AP Comparative Government & Politics Flashcards

Flashcards covering vocabulary from the AP Comparative Government & Politics lecture notes.

Civil Liberties

Freedoms related to belief, speech, and assembly.

Rule of Law

Equal treatment of citizens and due process under neutrality of the judiciary, with checks on power abuse, allowing citizens private lives and independent media.

Civilian Control of the Military

Restricts the likelihood of the military seizing control of the government.

Secularism

An emphasis on non-religious aspects of life.

Rationalism

Reasoning.

Materialism

Valuing concrete objects and possessions.

Modernism

A set of values that comes along with industrialization.

Primary Sector

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Secondary (Industrial) Sector Sectors

Manufacturing and construction

Service (Tertiary) Sector

Retail, hospitality, tourism, healthcare, education, government, banking, finance and insurance.

Early Traditions

Tradition of constitutionalism and rule of law for the monarch beginning with the Magna Carta.

English Civil War (1642–1651)

Solidified the constitutional limitations of the monarch’s authority.

English Bill of Rights

Ensured the role that Parliament would be guaranteed to play in the British state, and further identified rights that could not be violated against British citizens by the monarch.

Labour Party

Was formed in 1906 to represent the interests of the newly enfranchised working classes.

Collectivist Consensus

Pooled the resources of the country to “win the peace” through a system of progressive policies that resulted in the modern welfare state.

National Health Service (NHS)

Provided all British citizens with the guarantee of medical care free of charge.

Crisis in the 1970s

Britain experienced inflation, high unemployment, declining GDP, and a general loss of faith in the trade unions and their unwillingness to reform

Privatization

Companies in the energy, transportation, and utility sectors were broken into shares to be sold openly on the stock market into the private sector.

Reductions in Welfare State

Allocated less money toward housing assistance for the less fortunate, and reduced old-age pensions.

The Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher.

The Third Way

A centrist alternative to the old Labour Party on the left and the Conservative Party on the right.

European Convention on Human Rights

The British government became obliged to ensure that its legislation was consistent with the convention.

Devolution

Regional parliaments were created to grant limited local autonomy to Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

London Mayor

The city of London could now elect its own mayor and London Assembly, with power over issues such as urban congestion and sanitation.

Lords Reforms

The House of Lords was reformed to remove most of the hereditary peerages and they were replaced with life peerages

Judicial Reforms

The Labour government created a new judicial institution called the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

IRA (Irish Republican Army)

Negotiated the Good Friday Agreement between the conflicting factions.

Big Society”

Energized by grass-roots volunteers and private organizations, no longer harnessed by “big government.”

Traditional Legitimacy

Precedence and custom have led to long-established practices and conventions that help people accept the government’s authority.

Thatcherism

Reduced the government’s role in the economy through privatization of several industries.

Uncodified Constitution

There is not a single, authoritative document that establishes the powers and functions of the British government.

Constitutional Laws passed in 1998-99

A Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, Northern Ireland Assembly, and elected mayor of London were established.

History of Great Britain’s involvement in the European Union (EU)

Is more complex because Great Britain did not join the Common Market until 1973.

Westminster Model

Is the epitome of a parliamentary system with a fusion of executive and legislative authority.

Queen Elizabeth II

The queen must give the royal assent for a bill to become a law.

House of Commons

The premier legislative body in the Westminster model.

Election Change

There can also be a change in prime minister without a popular election being held.

The Cabinet

Operates under the convention of collective responsibility where all members of the government must speak with a unified voice on policy or resign.

Longstanding party system

Conservatives and Labour dominate, with regional parties like the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.

Interest Group

Attempts to influence public policy in its favor.

CBI

Largest business lobby group composed of numerous industries.

TUC

Largest union organization composed of numerous trade unions.

Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations (quangos)

Publicly funded bodies that operate as integrated parts of the private sector.

Robust Civil Society

Civil society provides opportunities for citizens to form voluntary, autonomous organizations.

BBC

World renowned for independent coverage and publicly funded by an annual fee charged to all households.

Political Participation

Formal methods of involvement continue to decline as fewer British people join political parties and voter turnout remains below historically high levels.

National Health Service

One of the most significant creation of post war period which centralized all health care provision into a single-payer system.

1998 Good Friday Agreement

Led to the cessation of hostilities and the creation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, in addition to other devolved regional parliaments.

2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

Kept Scotland firmly within the United Kingdom.

Proportional Representation System (PR)

Voters cast a vote not for an individual candidate, but rather for a political party.

Single-member-district systems

Divide the country into many constituencies, each of which will allow one “single member” to represent the constituency in the legislature.

Common Law Systems

Legal systems in which the importance of prior judicial decisions takes precedence when a court is making decisions.

Code Law (Civil Law

Legal system that systematically applies the law as written to judicial decisions.

Sharia Law

Legal system based on Islamic law.

Bureaucrats

Are the unelected officials who carry out the laws by writing regulations, enforcing rules, and assigning fines.

Meritocracy

A bureaucracy staffed by subject area experts who are selected in an examination process based on merit or expertise.

Coup

A small group of elites, often military officers, seize control of the government but make no fundamental change to the regime.

Representation

A group is given the opportunity to participate more fully in the political system through extending suffrage opportunities, power-sharing agreements, or devolution.

Economic Change

The most visible change that a government can make is to undergo a process of privatization, which is to sell off state-owned enterprises (SOE) to private investors.