Comparative Politics Final

Rational Choice Theory

Assumption that individuals are rational and bring a set of self-defined preferences into the political arena.

Modernization Theory

Societies go through distinct stages from tradition to modern through the development of capitalistic democracies (industrialization, urbanization, democratic government), often seen as a linear path to Western-style development.

Behavioralism

Emphasis on the political behavior of individuals, not larger political structures; focuses on quantitative methodology.

Dependent Variable

The factor/outcome we seek to explain.

Inference

Two types: causal (why it happened) and descriptive (what happened).

State

An ongoing administrative apparatus that develops and administers laws and generates and implements public policies in a specific territory.

Institutionalism

Institutionalists argue that political institutions are crucial to understanding political behavior.

Types of Legitimacy: Traditional

built by habit and custom like in African kingships

Types of Legitimacy: Charismatic

builds on the force of ideas and presence of the leader (personal appeal, good qualities)

Rational-legal

built on rules and procedures.

Bureaucracy

Large set of appointed officials whose function is to implement the laws of the state as directed by the executive.

Kleptocracy

Rule by theft.

Resource Curse

Occurs when a state relies on a key resource for almost all of its revenue, allowing it to ignore its citizens.

Personalist Regimes

A central leader dominates the state, eliminating opposition and maintaining power through patronage.

Theocracy

Rule by religious authorities on behalf of a god, following religious dictates.

Civil Society

The sphere of organized nongovernmental, nonviolent activity by groups larger than individual families or firms.

Political Rights

Rights associated with active political participation (e.g., voting, running for office).

Social Rights

Rights related to basic well-being and socioeconomic equality. like health, education, welfare pensions

Civil Rights

Rights guaranteeing individual freedom and fair treatment by the state.

Assimilation

Belief that immigrants or minority groups should adopt the culture of the majority.

Multicultural Integration

Accepts ethnocultural diversity within society.

Majoritarian

A type of democratic system that concentrates power more tightly in a single-party executive with executive dominance over the legislature, a single legislative branch and constitution that can be easily ammended

Consensus democracy

Consensus democracy = multi-party, coalition-based, compromise-heavy → usually in parliamentary systems, not presidential winner-takes-all systems.

Parlimentarism

parlimentary system of democracy where the executive and legistlative branches are fused via parliments election of the cheif executive

Prime minister

the head of government in parliamentary and semi presidential systems

Member of Parliament

an elected member of the legistlature in a parlimentary system

Vote of no confidence

in parlimentary system a vote by parliment to remove a government (prime minister and cabinet from power

Impeachment

When a legistlative body (House of Representatives) formals charges a government of a crime (treason). After the hosue votes the senate holds a trial to determine if guilty. If there is a two-thirds vote, they are removed from their position

Cohabition

Sharing power between a president and a prime minister from different parties in a semipresidential system

Proportional representation

electoral system in which seats in a legislature are appointed on a purely proportional basis, giving each party the share of seats that matches its share of the total vote

Closed-list PR

electoral system in which each party presents a ranked list of candidates, voters vote for the party rather than for individual candidates, and each party awards the seats in wins to the candidates on its list in rank order

Open-list PR

An electoral system in which multiple candidates run in each district, and voters vote for the individual candidate of their choice, and the candidates with the most votes in the party get the seats the party wins

Duverger’s Law

Institutionalist argument by French political Scientist Maurice Deverger that SMD electoral systems will produce major parties eliminating smaller parties

Neocorporatism (democratic)

corportatism that evoles historically and voluntary rather than being mandated by the state: Ex. Germany

government works formally with selected interest groups to negotiate policies and maintain social/economic stability. Like Sweden labor unions

Peak associations

orgs. that bring together all interest groups in a particular sector to influence and negotiate in the U.S.

Umbrella term for: an org that gathers together all smaller orgs to represent on broad interest

State coportaism

corporatism mandated by the state (common in facist regimes)

Analogy:

The state is the boss.

Interest groups are managers who:

• Pass information up

• Enforce rules down

• But they don’t get to make real decisions.

Political revolution

A change primarily in government or leadership, often through the overthrow of a regime.

Social Revolution

A fundamental change in society’s structure, culture, or class system, not just the government.

ex. Haitian Revolution— got rid of slavery

Dictators dilemma

An authoritarian rulers repression creates fear, which breeds uncertainty about how much support the ruler has; in response, the ruler spends more resources than is rational to co-opt the opposition

Consociationalism ethnic

democratic system designed to ease ethnic tensions via recognizing the existence of specific groups and granting some share of power in the central government to each

Coup d’état

when the military forcibly removes an existing regime and establishes a new one

Public goods

goods or services that cannot or will not be provided via the market because their costs are too high or their benefits are too diffuse

non-profitable for markets → government provides using taxes (e.g., roads, traffic lights).

Market failure

goods or services that cannot or will not be provided via the market because their costs are too high or their benefits are too diffuse

Market failure happens when the free market cannot provide goods (traffic lights, relocation of factories bc pollution) or services efficiently or fairly, so government intervention is needed to stabilize the market, provide missing goods, or correct problems like pollution or monopolies.

Ethnicity

Ethnic group: a group of people who see themselves as united by one or more cultural attributes or a sense of common history.

• Attributes: language, religion, geographical location, customs, history

• Ascriptions: certain qualities assigned at birth

Corporatism (authoritarianism)

system of representation in which one organization represents each important sector of society (labor, business, farmers)

Horizontal accountability

when state institutions check and balance eachother (courts, legistlatures, oversight agencies)

Vertical accountability

when sitizens hold leaders and institutions accountable (through elections)

Technocracy

A claim to rule based on knowledge or expertise

Democratic consolidation

The widespread acceptance of democracy as the permanent form of poliitcal activity; all significant political elities and their followers accept democratic rules and are confident everyone else does as well

Democratization

A regime change typically involves a negotiated process that removes an authoritarian regime and concludes with a founding election of a new democratic regime

Authoritarianism

The creation of an authoritarian regime via the undermining of democratic institutions by elected incumbents.

Basically undermining all democratic institutions to consolidate power (ex. El Salvador)

fiscal policy

government budgetary policy

monetary policy

the amount of money a government prints and puts into circulation and basic intrest rates the government sets

Globalization

A rapid increase in the flow of economic activity, technology, and communications around the globe, and the increased sharing of cultural symbols, political ideas, and movements across countries

Social Insurance

provides benefits to categories of people who have contributed to a (usually mandatory) public insurance fund; typically used to provide retirement pensions

Means-tested public assistance

social programs that provide benefits to individuals who fall below a specific income level; TANF is an example in the United States

Vote of no confidence

in parliamentary systems a vote by parliment to remove a government (the prime minister and cabinet) from power

resource curse w Example

occurs when a state relies on a key resource for almost all of its revenue, allowing it to ignore its citizens. For instance, rebels have an incentive to control minerals which result in a civil war

Natural Experiment

a study where researchers analyze a real-world situation where external events/conditions (policy change, natural disaster, etc) and creates a situation similar to random assignment and the researcher studies its effects w/o controlling the process

controlled comparison

when scholars compare casese that are similar in most respects but differ in one key factor, allowing them to isolate the effect for an outcome.

For example, comparing two countries wit similar economies and cultures but different electoal systems to see how the system effects voters.

Jus Soli

citizenship dependent on “soil” or residence within the national territory; for example, in France

Jus sanguinis

citizenship based on “blood” ties; for example, in Germany

Observational Studies

are research methods where the researcher does not manipulate variables and instead observes real-world outcomes.

Natural Experiments

Natural experiemnts that are often field work. Often large case studies.Often the most feasible as experiemental methods arent always possible.

Positive Distinction

the study of the way the world operates(empirical)

Normative

the study of the way the world should operate

Cult of personality

a group of people who are devoted to a charismatic leader and share common political, social, religious, or philosophical beliefs. “Groupthink” (ppl follow blindly w/o thinking/questioning to keep peace)

Direct democracy

public can participate directly in affairs in govenrembt like choosing policies, making decision

indirect democracy

seperation of powers within a state and the representation of the public through elected officials

Minimalist democracy

democracy defined mainly by competitive elections, broad suffrage, strong parties, and alternation in power, with limited and infrequent citizen participation.

critique:

However central to democracy, elections [1] occur intermittently and [2] only allow citizens to choose between the highly aggregated alternatives offered by political parties

democracy = elections, even though elections limit participation and choice.

liberal democracy

system of governance where political power is exercised directly or indirectly by the people through participation, competition and liberty 

Coercion

public obedience enforced through violence and surveillance (secret police)

co-optation

members of the public brought into a beneficial relationship with the state and government (via corporatism and clientelism)

neocorporatism

 corporatism that evolves historically and voluntarily rather than being mandated by the state 

District magnitude

the number of representatives elected in a district 

Electoral threshold

percentage of votes a given party/ candidate must obtain in order to be represented in parliament

Clientelism

co-optation of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or small group in exchange for public support

Federalism

method of sharing sovereignty and not just power between governments within a single state

Import-substitution industrialization

Development policy popular in the 1950s - 1970s that uses trade policy, monetary policy, and currency rates to encourage the creation of new industries to produce goods domestically that the country imported in the past

Foreign direct investment

Investment from abroad in productive activity in another country

Structural adjustment program

Development programs created in the 1980s, based on neoliberal principles of reduced government protection of industries, fiscal austerity (reduced government spending through more taxes) and privatization

Nationalism

an ideology and movement centered on loyalty and devotion to one's nation

Civic nationalism

Sense of national unity and purpose based on a set of commonly held political beliefs (i.e., United States)

Cultural nationalism

Based on a common cultural characteristic and holds that only those people who share that characteristic can be included in the nation (i.e., Japan)

Historical materialism

a theory that explains historical and political change as driven mainly by material and economic factors, such as resources, jobs, and who owns land or wealth.

For example, in oil-rich states in the Middle East, control over oil shapes politics, state power, and foreign policy.

Mixed electoral systems

a system that combines both single-member district representation with overall proportionality in allocation legistlative seats to parties; Germany is a key example (reference paper)

Democratic backsliding (BE SPECIFIC HOW)

a decline in the quality of democracy, including the extent of participation, rule of law, and vertical and horizontal accountability (ch9)

One-party rule

a system of government in which a single party gains power, usually after independence in postcolonial states, and systematically eliminates all opposition. (ch3)

politcal rights

those rights associated with active political participation; for ex, free association, voting, and running for office

social rights

those rights related to basic well being amd socioeconomic equality (ch3)

Civil rights Definition

those rights that guarantee individual freedom as well as equal, just, and fair treatment by the state

Universal entitlements

Benefits that governments provide all citizens more or less equally, usually funded through general taxation, in the United States, public education is an example(ch 12)

first dimension of power

the ability of one person or group to get another person or group to do something they otherwise would not do

Second demension of power

the ability not only to make people do something but also keep them from doing something (ch 1)

Third dimension of power

the ability to shape or determine individual or group political demands by causing people to think about politics or issues in ways that are contrary to their own beliefs

Micro-financing

the provision of small loans, savings, and other financial services to individuals and small businesses who lack access to traditional banking and credit systems. It aims to promote financial inclusion and empower underserved populations to improve their economic well-being.

Two Turn-over test

1. The first ruling party/group loses power in an election and hands it over to the opposition.

2. The new ruling group then loses a subsequent election and also peacefully yields power.

• Significance: Proves political elites accept democratic rules (elections over coups) and shows the system is robust enough to withstand change without collapsing.

Regulation

rules and guidelines established by authorities

Selection Bias

ccurs when the method of selecting participants or responses in a study leads to results that are systematically different from the target population or truth. It can distort the validity of conclusions drawn about political opinions or behaviors.

conditionalities

requirements imposed by the Bretton Woods Institutions (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) on countries that seek financial assistance. These stipulations often involve policy changes or reforms in the borrowing country to ensure loan repayment and promote economic stability.