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Comparative 150

Terms

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general will
"Rousseau's theory of what the whole community wants." This theory is criticized by some as being anti-pluralist: if the "general will" has been spoken in an election, then those who disagree need to live under the decision made by the whole body politic. Napoleon captured what he thought of as the "general will" of the French people through repeated plebescites (which he alwas won). Having received this direct mandate from the people, he proceeded to set up a tyrannical police state.
plebescite (referendum)
"A mass vote for an issue rather than for candidates." De Gaulle called five plebescites as a way to bypass the politicians and prove that he embodied the "general will" of the people. Winning a plebescite heightens the powers of already powerful leaders.
Totalitarianism
1.An official ideology
2.A single, disciplined party
3.Terroristic police control
4.Party monopoly of the mass media
5.Party control of the armed forces
6.Central direction of the economy
Asset stripping
Capital was not recycled back into the Russia economy and economy declined and made poor people poorer. Capitalism in Russia began selling off firm’s, property, raw materials for short term profit and no basis a long term future.
Flight Capital
Most rich people who could earn money like Russian Oligarchs stashed money in other countries in fear of losing it. they sends money out of country, Swiss.
Hard Currencies
when money was sent to other country’s bank , the money recognized currencies used in international dealings, such as dollars, euros. The money lost its value of what it has in Russia
Fusion of powers
Combination of executive and legislative as in parliamentary systems; opposite of U.S. separation of powers. The British cabinet practices a fusion of powers by straddling the gap between “executive” and “legislative” and almost always publicly supports the Prime Minister.
Realpolitik
Definition: politics based on strictly practical notions (rather than idealistic); politics of realism
Example: Germany; Bismark, Germany’s chancellor in the late 1800’s, practiced realpolitik to manipulate Prussia and the rest of Europe in order to create a unified Germany.
Polarized pluralism
Definition: a sick multiparty system that produces two extremist blocs with little in the center
Example: Germany, the last years of Weimar; Parties competing for votes in a highly ideological atmosphere offered more radical solutions. Voters fled from the center to the extremes, supporting Communism (left) and the Nazi party (right), both which were dedicated to overthrowing democracy.
Congruent federalism
composed of territorial units with a social and cultural character that is similar in each of the units and in the federation as a whole.
-Layman’s terms - A federation where the states or provinces have a population mix characteristic of the whole country.
Examples - America, Brittan
Incongruent Federalism
composed of territorial units with a social and cultural character that differ from one another and from the country as a whole.
-Layman’s terms - A federation where the state or province boundaries are set based on language or cultural differences
Example - India
Neoliberalism
Revival of free-market economies
Ex) Thatcherite wing of the Tory party in Britain
Deindustrialization
Decline in heavy industry
Ex) Britain was in economic decline for a period of decades after WWII.
During this time Britain experienced deindustrialization.
Jus sanguinis
“Right of blood” in Latin. It is the idea that your citizenship is based on descent. Traditionally Europe (France and Germany especially) use blood to determine citizenship but Germany is recently moving more towards jus soli
Jus soli
“Right of soil” in Latin. It is the idea that citizenship is given to those who are born in the country no matter the ethnic descent. From the beginning, the United States has used jus soli and hence it is a country of immigration. Australia and Brazil also use jus soli.
Xenophobia
Fear and hatred of foreigners. In Britain, France, and Germany many believe that foreigners and immigration bring with them crime and terrorism. 2/3 of Germans oppose immigration.
Protest vote
ballot cast against the existing regime, as in France when in the 1970s when probably a third of those voting communist were not devoted communists, they simply were voting to go against the existing regime.
Indicative planning
government suggestions to industry to expand in certain areas, as in France when, following WWII, France wanted to move forward from being mainly “petite burgeois”, small government protected business, to more of capitalist system with foreign competition.
Junta
Group that pulls military coup.
In Russia an eight man junta of conservatives, calling themselves the "emergency committee" said Gorbachev had taken ill and declared his vice-president acting president. The day before he signed a union treaty that would give the republics great autonomy within a market economy, the junta staged their coup. The junta was arrested and hastened the end of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was then revealed as an indecisive failure. Yeltsin bumped him out of pwer and proclaimed an independent Russia. Democracy got a chance.
Apparatchik
"Man of the apparatatus" Full-time CPSU functionary.
The CPSU in Russia hoped to skim off the best of the Soviet Union. The Party was organized like a giant pyramid: Primary party organizations at the bottom, district, province, and republic party conferences in between, and an all-union party conference at the top. Party administrators, apparatchik, were the cement that held the thing together.
Russification
Making non-Russian nationalities learn Russia. Try to extend the Russian culture to others areas that are not in the Russian borders.
Majoritarian Democracy
a.Definition: Whatever the majority of the people say, goes. It is simple and straightforward because “government by the majority and in accordance with the majority’s wishes obviously comes closer to the democratic ideal of government for and by the people”
b.Example: France – since the majority rule needs a majority, often a run-off second ballot between the top two candidates is cast if no one receives the majority of the votes in the first place. This is how the president is elected in France.
Consensus Democracy
c.Definition: It accepts majority rule as a minimum requirement as opposed to the only requirement. It focuses more on compromising and bargaining so that more people are happy, and the majority is a larger group of people.
d.Example: a PR system – the majority of the people still get most of the representation because there are more people, but the minorities get a say in government as well, so it isn’t strictly Majoritarian.
Geopolitics
Influence of geography on politics and use of geography for strategic needs. Example: Japan (isolation)
Four Tigers
South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore
Macroeconomy
Big Picture of a nations economy, including GDP size and growth, productivity, interest rates, and inflation.
Inflation
an increase in most prices, generally caused by an oversupply of money. In the 1970s, Britain experienced inflation after the country expanded welfare programs beyond what the country could support.
Hyperinflation
Extremely rapid or out of control inflation. Germany experienced hyperinflation when it printed excesses of money to pay for war reparations during the 1930s.
Monetarism
Friedman’s theory that too rapid growth of the money supply causes inflation. Margaret Thatcher used monetarist policies when she cut bureaucracy, the growth of welfare, and subsidies to industry in an effort to control Britain’s money supply.
Soft money
In US politics, funds given to parties and other groups rather than to candidates in order to skirt restrictions. The US has reformed campaign financing several times, but contributors and candidates always find new ways to skirt the system. Usually candidates want the money for televised spots, but sometimes soft money ends up in the pockets of politicians or is used for personal expenses.
middle way
supposed blend of capitalism and socialism; also called “third way”
Sphere of Influence
understandings among imperial powers as to which held sway in given areas; semicolonial area under control of major power
Manufactured majority
the majority of seats that electoral systems award a certain party when that party did not earn the majority of votes. This is common in most plurality and majority systems, as well as in Japan’s semiproportional system, which often awards unfair majorities to the Liberal Democrats.
Tax share
the extent to which a central government shares the tax revenue with the non-central governments. There is a negative correlation between a country’s federalism and the central government’s tax share: the higher their rating on the index of federalism, the lower the tax share. For instance, the UK’s central government has very high tax share and a low degree of federalism and decentralization, but Switzerland’s tax share is low and they have the highest degree of decentralization.
Statute
A statute is an ordinary law used usually for specific problems. Brazil has struggled with its constitution, to distinguish between the constitution and statutes because the constitution is so detailed that it tries to regulate issues like retirement, 40 hour work weeks, etc. that should normally be left to statutes.
Personalismo
Personalismo is running politics by strong, showoff personalities; it is very common in Latin America, including Brazil, where Politicians believe the best and quickest way to earn respect is to have a strong personality. Personalismo often leads to machismo.
Rechtsstaat
is literally, state of laws; government based on written rules and rights. The Rechtsstaat tradition exists in the German state because it is focused on laws.
Wage restraint
Unions holding back on compensation demands. The German labor unions practiced wage restraint in that they did not demand everything they could get, but let capital grow until it provided jobs and good wages for all.
Blocked society
One in which interest groups prevent major, necessary change. This especially occurs in welfare states that attempt to cut provisions. This was also evident in France’s multiparty system, where with too many parties, they blocked each other’s votes and prevented change.
Iron Triangle
Interlocking of politicians, bureaucrats, and business people to promote flow of funds among them.
Guided Capitalism
State supervision but not ownership of the economy.
Public Corporation
Special-purpose economic unit owned in whole or in part by government ( U.S example: TVA).
Copies
The first of four modes used to emulate Western European institutions by Central and Eastern European (CEE) states. Institutions from Western Europe are replicated in the CEE almost exactly, though copies will never be completely the same. This mode is considered to be the rarest.
Templates
This is the “first alternative mode, “a much more common occurrence. CEE officials look to West Europe for general outlines, “Templates,” to model their own institutions. Unlike copies, these are not exact blueprints, but rather, a general design. These templates are studied by CEE officials, and also observed by visits to the particular region the model is found, and then reformed into a local adaptation for CEE states.
Thresholds
In order for the CEE states to become members of NATO and the EU, they must meet the minimum standards established by these IOs, the thresholds. These standards include necessary reforms in policy and institutions, but remain pretty vague, allowing the IO officials to deem the actions of CEE states as acceptable or not.
Patches
Patches often take the place of holes that remain after the other three modes have been attempted, holes that NATO and EU officials identify. These patches are speedily implemented blocks of explicit reforms that transform policy areas in CEE states that are labeled as incompatible with “specific Western models.” CEE elites really have
Microeconomy
Close-up picture of individual markets, including product design and pricing, efficiency, and costs.
Example: Japan’s system has included government intervention in the microeconomy as well as the macroeconmy. State technocrats have chosen which industries to foster and which to phase out. This has been criticized. Intervention in the macroeconomy (big picture) is more accepted.
Trade surplus
Exporting more than you import.
Example: Japan has a huge trade surplus, particularly with the U.S. They export electronics and other goods but don’t import as many U.S. goods. This meant Japan amassed tons of dollars, and forced the value of the dollar to decline in relation to the yen.
Mobilize
To bring new sectors of the population into political participation. This means involving people in voting etc. that haven’t been involved in the past.
Examples: Populists in Brazil try to mobilize the public on the basis of personal appeal. Democrats are trying to mobilize the Hispanic population because they could be a huge voting bloc.
Center-seeking
Definition: Parties trying to win big centrist vote by moderate programs.
-Example: In West Germany, voters could choose between three moderate parties that could combine in three different coalitions (CDU and FDP, CDU and SPD, SPD and FDP). This made West German politics stable compared to more tumultuous multiparty systems.
Dealignment
Definition: Voters losing identification with any party.
-Example: In response to societal problems such as immigration, environmental degradation, the movement of jobs to low-wage countries, and crushing tax and debt burdens, catchall parties waffle in middle ground and don’t offer any convincing solutions. This results in lower voter turnouts and smaller and less-stable shares of the vote for the catchall parties, aka dealignment.
Proportional Representation
Electoral system of multimember districts with seats awarded by percentage parties win.
Single-member districts
PR, have district representatives. More than in strait PR systems, personality counts; a politician cannot be just a good party worker but has to go out and talk with voters to earn their confidence on a personal basis. It is a matter of considerable prde among FRG politicians (Germany) to be elected from a single-member district with a higher percentage of votes than their party won on the second ballot. It means that voters split their tickets becase they liked the candidate better than the party.
Nomenklatura
A list of some 600,000 important government positions and another list of reliable people eligible to fill them. This is how the Party in Russia selects their officials, who are closely supervised and either rewarded with higher positions for good behavior or demoted/transfered to a remote area for making mistakes. Once on the list, a person will remain there for availability until they retire. Nomenklatura is not mentioned in Russia law but is understood to be important.
Social Costs
Taxes for medical, unemployment, and retirement benefits paid by employers.
Ex: In France and in many other Western European countries, social costs and wages are so high that employers avoid hiring new employees. If there is a recession, it will be difficult to let them go (because of government laws to prevent easy lay-offs/protect employees), but if they do, the cost to employers in terms of unemployment benefits, etc. is very high. Because of Social Costs, unemployment is quite high (about twice that of the US) in Western Europe.
Austerity
Drastically holding down government expenses.
Ex: In France, Chirac held down government expenses to strengthen the franc and keep the budget deficit to 3% of France’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Many criticized Chirac’s policy and attributed high unemployment (in part) to such austerity.
Proletariat
A term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons; the term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class. In Marxist theory, the proletariat is that class which does not have ownership of the means of production (wage-worker).
Supranational Organizations
Organizations that group together several countries. Literally means "above national." Examples: EU, NATO
Labor Force Rigidities
Unwillingness of workers to change jobs or locations.
Rump state
leftover portions of a country after dismemberment. After communism failed, many eastern-european nations were left as independent countries of the old Soviet Union (rump states). Yugoslavia is a good example of this.
cult of personality
Dictator who has himself worshipped
Example: “Stalin built a cult of personality that must never be allowed again.”
During his dictatorship in the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin had set himself up as the icon of communist parties the world over. When Nikita Krushchev gave his speech against all of the crimes of Stalin after Stalin’s death, many communist systems began to fall as their people revolted.
autocracy
absolute rule of one person in centralized state
Politburo
"Political bureau", small, top governing body of most Communist parties

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