Session 1

Question 1

government

Answer 1

institutions and structures through which societies are governed

Question 2

political system

Answer 2

interactions and organizations through which society reaches and enforces collective decisions (f.e. democracy/autocracy)

Question 3

(good) governance

Answer 3

process by which decisions, laws, and policies are made (with/without input of formal institutions), the activity of ruling
good: accountable, transparant, efficient, responsive, inclusive

Question 4

politics

Answer 4

process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of making and executing shared or collective decisions

Question 5

power

Answer 5

capacity to bring about intended effect

Question 6

Lukes’ three dimensions of power

Answer 6

Way to measure a group’s power

1. whose preference has strong influence when preferences conflict
2. who controls whether preferences are expressed (keeping issues of political agenda)
3. who shapes preferences (manipulated concensus) (very efficient!)

Question 7

authority

Answer 7

right to rule, creates its power as long as people recognize the decision-making rights
(difference with power: capacity to act. this is right to act)
states allow governments to use the authority inherent to the state

Question 8

Weber’s 3 ways of validating political power

Answer 8

1. by tradition
2. by charisma
3. by appeal to legal-rational norms

Question 9

legitimacy

Answer 9

based on authority, subjects recognize its decision-making right -> widely accepted. sort of like credit a political system has built up from past successes
broader than authority
not same as legality

Question 10

Ideology

Answer 10

system of connected beliefs/a shared view of the world/blueprint for how politics, economies, society should be structured

now: left/right
earlier: marxism/fascism/conservatorism/liberalism..

Question 11

comparative politics

Answer 11

subfield of political science, systematically studies government and politics in different countries, is designed to better understand + predict political outocmes them by comparing them

Question 12

typology

Answer 12

system of classification for states, institutions, processes, political cultures etc.

Question 13

Aristotle’s typology

Answer 13

form: genuine/perverted (own interest pursued/group interest)
ruled by: 1/few/many

Question 14

The spirit of the laws typology

Answer 14

1. republican (people have power)
2. despotic (1 person rules based on own rules)
3. monarchical (1 person rules based on fixed rules)

Question 15

Three worlds system

Answer 15

(cold war)

1. first world: wealthy, democratic, industrialized, most partners against communism
2. second world: communist
3. third world: poorer, less democratic, less developed

Question 16

different typologies

Answer 16

• aristotle’s
• spirit of laws
• three worlds
• democracy index
• freedom in the world index
• Human development index
• GDP (measures economy, politics and economy are intimately connected)