week 2 - the state and democracies Flashcards
the state
large political units which first developed in the modern West
fundamental components of a state
Monopoly of legitimate violence
Territoriality
Sovereignty
The People
monopoly of legitimate violence
The state has the right to exercise violence.
territoriality
A precisely delimited area (within certain borders) of monopolistic power.
sovereignty
A state recognizes no power superior to itself.
nation-state vs. a nation
‘Nation-State’ - describes a state with a single nation.
Nation – a group of people who share some sort of common identity (religion, language or ethnicity).
why are states important
because of the state of nature which states the rational strategy is to attack and steal from your neighbor
what is hobbes solution to get out of the state of nature
to create a sovereign with sufficient control of force in which individuals would be willing to transfer power to the state in exchange for protection through a social contract
what is a social contract
implicit agreement among individuals in the state of nature to create and empower the state which outlines the rights and responsibilities of the state and citizens
formation of states
states began forming during the 12-17th centuries with forming centralized systems financed with taxation.
what was hobbes solution
to create a
sovereign with sufficient control of force
what is a failed state
a state-like entity that cannot coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given territory and they can’t perform the roles they are expected to perform and are unable to provide reasonable public services
what are some examples of failed states
Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia and South Sudan
why do states fail
Civil war and ethnic conflict
Colonizing Countries often drew arbitrary borders
Incompetent Government and corruption
when did the major democratization in the world happen
in the past 50-60 years
demokratia
the rule by the people
how did most great thinkers and the framers of the constitution view democracy
as a bad form of government because they didn’t think rule of the common people was a good thing.
what type of democracy does the U.S and most democractic countries practice
representative democracy, instead of direct democracy
what is a key feature of representative democracy
it mostly protects against the ‘tyranny of the majority.’
what are the ways to define democracy
procedural and substantive definitions
procedural definitions
democracy focused on laws and institutions unconcerned with outcomes.
any law created democratically is legitimate.
substantive definitions
democracy focused on the outcomes.
there is only democracy if there are political freedoms, free press, civil liberties, equality and economic justice.
what some things democracy doesn’t have to be
Not necessarily efficient.
Not necessarily more orderly or stable
Do not necessarily have open economies
audience democracy
classifying democracy by observing how the people in the democracy feel/behave. through the voting turnout and satisfaction of democracy in their country.
measuring democracy
we can classify countries according to their level of procedural and/or substantive democracy using quantitative indices
main kinds of representative democracies
presidential and parliamentary
presidential democracy
The president is both the head of state and the head of government.
parliamentary democracy
There is a division between the head of government and the head of state
factors of presidential vs. parliamentary
- Parliamentary: The prime minister is not directly elected but is chosen by the party that wins the most seats
- Presidential: The president is elected for a fixed term and does not need a
majority in the legislature to stay in power
how can a prime minister be dismissed
they can be removed by own party
votes of no confidence
failed votes of confidence
occurrence of elections in parliamentary systems
- Elections are not necessarily scheduled.
- they can come about after (no) confidence votes.
- The prime minister can call an election.
who are votes of no confidence and votes of confidence often called by
the votes of no confidence is called by the opposition
votes of confidence is called by the prime minister (maybe because they do not want to rerun in an election).
