Trummel PPA 102 Midterm Study Guide, Introduction to Policymaking in democracies, Denison 2026

Taylor Trummel, PPA 102, denison university, fall 2026

Procedural definition of democracy

A system in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public realm by citizens, acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of elected representatives. (Schmitter and Karl)

Contingent consent

Losers accept the outcome today because the rules guarantee them a real chance to win later.

Vertical accountability

Citizens hold officials accountable, mainly through elections

Horizontal accountability

Institutions hold each other accountable, such as courts, legislatures, and auditors checking the executive.

Measuring democracy

Freedom House and V-Dem score countries on different components of democracy

Regime types

Democracy, totalitarianism, authoritarianism

Liberal democracy

Protects individual liberty from state interference

Social democracy

Guarantees basic social and economic rights

Populism

Pits a pure people against a corrupt elite and claims the populist alone represents the people. Not a regime type; way of doing politics that can appear in democracies

Example of presidential system

United States

Example of parliamentary system

UK, Germany

Example of semi-presidential system

France

Unitary system

All governing power is in a central government

Federal system

Governing power shared between federal government and subnational governments

Veto player

An individual or collective actor whose agreement is required to change the status quo. Can be institutional (a chamber) or partisan (coalition party). (Tsebelis)

Policy stability

More veto players, greater ideological distance between them, and more internal cohesion all make policy change harder. (Tsebelis)

Cohabitation

When the president and prime minister have opposing views but must share power (France)

Formal power

Comes from written authority, comes from a position

Informal power

Comes from charisma, connections, skill, prestige, and unwritten norms.

Majoritarian democracy

More vertical accountability, less horizontal accountability

Consensus democracy

Less vertical accountability, more horizontal accountability

Westminster model

One party usually wins a majority, its leader becomes PM and picks a cabinet from senior party members (UK)

Coalition government

The largest party trades policy concessions and cabinet seats for support, guided by ideological proximity and minimum winning coalitions.

Vote of no confidence

Parliament removes a prime minister by majority vote. Flexible, but can create instability and leverage for coalition partners.

Divided government and gridlock

One party holds the executive and another the judicial, making it harder to pass laws.

Judicial review

Courts decide whether laws contradict the constitution, a form of horizontal accountability that requires judges free from political pressure.

Electoral connection (Mayhew)

Assume members single-handedly seek reelection, then explain their behavior

3 activities congress members do (mayhew)

Advertising, credit claiming, position taking

Particularized benefits

Easy to claim credit for. Broad national policy is not, which creates a collective action problem.

Home Style (Fenno)

Presentation of self, allocation of resources, and explanation of Washington activity

Four constituencies (Fenno)

Geographic, reelection, primary, personal

Referendum types

Required or optional; binding or advisory

Elite strategy vs. populist weapon

Elites once used referendums to shorten debate; populist challengers now use them to claim to be the sole voice of the people. (Topaloff)

Collective action problem

One vote rarely changes an outcome and voting is costly, so participation is individually irrational. Individuals may not act even when all would likely benefit

Single Member District (SMD)

One representative per district. Plurality or first past the post (US house, UK commons) or majority with runoff (France)

Proportional representation (PR)

Multi-seat districts where seat shares match vote shares

Closed list PR

Vote for party, party candidate lists are predetermined

Open list PR

Vote for candidate, voters influence the order in which a party's candidates are elected

Mixed-member proportional (MMP)

2 ballots, one for a district candidate and one for a party list. The second vote sets each party’s overall share (Germany)

five percent threshold

germany’s rule for entering the bundestag. designed to keep out extremist parties

Duverger’s law

SMD favors two parties. Mechanical effect: the rule denies small parties seats.

Psychological effect: voters and politicians avoid wasted votes and weak parties.

Rules producing few parties

more majoritarian

rules producing many parties

more consensual

Effective number of parties (ENP)

One divided by the sum of each party’s squared vote or seat share. US near 2, UK above 2, Germany above 5, France above 7

Governing and blackmail potential

A party matters if it can join a governing coalition (German Greens) or push others to change positions (UKIP and Conservatives).

party system types

dominant party, 2 party, 2 and one half party, multiparty

median voter (downs)

median voter is in the middle of the ideological spectrum, so the two parties converge on the center

Survey experiment and vignette

Responses are randomly assigned to read different versions of a scenario so differences in responses can be attributed to the manipulation

Majoritarians (Grossman et al.)

Voters who see an elected incumbent’s actions as democratic by definition, so they do not punish power grabs

Polarization (Lee)

Parties far apart on policy AND members tightly clustered around their party mean

Red wall

Historically Labour seats in the Midlands and North of England, have been central to recent reallignments

Protest vote

Support for smaller or insurgent party to signal dissatisfaction with the major parties

Contentious politics

Collective political action outside, or alongside, formal institutions such as elections and legislatures

Political opportunity structure

Features of the political system that make movements more or less likely to form and succees

Social capital and trust

Network and norms that make cooperation easier

Public goods

Goods such as clean water, safety, and sanitation that benefit everyone and invite free riding

Who to thank for making this

Joseph Jonaus

Totalitarian regime

Asserts total control over the lives of citizens, forbids individual freedom of thought and action.

Authoritarian regime

Gets power through the blind submission of its citizens to authority, tolerates some social organizations.

Dominant party system

A single political party continuously dominates election results, overrunning opposition groups or parties

Two party system

Two major political parties consistently dominate election results

Two-and-a-half party system

Each of the two major political parties that stand apart on the political spectrum needs a coalition with a smaller "half" party for political control

Multi-party system

More than two meaningfully distinct political parties regularly run for office and win offices