Constitutional Law I: Models of Democracy, Political Parties, and Electoral Systems

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering models of democracy, political party evolution and financing, party systems, suffrage, constituencies, electoral systems, lists, formulas, and thresholds.

Direct Democracy

A model of democracy in which the people, gathered in assembly, exercise government directly without intermediaries.

Representative Democracy

A model of democracy in which citizens periodically elect representatives to whom they delegate their sovereignty.

Participatory Democracy

A democratic model starting from representative democracy that seeks active citizen participation in decision-making processes through specific mechanisms.

Referendum

A popular vote in which citizens pronounce themselves in favor of or against a legal norm, administrative act, or decision of special relevance.

Binding Referendum

A vote whose outcome legally obligates public authorities to respect the result, such as Spanish votes on Statutes of Autonomy or Constitutional reforms.

Consultative Referendum

A vote where public authorities are not legally obligated to respect the opinion expressed by the electorate.

Plebiscite

A popular vote on a non-legislative question, such as the $1988$ vote in Chile regarding the continuity of dictator Pinochet.

Popular Initiative

A mechanism allowing a specified number of citizens to submit a petition backed by signatures for public or legislative consideration.

Direct Popular Initiative

A popular initiative that leads directly to a referendum, such as in Switzerland when $100.000$ signatures are collected within $18$ months.

Indirect Popular Initiative

A popular initiative where the petition is submitted to the legislature, which can approve, reject, or amend it.

Recall Election

A mechanism enabling electors to remove an elected public official from office before their term expires.

Participatory Budgeting

A process allowing citizens to debate and decide on the allocation of a portion of public budgets, initiated in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Political Party

An organization of citizens centered around an ideology or group representation with a public program, seeking to exercise power or participate in government via electoral processes.

Cadre Parties

19th-century political parties formed by parliamentary elites that operated primarily during election periods under restricted census suffrage.

Mass Parties

Political parties that emerged in the late 19th century from the labor movement, characterized by large membership bases and structured organization.

Catch-All Parties

Post-WWII political parties that broadened their appeal beyond traditional class or religious bases to attract middle-class voters.

Butskellism

A term coined in the United Kingdom combining the names of Conservative Rab Butler and Labour Hugh Gaitskell to describe economic policy consensus between major parties.

Cartel Parties

Political parties that rely on public financing and media exposure rather than members, colluding to maintain privileges and exclude newer or smaller parties.

Liquid or Assembly Parties

Parties characterized by decentralized decision-making where leadership delegates major choices directly to members through assemblies or the Internet.

Hegemonic Party System

A party system in which a single political party consistently wins elections by an absolute majority, such as in Japan or Botswana.

Two-Party System

A party system where two major political parties alternate in power, consistently governing with an absolute majority.

Moderate Pluralism

A party system featuring two main competitive parties that lack absolute majorities and require support from a pivot party (partido bisagra) to govern.

Polarized Pluralism

A party system containing around $7$ parliamentary parties, where forming a government typically requires coalitions of at least $3$ parties.

Active Suffrage

The capacity or legal right of a citizen to cast a vote in an election.

Passive Suffrage

The capacity or legal right of a citizen to stand as a candidate and be elected to public office.

Censitary Suffrage

A form of restricted active suffrage requiring individuals to possess a specific level of economic wealth or property to vote.

Capacitary Suffrage

A form of restricted suffrage that requires electors to demonstrate specific knowledge or educational qualifications.

Indirect Suffrage

An electoral procedure in which voters elect delegates or electors (compromisarios) who make the final decision on officeholders.

Electoral Constituency

The territorial or personal unit in which the electorate is grouped to convert votes into parliamentary seats.

Relative Equalization

An allocation criteria assigning a minimum number of seats to every constituency before distributing remaining seats proportionally by population.

Majoritarian Electoral System

An electoral system in which the candidate or party obtaining the majority of votes in a district wins the election and all seats in play.

Proportional Electoral System

An electoral system that distributes seats proportionally based on the total votes obtained by each candidacy.

Limited Vote System

An electoral system in which electors vote for fewer candidates than the total number of seats being contested in the constituency.

Closed and Blocked Lists

Electoral list candidacies where voters cast a vote for a fixed party list without the ability to alter candidate order.

Closed and Unblocked Lists

Electoral list candidacies where voters vote for a party list but can modify candidate order through preferential voting or ranking.

Open Lists

Electoral list candidacies allowing voters to select individual candidates across different lists or from a single list up to a specified limit.

Hare Quota (Largest Remainder Formula)

A proportional electoral method created by Thomas Hare that calculates an electoral quotient (total votes divided by total seats) to award initial seats and distributes remaining seats by largest remainders.

D'Hondt Method

A proportional allocation formula created by Victor D'Hondt that divides each party's total votes by successive integers ($1, 2, 3, \dots, N$) and awards seats to the highest quotients.

Electoral Threshold

The minimum percentage of total votes required for a party or candidacy to participate in the allocation of parliamentary seats.

Majority Bonus

An allocation rule awarding extra parliamentary seats to the winning party to promote government stability, such as Greece's $50$-seat bonus.