Midterm Flashcards
Define Politics
The process of making decisions about public and collective problems and goals through the application of authority and power
- Legitimate Authority
What is a State?
The people and organizations that make, enforce, and implement political decisions for a community
Define Institution
Rules and procedures that structure social interaction by constraining and enabling actor’s behavior
- Checks and Balances
Define Political Interests
The underlying motives, ideological beliefs, political agenda, and worldview held by a given political actor
Define Identity
Who you think you are; how you see yourself vs how others see you
Kinds of Identities
Ethnicity, Race, Religion, Political-Territorial, Partisan
ID-based conflict
Genocide (holocaust, Bosnia, Cambodia), Black-White, Shia-Sunni
Define Idea
An opinion, conviction, or principle
Define Ideology
A set of doctrines or beliefs about how states should govern
What does ideology do?
Often encompasses beliefs about one’s preferred political, economic, or other system
Shapes political community and political conflict
What is the Contractarian View?
(Hobbes)
State of nature
Modern day anarchy
“the choice is yours”
Everyone has their own wants and desires
Social contract
What is the social contract?
Give up natural rights in exchange for civil rights
What is the Predatory View?
Focuses on conflicts of interest between the individual and the state.
Holds that states who exercise control over the use of violence threaten citizen security.
Desires to note how the state fosters cooperation vs using its comparative advantage to prey on citizens.
The state demands payment and obedience in exchange for protection
What is the same for the Contractarian View and Predatory View?
Both are about trading security for revenue
Modernization Theory
The idea that democracy has contributed to the rise of developed nations –> borrowing ideas of public health from the West to make your nation developed
Dependency Theory
When a nation is given foreign aid, it becomes dependent on the nation giving aid. The nation giving aid demands something in return from the receiving nation in the form of interest, percentage of export, etc.
Mother Nature
Called “scientific racism” –> disease, natural disasters, and resources based on geography –> attribute to the lack of development in global south
Neoclassical Theory
Supply and demand drives market –> people act independently and possess full information on topics –> typically authoritarian with a weak rule of law
Collectivist Consensus
First PostWar Era (1945-1979) –> Keynesian ideology –> prioritiezed Welfare State, Nationalization, Industrial Policy, and Labor Unions
Results: economic stagnation
Thatcherism
“Thatcher Revolution” (1979-1997)
4 policies to cure “British Disease” = Retrenchment, Privatization, Enterprise Culture, Anti-Labor Union
Third Wave (New Labor)
1997-2010
2 PM = Blair and Brown
Blair = strong economic growth, labor party more electable, improved public services , “re-train and re-employ”
Brown = worst economic crisis
Big Society
2010-2015
2010 = “hung parliament”
First coalition since WWII
Hung Parliament
Nobody won majority in parliament
BREXIT
“Britain’s EU Exit” –> June 23rd 2016
David Cameron = stay
SMD - Single Member District
Clear winner, automatic majority, “Safe Seats”, disproportionality , wasted votes
Proportional Representation
“Fair”, easier for extremists to get into office, more complicated policymaking
Presidential vs Parliamentarism
Presidentialism = Head of Government, different powers of government, limited term
Parliamentarism = Head of state, vote of no confidence, no term limit
Nation vs State vs Failed State
State = entity that uses coercions and threat of force in a given territory
Nation = a group of people with shared common identity
Failed State = a state that is no longer able to enforce its laws
Contractarian vs Predatory
Contractarian = “modern day anarchy” –> state of nature –> everyone has wants and desires –> Social contract = give up natural rights for civil rights
Predatory = conflict of interest between individuals and the state –> how the state uses resources to keep control over a state
Democracy Characteristics
Government of the people by the people for the people
Ruling elites are chosen in free and fair elections
Rights and protections are guaranteed
Authoritarian Characteristics
Favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom
Ruling elites are NOT chosen in free and fair elections OR certain rights and protections are NOT guaranteed, BUT the state keeps out of most aspects of private life
Totalitarian Characteristics
A system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state
Ruling elites are NOT chosen in free and fair elections AND violations of basic rights AND the government pervades private life and tries to control speech and thought
Group Conflict Theory
Conflicts between group in society over limited resources –> social/economic institutions used to maintain inequality and dominance of the ruling class
Political Interests
The underlying motives, ideological beliefs, political agenda, and worldview held by a given political actor
Government
The agency governing and managing a state, country, or nation
Nation vs State
State - entity that uses coercion and the threat of force in a given territory
Nation = group of people with a shared common identity
Failed States
Nation that does not exhibit any legitimacy or autonomy to be able to enforce laws
Institutions
Rules and procedures that structure social interaction by constraining and enabling actor’s behavior –> checks and balances
Country Combos of Political/Electoral systems
Presidential (opposition parties have more voice, identifiability before elections, more deliberative policy making, fewer “career politicians”, checks and balances) v parliamentary (unified government -> efficiency, no “temporal rigidity”-> responsive, no “competing mandates”, HOS is above politics, “professional politicians”-no easy in for outsiders, stability…very little “breakdown”,
US presidential SMD, UK parliamentary SMD, Brazil presidential PR, Germany, Israel, Italy parliamentary PR
Prime Minsters of UK and their political parties
Margaret Thatcher: Conservative rule, monetarism, retrenchment, privatization, “enterprise culture”, anti-labor union, failed at reducing taxes and promoting privatization and “enterprise culture” which just made people pocket more money.
Tony Blair: 1997-2007, “new labour”, strong economic growth, improved public services, re-train re-employ, made labour party more electable, terrorist threat/iraq war-he wanted to go to war in iraq, other people in the country did not.
Gordon Brown: 2007-2010, worst economic crisis in 80 years, party’s popularity plummets
David Cameron: 2010-2016, resigned after the Brexit vote
Theresa May: 2016-2019, “snap” elections in 2017
Boris Johnson: 2019-2022, conservative party
Liz Truss: 2019, only served for 50 days
Rishi Sunak: 2019-present
Significance of 1992l 2000, 2016 US Presidential Elections
1992: Clinton, GHW Bush, Ross Pero - Pero took votes from Bush which led to Clinton winning - still no representation for independents in congress even though Pero won a lot of votes
2000: Al Gore, GW Bush (won presidency but lost popular vote) - battle between Bush and Gore in florida, supreme court decided Bush won florida and therefore won the presidency
2016: Trump and Clinton - predictions of election outcome were wrong; Clinton won popular vote but did not win electoral college so Trump won the presidency
Identities
Who you think you are and how you see yourself vs how others see you
Ideology
A set of doctrines or beliefs about how states should govern
Democratization
The process of a nation becoming a country
Democratic Consolidation
The process by which a new democracy matures
Democratic Transition
Shifting from an authoritarian regime to a democracy
Development Measures
GDP- Gross Domestic Product
HDI- Human Development Index- composite index of life expectancy, education and per capita income
HPI- Human Poverty Index- Derives separate educations for both developed and developing countries; developing HPI- % of population with access to safe drinking water, % with access to health services, % of malnourished children, adult literacy rate, probability of not living to 40; developed HPI- probability of not living to 60, % illiterate, % below poverty line, % of long term unemployment
GDP per capita- GDP divided by a country’s total population
Challenges with Development
Very high rates of unemployment and low productivity
High levels of economic and social inequality
High poverty, low growth rate
Emphasis on niche sectors
Savings gap
Foreign country cap/capital flight
Corruption
Poor governance
Internal and external issues (war, tariffs, instability)
Foreign Aid
Tax cuts and tax rebates, economic stimulation via deregulation (too much in developing countries can cause problems though), use infrastructure to improve economic output, diversification of the economy, privatization of sectors, increase cross-border collaboration, improved access to financial markets, taking a territorial approach when designing development policy (ex. Matching the development of schools with the development of roads), government intervention to reduce informal jobs (increases security net for workers)
Policy Analysis for economic development
Identification of main bottlenecks hindering growth: increasing transparency and accountability (leaders, bureaucrats, local officials, citizens, etc.)
Adopt policies more classical than modern: Laissez-faire vs. interventionist policy, highly successful developing nations have been liberalized vs. government intervention
Scale: bottom up approach to development instead of top down
Hard truth: developing countries will never catch of to developed countries (rapid GDP growth isn’t sustainable, aid from the US often comes with terms that nations struggle to fulfill
Marxism
Bourgeoise vs Proletariat
Keynesianism
Economies need governments to intervene to survive –> in good times they should spend less and in bad times they should spend more to increase employment
Saved US from Great Depression
Duvenger’s Law
The idea that in an electoral system with one winner, there will always be a two-party system with small parties only taking votes away from the two bigger parties
Characteristics of Electoral Systems
- Formula (SMD = Plurality/Majority) (Prop Rep = Proportional)
- Ballot Structure (SMD = vote for individual candidate) (Prop Rep = Vote for party)
- District Magnitude (SMD = 1 seat/district with many districts) (Prop Rep = Many seats/districts)
Ballot Structure
How votes are translated into seats
House of Lords vs House of Commons
House of Commons has more power/influence
Nationalization
Turning privately owned businesses into the state
Privatization
Thatcher moving businesses that had been under government control to private control –> increases competition and supply/demand –> good
Enterprise Culture
Business owners hoard money instead of paying employees –> taking risky bets/investing money in one thing
Special Relationship
Relationship between the UK and the US; look out for one anothers economic and social interests; after 9/11 US wanted to go to war but UK didn’t, Tony Blair used special relationship as an excuse to go to war. Obama wanted a stronger relationship with Germany so Trump and Biden have worked to repair the relationship with UK.
Critical Juncture
Turning Points –> historical points of importance where political leaders make choices that have significant outcomes
Rule of Law
The idea that everyone within a nation or community are accountable to a set of laws –> no one is above the law
Idea
An opinion, conviction, or principle
Collectivist Census
post ww2, after the war people asked how to protect people, country, economy. People all agreed that they needed more govt intervention;social welfare state, higher taxes, government control of institutions
Mixed Systems
Social Democracy: extensive economic redistribution
Keynesianism: government use of fiscal & monetary policy to “signal” the market
