The ability of individuals and groups in a society to hold state institutions accountable.
What is vertical accountability?
100
Electoral system in which each geographic district elects a single representative to a legislature.
What is single-member district (SMD)?
100
Party system in which multiple parties and free and fair elections exist, but one party wins every election and governs continuously.
What is a dominant-party system?
100
The unwillingness of individuals to undertake political action because of the rational belief that their individual action will have little or no effect.
What is the collective action problem?
100
The recognized right to rule.
What is legitimacy?
200
Division of constitutionally-assigned power to national and subnational governments, with different subnational governments having distinct relationships with and rights in relation to the national government.
What is an asymmetrical federal system?
200
Electoral system in which individual candidates are elected in a single-member districts; the candidate with the most votes, but not necessarily a majority, wins.
What is "first past the post" (FPTP)?
200
A party system where two large parties win the most votes, but typically neither gains a majority. Thus, one of them has to form an alliance with a smaller party to create a legislative majority.
What is a two-and-a-half party system?
200
These have a loosely-defined organizational structure and represent people who have been outside the bounds of formal institutions; they seek major socioeconomic or political changes to the status quo.
What are social movements?
200
Any interaction in which a group makes claims that conflict with others' interests, leading to coordinated efforts to secure those claims that in some way involve the state.
What are contentious politics?
300
A democratic system with multiparty executives in a coalition government, executive-legislative balance, a bicameral legislature, and a rigid constitution not easily amended.
What is a consensus democracy?
300
The receipt of the most votes, but not a majority.
What is plurality?
300
Germany has this type of party system.
What is a mixed system?
300
A system in which many groups exist to represent particular interests and the government remains officially neutral among them.
What is interest-group pluralism?
300
The sole authority within a territory capable of making and enforcing laws and policies; an essential element of a modern state.
What is internal sovereignty?
400
In common law, the practice of accepting the precedent of previous similar cases. Literal translation: "let the decision stand".
What is stare decisis?
400
Electoral system in which each party presents a ranked list of candidates for all the seats in the legislature; voters can see the list and know who the "top" candidates are, but they vote for the party. Each party is awarded a number of seats based on their percentage of the total vote; they then award seats based on the ranked list.
What is closed-list proportional representation?
400
A broad and charismatic appeal to poor people on the part of a leader to solve their problems directly via government largess.
What is populism?
400
Also societal corporatism; corporatism that evolves historically and voluntarily rather than being mandated by the state.
What is neocorporatism?
400
Literally, citizenship dependent on "soil", or residence within the national territory.
What is jus soli?
500
The situation when a superior has to make sure that a bureaucrat carries out the assigned task or policy.
What is principal-agent problem?
500
When voters' views are represented indirectly in the legislature by their chosen party's candidates who have been elected in districts other than their own.
What is virtual representation?
500
A theory which argues that FPTP electoral systems will produce two majority parties, eliminating smaller parties.
What is Duverger's Law?
500
Social networks and norms of reciprocity important for a strong civil society.
What is social capital?
500
A theory of identity-group formation that argues identities are created through a complex and collective process.