CUMULATIVE VOCAB

Formal and Informal Institutions

Formal and Informal Institutions

Formal: executive positions, legislative, electoral systems, etc.

Informal: legislative norms, clan politics, corruptions, etc.

Political Institutions

A set of long-standing rules and public policies.

Area Studies

A regional focus when studying political science, rather than studying parts of the world where similar variables are clustered.

Behavioral Revolution

A movement within political science during the 1950s and 1960s to develop general theories about individual political behavior that could be applied across all countries.

Causal Relationship

Cause and effect; when a change in one variable causes a change in another variable.

Comparative Method

The means by which social scientists make comparisons across cases.

Comparative Politics

The study and comparison of domestic politics across countries.

Correlation

An apparent relationship between 2 or more variables.

Deductive Reasoning

Research that works from a hypothesis that is them tested against data.

Endogeneity

The issues that cause and effect are not often clear. In that variables may be both cause and effect in the relationship to one another.

Equality

A material standard of living shared by individuals within a community, society, or country.

Game Theory

An approach that emphasizes how actors or organizations behave in their goal to influence others; built upon assumptions of rational choice.

Inductive Reasoning

Research that works from case studies in order to generate hypotheses.

Modernization Theory

A theory asserting that as society developed, they would take a set of common characteristics (democracy, capitalism).

Multicausality

When variables are interconnected and interact to produce particular outcomes.

Qualitative Method

Study through an in-depth investigation of a limited number of cases.

Quantitative Method

Study through statistical data from many cases.

Rational Choice

Approach that assumes that individuals weigh the costs and benefits and make choices to maximize their benefits.

Selection Bias

A focus on effects rather than causes, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions about correlation or causation.

Rule BY Law

Everyone is equal under the law (including the government).

Rule OF Law

The government is above the law.

Developed Democracy

A country with institutionalized democracy and a high level of economic development. 

Intergovernmental system

A system in which two or more countries cooperate on issues. 

Modern

Characterized as secular, rational, materialistic, technological, and bureaucratic, and placing greater emphasis on individual freedom than in the past.   

Postmodern

Characterized by a set of values that center on “quality of life” considerations and give less attention to material gain. 

Supranational system

An intergovernmental system with its own sovereign powers over member states. 

Brexit

British exit from the European Union, realized in a 2016 referendum. 

Cabinet

Top members of the UK government who assist the prime minister and run the major ministries. 

Celtic Fringe

Refers to Scotland and Wales, which were not in one variable causes a change in another variable. 

Collective Responsibility

Tradition that requires all members of the cabinet either to support government policy or to resign. 

Collectivist Consensus

Postwar consensus between the United Kingdom’s major parties to build and sustain a welfare state. 

Common Law

Legal system based on local customs and precedent rather than formal legal codes. 

Commonwealth

Organization that includes the United Kingdom and most of its former colonies. 

Confederation of British Industry

The United Kingdom’s most important group representing the private sector.

Crown

Refers to the British monarchy and sometimes to the British state; head of state.

English Civil War

17th century conflict between British parliament and the monarch that temporarily eliminated and permanently weakened the monarchy. 

Good Friday Agreement

Historic 1998 accord between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland that ended decades of violence. 

Hereditary Peers

Aristocratic family member with seats in the House of Lords; these sets were largely eliminated by recent legislation. 

House of Commons

Lower house of the UK legislature. 

House of Lords

Upper house of the UK legislature, whose reform is currently being debated. 

Hung Parliament

An election result in which no party wins a majority of parliamentary seat, such as the 2010 and 2017 parliamentary elections in the UK.

Life Peers

Distinguished members of society who are given lifetime appointments to the House of Lords. 

Magna Carta

The 1215 document signed by King John that set the precedent for limited monarchical powers. 

Member of Parliament (MP)

An individual legislator in the House of Commons. 

Neoliberalism

A  set of policies championed by Thatcher’s Conservative government in the 1980s, aimed at diminishing role of the state in the economy. 

Parliament

Name of the UK legislature. 

Prime Minister

Head of government. 

Quangos

Quasi-autonomous non governmental organizations that assist the government in making policy. 

The Troubles

Name given to the three decades of extreme ethnic conflict (late 1960s to late 1990s) between Northern Ireland’s nationalists or republicans, who are mostly Catholic, and unionists or loyalists, who are mostly Protestant.

Third Way

Term describing recent policies of the Labour Party that embrace the free market.

Trades Union Congress (TUC)

A confederation of the United Kingdom’s largest trade unions. 

Vote of No Confidence

Vote taken by a legislature as to whether its members continue to support the current prime minister; depending on the country; a vote of no confidence can force the resignation of the prime minister and/or lead to new parliamentary elections. 

Liberals (Whigs)

Historically, the United Kingdom’s first opposition party; one of its two major political parties until the early twentieth century. 

Authoritarianism

A political system in which a small group of individuals exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public.

Bureaucratic Authoritarianism

A system in which the state bureaucracy and the military share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without public participation.

Clientelism

A process whereby the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or a small group in return for public support.

Corporatism

A method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state.

Illiberal Regime

A regime where democratic institutions that rest on the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected.

Kleptocracy

“Rule by theft,” where those in power seek only to drain the state of assets and resources.

Patrimonialism

An arrangement whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return for enforcing the ruler’s will.

Populism

A political view that does not have a consistent ideological foundation, but that emphasizes hostility toward elites and established state and economic institutions and favors greater power in the hands of the public.

Rent seeking

A process in which political leaders essentially rent out parts of the state to their patrons, who as a result control public goods that would otherwise be distributed in a nonpolitical manner.

Resource trap

Theory of development in which the existence of natural resources in a given state is a barrier to modernization and democracy.

Totalitarianism

A nondemocratic regime that is highly centralized, possessing some form of strong ideology that seeks to transform and absorb fundamental aspects of state, society, and the economy, using a wide array of institutions.

Base

The economic system of a society, made up of technology (the means of production) and class relations between the people (the relations of production).

Bourgeoise

The property-owning class in Russia

Central Committee

The legislature-like body of a communist party

Central Planning

A communist economic system in which the state explicitly allocates resources by planning what should be produced and in what amounts, the final prices of goods, and where they should be sold.

Communism

(1) A political-economic system in which all wealth and property are shared so as to eliminate exploitation, oppression, and, ultimately, the need for political institutions such as the state; (2) a political ideology that advocates such a system.

Dialectical Materialism

Process of historical change that is not evolutionary revolutionary; the existing base and superstructure (thesis) would come into conflict with the new technological innovations, generating growing opposition to the existing order (antithesis)—this would culminate in resolution overthrowing the old base and superstructure (synthesis).

Glasnost

Literally, “openness”; the policy of political liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

Nomenklatura

Politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society, or economy that were staffed by people chosen or approved by the Communist Party.

Party-State

A political system in which power flows directly from the ruling political party (usually a communist party) to the state, bypassing government structures.

Perestroika

Literally, “restructuring”; the policy of political economic liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

Politburo

The top-policymaking and executive body of the Communist Party.

Proletariat

The working class in Russia

Shock Therapy

A process of rapid marketization

Superstructure

All noneconomic institutions in a society (for example, religion, culture, national identity); these ideas and values derive from the base and serve to legitimize the current system of exploitation.

Vanguard of the Proletariat

Lenin’s argument that an elite communist party would have to carry out revolution, because as a result of false consciousness, historical conditions would not automatically lead to capitalism’s demise.

A Just Russia

A small party in the Russian Duma with a social-democratic orientation.

Asymmetric Federalism

A system in which power is divided unevenly making regional bodies—for example, some regions are given greater power over taxation of language rights than others, a more likely outcome in a country with significant ethnic divisions

Caucasus

Southwest Russia, near the Black Sea and Turkey, where there is a diverse mixture non-Slavic peoples with distinct languages and customs as well as a much stronger historical presence of Islam than Orthodox Christianity.

Chechnya

Russian republic that has been a source of military conflict since 1991.

Cheka

Soviet secret police created by Lenin; precursor to the KGB.

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

A loosely integrated body that incorporated many former Soviet republics.

Constitutional Court

The highest judicial body in a political system that decides whether laws and policies violate the constitution.

Duma

Lower house of the Russian legislature.

Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)

Economic and political union among several former Soviet states.

Federal Security Service (FSB)

Successor to the KGB, the Russian intelligence agency.

Federation Council

Upper house of the Russian legislature

Insider Privatization

A process in Russia whereby the former nomenklatura directors of firms were able to acquire the largest number of shares when those firms were privatized.

KGB

Soviet secret police agency charged with domestic and foreign intelligence.

Kremlin

Eleventh-century fortress in the heart of Moscow that has been the historical seat of Russian state power.

Liberal Democrats Party of Russia (LDPR)

Political party in Russia with a nationalist and antidemocratic orientation.

Oligarchs

Russian people who are noted for their control of large amounts of the Russian economy (including the media), their close ties to the government, and the accusation of corruption surrounding their rise to power.

Orthodox Chrisitanity

A variant of Christianity separate from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; originally centered in Byzantium (now roughly modern-day Turkey).

Siloviki

“Men of power” who have their origins in the security agencies and are close to President Putin.

Tsar

Russian word for emperor (also czar, from Latin Caesar).

United Russia

Main political party in Russia and supporter of Vladimir Putin.

Yabloko/Russian United Democratic Party

Small party in Russia that advocates democracy and a liberal political-economic system.