poli sci 240 final flashcards

Less-Developed Countries (LDCs): countries at a relatively low level of economic development.

Infrastructure: basic structures necessary for social activity, such as transportation and telecommunications networks, and power and water supply.

Primary Products: raw materials and agricultural products, typically unprocessed or only slightly processed. The primary sectors are distinguished from secondary sectors [industry] and tertiary [services].

Oligopoly: a situation in which a market or industry is dominated by a few firms.

Terms of Trade: the relationship between a country’s export prices and its import prices.

Import-Substituting Industrialization (ISI): a set of policies pursued by most developing countries from the 1930s through the 1980s, to reduce imports and encourage domestic manufacturing, often through trade barriers, subsidies to manufacturing, and state ownership of basic industries.

Export-Oriented Industrialization (EOI): a set of policies, originally pursued in the mid-1960s by several East Asian countries, to spur manufacturing for experts, often through subsidies and incentives for export production.

Group of 77: a coalition of developing countries in the UN, formed in 1964 with 77 members, that seeks changes to the international economic order to favor the developing world. It has grown to over 130 members but retains the original name.

Commodity Cartels: associations of producers of commodities (raw materials and agricultural products) that restrict world supply of their products and thereby cause the price of their goods to rise.

Terrorism: premeditated threat or use of violence against noncombatant targets by individuals or subnational groups to obtain a political or social objective through intimidation of a larger audience.

Extremists: actors whose interests are not widely shared by others; individuals or groups that are politically weak relative to the demands they make.

Coercion: strategy of imposing or threatening to impose costs on other actors in order to induce a change in behavior.

Provocation: a strategy of terrorist attacks intended to provoke the target government into making a disproportionate response that alienates moderates in the terrorists’ home society or in other sympathetic audiences.

Spoiling: a strategy of terrorist attacks intended to sabotage a prospective peace between the target and moderate leadership from the terrorists’ home society.

Outbidding: a strategy of terrorist attacks designed to demonstrate superior capability and commitment relative to other groups devoted to the same cause.

Rationality: purposive behavior or strategies by which individuals or groups pursue their interests.

Comparative Advantage:  the ability of a country or affirm to produce a particular good or service more efficiently than it can produce other goods or services, such that its resources are most efficiently employed in this activity. The comparison is to the efficiency of other economic activities that the actor might undertake given all the products it can produce—not to the efficiency of other countries or firms.

Absolute Advantage:  the ability of a country or firm to produce more of a particular good or service than other countries or firms can produce with the same amount of effort and resources.

Neo-Mercantilism:  a belief that economic policy should encourage exports and discourage imports, and that the country should aim to run a trade surplus. So-called in relationship to the classical mercantilism of the colonial powers, which aimed at running trade surplus is with their colonies.

Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Theory:  the theory that a country will export goods that make intensive use of the factors of production in which it is well endowed. For example, a labor-rich country will export goods that will make intensive use of labor.

Protectionism:  the imposition of barriers to restrict imports.

Trade Barriers:  government limitations on the international exchange of goods. Examples include tariffs, quantitative restrictions, import licenses, requirements that the government buy only domestically produced goods, and health and safety standards that discriminate against foreign goods.

Tariff:  a tax imposed on imports. Tariffs raise the price of the imported good and may be applied for the purpose of protecting domestic producers from foreign competition.

Quantitative Restrictions (Quota):  a limit placed on the amount of a particular good that is allowed to be imported and sold domestically.

Nontariff Barriers to Trade:  obstacles to imports other than tariffs (trade taxes).  examples include restrictions on the number of products that can be imported; regulations that favor domestic over imported products; and other measures that discriminate against foreign goods or services. “Buy American” laws that govern what state and local governments can buy, for example, are an implicit, but non-tariff obstacle to the purchase of imports.

Stolper-Samuelson Theorem:  the theorem that trade protection benefits, the scarce factor of production. This view flows from the Heckscher-Olin theory:  if a country imports goods that make intensive use of its scarce factor, then limiting imports will help that factor. So in a labor-scarce country, labor benefits from protection, and loses from trade liberalization.

Ricardo-Viner (Specific-Factors) Model:  a model of trade relations that emphasizes the sector in which factors of production are employed rather than the nature of the factor itself. This differentiates it from Heckscher-Ohlin Theory, in which the nature of the factor — labor, Land, and capital – is the principal consideration.

Reciprocity: international trade relations, a mutual agreement to lower tariffs and other barriers to trade. Reciprocity involves an implicit or explicit arrangement for one government to exchange trade policy concessions with another.

Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) Status:  a status established by most modern trade agreements guaranteeing that the signatories will extend to each other. Any favorable trading terms offered in agreements with third parties.

World Trade Organization (WTO):  an institution created in 1995 to succeed the GATT and to govern international trade relations. The WTO encourages and polices the multilateral reduction of barriers to trade, and it oversees the resolution of trade disputes.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT): an international institution created in 1947 in which member countries committed to reducing barriers to trade and providing similar trading conditions to all other members. In 1995, the GATT was replaced by the WTO.

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs):  agreements among three or more countries in our region to reduce barriers to trade among themselves.

Global Climate Change: human-induced change in the environment, especially from the emissions of greenhouse gases leading to higher temperatures across the globe.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): an international agreement enacted in 1992, and entered into force in 1994, that provides an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts on climate change.

Paris Agreement: an agreement negotiated under the UNFCCC in 2015, signed by 195 countries, and entered into force in 2016. It was the first agreement to require commitments to control greenhouse gas emissions from all signatories.

Tragedy of the Commons: a problem that occurs when a resource is open to all, without limit. No one has an incentive to conserve, because others would use the resource in the meantime, so the resource suffers degradation.

Public Goods: products that are nonexcludable and nonrival in consumption, such as clean air or water.

Common-Pool Resources: Goods that are available to everyone, but such that one user’s consumption of the good reduces the amount available for others. Common-pool resources are rival but nonexcludable.

Nonexcludable Goods: Goods that, if available to be consumed by one actor, cannot be prevented from being consumed by other actors as well.

Nonrival Goods: goods for which consumption by one actor does not diminish the quantity available for others.

Kyoto Protocol: an amendment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005, that established specific targets for reducing emissions of carbon and five other greenhouse gases through 2020.

Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer: a framework convention adopted in 1985 to regulate activities, especially emissions of CFCs, that damage the ozone layer.

Montreal Protocol: an international treaty, signed in 1987, that is designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of CFCs and other chemical compounds.

Cap-And-Trade System: a cap-and-trade system sets an overall limit on emissions, which is then lowered over time to reduce pollutants released into the atmosphere. Firms can sell “credits” when they emit less than their allocation or must buy from others when they emit more than their allocation.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC): the commitment each party to the Paris Agreement makes as to how it will contribute to the threat of global warming.

Externalities: costs or benefits resulting from an actor’s decision that affect stakeholders other than that actor. When an externality exists, the decision maker does not bear all costs or reap all the gains from the action.

Human Rights: the rights possessed by all individuals by virtue of being human, regardless of their status as citizens of particular states or members of a group or organization.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): a declaration, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, that is defined as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples” and forms the foundation of modern human rights law.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): the agreement, completed in 1966 and in force from 1976, that details the basic civil and political rights of individuals and nations. The ICCPR and ICESCR together are known as the “twin covenants.”

International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR): the agreement, completed in 1966 and in force from 1976, that specifies the basic economic, social, and cultural rights of individuals and nations. The ICCPR and ICESCR together are known as the “twin covenants.”

International Bill of Rights: the UDHR, ICCPR, and ICESCR collectively. Together, these three agreements form the core of the international human rights regime.

Nonderogable Rights: rights that cannot be suspended for any reason, including in cases of social or public emergency.

Prisoners of Conscience (POCs): individuals imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs. The term was coined by the human rights organization Amnesty International.

Individual Petition: a right that permits individuals to petition appropriate international legal bodies directly if they believe a state has violated their rights.

International Criminal Court (ICC): a court of last resort for human rights cases that possesses jurisdiction only if the accused is a national of a state party, the crime took place on the territory of a state party, or the UN Security Council has referred the case to the prosecutor