General Terms AP Comparitive Government

312760764	Authoritarian	A system of government based on coercion.
312760765	Bicameralism	A legislature with two houses.
312760766	Causation	When a change in one variable causes a change in another variable.
312760767	Charismatic legitimacy	The right to rule based on the personality of an individual.
312760768	Civil society	The web of membership in formal and informal social and political groups that are not part of the state apparatus but operate in public, and which some analysts believe is needed to sustain democracy; composed of organizations that are voluntary and autonomous self-governing groups created to advance their own causes.
312760769	Cleavages	Factors that separate groups.
312760770	Coinciding cleavage	A division that strengthens feelings of difference and discrepancy, weakening society.
312760771	Colonialism	The control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent nation, territory, or people.
312760772	Command economy	A system in which the central power makes all major economic decisions through central planning.
312760773	Conservatism	An ideology that questions whether change is necessary.
312760774	Cooptation	Granting special favors in exchange for a benefit. "Buying off" critics.
312760775	Corporatism	When groups, such as business and/or labor, work closely with the government in policy-making.
312760776	Correlation	An apparent connection between variables.
312760777	Country	The state, government, regime, and people who live in a political system.
312760778	Cross-cutting cleavage	A division that includes people with differences, strengthening society.
312760779	Democracy	A system of government that allows citizens to choose policy makers in free, competitive elections.
312760780	Democratization	Transformation process from a non-democratic regime to a procedural democracy to a substantive democracy.
312760781	Developed countries	Countries with a high standard of living and strong economies.
312760782	Developing countries	Countries attempting to improve their economic status. Currently with low average income and less sophisticated infrastructure. Might be described as the "third world".
312760783	Devolution	Decentralization of national/central power to local units of government.
312760784	Economic liberalization	Less government regulation of the economy and greater participation of private entities.
312760785	Electoral system	Mechanisms through which votes are cast and tallied, and seats in the legislature are allotted.
312760786	Fascist	Authoritarian regimes, such as Hitler's and Mussolini's. Totalitarian attempts to impose state control on all. aspects of life.
312760787	Federal system/federalism	A way of organizing a nation so that two levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people, with shared power between units of government.
312760788	First-past-the-post, SMD (Single member district)	Winner-take-all. Whoever wins the most votes gets the one seat available in an election.