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Back to Subjects - Political Science

Political Science Notebook

Political Science Notebook Allocation of Resources: The distribution of a society's wealth among its members. Allocation can be done forcefully (by the government) or by the workings of the free market system. Authoritarianism: A system of government in which the leaders are not accountable to the citizens. Behavioralism: An approach to political reasearch that focuses on observation of individual political behavior - in contrast to the study of political documents and laws. Democracy: A system of govenment in which the government is ultimately accountable to the citizens. The United States is a good example of a "democracy within a republic". Formal-legal Analysis: An approach to political theory that applies mathimatical reasoning to the interactions among individuals and institutions. Government: The persons or organizations that make, enforce, and implement political decisions for a society. Government Functions: The basic tasks that governments perform in healthy, developed political systems. Human Rights: The principle that all humans, regardless of their culture, level of economic development, or typ of political system in which they live have "certain inanalienable rights". Income Distribution: A measure of how the wealth of a society is shared among its members (generally in terms equality or inequality). Interest Articulation: The process of expressing concerns and problems as demands for governmental action. Majority Rule: The majority of citizens in agreement on any given topic "rule" - provided there is respect for the basic rights of the minority. Political Development: The idea that nations become "modern" by aquiring certain (political) capacities and capabilities. Political Economy: The study of the impact of government on economic conditions, including analisis of alternative public policies and differnet systems of government. Political Socialization: The process of creating a shared political culture among the members of a political system, typically from one generation to another. Politics: The process of making collective decisions in a community, society, or group through the application of influence and power. Popular Consensultation: A regularized process through which citizens can make known their preferences regarding governmental policies and decisions; a key component of democracy Rule Adjudication: The process of applying governmental rules to specific cases. Rule Execution: The process of implementing or carrying out policy decisions. Rule Making: The process of establishing laws, orders, edicts, regulations, and other athoritative acts by government. Classical Political Philosophy: A body of political philosophy, based on the ideas of Plato (427 347BC) and his student Aristotle (384 - 322BC); associated with a distrust of democracy and on efforts to envision the just state. Modern Political Philosophy: A body of political philosophy that places a greater emphisis on individualism and on pragmatic concerns about how government works. Totalitarianism: A system of government in which the state attempts to control virtually all aspects of society, including but not limited to: military affairs, commerce, artistic expression, and mass communication. Anarchism: The opposition of government in all forms; the belief that government (by its very nature) is harmful and repressive. Capitalism: An ideology advocating private property and minimal government interference in the lives of its citizens. Communism: The (futuristic) stage of Marxist ideology where resource scarcity, class conflict and exploitation are nonexistent. Conservatism: A approach to political life that sees traditional values as the key to solving today's social problems. Deregulation: Involves removing or reducing regulations on private sector activity - designed to strengthen the economy through less costly governmental interference in the private sector. Economic Determinism: The idea that economic forces govern changes in the nature of societies; largely, but not exclusively, associated with Marxism. Fascism: An ideology that emphasizes extreme appeals to national unity, hatred of foreigners and ethnic minorities, and complete obedience to the state. Feminism: An ideology that stresses equal rights for women*. Some branches of this ideology stress feminine characteristics such compassionsion, peace, and sharing (sounds like the 70s). Ideology: A more or less coherent system of political thinking. Individualism: A way of thinking that emphasizes individual interests and rights in contrast to society's interests. Liberalism: A political system that stresses tolerance, diversity, and public assistance for those in need. Libertarianism: An ideology advocating minimum government and maximum personal liberty. Marxism: A comprehensive political and economic ideology that emphasizes class struggle and a total commitment to an economy based on radical socialism. Multiculturalism: The idea that cultudiversitysity is valuable and that steps should be taken to preserve key cultudifferenceseces. Self-determination: A component of democratic ideology that states that people shouldn't be subject to an unaccountable (government) power. Socialism: Often called "Democratic Socialism", this ideology stresses state ownership of the factors of production (land, labor capital). Democraticratic socialism also usually has an extensive welfare system. Welfare State: The arrangement of public services, regulations, and programs of income redistribution that are established to provide a basic standard of living to all members of society. *Often it seems that this commitment to equal rights does not extend to all areas. Example: many feminist wouldn't support equal military fitness standards. Agents of Political Socialization: Individuals, groups, and institutions that transmit political values to the next generation (the most important of these are: family, education, peer groups and the media). Conflictual and Consensual Cultures: The citizens in a consensual culture have a greater tendency to agree on the basic forms and functions of the government. On the other hand, in a conflictual culture the citizens tend to disagree about the forms and (most importantly) the functions of government. Parochial Culture: The members of this culture have (as the name suggests) concerns that are overwhelming local - and thus little or no knowledge / concern about the national government. Participant Culture: The members of this culture are socity's activist - they believe they can make a difference - this group is by far the best informed and "most dangerous" politically. Political Culture: The pattern of attitudes and orientations toward politics among various members of a political system. Political Resocialization: The conscious effort by a government to change political ideas, feelings and values of a given society. Political Socialization: The process of creating shared political ideas and values among the members of a political system. Political Subcultures: A distinct political orientation in a region, religious group, class or ethnic group that is found with in the larger political culture. Postmaterialism: A vague trend - by the children of affluence (baby boomers) - away from "traditional issues" and economic concerns as the chief determinant of their political orientation. Instead, they favor such issues as grassroots organization, civil liberties and environmental concerns. Subject Culture: The citizens in this culture know more than the about the national govenment than those in the Parochial Culture but this knowledge does little or nothing to effect their level of involvement - because those citizens in the Subject Culture don't know how to influence the govenment and thus feel powerless and subject to it. Belief System: An ordering of opinions and attitudes held together by some theme or pattern; not a random assortment of beliefs. Candidate Evaluation: The personal appeal of an electoral candidate; candidate evaluation may be positive or negative, and, where it is a strong factor, it may exert greater influnce on vote choices than party identification or voters' opinions about issues. Fairness Doctrine: A regulation of the Federal Communications Commision that required broadcasters to provide coverage of both sides of controversial issues (repealed in 1987) . Gender Gap: A difference between men as a group and women as a group with respect to some specific criterion, such as support for given political parties. Malapportionment: A condition which legislative districts are of very different populations - thus making each person's vote worth less in a larger district than in a smaller district. Party Identification: A person's feeling of attachment to a political party. Proportional Representation: An electoral system in which parties receive seats based on the percentage of the votes they receive in an election. Public Opinion Polls: Data on the opinions, demographic characteristics, and vote choices of citizens. Redistricting: The process of redrawing the boundaries of legislative districts; indended to reflect the changes in population growth and density. Single-member Districts: An electoral system where each distirct has one representative (the other candidates receive no representation) . Socioeconomic Status: A person's position in society, in terms of their income, educational status, and occupational status. Voter Turnout: A measure of how many voters actually vote in a given election. Catchall Parties: Parties that attempt to appeal a large number of voting blocs and thus have very poorly defined policy / ideology. Christian Democrats: Political parties and their supporters who profess a political doctrine that is linked to a religious (generally Catholic) group. Leadership Recruitment: The process through which a political political system attracts its leadership; generally political parties play a key role in this process. Mass Parties: Parties that grow out of a working class movement, usally these parties have socialist orientations. Party Platform: The set of policy orientations officially held by a political party. Political Aggregation: The process through which a political system reduces the multitude of interest group demands into a cohesive, manageable party ideology - this generally takes the form of a party platform. Political Party: An organization that unites people in an effort to win government office and thereby influence or control government policies. Social Democrats: Political parties and their supporters who adhere to a moderate non-marxist form of socialism. Two and one-half party system: A national party system where in which two parties are predominant but a third party regularly presents a significant chalange to the two main parties. Elite Theory: The idea that a single, generally unified elite dominates society; tipically contrasted with pluralism. Free Rider: An idividual who enjoys the benefits of a collective effort without paying into the coffers. Interest Group: An organization that attempts to influence public policy in a specific area of importance to its members. Lobbying: Efforts by a group to influence public officials by formal and informal contracts with them. Nondecisions: Problems and issues that are specificly not delt with; elite theorist point to such problems and argue that elites protect their own interests by steering government away from such "problems" that would hurt their power. Pluralism: The idea that their are many centers of political power in society. Power Elite: The name of the set of forces that (supposedly) govern society, namely: leaders of the military, corporations and political establishments. Rational Choice: An approach that says that individuals seek their own interests in making political decisions. Bicameralism: The dicvision of the legislature into two "houses". Committee System: The system of legislation where each "house" has varous committees empowered to streamline the legislative process by considering bills within their areas of expertese. Constituent Service: Activities by legislatures to obtain information, favors, and exceptions for their constituents. Delagate Model: An approach to representation in which the representative follows the expressed preferences of the voters that elected him / her. Folkways: The norms and traditions observed in a legislature pertaining to the way that members treat each other and expect to be treated. Ombudsman: A person who attempts or an office that attempts to resolve the problems that individual citizens have with administrative agentcies and programs. Parliamentary System: A system of excutive-legislative relations in which the legislature elects the chief excutive. Policy Initiation: The first steps taken to make or change policy; excutives and administrators have increacingly taken over this function in industrial democracies. Politico Model: An approach to legislation in which the legislator follows the delagate and trustee model depending on the nature of the problem and the strength of of public opinion. Presidential System: A system of excutive-legislative relations in which the chief excutive are elected separately. Responsible Parties: Parties that can demand responsibility from their members elected to a legislature, members of these parties almost always all ways follow the "party line". Statutes: A law passed by a legislature. Trustee Model: An approach to representation in which in which the representative acts acording to the dictates of his / her own "good" judgement Budget Formulation: The process of forming a proposal for a government's budget, including plans for both revenues and expentitures. Charismatic Authority: The ability to evoke allegiance and loyalty from citizens or subordinates by virture of of image, speaking ability and the ability to generate emotional responses. Chief Administrators: An individual who manages and coordinates the implementation of programs through administrative agencies; one of the primary roles of modern chief excutives. Coercive Authority: The authority of a leader enjoys by virture of possessing the power to force compliance with his or her demands. Coups D'Etat: An irregular, nonconstitutional removal of a head of state . Diplomacy: The communications and negotiations among national leaders regarding matters of foreign policy. Emergency Leadership: The (emergency) efforts by a chief executive to initiate, coordinate, and energize governmental activities in time of crisis. Legal Authority:The authority that a leader enjoys when he acts within the laws of a given nation. Representative Authority: The authority that a leader enjoys when it is percieved that he / she can claim "a mandate from the people". Symbolic Leader: A leader who serves as a unifiying symbol of the nation; a key function of modern chief executives. Traditional Authority: The authority that a leader derives from long standing beliefs, social and political traditions within a society. Adversarial System: A legal system in which an independent judge hears arguments presented by two opposing sides before rendering a decision. Basic Law: A body of law that superceds other law; for example, the Constitution. If statutes contradict the basic law (Constitution) they fall by the way side! Civil Law: The body of law that is primarily concerned with compensation for injuries inflicted by other private parties; for example one person suing another for the phyiscal damage that arose from a car accident. Common Law: A set of principles first devloped centuries ago in British court in efforts to establish a uniform code of fairness for situations in which no statutory law applied. Criminal Law: The body of law that pertains to the trial of suspected criminals. For instance, the trial of a suspected murder would would take place under criminal law. Defendent: The person who is accused f a crime; or the person who is sued by the plantiff in a civil action case. Grand Jury: A group of citizens who determin if there is enough evidence to send a given person to trial. Inquisitorial System: A system of criminal law where the judge acts as a representative of the state, seeking information from the person or persons accused of a crime in an affort to determin guilt or innocence. Judicial Activism: The principle that holds that the judges should follow there own values in deciding a case. This system also believes that one of the court's jobs is to look out for those miniorities who appear voiceless. Judicial Restraint: The principle that says the judicial branch has no business making law and courts should be reluctant to overturn laws or statutes by the other two branches of government. Judicial Review: The belief that the courts have the duty and the right to "review" the constitutionality of any law (that they feel is of dubious constitutionality). Justice: The quality of being righteous, fair, and deserved. Missouri Plan: An approach to selecting judges; adopted by Missouri in 1940, the plan allows the governor to select judges from a list of candidates compiled by a nominating commission made up of legal experts and citizens. Natural Law: A moral or ethical standard grounded in some concept of nature or divinity. Plaintiff: The person or persons who bring a legal action against another person for damages; the "complaining party". Positive Law: Laws made by governments; normally contrasted with "natural" law. Statutory Interpretation: The process of decideding how statutes apply to particular contexts; normally a task of courts. Statutory Law: The body of law created by acts of the legislature; distinct from provisions in constitutional law, law made by judges, and administrative regulations. Trial and Appellate Courts: The basic levels of courts in most judicial systems; the evidence pertaining to a case is presented in trial courts, while appellate courts n ormally rule on claims that trial courts made errors of law or procedures. Bureaucracy: The government organizations, usally staffed with officials selected on the basis of expertise and experience, that implement and or make public policy. Bureaucrats: Those people who are employed by a Bureaucracy. Citizen Participation: The process of involving citizens in the decision making process. Fixed Jurisdictions: The idea that a government Bureaucrats should have fixed boundries within which to perform their job. Hierarchy: The bureaucratic principle holding that clear lines of super- and subordinate authority should exist Bibliography:

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