Chapter 1 - Introduction Flashcards
The processes through which modern nations and states arise and how political institutions and regimes evolve.
Political Development
The transformation of poor agrarian societies into wealthy industrial societies, usually seen as the process by which postcolonial societies become more like societies in the West.
Modernization
A regime in which citizens have basic rights of open association and expression and the ability to change the government through some sort of electoral process
Democracy
A regime lacking democratic characteristics, ruled by a single leader or small group of leaders
Authoritarian Regime
The sphere of organized, nongovernmental, nonviolent activity by groups lager than individual families or firms
Civil Society
The study of the interaction between political and economic phenomena
Political Economy
Political scientists who study comparative politics
Comparativists
The process by which human communities make collective decisions
Politics
One of the major subfields of political science, in which the primary focus is on comparing power and decision making across countries
Comparative Politics
The systematic study of politics and power
Political Science
The ability of one person or group to get another person or group to do something it would otherwise not do
First Dimension of Power
The ability not only to make people do something, but to keep them from doing something
Second Dimension of Power
The ability to shape or determine individual or group political demands by causing people to think about political issues in ways that are contrary to their own interests
Third Dimension of Power
The study of politics among national governments and beyond national boundaries
International Relations
An abstract argument that provides a systematic explanation of some phenomena
Theory
An argument explaining what actually occurs; empirical theorists first notice and describe a pattern and then attempt to explain what causes it
Empirical Theory
An argument explaining what ought to occur rather than what does occur
Normative Theory
Systematic processes used to ensure that the study of a specific item or situation is as objective and unbiased as possible
Research Methods
Research method that examines a particular political phenomenon in just one country or community and can generate ideas for theories or test theories developed from different cases
Single Case Study
The means by which scholars try to mimic laboratory conditions by careful selection of cases
Comparative Method
A common approach of the comparative method that are alike in a number of ways but differ on a key question under examination
Most Similar Systems Design
A common approach of the comparative method that looks at countries that differ in many ways but that are similar in terms of that particular political process or outcome in which the research is interested
Most Different Systems Design
Research method used for large-scale studies that reduces evidence to sets of numbers so that statistical analysis can systematically compare a huge number of cases
Quantitative Statistical Techniques
Any person or group engaged in political behavior
Political Actor
An explanation of political behavior that assumes that individuals are rational beings who bring to the political arena a set of self-defined preferences and adequate knowledge and ability to pursue those preferences
Rational Choice Theory
Explanations of political behavior based on psychological analysis of political actors’ motives
Psychological Theories
A set of widely held attitudes, values, beliefs, and symbols about politics
Political Culture
The process through which people, especially young people, learn about politics and are taught a society’s common political values and beliefs
Political Socialization
Theorists of political culture who believe that clear sets of attitudes, values, and beliefs can be identified in each country that change very rarely and explain much about politics there
Modernists
A classification of some set of phenomena into distinct types for purposes of analysis
Typology
A political culture in which citizens hold values and beliefs that support democracy, including active participation in politics but also enough deference to the leadership to let it govern effectively
Civic Culture
Groups that hold partially different beliefs and values from the main political culture of a country
Subcultures
A set of values in a society in which most citizens are economically secure enough to move beyond immediate economic concerns to “quality of life” issues like human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, environmentalism, and moral values
Postmaterialist
An approach that sees cultures not as sets of fixed and clearly defined values but rather as sets of symbols subject to interpretation
Postmodernist
The ways in which people speak and write about politics; postmodern theorists argue that political discourse influences political attitudes, identity, and actions
Political Discourse
A systematic set of beliefs about how a political system ought to be structured
Political Ideology
The ruling class’s ability to spread a set of ideas justifying and perpetuating its political dominance
Ideological Hegemony
Approach to explaining politics that argues that political behavior is at least influenced and limited, and perhaps even determined, by broader structures in a society such as class divisions or enduring institutions
Structuralism
Structuralist argument that says that economic structures largely determine political behavior; the philosophical underpinning of communism
Marxism
In Marxist theory, groups of people with the same relationship to the means of production; more generally, groups of people with similar occupations, wealth, or income.
Social Classes
The class that owns capital; according to Marxism, the ruling elite in all capitalist societies
Bourgeoiseie
A term in Marxist theory for the class of free wage laborers who own no capital and must sell their labor to survive; communist parties claim to work on the _________’s behalf
Proletariat
An approach to explaining politics that argues that political institutions are crucial to understanding political behavior
Institutionalism
A set of rules, norms, or standard operating procedures that is widely recognized and accepted by the society and that structures and constrains political actions
Political Institution
Institutionalist theorists who follow the assumptions of rational choice theory and argue that institutions are the products of the interaction and bargaining of rational actors
Rational Choice Institutionalists
Theorists who believe that institutions explain political behavior and shape individuals’ political preferences and their perceptions of their self-interests and that institutions evolve historically in particular countries and change relatively slowly.
Historical Institutionalists
Explanation of who has power that argues that society is divided into various political groups and that power is dispersed among these groups so that no group has complete or permanent power; contrast to elite theory
Pluralist Theory
Top leaders mobilize political support by providing resources to their followers in exchange for political loyalty
Patron-client Relationships
A theory that all societies are ruled by a small group that has effective control over virtually all power; contrast to pluralist theory
Elite Theory
An elite who possess adequate resources to control a regime; in Marxist theory, the class that controls key sources of wealth in a given epoch
Ruling Class
A relationship between postcolonial societies and their former colonizers in which leaders benefit politically and economically by helping outside businesses and states maintain access to the former colonies’ wealth and come to serve the interests of the former colonizers and corporations more than they serve their own people
Neocolonialism
Rule by men
Patriarchy
