Chapter 7: Democracies and Authoritarian Systems

Agent-centric explanation

Explanation that puts individual agency at the forefront of explanation, rather than social or economic structures

authoritarian democracy

A formal democracy in which, through some mix of fraud, intimidation, and control of communications, the same ruler stays in power indefinitely. Though the institutions of democracy are there, the open competition is not. Current examples are Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe and Vladimir Putin’s in Russia!

authoritarian system

A government arrangement in which those who hold power are not responsible in their exercise of power, in any formal way, to the broad citizenry of the state.

color revolutions

Refers to a series of popular revolutions in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine, among other countries, where the people sought out authoritarian or total regimes and replace them with democratic ones

constitutionalism

A theory of modern politics that says that governments are limited in their powers by some type of superior documents that defines the structure of government and the rights of individuals

coup

The forceful disposition of a government by all or a portion of the armed forces and installation of a new military government

crisis transitions

Transitions form an autocratic to a democratic system that take place in the context of an economic crisis

democracy

A regime intended to embody “government of the people”. As an ideal it is unattainable, but regimes form a continuum along the degree to which people people share equally in influencing the state’s policies. An important point along this continuum distinguishes electoral democracies from other regimes 

electoral democracy

A state in which qualified citizens vote at regular intervals to choose the people who will be in charge of setting the state’s policies, among alternative candidates and with sufficient free information on which to base their decisions

military government

An autocracy in which military officers rule, perhaps without any sort of auxiliary structure such as a political party.

monarchy

A state in which the power to rule is inherited though descent in the family

one-party state

A state in which the government is based on, and in turn supports, a single political party. No other party is allowed to function other than in a token way.

pacts

In general, agreements. Specifically with regard to democratization, agreements between the leaders of the new democracy and supporters of the older authoritarian system that soften the change of the latter and help them accept the democracy

populism

A political style in which a politician taps frustration among ordinary people and their resentment of elites to get support for disrupting existing economic, social, and political institutions.

regime

The general form of government of a state, including its constitution and rules of the government. A regime generally continues beyond the terms of individual officeholders. A state, in turn, is in principle more enduring than a regime; that is, a state can alter the form of its regime

sovereignty

The legal capacity of a geographic unit to maintain ultimate responsibility for the conduct of its own affairs

theocracy

A state ruled by a set of religious leaders

Third Wave

The wave of democratization across many states from the late 1970s to the early 1990s