Comparitive Politics Flashcards
(87 cards)
1
Q
What is a government
(2 definitions)
A
- The institutions and structures through which societies are governed; Reaching and executing binding decisions for society
- The top tier within these institutions
2
Q
What is Governance?
A
It is the process of coordinating decisions, laws and policies.
3
Q
What is politics?
(3 definitions)
A
- Communicating , negotiating and reconciling different interests within a social group
- Reaching and implementing Collective decisions
- Conflict over the distributions of resources.
4
Q
What is Power?
A
The “ability” to bring about intended effects
5
Q
What is Authority?
A
It is the “Right” to exercise power.
6
Q
What is legitimacy?
A
It means that your authority is widely recognized and accepted by your subjects and by other governments
7
Q
What is an ideology?
A
It is a system of connected believes, shared view of the world or a blueprints for how politics, economic and society should be structured.
8
Q
What are the 5 main ideologies?
A
- Anarchism
- Marxism
- Liberalism
- Conservatism
- Fascism
9
Q
What is a state?
A
It is the legal and political authority of a territory containing a population marked by borders.
10
Q
What are the 5 characteristics of a state?
A
- Territory
- Population
- Government
- Legitimacy
- Sovereignty
11
Q
What is a citizen?
A
It is a full member of a state, entitled to the rights and subject to the duties associated with the status.
12
Q
What is Sovereignty?
A
It means to be recognized as the highest role within a state by its citizens(internal) and be recognized by other states as well(external).
13
Q
What is a nation?
A
It is a group of people that claims they identify with one another because they share the same history, culture, traditions, myths, language, and often make a claim to a particular territory as their homeland.
14
Q
What is Nationalism?
A
It is the belief that a group of people with a common national identity has the right to form an independent state and to govern itself free from external intervention.
15
Q
What is a nation-state?
A
It is a sovereign political association whose citizens share a common national identity.
16
Q
What is a Multi-National state?
A
State compromising different national groups but under the same government.
17
Q
What are the Features of democracy?
A
-representative system of government based on regular elections
-Well-defined, stable and predictable political institutions
-A wide variety of political participation
-Limits on the power of government
-An active opposition
-Free and independent media
18
Q
What is a representative democracy?
A
It is a democracy in which the people elect representatives, which share similar interests, to make decisions in their behalf.
19
Q
What is Direct Democracy?
A
It is a system in which the citizens decide directly without electing representatives.
20
Q
What are the decision rules in a democracy?
A
-Unanimity
-Consensus
-Qualified majority
-Absolute majority
-Simple Majority
-Plurality
21
Q
What is the liberal democracy?
A
It is a representative democracy in which the power of the government is very limited by constitutional protection of individual rights.
22
Q
What is an authoritarian rule?
A
It is the opposite of liberal democracy, it is a government that does not represent the people, it has a very centralized government, it represses the opposition, and has a lot of control over the media.
23
Q
What are hybrid regimes?
A
It is a type of regime that appears to be democracy but it is quite authoritarian.
24
Q
What is Absolute monarchy?
A
It is a type of authoritarian rule which has a monarch hold absolute power over a state
25
What is Personal Rule?
It is a type of authoritarian rule in which the authority is not based on the office held but rather the person who holds it.
26
What is ruling parties?
It is a type of authoritarian regime in which the state is controlled by one party, no other parties are legally allowed to exist.
27
What is Military government?
It is a type of authoritarian regime in which the government is ruled by the military, so the military is the government.
28
What is Theocracy?
it is a type of authoritarian regime in which the priests of a specific religion are act as rulers of the state claiming they are ruling under the will of god
29
What is a Totalitarian state?
It is the most absolute form of authoritarianism, based on a guiding ideology, with total control exercised by a leader, state or a party over all aspects of public and private life.
30
What is a constitution?
It is a document that outlines the powers, institutions and structure of government.
31
What is the rule of law?
It is a principle that societies are best governed using clear and just laws to all residents are subject to regardless of their status or background.
32
Who is the responsible for enforcing the constitution?
The judicial power is the responsible of enforcing the constitution.
33
What is the Executive?
It is the top level in a government, it is compromised by 3 levels: national, regional and local.
34
What are the 3 types of Executive?
-Presidential: government is headed by a powerful president, whom all ministers are accountable.
-Constitutional: Government emerges from parliament and it is accountable to parliament
-Semi-Presidential: government is headed by a president who shares power with a prime minister, the prime minister and other ministers are accountable to the president and the parliament
35
What is the Presidential executive?
An arrangement in which the executive and the legislature are separately and directly elected, and have separate powers and responsibilities.
36
What is Parliamentary Executive?
It is a system in which the executive power emerges from the legislative power, and it is accountable to it, it must maintain the majority in parliament to remain in office.
37
What are the 3 branches of government?
Executive: carrying out laws
Legislative: Making laws
Judicial: enforcing laws
38
What is the legislature?
It is a multi-member representative body which considers public issues and accepts, amends or rejects proposals for new laws and policies.
39
What are the 6 functions of the legislature?
1.Representing the people
2.Legislating
3.Authorizing expenditure
4.Making the government
5.Deliberating
6.Overseeing the government
40
What its the Formalistic way?(representative)
The people are represented if the rules for representation are met.
41
What its the Descriptive way?(representative)
The people are represented if the legislation is composed the same way as society. (if 50% of society are women, 50% of the legislature should be women)
42
What its the Symbolic way?(representative)
The people are represented if legislators are seeing as approachable and competent.
43
What its the Substantive way?(representative)
The people are represented if legislators respond to and serve the best interest of their voters.
44
What its the Collective way?(representative)
The people are represented if the legislators represent the interests of all voters not just the ones that voted for their party.
45
What is Legislating?
It is process of review of laws proposed by the government or lobbyist and pressure groups which ends in either a pass, amend or fail of the law or policy proposed by the above groups.
46
What does it mean to authorize expenditure?
It means that in order to carry out the government budget expenditure, it first needs to be accepted by the legislature.
47
What does it mean by making the Government?
In countries with the legislative executive, the legislature is responsible for appointing a head of government which is accountable to the legislative.
48
What is Deliberating?
It means discussing matters of public importance, it can be done in a general discussion or specialized committees.
49
What does it mean by oversighting the government?
It means scrutinizing, monitoring and controlling the government by asking questions to ministers, an interpellation or emergency debate.
50
How many chambers does normally a legislature has?
Normally has 1 chamber, those are called Unicameral, but some legislatures have 2 chambers, they are called Bicameral, the smaller chamber is usually called the senate.
51
How is the legislature in federal states?
Normally the task of making laws is shared between the national and regional government, the regions are represented in the senate, but they do have autonomy in some matters such as education and healthcare.
52
Reasons for a legislature in authoritarian regime?
-To provide a fig leaf of legitimacy(an illusion)-To co-opt moderate opponents
-To give space for lobbying without compromising the regime
-To provide a pool of potential recruits to the elite
53
How are the elections in representative democracies?
The legislature is filled thorugh elections.
54
What is a first-order election?
It means an election of great importance.
55
What is a second-order election?
It is an election regarded as less or not as important as first-order elections
56
What are electoral systems?
They are the rules governing how an election should be carried out.
57
What are some of the rules outlined in the electoral system?
-The structure of the ballot: how many candidates are listed per party
-The electoral formula: rules of how many voters are converted into seats
-districting:rules in how the country's territory is divided into separate voting districts.
58
What are the 4 types of electoral systems?
-Plurality system
-Majority system
-Proportional Representation
-Mixed systems
59
What is a plurality system?
It is a system in which the country is divided into districts, each district has one seat in the legislature, seat is gained by the candidate who obtained more votes.
60
What is Majority system?
It is a system in which the country is divided into districts, each district has one seat in the legislature, seat is gained by the candidate who obtained more than 50% of the votes, if no candidate obtained more than 50% a second election is organized.
61
What is proportional representation?
It means that the number of seats gained by a party is proportional to the votes it won. so if a party obtains 1% of the votes, it also receives 1% of the seats in the legislature.
62
What is a mixed system?(electoral system)
It is a system that involves characteristics of both plurality system and proportional representation.
63
What is Political culture?
It is the sum of individual values and norms regarding politics and political systems.
64
What is Elite Political culture?
The values and norms regarding politics and political systems of those closer to centres of political power.
65
What is civic culture?
It is a moderate political culture in which most people accept the obligation to participate in politics while acknowledging the authority of the state and its rights to take decisions.
66
What is Post-Materialism?
A set of values emphasizing the quality of life over materialistic values such as economic growth and physical security.
67
What is Political Trust?
The belief that rulers are generally well-intentioned and effective in serving the interests of the governed.
68
What is the Political culture in authoritarian states?
Rulers pick out those elements of culture that serves their own political ambitions and use those to realize these ambitions.
69
What is political Participation?
Any ways in which people can seek to influence the composition, or policies, of a government.
70
What is the pattern of participation in liberal democracies?
It is that most of people are political spectators, keeping an eye on political developments, the apathetic, who disregard politics altogether and the gladiators that fight the political battle.
71
What is the Law of increasingly proportion?
The higher the level of authority, the greater the representation of high social-status groups.
72
What is political exclusion?
People discouraged from taking part in or are effectively excluded from participating in any form of collective decision-making.
73
What is Conventional participation?
It is a participation that is within formal politics and the law. (Voting in elections, joining political parties, Joining interest groups, Contacting elected representatives).
74
What is Unconventional participation?
It is a participation that is outside of formal politics and the law. (taking part in peaceful demonstrations or protests, mobilizing or expressing opinions through social media, signing petitions).
75
What is Illegal participation?
It is a participation that follows civil disobedience(not paying taxes, refusing to take part in military service) sabotaging efforts of parties, politically motivated crime.
76
What is a Political party?
It is a group identified by name and ideology that fields candidates at elections in order to win public office and control government
77
What are the 3 types of political parties?
Party of "notables": consist of rich, social influential people who have their own local power base.
Mass Party: This party emerges from parliament, it consist of many members and it normally requires a membership fee.
Catch-All Party: It works to attract people with a wide variety of political views and ideologies.
78
What are the roles of political parties?
The main function is to field candidates at elections, but they serve other functions such as:
-Government
-Guidance
-Aggregating interests
-Mobilization
-Recruiting and preparing candidates for office
-Controlling society
79
What is a party system?
It is a system in which rather than looking at a party in specific, we should look at all parties as a whole and how do they interact with each other.
80
What are the 5 types of party systems?
1. No-party system
2. Single-Party system
3. Dominant party system
4. Two-party system
5. Multiple-party system
81
What is a no-party system?
It is a system in which no political party is allowed to exist, or no parties have been formed.
82
What is a single-party system?
Only one party is allowed to exist, usually found on communist states.
83
What is Dominant-party systems?
A system where there are multiple parties but one party is almost always in government.
84
What is a two-party system?
A system where 2 parties of comparable size compete to form single-party governments.
85
What is a multi-party system?
A system where the assembly is composed of several minority parties, leading to government by coalition or leading to government by one minority party.
86
What are interest groups?
It is a body of people outside government that works to influence public policy.
87
What are 3 channels of influence?(interest groups)
-Direct influence: discussion with the policy makers
-Indirect influence: through public opinion
-Lobbying: any person or organization that works on behalf of groups or individuals to make an effort to influence the decision made by elected officials or bureaucrats.
