Required+Terms


 * Required Terms for Comparative Government:** These are terms that we employ to analyze, compare, and evaluate government and politics in countries around the world. You should aim to use these terms within your answer as much as possible. Precision of language is central in this exam.

To review the specific terms for each of our core countries, go to our quizlet site.


 * **advanced democracies**
 * **authoritarian regimes**
 * **authority**
 * **bicameral** and **unicameral legislatures** (and examples of each from our core countries)
 * **bureaucracy**
 * **causation** vs. **correlation**
 * **checks and balances**
 * **civil society** and examples of civil society in our core countries (remember, civil society is the space occupied by voluntary associatoins outside the state or official government--it implies organization like an interest group or a union or a student group)
 * **cleavages** (this is the political science term to describe divisions in society) and examples of these divisions in our core countries
 * **command economies**
 * **communism**
 * **corporatism**: this refers to a method by which different groups (business, labor, and interest groups) bargain with the state over the creation of economic policy. In authoritarian regimes, such groups are offiically sanctioned by the state and are a means by which the state can control the people. It limits the voice of the people.
 * **pluralism**: In advanced democracies like the U.S. which are characterized by **pluralism**, power is split among these different groups and they compete with one another to shape policy and influence the government. Consider the ongoing conflict in Wisconsin right now between the state's governor Scott Walker and the unions.
 * **neocorporation**: this is a type of corporation that has developed in some advanced democracies. Rather than have different groups compete with one another, states give labor, business, and interest groups an official role in policy making and seek to arrive at a consensus with them.
 * **co-optation**: this is a way for a regime to gain support from its citizens. It's a lot like a bribe. The regime sets up a patron client relationship with an individual or a small group of individuals. In exchange for their support, these individual receive specific benefits or favors from the government.
 * **coup d'etat**
 * **electoral systems: proportional vs. first past the post**
 * **ethnic identity**
 * **ethnic conflict**
 * **elites**
 * **federal system** (and examples from our core countries)
 * **globalization**
 * **head of government vs. head of state** (know who is who from our core countries---for example, Queen Elizabeth is the head of state while David Cameron is the head of government)
 * **illiberal democracies**
 * **institutions**
 * **judicial review**
 * **legitimacy and its three forms (charismatic, traditional and rational-legal)**
 * **liberalism as a political ideology, as an attitude toward political change and as a way of organizing a political economy**
 * **linkage institutions** (any institution which links citizens to their government such as interest groups or political parties or elections)
 * **market economy**
 * **mixed economies**
 * **multi-member districts vs. single member districts**
 * **multi party system vs. two party system vs. multiparty system**
 * **nation**
 * **nationalism**
 * **nationalism conflicts**
 * **parliamentary system vs. presidential system**
 * **patronage**
 * **patron-client system**
 * **political culture**
 * **political ideologies**
 * **privatization**
 * **radicalism**
 * **referendum**
 * **reform**
 * **regime**
 * **revolution**
 * **revolution of rising expectations**
 * **rule of law**
 * **semi presidential system** (has elements of both a parliamentary system presidential system--best example? Russia with its president (head of state) and prime minister (head of govt.)
 * **separation of powers vs. fusion of powers**
 * **socialism**
 * **sovereignty** (ALWAYS INCLUDE TERRITORY IN YOUR DEFINITION!)
 * **state**
 * **technocrats**
 * **third world**
 * **totalitarianism**
 * **unitary system**