Political Science Exam Review: Institutions, Constitutions, and Democratic Governance

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, legal doctrines, electoral mechanisms, and regime classifications from Pages 1 through 4 of the lecture review guide.

Anarchy

The absence of organized government, centralized authority, or enforceable laws, leading to a state of disorder or unrestrained individual freedom.

Autonomias

The autonomous communities in Spain created to grant regional self-governance and recognize regional diversity within a quasi-federal framework.

Center-periphery

A structural concept describing the economic, political, and cultural tension and relationship between dominant central institutions and subordinate regional peripheries.

Confederation

A political system where sovereign independent states form an alliance, delegating limited authority to a weak central governing body.

Devolution

The statutory delegation of decision-making powers and administrative functions from a central government to regional or local subnational authorities.

Failed state

A state that has lost physical control of its territory, the monopoly on the legitimate use of force, and the capacity to provide basic public services and security.

Federal systems (pros and cons)

A system dividing power between central and regional governments; pros include accommodating local diversity and policy experimentation, while cons include policy duplication, inequality across regions, and jurisdictional conflict.

First-past-the post

A plurality electoral system in single-member districts where the candidate who receives the most votes wins the seat, regardless of whether they achieve an absolute majority.

Fukuyama’s 3 stages of development

Francis Fukuyama's framework of political development resting on three core pillars: state-building (centralized capacity), the rule of law (binding constraints on power), and democratic accountability.

Gerrymandering

The redrawing of electoral district boundaries to strategically benefit a specific political party, incumbent, or demographic group.

Glasnost

The policy of government transparency, openness, and freedom of information implemented by Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union during the late 1980s.

Horizontal federalism

The interactions, constitutional obligations, legal recognitions, and formal compacts between subnational units (such as states or provinces) themselves.

Laissez-faire

An economic doctrine advocating minimal government intervention, regulation, and interference in private market operations.

Proportional representation

An electoral system designed to award legislative seats to political parties in proportion to the percentage of total votes they receive in an election.

Rule by law (man)

A system where governing elites use the legal system as an instrument to control citizens and enforce authority, while holding themselves above the law.

Rule of law

The principle that all citizens, institutions, and governing leaders are equally subject to publicly disclosed, consistently enforced, and independently adjudicated laws.

Single-member district electoral system

An electoral system in which an administrative constituency elects only one representative to a legislative body.

States as laboratories of democracy

The concept that subnational states in a federal system can experiment with innovative social and economic public policies without imposing risk on the whole country.

Statism

A political and economic approach that favors central state control, direction, and planning of economic and social affairs over individual enterprise.

Unitary system (pros & cons)

A system where governing sovereignty rests in a single central authority; pros include policy uniformity, efficiency, and clarity, while cons include centralized bureaucracy and insensitivity to local regional needs.

Vertical federalism

The structural, legal, and operational relationship and division of power between the central/national government and subnational state governments.

Bearing arms as an individual right [Heller Case]

The constitutional doctrine affirmed in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms for self-defense in the home, independent of service in a militia.

Brandenburg free speech test/guidelines

A constitutional standard establishing that speech advocating law violation cannot be restricted unless it is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action.

Civil rights Bad Tendency Test (Freedom of speech)

An early judicial standard permitting government censorship of speech if the expression tends or has the inclination to cause illegal behavior or public disorder.

Clear and present danger test (to national security)

The judicial standard originating in Schenck v. United States determining whether speech creates a clear and present danger that will bring about substantive evils the government has a right to prevent.

Habeas corpus

A judicial writ requiring an individual in custody to be brought before a court to evaluate whether their imprisonment or detention is legally lawful.

Judicial review

The authority of a court to examine legislative acts, executive orders, and administrative rules and invalidate them if they violate constitutional provisions.

Prior Restraint principle

The legal doctrine imposing a heavy presumption against government censorship or prohibition of speech or publications before they occur.

Sedition Acts (1798,1917, 1940-Smith Act; 1950 McCarran Act)

Historical United States statutes enacted in 1798, 1917, 1940 (Smith Act), and 1950 (McCarran Act) that criminalized speech, writing, or association aimed at subverting or advocating the overthrow of the government.

State Duma

The 450-seat lower chamber of the Federal Assembly, the national legislative body of the Russian Federation.

“One man-one vote” (political equality)

The constitutional principle of political equality mandating that legislative districts must contain approximately equal populations to ensure each vote carries equivalent weight.

“the state … that’s me”

The absolutist doctrine ('L'État, c'est moi') attributed to King Louis XIV of France, asserting that the sovereign ruler embodies total state power and authority.

Consociational democracy {elite accommodation]

A power-sharing governance model in fragmented societies featuring grand coalitions of political elites, mutual vetoes, proportional allocation, and segmental autonomy.

Dahl’s Influence terms: (rational persuasion, manipulative persuasion, inducement, power threats, coercion, physical force)

Robert Dahl's spectrum of power methods: rational persuasion, manipulative persuasion, economic inducement, power threats, coercion, and direct physical force.

Democratic Peace Theory

The proposition in international relations stating that established democracies rarely, if ever, go to war against one another.

Iron law of oligarchy

Robert Michels' theory establishing that complex modern organizations and political parties inevitably become dominated by a small, self-serving leadership elite.

Kleptocracy (types: personalized, etc.)

A governance system wherein ruling officials systematically loot public funds, state assets, and resources for personal enrichment.

Lipsett’s (8) characteristics for a democracy

Seymour Martin Lipset's structural preconditions for stable democracy, linking democratic survival to economic wealth, industrialization, high literacy, and social equality.

Modernization theory

The political and sociological theory stating that industrialization, economic growth, and rising education levels drive social mobilization and foster democratic transition.

Petrostate

A country whose economy, political power, and government revenues are predominantly dependent on the extraction and export of oil and gas reserves.

Polyarchy

Robert Dahl's empirical term for modern democratic governance featuring open public contestation and broad, inclusive political participation.

Totalitarian characteristics: all encompassing ideology, single party, organized terror, communications monopoly, weapons monopoly, controlled economy

The defining six features of totalitarianism: an all-encompassing ideology, a single mass party, organized terror, a communications monopoly, a weapons monopoly, and a state-controlled economy.

Trustee representation approach

A model of legislative representation where representatives exercise their own independent judgment and conscience to serve the common good rather than simply mimicking voter instructions.

Two-turnover test/guideline

Samuel Huntington's benchmark of democratic consolidation requiring that a regime experience two peaceful, electoral transfers of executive power between opposing parties.

Tyranny of the majority

A potential failure of democratic rule where a prevailing majority uses democratic mechanisms to infringe upon, disenfranchise, or suppress minority rights.

Whig democracy

A historical model of democracy emphasizing constitutionalism, legislative supremacy over the executive, private property protection, and strict limits on state power.