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53 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Components of federalism |
-Geopolitical division -Independence -Direct governance |
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Federal State |
One in which sovereignty is constitutionally split between at least two territorial levels so that independent governmental units at each level have final authority in at least one policy realm |
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Unitary Sates |
States that are not federal |
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Devolution |
When a unitary state grants powers to subnatiomal governments but retains the right to unilaterally recall or reshape those power |
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Congruent federalism |
When the territorial units of a federal state share a similar demographic makeup with one another and the country as a whole |
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Incongruent federalism |
When the demographic makeup of territorial units differ among the units and the country as a whole |
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Symmetric federalism |
When the territorial units of a federal state possess equal powers relative to the central government |
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Asymmetric federalism |
When some territorial units enjoy more extensive powers than others relative to the central government |
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Decentralization |
The extent to which actual policymaking power lies with the central or regional government |
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Coming-together federalism |
Separate units agree to give up part of their sovereignty to improve conditions |
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Holding-together federalism |
The central government chooses to decentralized its power to subnatiomal governments to diffuse secessionist pressures |
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Advantages of federalism |
-Closer match between policy and citizen preferences -Greater government accountability by bringing the government closer to the people -Competion among states creates an incentive for good government -Policy experimentation -System of checks and balances |
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Disadvantages of Federalism |
-Unnecessary duplication and contradictory policies
-Increases collective action problems in policy formation
-Competition leads to downward harmonization
-Competition amplifies pre-existing inequalities
-Faciliates blame shifting and credit claiming, thereby reducing government accountability |
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Unicameral legislature |
Legislative deliberation occurs in a single assembly |
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Bicameral legislature |
Legislative deliberation occurs in two distinct assembly |
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Congruent bicameralism |
When two legislative chambers have a similar poltical composition |
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Incongruent bicameralism |
When two legislative chambers differ in poltical composition |
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Members of selecting the upper house in bicameralism |
-Heredity -Appointment -Indirect elections -Direct elections |
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Members of the lower house represent... |
-All citizens equally |
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Members of the upper house represent... |
-Subnational geographic units |
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Malapportionment |
When the distribution of poltical representation between constituencies is not based on the size of each constituency's populations |
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Symmetric bicammeralism |
When two legislative chambers have equal or near equal constitutional power |
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Asymmetric bicameralism |
When two legislative chambers have unequal constitutional powers |
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Argument in favor of bicameralism in federal countries |
-An institutional means for protecting the federal system and promoting the distinct preferences of different territorial units |
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Argument in favor of bicameralism in unitary countries |
An institutional means for improving the quality of legislation |
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Constitutionalism |
A commitment to be governed by a set of authoritative rules and principles that are laid out in a constitution |
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System of constitutional justice |
Comprises the set of institutions and procedures that are established to protect constitutional rules and principles |
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Constitution |
Provides the formal source of state authority |
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Codified constitution |
One that is written in a single document |
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Uncodified constitution |
One that has sevetal resoyrces, which may be written or unwritten |
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Entrenched constitutions |
Can be modified only through a special procedure of constitutional amendment |
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Unentrenched constitution |
Has no special amendment procedure and can be modified at any point in time with the support of a legislative majority |
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Legislative supremacy constitution |
Has no constitutional review, has no bill of rights is not entrenched |
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Higher law constitution |
Has constitutional review, has a bill of rights, and is entrenched |
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Constitutional review |
The authority of an institution to invalidate legislation and other acts of the government that violate constitutional rules |
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Judicial review |
When constitutional review is conducted by ordinary judges from the regular judicial system |
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New constitutionalism |
A situation in which almost all countries now have a higher law constitution |
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Abstract review |
The constitutional review of legislation in the absence of a concrete legal case |
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Concrete constitutional review |
The constitutional review of legislation with respect to a specific to a special legal case |
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Priori constitutional review |
Occurs before a law is enacted |
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Posteriori constitutional review |
Occurs only after a law is formally enacted |
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Centralized constitutional review |
-A situation in which only one court can conduct constitutional review -European Model |
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-Decentralization constitutional review -America model |
A situation in which more than one court can interpret the constitution |
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Veto player theory |
-Offers a way to think about poltical institutions in a consistent way across countries -It conceptualizes the institutional structure of a given country in terms of its configuration of veto players |
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Veto player |
An individual or collective actor whose agreement is necessary for a change in the poltical status quo |
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Institutional veto player |
Generated by a country's constitution |
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Partisan veto player |
Generated by the way the poltical game is played |
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Veto players with conflicting preferences are characterized by |
-Greater policy stability -Smaller policy shifts -Less variation in the size of policy shifts -Weaker agenda setting powers |
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Winset of the status quo |
The set of alternatives that all veto players prefer to the status quo |
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Size of winset |
-when winset is small: Policy stability is high Policy shifts frequency and sizs are small -when winset is large: Policy stability is low Policy shifts frequency and size can be larger |
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Increase in the number of veto players |
Can decrease the winset or leave it the same |
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Increasing ideological distance of veto players |
Will decrease the size of winset |
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Unanimity core |
Where the status quo would never be defeated |
