Comp. Politics - Midterm 2

Front 1

political accountability

Back 1

the ability of the citizenry, directly or indirectly, to control political leaders and institutions

Front 2

parliamentarism

Back 2

a term denoting a parliamentary system of democracy in which the executive and legislative branches are fused via parliament's election of the chief executive

Front 3

semipresidentialism

Back 3

a term denoting a semipresidential system of democracy in which executive power is divided between a directly elected president and a prime minister elected by a parliament

Front 4

code law

Back 4

legal system originating in ancient Roman law and modified by Napoleon Bonaparte in France in which judges may only follow the law as written and must ignore past decisions in contrast to common law

Front 5

common law

Back 5

legal system originating in Britain in which judges base decisions on their understanding of the written law but also on their understanding of past court cases; in contrast to code law

Front 6

principle agent problem

Back 6

a problem in which a principal hire an agent to perform a task but the agent's self-interest does not necessarily align with the principal's, so the agent may not carry out the task assigned

Front 7

neopublic management

Back 7

theory of reform of bureaucracies that argues for the privatizing of many government services, creating competition among agencies t simulate a market, focusing on customer satisfaction, and flattening administrative hierarchies

Front 8

neopublic service

Back 8

theory of reform of bureaucracies that argues for a more participatory and democratic process of determining regulations and service provision that fits local community needs; it relies on bureaucracy interacting with networks of citizens interested in a particular policy area

Front 9

political liberalization

Back 9

FIND

Front 10

collective action problem

Back 10

individuals being unwilling to engage in a particular activity because of their rational belief that their individual actions will have little or no effect, yet collectively suffering adverse consequences when all fail to act

Front 11

first past the post

Back 11

electoral system in which individual candidates are elected in single-member districts; the candidate with the plurality of votes wins

Front 12

two and a half party associations

Back 12

party system in which two large parties win the most votes but typically neither gains a majority; a third party must join one of the major parties to form a legislative majority.

Front 13

social movements

Back 13

part of civil society; they have a loosely defined organizational structure and represent people who have been outside formal institutions, seek major socioeconomic or political changes, or employ noninstutitional forms of collection action

Front 14

dictator's dilemma

Back 14

an authoritarian ruler's repression creates fear, which then breeds uncertainty about how much support the ruler has; in response, the ruler spends more resource than is rational to co-opt the opposition

Front 15

personality cult

Back 15

phenomenon that occurs in the most extreme cases of personalist rule in which followers constantly glorify the ruler and attempt to turn his every utterance into not only government fiat but also divine wisdom

Front 16

institutionalization

Back 16

the degree to which government processes and procedures are established, predictable, and routinized.

Front 17

democratic consolidation

Back 17

the idea that democracy has become widely accepted as the permanent form of political activity in a particular country, and all significant political elites and their followers accept democratic rules and are confident everyone else does as well

Front 18

revolutions from below

Back 18

revolutions that involve the mass uprising of the populace to overthrow the government as a central part of the process.

Front 19

delegative democracy

Back 19

democracies in which free and fair elections take place but neither vertical nor horizontal accountability is strong enough to prevent the emergence of elected executives with nearly unlimited power

Front 20

peak associations

Back 20

organizations that bring together all interest groups in a particular sector to influence and negotiate agreements with the state