Chapter 1: 5 Principles of Politics

Government

the institutions through which land and its people are rules

Forms of Government (Who Governs?)

Autocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy

Autocracy

one individual

Oligarchy

Small group of people controls most government decisions

Democracy

system of rule that permits citizens to play a significant part in government

Forms of government (How much do they control?)

Constitutional, Authoritarian, Totalitarian

Constitutional

Specific legal limits are placed on the powers of the government

Authoritarian

No legal limits are placed on the government, but power may be checked by other social institutions

Totalitarian

No formal or effective limits of any kind are placed on government’s power

Politics

conflict and cooperation over the leadership, structure, and policies of government

5 principles of politics

1. Rationality

2. Institution

3. Collective Action

4. Policy

5. History

Rationality Principle

Political behavior is purposeful and calculated (instrumental)

Institution Principle

Institutions Structure Politics

Institutions

rules and procedures that provide incentives for political behavior, thereby shaping politics and government

Institutions that structure American Politics

1. Congress

2. Federal vs State Power

3. 3 branches of government

4. Political parties

5. Election rules

Jurisdiction

the domain over which an institution or a member of it has authority

Agenda Power

controls what a group will consider for discussion

Veto Power

the ability to defeat something on the agenda

Decisiveness

when and in what order votes are taken along with how many supporters are necessary

Deligation

The transmission of authority to some other official or body

Principal-agent relationship

the relationship between someone with authority (the principle) and someone to whom power is delegated (the agent)

Collective Action

the pooling of resources and the coordination of effort/activity by a group of people to achieve common goals; all politics is collective action

Collective action dilemmas

situations in which individual desires or incentives do not align with collective interests

Informal Bargaining

occurs in everyday situations when the stakes are relatively low or are repeated often

Formal Bargaining

occurs over more complicated issues and may be enforced or governed by rules

Public goods

benefits enjoyed by anyone once they are provided and that may not be denied once it has been provided

Free-Riding

enjoying the benefits while others pay the costs

Tragedy of the Commons

depletion of a common resource due to individual’s overuse of it

The Policy Principle

Political outcomes are the produces of individual preferences, institutional procedures, and collective action

History Principle

How we got here matters

Path dependency

certain possibilities are made more or less likely because of earlier decisions