Definitions

politics

Harold Lasswell, Politics: Who gets What, When, How

politics is the process by which collective decisions are being made

Ideology

Newton and van Deth; a more or less systematic, well-developed and comprehensive set of ideas about politics consisting both what it is and what it ought to be

Ideas

Parsons; claims about descriptions of the world, causal relationships or normative legitimacy of certain actions

domination

weber; the probability that a command given in a specific context will be obeyed by the group of people

conceptual power

Carpenter; the ability to shape the content and structure of human cognition itself

gatekeeping power

Carpenter; the ability to define what problems, agendas and debate structure human activity

directive power

Carpenter; the broad formal authority to direct the behavior of others

Consociational Democracy

Lijphart; a powersharing model of government designed to provide stability in deeply divided nations through cooperation among leaders of different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups

Institutions

North; humanly designed constraints that structure political, economic and social interaction

Hodgson; they both restrict and enable behavior

Three main approaches to institutions

Hall and Taylor

political competition

Stigler; 5 features

“minimal” conception of democracy

Schumpeter; procedural method for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire power by means of competitive struggle for a vote

Condorcet paradox

the fact that majority preferences can be cyclical even when if each voter’s preference is consistent

pluralism

aims to consolidate and seek compromises among various preference clusters including those in the minority in pursuit of a more inclusive decision-making process

collective rationality

deems a public decision valid when it effectively solves a problem over which there is a broad consensus

political regime

Siaroff; formal and informal structure and nature of political power in the country

political system

• different ways of institutionalizing the regime

• refers to the practical, institutional organization of the regime