Ap Comparative Government Key Terms

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Government

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leadership and institutions that make policy decisions for a country

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Politics

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how power is gained, managed, challenged, and maintained

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Empirical data

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based on factual statements and statistics

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Normative issues

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issues that require value judgments

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Hypothesis

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speculative statement between two or more factors known as variables

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Causation

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relationship between two things in which one is believed to cause the other

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Independent variable

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one that influences the dependent variable

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Dependent variable

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action depends on the influence of the independent variable

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Correlation

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the extent at which two variables vary together

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Three-world approach

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most frequently used model to compare countries until the early 1990’s - largely based on Cold War politics; 3 worlds were: US & allies, Soviet Union & allies, and third world nations (that do not fit into either category & were also economically underdeveloped and deprived)

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Third world countries/Global South

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countries that do not fit into either category (US & allies or Soviet Union & allies) & were also economically underdeveloped and deprived

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Civil society

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the way that citizens organize and define themselves and their interests

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Informal politics

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ways politicians operate outside their formal powers & the impact that beliefs, values, and actions of ordinary citizens have on policymaking

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“Advanced” democracies

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countries that have well established democratic governments and a high level of economic development; Of the six core countries, Great Britain best represents this group

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State

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organization that maintains a monopoly of violence over a territory; it defines who can and cannot use weapons and force & sets the rules as to how violence is used; sponsors armies, navies, and/or air forces that use power and sometimes violence; include institutions

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Institutions

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stable, long lasting organizations that help turn political ideas into policy; Ex: bureaucracies, legislatures, judicial systems, and political parties; make states long lasting and help them to endure even when leaders change

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Sovereignty

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ability to carry out actions or policies within their borders independently from interference either from the inside or the outside; supreme power or authority

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Nation

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a group of people who are bound together by a common political identity

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Nationalism

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the sense of belonging and identity that distinguishes one nation from another

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Binational/multinational state

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state that contains more than one nation

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Stateless nation

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people without a state

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Regime

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the rules that a state sets and follows in exerting its power

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Indirect democracy

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elected officials representing the people

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Direct democracy

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individuals have immediate say over many decisions that the government makes

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Parliamentary systems

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citizens vote for legislative representatives, who in turn select the leaders of the executive branch

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Presidential systems

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citizens vote for legislative representatives as well as for executive branch leaders, and the two branches function with separation of powers

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Head of state

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role that symbolizes the power and nature of a regime and its people and may or may not have any real policy-making power; Ex: Queen Elizabeth

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Head of government

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role that deals with the everyday tasks of running the government and usually directs that activities of other members of the executive branch; Ex: British Prime Minister

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Checks and balances

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system that allows power to be shared between the executive and legislate branch; part of the presidential system

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Separation of powers

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occurs between branches to ensure that power is shared and that one branch does not come to dominate the others

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Semi-presidential system

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where a prime minister coexists with a president who is directly elected by the people and who holds a significant degree of power

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Political elites

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those who hold political power, without much input from citizens, in political regimes

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Authoritarian regime

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a type of regime in which decisions are made by political elites; may be ruled by a single dictator, hereditary monarch, small group of aristocrats, or a single political party

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Communism

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regime in which communist party controls everything from the government to the economy to social life; values equality over freedom; takes over all resources by the state to insure that that true economic equality exists for the community as a whole

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Corporatism

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an arrangement in which government officials interact with people/groups outside the government before they set policy; fewer groups compete than under pluralism, with usually one groups for each interest sector such as labor, agriculture, and management; group’s monopoly is approved and sometimes protected by state; two types: state corporatism - the state determines which groups are brought in & societal corporatism/neo-corporatism

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State corporatism

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corporatism where the state determines which groups are brought in

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Societal corporatism/Neocorporatism

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corporatism where interest groups take the lead and dominate the state

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Patron-client systems

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system in which leaders provide reciprocal favors and services to their supporters; system in which the state provides specific benefits or favors to a single person or small group in return for their support

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Totalitarianism

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government that seeks to control and transform all aspects of society; have a strong ideological goal (like communism) that many authoritarianism governments lack; use violence as a means of destroying any obstacles to their governance; similar to authoritarianism but with a more negative connotation; almost always used to describe a particularly repressive, often detested, regime;

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Military rule

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form of nondemocratic rule; when the military directly intervenes in the politics of an unstable government to solve current problems; usually involves a coup d’état; often restricts civil rights and liberties, keep political parties from forming and elections from taking place; can go in many different directions: democracy, authoritarian, or another coup d’état

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Coup d’état

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a forced takeover of the government; literally means “blows to the state”; may or may not have widespread support among the people; replace the leadership of a country with new leaders; often carried out by military; new leaders are always vulnerable to a new coup

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Co-optation

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means a regime uses to get support from citizens

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Pluralism

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basic principal of democracy; situation in which power is split among many groups that compete for the chance to influence a government’s decision-making

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Democratic corporatism

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interest representation is institutionalized through recognition by the state, new groups can only form if the state allows it; organizations develop institutionalized and legally binding links with the state agencies, so that the groups become semi-public agencies, acting on behalf of the state, & as a result, groups and individuals lose their freedoms

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Democracy index (DI)

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the Economist Intelligence unit ranks countries around the globe in terms of their democratic practices; based on electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture; four types of democracies: full democracies, hybrid democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes

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Political legitimacy

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the right to rule, as determined by their own citizens

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Traditional legitimacy

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rests upon the belief that tradition should determine who should rule and how; often involves important myths and legends, rituals and ceremonies to help reinforce; basis of most monarchies; can also be base don religion

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Charismatic legitimacy

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based on the dynamic personality of an individual leader or small group; notoriously short-lived because it usually does not survive its founder, Ex: Napoleon Bonaparte

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Rational-legal legitimacy

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based on a system of well-established laws and procedures; is highly institutionalized or anchored by strong institutions (such as legislatures, executives, and/or judiciaries) that carry over generations of individual leaders; often based on the acceptance of the rule of law that supersedes the actions and statements of individual rulers, law can be code or common

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Rule of law

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notion that the written law supersedes the actions and statements of individual rulers

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Common law

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based on tradition, past practices, or legal precedents set by the courts through interpretations of statues, legal legislation, and past rulings; English in origin & found in Britain, the US, and other countries with a strong English influence

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Code law

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based on a comprehensive system of written rules (codes) of law divided into commercial, civil, and criminal codes; predominant in Europe and countries influenced by the French, German, or Spanish systems; practiced in China, Mexico, and Russia

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Political culture

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collection of political beliefs, values, practices, and institutions that the government is based on

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Social capital

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amount of reciprocity and trust that exists among citizens and between citizens and the state

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Consensual political culture

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when citizens accept both the legitimacy of the regime and solutions to major problems; when citizens generally agree on how decisions are made, what issues should be addressed, and how problems should be solved; Ex: citizens agree that elections should be held to select leaders

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Conflictual political culture

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when citizens are sharply divided, often on both the legitimacy of a regime and solutions to major problems; may cause political subcultures to develop and can potentially halt the government from ruling effectively; Ex: followers of one religion do not accept an elected leader from another religion

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Political ideologies

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sets of political values held by individuals regarding the basic goals of government and politics; Ex: Liberalism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Religions

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Liberalism as a political ideology

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places emphasis on individual, political, and economic freedom; seek to maximize freedom for all people including free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association; believe citizens have a right to disagree with state decisions and act to change the decisions of their leaders’ part of the political culture of many modern democracies

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Socialism

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shares the value of equality with communism bit is also influenced by the liberal value of freedom, for they accept and promote private ownership and free market principles; believe that the state has a strong role to play in regulating the economy and providing benefits to the public in order to ensure some measure of equality; stronger in Europe than the United States

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Fascism

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devalues the idea of individual freedom (like communism); rejects the value of equality and accepts the idea that people and groups exist in degrees of inferiority and superiority; believe that the state has the right and the responsibility to mold the society and economy and eliminate obstacles (including people) that might weaken them; usually a powerful authoritarian state; Ex: Nazi Germany; none currently exist

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Politicization of religion

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when religion plays a major role in a government’s politics; Ex: British monarch is head of Anglican Church as well as head of state

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Reform

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a type of change that does not advocate the overthrow of basic institutions; reformers want to change some of the methods that political and economic leaders use to reach goals

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Revolution

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involves either a major revision or an overthrow of existing institutions; usually impacts more than one area of life

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Coup d’états

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a forced takeover of the government; literally means “blows to the state”; may or may not have widespread support among the people; replace the leadership of a country with new leaders; often carried out by military; new leaders are always vulnerable to a new coup; most limited of the three types of change

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Radicalism

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belief that rapid, dramatic changes need to be made in the existing society often including the political system; radicals believe that the current system cannot be saved and must be overturned to be replaced with something better; willing to use violence to reach goal

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Liberalism as an approach to economic political change

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supports reform and gradual change rather than revolution

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Conservatism

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less supportive of change in general than radicalism and liberalism; tend to see change as disruptive, emphasize that it brings unforeseen outcomes; consider the state and regime to be very important sources of law and order and do not want to threaten than by changing the way they operate

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Reactionary beliefs

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similar to conservative beliefs in that they both oppose revolution and reform, but reactionaries also find the status quo unacceptable; want to turn back the clock to an earlier era to reinstate institutions from the past; willing to use violence to reach goal

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Competitive elections

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an essential requirement for a democracy; elections that are regular, free, and fair

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Liberal democracies

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legitimate democracies; include competitive elections, civil liberties, rule of law, neutrality of the judiciary, open civil society, and civilian control of the military

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Substantive democracies

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a type of liberal democracy where citizens have access to multiple sources of information

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Illiberal/Procedural democracies

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countries that have democratic procedures in place, but have significant restrictions on them; Ex: the rule of law may be in place, but is not consistently followed by those who have political power