Politics Terms
The midterm exam will consist of 7 short answer questions and you must answer 5 of them. For full credit you must both define the term or concept and explain its relevance to our course.
Term Definition |
Normative Questions Questions that are primarily answered by our values and ethics. How should the world be? |
Empirical Questions Questions that are primarily answered with observable facts. How is the world and why is it that way? |
Cultural Imperialism My values= universal and can be applied across all cultural differences |
Cultural Relativism My values= culture-specific and cannot be applied outside of my cultural group |
Operationalize To take abstract concepts and replace them with measurable indicators |
Human Development Index (HDI) Life expectancy + Education + Per capita income |
Gini Index Mathematical measure of the level of economic equality in a country |
Modernization theory Values and political culture must adapt to changing world What is holding “developing” countries back are traditional political and economic values |
Dependency theory Western colonialism and economic imperialism turned Africa, Asia, and Latin America into providers of cheap food and raw materials for rich countries for rich countries and that hierarchy persists today |
Political institutions Rules, norms, and shared understandings that influence political actors’ interactions with one another |
state Territory, people, government control of legitimate violence/coercion |
Treaty of Westphalia (1648) Treaty that ended the 30 year war in Europe between Catholic and Protestants and established the norm of sovereignty |
Sovereignty The right of a people to govern themselves without interference from outside powers |
Fiscal Policy Decisions about how to generate and spend revenue |
Monetary Policy Decisions about how to influence the cost of borrowing and lending money |
Nationalization Government takes ownership of a privately-owned company |
Regulation Government rules that dictate how privately-owned companies must behave |
Welfare Systems Government provision of benefits/services outside on a non-market basis |
Command Economy Government owns and manages the means of production and exchange |
Market Economy Economy is managed by private, for-profit exchange |
Kuznet’s curve Inequality rises during the early period of economic growth and then declines |
Declining terms of trade Price of exports falls relative to imports |
Value-Added The amount by which an item’s increases in value at each stage in the production process |
Import-substituting industrialization Policy of replacing imports with domestically-produced goods |
Export-led growth Policy of providing government incentives for private firms to export higher value-added products |
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial arm of the UN that serves as lender of last resort for countries in debt crisis |
Washington Consensus Market-based economic reforms enforced by IMF to promote economic growth and encourage repayment of debts |
Procedural Democracy A political system holds fair, contested elections regular basis, with universal (or near-universal) adult suffrage |
Illiberal democracy A political system with comptetitive elections, but few adequate mechanisms for holding the government accountable to its citizens between elections |
Liberal Democracy A political system where most leading government officials are elected by near-universal suffrage opposition candidates have a realistic chance to win, and liberties (including minority rights) are respected. |
Citizenship Participatory membership in a political community |
Corruption Use of public authority for private gain |
Clientelism Unequal but mutually beneficial relationships between powerful and less powerful actors that disproportionately benefit the powerful |
Endemic corruption Routine, low-level corruption in everyday life |
Developmental corruption Corruption by businesses in order to secure government contracts or other preferential treatment |
Secularization Declining salience of religion (or other identity) |
Primordialism Identities are fixed and conflict is inevitable |
Instrumentalism Identities are fixed but can be mobilized by effective leaders |
Social constructivism Identities are fixed but are socially malleable, and their political salience can change over time |
Gender-related development index (GDI) Measure of female life- expectancy, education, and income with those of men |
Candidate quota systems Electoral systems that require that a certain # or % of candidates be women (or other underrepresented groups) |