Comparative Politics and Democratic Systems Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core political science terms, state theories, regimes, executives, legislatures, constitutions, electoral systems, and federalism based on the lecture notes.

Politics

Human activities/decisions and the impacts it has on governmental institutions.

Political Science

Social science concerned with the analysis of political systems and behavior.

State

Large political units which first developed in the modern West, characterized by a monopoly of legitimate violence, territoriality, sovereignty, and a population.

Nation

A group of people who share a common identity, such as language, religion, or ethnicity.

Sovereignty

The principle where a state recognizes no power superior to itself and answers to nobody else.

Social Contract

An implicit agreement among individuals in the state of nature to create and empower the state, outlining the mutual rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens.

Predatory View of the State

A perspective explaining that states develop as the result of rulers seeking to maximize their own power and revenue by building bureaucracies, legal systems, and armies to extract taxes.

Failed State

A state that cannot control its territory and lacks the state capacity to coerce or control its inhabitants, often due to civil war, arbitrary colonial borders, or incompetent governance.

Procedural Democracy

A definition of democracy concerned primarily with democratic procedures and institutions, viewing any law created democratically as legitimate regardless of the outcome.

Substantive Democracy

A definition of democracy focused on outcomes, asserting that a country is democratic only if it secures substantive rights such as civil liberties, a free press, and social benefits like healthcare and education.

Parliamentary System

A democratic system featuring a division between the head of government (Prime Minister) and head of state (ceremonial), where the Prime Minister is chosen by the legislature and can be dismissed by a vote of no confidence.

Presidentialism

A democratic system where the president serves as both head of state and head of government, is elected for a fixed term, and does not require a legislative majority to remain in office.

Coup d'état

An event in which the military or security forces take control of the government by force.

Cooptation

A method used by nondemocratic regimes to make individuals dependent on the regime by providing state-sponsored services or benefits in exchange for political support.

Modernization Theory

A theory predicting that as countries develop economically, they pass through stages of historical development and become more likely to establish and sustain democratic governance.

Civic Culture

A political culture deemed compatible with democracy, where citizens believe they can influence political decisions, view the political system positively, trust fellow citizens, and prefer gradual societal change.

Democratic Peace

The observation and security principle asserting that democratic nations almost never go to war with one another.

Soft Power

A method of international democracy promotion relying on assistance, aid, economic incentives, and conditionalities rather than military force.

Hard Power

A method of international democracy promotion involving coercive measures such as trade sanctions or direct military intervention.

Bicameralism

A legislative organization comprising two separate houses or chambers.

Unicameralism

A legislative organization comprising a single house or chamber.

Party Discipline

The ability of a political party to compel its legislative members to vote in support of the party leadership's policies.

Delegate Model

A model of legislative representation where representatives act strictly to convey and execute the expressed wishes of their constituents.

Trustee Model

A model of legislative representation where representatives act as autonomous guardians using their judgment and intellect to make decisions in the best interest of constituents.

Minimal Winning Coalition (MWC)

A parliamentary government coalition formed by office-seeking parties that contains no more parties than are strictly necessary to command a legislative majority.

Legislative Supremacy Constitution

A flexible constitutional structure under which the legislature possesses full authority to make laws without judicial review constraints or a formal higher bill of rights.

Higher Law Constitution

A rigid constitutional structure establishing an independent review body with the power to invalidate legislative acts that violate constitutional provisions or a bill of rights.

Judicial Review

The process by which constitutional courts evaluate and potentially invalidate legislation deemed unconstitutional.

Single-Member Plurality (SMP)

A majoritarian electoral system in single-member districts where voters cast a vote for one candidate, and the candidate with the highest number of votes wins.

Alternative Vote (AV)

A preferential electoral system where voters rank candidates in order of preference, and lower-ranked candidates are systematically eliminated and their votes redistributed until one candidate achieves an absolute majority.

Proportional Representation (PR)

An electoral system designed to produce a seat distribution in the legislature that proportionally reflects the percentage of votes won by each political party.

Closed Party List

A proportional electoral system where the political party predetermines the candidate ranking on the list, preventing voters from choosing individual candidates.

Open Party List

A proportional electoral system allowing voters to express preference for individual candidates within a party list, influencing which candidates win seats.

Electoral Threshold

The minimum percentage of total votes a political party must achieve to win seats in a proportional representation system.

Federalism

A system of government where significant political powers (such as lawmaking, security, and taxation) are constitutionally guaranteed to subnational regional units.

Unitary System

A political system where authority constitutionally resides solely with the central national government, which may delegate or recall powers from subnational bodies at will.

Coming-Together Federalism

A federal formation process where sovereign polities voluntarily unify and surrender partial sovereignty to pool resources for collective economic or security benefits.

Hold-Together Federalism

A federal formation process where a central government constitutionally decentralizes power to subnational units to manage internal regional diversity and mitigate secessionist pressures.

Devolution

The process in a unitary state where the national government transfers specific administrative or legislative powers to subnational authorities while retaining ultimate sovereign authority.