MIDTERM 1 Flashcards

Question

What are the types of dictatorships?

Answer 1

Military, personalistic, party-based, totalitarian, authoritarian

Answer 2

Eliminate all political, economic, and social pluralism Unified, articulated, utopian ideology into every individual and mobilize all of society around it Fusion of party and state: Party recruited office-holders (surveillance, repression) Linz and Stepan

Answer 3

Marxism-Leninism: No political, economic, or social pluralism Creation of a communist man World system

Answer 4

Neither the USSR nor the Soviet Bloc regimes ever claimed to have achieved communism; they kept putting out dates and then pushing them back. Verdery

Answer 5

State ownership of means of production “Command economy” (central planning) Economies of shortage No market=no meaningful prices Overemphasis on growth and modernization (stakhanovite methods) No small / medium-sized firms. No entry and exit of enterprises

Answer 6

Maintaining power is more important than implementing ideological project Power through charisma, patronage, one-party structure, repression.

Answer 7

Typically start through a coup The military restricts political and civil liberties Often engage in repression/extrajudicial killing of political actors as source of the previous instability. Rarely lasts

Answer 8

Charismatic leadership by one individual who is the ruler Can be a personality cult Usually regime ends when they die

Answer 9

One party excludes other groups from power Usually penetrate society and keep tabs on potential challengers. Mobilizing support for the regime, distributing favours (clientelism). Members of the party have privileged access to resources.

Answer 10

All totalitarian regimes have been one-party regimes, but not all one-party regimes are totalitarian

Answer 11

Late-stage Soviet Union and Soviet bloc regimes had evolved into authoritarian one-party states. Portugal under Salazar and Russia under Putin.

Answer 12

Common authoritarian regime today May hold elections, but playing field is skewed and incumbent is guaranteed to win Incumbent is weakly constrained by rule of law or institutions Erdogan in Turkey since 2003

Answer 13

Social revolutions that have transformative ideologies and one-party states are very durable because they have a way to transfer power without falling (USSR, China, Vietnam, Cuba) Personalist dictatorships can be durable if the leader lives long but they rarely pass on power so they end when dictator dies Military rule and illiberal regimes usually are shorter because they are constrained by pressure to return to civilian rule (military rule) or pressure from growing opposition that is neither fully repressed (illiberal regimes)

Answer 14

Combine elements of democracy and dictatorship

Answer 15

Democratic rules of the game are accepted, but aren’t followed much of the time Competition and participation are high and electoral outcomes are unpredictable. Actors are unable to consolidate authoritarianism. Levitsky & Way : between low-quality democracy and missing democracy

Answer 16

Electoral arena Legislative arena Judicial arena The media In all these arenas, the incumbents try but fall short of imposing control. Levitsky and Way

Answer 17

Competitive authoritarianism can emerge either from authoritarianism decaying or from democracy decaying Levitsky and Way

Answer 18

Albania, Croatia, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine. Today, none of these states fit the category; they have either consolidated democracies or authoritarianism. This suggests that competitive authoritarianism isn’t a durable regime type.

Answer 19

1. Are head of state and head of government the same person or two different people? 2. Are head of state and head of government elected? If so, how (directly/indirectly)? 3. What’s the relative power of the head of state vs the head of government

Answer 20

President is head of state and head of government Directly elected Fixed term in office Strong separation of powers Govt/cabinet is selected by and responsible to the president System of dual legitimacy Linz

Answer 21

Executive and legislative branches are fused Head of Government (PM) elected by the legislature Executive does not serve fixed term in office Head of state and head of government are two separate people Head of state is not directly elected or powerful (president does NOT make the system presidential!) Examples: Canada, most of Europe, Britain, Israel, Japan, India

Answer 22

The head of state (usually the President) and the head of government (usually PM) are two different people, both with real power President is directly elected for a fixed term PM is elected by the legislature If president can appoint or remove PM this is a presidential system Examples: France, Portugal, Poland

Answer 23

In semi-presidentialism, the PM and president are from 2 different parties.

Answer 24

Linz Dual legitimacy: Possibility of divided government (president and legislature have their own electoral mandate) Winner-takes-all: losers do not have a stake in the system and may reject democracy Rigidity of fixed terms: fixed presidential term limits + unpopular president = lame duck effect Aggrandizement of presidents Parliamentarism is better for democratic regime stability: Power concentrated in the legislature where several parties share power

Answer 25

Shugart and Mainwaring Accountability to voters (Directly elected executive responsible to voters; independence in legislation) Checks and balances (prevents one party dominance) Smaller likelihood of extreme cabinet instability or disproportionate influence of extreme ideological parties

Answer 26

A collection of rules that determine: 1. The number of candidates that are elected and the number of districts 2. The way in which voters express their views on the ballot 3. The way in which votes are counted and the way in which votes translate into victory 4. Regulations on campaign finance, political advertisement, registration, etc.

Answer 27

Proportional Representation: Parties gain seats in proportion to the votes won Plurality systems: The candidate with more votes than any other single candidate wins Lijphart

Answer 28

There will be only two parties under plurality and more than two under proportional representation. Plurality system favors large parties, voters know that small parties are disadvantaged (strategic voting).

Answer 29

Proportional representation systems have more redistributive policies FPP/plurality systems with two parties have less redistributive policies. Iversen and Soskice

Answer 30

Association of people who identify themselves and are joined together by a public label for the purpose of winning control of government by means of presenting their own candidates in elections for public office

Answer 31

Dalton Social cleavages led to the creation of parties that compete on debates that spring from the opposing interests. Class voting declined across democracies and new cleavages emerged (post-materialist cleavages)

Answer 32

Voter likes the leader, not the party (parties cannot survive their leader leaving politics) No coordination costs, no organization There could be charismatic leaders of non-charismatic parties (Trump in GOP)

Answer 33

Voter expects, requests, and receives private rewards Organization is necessary Usually associated with corruption

Answer 34

Voter expects public good Organized and highly coordinated party Well-developed ideological/party platform

Answer 35

programs designed to appeal to a wide section of society (US parties) vs. parties that focus on just one issue that some voters would be committed to (e.g. Green parties, anti-immigration parties)

Answer 36

Close links to the state Focused more on governing than representing

Answer 37

Adapting and using the organizational models in business to politics

Answer 38

Emerges out of social movements protesting against political decisions

Answer 39

Voters: information shortcut Greater probability of anti-systemic figure coming to power Parties condense possible issue conflicts into manageable set of policy choices

Answer 40

Two-party systems Dominant party systems Multi-party systems

Answer 41

All politicians belong to parties Well-developed party organizations High ideological cohesiveness in each party Party system organized around cleavages High levels of party ID Low electoral volatility High party discipline in parliament

Answer 42

Apply the laws to cases and adjudicate disputes by hearing evidence and applying the law to reach a decision. Criminal cases, civil, administrative (citizen v state) and constitutional

Answer 43

Common law: Professional judiciary, court hierarchy, Case law Civil law: Bureaucratic judiciary, Parallel court hierarchies, Codification, Legislative supremacy Favoreu

Answer 44

Constitutional review: The power to declare laws unconstitutional (Constitutional Court) Balancing powers Advisory review

Answer 45

Equal responsibility / protection under law Governments are limited by universal laws No one can trample citizens’ natural rights Proscription of extra-legal punishment Predictable and efficient implementation of laws on the books O'Donnell

Answer 46

Type of institutional setup of judiciary Law and order

Answer 47

Democratic regime requires participation and contestation which require fundamental political and civil rights Rule of law is more likely to guarantee respect for these rights O'Donnell

Answer 48

Rule of law facilitates protection of property rights from encroachment by state or by competitors Stable property rights facilitate long-term investment Higher rates of investment facilitate economic growth and development

Answer 49

An organization that is self-perpetuating and structures expectations about behaviour. They organize social, political and economic life. The rules of the game in society are embedded in people’s lives and aren’t easily dislodged or changed. Helmke

Answer 50

Created, communicated, and enforced through officially sanctioned rules that are relatively clear. Rights and regulations and the constitution.

Answer 51

The (usually unwritten) conventions, social norms, customs, or traditions that shape thought and behaviour. They are communicated and enforced outside official channels, but no less powerful because they are socially shared. Helmke and Levitsky

Answer 52

Weak formal institutions, behavioral regularities, cultural norms, or unofficial organizations.

Answer 53

An informal institution with the same rules as a formal one. The institutions cooperate and overdetermine the outcome

Answer 54

Violate the spirit, but not the letter of the formal rule. Violate the spirit of democratic representation through cartel-like behaviours, but they sustain formal democracy.

Answer 55

They prescribe different courses of action, actors often take the one prescribed by the informal institution

Answer 56

Outcome is compatible with formal institutions which are weak and the informal institution produces the outcome. If an actor decides to violate the informal institution, there will be weak formal guardrails to stop them.

Answer 57

Historical institutionalism: institutions have limited opportunity for change Rational choice institutionalism: institutions are equilibria sustained only as long as they produce more benefits than costs for all actors involved. Change will happen if an actor no longer benefits from the institution. Sociological institutionalism says institutions come from cultural norms and are very stable. Helmke and Levitsky