Political Systems of Spain and the EU Midterm

political science

a social science concerned with how political science is exercised. subfields characterized by the object of study and method of research

elements of political systems

formal political institutions, informal political institutions, political behavior, political processes, public policy/law, values

formal political institutions

governments, political officials, branches, etc

informal political institutions

media, lobbyists, ngos, corporations, etc

political behavior

voting, demonstrating, protesting, etc ← actions towards a political goal

political processes

lawmaking and other governmental procedures

public policy

the laws and outputs of a political system

european countries with monarchies

belgium, netherlands, luxembourg, spain, sweden, denmark, norway, uk

federal european countries

germany, belgium, switzerland, austria, russia, bosnia and herzegovina, spain somewhat

unitary states

central europe and nordics

decentralized states

spain (but it’s also kinda federal so whatever)

representative democracy

citizens elect representatives to act for them in the government (us, germany, belgium)

direct democracy

citizens vote directly on laws and public policy (some swiss states)

semi-direct democracy

citizens vote for government representatives AND have national referendums on certain policies (uk brexit)

abrogative referendum

also called a veto referendum, allows citizens to repeal a law if they don’t like it (italy only in europe)

affirmation statute

citizens can organize a vote to protect a certain law from changes or removal (austria needs to create a new constitution if they want to remove neutrality, versus spain where anything can be changed)

public policy

a purposive and consistent government action in response to a public issue

separation of power

branches are and act independently from one another (montesquieu)

checks and balances

each branch of government can hold the others accountable — inherently contradictory to separation of powers

political culture

citizen’s perceptions about pillars of their government and politics; stable political opinions on things like democracy and equality

political opinion

unstable perceptions of citizens; can become political culture if stable for a long time — has more to do with current events than the nature of the political system

good governance

the best way to exercise power based on transparency, accountability, and equality

euroscepticism

an increasingly negative attitude towards the eu and its efficacy — concerns that it threatens national identities and sovereignty without any clear benefits

2 main policies of the eu budget

closing the weath gap

economic, social, and territorial cohesion (main part of the budget goes here)

also sustainable growth

eu net contributors

eu countries with a high enough gdp per capita where they contribute more than they receive from the eu

eu net recipients

eu countries who receive more money than they spend in the eu — a main reason why poorer countries are interested in joining the eu

eu budget sources

eu has no taxation power → funding comes from member state contributions

also from tariffs and recycling taxes (charges for use of non-recyclable plastic)

neutral european countries

austria, ireland, lichtenstein, malta, monaco, moldova, san marino, serbia, switzerland (not sweden or finland anymore rip)

eu levels of government

a federal state quality — 3 levels: brussels headquarters, individual member states, and the federal states of those member states

right of secession in the eu

a intergovernmental organization feature — being allowed to leave is not a right in federal states

territorial federalism

federal states are simply pieces of land divided up geographically

ethnic federalism

federal states are drawn based on ethnic lines so that different ethnicities are well represented

centrifugal federalism

a preexisting national government becomes a federal state due to internal nationalist forces

centripetal federalism

preexisting smaller states come together to create one larger national federal state

symmetric federalism

all states in a federal government have the same powers, rights, and privileges

asymmetric federalism

some states have more autonomy than others (eu — schengen, euro coins etc)

direct effect

national-level laws automatically apply to federal states — no need for transposition (eu has this — a federal characteristic)

normative hierarchy

eu laws take precedence over state laws (federal characteristic of supremacy)

eu judicial review

eu judiciary supervises state laws to ensure that they comply with and do not contradict eu law

principle of subsidiarity

the level of government that is closest to the people AND most effective has control over that competency — becomes faster and more effective when closer to the people

competency allocation

eu and member states each have exclusive competencies and shared ones

eu voting rules

unanimity is used for most eu decisions — a characteristic of an intergovernmental organization, not a federal state

european council

the eu executive branch made up of heads of state/government of each of the 27 member states

council of ministers

eu “senate” made up of national ministers of all 27 member states

european parliament

legislature voted on by eu member state citizens (federal feature)

intergovernmental features of the eu

treaties instead of a constitution, right of secession, unanimous voting, 2 councils, distribution of power still favors member states

the economic belgium-luxembourg union

1921 first union of european states between the benelux countries — proof that a union could work

deepening

the transfer of aspects of national sovereignty to the eu level of government instead

deepening treaties

the treaties necessary to transfer power from the state to the eu level

deepening process

1. initiative: proposal by a state actor, european parliament, or european council for a new treaty

2. approval: european council must agree unanimously

3. ratification: all member states must ratify the new treaty via their national legislature or a national referendum

functional spillover

new deepening treaties must be made every few years because of the interconnected nature of public policy (ex. climate change policy requires control over energy policy) — snowball effect

widening

the acceptance of new member states into the eu — typically not a highly approved-of process, with the exception of ukraine after 2022

accession treaties

the way in which new member states are added to the eu

geographic spillover

deeply interconnected countries join the eu at similar times because to have only one in the union makes things complicated (uk and ireland, spain and portugal)

founding eu members

france (it was kinda their idea), belgium, netherlands, luxembourg (had experience with economic unions), germany, italy

european coal and steel committee

the og eu, focused on intergovernmental control of coal and steel to aid in reconstruction after ww2 and to prevent germany from having sole control over potential weapon materials

european free trade association

the uk makes their own economic union but it’s more intergovernmental than supranational and the uk leaves after a year to join the eu instead lol — now it’s mostly the few countries who decided not to join the eu

1st enlargement

uk, ireland, denmark — primary motivator is a global oil crisis and the desire for a single european market

2nd enlargement

spain, portugal, greece — join to consolidate their new democracies and move away from their dictatorship pasts

3rd enlargement

austria, sweden, finland — join after the end of the cold war because they couldn’t take sides earlier on

4th enlargement

all the previously communist countries mostly — huge loss for russia

public opinion about enlargement

generally disliked — economic strain because only poor countries want to join, but there is support for ukraine joining since 2022. also don’t want to lose even more borders — more internal immigration → loss of culture and national identity potentially, turkey — islamophobia, unanimity is hard with more members, especially ones like serbia

eu candidate countries

turkey, north macedonia, montenegro, serbia, albania, ukraine, moldova, bosnia-herzegovina, (georgia?)

eu potential candidate countries

kosovo, armenia, (georgia?)

accession treaty process

0. informal negotiations — start talking to the potential candidate about their possible accession, preferential trade treatment

1. formal application — the executive branch of the interested country submits an application to the eu

2. test 1: 3 criteria assessed by the european commission

   1. geography: must be located inside of europe (only stopped morocco)

   2. economic: stable free market economy

   3. political: democracy with free and transparent elections, etc

3. formal candidate country status: european council votes unanimously to allow the country candidate status; can now sit in on eu meetings but cannot vote

4. formal negotiations: eu law transposition and judicial review

   1. candidate country must implement and enforce every single eu law

   2. eu judiciary reviews all of the country’s laws to ensure that they do not conflict with eu law

   3. approval and ratification: the european council votes unanimously and the european parliament votes with a simple majority. then it is ratified by the candidate country’s national government

presidential systems in europe

ONLY cyprus and turkey

split executive branch

a head of state and a head of government — parliamentary and semi-presidential systems

parliamentary monarchies

implicit support given to the monarch as head of state, head of government chosen by parliament

vote of no confidence

a vote by parliament (usually the lower chamber) to remove the prime minister and cabinet if parliament is dissatisfied with them

negative parliamentarism

the cabinet and prime minister receive an “implicit vote of confidence” — basically, so long as there is not a successful vote of NO confidence everything is fine

dual membership

the members of the executive branch are part of the legislative branch — necessary in parliamentary systems, not possible in presidential or semi-presidential (separation of powers)

government accountability

the legislature receieves reports about actions of the executive branch and if they are unhappy, they can initiate a vote of no confidence — exists in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems (but only with the head of government in semi-presidential, not the head of state)

parliamentary majority

the majority party in the legislature makes up the executive cabinet as well — true in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems

party discipline

members of the government MUST vote according to their party — true in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems, where citizens vote for a party rather than a candidate

legislative initiative

the executive branch can propose bills — true in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems

dissolve parliament

the executive branch can call for new parliamentary elections — true in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems

asymmetric bicameralism

the lower chamber is more powerful than the higher chamber — true in parliamentary and semi-parliamentary systems, not presidential because there the higher chamber is also elected by citizens so it has actual legitimacy

veto actors

the number of vetoes that legislation must go through in each system

parliamentary: 1

presidential: 3

semi-presidential: 2

majoritarian parliamentarism

a form of parliamentarism focused on the principle of majority rule (contrast with consensus democracy)

consociational parliamentarism

a form of democratic power sharing in which a demographically diverse population shares power amongst as many groups as possible to prevent conflict (contrasts with majoritarian parliamentarism)

positive parliamentarism

the executive branch has explicit support of the legislative branch via a vote of confidence

pure presidentialism

a form of government in which there is a directly elected president who serves for a fixed term, where cabinet (government) members are not collectively responsible to the legislature, and where the legislature serves for a fixed term

weak parliamentarized

a presidential system in which the executive faces several constraints on their power due to party struggles in the legislative branch along with other issues

hegemonic parliamentarized

a system of government in which the legislative branch is theoretically supreme, however their power is diminished due to an over-powerful executive branch or control by a single dominant party — turns legislating into a formality rather than an actual branch

premier presidential

a system of semi-presidentialism that includes a popularly elected head of state but a prime minister and cabinet that are solely accountable to the parliament and relies on legislative confidence to remain in power

president parliamentarian

a semi-presidential system in which the prime minister and cabinet are accountable both to the parliament and the president — gives the president a LOT of power (russia)

polity

Polity is the normative, organizational and institutional structure -of the government of a state- forming the framework for political action

societal cleavage

a societal cleavage is a deep, lasting, and structured division within a society that separates citizens into groups based on social or cultural identities like class, religion, ethnicity, or territory

classifications of political systems

head of state, institutional arrangement, territorial organization of political power, citizens’ involvement in politics, representation/accommodation of ethnic diversity

head of state

monarchies or republics

institutional design

parliamentarism, semi-presidentialism, presidentialism

territorial politics

federalism, unitary, decentralization/devolution

citizens’ involvement in politics

direct democracy, representative democracy, semi-direct democracy

elite theory

a theory that posits that power in larger bodies such as nation-states is concentrated in a ruling elite who determine the course of the government