Comparative Politics, State Emergence, and Postcolonial Territory

Vocabulary flashcards generated from political science lecture notes covering foundational terms, comparative methods, social contract theory, regimes, state emergence, and postcolonial state critiques.

Comparative Method

A method used by political scientists to compare political systems across countries, taking into account different factors to measure effects and comprehend how countries function without relying on inaccurate generalizations.

Traditional Authority

Power based on customs, traditions, and long-standing beliefs, where people obey because it reflects how things have always been done (e.g., kings, patriarchs).

Charismatic Authority

Power based on belief in the extraordinary or exceptional qualities of a leader (e.g., war heroes, prophets, political party leaders).

Legal-Rational Authority

Power based on laws, rules, and formal institutions, where people obey officials due to the authority of their position rather than personal qualities.

Normative Theory

A theoretical approach that specifies how things ought to be.

Empirical Theory

A theoretical approach that establishes relationships between two or more concepts to explain the occurrence of political phenomena.

Ontology

The study of being, which concerns what can be studied and compared in the political world, such as observable institutions, countries, and events.

Epistemology

The study of the nature of knowledge, concerning what knowledge of the political world is possible and the rules of inquiry scholars follow.

Methodology

The study of different methods or systems of methods used to acquire knowledge in a given field of inquiry.

Cases

The countries or units that feature in comparative political analysis.

Units of Analysis

The objects about which a scholar collects data, such as people, countries, social movements, or institutions.

Dependent Variable

The political outcome that research aims to explain.

Independent Variable

The variable that explains or influences the dependent variable.

Micro Level of Analysis

An analytical perspective that examines the political activity of individual actors, such as survey respondents, elites, or activists.

Macro Level of Analysis

An analytical perspective that focuses on groups of individuals, structures of power, social classes, and economic processes.

Most Similar Systems Design

A comparative selection strategy that controls variables by comparing cases that share many similar characteristics but differ in key outcomes.

Most Different Systems Design

A comparative selection strategy that controls variables by comparing highly diverse cases that nevertheless share a specific common outcome.

Anarchy

A lack of societal structure and order where there is no central leadership or established hierarchy of power.

Social Contract

A formal or informal agreement between rulers and those who are ruled within a society.

Voluntary Social Contract

A social contract in which people willingly agree to submit to a ruling class.

Involuntary Social Contract

A social contract in which a ruling class dominates a given territory and demands obedience from the population.

Implicit Social Contract

A social contract arrangement into which individuals are born.

Representative Democracy

A political system where citizens elect representatives to make laws and societal rules on their behalf.

Feudalism

A medieval social order in which peasants were forced to provide members of status with loyalty, crops, and goods.

State

A national-level group or organization which administers its own legal and government policies within a designated region or territory.

Nation

A population of people joined by a common culture, history, language, and identity within a designated territory.

Country

A concept similar to a nation that has aspects of both nation and state, which may contain one or more states or change state type over time.

Power

The ability to get others to do what you want them to do.

Soft Power

The ability to influence others to do what you want through persuasion or manipulation.

Hard Power

The ability to compel others to do what you want through aggression or physical violence.

Legitimacy

A state's ability to establish itself as a valid authority over its citizens.

Authority

Having the recognized power to get things done.

Federal State

A system where power is shared and balanced between the national government and subunits like cities or provinces.

Unitary State

A political system where power rests primarily within the central national government.

Confederate State

An uncommon political arrangement where power mostly resides within regional subunits with a weak central government.

Protectorate

An area or nation that is managed or possessed by a different state.

Monarchy

A regime type where leadership is held by one person based on birth or bloodline.

Dictatorship

A regime type where a single ruler holds absolute charge.

Aristocracy

A regime type governed by a few individuals.

Oligarchy

A regime type governed by a small group of wealthy elites.

Junta

A regime type governed by a small group of military officers.

Internal Sovereignty

A state's supreme authority to rule over all people and property within its borders.

External Sovereignty

A state's independence and equal recognized status among other nations on the global stage.

State Capacity

The ability of a state to discharge its normal functions and maintain the social contract.

War Making

In Charles Tilly's theory of state formation, the elimination or neutralization of external rivals outside a state's territory.

State Making

In Charles Tilly's theory of state formation, the elimination or neutralization of internal rivals within a state's territory.

Protection

In Charles Tilly's theory of state formation, the shielding of citizens from internal and external enemies.

Extraction

The levying of taxes and conscription from a population to fund state activities like war making, state making, and protection.

Geo-graphing

The active discursive process of 'writing' the earth to enforce political power dynamics and boundaries.

Modernity/Coloniality

A set of historical conditions on state centralization that links contemporary political development directly to colonial structures.

Postcolonial Territory

A geographic region that has transitioned from colonial rule to nominal national sovereignty.

Pluriversal

A world framework composed of multiple coexisting realities and ways of knowing, rather than a single universal model.

Lack

In postcolonial theory, the perceived shortage or absence of a specific political or institutional feature when evaluating non-Western countries against Western standards.