week 2 - the state and democracies

Question 1

the state

Answer 1

large political units which first developed in the modern West

Question 2

fundamental components of a state

Answer 2

Monopoly of legitimate violence

Territoriality

Sovereignty

The People

Question 3

monopoly of legitimate violence

Answer 3

The state has the right to exercise violence.

Question 4

territoriality

Answer 4

A precisely delimited area (within certain borders) of monopolistic power.

Question 5

sovereignty

Answer 5

A state recognizes no power superior to itself.

Question 6

nation-state vs. a nation

Answer 6

‘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).

Question 7

why are states important

Answer 7

because of the state of nature which states the rational strategy is to attack and steal from your neighbor

Question 8

what is hobbes solution to get out of the state of nature

Answer 8

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

Question 9

what is a social contract

Answer 9

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

Question 10

formation of states

Answer 10

states began forming during the 12-17th centuries with forming centralized systems financed with taxation.

Question 11

what was hobbes solution

Answer 11

to create a
sovereign with sufficient control of force

Question 12

what is a failed state

Answer 12

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

Question 13

what are some examples of failed states

Answer 13

Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia and South Sudan

Question 14

why do states fail

Answer 14

Civil war and ethnic conflict

Colonizing Countries often drew arbitrary borders

Incompetent Government and corruption

Question 15

when did the major democratization in the world happen

Answer 15

in the past 50-60 years

Question 16

demokratia

Answer 16

the rule by the people

Question 17

how did most great thinkers and the framers of the constitution view democracy

Answer 17

as a bad form of government because they didn’t think rule of the common people was a good thing.

Question 18

what type of democracy does the U.S and most democractic countries practice

Answer 18

representative democracy, instead of direct democracy

Question 19

what is a key feature of representative democracy

Answer 19

it mostly protects against the ‘tyranny of the majority.’

Question 20

what are the ways to define democracy

Answer 20

procedural and substantive definitions

Question 21

procedural definitions

Answer 21

democracy focused on laws and institutions unconcerned with outcomes.

any law created democratically is legitimate.

Question 22

substantive definitions

Answer 22

democracy focused on the outcomes.

there is only democracy if there are political freedoms, free press, civil liberties, equality and economic justice.

Question 23

what some things democracy doesn’t have to be

Answer 23

Not necessarily efficient.

Not necessarily more orderly or stable

Do not necessarily have open economies

Question 24

audience democracy

Answer 24

classifying democracy by observing how the people in the democracy feel/behave. through the voting turnout and satisfaction of democracy in their country.

Question 25

measuring democracy

Answer 25

we can classify countries according to their level of procedural and/or substantive democracy using quantitative indices

Question 26

main kinds of representative democracies

Answer 26

presidential and parliamentary

Question 27

presidential democracy

Answer 27

The president is both the head of state and the head of government.

Question 28

parliamentary democracy

Answer 28

There is a division between the head of government and the head of state

Question 29

factors of presidential vs. parliamentary

Answer 29

• 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

Question 30

how can a prime minister be dismissed

Answer 30

they can be removed by own party
votes of no confidence
failed votes of confidence

Question 31

occurrence of elections in parliamentary systems

Answer 31

• Elections are not necessarily scheduled.
• they can come about after (no) confidence votes.
• The prime minister can call an election.

Question 32

who are votes of no confidence and votes of confidence often called by

Answer 32

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).