Third Test Flashcards
What is ethnic identity?
A set of values that bind people through a common culture
True or false: most countries are ethnically homogeneous
False
In Bosnia, what are the main ethnic groups?
Croats, Serbs, and Muslims
What divides Bosnia?
Religion; Croats are catholic, Serbs are Eastern orthodox, Muslims practice Islam
What are the two main religions in Germany?
Catholic and Protestant
What is the term for a set of institutions that bind people together through common political aspirations?
National Identity
What language is spoken in Quebec?
French
What is nationalism?
A pride in one’s people and the belief that they have their own sovereign political destiny
In some places, citizenship implies what two things?
- duty to serve in military
- duty to pay taxes
Political attitudes involve what four categories?
Radical, Liberal, Conservative, Reactionary
Radicals believe what?
The current system is broken and must be completely thrown out in favor of a new order
Unlike radicals, liberals believe in what?
Evolutionary change
Conservatives question what?
Whether significant change in existing institutions is necessary or whether it is even good
Reactionaries seek to return to what?
An envisioned, past ideal that never really existed
What is the term for sets of political values held by individuals about the primary goals of politics?
Political ideologies
What ideology favors a limited state role in society and economic activity?
Liberalism
What ideology emphasizes limited personal freedom and a strong state in order to achieve social equality?
Communism
What ideology accepts a strong role for private ownership and market forces to maintain economic equality?
Social Democracy
What ideology is hostile to the idea of individual freedom and rejects the notion of equality?
Fascism
What ideology views the state as a threat to freedom and equality?
Anarchism
Anarchist ideas played a role when?
During the 1917 Russian revolution
Political economy is the study of what?
- How politics and economics relate
- how economic institutions influence politics
What involves the interactions between the forces of supply and demand, along with how goods and services were exchanged?
Markets
Property refers to what?
the ownership of goods and services
What are public goods?
Goods provided by the state for all citizens
In the US, healthcare is not what?
A public good
In Canada, healthcare is a public good in the form of what?
Publicly owned hospitals and universal benefits
In Saudi Arabia and Iran, what is a public good?
Oil
The major source to pay for public expenditures is what?
Taxation
What does the central bank control?
The flow of money and interest rates
What is hyperinflation?
Inflation that is more than 50% a month for more than two months in a row
In 2008, which country faced an inflation rate between 100,000 and 1 million percent?
Zimbabwe
In most economies, markets are longer only what?
Local
What are tariffs?
Taxes on imported goods
What are quotas?
A limit on the quantity of goods coming into the country
What is the term for tools that may create health and other restrictions to make it difficult to sell foreign goods in certain places?
non tariff regulatory barriers
In Canada, what percent of all music must be of Canadian origin?
35%
In Canada, what percent of TV programs must be of Canadian origin?
60%
Liberalism places a strong emphasis on what economic philosophy?
Laissez-Faire
Social democracy wants to increase the availability of what?
Public Goods
What is the Communist belief about capitalism?
It cannot serve the needs of a society
The building of empires was an extension of what?
Mercantilism
What does mercantilism highlight?
The needs of the state by generating wealth to use for national power
What is an example of mercantilism?
The British colonies in North America
What is Gross Domestic Product?
Total market value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year
What is the Purchasing Power Parity?
The estimate of the buying power of income in each country by comparing similar costs using US prices as a benchmark
The approach used to measure the distribution of wealth and the amount of inequality in a society is called what?
The Gini Index
A perfect score in the Gini ranking system is what?
Zero
What countries have the lowest Gini scores?
Social Democratic Countries
The Human Development Index was developed by who?
The UN Development Program
HDI considers what?
adult literacy, life expectancy, educational enrollment, and GDP
Nations with the highest levels of education and life expectancy also have the highest what?
National incomes
The Greek word demos means what?
people
The Greek word Kratia means what?
power
The Roman empire laid out the concept of what?
Republicanism
Roman Republicanism emphasizes what?
- the separation of powers
- the representation of the public through elected officials
The Greeks established the idea of what?
Popular Sovereignty
Legislative bodies, like the senate, derive from where?
Rome
Which King was forced to sign the Magna Carta?
King John
The most prominent office in any country is the what?
Executive
The role of the executive that symbolizes and represents the people nationally and internationally is called what?
Head of State
The role of the executive to run the state and formulate and execute policy is called what?
Head of Government
What is a country that combines the two roles of the executive?
USA
What are the 2 forms of legislature?
Unicameral and Bicameral
Until 1913, how were senators elected?
By state legislators
Many liberal democracies have some form of what to ensure legislation is compatible with the constitution?
Constitutional Court
Power of Constitutional Courts may be what?
Concrete, Abstract, or Both
What is concrete review?
when the court decides whether an act is constitutional only when the issue has been raised by a court case
What is abstract review?
when the court decides whether an act is constitutional without a court case or before the law has been exercised
What are the two basic elements of parliamentary systems?
- Prime minister
- legislature
In parliamentary systems, prime ministers can be removed from office through what?
Vote of no confidence
Usually, positions of head of state and head of government are combined in what?
A presidency
What is a semi-presidential system?
A hybrid between parliamentary and presidential system
In a semi-presidential system, power is divided between who?
The Prime Minister and President
What is the best example of a semi-presidential system?
France
Political parties are what?
organizations that bring together people into a single group that can help govern
Political parties create what?
The means by which politicians can be held accountable
Political parties serve as what?
political symbols of shorthand ideas
What is the dominant party in Sweden?
Social Democratic Party
What is the dominant party in Japan?
Liberal Democratic Party
What country has experienced a lot of instability among a handful of parties and shifts between them?
Italy
In what countries is voting compulsory?
Australia, Belgium, Brazil
All democracies break up populations into what?
Boundaries and Constituencies
Norway is broken up into how many counties?
19
How many constituencies are in Nigeria?
360
Liberal democracies have how many forms of electoral systems?
2
What do plurality and majority systems create?
Single-member districts
Plurality-based, single member district systems are called what?
First Past the Post
The UK, Canada, Nigeria, India, and the USA all have what kind of systems?
First Past the Post
What country has a system where candidates go round by round until a runoff?
France
In a alternative preferential system (instant runoff) who gets eliminated first?
The candidate with the lowest number of first place votes
What countries use the preferential system?
Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea
In proportional representation, voters cast votes for what rather than what?
Party rather than candidate
In proportional representation, the percentage of votes a party receives determines what?
The number of seats they receive in that district
Countries using proportional representation rely heavily on what?
Multi-member districts
What percentage do parties in Germany need to gain seats?
5%
What percentage do parties in Turkey need to gain seats?
10%
What electoral system gives voters two votes, one for party and one for a candidate?
Mixed electoral system
Countries allowing a public vote on a particular issue is called a what?
Referendum
Countries allowing citizens to collect signatures to put a question to national vote is called what?
Initiative
Autocracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, tyranny, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism are all names for what?
Non-democratic regimes
Totalitarianism consists of what two factors?
- highly centralized state
- well defined ideology
Non-democratic regimes maintain control through what?
- Coercion
- Surveillance
- co-optation
What is co-optation?
Individuals from outside an organization are brought in with incentives that make them dependent
What is corporatism?
Enabling a limited number of organizations to represent the public, which are mandated by the state
What is clientism?
When the regime co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits to a single person in exchange for public support
Clientism involves what?
individual patronage
What is rent-seeking?
When political leaders rent out parts of the state to their supporters
At its worst, a non-democratic regime may turn into what?
A kleptocracy
What is a kleptocracy ruled by?
Theft; those in power drain the state of resources
Constant praising of the leadership is enforced by what?
Personality cults
Personality cults are promoted through the what?
- News reports
- Public rallies
- Films and other imagery
