Framing Global Politics and Systems Vocabulary

A comprehensive vocabulary review set covering core concepts, key political thinkers, international conventions, state fragility indicators, and types of intergovernmental organizations from the lecture text.

Political actors

Entities, such as a person, organization or movement, that wield some form of political power or engage with the political process.

Stakeholders

Political actors that have an interest, or a stake, in a particular issue.

Social movement

A collective of individuals advocating a shared goal.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Any non-profit, voluntary citizens' groups that are organized on a local, national or international level to bring citizens' concerns to governments, monitor policies and encourage political participation at the community level.

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)

Organizations made up of states focused on a specific issue at a global or regional level, which can be of formal or informal character.

Multinational or transnational companies (MNCs/TNCs)

Companies that operate across a significant number of states through resourcing and selling their products.

Non-state actors

Political actors that are not part of the state.

Power diffusion

The movement of power away from states to various non-state actors, a concept named by US political scientist Joseph Nye.

Harold Lasswell

US political scientist who in 1936 defined politics as 'who gets what, how, and when'.

State sovereignty

A state's ultimate control over its territory, both externally in relation to other states and internally in relation to its inhabitants.

Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

The treaty marking the end of the 30 Years' War through which Europe's borders were adjusted and independence was granted to various states, often considered the beginning of the modern understanding of the state.

Montevideo Convention (1933)

A convention attended by members of the Organization of American States that codified four qualifications of a state: a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and capacity to enter into relations with other States.

Sophonisba Breckinridge

Political activist who was the first woman to represent the US at an international conference and the only female representative at the 1933 Montevideo Convention.

Fragile States Index

An annual report issued since 2005 by the Fund for Peace that analyzes state fragility across cohesion, economic, political, and social indicators.

Autocracy

A governmental system in which one ruler has all the power.

Democracy

A political system derived from the Ancient Greek words demos (people) and kratos (power) that allows the population to partake in politics, both actively as elected representatives and passively as voters.

Anocracy

A state that combines elements of democracy and autocracy, often referred to as a quasi-democracy, semi-democracy, or hybrid political model.

Francis Fukuyama

US political scientist who proclaimed in his 1992 book 'The End of History' that Western liberal democracy had won the battle for political dominance.

Benjamin Barber

US political theorist who authored 'If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities' (2013), arguing that cities should be the focal point for political development.

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

The original organization formed to manage the production and trade of coal and steel, which later evolved into the European Union (EU).

G77

An informal IGO consisting of 134 developing states that aims to agree on common voting positions in UN General Assembly meetings.

UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

A Geneva-based IGO established in 2006 with 47 member states that replaced the ineffective Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).

Regionalization of world politics

The growth of regional cooperation, occurring either under the umbrella of regional IGOs or through informal collaboration.

Ethnolinguistic groups

Groups defined by language and ethnicity, where a common language often forms the basis for group membership.

Formal IGOs

Intergovernmental organizations established by a treaty with a permanent organizational structure, such as the UN, African Union, and NATO.

Informal IGOs

Intergovernmental organizations of a more fluid nature operating without explicit formal arrangements or treaties, such as the G8 and G77.

Civil society

A broad term describing communities of civilians, defined by sociologist Martin Shaw as 'society minus the state'.