Term
| the purpose of government |
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Definition
1. provide order and stability
2. provide coherance
3. provide predictability |
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policy-making, legislating
Who will make decisions?
How will decisions be made?
What decisions can/can't be made? |
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| enforcing the law, executive |
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| various government departments that implement decisions |
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| interpreting the laws, judiciary |
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1. dispute about the decision itself
2. dispute about the implements of the decision |
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| a body of fundamental or basic rules outlining the structures of power and authority, and relations between those and the people |
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| Laws that politicians make that stand in opposition to the legal provisions of a constitution that can be struck down by the legal system and declared illegal |
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| state limited by a constitution |
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| commitment to abide by the example of previous decisions in similar cases, or commonly known as precedent |
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| an unwritten law that remains nonetheless binding because of tradition, experience or morality |
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| entrenched documents/ordinary statutes |
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Definition
| expressed in written constitution |
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| law based on a judge's ruling |
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| democracy, aristocracy, monarchy are types of constitutions or systems, but whoever was the authority of the state had all the power. |
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separation of powers, which means placing a state’s power to make decisions
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| government of free citizens |
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everyone is required to follow the law, there are no exceptions, not even for the rulers, **must have judicial independence w/no bias
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Definition
case decided when there is no precedent, there’s been no similar case before it
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Term
| concentrated powers of government |
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Definition
all power within the central government
ex. Great Britain |
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| dispersed powers of government |
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Definition
aka separated powers
popular sovereignty within institutions to protect the people from the state
ex. USA |
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Term
| "maintaining the confidence" |
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Definition
| being able to keep the majority in the lower house that is popularly elected happy |
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Term
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Definition
the requirement of the executive (cabinet) to have the support or confidence of the lower house instead of the monarch
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party leaders in the cabinet have firm control over the votes of their members in the legislature
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| strong! prime minister has more power than monarch, strong political parties provide structure and predictability |
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| a political (and not merely formal) executive that is not drawn from the legislature. |
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| the President, his cabinet, White House officials |
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| oversee administration of their department and advise the President |
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Definition
to avoid tyranny of the majority, and tyranny of the minority
fixed staggered elections |
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Term
| elusiveness of public policy |
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Definition
US fragmentation of powers b/c...
1. checks and vetos make impossible to effect public policy
2. numerous veto possibilities result in compromises
3. difficult for citizens to accredit blame/praise to proper recipient |
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Definition
| the area of responsibility for cabinet ministers |
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| parliamentary, PM + president |
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Term
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Definition
candidate with most votes is the winner
(think USA “winner take all")
overcompensates winners and penalize losers
no necessary correspondence between party and its electoral strength |
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Term
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proportionate representation system
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Definition
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candidates from parties are awarded seats on the basis of the vote for the party
tends to sustain a multi-party system
virtual impossibility of manufacturing a majority
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Term
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Definition
| one where the electoral and party system create a general tendency or normal expectation that following an election, one party will have control of a majority of seats in the legislature |
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Definition
| one where the electoral and party system create the conditions where following an election, each party will have a share of seats corresponding to its share of the vote |
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Term
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Definition
| when no one party wins a majority of seats in the legislature and the question becomes who will govern? |
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Term
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Definition
no one party controls a legislature, cabinet has members with more than one party, they agree to:
1. jointly form a government
2. divide cabinet seats between parties
3. agree about policies that the government will implement
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| the members of two or more parties share the posts of government |
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| possible when no one party controls a majority, for a single-party cabinet to govern with the support of another or other parties, and when the parties agree or support each other on legislative votes |
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Term
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Definition
1. Head of State invites someone from the legislature to form a head of government
2. the PM creates a cabinet to present to the state
3. the cabinet government meets the legislature and either does or doesn't get confidence |
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Definition
| someone in proportional government invited to form a new government |
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Term
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Definition
dissolving parliament and calling an election
*but there is always a government in power |
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Term
| constructive non-confidence |
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Definition
| in addition to rejecting the current executive, the legislators have agreed on a successor in whom they have confidence |
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Definition
due to party discipline and incentives to develop mechanisms to keep the agreement going and removes dissent from the public eye
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Term
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Definition
| the President and PM are of different political parties |
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Term
| forms of territorial governance |
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Definition
confederal, federal, unitary
(increase amount of centralization from L to R) |
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Term
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Definition
State divided between national and sub national governments
Each level has some level of autonomy from the other |
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| A clause that determines which level will receive powers not enumerated in the Constitution—10th Amendment |
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| When both levels legislate the same subject (ex: environment), one must take precedent |
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Territory within a unitary state achieves autonomy or special status--assymetrical federalism, due to cultural differences-- Scottish and Welsh in England
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The EU
*more confederation than federation |
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Definition
1. a social division between people (like race, religion or class)
2. a collective identification in terms of this social division
3. some organization that gives institutional expression to the identification |
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Definition
two or more bases of identity are shared between a population
ex. affluent Catholic Austrians |
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Definition
Ex. Catholics vs. Protestants, but half of each group is wealthy and half poor
overlapping divisions
**stabilizing |
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Term
| Single Member Pluralities |
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Definition
| USA. Leads to huge disproportionality because a party wins 100% of a given seat with less than 100% of votes, also leads to manufactured majorities, meaning less than 50% of people had votes for the party holding majority of seats |
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Term
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Definition
a. France, Australia. Uses a second round of voting between top two vote getters in first round, also sometimes (in Australia’s case) uses ordinal or preferential ballots (rank all candidates in order of preference)
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Term
| Proportionate Electoral Systems |
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Definition
| they have multimember representatives—the more available seats, the less the disproportionality |
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Term
Hybrid (Mixed Member) Systems
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Definition
| Combines proportional and pluralistic solutions |
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