Political Ideologies and Democratization

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from lectures on political ideologies, social cleavages, party systems, and waves of democratization.

Political Ideologies

Coherent belief structures shaping party positions and resistant to change; serve as interpretive frameworks connecting positions on different issues.

Social Cleavage

Social conflict, opposition, or division in society; ideologies are socially rooted rather than merely intellectual constructs.

Dimensions of Cleavage (Bartolini and Mair, 1990)

Social (basic characteristics), Cultural (collective identity), Organisational (creation of organisations).

Political Cleavages

Historically socially determined social or cultural lines that divide citizens into groups, get politicized, and determine political systems.

Silent Revolution (Inglehart, 1977)

Shift from materialism to post-materialism; emergence of new values based on psychological needs (tolerance, participation, freedom of expression, environment protection, feminism, pacifism, economic aid).

Counter Revolution

Recrudescence of materialist politics due to new insecurities (economic, cultural, social, political, international) and threats to labour markets, identity, and welfare state.

Traditional Left and Right

Left: state intervention in economy, social equality; Right: independent economy, social hierarchy.

Minimalist Definition of Democracy

Electoral principle of making rulers responsive to citizens through electoral competition under extensive suffrage and free operation of political and civil society organizations.

Political Parties

Central actors in democracies, mediators between citizens and governments; defined as groups oriented towards acquiring social power through elections.

Functions of Political Parties

Pursuing interests by competing in democratic elections to gain control over government power through nominating candidates and organising government.

Party System

Set of parties that compete and cooperate with the aim of increasing power in controlling government; an expression of underlying social conflicts.

Types of Party Systems

Dominant-party, Two-party, Multiparty.

Ideology (Mair and Mudde 1998)

A belief system that goes right to the heart of a party's identity and addresses the question of what parties are.

Centripetal Competition

Political competition where parties converge towards centre of ideological spectrum.

Centrifugal Competition

Political competition where parties move towards ideological extremes. e.g. US

Electoral Volatility

Change of aggregate votes from one election to next.

Waves of Democratisation (Huntington)

Transitions from nondemocratic to democratic regimes within a specified period of time significantly outnumbering transitions in the opposite direction.

1st wave of democratisation

1828-1926, began with expanded suffrage, spread through Europe, peaked after WWI, reversed in 1922 with Mussolini’s Italy

2nd wave of democratisation

1943-1963, followed WWII, peak in 1962, declined in 1960s

3rd wave of democratisation

1974-onwards, started with Portugal’s revolution 1974, Latin America in 1980s, then Asia and Eastern Europe after Soviet collapse

1st wave of autocratisation

1920s-1930s, rise of fascism and authoritarianism, coincided with interwar period, peaked in early 1930s

2nd wave of autocratisation

1960s-1970s, military coups in Latin America, communism, peaked late 1960s

3rd wave of autocratisation

1994-onwards, gradual erosion rather than abrupt breakdowns, unprecedented number of countries affected

Horizontal Accountability

Extent to which state institutions hold the executive branch of the government accountable.

Vertical Accountability

Relationship between unequals (government and citizens).

Diagonal Accountability

Nonstate actors' contribution to accountability.

Parliamentary Systems

Collective executive accountable to elected legislative chamber; executive must maintain 'confidence' of parliament or resign.

Presidential Systems

Executive headed by popularly elected president; terms of chief executive and legislative assembly are fixed.

Semi-Presidential Systems

President elected directly by citizens, prime minister and cabinet responsible to legislature; dual Executive Structure.

Hyperpresidentialism

Occurs when horizontal checks are limited.

Democratic Backsliding

Incremental erosion of institutions, rules and norms that results from actions of elected govts.

Political Trust

Citizens' confidence in and faith toward key political institutions.