Introduction to Political Science: Core Concepts, Ideologies, Power, and the State

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering foundational political science topics: concepts and methods, political ideologies, theories of the state, sovereignty and nations, and the three faces of power.

Concept

An analytical category or mental representation of the essential or typical properties of an entity, considered without regard to the peculiar properties of any specific instance; in political science, concepts are dynamically evolving tools used to describe, explain, and understand political research objects.

Essentially Contested Concept

A concept identified by W.B. Gallie (1956) as inevitably involving endless disputes about its proper use and definition among its users, such as 'power,' 'democracy,' 'equality,' 'liberty,' 'freedom,' 'terrorism,' and 'politics' itself.

Polis

The ancient Greek city-state, understood as a community encompassing a designated territory, a body of citizens (polites), and a constitution or set of practices (politeia) for conducting communal life through the integrated unity of state and society.

"The Personal is Political"

A central feminist insight, famously popularized by Carol Hanisch, asserting that private, domestic, and interpersonal relationships (such as family, domestic labour, and sexuality) reflect power dynamics and patriarchal structures, thus collapsing the conventional divide between the 'political' public sphere and the 'non-political' private sphere.

Politics as Collective Decision-Making

A conception of politics as a mechanism or method of conflict resolution—involving negotiation, diplomacy, and compromise—by which groups with diverse interests and conflicting values reach binding collective decisions.

Lasswell's Definition of Politics

Harold Lasswell's classic 1936 formulation defining politics as 'who gets what, when, and how,' emphasizing the distribution of scarce resources, prevailing societal values, and the deployment of power.

Positivism

The methodological doctrine holding that social sciences and political inquiry should adhere strictly to the empirical, quantitative, and observational methods characteristic of the natural sciences.

Behaviouralism

A 1950s and 1960s movement led by American political scientists that sought to make political science strictly scientific by testing hypotheses using quantitative data and focusing on the observable actions and interactions of individual political actors.

Ideology

A coherent configuration or set of concepts (as conceptualized by Michael Freeden) that provides a basis for political action by interpreting the social world and either justifying or challenging existing power arrangements.

'Thick' vs. 'Thin' Ideologies

'Thick' ideologies (such as liberalism and socialism) offer comprehensive frameworks that account for power relations, model a desired future, and provide strategies for change; 'thin' ideologies (such as populism) lack a comprehensive political vision and must attach themselves to other ideologies.

Hegemony

Antonio Gramsci's concept denoting the mechanism of ideological reproduction whereby a dominant class maintains control across civil society by establishing its values and worldview as universally accepted 'common sense.'

Left-Right Spectrum

A linear spatial metaphor for categorizing ideologies originating in the French Revolution's Estates General, where radical egalitarian reformers sat to the left of the monarch and supporters of the traditional aristocracy, clergy, and hierarchy sat to the right.

Liberalism

A political ideology emphasizing individual liberty, moral individualism, rationalism, equal rights, toleration, consent of the governed, and constitutional limitations on state authority.

Classical Liberalism

An early form of liberalism grounded in extreme individualism, negative liberty, free-market economics (as advanced by Adam Smith), and a minimal state viewed strictly as a 'necessary evil' to protect life, liberty, and property.

Negative Liberty vs. Positive Liberty

Negative liberty is freedom understood as the absence of external obstacles, constraints, or government interference; positive liberty is freedom realized through state enablement, social security, and conditions that empower individuals to fulfill their potential.

Modern / Reform Liberalism

A twentieth-century development in liberalism that embraces positive liberty, equal opportunity, state intervention, welfare provision, and Keynesian economics to protect vulnerable populations.

Rawlsian Difference Principle

John Rawls' modern liberal thesis stating that social and economic inequalities can only be justified if they work to the maximum benefit of the least advantaged members of society.

Conservatism

An ideology committed to preserving inherited social orders, institutions, and traditions, viewing hierarchy, legitimate authority, pragmatism, and organic social bonds as necessary bulwarks against human imperfection.

Organicism (Organic Theory of the State)

The conservative belief that society is a delicate, interconnected living organism rather than a mechanical contraption, requiring that political reform be gradual, incremental, and rooted in historical traditions.

The New Right

An ideological revival emerging in the 1970s that combined neoliberal economic commitments (deregulation, free markets, and small government) with neoconservative social and geopolitical views (traditional morality, strong national defense, and authority).

Neoliberalism

An economic doctrine and political philosophy committed to extending free markets, privatization, and competitive logic, accompanied by strong opposition to Keynesianism and collectivist welfare policies.

Socialism

An ideology developed in opposition to industrial capitalism that prioritizes community, fraternity, social equality, production for human need, social class analysis, and common ownership of the means of production.

Marxism

A materialist ideology formulated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels advocating the revolutionary overthrow of industrial capitalism and bourgeois state power to establish a classless, emancipated communist society based on common ownership.

Social Democracy

A reformist branch of modern socialism associated with Eduard Bernstein that rejects violent revolution, maintaining that democratic institutions and state regulation can peacefully steer market economies toward egalitarian ends.

The Third Way

A modern center-left political perspective that accepts capitalism and market competition as permanent realities, arguing that government policies and social investment should be used to mitigate the inequalities markets produce.

Anarchism

A political philosophy derived from the Greek anarkhia ('without a ruler') that rejects the state, institutionalized leadership, and coercive hierarchy in favor of voluntary, horizontal, egalitarian self-organization.

Fascism

An extreme, totalitarian form of radical nationalism that completely subordinates the individual to an organic national collective, driven by themes of national rebirth from crisis, mass mobilization, and hostility to elites and minorities.

Patriarchy

A core feminist concept denoting an institutionalized social system in which men hold primary power, privilege, and authority, maintaining historical domination and subordinating women across public and private domains.

Populism

A thin ideology structured around the moral division of society into two antagonistic groups—the 'pure' common people versus the 'corrupt' ruling establishment—demanding the return of state control to the popular will.

The State (Weberian Definition)

Max Weber's classic formulation defining the state as a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given, defined territory.

Weber's Three Types of Authority

The three inner justifications for legitimate domination identified by Max Weber: Traditional authority (custom and habit), Charismatic authority (extraordinary devotion to an exemplary leader), and Legal-Rational authority (codified, impersonal laws and regulations).

Sovereignty

The supreme, unbounded political authority over a specified territory, encompassing an internal dimension (no higher domestic authority exists above the sovereign) and an external dimension (the state's right to autonomy without foreign interference).

Montevideo Convention Criteria

The legal benchmarks for statehood established in 1933: a permanent population, a defined territory, an effective government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states.

Nation

A psychosocial and cultural construct derived from the Latin natio ('birth'), referring to a collectivity of individuals bound together by shared history, culture, language, or collective identity who perceive themselves to be a distinct people.

Imagined Community

Benedict Anderson's definition of a nation as an entity that is socially constructed and imagined by its members, who will never meet or know most of their peers but share a profound psychological sense of horizontal comradeship.

Ethnic Nationalism vs. Civic Nationalism

Ethnic nationalism defines national belonging through inherited culture, shared language, or perceived common ancestry; civic nationalism grounds nationhood in shared political values, active citizenship, and allegiance to the institutions of the state.

Nation-State

A sovereign political structure where territorial state boundaries correspond directly to the boundaries of a distinct, self-identified national community, forming the central ideal of modern nationalism.

Power vs. Authority

Power refers to the capacity or coercive ability to compel compliance, whereas authority is legitimate power exercised with the consent and recognized right to rule conferred by subordinates.

'Power To' vs. 'Power Over'

'Power to' signifies empowerment and the capacity of an individual or collective to achieve chosen objectives; 'power over' implies domination, constraint, and external subordination forcing individuals to act against their own volition.

Niccolò Machiavelli

A Renaissance thinker frequently termed the first political scientist, who broke with classical moral philosophy to argue that a prince's primary obligation is state survival ('reason of state'), which necessitates pragmatic realism, deception, and the strategic use of force.

First Face of Power

The one-dimensional, behavioural view of power associated with Robert Dahl, defined as $A$ having power over $B$ to the extent that $A$ can get $B$ to do something $B$ would not otherwise do, measured by observing open decision-making and voting in formal arenas.

Second Face of Power (Agenda-Setting)

The two-dimensional view of power formulated by Bachrach and Baratz highlighting non-decisions, wherein power is exercised by limiting the political agenda to safe matters and preventing controversial grievances from entering formal debate.

Mobilization of Bias

E.E. Schattschneider's insight that political institutions, rules, and procedures possess structural biases that systematically organize certain issues and class interests into the political process while organizing others out.

Third Face of Power

Steven Lukes' radical, three-dimensional view of power where $A$ exercises power over $B$ by shaping, conditioning, and influencing $B$'s wants and desires, inducing individuals to act against their real material interests even in the absence of observable conflict.

Disciplinary Power

Michel Foucault's formulation of power as productive, diffuse, and embedded within institutional discourses and 'dividing practices' that define norms, discipline human bodies, and categorize subjects as normal or abnormal.

Pluralism

A liberal-democratic theory of the state (associated with Robert Dahl and David Truman) holding that political power and resources are widely dispersed among numerous competing groups, with the state serving as a neutral referee.

Elitism

A theory of the state contending that public policy is systematically controlled by an organized, self-interested minority (elites) who dominate key political, economic, and administrative hierarchies over a largely passive citizenry.

The Power Elite

C. Wright Mills' (1956) concept identifying an interlocking triangle of corporation executives, high-ranking military leaders, and political chiefs who dominate the highest levels of national decision-making in the United States.

Iron Law of Oligarchy

Robert Michels' sociological rule stating that all large-scale, complex organizations inevitably develop an entrenched oligarchical leadership, regardless of how democratic their initial principles were.

Neo-Institutionalism

A theoretical approach treating the state as an autonomous actor with its own interests, emphasizing how formal institutional architectures, veto points, and historical path dependency constrain future political actions.

Anti-Politics

The pervasive public disillusionment, alienation, and hostility toward conventional political institutions, established parties, and professional politicians, frequently providing fertile ground for populist movements.