Terms Flashcards
(80 cards)
1
Q
Legitimacy
A
- the acceptance of authority
- power needs to be legitimized in order for its exercise to be stable
2
Q
Power
A
-application of force (imposition of will) upon someone else with or without their consent
3
Q
Authority
A
- the exercise of power that is considered legitimate by those who are subject to that power
- power is rendered legitimate through its conversion into authority
4
Q
Charismatic Authority
A
-authority which is legitimated by virtue of the personal characteristics of the leader
5
Q
Traditional Authority
A
-authority which is legitimated through traditional procedures for selecting leaders
6
Q
Rational-Legal Authority
A
- authority of governmental authorities is based on law
- most stable basis for establishing legitimacy and power
7
Q
Ideal Type
A
- analytical tool where one attempts to identify the key defining elements of something as away of classifying it
- developed by Max Weber
8
Q
State of Nature
A
- no law, no religion, and every person is out for themselves
- by Thomas Hobbes
9
Q
Thomas Hobbes
A
- 17th century writer
- believed that a state with no exercising of raw power is “nasty, poor, brutish, and short”
10
Q
The State
A
???????
11
Q
Sovereignty
A
-supreme power or authority
12
Q
Nationalism
A
-patriotic feelings, principles, or efforts
13
Q
The Harm Principle
A
- actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm of other individuals
- John Stuart Mill
14
Q
Negative Freedom
A
- absence of psychical and legal restraints on our activities
- Ex. The Harm Principle
15
Q
Positive Freedom
A
-freedom must also involve a positive power or capacity to do something worth while
16
Q
Equality
A
-the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities
17
Q
Equality of Opportunity
A
- giving everyone an equal chance to get ahead in life, regardless of background of the person
- This is the key element to liberal political thought
18
Q
Equality of Outcome
A
-consists of trying to reduce or eliminate differences in distribution of wealth, income, power, and other goods
- assistance to the less advantaged
- ex. Free health care and education
19
Q
Athenian Democracy
A
-system of direct democracy through which all citizens meet in an assembly 10 times per year
- officials chosen by lottery for limited terms
- citizenship excluded women, slaves, and foreign born
20
Q
Direct Democracy
A
-all citizens entitled to meet and discuss and make governing decisions
- impractical unless living in a small geographic location
- ex. New England Town and Swiss cantons
21
Q
Liberal-Representative Democracy
A
- free competition of candidates and political parties to elect representatives to legislature
- elected officials represent the people and are accountable to them
-most commonly used form of democracy
22
Q
Plebiscitary Democracy
A
- uses referendums, initiatives, and recall elections to give citizens greater control
- attempts to give citizens a more direct way of participating in decision-making
-ex. Switzerland, Italy, and most states
23
Q
Referendum
A
- citizens vote on particular issue or proposed law
- ex. Charlotte Town Accord
24
Q
Recall
A
……
25
Initiatives
…….
26
Deliberative Democracy
- decisions made through discussion by free and equal citizens
- people involved through discussion rather than voting
27
Ideology
-more or less a consistent set of beliefs about the nature of the society in which individuals live and the proper role of the state in establishing or maintaining that society
28
Classical Liberalism
- ideology of the individual, was the reaction to the organic state of the Middle Ages
- emphasis on freedom and autonomy
-achieved through limited state
29
Utilitarianism
- if we want to maximize well-being of society as whole, we have to maximize the opportunities of every individual to maximize their well-being (laissez-faire)
- form of liberalism
30
Conservatism
-try to reclaim something that is past, or preserve something from change
- evolved from classical liberalism
- means "to conserve"
31
Toryism
- ideology of community
- emphasis on importance of aristocracy and nobility
- opposed to equality of liberalism
- emphasis on hierarchy of social place
32
Scientific Socialism
- theories are held to an empirical standard, observations are essential to its development, and these can result in changes and/or falsification of elements of the theory
- Karl Marx
33
Historial Materialism
-history moves forward according to certain dialectical rules
34
Dialectics
- the art of discussing or investigating the truth of opinions
- thesis > anti thesis > synthesis
35
Thesis
-state or theory put forward as a premise to be maintained
36
Antithesis
-a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else
37
Synthesis
-combination or composition
38
Social Democracy
-transition to socialism
39
Revolutionary Socialism
…...
40
Post-War Consensus/ Keynesianism
-post-war consensus was the emergence of Reform Liberalism
41
Neo-Liberalism
- emphasis on economic sphere and role of the state
| - less concern about social conservative and morality issues -- these are seen as beyond the interests of the state
42
Neo-Conservatism
-linked to social conservatism around issues of morality and religion
43
Political Culture
-encompasses many elements concerning intellectual dispositions that people have about politics
44
Political Efficacy
-attitude that individuals can have an impact on political decisions and that government is responsive to what people want
45
Electoral System
-mechanism for transforming preferences of citizens (voters) into allocation of offices at stake
46
Single-Member-Plurality Electoral System
-each constituency returns one individual who is the person with the most votes and doesn't have to be a majority of votes
- simplest electoral system, most popular form
- ex. Canada, US, Britain
47
District Magnitude
-how many candidates are elected per con
48
Effective Threshold
……..
49
First-Past-The-Post Electoral System
each constituency returns one individual who is the person with the most votes and doesn't have to be a majority of votes
50
Preferential Ballot/ Alternative Vote System
- voters rank all candidates in order of preferences -- if no candidates wins a majority based on first preferences votes, then candidate with least number of first preferences votes is eliminated and their ballots are redistributed among remaining candidates
- this system is in Australia
51
Single Member Majority System
- combined single-meber constituencies with elements that ensure majority outcomes
- France and Australia use this kind of model
52
Proportional Representation
-percentage of seats won should correspond with percent of votes received
53
List System
- candidates for each party are presented to a voter on a list
- voters can vote for a "party" or a "list"
54
Mixed-Member-Proportional System
- attempts to combine the virtues of proportional representation systems with the advantages of constituency representation
- becoming more and more popular
55
Constitutional Conventions
- practices, traditions, and customs about how the state operates
- conventions are part of constitution, but not "enforceable"
56
Fusion of Powers
- executive and legislative functions are not formally separated but integrated through overlapping memberships
- West Minister System - parliamentary system
57
Separation of Powers
- executive is entirely separate from the legislature
| - Madisionian system
58
Checks and Balances
- safeguards intended to ensure that no one branch is able to become too powerful
- this is the relationship between the 3 branches
59
Federalism
-the division of the state
- state is segmented and operates across a number of different levels
- the levels are institutional and jurisdictional
60
Common Law System
- the part of English law that is derived from custom and judicial precedent rather than statutes
- used by federal government and all provinces (minis Quebec)
61
Civil Law System
- the system of law concerned with private relations between members of a community rather than criminal, military, or religious affairs
- used by Quebec for private law (family, contracts, etc.)
62
Rule of Law
-the rulers (government officials) must follow the law
63
Public Law
- rules that govern relationships and disputes with a public dimension
- administrative, criminal, constitutional
64
Private Law
- rules that govern relationships and disputes between individuals/business
- tort, family, contract, property
65
Administrative Law
- provides legal standards to govern actions of governmental officials and provide remedies to those aggrieved by an improper, illegal, or unauthorized act by the government or on of its agencies
- ex. Ontario Liquor License Act
66
Supreme Court of Canada
-sec. 101 court that holds the most power of all the courts
67
Appeal Court
-primarily hears appeals from federal administrative tribunals
68
Trial Court
….
69
Mass Party
- parties that depend on large membership, which remains active between elections
- most parties display mix of mass and cadre parties
70
Cadre Party
- parties controlled by parliamentary representatives
- the party exists to carry out the leadership
-Liberals and Conservatives are cadre parties
71
Brokerage Party
- seek to build support from all different sources within society, also called "catch-all parties"
- a product of FPP system
72
Representative Function (parties)
….
73
Legislative Branch
…..
74
Executive Branch
…..
75
Interest Group
…..
76
Social Movement
…..
77
Policy Community
…..
78
Sub-Government
…..
79
Attentive Public
…..
80
Social Movement Organization
…...
