Political Regimes and Constitutional Systems Exam Review

Comprehensive flashcards covering political regimes, democratic theory, constitutional models, moral foundations, and autocracy survival strategies based on exam review lectures.

What is constitutional patriotism (konstytucyjny patriotyzm) and what are its core values?

Constitutional patriotism is patriotism grounded not in nationalism, ethnic origin, or national superiority, but in adherence to universal human and civil values. Its core values include freedom, equality, human dignity, the right to individual and social development, access to multi-source information, opportunities for social and elite advancement, and protection against humiliation and violation of rights by public or private authorities.

What is the primary objective of constitutional patriotism and what historical alternatives does it counter?

Its objective is to offer an alternative to aggressive nationalist and imperialist patriotism, binding identity to a state because it guarantees human rights and freedoms rather than ethnic dominance. The lecture presents it as an antidote to patriotism associated historically with Hitler and contemporarily with Putin's imperialism, demonstrating that one can love their country while actively criticizing or protesting government decisions.

According to Moral Foundations Theory, what are the six categories of moral emotions and predispositions?

1. Harm – compassion – empathy (receptive to suffering and protecting the weak)\n2. Cheating – fairness (sensitivity to dishonesty and broken reciprocity)\n3. Tyranny – liberty (resistance to domination and authoritarian coercion)\n4. Groupishness – loyalty (attachment to in-group, family, community, nation)\n5. Hierarchy – respect (deference to legitimate authority and order)\n6. Disgust – sanctity (reverence for tradition, purity, and sacred norms).

In psychological and moral processes, what does the metaphor of the rider and the elephant depict?

The elephant represents automatic moral intuitions and emotions, while the rider represents conscious reasoning. Moral emotions occur first, while reasoning and rationalization emerge afterward to justify intuitive judgments.

What is the evolutionary function of group natural selection (grupowy dobór naturalny)?

Group natural selection functions to maximize community survival where isolated family units were insufficient. It fostered collective defense of territory, reciprocal altruism, reputation building, establishment of sacred norms, and cooperative resource acquisition.

What five elements are required to construct hive mode (tryb roju)?

1. Shared identity (feeling of belonging to a unified moral community)\n2. Synchronization (collective rituals, marches, and symbols)\n3. Common enemy (external threat unifying the in-group)\n4. Alpha leader (charismatic figure steering the collective)\n5. Religion as belonging (faith operating as a social badge of membership).

What social roles do religions serve in human communities, and what is parochial altruism?

Religions serve as social glue, establish moral boundaries, enforce monitoring to deter free-riders through belief in an omniscient deity, and foster commitment via shared sacrifices (e.g., Mormons). However, they can produce 'parochial altruism'—intense in-group generosity paired with hostility, blindness, or demonization toward out-groups.

What is the political significance of liberal moral predispositions?

Rooted in harm/compassion, fairness/cheating, and liberty/tyranny, liberal predispositions defend minority rights, demand equal treatment, resist tyrannical coercion, and maintain institutional critique of authority. They constitute the moral foundation of liberal constitutional democracy.

What is the political significance of conservative moral predispositions?

Rooted in loyalty/groupishness, respect/hierarchy, and sanctity/disgust, conservative predispositions foster social stability, communal solidarity, respect for institutional hierarchy, and cultural continuity. However, autocrats can manipulate them to demand blind obedience and enforce an us-versus-them divide.

In the context of contemporary regimes, how is the 'clash of civilizations' characterized?

It reflects tension between liberal democracies (centered on individual liberty, civil rights, and pluralism) and traditionalist or authoritarian regimes where religion, hierarchy, state authority, and collective identity dominate (e.g., China, Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Belarus).

According to the evolutionary theory of social development, what three interrelated dimensions shape political regimes?

1. Socio-economic modernization (natural resources, human capital: health, education, inventions, and moral emotions)\n2. Culture (open versus closed)\n3. Institutions (inclusive versus extractive/exclusive).\nThese interact alongside social capital and can be redirected by revolutionary shocks (e.g., the Great Depression of the $1930$s, the collapse of the USSR in $1991$, and the $2015$ migration crisis).

Which human needs according to Maslow's hierarchy do dictators strategically satisfy to retain power?

Dictators trade political liberties for satisfying baseline needs: safety/security (promising order and defense against threats), belonging and identity (nationalist pride, shared history, and cultural-religious solidarity), material needs (social welfare transfers like $500+$, public services), and stability.

What are the major historical waves of democratization and their key statistical benchmarks?

The waves occurred: in the $19\text{th}$ century (e.g., USA, Argentina), post-WWI, post-WWII, post-$1974$ (Southern Europe and Latin America), post-$1989$ (post-communist states), and post-$2011$ (Arab Spring: Tunisia, Egypt). In $1974$, democracies comprised roughly $23\%$ of states, rising to about $48\%$ in recent decades, though only $27\%$ of transitioning nations successfully consolidated democracy.

What are the three historical waves of democratic backsliding (democratic rollbacks)?

1. The $1930$s (rise of fascism, totalitarianism, and Nazism)\n2. The $1960$s (authoritarian reversals across Latin America)\n3. The $1990$s and first decades of the $21\text{st}$ century (affecting $56$ countries, including Belarus, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, Egypt, Hungary, Poland, and Tunisia), proceeding via gradual institutional erosion rather than sudden military coups.

What four general categories of political regimes are distinguished globally?

1. Constitutional (liberal) democracies: Free, fair elections with robust horizontal accountability, independent judiciaries, and civil liberties.\n2. Electoral democracies: Competitive elections exist, but institutional checks and judicial independence are compromised.\n3. Electoral autocracies (electoral dictatorships): Elections occur under systematically tilted rules favoring incumbents; no effective checks.\n4. Hard autocracies/dictatorships: No genuine competition or elections with only one legal party; absolute power concentration.

What is the core principle of Montesquieu's tripartite separation of powers (trójpodział władz)?

Power must restrain power to prevent arbitrary tyranny. Authority is split into three distinct, co-equal branches: the legislature (passing laws), the executive (implementing laws), and the judiciary (interpreting laws and arbitrating disputes), interconnected through institutional checks and balances.

What is the difference between vertical and horizontal accountability of government?

Vertical accountability refers to citizens holding rulers accountable from below via periodic, competitive elections, civil society activism, and free media. Horizontal accountability refers to state institutions checking and restraining one another internally (e.g., courts, ombudsmen, parliament, local governments).

What historical institutional causes led to the collapse of the First Polish Republic (I Rzeczpospolita)?

Key institutional weaknesses included the liberum veto (allowing any single deputy to paralyze the Sejm), free royal elections (inviting foreign bribery and instability), excessive magnate power, weak executive authority, inadequate treasury and standing army, and imperial interference by Russia, Prussia, and Austria culminating in the partitions of $1772$, $1793$, and $1795$.

What are the three main survival strategies utilized by dictatorships?

1. Legitimation: Convincing society governance is justified via propaganda, economic performance, and national identity.\n2. Co-optation: Securing loyalty of key elites and selectorates via privileges, resources, and institutional patronage.\n3. Repression: Suppressing opponents through soft coercion (disinformation, targeted harassment, administrative audits) or brutal force (violence, arrests, physical elimination).

How do autocrats buy loyalty from their ruling coalition versus the broader selectorate?

For the ruling coalition (elites, military, oligarchs), loyalty is bought through parliamentary posts, state contracts, procurement favoritism, and controlled leadership rotation. For the broader selectorate (voters), loyalty is secured through targeted public services (e.g., Singapore), direct social welfare cash transfers (e.g., $500+$ in Poland), or patronage.

What three types of state resources do autocrats systematically usurp?

1. Natural resources: Nationalizing or expropriating oil, gas, and minerals.\n2. Financial resources: Diverting taxes, public procurement, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and private enterprise wealth.\n3. Human/administrative resources: Subordinating public administration, civil servants, tax authorities, and electoral commissions to ensure partisan compliance.

What is co-optation through identity politics and why is it considered low-cost?

It secures societal loyalty by framing the regime as the unique defender of shared family, religious, nationalist, or historical values (e.g., Confucian 'Asian values', Russian 'traditional values', Turkish Sunni religious identity, Belarusian historical narratives). It is low-cost because emotional and moral belonging minimizes the need for expensive monetary transfers or risky physical repression.

What constitutional structure of an electoral autocracy is depicted in this institutional diagram?

The institutional system of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), where democratic elements (electorate electing the President and Parliament) are subordinated to the Supreme Leader (Ajatollah - Al Uzma), the Guardian Council (Rada Strażników), and the Assembly of Experts (Rada Ekspertów).

Where is the fundamental demarcation line between an autocracy and a democracy drawn?

The boundary does not depend merely on holding elections, but on whether elections are genuinely free and fair (vertical accountability) and whether effective institutional checks and balances restrain rulers between elections (horizontal accountability).

What is the First Principle of Democracy, and how does it define the sovereign?

The First Principle answers 'Who rules?' through Abraham Lincoln's formulation: 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people.' The sovereign is the entire citizenry as an indivisible whole—encompassing both majority voters and minority/opposition groups, who retain full rights and representation.

What is the Second Principle of Democracy, and what are its three essential components?

The Second Principle answers 'How to govern between elections?' It establishes that electoral victory does not grant unlimited power. Its three components are: 1. Separation of powers, 2. Rule of law, and 3. Institutional accountability of government.

What are the two primary institutional forms of government 'by the people'?

1. Direct democracy: Citizens deliberate and decide policy directly (ancient Athenian Ecclesia, Viking ting, New England town meetings, deliberative citizens' assemblies, referendums).\n2. Indirect (representative) democracy: Citizens delegate decision-making power to elected representatives across regular elections.

Why is democracy not merely equivalent to 'majority rule'?

A mathematical majority can enact tyrannical decisions that violate basic human rights. Constitutional democracy relies on shifting majorities and, as Aristotle noted, alternating between ruling and being ruled in turn. It is defined as 'rule of as many as possible' while protecting minority rights.

What six non-negotiable rules govern representative democracy?

1. Universal active and passive voting rights\n2. Freedom of speech and civic expression\n3. Equal right to organize political associations and protests\n4. Access to multi-source, independent information\n5. A level playing field in political competition\n6. Right to peaceful rotation of power.

What concept does this tilted soccer field illustrate regarding democratic elections?

The destruction of the 'level playing field' (załamanie równego pola), where the electoral environment is structurally skewed to favor the governing party through partisan use of state institutions, public resources, and captured media.

What three areas must remain strictly neutral to preserve an electoral 'level playing field'?

1. State institutions: Courts, prosecutors, civil administration, and electoral commissions must not favor incumbents.\n2. State resources: Public funds, administrative assets, and official positions must not finance campaigns.\n3. Media landscape: Public broadcasters and private media must offer fair access and varied viewpoints without state censorship.

What is the definition and core purpose of the Rule of Law?

The Rule of Law means governance occurs strictly under established, universal, and supreme legal-constitutional norms rather than arbitrary ruler decrees ('rules of the game set before the game begins'). It secures civil rights, political liberties, safeguards citizens against state abuse, and embeds public authority in accountability networks.

What defines an electoral democracy (demokracja wyborcza)?

A regime where competitive elections take place and rulers hold a genuine electoral mandate, yet liberal constitutional safeguards are compromised: parliamentary checks, judicial oversight, and minority protections are insufficient between elections.

What are exclusive/extractive institutions (instytucje wyłączające) and what four forms do they take?

Institutions of discrimination and exploitation that concentrate power and wealth within a narrow elite while disenfranchising society. They take four forms: 1. Political overconcentration breaking checks and balances; 2. State propaganda and censorship; 3. Societal polarization dividing citizens into allies versus enemies; 4. State capitalism and crony capitalism.

What are inclusive institutions (instytucje włączające) and what are examples of them?

Institutions that maximize equal participation across political, social, and economic life. Examples include universal suffrage, referendums, deliberative citizens' assemblies, official recall mechanisms, devolved local self-government, and universal access to education and healthcare.

What are the defining characteristics of a presidential system?

1. Dual independent mandates (president and legislature elected separately)\n2. Strict separation of powers (organizational and functional)\n3. Horizontal checks and balances\n4. Possibility of cohabitation (differing party controlling Congress vs Presidency)\n5. Persuasive governance (president cannot dissolve congress and must negotiate passage of bills; e.g., the United States).

What are the defining characteristics of a parliamentary system?

1. Single primary mandate (parliament is the sole directly elected sovereign body)\n2. Executive dependency (the prime minister and cabinet govern only with parliamentary confidence)\n3. Majoritarian dynamic\n4. Vulnerability to tyranny of the majority\n5. Dominant prime minister role as head of government and majority leader (e.g., the United Kingdom).

How does a semi-presidential system balance institutional authority?

It combines dual legitimacy (popularly elected president and legislature) with a dual executive: the prime minister and cabinet manage day-to-day affairs dependent on parliamentary confidence, while the directly elected president retains key constitutional prerogatives (veto, appointments, defense/foreign policy) as a powerful veto-actor (e.g., France).

Why is a super-presidential system (system nadprezydencki) non-democratic?

It distorts presidential and parliamentary models to entrench near-dictatorial rule: both president and parliament can dismiss government, the president can override legislative votes of no confidence, and the president possesses unconstrained decree powers that bypass parliament (e.g., Russia, Turkey, Ecuador).