Key Concepts in Political Science: Democracy, Regimes, and State Formation

Public Goods

Non-Rivalrous, your use does not diminish it, and Non-Excludable, everyone can use it.

Free Riding

People don't contribute to the public good—its therefore not given.

Coordination Problem

a situation in which two or more people are all better off if they coordinate on a common course of action, but there is more than one possible course of action to take

Equilibrium

situation where no player could gain more by changing their own strategy in a game

Collective action

the cooperative effort of individuals to achieve a common goal or produce a shared benefit that they could not achieve alone

Scope conditions

Specific circumstances of boundaries under which a theoretical proposition or hypothesis is expected to apply and hold true

External validity

The Idea that a theory can go to other places and regions and still be true.

Internal validity

ensures that a study's identified causal relationship within its specific context is trustworthy and not due to other factors

Concept

An abstract category capturing the meaning of objects or ideas.

Measurement

A quantification of a concept

Operationalization

Translating a concept into a measurable indicator

Commitment problem

a situation in which people cannot achieve their goals because of an inability to make credible threats or promises

Preference falsification

when people hide the way they truly feel while publicly expressing what those in power want them to communicate. I will falsify my opinions to something more acceptable to the public

Correlation

describes a relationship where two political variables change together, such as economic growth and democracy

Causation

means one variable directly causes a change in another

Intrinsic value

refers to the worth of something for its own sake (e.g., democracy as a system of self-governance)

Instrumental value

the worth something has as a means to achieve another desired outcome (e.g., democracy as a means to economic stability)

Replicability

If another group of scholars can replicate a study using the same procedures and obtain the same results, good replication means a good study.

State

human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory

Civil Rights and the Social Contract

The idea that subjects/citizens will give up their natural rights in exchange for civil rights, which will be protected by the state.

Definitions of Demoracy

Various definitions, Procedural vs Substantive. Przeworski's definition is a thin procedural definition of democracy, his criteria is if the country has elections and if there is a peaceful turnover of power. Dahl has a think and more procedural definition, contestation and inclusion. Freedom House is Substantive, focuses on outceoms (inequality, justicet,etc.)

Definitions Dictatorships

Militarisitc, Personalistic, Party-Based

Contestation/Inclusion

Dahl's definition of democracy is a more procedural definition of democracy. Contestation meaning who can compete in democracy and how citizens can engage to form political blocs to pass their policies. In terms of inclusion, this means who can participate in a democracy.

Transitional Justice

the many different types of judicial and nonjudicial actions used to address human rights abuses to establish truth, accountability, reparations, and prevent future violence

Modernization Theory

Economic development will lead to a higher likelihood of a country becoming democratic and will provide greater stability for the nation.

Democratic Backsliding

Erosion of democratic norms and institutions.

Political Regimes Performance

Freedom House, substantive, thick

Polity, procedural, -10to10 Scale, inclusion/contestation

Democracy-Dictatorship (DD) Measure, Minimalist and procedural

Belleicist Theory of State Formation (and alternative accounts)

Bellicist:War Makes States and States Make War, Alternative Accounts: Robinson; Colonial Influence. Centeno; Depenedence on External Institutions and Wars. Herbst; Low Population Density (Geographical)

Private Governance

Exercise of political power by private actors—business and civil-society organizations—to produce decisions that have abiding effects and reduce actors' autonomy (Markets in Nigeria have their own government.)

Variation within Authoritarian Refimes

Party-Type Regimes

Personalistic Regimes Military Regimes

Waves of Democratization

First Wave: 1880-1920 (expansion of suffrage and representative institutions)

Second Wave: Post WW2 (Europe and Japan)

Third Wave: Post Cold War (LA and Post-Communist Europe)

Pacted Transitions

Essentially, the outgoing autocrat strikes a deal with a new regime, that if they step down, they will be granted amnesty from all trials and charges due to their crimes under the autocrats tule.

Bottom-up Transitions

Bottom-up transitions come from the people. A revolution or political mobilization occurs from the bottom of society demanding a change of regime.

Endogenous Democratization

argues that economic development leads to democratization

Exogenous Democratization

democracy may be established independently of economic development, but is more likely to survive in developed countries.

Economic Growth/Human Development

Opinions mixed, Democracy is sufficient but not necessary for high development.Know, statistics do show that there exists better human development in democratic countries, but there are also some autocracies that prefer well, but the majority preform badly. There doe exist the argument that higher economic growth will not lead to democracy, but it can sustain democracy, as seen in Pzeworkis argument.

Quasi-voluntary compliance

a form of public cooperation with laws or policies that is motivated by a willingness to comply but is also reinforced by the threat of coercion or punishment, ensuring that free-riders face consequences

Political Regime

refers to the formal and informal institutional arrangements that determine:

Who has power,

How power is chosen, and

Who can hold them accountable for their use of power.

Reliability

Consistency of measurement (attributes)

Validity

Accuracy of a measure.

Conceptualization

How well a measure captures what "democracy" means.

Polyarchy

High inclusion and contestation.

Institutionalization

collection of rules and procedures that govern the distribution of power and resources within the ruling coalition.

Business cycles

Situations in which an incumbent fuels consumption before an election, but the cost of doing that is that after the election, you have to pay the price of fueling that consumption, which can lead to inflation after the election.

Revolutionary threshold

The point at which someone decides to join a protest.

Revolutionary cascade

Each new protester lowers others' thresholds, causing rapid regime collapse (e.g., Romania 1989).

Promissory Coups

Leaders justify ousting an elected government as defending democracy, promising future elections.

Executive Aggrandizement

Occurs when elected executives weaken checks on executive power one by one, undertaking a series of institutional changes that hamper the power of opposition forces to challenge executive preferences

Strategic Manipulation of Elections

more covert manipulation, occurs before election day; preemptive action to ensure that something work in a certain group's favor

Two democratic norms that sustain checks and balances (soft guardrails)

Mutual toleration - Treat opponents as legitimate rivals.

Forbearance - Restraint in using institutional powers.

Meltzer-Richard Model (Redistribution Story)

predicts that in a democracy, increasing income inequality will lead to higher demand for government redistribution, as the median voter, who is relatively poorer, will support policies that benefit them more as the gap between mean and median income widens