Comparative Politics Exam 3

Where is the Greatest concentration of Presidentialism?

North and South America

What’s an example of a divided country?

Cyprus

How often are votes of no confidence used… Often, Rarely, Never

Rarely

How does a Prime Minister in Parliamentary Regimes typically get removed?

A vote of no confidence

What’s the main Semi-Presidential country for the exam?

France

What’s the main Presidential country for the exam?

United States

What’s the main Parliamentary Country for the exam?

United Kingdom

What is a vote of no confidence?

A vote against support of a Prime Minister, if passed the PM must resign

True or False? When the Prime Minister resigns they typically become members of parliament.

True

In most modern states where do presidents get there powers?

The constitution

According to lecture who tends to be more powerful in semi-presidential regime, PM or President?

President

What’s the name of Frances current constitution? (Many African and European countries adopted similar)

Frances 5th Republic

What country invented Constructive Vote of No Confidence?

Germany 

What was Duverger the first to examine

First to systematically examine electoral systems. 

Majority of electoral systems use which ballot Ordinal or Categorical?

Categorical

Categorical Ballots encourage which type of voting?

strategic voting

Ordinal Ballots encourage which type of voting?

sincere voting

What is the most important feature of legislature?

District Magnitude

What country was the first to do Majoritarianism?

France

What country was first to have a threshold?

Germany

Strengths of a Presidential Regime?

Stability in Government, chief executive is popularly elected.

Weaknesses of a Presidential Regime?

Hard to pass legislation, fixed terms allow unpopular executives in office

Strength of Parliamentary Regimes?

Easy to vote someone out of PM, No deadlock between the executive and legislative (Can just vote out)

Weaknesses in a Parliamentary Regime

Government Instability, Laws favoring parliament to ensure no votes of no confidence against them. 

Advantages of a Semi-Presidential Regime?

Combines stability of a presidential regime with flexibility of a parliamentary regime. Provides checks and balances

Weaknesses of a Semi-Presidential Regime?

Cannot remove an unpopular president due to fixed terms, competition between President and Prime Minister… Can lead to Co-Habitation

What is a Presidential Regime?

Structure of a President who is popularly elected with certain powers. 

What is a Parliamentary Regime?

Executive is voted in by Parliament through a vote of confidence. Can be removed by vote of no confidence due to dislike alone.

Why are coalitions common in a Parliamentary Regime?

Because its hard to get an absolute majority in a multi-party system

What is a coalition?

Alliance of multiple parties to form a government when no one party has an absolute majority. 

What is a Semi-Presidential Regime

There is a Prime Minister and a President with distinct powers.

What is a Presidential Referendum?

citizens will petition to have a president removed mid-term due to dislike (Only applicable in certain countries)

What is a Constructive Vote of No Confidence?

A vote of no confidence that requires an immediate replacement of the Prime Minister and cabinet. If not the vote will become null and void. 

What is Co-Habitation?

In Semi-Presidential regimes when the President and Prime Minister come from different parties

What are Electoral Laws?

Rules that govern the process for elections (Voter ID, Recounts, Etc.)

What are some of the values in creating a electoral system

Stability (Most important), Representation, Accountability, etc. 

Stability in creating a electoral system?

a system should be designed to create stable government

Representation in creating a electoral system?

More parties to represent everyone

What is District Magnitude?

The number of seats in a legislature… it can range from 1 seat to the entire legislature. It affects how proportional and representative an election is

What is Electoral Threshold?

The percentage of votes necessary to get a seat (Germany)

What is Proportionality?

how closely the distribution of seats in a legislature matches the distribution of votes among parties. More seats= more representation.

What is a Categorical Ballot?

Voters can only vote for one candidate. Often leading to strategic voting for larger parties. 

What is a ordinal ballot?

A ballot where you can rank candidates. Encourages more sincere voting and supports minority parties.

What is Alternative Vote? (Australia)

Ordinal but if none of the parties get 50% of the votes they take the top 2 candidates and have another election. Common in countries with Ordinal Ballots.

What is the Elector Allocation Rule?

A way to award seats in elections by formula.

What is Plurality?

The candidate with the most votes wins (US or UK)

Advantages of Plurality?

Easy for voters to understand and easy to form government. 

What is Duvergers Law?

The idea that if a country uses Plurality they eventually will have a 2 party system. 

Disadvantages of Plurality?

Lack of minority representation, the winning candidate can still be the minority winner. (Ex. Mexico candidate winning with 43% of the votes. 

What is Majoritarian?

Candidate required to win by 50% + 1 of the votes. Or else theres a run-off between the top 2 voted candidates.

Advantages of Majoritarianism?

Encourages sincere voting, and there’s no minority winner.

Disadvantages of Majoritarianism?

Large Parties have the advantage, often in between the 2 elections candidates will try and get endorsed by prior candidates with a lot of voters.

What is Proportional Representation? 

The idea if a party gets a certain % of the votes they should get a certain percentage of the seats. 

Advantages of Proportional Representation?

Representation for minority parties, incentivizes sincere voting. 

Disadvantages of Proportional Representation?

Makes it harder to form cabinet due to the strong impact of minority parties.

What is better for voter turnout Plurality or Proportional Representation?

Proportional Representation. 

What is Personal Proportional Representation?

A two-vote system is an attempt to combine the strengths of PR and plurality. You vote for the party on 1 deciding seats, then individual on the other to fill said seats. 

What country invented Personal Proportional Representation?

Germany

What is Uni-Cameral?

One chamber in the legislature, easier to pass things, but no checks and balances

What is Bicameral?

Two chambers in the legislature, Provide more checks and balances but harder to pass laws. 

Smaller Countries tend to be what Bicameral or Unicameral?

Unicameral

What is Asymmetrical Bicameralism?

One chamber of the 2 may be more powerful. Typically the lower chamber is more powerful.

What’s a 2 party system?

A system where 2 major parties dominate the government and election (Ex. US). Produces a compromise of interest for stability. 

What’s a Moderate multi-party System?

3 to 6 parties. It offers stability in the Government and representation.

What is a Hyper Multi-Party system?

Over 7 Parties!! Causes instability in the government but provides representation for all.

What country contradicts Duvergers Law about Plurality?

India

What is Sociological Account?

The Structure of Social cleavages that mobilize voters and account for party formation.

What is Electioneering Account?

Idea of authors like Downs and Kirchimer who argue “winning an election is more important than ideology.” Promoting “Catch all” and reducing ideology.

What is Median Voter Theorem?

The theory that parties move toward the ideological Center trying to go after the median vote.

Examples of Median Voter Theorem?

The Green Party’s priority being paving roads, and stuff instead of hugging trees and shit. 

Examples of Countries with no Median?

Belgium, with such cleavages like language people will vote with the candidate representing their language before anything else.

What are Mass-Based Parties?

Parties aiming to mobilize large numbers of ordinary citizens to participate in politics. Developed in 19th and 20th Centuries as more people granted right to vote. (Ex. Labour Party)

What are Elite Based Parties?

Minimal organization structured parties that cater to elites in society. The 1st parties established because only elites could vote until recently. (Ex. Conservative Party)

What we need to know about Mainwaring (IDK spelling of all the authors btw)

He reviews democracies in Latin America. Factually considers that parliamentary produces democracy better than presidential.

What we need to know about Reyntjens

Studied Africa Mostly, Only Africa and America were presidential.

-Countries with term limits tend to be more democratic.

-Tried to establish causality between democracies and term limits and

-found countries tend to adopt term limits if presidential

What we need to know about McClintock

If you care about issues of Representation choose proportional representation.

What we need to know about Lapalobara

-Political Parties Play a Crucial mediating Role

-Parties shape parameters and political direction a state. 

Mechanical Effect

Overtime smaller parties are underrepresented in seats due to the mathematics of plurality

Psychological Effect

voters are aware of the trend of small parties being underrepresented