VCE Unit 1 Australian and Global Politics

Power

The ability to influence or control the actions of others.

Sovereignty

The legitimate or widely recognised ability to exercise effective control over a territory within define borders, allowing a state to represent themselves as an entity in the international community. The primary organising principle of global politics.

Hard Power

Power exercised through incentive or coercion to influence the actions of other global actors.

Soft Power

Refers to the ability of one global actor to shape the actions of other global actors via attraction, with the absence of incentive or coercion.

State

Traditionally this term refers to the central actor in global politics. States possess a permanent population, defined territory and recognised sovereignty. States are not necessarily culturally homogenous.

Nation

Refers to groups of people claiming common bonds based on culture, language and history.

Nation-state

Political or social grouping in which people within territorial boundaries, with recognised sovereignty, have common bonds based on culture, language and history.

Authoritarianism

A system of government characterised by a strong central government and limited democratic rights and freedoms.

Authority

The basis or source for legitimate political power.

Constitutional monarchy

A political system with a hereditary monarch, whose powers are defined by a constitution.

Fascism

A right wing political ideology based on extreme views of nationalism, authoritarianism and anti-democratic beliefs.

Federalism (Australia and US)

A system of government in which law making powers and responsibilities are constitutionally divided between a central, national government and a series of state or regional governments.

Ideology

A set of views, values and beliefs held in common by a group of people about how the world ideally should be politically organised.

Interest group

A group of like-minded people who work to influence government policy and decision making, either for the benefit of those they represent or society more broadly, but do not seek election themselves.

Legitimacy

Political power that is broadly accepted by the population, usually based on its granting through democratic or transparent means.

Liberal democracy

A political system that combines two principles of political theory: that individuals have rights (liberalism) and that political rule should be by the people (democracy).

New media

A broad and evolving term including digital and web based forms of sharing information such as blogs, online news sites, which are easily accessible on demand via personal devices.

24-hour news cycle

The understanding that news is now reported on, investigated and analysed quickly and continuously over a 24 hour period in all forms of the media.

Political parties

Organised groups of people who hold similar views and ideas on a range of public policy issues and who seek to be elected to parliament.

Political power

Refers to the use of a state's internal political machinery to exert influence over the actions of others. For example, legislation, executive orders, white papers.

Representative democracy

A political system where people vote for other citizens in free and fair elections, to act on their behalf in the legislative branch.

Representative government

A political system where the legislative and executive functions are carried out by citizens who have been elected to make decisions on behalf of the people.

Separation of powers (Australia and US)

The principle that the three branches of government, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, should be kept independent and act without interference from each other as means of decentralising and preventing abuse of power.

Socialism

A left wing political ideology based on the belief that the means of production, distribution and wealth in a society should be owned by the government, on behalf of the people.

Social media

Web based communication tools that enable people to interact, respond and communicate by sharing and consuming information.

Theocracy

A system of government organised around the beliefs of a religious faith.

Traditional media

Commonly or 'older' accepted means of communication and expression, such as print newspapers, radio and television news.

Diplomatic Power

Refers to the power accrued by states through their relationships with others in the form of alliances, alignments and international standing.

Economic Power

Economic power refers to a state's ability to influence the actions of another state through finance and trade.

Military Power

Refers to the use of a state's military to exert influence over the actions of other global actors.

Cultural Power

Refers to a desirable and transportable culture that states can use to achieve ends that might not be achieved through military and political means.

Political Power

Refers to the use of a state's internal political machinery to exert influence over the actions of others.