Honors Comparative Politics Vocab
Terms
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- sovereignty
- The ability of states to carry out actions or policies within a territory independently from external actors or internal rivals
- Institutions
- organizations or activities that are self-perpetuating and valued for their own sake
- Politics
- the struggle in any group for power that will give a person or people the ability to make decisions for the larger group
- Comparative Politics
- Subfield of political science; Compares the governance systems of countries in order to shed light on the countries under study and on our own system
- Comparative Method
- the means of making comparisons across cases
- Quantitative Method
- Gathering of data across a large number of countries in order to look for correlations and test hypotheses about cause and effect. Emphasis on breadth
- Qualitative Method
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Master of a limited number of cases through the detailed study of their history, language and culture.
Emphasis of depth over breadth -
Aristotle
(384-322 BCE) - First separated the study of politics from philosophy; used comparative method to study city-states; conceived of empirical study of politics with practical purpose
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Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527) - First modern political scientist; emphasis on statecraft and empirical knowlege; analyzed different political systems; believed results were useful. The Prince
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Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679) - Developed the notion of a social contract; whereby people surrender certain liberties in favor of order; advocated powerful state in Leviathan
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John Locke
(1632-1704) - Argued that private property is essential to individual freedom and prosperity; advocated a weak state in Two Treatises of Government
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Charles Louis Secondant,
Baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755) - Studies of government systems led to his advocating the separation of powers within government in The Spirit of Laws
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778) - Said that citizens' rights are inalienable and cannot be taken away by the state; influenced civil rights; discussed ideas in The Social Contract
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Karl Marx
(1818-1883) - Theory of economic development and inequality in his book Das Kapital; predicted the eventual collapse of capitalism and democracy
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Max Weber
(1864-1920) - Wrote on bureaucracy, forms of authority, impact of culture on economic and political development; Economy and Society
- Traditional Approach
- Emphasis on describing political systems and their various institutions
- Behavioral Revolution
- shirt from descriptive to causality, explanation, and prediction. emphasis on the political behavior of individuals as opposed to larger political structures and on a quantitative over qualitative methodology. Modernization Theory predominant
- Modernization Theory
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As societies develop they will become capitalist democracies, converging a shared set of values and characteristics.
DISPROVEN - Post Behavioralism
- rejection of a grand theory of politics, criticism of modernization theory, diversity of methods and political approaches, emphasizing gender, culture, environment, and globalization
- State
- In the context of Weber: the organization that maintains a monopoly of violence over a country. a set of institutions to carry out policy. highly institutionalized. sovereign
- Regime
- norms and rules regarding freedom and collective equality, locus of power, and use of power. institutionalized but can be changed by dramatic events. democratic or authoritarian. embodied in a constitution
- Government
- leadership or elite in charge of running the state. weakly institutionalized. elected officials (ie president) or unelected (ie dictator), limited by regime
- Country
- all the concepts (state, regime, government,) as well as people who live within that political system
- Consensus
- individuals band together to protect and create common rules; leadership chosen from people; security through cooperation; Leads to Democratic Rule
- Coercion
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individuals brought together by a rule; imposes authority and monopolizes power; Security through domination
Leads to Authoritarian Rule - Legitimacy
- a value whereby something or someone is recognized and accepted as right and proper
- Traditional Legitimacy
- someone or something is valid because "it has always been that way" Built on the idea that certain aspects are to be accepted because of length of existence
- Charismatic Legitimacy
- power of ideas. embodied in one person who can move the public through these ideas and the manner in which he or she presents them
- Rational-Legal Legitimacy
- based on system of laws and procedures that are highly institutionalized
- Federalism
- significant powers (taxation, lawmaking, and security) are devolved to regional bodies
- unitary states
- invest most political power at the national level, with limited local authority.
- strong states
- have the power for basic tasks such as: defending territory, making and enforcing rules, collecting taxes, and managing the economy
- weak states
- cannot execute basic tasks: rules haphazardly applied, tax evasion, corrupt officals, armed rivals to the state, lowered economic development, lacks legitimacy
- failed states
- the collapse of a state resulting in complete loss of power. Anarchy and violence erupt
- Capacity
- the ability of the stated to wield power in order to carry out the basic tasks of providing security and reconciling freedom and equality. Ability to formulate and enact policies.
- Autonomy
- ability of the stated to wield its power independently of the public. Can carry out a policy without consulting the public or worrying about strong opposition
- Society
- complex human organization, a collection of people bound by shared institutions that define how human relations should be conducted
- Ethnicity
- specific attributes and societal institutions that make one group of people culturally different; based on customs, language, religion or other; ascriptive (assigned at birth); not inherently political
- Nations
- bound together by a common set of political aspirations, among which the most important is self government
- National Identity
- based on the concept of a nation; often derived from ethnicity; inherently political; the basis for nationalism (pride in ones people and belief that they have a unique political destiny)
- Nationalism
- A pride in one's people and the belief that they have their own unique political destiny that is separate from those of others.
- Citizenship
- an individuals relationship to the state; persons swears allegiance/receives benefits; purely political and more easily changed than ethnic or national identity; basis for patriotism
- Patriotism
- pride in one's state. People have pride in their political system and seek to defend and promote it.
- Nation-state
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a state encompassing one dominant nation that it claims to embody and represent.
Napoleonic France good example - Top Down View
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view of ethnic conflict
conflict is generated by government; can be stopped by arresting political leaders responsible; outside force effective - Bottom Up View
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view of ethnic conflict
generated by long standing friction btw groups; animosity must burn itself out - Exclusion
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form of ethnic/national conflict
Some groups are not granted full political rights - Removal
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form of ethnic/national conflict
One group seeks to eliminate another group through ethnic cleansing or to integrate it through forced assimilation - Genocide
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form of ethnic/national conflict
One group explicitly seeks to kill off an ethnic or national group - Political Attitudes
- concerned with the speed and method of political change; classified as radical, liberal, conservative or reactionary; particularistic/relative
- Radicalism
- usually defined as a belief in dramatic, often revolutionary change of the existing political, social, or economic order. believe in fundamental transformation
- Liberalism (a)
- favors evolutionary transformation. progressive change can happen through changes within the system; long term commitment
- Conservatism
- questions whether any significant or profound change in existing institutions is necessary; doubt that change is good in itself; change will replace one set of problems with another
- Reactionary
- seeks to restore political, social, and economic institutions that once existed; some do not look back to a specific peirod but want to return to a fictional ideal
- Political Ideologies
- sets of political vlaues regarding the fundamental goals of politics; 5 dominant modern philosophies (liberalism/socialdemocracy/communism/fascism/anarchy) universalistic
- Liberalism (i)
- limited state role in society and economic activity; emphasizes a high degree of personal freedom over social equality
- Social Democracy
- supports private property and markets but believes that state has a strong role to play in regulating the economy and providing benefits to the public; seeks to balance freedom and equality
- Fascism
- stresses a low degree of both personal freedom and equality in order to achieve a powerful state
- Communism
- emphasizes limited personal freedom and strong state in order to achieve social equality; property is wholly owned by the state and market forces are eliminated; state takes on task of production and other economic decisions
- Anarchy
- stresses the elimination of the state and private property as a way to achieve both freedom and equality for all; believes that a high degree of personal freedom and social equality is possible
- Political Culture
- the basic norms for political activity in society; determining factor in what ideologies will dominate a country's political regime; unique to a given country or group; distinct from political attitudes and ideologies
- Political Economy
- the study of how politics and economics are related and how their relationship shapes the balance of freedom and equality
- Central Bank
- controls the amount of money in the economy; controls the cost of borrowing money; lowers interest rates to stimulate the economy; raises interest rates to check inflation
- Inflation
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prices begin to rise/money loses its value
(too few goods/too much money) - Hyperinflation
- inflation that is more than 50 percent a month for more than two months in a row
- Regulations
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rules or orders that set the boundaries of a given procedure
indirect-safety/environmental
direct- competition and innovation - Monopoly
- single producer of a good or service that is able to dominate the market
- Cartel
- grouping of producers that, although individually unable to dominate a market, try to do so in collaboration with a small number of other firms.
- Tariffs
- taxes on imported goods
- Quotas
- ways to limit the quantity of a good coming into the country
- Nontariff barriers
- create health, packaging, or other restrictions
- Comparative Advantage
- ability to produce a particular good or service more efficiently relative to other countries' efficiency in producing the same good or service
- Political-economic system
- the actual relationship between political and economic institutions in a particular country, as well as the policies and outcomes they create
- Liberalism (PE system)
- high priority on individual and economic freedom; advocates limiting state power in favor of greater freedoms for the individual and the market (Adam Smith)
- Capitalism
- a system of production based on private ownership and free markets. state provides public goods; regulations kept to a minimum