Exam 2: Comp Gov/Pol

Monarchic Dictatorship

An autocracy in which the executive comes to and maintains power on the basis of family and kin networks

less violence/political instability (political culture/support coalitions), leaders survive in office longer, more stable property rights, faster economic growth

Ex: Kuwait, Qatar, Swaziland

Military Dictatorship

An autocracy in which the executive relies on the armed forces to come to and stay in power.

military leaders rule as part of a “junta,” or committee

threat to the stability within military

short durations, more likely to end with negotiations

value discipline and cohesiveness, autonomy from civilian intervention, and military budgets large enough to attract recruits/buy weapon

value of the exit option—the value associated with giving up power—is considerably higher

more likely to leave competitive and democratic forms

Ex: Guniea

Civilian Dictatorship

do not have an immediate institutional base of support; instead they have to create one

help of regime parties/personality cults

(i) dominant-party dictatorships: one party dominates access to political office and control over policy, though other parties may exist and compete as minor players in elections

(ii) personalist dictatorships: leader, although often supported by a party or the military, retains personal control of policy decisions and the selection of regime personnel

Selectorate Theory

the key to a country’s material well-being has less to do with whether it is democratic or dictatorial and more to do with the size of its “winning coalition” and “selectorate,” (everyone motivated to gain/keep office)

variation in the performance of political leaders can be explained with regard to the institutional environment in which they operate

size of the selectorate—those with a say in selecting the leader

size of the winning coalition—those in the selectorate whose support is essential for the leader to stay in office.

Winning Coalition (W)

those in the selectorate whose support is essential for the leader to stay in office

democracies, the winning coalition is always quite large and comprises those voters who are required to elect the winning candidate or government

winning coalition in a dictatorship is always quite small

Selectorate

those with a say in selecting the leader

large selectorates—democracies—have incentives to produce public good

Dicatorship Winning Coalition Size

Leaders in systems with small winning coalitions and large selectorates—personalist and dominant-party dictatorships—have incentives to provide private rewards to their winning coalition. These leaders produce poor government performance—low levels of wealth, inefficient governance, and high levels of corruption and kleptocracy.

Leaders in systems with small winning coalitions and small selectorates—monarchic and military dictatorships—produce middling levels of government performance.

Legislative responsibility

legislative majority has the constitutional power to remove the government from office without cause

Vote of no confidence

mechanism that the legislature can initiate to remove a government

involves a vote in the legislature on whether the government should remain in office. If a majority of legislators vote against the government, then the government must resign.

Presidential democracy

Democracies in which the government does not depend on a legislative majority to exist are presidential.

Gov=President (always formateur and therefor party included)and Cabinet

more minority governments but fewer coalition governments on average than parliamentary ones.

defined by the absence of legislative responsibility—the legislature in a presidential democracy cannot remove the government without cause

Semi-Presidential democracy

Democracies in which the government depends on a legislative majority to exist and in which the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term are semi-presidential.

governments share characteristics from governments in both parliamentary and presidential democracies

Parliamentary democracy

Democracies in which the government depends on a 599 legislative majority to exist and in which the head of state is not popularly elected for a fixed term are parliamentary.

Parliamentary Government

can be removed from office any time a majority of legislators decides that this is what should happen

Ministerial Responsibility

Each minister is directly responsible to the cabinet for what happens in her department. If a problem arises in a particular department, then the minister is supposed to be held responsible for it

Collective Cabinet Responsibility

This doctrine means that, although ministers may air their disagreements about policy freely in cabinet meetings, once a cabinet decision has been made, each minister must defend the government policy in public or resign

Investiture Vote

In some countries, a potential government may have to demonstrate that it has such support before it can take office

Even if there is no formal investiture vote, though, a potential government in a parliamentary democracy must still have the implicit support of a legislative majority at all times. This is because of the ability of the legislature to call a vote of no confidence in the government at any time

Formateur

person designated to form the government in a parliamentary regime. The formateur is often the PM designate.

Minimal Winning Coalition

there are just enough parties (and no more) to control a legislative majority

A least minimal winning coalition is the MWC with the lowest number of surplus seats

Minority Government

the party or parties in power do not explicitly command a majority of legislative seats

may be single-party minority governments or minority coalition governments.

presidential democracy

Surplus Majority Government

cabinet contains more parties than are strictly necessary to control a legislative majority

the government could lose or remove a party and still control a majority of the seats in the legislature

Semi-Presidential Government

Democracies that do have legislative responsibility—a vote of no confidence —are either parliamentary or semi-presidential.

Cohabitation

Periods in which politicians from different political parties or blocs hold the presidency and prime ministership

Electoral System

a set of laws and regulations that govern the electoral competition between candidates or parties or both

three main families based on the electoral formula that is used to translate votes into seats: majoritarian, proportional, and mixed.

Electoral Formula

These laws and regulations relate to a whole host of things such as the electoral formula (how votes are translated into seats)

the ballot structure (whether individuals vote for candidates or parties or both, and whether they cast a single vote or express a series of preferences)

District Magnitude

the number of representatives elected in a district

most important proportionality factor

Electoral Integrity

refers to the extent to which the conduct of elections meets international standards and global norms concerning “good” elections as set out in various treaties, conventions, and guidelines issued by organizations

the conduct of elections at all stages of the electoral cycle, including the preelection period, the campaign, the polling day, and the election aftermath

Electoral Malpractice

Violations of electoral integrity, which include things like ballot stuffing, electoral violence and voter intimidation, pro-government media bias, and restrictive ballot access

political interference in how district boundaries are drawn, problems with voter registration, technical failures with online or early voting procedures, and unfair campaign finance rules

Single-Member district plurality system

voters cast a single candidate-centered vote in singlemember districts

candidate with the most votes, even if this is not a majority of the votes, is elected from the district

“first-pastthe-post.”, “plurality” majoritarian systems

simplest and most commonly used majoritarian electoral system in the world.

ex: United Kingdom and in former British colonies

Single nontransferable vote

voters cast a single candidate centered vote in a multimember district

candidates with the highest number of votes are elected

candidates know exactly how many votes they need to win in order to guarantee their election

tend to weaken political parties by creating incentives for intraparty fighting and factionalization

fact that candidates can guarantee their own election with a specific percentage of votes encourages clientelistic behavior and the development of patronage systems, in which candidates target electoral bribes at well-defined interest groups.

favor both incumbent and well-organized parties

“plurality” majoritarian systems

Alternative vote

candidate-centered preference voting system used in single-member districts where voters rank order the candidates

candidate who receives an absolute majority is elected. If no candidate wins an absolute majority, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and her votes are reallocated until one candidate has an absolute majority of the valid votes remaining.

Preference, or preferential, voting involves voters ranking one or more candidates or parties in order of preference on the ballots.

“absolute majority” majoritarian system

Majority-runoff two-round system

A two-round system (TRS) is an electoral system that has the potential for two rounds of elections

voters cast a single candidate-centered vote in a single-member district. Any candidate who obtains an absolute majority in the first round of elections is elected. If no one obtains an absolute majority, then the top two vote winners go on to compete in a runoff election in the second round.

“absolute majority” majoritarian electoral system, most common for electing presidents

gives voters more choice than they enjoy in SMDP systems, voters have less incentive to behave strategically than they do in SMDP systems because they have two opportunities to affect the election outcome, creates incentives for candidates who make it into the second round to look beyond their own electoral base and reach compromises with the leaders of parties who are already eliminated in an attempt to win over their supporters.

imposes significant costs on the electoral administration

Proportional Electoral Systems

quota- or divisor-based electoral system employed in multimember districts.

consciously reduce the disparity between a party’s share of the vote and its share of the seats

All PR (proportional representation) systems: they employ multimember districts, use either a quota or a divisor to determine who is elected in each district.

produce a more accurate translation of votes into seats

Closed party list

order of candidates elected is determined by the party itself, and voters are not able to express a preference for a particular candidate

political parties receive seats in proportion to the number of votes that they obtain using one of the formulas described earlier. T

most common, parties can more easily include minority or women candidates who might otherwise have had difficulty getting elected, useful way of disciplining and rewarding candidates

open party list

voters can indicate not just their preferred party but also their favored candidate within that party

it is up to the voter to choose whether to indicate her preferred candidate as well as her preferred party

Nonpartisan system

one with no official political parties

Single-party system

only one political party is legally allowed to hold power

ex: liberia

One-party system

multiple parties may legally operate but in which only one particular party has a realistic chance of gaining power.

Two-party system

only two major political parties have a realistic chance of holding power

Multiparty system

more than two parties have a realistic chance of holding power.

Duverger’s Theory

increasing the number of social cleavages in a country has less of an effect on party system size if the electoral system is nonproportional than if it is proportional.

There are two reasons, commonly known as the “mechanical” and “strategic” effects of electoral laws, for why nonproportional electoral systems have this moderating effect

Mechanical effect of electoral laws

refers to the way that votes are translated into seats

When electoral systems are disproportional, the mechanical effect punishes small parties and rewards large parties.

Strategic effect of electoral laws

refers to how the way in which votes are translated into seats influences the “strategic” behavior of voters and political elite

Strategic entry refers to the decision by political elites about whether to enter the political scene under the label of their most preferred party or under the label of their most preferred party that has a realistic chance of winning.

Federalism

federal state is one 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.

the division of powers between national and subnational governments

To be classified as federal, a country must satisfy three structural criteria: (a) geopolitical division, (b) independence, and (c) direct governanc

Federal country

Ex: Us, Canada

Unitary country

States that are not federal

Political scientists sometimes distinguish between states according to whether they are federal or unitary.

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

symmetric federalsim

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.

Bicameralism

the division of powers between different houses of the legislature

Although originally designed to represent different social classes, they are now more closely associated with the representation of different territorial units.

Consitutionalism

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

requires a codified constitution, a bill of rights, and constitutional review.

entranched constitutions

can be modified only through a special procedure of constitutional amendment

unentranched constitutions

n has no special amendment procedure and can be modified at any point in time with the support of a legislative majority

Legislative supremacy constitution

has no constitutional review, has no bill of rights, and is not entrenched.

Higher law constitution

has constitutional review, has a bill of rights, and is entrenched.

Identifying Authoritarian Regime

1.) Identify effective head

2.) Title “king” and hereditary successor=monarchic

3.) Head of gov current/past member of armed forces=military

Everything else is civilian

Dictators Dilemma

relies on repression to stay in power, but this repression creates incentives for everyone to falsify their preferences so that the dictator never knows his true level of societal suppor

Gamson’s law

cabinet portfolios will be distributed among government parties in strict proportion to the number of seats that each party contributes to the government’s legislative seat total.

free party list

voters have multiple votes that they can allocate either within a single party list or across different party lists.

constitutional review

division of powers between the legislative and judicial branches

decentralization

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

Most political scientists see decentralization as a revenue issue: the greater the share of all tax revenues going to the central government, the less decentralized the state.

coming-together federalism

result of a bargaining process in which previously sovereign polities voluntarily agree to pool their resources in order to improve their collective security or achieve other economic goals.

holding-together federalism

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

unicameral

legislative deliberation occurs in a single assembly