Mercurio SDSU Poli Sci 101 Final Vocab

Adam Smith

An English economist who's Wealth of Nations argued that individual national choices in a free market are the ideal way to foster efficient economic activity

Agency Theory

Also called the principal-agent model, the basic premise is that bureaucracies are agents that act on behalf of the legislatures--the principal or "client"--in a relationship

Agents of Political Socialization

the sources from which a group learns the political culture, which can include schools, parents, the media, politicians, friends, and religious leaders

Agreement Reality

Things that we believe are real even though we have never directly experienced them through our five senses

Alliances

An agreement between groups or individuals to join resources and abilities for purpose that individually benefits the members of the alliance

Anarchists

Radical ideologues who long for a lack authority or hierarchy because they believe that human beings are capable of peacefully intermingling and ordering society without broad, formalized governmental structures

Anarchy

The absence of any kind of overarching authority or hierachy

Appellate jurisdiction

A higher court's authority to review the record from a trial court

Aristocracy

A wealthy landowning elite

Arrow's Theorem

The idea that elections cannot be the perfect means of making decisions because the method by which the votes are tallied can significantly alter the outcome

Atomization

The deliberate isolation of people from each other in society to keep them from forming a group that could threaten a leader's hold on power

Authority

Where knowledge, natural ability, or experience makes it rational for people to choose to place themselves in a subordinate position to another individual or group

Authority Leakage

When the distortions created by communication down a chain of command make it impossible to control those who act

Balance of Power

The way in which the distribution of power across the international system influences the pattern of alliances that tend to form in an anarchical environment

Bandwagoning

Opportunistic international alliances in which nations ally with the bully in order to carve out their own slices of the spoils

Bicameral legislature

A legislature with two houses

Bureaucracy

The position within the political administrative structure--the desk, not the person--that defines the role or function to be performed

Capitalism

An economic system based on the free market and individual competition for profits

Central Bank

A kind of sort of government bank that loans imaginary money to real banks

Checks and Balances

A system based on the free market and individual competitions for profits

Civil Law

The branch of law that typically deals with relations among private individuals and groups

Civil Law System

System of law based on the proposition that law is a codified, constructed entity that a legislature or some other lawmaking political body has constructed

Classic Conservatism

A political ideology that maintains that unrestrained individual human resources cannot take the place of long-standing, traditional institutions

Classic Liberalism

A political ideology that emphasizes the belief that people should be generally free from government constraints or interferences

Cockroach Theory of Bureaucracy

The idea that bureaucracies serve the public as best as they can and hope to stay hidden form the media and well fed in the darker recesses of an anonymous bureaucratic government

Cockroach Theory of Politics

The idea that politicians do not want to be spotted anywhere where they might be stomped on; thus, when they see others caught by the media in a scandal they try to avoid getting noticed for a similar indiscretion

Cognitive frameworks

The set of instinctual and learned filters the human mind uses for sorting the mass of incoming information and selecting which bits it will recognize and pass on to the thinking parts of the brain

Cohabitation

Under the French political system, when the president is from one political party while a different political party controls the legislature

Collective Action

Coordinated group action that is designed to achieve a common goal that individuals acting on their own could not otherwise obtain

Common-Law System

Law system characterized by the strong role of the judge in cases and the importance of precedent

Communism

A political ideology that advocates, via revolution, a classless, socialist society in which justice and fairness for the whole prevail over the interests of individuals

Conceptual Frameworks

The personal experiences, preferences, and expectations that we all use to make sense of the world

Confederal System

A system where the local government units have all the real power

Constuctivism

A theoretical perspective in international relations that hold as its fundamental claim that human beings construct the reality around them--reality upon which decisions and choices are made--through language and communication

Criminal Law

The brnach of law that concerns relationships involving the government and its relationship with individuals and organizations

Crosscutting Cleavages

When a group contains many different points of conflict, thus allowing people to find many points of agreement and conflict within the group

Cultural Ownership

The idea that something that is part of a group's shared identity can also be owned

Culture

The set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic

Currency

A universally accepted "placeholder" between trades of all the myriad different forms of real wealth, simplifying trade and enabling the fractionalization of whole goods

Deflation

Situation in which the number of currency units is falling relative to available wealth

Delegate

Representative who attempts to do exactly what his or her constituents want

Democracy

Rule by the people, usually through elected representatives, under a constitution that provides protection for basic rights and majority rule

Democratic Peace

The observation that liberal democratic political regimes do not fight one another

Democratic Socialism

Political ideology that advocates for a socialist state through democratic means

Dictatorship

Form of government in which power is centralized in a single person or possibly a small group of people

Direct Democracy

A political system in which all citizens gather together to share perspectives, debate, and vote on policies

Dispute Resolution

The role of courts to peacefully settle disputes and keep order in society

Divided Government

When one political party controls the presidency and another party controls either all or part of the legislature

Divine Right of Kings

The principle that earthly rulers receive their authority form God

Dramatic Imperative

The need for commercial news outlets to focus on rare and unusual events that have a tremendous impact on people in order to draw an audience

Electoral College

An election system in which electoral votes are divvied between states according to population

Enlightened Self-Interest

The idea that people will retrain their self-interest in recognition of the need to preserve a common resource

Experiential Relaity

Things that we directly experience through our five senses

Fascism

A political ideology that argues for the supremacy and purity of one group of people or nationality in a society

Federal Law

The law of the national government

Federal Reserve Rate

The interest rate the Federal Reserve charges on loans to banks

Federal System

Systems where the final authority for at least some aspects of government are left to the local or subnational level

Feudalism

An economic system under which peasants raise crops and livestock on small polts within the landlord's estate and are obligated to give a substantial percentage of their production to the landlord in exchange for protection

Fillibuster

A delaying tactic used by a senator or group of senators--who indefinitely talk about the bill--to frustrate the proponents of the bill and ensure defeat of the measure

First-Past-The-Post System

An electoral system where the candidate with the most votes wins regardless of whether that person has a majority of the votes cast; there is no runoff election

Foreign Policy Analysis

A Theoretical perspective in international relations that holds that understanding how those decisions are made within the structure, process, and context of domestic politics is essential for understanding international politics

Framing

The use of a speech to provide a cognitive framework for understanding an issue, policy, or candidate to predispose people to interpret a myriad of facts and snippets in one way rather than another

Geographic Representation

A legislature divided according to geography , in which people are represented by the area they live in

Gerrymandering

The process of intentionally drawing districts to gain a partisan advantage

Going Rate

When judges, through past sentencing, set the context for plea bargaining as defense attorneys and prosecutors negotiate about what the appropriate penalty should be for an offense for which a plaintiff pleads guilty

Government

The creation of institutions or structures to provide the security that people continually need; the result of a group's need to institutionalize, or make permanent, its power

Gridlock

When the checks and balances within the presidential system work too well so that they not only prevent one institution from overwhelming the others but also prevent anyone from doing much of anything

Group Identity

The degree to which members identify within a group, and conversely, identify who is not part of that group, a process that affects the group's strength, cohesiveness, and survival

Head of Government

The political role of a country's president or ruler as the leader of a political party or group and chief arbiter of who gets what resources

Head of State

The apolitical, unifying role of a country's president or ruler as symbolic representative of the whole country

Hegemon

A dominant power, either an individual or, in the case of international politics, a country powerful enough to dominate all others

Hereditary Monarchies

The most common form of monarch; used by almost all of the world's existing monarchies. Under a hereditary monarchy, all rulers come from the same family, and the crown is passed along form one family member to another

Hierarchy

A societal structure that elevates someone or some group to a position of authority over others

Humanist

An idealist who is interested in and motivated by concerns for the broader human condition and the quality of people's lives

Idealism

A way of looking at the world where the focus is on what we would like to do or what we would like the world to be; also refers to a theoretical perspective in international relations that stresses the quest for peace

Idealist Period

The two decades between the world wars that were marked by the effort to envision and attain a perfectly peaceful world

Ideological Representation

Representation in which people's belief is the main concern of leadership

Immobilism

When, because of the complexity and fragility of a ruling coalition, it becomes nearly impossible to enact any kind of coherent policies out of fear that a coalition party will break away and force the government to collapse

Imperial Presidency

The accumulation of tremendous power in the presidency at the expense of the other branches of government, especially the legislative branch

Imperialism

The extension of an empire's or nation's rule or authority over foreign countries or the acquisition and holding of colonies and dependencies for the purpose of economic gain

Individual Security

Focus on the continued safety of the individual

Inflation

Situation in which the number of currency units in circulation is increased, measured relative to the real stuff of value out there, which reduces the value people place upon each unit of currency

Initiatives

Questions that are put on the ballot by citizens, usually after some type of qualification process, for example, the collection of a significant number of signatures on a petition

Injunctive Power

The power of courts to stop governments, individuals, or groups form acting

Inquisitorial System

In a civil law system, a prolonged pretrial investigative process

Institutions

The organizational structures through which political power is exercised

Iron Triangle

The situation where the bureaucracy is captured and redirected to focus on the needs of an interest group rather than on the public interest or even its original mandate

Judicial Review

The power to declare laws and government acts to be in violation of the nation's constitution or in some other way illegal under the structure of the country

Jurisprudence

A philosophy of law

Karl marx

A German economist, theorist, sociologist, and philosopher most notable for his works criticizing capitalism and advocating communism--a classless, collective socialist society

Laissez-Fair Capitalism

An economic system allowing very little, if any, government involvement, interference, or regulation

Law In Action

How laws are applied and enforced in the real world

Law in Books

The laws as they are written

League of Nations

An international institution created after WW1 that attempted to bring nations together to peaceably resolve conflict in a form of collective security

Legal System

A social construction built upon a basic conceptualization of how the law is created and how it functions

Legitimacy

People's voluntary acceptance of their government and its exercise of authority

Majoritarianism

Rule by the majority

Matriarchy

A form of social oganizaiton in which the mother is recognized as the head of the family or tribe, and descent and kinship are traced through the mother's side

Means of Production

The mechanisms for transforming labor into wealth

Median Voter

The one voter in the center of the ideological spectrum