Chapter 14 Flashcards

Flashcards about Institutional Veto Players

What are the 3 components of Institutional Veto Players?

Federalism, bicameralism, constitutionalism.

What is the difference between federalism in structure and federalism in practice?

Federalism in structure is Federalism. Federalism in practice is Decentralization.

What are the 3 structural components of Federalism?

Geopolitical division, Independence, and Direct governance

What is a federal state?

A state in which sovereignty is constitutionally split between at least two territorial levels so that independent governmental units at each level have final authority in at least one policy realm.

What is a unitary state?

States that aren’t federal

What are congruent and incongruent federalism?

Congruent federalism exists when the territorial units of a federal state share a similar demographic makeup. Incongruent federalism exists when the demographic makeup of territorial units differs.

What is Devolution?

when a unitary state grants powers to subnational governments but retains the right to unilaterally recall or reshape those powers.

What is the difference between congruent and incongruent federal states?

Congruent federalism exists when the territorial units of a federal state share a similar demographic makeup with one another and the country as a whole. Incongruent federalism exists when the demographic makeup of territorial units differs among the units and the country as a whole.

What is the difference between symmetric and asymmetric federal states?

Symmetric federalism exists when the territorial units of a federal state possess equal powers relative to the central government. Asymmetric federalism exists when some territorial units enjoy more extensive powers than others relative to the central government.

What is Decentralization?

the extent to which actual policymaking power lies with the central or regional governments.

What is coming-together federalism?

Coming-together federalism is the result of a bargaining process in which previously sovereign polities voluntarily agree to give up part of their sovereignty in order to pool together their resources and improve their collective security or achieve other, economic goals.

What is holding-together federalism?

the result of a process in which the central government of a polity chooses to decentralize its power to subnational governments in order to diffuse secessionist pressures.

What are potential advantages of federalism?

Closer match between policy and citizen preferences, Greater government accountability, Competition among states creates an incentive for good government, Policy experimentation, and System of checks and balances.

What are potential disadvantages of federalism?

Unnecessary duplication and contradictory policies, Increases collective action problems in policy formulation, Competition leads to downward harmonization, Competition amplifies pre-existing inequalities, and Facilitates blame shifting and credit claiming, thereby reducing government accountability.

What is a unicameral legislature?

legislative deliberation occurs in a single assembly.

What is a bicameral legislature?

legislative deliberation occurs in two distinct assemblies.

What are congruent and incongruent bicameral systems?

Congruent bicameralism occurs when two legislative chambers have a similar political composition. Incongruent bicameralism occurs when the two legislative chambers differ in their political composition.

What are the 4 methods of selecting memebrs of the upper house?

1. Heredity 2. Appointment 3. Indirect elections 4. Direct elections

What is malapportionment?

when the distribution of political representation between constituencies isn’t based on the size of each constituency’s population.

What are symmetric and asymmetric bicameralism?

Symmetric bicameralism occurs when the two legislative chambers have equal or near equal constitutional power. Asymmetric bicameralism occurs when the two legislative chambers have unequal constitutional power.

What is Constitutionalism?

the commitment of governments to accept the legitimacy of, and be governed by, a set of authoritative rules and principles that are laid out in a constitution.

What are codified and uncodified constitutions?

A codified constitution is one that’s written in a single document. An uncodified constitution is one that has several resources, which may be written or unwritten.

What are entrenched and unentrenched constitutions?

An entrenched constitution can be modified only through a special procedure of constitutional amendment. An unentrenched constitution has no special amendment procedure and can be modified at any point in time with the support of a legislative majority.

What are the 2 ideal types of constitutions?

1. Legislative supremacy constitution: No constitutional review, no bill of rights, and not entrenched. 2. Higher law constitution: Constitutional review, a bill of rights, and is entrenched.

What is Constitutional Review?

the authority of an institution to invalidate legislation, administrative decisions, judicial rulings, and other acts of government that violate constitutional rules, such as rights.

What is Abstract constitutional review?

the constitutional review of legislation in the absence of a concrete legal case.

What is Concrete constitutional review?

the constitutional review of legislation with respect to a specific legal case.

What is A priori constitutional review?

occurs before a law is formally enacted.

What is A posteriori constitutional review?

occurs only after a law is formally enacted.

What is Centralized constitutional review?

a situation in which only one court can conduct constitutional review (European Model).

What is Decentralized constitutional review?

more than one court can interpret the constitution (American model).

What is a veto player?

an individual or collective actor whose agreement is necessary for a change in the political status quo.

What is an institutional veto player?

An institutional veto player is generated by a country’s constitution.

What is a partisan veto player?

is generated by the way the political game is played.

Veto player theory indicates that countries with many veto players who have conflicting preferences will be characterized by what?

1. Greater policy stability 2. Smaller policy shifts 3. Less variation in the size of policy shifts 4. Weaker agenda-setting powers

What is an indifference curve?

An indifference curve is the set of points such that an individual is indifferent between any two points in the set.

What is the winset of the status quo?

the set of alternatives that can defeat the status quo point.

How does the size of the winset affect policy outcomes?

When the winset is small, policy stability is high. When the winset is large, policy stability is low.

How does the number of veto players typically influence the size of the winset?

An increase in the number of veto players typically decreases the size of the winset or leaves it the same.

How does the ideological distance between veto players affect the size of the winset?

Increasing the ideological distance between veto players always shrinks the size of the winset.