Poly sci 101 BYUH midterm – Flashcards
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Authority
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Power based on a general agreement that the holder of the power has the right to issue certain commands and that those commands should be obeyed.
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Government
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Group of people in state who have ultimate authority to act on behalf of the state.
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Legitimacy
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Belief of large numbers of people that the existing gov should appropriately wield authority
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State
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Basic unit by which people are organized politically. Aka country or nation. Militarily independent of each other and are guided by governments that typically regulate the economy, set laws, etc.
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Political Science
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Academic field that takes the sole and general task to analyze politics.
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Interpretive Political Scientists
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Political scientists who emphasize historical, anthropological, and legal methods, and the complex whole being studied
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Behavioralists
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Political scientists who emphasize statistical analysis and abstract theories seeking out basic, essential regularities across a set of events.
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Theory
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A statement linking specific instances to broader principles.
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Empirical Theories
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Theory: how things work in the world we observe.
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Normative Theories
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Theory: making a judgement about the world, not how it works
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Ideology
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Set of ideas that are related and modify one another. An organized set of ideas about something.
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American liberalism
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The rather loose ideology known in the US as "liberalism." A variant of the general ideology of liberalism. Concerned with making people equal, relatively willing to entrust government with power to bring this about. Concerned with freedom of expression.
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American conservatism
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Known in US as conservatism. Variant of general ideology liberalism, little to do with general conservatism. Suspicious of governmental intervention to make people more equal, willing to entrust government with power to maintain morality.
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Liberalism
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Ideology: most important goal of politics is to develop people to the fullest.people should be regulated and aided by gov as little as possible, so they learn "gov is best that governs the least"
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Libertarianism
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Relatively pure form of classic liberalism, favors limited government.
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Conservativism
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Ideology: most important goal of politics is to create stable communities based on hierarchy of power in which leaders and followers have reciprocal responsibilities. Not suspicious of power doesn't seek to limit power of the state. Power should be in hands of a traditional class of rulers.
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Socialism
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Ideology: society consists of classes constantly in conflict. To create a just society in which all are equal the working class must take over the economy.
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Classes
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Marx's theory of socialism, group of people who share the same relationship to means of production and who therefore develop a distinctive view of themselves and the world. Drivers of social and political change.
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Communism
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Militant socialism. Only way to be socialist is by revolution. Soviet Union
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Democratic socialism
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Branch of socialism that supports electoral democracy and holds that the proper way for workers to control society is to be elected. Realistic goals and compromises.
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Fascism
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Movement in 1920's and 30's. Stressed militaristic pageantry and nationalism as a way to bind people to a single dictator.
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Neoliberalism
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Ideology: economic side of liberalism. Free markets, free trade, private industry. Economic efficiency and growth not virtues.
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Identity group
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Group of people who share an identity that they think defines them and sets them apart from others.
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Public good
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Something that benefits all members that no one can be prevented from using. Allows free riders, difficult to accomplish by voluntary action.
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Nation
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Large group of people who are bound together because of common culture. Language. Often coincides with political boundaries of states.
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Sovereignty
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Legal capacity of a geographic unit to maintain responsibility for the conduct of its own affairs.
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Nationalism
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Passionate identification with a nation from its citizens.
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Nation-state
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Often used today to signify today's States. Nationalism with in states as well.
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State-building
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Process of building a state. Complicated and difficult.
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Failed state
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Geographic entity with no effective central state apparatus, but controlled by warlords in loose and fluid relationships.
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Autonomous state
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Government and bureaucracy are are insulated from political pressures of group in the society.
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Civil society
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Part of society is organized and active, not controlled by the gov or private concerns. publicly engaged in gov.
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European Union
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Org of 27 Western European states that have set up a rather weak common gov and have coordinated many of their economic policies.
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Gross domestic product
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Total value of all goods and services exchanged in a society. Higher GDP=higher economic activity.
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PPP per capita GDP
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GDP divided by population.
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Rent
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Transfers of money that do not relate to production. Many not useful, pull money away from investing.
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Import substitution industrialization
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3rd world 60's/70's policy: high tariff barriers against imports, hoping to build their domestic industries.
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Inflation
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Most prices rise at same time and the value of currency is declining in real terms
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Progressive taxation
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System of taxes that takes a greater portion of a persons income if income is higher.
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Regressive taxation
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System of taxes that takes a greater portion of income from low income than from high.
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Central bank
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Bank by a gov to help handle its transactions, to coordinate the policies of private banks, and to manage interest rates in the economy.
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Corruption
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Improperly performing ones public task to receive personal benefits.
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Political economy
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Sub field of political science that focuses on how economy interacts with state.
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Rational choice models
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Models of politics that are based on a core assumption that all who are involved act rationally. They make decisions to further specific goals. Demonstrates what political choice a person should make if those are their goals.
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Political psychology
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Sub field of political science that focuses on how individuals make political decisions. Heavily reliant on psychology.
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Codetermination
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German system. Corporations required to include workers' representatives on their board of directors.
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Justice
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People are treated as they deserve.
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Substantive justice
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Concept of justice that emphasizes people receiving what they need and deserve, whether on the basis of the contributions they make to common efforts, of their need for the reward, or at least approximate equality of treatment.
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Procedural justice
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Concept of justice less concerned with fairness of distribution to people than with the procedures by which decisions are reached about them.
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Arbitrary action
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Action taken capriciously. People affected do not know what to expect before the action and don't learn the grounds on which action was chosen.
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Due process
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Certain procedures must be followed in policy making, if not policy is void.
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Effective policy
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Greatest benefits at least cost.
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Market mechanisms
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Mechanism: social choice results from choices of all members of the collectivity rather than from a decision made by the central gov unit.
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Externality
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Social costs or benefits beyond individual cost or benefits involved in transactions.
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Regime
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General form of gov of a state. Including constitution and rules of gov.
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Democracy
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Qualified citizens vote at intervals to choose candidates.
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Authoritarian democracy
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A formal democracy in which through fraud, intimidation, and communication control, the same ruler stay in power indefinitely. Institutions of democracy are there, open competition is not. (Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Putin in Russia)
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Third wave
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Wave of democratization across many states from late 70's to early 90's.
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Agent centric explanation
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Explanation that puts individual agency at the forefront of explanation, rather than social or economic structures.
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Pacts
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General: agreements Specifically: agreements between leaders of the new democracy and supporters of the older authoritarian system that soften the change and help them accept democracy.
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Crisis transitions
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Transition from autocratic to democratic system during an economic crisis
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Authoritarian system
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Governmental arrangement: those with power aren't responsible in their exercise of power, in any formal way, to the broad citizenry.
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Military government
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Autocracy: military officers rule, without any sort of auxiliary structure.
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Coup
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Forceful deposition of a gov by the armed forces and installation of military gov.
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One-party state
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Political system: only a single party is allowed to be active.
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Monarchy
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Power to rule is inherited through decent in family.
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Theocracy
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State ruled by religious leaders.
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Political culture
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Attitudes held communally by a people, forming the basis for their political behavior.
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Political socialization
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Process of learning facts, assumptions, and attitudes we use in responding to politics. Childhood, youth, and throughout life.
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Agents of socialization
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Those who carry out political socialization: parents, schools, media, friend groups, etc. The impact of an agent of socialization on one's political knowledge and view points is a function of (a) the agent's relevance to politics (b) the agents credibility
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Social capital
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Interwoven network of associational activities through which people are involved in their communities and build a reservoir of trust and positive expectations about collective action.
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