politics keyterms

legitimacy

the rightful use of power in accordance with a pre-set criteria.

direct democracy

a system of democracy that allows the people to have a direct impact and involvement in government.

representative democracy

the people in an area elect representatives to act on their behalf in parliament or government.

pluralist democracy

when the government makes decisions based on various ideas and arguments from competing groups and organisations.

democratic deficit

when decisions are made by people who lack legitimacy.

participation crisis

a lack of engagement of a significant amount of the public toward the political process

franchises/suffrage

the ability/right to vote in public elections, suffrages were woman campaigning to have the same right to vote.

think tanks

a body of experts brought together to collectively focus on a certain topic.

lobbyists

paid by clients/corporations to influence governments/ MP’s to act in their clients interests.

corporations

large corporations that try to influence the government to adopt policies that are pro-buisness or beneficial for their specific corporation.

old labour

labour principals embodying nationalisation, redistribution of wealth from rich to poor and continuous improvement of wealthfare and state services.

new labour

a revision of traditional labour values, less focus on working class more so on the wider class.

one nation

the rich have an obligation to help the poor.

new right

neo conservatives who want a more authoritarian approach to morality and and law and order. neo liberals who endorsed the free market approach and less state involvement in peoples lives and businesses.

classical liberals

individual freedom would be best achieved by minimal state involvement.

modern liberals

emerged as a reaction against free market capitalism, freedom could no longer be defined as being left alone.

party systems

the way in which political parties are grouped and structured, varients such as one party dominant, two party, two and a half party and multi party systems.

left wing

a term for those who desire change, reform and alteration to the way a society opperates.

right wing

term for those who want little to no change

first past the post

an electoral system where the person/party with the highest number of votes is elected.

Additional member systems (AMS)

voters elect a representative on a simple (FPTP) then a second vote is apportioned to a party list for a second representative.

single transferable vote

allows voters to rank their voting preferences in numerical order rather than simply having one voting choice.

closed proportional list systems

parties list their candidates in order, voters choose a party in each constituency, parties get the number of seats in proportion the votes recieved.