Study of Politics
A set of logically consistent statements that tell us why the things we observe occur
What is a theory
An entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory
What is a state?
A fundamental tool for analyzing strategic situations
What is game theory?
It is achieved through competition among leadership groups that vie for the electorate’s approval
What is electoral democracy?
Democracy is equally likely to emerge in rich and poor countries but democracy is less likely to die in rich countries
What is the survival story?
A statement that is true by definition; inherently unfalsifiable
What is a tautology?
A good that is nonexcludable and nonrivalrous
What is a public good?
Tells us how a player ranks possible outcomes
What are ordinal payoffs?
It is achieved through civil liberties, checks on rulers and minority rights, as well as elections.
What is liberal democracy?
The attitudes, values, and understandings that are widely shared in a given society, and that are transmitted across generations
What is culture?
We cannot observe both state for the same unit
What is the fundamental problem of causal inference?
The traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised.
What is governance?
Tells us how much more the players prefer one outcome to another
What are cardinal payoffs?
A set of rules, norms, or institutions that determine how the government is constituted and organized and how decisions are made
What is a regime?
A shared cluster of attitudes that are thought to promote democracy and democratic performance
What is civic culture?
The extent to which our measures correspond to the concepts that they are intended to reflect
What is validity?
A state-like entity that cannot coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given area.
What is a failed state?
The choices that are best (highest payoff) for a player for each of the possible choices that the other player might make
What is the best response?
Humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights)
What are institutions?
States that derive a substantial portion of their revenue from the “rents” of natural resources
What are rentier states?
The extent to which a measurement process consistently produces the same score for a given case
What is reliability?
Things like administrative procedures, general capacity, and autonomy of the civil service.
What are procedural measures of state strength?
A combination of strategies (one for each player) such that each player does not want to unilaterally change her strategy given the strategy adopted by the other player
What is nash equilibrium?
Four economic characteristics that may affect the likelihood of democracy
What are income inequality, natural resources, asset mobility, and level of development?
Treats culture as something that is objective and inherited
What is the primordialist view?