GOVT 133 final

Formateur - Someone who helps form coalitions

Cabinet - Ministers who head govt departments on behalf of executive

Government (in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Systems) - PM is Head of Gov not head of State

Portfolio - Areas of responsibility for a cabinet member

Vote of no confidence - A vote that takes place when majority of government members dont support a leader or their policy

Caretaker government - Temporary gov that is formed when government collapses

Hung Parliament - No party/coalitoon has a majority in government.

Coalition (& types of coalitions) - Parties that group together for stronger power in government; majority coalition, minority coalition

Coalitional Presidentialism - President

Minimum Winning Coalition

Cohabitation - Executive and legislative are very different on the political spectrum

Unicameralism vs. Bicameralism - Uni has one legislative body while Bi has two

“One-person, one vote” - Equal representation in voting

Presidential systems - Strong executive system in the government; elected by the people

Parliamentary systems - Strong legislative system in the government, majority party rules government.

Semi-Presidential/Mixed systems - President given role of head of state and PM given role of head of go; dual executive power

Electoral System - Set of laws to regulate electoral competition

Electoral formula - rules that convert rules to seats

District magnitude - The number of representatives elected from a given district to the same legislative body

Pluralit/ Majoritarian - DM = 1

Alternative Vote - Candidates ranked in election

Two round system for presidential elections - Two elections to shorten the list of candidates to one; used in presidential elections

Proportional Representation systems - Allocation of seats is equal to the sharte of votes

Mixed systems (when referring to electoral systems) - Two round electoral system most common

Veto Actors - Institutional actors that would veto policy making

Divisors (D’hondt, Sainte Lague, Modified Sainte Lague) - Ways electrons are counted ; D’hondt =1,2,3… SL=1,3,5… MSL=1.4,3,5…

Quotas (for allocating seats) - Number of votes gareteeds a party a number of seats in a particular district

Thresholds (for allocating seats) - minimum percentage of votes a party must win to get a representative

Types of electoral lists - Open (can choose candidate and party, Closed (can only vote party), Free (can vote across multiple partys)

Head of State - Presidents role

Head of Governmen - PM role

Duverger’s law & strategic/ tactical voting vs. sincere voting - Two-party system favored

Internally-generated parties - Parties that stem from elites and powerful people

Externally generated parties - Parties that stem from social movements and people.

Mass parties - Mobilization parties, large support base

Catch-all parties - Parties that shift their ideologies to fit the interests of most people

Post-materialist parties - Single-issue parties, focus on self-expression and progression

Cleavages - Social/cultural division

Extreme Right parties - Nationalism, xenophobia, racism, etc.

Median-Voter Theorem - Parties should appeal towards the middle of the spectrum as most people are there