)
with federalism in practice, and these challenges, political scientists frequently use the tax revenue percentage collected by the central government as
a measure of state centralization. This is referred to as fiscal (de) centralization
with government in practice, The scope of policymaking activities at any one government level is dependent on
its share of tax revenue collection. Therefore, the higher the share of tax revenues collected by the central government, the more centralized the country and the lower the share the more decentralized the government
In sum, political scientist see federalism as a –, and decentralization as a –
constitutional issue, budgetary one
why federalism?
- coming-together federalism
- holding together federalism
what is coming together federalism
is from a bottoms-up bargaining process in which previously sovereign polities came together and voluntarily agree to pool their resources to improve their collective security and accomplish goals such as economic goals, increased trade and a common currency (Riker, 1964) - USA, Australia, and Switzerland
what is holding together federalism
on the other hand is an outcome of the top-down process in which the central government of a polity decides to decentralize its power to subnational governments. This happens in multiethnic countries where the government is threatened by one or more geographically concentrated “ethnic group” that wishes to secede
