COMPARATIVE POLITICS MIDTERM

bottom-up transition

the people rise up to overthrow an authoritarian regime in a popular revolution 

• ex. east germany 1989

• hard to predict

cause

includes:

• correlation: a summary of the degree to which the values of two variables “move together”

• causation: X causes Y means that if we were to change X, then Y would also change

• counterfactual: what would have happened if the cause had not occurred.

• confounder: a third factor that affects both the cause and the effect you’re studying, creating a spurious (false) relationship between them.

civilian dictatorship

an autocracy that is neither a monarchy nor a military dictatorship

• ex. kim jong un, supreme leader of north korea, & nicolas maduro, president of venezuela

collective action

refers to the pursuit of some objective by groups of individuals, typically the objective is some form of public good

competitive authoritarian 

regimes that employ formal democratic institutions as the principal means of obtaining and exercising political authority. however, incumbents violate those rules so often, and to such an extent, that the regime fails to meet conventional minimum standards for a democracy

contractarian view of state

sees the creation of the state as resulting from a social contract between individuals in the state of nature in which the state provides security in exchange for obedience from the citizen 

culture

the attitudes, values, and understandings that are widely shared in a given society, and that are transmitted across generations

democracy (maximalist definition)

classifies political regimes according to:

i. their formal institutions and rules.

ii. how those institutions or rules function in practice.

iii. the outcomes they produce

democracy (minimalist definition)

the institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s vote

essential components of democracy in this view:

1. elections

2. universal suffrage

3. competition for office

democratic backsliding

deterioration of the quality of democracy within the context of a democratic regime 

equilibrium

describes the actions chosen by actors when all actors are pursuing their goals and considering the choices of others

expressive motives

refers to concerns that derive directly from the meaning or symbolic significance of actions or choices themselves, rather than the political outcomes they produce 

fiscal capacity

state’s ability to extract taxes

• relies on capable bureaucracy and information about entities that owe taxes  

free rider problem

the fact that individual members of a group often have little incentive to contribute to the provision of a public good that will benefit all members of the group

hybrid regime

a regime that combines some democratic rules with authoritarian governance 

institutions

the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, are the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction

instrumental motives

refers to the cost of taking an action and the benefits associated with affecting a political outcome 

legibility

when population is arranged in order to simplify classic state function like taxation, conscription, and prevention of rebellion

• ex. doge’s one big, beautiful database & silicon valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in china

liberalizing reform 

entails a controlled opening of the political space and might include the formation of political parties, holding elections, writing a constitution, establishing an independent judiciary, opening a legislature, and so on

military dictatorship

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

• ex. min aung hlaing of myanmar & assimi goita, president of mali

modernization theory

as societies develop economically, they also tend to become more democratic 

monarchic dictatorship

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

• ex. king salman and mohammaed bin salman of saudi arabia & king mswati of eswatini

nation-state

a state in which a single nation predominates and the legal, social, demographic, and geographic boundaries of the state are connected in important ways to that nation 

• now the predominate political entity 

populism

a political ideology that claims to be the voice of “the people” often invoking anti-elite sentiment

• ex, Marine Le Pen and Bernie Sanders

predatory view of state

holds that states exercise an effective control over the use of violence, which they can use to extract from their subjects

preference falsification

because it is dangerous to reveal opposition to a dictatorship, individuals who oppose the regime may falsify private preferences when public

property rights

the exclusive authority to determine how a resource is used

protest

instances of disruptive collective action aimed at institutes, elites, authorities, or other groups on behalf of the collective goals of actors or of those they claim to represent 

public good

non-excludable (you cannot exclude people from enjoying the public good) and non-rivalrous (there is just as much public good to enjoy no matter how many people consume it)

regime

a set of rules, norms, or institutions that determine how the government is constituted, organized, and how major decisions are made 

reliability

the extent to which the measurement process repeatedly and consistently produces the same score for a given case

rentier state

derives all or a substantial portion of its revenue from the rent of indigenous natural resources 

state

an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule a given territory

• this is different from the other use of “state” as an administrative division of a country

strategic behavior

behavior is strategic when the choices of one actor depend on the choices made by another actor

top-down transition 

one in which the dictatorial ruling elite introduces liberalizing reforms that ultimately lead to a democratic transition 

validity 

the extent to which our measures correspond to the concepts that they are intended to reflect 

state of nature

used to describe social relationships in situations where there is no state

• view of the state of nature leads to the rationale for state formation

state capacity

the ability of a state to penetrate civil society in order to implement political decisions throughout the territory

revolutionary threshold

the minimum size of protest at which an individual is willing to participate