Unit One: Concepts for Comparison Flashcards
a term that applies to countries that have a long history of democracy that has stabilized as the established form of government, high degree of legitimacy and social capital
advanced democracy
a political regime where a small group of individuals exercises power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public
authoritarian regime
two-house legislature
bicameral legislatures
one-house legislature
unicameral legislatures
head of government exercises almost complete control
over their (bureaucratic) activities
bureaucratic authoritarian regimes
consist of agencies that generally implement government policy. They usually are a part of the executive branch of government.
bureaucracy
several parties join forces and are represented in different cabinet posts.
cabinet coalition
a correlation in which a change in one variable results in a change in others
causation
a system of governance in which divisions of government can restrain the political authority of other divisions
checks & balances
Guarantees of personal freedoms that government cannot restrict without due process
civil liberties
the way that citizens organize and define themselves and their interests to the ways that the formal government operates
civil society
when every dispute aligns the same groups against each other - likely more explosive
coinciding cleavages
divide society into many potential groups that may conflict on one issue but cooperate on another - tend to keep social conflict at moderate levels
crosscutting cleavages
an economic/political system in which government decisions rather than markets determine resource use and output
command economies
based on tradition, past practices, and legal precedents set by the courts through interpretations of statutes, legal legislation, and past rulings
common law
based on a comprehensive system
of written rules (codes) of law divided into commercial, civil, and criminal codes
code law
In these regimes, the party controls everything from the government to the economy to social life
communism
regular, free, and fair elections
competitive elections
spreads the power among many sub-units (such as states), and has a weak central government
confederal system
citizens are sharply divided, often on both the legitimacy of the regime and its solutions to major problems
conflictual political culture
Although citizens may disagree on
some political processes and policies, they tend generally to agree on how decisions are made, what issues should be addressed, and
how problems should be solved.
consensual political culture
tend to see change as disruptive, and they emphasize the fact that it sometimes brings unforeseen outcomes
conservatism
serve to defend democratic principles of a country against infringement by both private citizens and the government are a
much more recent phenomenon
constitutional courts
the means a regime uses to get support from its citizens
co-optation