Unit 1 terms
Two Chinese banks fund a new Zambian mining company by taking a 60% equity share in the company.
What is foreign direct investment?
The UK Prime Minister is ________________ whereas the Russian Prime Minister is _______________.
What is Head of Government? whereas the Russian PM is head of the legislature but with little executive authority in practice.
Violent actions by a non-state actor (group) that targets citizens usually to destabilize or delegitimize the regime.
What is terrorism? (When a state does this it is also a kind of terrorism but it is called "state-sponsored terrorism."). If a state descends into two or more rival units it is called civil war or a period of warlordism or rule by militias.
Countries (of our 6) with new independent electoral commissions.
What is Nigeria's INEC (independent national electoral commission) and Mexico's INE (national electoral institute) Look them up and read briefly!
Large companies that have offices and production or service facilities in several countries and high net worth and annual income often in the billions of dollar range.
What are MNCs. multinational corporations? (the largest MNC currently listed here: look at top ten and what they do....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue
Measures how much income is distributed across a country's population. A highly unequal distribution would be, typically, in the >.4 range and low inequality in <.3 range.
What is the GINI index score?
Three offical roles/titles for Xi....
What are Head of Government (President); General Secretary of CCP; Head of the Armed Forces (PLA and other branches)?
The power of courts to exam laws and determine if they are constitutional (actually legal under the country's established rules).
What is judicial review?
If a candidate in a five-way race wins 36% of the vote but still wins the seat.
What is plurality? (but not a majority)
Citizens in the UK used this mechanism for dramatically changing the direction of the country in June, 2016?
What is referendum--a vote decided policy change)? In this case called Brexit by the media 50.8% vote in favor of leaving the EU which then took 4 years to actually implement -- in large part because of the Ireland (EU) and Northern Ireland border. Not all states have referenda as a legal mechanism.
The right of a state to act independently of other states and to govern itself without outside influences.
What is sovereignty? (in reality many successful states often give up a part of their absolute sovereignty in order to work with other states, e.g. the EU, or the AU--African Union, etc.)
This small decision-making body in Iran vets all candidates for national political office.
What is the Guardian Council?
Politics that appeals to fears and interests of common people and vilifies ruling elites as out-of-touch and corrupt.
What is populism? (can be either 'left' or 'right' wing in nature. Currently in the world, perhaps as a result of neoliberal policies since the 90s we have had more right wing populism than left wing populism as a nature reaction against globalization and growing inequality of wealth).
Illegal actions meant to keep people from voting, intimidation, casting 'extra' ballots, closing polling places early in areas of low support for the governing party, false news reports regarding the election, etc.
What is voter fraud?
When one nation exports far less than it imports from another state.
What is a trade imbalance?
States that have political subunits with some independent or autonomous governance structures.
What is a federal system (think Russia, Mexico, and Nigeria)?
Beginning under the Blair government in the late 90s, the UK central govt began to give some power to Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland to run education systems and have local parliaments for local laws.
What is devolution? This was done to help create more local political participation (democracy) and actually to strengthen the national appeal of the Labour Party which pushed devolution through.
A system that allows for frequent and fair elections and freedom of information and transparency in decision making and spending, etc. characterized by positive sense of political efficacy among citizens.
What is liberal democracy?
Ogoni People's movement to have more resources from oil wealth offset environmental damage done to Ogoni lands.
What is a social, political, environmental movement in Nigeria from 1990s?
A check written to poor families to supplement their income is an example of this.
What is a social welfare policy? this spending by the state is usually then spent by families on food or education and can lead to better outcomes for the whole society -- that's the theory
The election result in a representative region containing 4 legislative seats where 2 seats go to Party A with 48% of the vote and 1 seat goes to Party B with 24% of the vote and 1 seat goes to Party C with 18% of the vote, but no seats go to Party D and Party E each with 5% of the vote.
What is proportional representation? (Contrast with SMD - single member district where there's just one seats and it goes to Party A even though they didnt win majority -- this is what happened in 2024 in Britain.
Russia's appointed upper chamber that approves the Russian budget, troop deployments and conscription laws, and judicial appointments.
What is the 178 member FEDERATION COUNCIL? (two from each of the oblasts and other regions, 89x2)
The amount of time liberal democracy has been declining in the world?
What is 20 years -- since about 2005 peak just before the 2008-9 financial decline?
Pro-Sharia law, anti-Christian, highly patriarchal and anti-female education armed group in northern Nigeria seeking autonomy and engaged in extortion and cruelties.
What is BOKO HARAM. (which translates as anything western is or should be forbidden)
Education, longevity, average income combine as main basis for this.
What is the Human Development Index?