Politics Midterm Keyterms

Normative Questions

questions that are primarily answered by our values and ethics

Empirical Questions

questions that are primarily answered with facts

Cultural Imperialism

values are universal and can apply across all cultural differences

Cultural Relativism

values are culture-specific and cannot be applied across different cultures

• Hinduism – beef

• Christianity - lent

• Islam - pork

Operationalize

to take abstract concepts and replace them with measurable indicators

• Physical well-being

• Informed decision-making

• Safety

• Democratic rights

Human Development Index (HDI)

life expectancy + education + per capita income

• If resources and opportunities are distributed unequally, richer countries can have low HDI

Gini Index

mathematical measure of the level of economic equality in a country

Modernization Theory

values and political culture must adapt to changing world

• What is holding developing countries back are traditional, political and economic values

  
  

Dependency Theory

western colonialism and economic imperialism turned Africa, Asia, and Latin America into providers of cheap food and raw materials for rich countries

• Latin American poverty is the direct counterpart of wealth accumulation in Europe and US

Political Institutions

rules, norms, and shared understandings that influence how political figures interact with each other

• Political parties like India’s Congress Party and BJP

State

a sovereign political entity that organizes a population within a defined territory and holds supreme authority to make and enforce laws

Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

treaty that ended the 30 year war in Europe between Catholic and Protestants and established the norm of sovereignty

Sovereignty

the right of a people to govern themselves without interference from outside powers

Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)

agreement between UK and France to create spheres of influence in Middle East after collapse of Ottoman Empire

• Outside powers with no stake in the region could draw borders and create countries without regard for the people living there

United Arab Republic

short-lived attempt (1958-1961) to build a pan-Arab state, starting with Egypt and Syria

• Collapse showed how hard it was to unite Arab countries whose borders and interests had been shaped by colonial rule

Ba’ath Party

nationalist party that ruled Syria from 1970-2024

• let a minority-led regime, Alawite base, hold power for over fifty years

Indirect Rule

system of colonial rule whereby an external power controls a territory by using pre-existing local leaders and traditional political structures

• French recruited Alawites from Syria for local military and security forces

Alawites

politically powerful religious minority in Syria

• Colonial indirect rule turned the Alawites into the backbone of Syria’s military

  
  

Arab Spring

wave of anti-government protests across the Middle East and North Africa throughout 2010s

• Exposed how weak control can lead to sudden challenges, which in Syria led to a civil war

Fiscal Policy

decisions about how to generate and spend revenue

• taxes, welfare systems, spending on infrastructure

• Washington Consensus, India’s GST

Monetary Policy

decisions about how to influence the cost of borrowing and lending money

• Devaluing the Mexican peso

Nationalization

government takes ownership of privately-owned company

• Embraer (Brazil) - Makes airplanes for high-value indusrty

Regulation

government rules that dictate how privately-owned companies must behave

• ISI governments maintained an affordable lifestyle for urban workers

Welfare Systems

government provision of benefits or services outside on a non-market basis

• pension, social security, food banks

Command Economy

government owns and manages the means of production and exchange

• Soviet Union

Market Economy

economy is managed by private, for profit-exchange

• United States

Kuznets Curve

inequality rises during early period of economic growth and then declines

• Latin America’s persistent inequality shows that inequality doesn’t always go away as a country grows

Declining Terms of Trade

price of exports falls relative to imports

• Sell more bananas to buy the same tractor from a rich country.

Value-added

the amount by which an item’s increases in value at each stage in the production process

• Cotton to fabric to shirt

Import-substituting Industrialization

policy of replacing imports with domestically produced goods

• Latin America’s attempt to escape declining terms of trade using tariffs and subsidies

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

financial arm of the United Nations that serves as lender of last resort for countries in debt crisis

• Stepped in during Latin America’s debt crisis and led to cuts in social spending

  
  

Washington Consensus

market based economic reforms enforced by IMF in order to promote economic growth and encourage repayment of debts

• Contributed to Latin America’s “lost decade” of rising poverty and inequality

  
  

Procedural Democracy

a political system that holds fair, contested elections on a regular basis with universal adult suffrage

• India → BJP losing in 2024 election

Illiberal Democracy

a political system with competitive elections, but few adequate mechanisms for holding the government accountable to its citizens between elections

• Shows that winning votes doesn’t guarantee a government will respect limits on its power

Liberal Democracy

a political system where most leading government officials are elected by near-universal suffrage, opposition candidates have a realistic chance to win, and civil liberties are respected

• United States

Parliamentary Democracy

a form of government where the head of government is accountable to the legislature

• India → BJP under Modi in 2014 and 2019

Federalism

political system where power is divided between a national government and regional, state, and/or local government

• United States → 50 states have their own laws, courts, taxes

Narendra Modi

Prime Minister of India since 2014

• Leader of BJP, a conservative, religious (Hindu) party

• Used BJP majorities to push a Hindu nationalist agenda and centralize power

Corruption

use of public authority for private gain

• Odebrecht

Endemic Corruption

routine, low-level corruption in everyday life

• people lose trust in public services and the state, which makes the problem very hard to remove.

Developmental Corruption

corruption by business in order to secure government contracts or other preferential treatment

• Odebrecht - Brazilian construction company that paid bribes across Latin America to win major infrastructure contracts