Comparative Politics Late Quiz

Basic Law

Germany’s current constitution

Bundesrat

the upper house of Germany’s legislature

Bundestag

the lower house of Germany’s legislature

catchall parties

parties that attempt to attract voters of all classes and are, therefore, generally centrist in their platforms

Christian Democratic Union (CDU)

Germany’s largest conservative party

codetermination

the system requiring that unions occupy half of all seats on the boards of directors of Germany’s largest private firms

federal chancellor

Germany’s prime minister and head of government

Federal Constitutional Court

the powerful court that interprets Germany’s Basic Law

federal president

the indirectly elected and largely ceremonial head of state

Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)

the official name of democratic West Germany during the postwar division of Germany

Free Democratic Party (FDP)

A small centrist party that has often formed part of governing coalitions

Gastarbeiter

the German term for “guest workers”, or foreign workers allowed to reside temporarily in Germany to provide much-needed labor

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

the official name of communist East Germany during the postwar division of Germany

the Greens

Germany’s environmental party

Adolf Hitler

the Nazi leader during the Third Reich who led Germany to defeat in World War II

Länder

German states

the Left

The party farthest to the left of all Germany’s major parties; an alliance of leftist Social Democrats and remnants of former East German Communists

Angela Merkel

Germany’s conservative chancellor, as of 2017

minister-president

the governor of a German state

National Socialist (Nazi) Party

Hitler’s fascist party

Prussia

the most powerful German state before Germany’s unification

Reich

the German term for “empire”

Reunification

the 1990 integration of East and West Germany

Social Democratic Party (SDP)

Germany’s oldest party, located on the center left

Social Market Economy

the term used in Germany to describe the country’s capitalist economy with strong social-democratic features

Third Reich

the name Hitler gave to his fascist totalitarian regime (1933-45)

Weimar Republic

Germany’s first democratic republic (1919-33), the collapse of which led to Hitler’s totalitarian regime

2011 earthquake

disastrous 9.0 earthquake that stuck the northeast region of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, causing a destructive tsunami that resulted in the meltdown of several nuclear reactors

Shizo Abe

conservative nationalist Liberal Democratic Party politician and two-time prime minister (2006-07; 2012-present)

Abenomics

Prime Minister Abe’s three-pronged plan for economic recovery, including monetary easing (raising inflation), fiscal stimulus (budget increases), and structural reform

Administrative guidance

extralegal policy directives from government officials to the private sector

amakudari

literally “descent from heaven,” in which retiring Japanese senior bureaucrats take up positions in corporations or run for political office

Article 9

the clause in Japan’s postwar constitution that requires Japan to renounce the right to wage war; also known as the Peace Clause

capitalist developmental state

Japan’s modern neomercantilist state, which has embraced both private property and state economic intervention

Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)/Democratic Party (DP)

social-democratic party in government from 2009 to 2012; formed from the merger of reform-minded opposition parties in 1998 and reformed as the “Democratic Party” after a subsequent 2016 merger

Diet

Japan’s bicameral parliament

House of Councillors

the upper and weaker chamber of Japan’s parliament

House of Representatives

lower house of Nigerian parliament

industrial policy

government measures designed to promote economic and industrial development

iron triangle

a term describing the conservative alliance among Japan’s elite bureaucrats, conservative politicians, and big business executives

keirestu

Japan’s large business groupings

koenkai

Japan’s local campaign organizations; designed to support an individual candidate rather than a particular political party

Yuriko Koikei

founder of the Party of Hope and current (and the first female) governor of Tokyo

Junichiro Koizumi

A highly popular and successful Liberal Democratic Party prime minister (2001-06)

Komeito

minor political party and LDP coalition partner founded and supported by lay members of the Buddhist religious movement Soka Gakkai

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

centrist third party in the United Kingdom and junior member of a coalition government from 2010 to 2015

Douglas MacArthur

The U.S. general who presided over the seven-year occupation of Japan (1945-52)

Meiji oligarchs

the vanguard of junior samurai who led Japan’s nineteenth century modernization drive

Meiji restoration

Japan’s 1867-68 “revolution from above”, which launched Japan’s modernization in the name of the Meiji emperor

pork-barrel projects

government appropriation or other policy supplying funds for local improvements to ingratiate legislators with their constituents

rich country, strong military

the mercantilist slogan promoting Japan’s nineteenth-century modernization efforts

samurai

Japan’s feudal-era warrior retainers

self-defense force

Japan’s military, ostensibly permitted only defensive capacity

Senekaku Islands

a collection of five uninhabited islands and rock outcroppings located in East China Sea and contentiously claimed by both Japan and China

shogun

a dominant lord in feudal japan

Taisho democracy

the era of tentative democratization in Japan (1918-31)

Tokugawa

the military clan that unified and ruled Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries

twisted Diet

situation in which no party or coalition of parties controls both chambers of the Japanese parliament; common since 2007

Yasukuni Shrine

the controversial Shinto shrine honoring Japan’s war dead

zombies

Japanese firms rendered essentially bankrupt during Japan’s recession but propped up by banks and politicians

absolute monarchy

the stage in the evolutionary development of Europe between the more decentralized feudal monarchies of the Middle Ages and the constitutional governments of the modern era

blocked law

a vote that forces the legislature to accept bills in their entirety and allows amendments only if they are approved by the government

code law

law derived from detailed legal codes rather than from precedent

cohabitation

an arrangement in which presidents lacking a majority of legislative power appoint an opposition prime minister who can gain a majority of support in the legislature

Cantons

directly elected departmental councils representing over 2,000 constituencies; since 2013 each department gets a pair of representatives, must be a pair of male and female

Constitutional Council

* the highest judicial authority on constitutional and electoral matters in France
* 9 members appointed by the president, heads of the National Assembly, and the *Senat* for a single 9 year term
* Empowered to rule on any constitutional matter, so long as there is a request from the government, president, or 60 members of either house in the legislature
* Has shown more independence in recent years

Council of Ministers

the cabinet selected by the prime minister

dirigisme

an emphasis on state authority in economic development; a combination of social-democratic and mercantilist ideas

Events of May

Parisian riots of 1968 in which students and workers called for educational and social reforms

Fifth Republic

France’s current regime (1958-present)

four party, two-bloc system

a system requiring coalition building in the second round of the two-round single member district system

French Communist Party (PFC)

one of the dominant parties of the French left since the end of World War II

French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT)

a smaller confederation backed by the Socialist Party

French Revolution

overthrow in 1789-99 of the French absolute monarchy and establishment of the First Republic

French Socialist Party (PS)

dominant party of the French left

General Confederation of Labor (CGT)

Most powerful French union confederation; linked to the French Communist Party

Francois Hollande

Socialist president of France from 2012 to 2017

laicite

the subordination of religious identity to state and national identity-state over church

Marine Le Pen

daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and leader of the National Front (now called National Rally) since 2011

Emmanuel Macron

a young and relatively inexperienced centrist economist, elected president in 2017

motion of censure

an act of legislature against the government, requiring new elections when proposed legislation submitted as mattered of confidence are not passed

National Assembly

* lower house of French legislature
* regularly amends legislation
* 2008 reform: made it easier for individual members to introduce legislation, reduced the government’s ability to set the legislative agenda, and strengthened the National Assembly’s government oversight powers

National Front (FN)/National Rally (RN)

Political party in Iran following World War II; it opposed the monarchy and favored greater Iranian control over natural resources; outlawed after Operation Ajax

parlement

France’s bicameral legislature

populism

a political view that does not have a consistent ideological foundation, but that emphasizes hostility towards elites and established state and economic institutions and favors greater power in the hands of the public

prefect

government-appointed local official

president

the head of the state

prime minister

leader appointed by the French president and approved by the majority of the lower house of the legislature; selects a cabinet and presides over the day-to-day affairs of government

Rally for the Republic

Party formed by Jacques Chirac as the more, nationalist, socially conservative Euroskeptic force of the French right

Reign of Terror

seizure of power and class war launched by radical Jacobins in revolutionary France (1793-94)

Republicans

the main party of the French right, previously named the Union for a Popular Movement

Nicolas Sarkozy

president of France from 2007 to 2012

semi-presidential

an executive system that divides power between two strong executives, a president and a prime minister

Senat

* France’s 348-member upper house of the legislature
* Limited to delaying legislation passed in the lower house
* Main power resides in its ability to

Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)

a single cohesive party of the center right formed in 2002 with Chirac’s encouragement, which has since been renamed the Republicans

Union for a French Democracy (UDF)

an alliance of five center-right parties founded in 1978 by Chirac’s rival and former president Valery Giscard d’Estaing as a more neoliberal force of the French right

yellow vests movement

mass protests that began in late 2018 in opposition to tax reforms and reductions in subsidies for gasoline; the movement was named for the safety vests that French motorists are reauired to carry in their vehicles

Major Geographic Features: France

* **Metropolitan France:** Europe
* **French Guiana:** South America
* **Guadeloupe:** Central America and the Caribbean
* **Martinique:** Central America and the Caribbean
* **Mayotte:** Africa
* **Reunion:** World

Major Demographic Features: France

* Population: 68,521,974
* Nationality: French

Absolutism

* was an important first step in the development of a strong French state, capable of making and executing laws, waging war, and raising money to provide defense
* Although this was an overstatement, the absolutist French state of the seventeenth century was the envy of all Europe. France had a standing professional army, a mercantilist state-run economy, an efficient (though deeply regressive) tax system, and the extravagant palace of Versailles