The vocabulary from the packet Mr. James gave us for review; plus and minus a few things
Terms : Hide Images
| 24830110 | accountability | the concept that government officials are responsible to and serve at the pleasure of constituents or elected officials (and that they may be removed from office by those electors or officials) | 0 | |
| 24830111 | adjudicate | to resolve a matter in dispute; when backed up by the authority of government the decision can be enforced | 1 | |
| 24830112 | agricultural sector | that part of a country's economy that is involved in the production of farm products | 2 | |
| 24830113 | autarchy | complete self-sufficiency | 3 | |
| 24830114 | authoritarianism | a system of governance based on coercion rather than political legitimacy (questionable definition) | 4 | |
| 24830115 | autocracy | a system of governance in which a small group has absolute power | 5 | |
| 24830116 | autonomy | the degree to which a state can implement policies independent of the populace or the amount of sovereignty a nation-state can exercise in the global environment | 6 | |
| 24830117 | balance of trade | comparison between the value of exports and the value of imports for a nation-state; usually figured by subtracting the value of imports from the value of exports (positive means that exports were worth more than imports; negative means that the value of imports exceeded the value of exports) | 7 | |
| 24830118 | bicameral | describing a legislative body with two houses | 8 | |
| 24830119 | budgetary deficit | the result of government spending in any one fiscal year exceeding the government revenue in that year (national debt is the total of yearly deficits) | 9 | |
| 24830120 | bureaucracy | a hierarchically structured organization charged with carrying out the policies determined by those with political authority | 10 | |
| 24830121 | cabinet | in a parliamentary system, the group of ministers who direct administrative bureaucracies (ministries) and make up the government, which is responsible to the parliament; in a presidential system, the administrative directors responsible to the president | 11 | |
| 24830122 | capacity | the degree to which a government or state is able to implement its policies | 12 | |
| 24830123 | capitalism | an economic system that emphasizes private property rights and market mechanisms | 13 | |
| 24830124 | catch-all party | a political party whose aim is ot gather support from a broad range of citizens through a de-emphasis of ideology and an emphasis on pragmatism, charismatic leadership, and marketing | 14 | |
| 24830125 | causation | a correlation in which a change in one variable results in a change in others | 15 | |
| 24830126 | checks and balances | a system of governance in which divisions of government can restrain the political authority of other divisions | 16 | |
| 24830127 | citizen | a member of a state who is legally entitled to full civil rights and is legally obliged to perform defined public duties | 17 | |
| 24830128 | civic culture | a political culture in which citizens widely share a belief in the legitimacy of their regime and a trust in the government; therefore the citizens demonstrate restraint in their demands on the government | 18 | |
| 24830129 | civil servants | employees of the government who administer (not make) policy; expected to serve any and all governments | 19 | |
| 24830130 | civil service | a system of carefully describing the tasks involved in performing government jobs, evaluating applicants for these jobs, and hiring people from among those applicants based on skills and experience rather than political factors; civil service also protects incumbents in civil service positions from politically based retribution | 20 | |
| 24830131 | civil society | all those organizations outside of government and commercial arenas which provide avenues of public participation in society | 21 | |
| 24830132 | class | the divisions of society into groups according to economic roles and status attributes | 22 | |
| 24830133 | cleavage | factors that separate groups within a society; may be cultural, historic, geographic, economic, ethnic, racial, etc.; the wider and deeper the cleavages, the less unified the society; cleavages which coincide with one another can reinforce each other; cleavages that don't coincide can weaken the divisions between groups | 23 | |
| 24830134 | clientalism | an exchange system in which clients offer support and loyalty to patrons who offer material and intangible benefits | 24 | |
| 24830135 | coercive participation | political action organized by ruling authorities rather than by interest groups or civil society groups | 25 | |
| 24830136 | collective responsibility | in a parliamentary system, the concept that all cabinet members agree on policy decisions and that all will be responsible for the results | 26 | |
| 24830137 | command economy | an economic/political system in which government decisions rather than markets determine resource use and output | 27 | |
| 24830138 | compromise | a decision-making (policy-making, law-making) process in which all parties concede some of their goals in order to reach other of their goals through agreements with other political actors | 28 | |
| 24830139 | conflict | a situation in which values, goals, or policies are contradictory or incompatible with each other | 29 | |
| 24830140 | constitution | a supreme law that defines the structure of a nation-state's regime and the legal processes governments must follow | 30 | |
| 24830141 | co-opt | to win support by granting special favors to an individual or a group; there is often an implication that those receiving benefits abandon important goals when offered less-important benefits | 31 | |
| 24830142 | corporatism | a system of governance in which the government is dominated by representatives of groups within society; may or may not be democratic to some degree | 32 | |
| 24830143 | state corporatism | a form of corporatism whose adherents hold that the corporate group which is the basis of society is the state (Wikipedia) | 33 | |
| 24830144 | coup d'état | the forceful replacement of a regime or a government by a small elite group or groups | 34 | |
| 24830145 | currency markets | markets in which traders buy and sell currencies; the values of currencies set in these markets have a powerful influence on foreign exchange rates | 35 | |
| 24830146 | decolonization | the process by which colonial powers divested themselves of empires | 36 | |
| 24830147 | democratization | the spread of representative government to more countries and the process of making governments more representative | 37 | |
| 24830148 | dependent variable | a result of a political decision making which is determined by the inputs, institutions, and processes (independent variables) | 38 | |
| 24830149 | developed countries | nation-states which have industrial and post-industrial economies | 39 | |
| 24830150 | developing countries | nation-states which are industrializing | 40 | |
| 24830151 | devolution | a process in a unitary system of delegating some decision making to local public bodies | 41 | |
| 24830152 | distributive policies | government policies that allocate valuable resources | 42 | |
| 24830153 | economic liberalization | policy designed to remove political controls over economic activity | 43 | |
| 24830154 | empirical analysis | consideration of agreed-upon facts gathered by observation or experiment | 44 | |
| 24830155 | executive | the people and agencies which implement or execute government policy (from the head of government to the lowest bureaucracies) | 45 | |
| 24830156 | extractive policies | government efforts to gather valuable resources for public use (i.e. taxes) | 46 | |
| 24830157 | extractive sector | that part of an economy which involves making use of natural resources for economic purposes (e.g. mining) | 47 | |
| 24830158 | faction | a group organized on the grounds of self-perceived common interests within a political party, interest group, or government | 48 | |
| 24830159 | failed state | a state within which the government has lost the ability to provide the most basic of public services | 49 | |
| 24830160 | federalism | a regime in which political authority is shared between a central government and local governments | 50 | |
| 24830161 | feedback | the reactions of people and organizations that shape political environments for future policy making | 51 | |
| 24830162 | fiscal policy | government decisions about total public spending and revenue that result in budgetary deficits or surpluses | 52 | |
| 24830163 | foreign exchange (ForEx) | the rates at which the currency from one nation trades with others; affected by currency markets, balances of trade, and domestic government policies | 53 | |
| 24830164 | fusion of powers | a system of governance in which the authority of government is concentrated in one body | 54 | |
| 24830165 | globalization | the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of people, cultures, economies, and nation-states facilitated by technology, trade, and cultural diffusion | 55 | |
| 24830166 | governance | the characteristics of a regime or government | 56 | |
| 24830167 | government | the part of the state with legitimate public authority; the group of people and organizations that hold political authority in a state at any one time | 57 | |
| 24830168 | grassroots politics | locally-organized activism; as opposed to top-down, hierarchical organizing | 58 | |
| 24830169 | gross domestic product (GDP) | the total value of goods and services produced by an economy | 59 | |
| 24830170 | head of government | the office and the person occupying the office charged with leading the operation of a government | 60 | |
| 24830171 | head of state | the chief public representative of a state | 61 | |
| 24830172 | identity politics | political activity and ideas based on the shared experiences of an ethnic, religious, or social group emphasizing gaining power and benefits for the group rather than pursuing ideological or universal or even statewide goals | 62 | |
| 24830173 | imperialism | the practice of one nation-state taking control of nations and territory of other countries | 63 | |
| 24830174 | import substitution | a government policy that uses trade restrictions and subsidies to encourage domestic production of manufactured goods | 64 | |
| 24830175 | independent variable | any one of the inputs, institutions, or processes that shape the results of government policymaking | 65 | |
| 24830176 | industrial policy | a government's decisions and actions, which define goals and methods for the manufacturing sectors of an economy | 66 | |
| 24830177 | industrial sector | that part of the economy which manufactures finished and secondary products | 67 | |
| 24830178 | inputs | demands and support by individuals and groups upon the policymaking process of government | 68 | |
| 24830179 | interdependence | a situation, brought about by specialization and/or limited resources, in which nation-states rely on one another for economic resources, goods, and services and political assets such as security and stability | 69 | |
| 24830180 | interest aggregation | ways in which demands of citizens and groups are amalgamated into proposed policy packages (e.g., leadership, political parties, etc. | 70 | |
| 24830181 | interest articulation | the methods by which citizens and groups can express their desires and make demands upon government (e.g., political participation, lobbying, protest, etc.) | 71 | |
| 24830182 | interest group | any organization that seeks to influence government policy making to better serve the self-perceived wants and needs of its members | 72 | |
| 24830183 | intervening variable | a factor influenced by an independent variable that affects the changes in a dependent variable | 73 | |
| 24830184 | interventionist | describing an activist government and/or state that is involved in a wide range of political, economic, and social arenas | 74 | |
| 24830185 | iron triangle | mutually-beneficial relationships between private itnerests, bureaucrats, and legislators; sometimes called an "integrated elite" | 75 | |
| 24830186 | judicial review | the pwoer of courts to modify or nullify the actions of legislatures and executives | 76 | |
| 24830187 | Keynsian economics | the idea that governments can manipulate macroeconomic demand through taxation and spending policies in order to foster stable growth | 77 | |
| 24830188 | legitimacy | the belief that a regime is a proper one and that the government has a right to exercise authority | 78 | |
| 24830189 | monetary policy | domestic government policies affecting interest rates and the supply of money available within an economy | 79 | |
| 24830190 | multiple causality | the simultaneous effects of a number of independent and intervening variables that bring about changes in dependent variables | 80 | |
| 24830191 | nation | a group of people who identify themselves as belonging together because of cultural, geographic, or linguistic ties | 81 | |
| 24830192 | nation-state | a territorial unit controlled by a single state and governed by a single government | 82 | |
| 24830193 | national debt or surplus | the historic total of yearly government budgetary deficits and surpluses for a nation-state | 83 | |
| 24830194 | nationalization | the process of making the government the owner of productive resources | 84 | |
| 24830195 | neo-imperialism | a pejorative label given to a variety of attempts to achieve hegemony over other nations; some people tend to use the term to describe the use of corporate power and wealth to gain influence in Third World countries; others use it to describe attempts by international organizations to impose change upon rich and powerful nations | 85 | |
| 24830196 | newly-industrializing countries | nation-states that began developing economic industrial sectors relatively recently | 86 | |
| 24830197 | non-governmental organization (NGO) | private group that pursues self-defined goals outside of government; common activities are publicizing issues, lobbying, making demands on government, and providing direct services | 87 | |
| 24830198 | normative analysis | consideration based upon preferences and values about what things should be like | 88 | |
| 24830199 | oligarchy | a system of governance dominated by a small powerful group in the state | 89 | |
| 24830200 | parastatal | a government-owned corporation to compensate for the lack of private economic development or to ensure complete and equitable service to the whole country (can be anything from a national airline or a railroad to a postal system or manufacturing and marketing operations) | 90 | |
| 24830201 | parliamentary government | a system of governance in which the head of government is chosen by and serves at the pleasure of the legislature | 91 | |
| 24830202 | particularistic party | a political party that deos not attempt to appeal to voters beyond an identifiable group within a population | 92 | |
| 24830203 | patron-client relationships | a usually informal alliance between a person holding power and less powerful or lower status people; the powerful patron provides power, status, jobs, land, goods, and/or protection in exchange for loyalty and political support | 93 | |
| 24830204 | neoliberalism | A political movement beginning in the 1960s that blends traditional liberal concerns for social justice with an emphasis on economic growth (dictionary.com definition) | 94 | |
| 24830205 | monetarism | A theory holding that economic variations within a given system, such as changing rates of inflation, are most often caused by increases or decreases in the money supply; A policy that seeks to regulate an economy by altering the domestic money supply, especially by increasing it in a moderate but steady manner (dictionary.com definition) | 95 | |
| 24830206 | peak association | an interest group organization whose membership is other organizations with parallel interests and goals; frequently a nationwide organization of specialized or localized smaller organizations | 96 | |
| 24830207 | plurality system | an electoral system in which election winners are determined by which candidate receives the largest number of votes (regardless of whether or not a majority is received) | 97 | |
| 24830208 | police powers | government powers to regulate public safety and enforce laws | 98 | |
| 24830209 | political communication | the flow of information from and about government to its constituents and feedback from constituents to people in government | 99 | |
| 24830210 | political culture | the collection of history, values, beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, traditions, and symbols that define and influence political behavior within a nation-state | 100 | |
| 24830211 | political economy | the interaction of political and economic systems and policy making of a state | 101 | |
| 24830212 | political integration | the process of promoting loyalty to and identity with the nation-state over more parochial loyalties | 102 | |
| 24830213 | political participation | the actions by citizens which involve them in the process of selecting leaders and making policies | 103 | |
| 24830214 | political party | an organized group of people with the primary purpose of electing its members to government office (alternatively, some parties exist to represent and promote a point of view or ideology regardless of electoral successes) | 104 | |
| 24830215 | political recruitment | the processes by which people become public participants and leaders | 105 | |
| 24830216 | political socialization | the institutions and methods of developing and reinforcing significant public beliefs, attitudes, and practices (how does a culture get its people to be good political citizens or subjects?) | 106 | |
| 24830217 | politics | the processes through which groups of people govern themselves or are governed; activities associated with the exercise of authority | 107 | |
| 24830218 | post-industrial | describing an economy in which the service sector has become more important than the industrial sector | 108 | |
| 24830219 | post-materialist values | beliefs in the importance of policy goals beyond one's immediate self interest (e.g. environmentalism and cultural diversity) as well as one's prosperity and security; sometimes labeled "post-modern values" | 109 | |
| 24830220 | prebendalism | the form of patron-client politics that legitimizes the exploitation of government power for the benefit of office holders and their followers | 110 | |
| 24830221 | proportional representation | an electoral system in which voters select parties rather than individual candidates and parties are represented in legislatures in proportion to the shares of votes they win | 111 | |
| 24830222 | qualitative research | case studies of historic and cultural aspects of political systems | 112 | |
| 24830223 | quantitative research | statistical studies which seek correlations and causations between data | 113 | |
| 24830224 | realignment | a significant change in the party or policy loyalties of substantial groups within a nation-state | 114 | |
| 24830225 | redistributive policies | government policies that take valuable resources from one or more groups in society and allocate them to other groups | 115 | |
| 24830226 | reductivism | the attempt to explain complex correlations and causations using a single independent variable; oversimplification | 116 | |
| 24830227 | regime | a pattern of organization for a government often described in a constitution or supreme law | 117 | |
| 24830228 | regulatory policies | government policies designed to control practices and behavior of citizens and organizations and prevent harmful results and/or ensure civic benefits of those behaviors | 118 | |
| 24830229 | rent seeking | the practice of political leaders who, for the purposes of remaining in positions of power, "rent" public assets (resources or tax supported services) to patrons who profit from those public assets | 119 | |
| 24830230 | republic | a political regime in which government citizens choose leaders directly or indirectly | 120 | |
| 24830231 | rule of law | constitutionalism; a governance system operating predictably under a known and transparent set of procedural rules (laws) | 121 | |
| 24830232 | run-off elections | an electoral system that requires winners to earn a majority of votes cast; in cases where no candidate wins a majority in the election, least successful candidates are removed form the ballot and another election is held | 122 | |
| 24830233 | separation of powers | the system of governance in which government power is divided into several bodies with the ability to check the power of the other bodies | 123 | |
| 24830234 | service sector | that part of the economy which organizes and provides services at an economic cost | 124 | |
| 24830235 | single-member district | an electoral system in which voters choose an individual running for office in each legislative district (also called "first past the post" if the winner is chosen by a plurality) | 125 | |
| 24830236 | social contract | the basic agreement between group members and the group as a whole as to rights, privileges, duties, benefits, and costs; often partially explicit in a constitution; usually implicit, in part, in the history and politics of a group | 126 | |
| 24830237 | social democracy | a political philosophy centered on electoral politics, egalitarian social policies, and the creation of social welfare systems | 127 | |
| 24830238 | transparency | the full, accurate, and timely disclosure of information (dictionary.com definition) | 128 | |
| 24830239 | subsidiarity | an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority (Wikipedia definition) | 129 | |
| 24830240 | social welfare | the material condition of the members of a group; may also refer to the group-supplied material benefits in a society (e.g. health care) | 130 | |
| 24830241 | socialism | a political/economic system in which the government plays a major role (usually ownership) in determining the use of productive resources and the allocation of valuable goods and services; may be democratic or authoritarian | 131 | |
| 24830242 | sovereignty | independent legal authority over a population in a particular place; the degree to which a state controls its own territory and independently make and carry out policy | 132 | |
| 24830243 | state | the assembly of all those people and groups within a nation-state that have power to effect change at some level of society through direct action or political participation | 133 | |
| 24830244 | strong state | a state with extensive capacity to carry out policies adopted or a state in which there are few limitations on the actions of one or more parts of the state | 134 | |
| 24830245 | weak state | a state with little capacity for carrying out policies adopted or a state in which teh extent of any part of the state is limited | 135 | |
| 24830246 | structural adjustment | World Bank programs which offer financial and management aid to poor countries while demanding privatization, trade liberalization, and governmental fiscal restraint | 136 | |
| 24830247 | public structure | an organization or process by which a government carries out its public policies | 137 | |
| 24830248 | supply side economics | the economy theory that 1. markets are the most efficient and fair way to allocate productive resources and valuable products; 2. government should interfere in the production of goods and services as little as possible; and 3. economic actors will negate any actions by government to manipulate demand by anticipating the actions and taking counter measures | 138 | |
| 24830249 | supranational | organizations or events in which nations are not totally sovereign actors (e.g. the European Union or global warming) | 139 | |
| 24830250 | technocrats | highly-educated bureaucrats who make decisions based on their perceptions of technical issues rather than political ones | 140 | |
| 24830251 | unicameral | describing a legislative body consisting of one house | 141 | |
| 24830252 | unitary state | concentration of political power in a central government as opposed to federalism | 142 | |
| 24830253 | vote of confidence | a vote in a parliament expressing support for a government; a government losing a vote of confidence is expected to resign | 143 | |
| 24830254 | welfare state | a state which provides a wide array of social services to its members | 144 | |
| 24830255 | zero-sum game | a resolution to a situation in which one side wins and others lose | 145 | |
| 24831235 | Duverget's law | a 2-party system is created when parliament is elected by plurality in single-member districts; a multi-party system is created in proportional representation | 146 | |
| 24831236 | proportional representation | electorate votes for party slates; seats are allocated based on the per cent of the vote each party gets | 147 | |
| 24836442 | graft | corruption/ill-gotten money | 148 | |
| 24844042 | stagflation | an inflationary period accompanied by rising unemployment and lack of growth in consumer demand and business activity | 149 |
