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Politics - International Studies

Terms in this set (62)

Political Science
concerns the systematic study of 'politics', i.e. to provide us
with the tools (concepts, methods) to generate knowledge
and understanding of politics, to better understand the
political world, to bring order in the chaos of real political
life, with its countless variables, the unpredictability of human behavior
Politics
is about the ideas, the organization
(institutions) and the morality (legitimacy) of
power at the public level, in all its forms and
varieties ...the making of authoritative public choices from private references
Political theory - Empirical theory
supports description and explanation ('what is?'):
•interest group theory, rational choice theory, totalitarianism, etc
Political theory - Normative political theory
adds prescription to analysis
('what ought to be?'):
-sovereignty, 'Democratic Peace', 'Just War Theory', etc.
Political Ideology
set of ideas and beliefs that inspires, guides,
directs politics and policies - about political goals
and how to achieve them.
* EX: conservatism,
liberalism, socialism, Marxism, Islamism
Political culture
the structure or configuration of common traditional political
conditions, traditions, and orientations of a group of people, a
society...
Political Philosophy
Oldest form of political thinking .
Domain of great thinkers, great books, great ideas - Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes,
Locke, Marx
Political Philosophy
systematically studies, discusses and
questions relevant ('timeless') political issues, revealing the origins, development and the challenges of our contemporary political ideas, practices and institutions: citizenship, sovereignty, democracy, state and nation, political representation, religion and state
State
a political legal unit with sovereignty over a particular geographic territory and the population that resides in that territory.
Comparative Politics
the systematic search for answers to political questions about how people around the world make and contest authoritative public choices. It holds hypotheses against evidence from the real world.
Comparative method
a way to examine patterns of facts or events to narrow down what is important in terms of building a convincing comparative politics argument.
The method of agreement
focuses on cases with different attributes but shared outcomes (if two or more examples of a particular phenomenon have only one of several possible causal attributes in common, then the attribute that all the cases share is the cause of the outcome). Ex ethnic diversity
The method of difference
focuses on cases with the same attributes but different outcomes, and determines causality by finding an attribute that is present when an outcome occurs but that is absent in similar cases when the outcome does not occur. Ex plant water
Criteria for states (Montevideo 1933):
1. A permanent population
2. A defined territory
3. Government
4. Capacity to enter into relations with other states
Sovereignty:
ultimate responsibility for and legal authority over the conduct of internal affairs, including a claim to a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force-within territory defined by geographic borders.
Failed state:
a state where sovereignty over claimed territory has collapsed or was never effectively established at all.
Legitimacy
the degree to which citizens willingly accept the state's sovereign authority to use power and effectiveness - how the institutions of the state shape citizens' life
State - Max Weber
a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory
Hobbes's Problem:
recognise the clash between individuals and collective interests and to point out a solution for it, which would be the state. The state should be powerful enough to keep individuals in line. Human society flourishes only if government provides all citizens with security of life and prosperity.
State of nature:
a mythological time before any human community or government existed. According to Hobbes a nasty, poor and solitary state. Without government, laws, contracts and justice systems would not exist and the strong would do what they wanted, while the weak would do wathever they must do to survive.
Feudalism
No commonly accepted definition
System of customary arrangements between lords and vassals, plus church and peasantry
Overlapping loyalties
No borders but lands
No languages or dialects:
Tongues whose familiarity decreases with distance
Latin as lingua franca
No citizenship: Subjects
Empire
The domination of lands by a state that has no prior or given sovereignty over those lands
Usually multi ethnic structures with one dominant ethnicity
The Westphalian State
States as sovereign entities
External agents do not have influence over domestic structures
Legal equality between states
Society
the formal and informal organizations, social movements and interest groups. A term for all organized groups, social movements, interest groups and individuals who attempt to remain autonomous from the authority of the state
Nations
are large communities with a claim to a shared identity
Language
Ethnicity
Religion
Cuisine....
Their borders do not necessarily coincide with state boundaries, but they may aspire to independence or autonomy .
Primordialism
The notion that nations are naturally occurring entities
People are born into nations, the essence of which they cannot change
Modernism (constructivism)
Nations are modern entities
Ideas about a given nation change over time
Histories, languages, and cultures are often regularized through modern processes
Accountability
a political mechanism that offers citizens regular and realistic opportunities to remove the rulers from office through peaceful and constitutional means.
Electorate
a group of citizens eligible to participate in the election of government leaders
Unitarism
the constitution grants the central government exclusive and final authority over policymaking across the entire national territory
Federalism
the constitution grants two or more governments overlapping political authority over the same group of people and same piece of territory. It assumes that by giving minority groups some voice at the local level, they will be more willing to negotiate on other issues at the national level
Parliamentary system
a constitutional format in which the executive and legislative branches have neither separation of origin nor separation of survival.
Presidential system:
a constitutional format in which the executive and legislative branches enjoy both separation of origin (voters directly elect the members of the legislature and also cast a separate ballot directly electing the president) and survival (members of both the executive and legislative branches serve for fixed terms).
Aristocracy:
the best rule
Timocracy:
the strongest rule
Oligarchy
the rich rule
Democracy
the governed rule
Tyranny
one ruler or party
uncodified constitution
is also known as an unwritten constitution which means there is no formal documents that delineates government powers and limits
codified constitution
is one where there is a formal document that defines the constitutional system, rules governing a political system, rights of citizens and the powers of the government.
Functions of a Democratic Constitution
Establishes the organs of government
Enumerates(!) the basic rights of citizens
Confirms Popular Sovereignty
Executive
Handles the "management" of the state
Implements laws passed by the legislative branch
Supervised by "ministers" or "secretaries" comprising a cabinet
Legislative branch
Uni- or bicameral
Passes laws, provides oversight of the executive
Judicial branch
May provide judicial review (but often doesn't have this power)
Parliamentary System
The head of state is either a monarch (UK, Netherlands, Japan), a monarch's representative (NZ, Australia), or an elected official with mostly ceremonial powers (Germany)
Head of state appoints (usually) the leader of the largest party in the legislature as head of government
Presidential system
President as directly elected head of government and the head of state
Parliament or Congress legislates, might have impeachment powers
Semi-Presidential system
President is the head of state, is directly elected and has substantive power over policy areas such as external affairs
The president appoints the Prime Minister as head of government
Unitary States
Delegation of powers from the central authorities is a practical matter
Deconcentration
Decentralisation
Devolution
Federal States
Multilayered nation-states with political subunits (states, provinces, Länder, cantons) whose autonomy from the central (federal) government in certain areas is constitutionally guaranteed. refers to the mixed or compound mode of government, combining a general government (the central or 'federal' government) with regional governments (provincial, state, Land, cantonal, territorial or other sub-unit governments) in a single political system.
plurality voting system
is a voting system in which each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the candidate who polls more votes than any other candidate (a plurality) is elected.
Duverger's Law
Single seat plurality =two party system
Losing votes in districts and third party votes are 'wasted'
Not actually a hard and fast "law" (Canada; UK)
gerrymandering
is a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries.
District Manipulation
Marginal districts seen as more important
Fixed population and Gerrymandering
Often voter disparity between rural and urban districts
When voter disparity is adjusted, issues of representation in large districts is created
Majority Systems
Used in districts with a single representative
A majority (50%+1) is required
Two-round elections
Alternate Voting (HoR Australia)
Voters rank candidates
When there is no majority, the least popular candidate is eliminated and their voters' second choice is considered
The process continues until one candidate receives a majority
Proportional Representation
Parties are given a number of seats based on their proportion of votes
similarities between
varieties of totalitarianism
Ideology (nation / class / race) & utopia
• One-party rule (no political pluralism)
• Charismatic leadership
• Massive political terror: Stalinism and National Socialism
• Coercive mobilization of society (legitimacy)
• Centrally directed and controlled economy
Characteristics of the non-democratic state:
1. People are subject to the hierarchical authority of the state
2. The selectorate and government elect and removes each other (reciprocal accountability). Neither the government nor the selectorate possess definitive political authority
Totalitarian regimes:
are defined as one in which the government tries to shape the interests and identities of its citizens by articulating a coherent ideology, employing extensive efforts to coercively mobilize support for the regime, and imposing tight restrictions on both social and political pluralism
Totalitarian ideologies
(set of political beliefs and ideas) are: written down by national leaders, systematic, institutionalized, dogmatic and totalizing. Totalitarianism engage in extensive coercive mobilization by forcing people to labor for the regime
Authoritarian regimes
concentrate on using coercion to limit political pluralism in order to remain in power, but relative to a totalitarian regime, an authoritarian regime permits some social pluralism. An authoritarian regime does not use ideology or coercive mobilization to shape citizens' interests, identities or support for the regime.
Communism
: holds that under capitalist economic systems, the wealthy exploit the workers and the poor. XXX believe that efforts should be made to redistribute economic wealth as much as possible, and that a single political party should direct the government and control the state.
Fascism
a totalitarian ideology based in racist principles that glorified militarism, violence, nationalism and the state over individual interests and identities, usually led by charismatic individual leaders.
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