Key Vocab
A legislative district in which candidates are voted on by name, and the individual with the most votes wins the seat
What is a single-member district system (SMD) ?
Defined as a transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic regime
What is Democratization ?
The structure of this branch of government in the United Kingdom features combined lawmaking and executive functions, where the national legislature selects and removes the head of government and cabinet
What is a parliamentary system?
The largest of Nigeria's approximately 250 ethnic groups, primarily Muslim and historically under indirect British rule
What is Hausa-Fulani?
Russia's bicameral legislature, consisting of the State Duma and Federation Council
What is the Federal Assembly?
This concept involves using religion as a way to legitimize the ruling party in China
What is Sinicize religion?
These types of systems involve a sovereign state having independent legal authority over a population in a particular territory
What is a state?
This system, like those in Mexico and Nigeria, features a cabinet mostly responsible to an elected executive, with a legislature that can only remove cabinet members through impeachment, and separate fixed-term elections for the legislature and a top executive leader who is both head of state and head of government
What is a presidential system?
This major Islamist terror group operates primarily in northern Nigeria
What is Boko Haram?
This Russian court provides advisory opinions on constitutionality and judicial review on specific actions
What is the constitutional court?
The goodwill and relationships people develop through interaction with various individuals and groups within civil society
What is social capital ?
This term refers to whether a government’s constituents believe their government has the right to use power in the way they do, and it confers authority on and can increase the power of a regime and government
What is legitimacy?
This body in Iran is unicameral and elected, holding power to approve legislation, oversee the budget, and confirm presidential nominees, but acts under the supervision of the Guardian Council
What is Majlis?
The practice where officeholders feel justified using their position to enrich themselves or their tribe
What is prebendalism?
This privatization program under Yeltsin distributed ownership of state companies to wealthy individuals, leading to the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of oligarchs
What is Loans for Shares?
A difference or divide between people groups that can serve to unify or reinforce divisions between them
What is social cleavages?
In this system, the government controls access to policy making by relying on state-sanctioned groups or single peak associations (SPAs) to represent sectors like labor, business, and agriculture
What is corporatism?
This practice in China means the judicial system is subservient to the decisions of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), unlike systems where the government and citizens are equally subject to and accountable under the law
What is rule by law?
This concept describes how dependence on oil revenue can lead to less economic growth and weak democracy
What is the resource curse?
This term describes Russia's federal structure where different subjects have differing powers
What is asymmetric federalism?
A semi-independent regulatory agency in the UK that serves as a bureaucratic agency for telecommunications or water, for example.
What is quangos?
This aspect of Russian society is described as limited and requires government permission for voluntary organizations to form
What is civil society?
This concept requires that one member of the cabinet should come from each federal state in Nigeria
What is the federal character?
One of the two major contemporary political parties in Nigeria, described as center-right and supporting economic liberalization
What is the People's Democratic Party?
Patron-client actors, often with ties to security forces, who are in charge of state agencies and have huge influence
What is siloviki?