CWG Vocab

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Capacity: the degree to which a government is able to implement its policies
private: interests, activites, and property of individuals and groups not part of government
Command economy: an economic/political system in which government decisions rather than markets determine resources use and output
newly-industrializing countries: nation-states that began developing economic industrial sectors relatively recently
Checks and balances: a system of governance in which divisions of government can restrain the political authority of other divisions.
Collective responsibility: in a parliamentary system, the concept that all cabinet members agree on policy decisions and that all will be responsible for the results
public: actions, policies, intitutions supported by, of concern to, and open to the communtiy at large
oligarchy: a system of governance dominated by a small powerful group in the state
patron-client relationships: a usually informal alliance between a person holding power and less powerful or lower status people; the powerful patron provides power, status, jobs, land, goods, and/or protection in exchange for loyalty and political support
Government: the part of the state with legitimate public authority; the group of people and organizations that hold political authority in a state at any one time
Currency markets: markets in which traders buy and sell currencies; the values of currencies set in these markets have a powerful influence on foreign exchange rates
Governance: the characteristics of a regime or a government
Budgetary deficit: the result of government spending in any one fiscal year exceeding the government revenue in that year (national debt is the total of yearly deficits)
power: ablitly to direct the behavior of others through coercion, persuasion or leadership
nation-state: a territorial unit controlled by a single state and governed by a single government
prebendalism: the form of patron client politics that legitimizes the exploitation of government power for the benefit of office holders and their followers
Demand: pressures from people and interest groups on the government and state for change
interest group: any organization that seeks to influence government policy making to better serve the self perceived wants and needs of its members
Decolonization: the process by which colonial powers (mostly European) divested themselves of empires (not always voluntarily)
peak association: an interest group organziation whose membership is other organizations with parallel interests and goals; frequently a nationwide organization of specialized or localized smaller organizations
post-materialist values: beliefs in the importance of policy goals beyond one's immediate self interest as well as one's prosperity and security; sometimes labeled as post modern values
political communication: the flow of information from and about government to its constiuents and feedback from constituents to people in government
import substitution: a government policy that uses trade restrictions and subsidies to encourage domestic production of manufactured goods
compromise: a decsion making process in which all parties concede some of their goals in order to reach other of their goals through agreements with other political actors
interest articulation: the methods by which citizens and groups can express their desires and make demands upon government
Autarchy: complete self sufficiency
interest aggregation: ways in which demands of citizens and groups are amalgamated into propsed policy packages
international: describing organizations or events that involve more than one nation-state
Extractive sector: that part of an economy which involves making use of natural resources for economic purposes
Independent variable: any one of the inputs, institutions, or processes that shape the results of government decision making
Co-opt: to win support by granting special favors to an individual or a group; there is often an implication that those receiving benefits abandon important goals when offered less-important benefits
legitimacy: the belief that a regime is a proper one and that the government has the right to exercise authority
Devolution: a process in a unitary system of delegating some decision making to local public bodies
Catch-all party: a politically party whose aim is to gather support from a broad range of citizens through a de-emphasis of ideology and an emphasis on pragmatism, charismatic leadership and marketing
Fiscal policy: government decisions about total public spending and revenue that result in budgetary deficits or surpluses
political economy: the interaction of poltical and economic systems and policy making of a state
Correlation: an apparent association between variables
plurality system: an electoral system in which election winners are determined by which candidate receives the largest number of votes
quantitative research: statistical studies which seek correlations and causation between data
Civil service: a system of carefully describing the tasks involved in performing government jobs, evaluating applicants for those jobs (civil service examinations), and hiring people from among those applicants based on skills and experience rather than political factors; civil service also protects incumbents in civil service positions from politically based retribution.
Coup d'etat: the forceful replacement of a regime or a government by a small elite group or groups
Failed state: a state within which the government has lost ability to provide the most basic of public service
policy: decisions made by an organization defining its goals and actions
Grassroots politics: locally organized activism; as opposed to top-down, hierarchical organizing
Function (public): the things done by government to decide on implement and enforce policy decisions (private functions would, of course, be those things done by individuals and private organizations to further their goals)
politics: the processes through which groups of people govern themselves or are governed; activites associated with the exercise of authority
industrial sector: that part of the economy which manufactures finished and secondary produts
keynesian economics: the ideas of John Maynard Keynes that governments can manipulate macroeconomic demand through taxation and spending policies in order to foster stable growth
intervening variable: a factor influenced by an independent variable that affects the changes in a dependent variable
Empirical analysis: consideration of agreed upon facts gather by observation or experiment
Civil society: all those organizations outside of government and commercial arenas which provide avenues of public participation in society
neo-imperialism: a pejorative label given to a variety of attmpts to achieve hegemony over other nations; some people tend to use the term to describe the use of corporate power and wealth to gain influence in third world countries; others use it to describe attempts by international organizations to impose change upon rich and powerful nations
judicial review: the power of courts to modiy or nullify the actions of legislatures and executives
monetary policy: domestic government policies affecting interest rates and the supply of money available within an economy
qualitative research: case studies of historic and cultural aspects of political systems
multiple causality: the simultaneous effects of a number independent and intervening variables that bring about changes in dependent variables
Dependent variable: a result of a political decisions (policy) making which is determined by the inputs, institutions, and processes (independent variables)
normative analysis: consideration based upon preferences and values about what things should be like
Clientalism: an exchange system in which clients offer support and loyalty to patrons who offer material and intangible benefits.
political recruitment: the process by which people become public paprticipants and leaders
nation: a group of people who identify themselves as belonging together because of cultural, geographoc or linguistic ties
poltical participation: the actions by citizens which involve them in the process of selecting leaders and making policies
national debt or surplus: the historic total of yearly government budgetary deficits and surpluses for a nation-state
redistributuve policies: government policies that take more valuable resources from one or more groups in society and allocate them to other groups
Globalization: the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of people cultures, economies, and nation-states facilitated by technology, trade, and cultural diffusion
Class: the divisions of society into groups according to economic roles and status attributes
Ethnic group: a group of people seen by themselves and/or others as belonging together because of ancestry, religion, linguistics, and/or other cultural features of the group; often the basis of a nation
Federalism: a regime in which political authority is shared between a central government and local government
nationalization: the process of making the government the owner of productive resources
Consensus: a decision making process that emphasizes win-win outcomes while seeking to avoid zero-sum or win-lose situations
Generalization: a description of common features of chosen group or category of examples
Executive: the people and agencies, which implement or execute government policy (from head of government to the lowest bureaucrat)
Constant: any of those things in comparative case analysis that are essentially identical in studied examples
political integration: the process of promoting loyalty to and identity with the nation-state over more parochial loyalties
Citizen: a member of a state who is legally entitled to full civil rights and is legally obliged to perform defined public duties
post-industrial: describing an economy in which the service sector has become more important than the industrial sector
Cleavage: factors that separate groups within a society; may be cultural, historic, geographic, ethnic, racial, etc.; the wider and deeper the cleavages, the less unified the society; cleavages which coincide with one another can reinforce each other; cleavages that don't coincide can weaken the divisions between groups.
Global warming: a well supported theory that certain human produced gases in the atmosphere are causing the earths climate to warm
Extractive policies: government efforts to gather valuable resources for public use
Economic liberalization: policy designed to remove political controls over economic activity
Faction: a group organized on the grounds of self-perceived common interest within a political party, interest group or government
reductivism: the attempt to explain complex correlations and causations using a single inderpendent variable; oversimplification
Autocracy: a system of governance in which a small group has absolute power
Ethnic identities: cultural and social characteristics that distinguish one nation from another- especially in the minds of the members of the ethnic group
Gross domestic product (GDP): the total valise of goods and services produced by an economy
Developed countries: nation-states which have industrial and post industrial economies
Head of government: the office and the person occupying the office charged with leading the operation of a government
political culture: the collection of history, values, beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, traditions, and symbols that define and influence political behavior within a nation-state
regime: a pattern of organization for a government
Bureaucracy: a hierarchically structured organization charged with carrying out the policies determined by those with political authority
Authoritarianism: a system of governance based on coercion rather than political legitimacy
regulatory policies: government policies designed to control practices and behavior of citizens and organizations and prevent harmful results and/or ensure civic benefits of those behaviors
non-governmental organization: private group that pursues self-defined goals outside of government; common activities are publicizing issues, lobbying, making demands on government, and providing direct services
police powers: government powers to regulate public safety and enforce laws
Developing countries: nation-states which are industrializing
Authority: the legal right to exercise power on behalf of the society and/or government
parastatal: a government owned corporation to compersate for the lack of private economic development or to ensure complete and equitable service to the whole country
poltical socialization: the institutions and methods of developing and reinforcing significant public beliefs, attitudes, and practices
Head of state: the chief public representative of a state
realignment: a significant change in the party or policy loyalties of substantial groups within a nation-state
Corporatism: a system of governance in which the government is dominated by representatives of groups within society; may or may not be democratic to some degree
iron triangle: mutually-beneficial relationships between private interests, bureaucrats, and legislators; sometimes called an "integrated elite"
recruitment: the process by which people are encouraged and chosen to become members of an elite within a political system of a state
Civil servants: employees of the government who administer (not make) policy; expected to serve any and all governments
Democratization: the spread of representative government to more countries and the process of making governments more representative
Civic culture: a political culture in which citizens widely share a belief in the legitimacy of their regime and a trust in the government; therefore the citizens demonstrate restraint in their demands on the government
Feedback: the reactions of people and organizations that shape political environments for future policy making
Constitution: a supreme law that defines the structure of a nation-states regime and the legal processes governments must follow
interventionist: describing an activist government and/or state that is involved in a wide range of political, economic, and social arenas
interdependence: a situation, brought about bysepcialization and/or limitedresources, in which nation-states rely on one another for economic resources, goods. and services and political assets such as security and stability
Conflict: a situation in which values, goals or policies are contradictory or incompatible with each other
rent seeking: the practice of political leaders who, for the purposes of remaining in positions of power, 'rent" public assests to partrons who profit from those public assets
particularistic party: a political party that does not attempt to appeal to voters beyond an identifiable group within a population
Adjudicate: to resolve a matter in dispute; when backed up by the authority of government the decision can be enforced
Bicameral: describing a legislative body with two houses
Distributive policies: government policies that allocate valuable resources
political party: an organized group of people with the primary purpose of electing its members to government office
Foreign exchange: the rates at which the currency from one nation trades with others; affected by currency markets, balances of trade, and domestic government policies
privatization: the process of putting ownership of productive resources into the hands of non governmental organizations and people
Causation: a correlation in which a change in one variable results in change in others.
parliamentary government: a system of governance in which the head of government is chosen by and serves at the pleasure of the legislature
Balance of trade: comparison between the value of exports and the value of imports for a nation state; usually figured by subtracting the value of imports from the value of exports (a positive balance of trade means that exports were worth more than imports; a negative balance of trade mean s that the value of imports exceeded the value of exports.)
inputs: demands and suppot by individuals and groups upon the decision making process of government
Accountability: the concept that government officials are responsible to serve at the pleasure of constituents or elected officials (and that they may be removed from office by those electors or officials)
Identity Politics: political activity and ideas baded on the shared experiences of an ethnic, religious or social group emphasizing gaining power and benefits for the group rather than pursuing ideological or universal or even state wide goals
Capitalism: an economic system that emphasizes private property rights and market mechanisms
Coercive participation: political action organized by ruling authorities rather than by interest groups or civil society groups
Cabinet: in parliamentary system, the group of ministers who direct administrative bureaucracies (ministries) and make up the government, which is responsible to the parliament; in a presidential system, the administrative directors responsible to the president
Agricultural sector: that part of a country's economy that is involved in the production of farm products.
proportional representation: an electoral system in which voters select parties rather than individual canidates and parties are represented in legislatures in proportion to the shares of votes they win
Fusion of powers: a system of governance in which the authority is concentrated in one body
industrial policy: a governments decisions and actions, which define goals and methods for the manufacturing sectors of an economy

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Number of cards 132