MID TERM 2 POLI SCI

Articles of Confederation

The first US constitution (1781–1789) that established a weak national government without an independent executive or adequate taxing power.

Bicameral legislature

A legislative assembly organized into two separate houses or chambers, offering internal checks but creating potential for gridlock.

Unicameral legislature

A legislative assembly comprising a single chamber, simplifying bill passage and eliminating intercameral veto points.

Checks and balances

A constitutional design empowering each branch of government to counter and restrain the actions of the other branches.

Counter-majoritarianism

Institutional rules or structures that constrain the immediate will of a legislative majority to protect minority rights and rule of law.

Tyranny of the majority

A scenario in which an electoral or numerical majority exercises political power to subjugate minorities or infringe upon basic liberties.

Federalist No. 10

Political essay arguing that a large commercial republic with representative government controls the destabilizing effects of factionalism.

Federalist No. 51

Political essay asserting that separated powers and institutional self-defense ('ambition must be made to counteract ambition') preserve liberty.

Republic (Madisonian definition)

A government administered by representatives chosen by the electorate to refine and filter public viewpoints rather than direct democracy.

Electoral College

The indirect mechanism through which US states select presidential electors, predominantly using winner-take-all rules that can decouple popular and electoral outcomes.

Fixed-length terms

Mandated calendar durations of public office that yield predictable election cycles but reduce responsiveness during governance crises.

Gridlock

An institutional impasse where divergent partisan or branch interests halt legislative enactments and governmental actions.

Plurality voting

An electoral principle in which the candidate earning the greatest share of votes wins office, regardless of whether they achieve an absolute majority.

Single-Member District (SMD)

A geographic constituency that sends exactly one representative to the legislative assembly.

Proportional Representation (PR)

An electoral architecture that distributes legislative seats in close accordance with the aggregate percentage of votes won by each party.

Mixed-Member System

An electoral framework synthesizing local single-member constituency contests with broader party-list balloting.

Open list

A proportional party-list structure where voters cast ballots for individual candidates, determining which candidates on the slate receive seats.

Closed list

A proportional party-list system where party organizations determine the fixed order of candidates awarded legislative seats.

Ranked-choice voting

A preferential voting procedure where voters arrange candidates hierarchically, eliminating low-vote candidates sequentially until a majority winner emerges.

Double ballot (two-round system)

An electoral mechanism where a second runoff election is triggered among top contenders if no candidate secures a majority in the primary round.

Barrier clause (electoral threshold)

A statutory minimum percentage of the aggregate vote a political party must secure to qualify for proportional seat allocations.

Segmented system

A mixed electoral model where single-member plurality races and list proportional tiers operate independently without compensatory seat leveling.

Duverger's Law

The empirical observation that single-member district plurality systems systematically incentivize two-party competition over multiparty arrangements.

Gerrymandering

The deliberate cartographic manipulation of electoral district perimeters to provide an asymmetric advantage to a specific political party.

Civic nationalism

A political identity constructed around shared commitment to political principles, constitutional institutions, and equal legal citizenship.

Ethnic nationalism

A political identity anchored in common ancestral heritage, blood lineage, shared language, and perceived biological kinship.

Cultural nationalism

A national identity founded on shared heritage, language, customs, and historic traditions rather than formal civic allegiance or ancestral purity.

Parliamentary system

A constitutional arrangement in which the executive cabinet is drawn from the legislature and depends on sustained legislative confidence.

Prime Minister

The executive head of government in a parliamentary regime, commonly the leader of the party or coalition maintaining a legislative majority.

Member of Parliament (MP)

An elected lawmaker occupying a legislative seat representing a constituency in a parliamentary body such as the UK House of Commons.

Backbenchers

Rank-and-file legislators who hold neither official cabinet ministries nor senior opposition frontbench positions.

Leader of the Opposition

The head of the largest parliamentary party outside the governing coalition, tasked with directing formal scrutiny and heading an alternative government.

Shadow Cabinet

A group of senior opposition parliamentarians appointed to track, challenge, and develop alternatives to specific cabinet ministries.

Conservative Party (UK)

A major British center-right political party oriented around tradition, economic deregulation, private enterprise, and national sovereignty.

Labour Party (UK)

A prominent British center-left political party historically grounded in the labor movement, advocating for public welfare and wealth redistribution.

Coalition government

A multi-party executive cabinet established when no individual party controls a working parliamentary majority.

Confidence motion

A definitive parliamentary ballot measuring whether the current cabinet retains the legislature's support to stay in power.

Bundestag

The directly elected federal parliament of Germany responsible for enacting national statutes, exercising executive oversight, and choosing the chancellor.

Chancellor (Germany)

The chief executive and head of government in the German political structure, elected by members of the Bundestag.

Christian Democrats (CDU)

A major German center-right political party upholding Christian-democratic philosophy, traditional social values, and the social market economy.

Social Democrats (SPD)

A historic German center-left party dedicated to labor advocacy, institutional social welfare, and economic egalitarianism.

Presidential system

A regime type where a separately elected chief executive serves a fixed term independent of legislative confidence votes.

Filibuster

A parliamentary maneuver in the US Senate to prolong debate and obstruct final action on legislation, requiring a 60-vote cloture threshold to terminate.

James Madison

The American statesman who championed separation of powers, bicameralism, and an extended republic to mitigate factional conflict.

Juan Linz

The political scientist who argued that presidentialism suffers from structural fragility due to zero-sum elections, rigid terms, and dual democratic legitimacy.

Scott Mainwaring and Matthew Shugart

Political scholars who showed that presidential durability is conditioned by constitutional powers, electoral designs, and party fragmentation rather than inherent structural defects.