AP Comparative Government and Politics flashcards
AP Comparative Government and Politics · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- State definition
- A political entity with a defined territory, permanent population, government, and sovereignty; it holds a monopoly on legitimate use of force within its borders.
- Regime versus government
- A regime is the set of rules and norms governing who holds power; a government is the specific set of officials currently in office under those rules.
- Authoritarian regime
- A regime in which power is concentrated in an executive not accountable to an elected legislature, with restricted civil liberties and limited pluralism.
- Illiberal democracy
- A system that holds competitive elections but limits civil liberties, media independence, or judicial review, so it is democratic procedurally but not liberally.
- Failed state
- A state that has lost effective control of its territory and monopoly on force, cannot collect taxes or provide services, and may depend on foreign aid.
- Sovereignty
- The supreme authority of a state to govern itself without external interference; it can be partly transferred to supranational bodies like the EU.
- Parliamentary system
- A system in which the executive is selected by and accountable to the legislature, and can be removed by a no-confidence vote.
- Presidential system
- A system with a directly or separately elected executive and a legislature, each with fixed terms and separate powers, creating divided government risk.
- Semi-presidential system
- A system with both a directly elected president and a prime minister responsible to the legislature; power is shared and cohabitation is possible.
- Judicial review
- The power of courts to invalidate laws or actions that conflict with a constitution; it may be strong (abstract and concrete review) or weak (concrete cases only).
- Federal versus unitary
- Federal systems constitutionally divide sovereignty between national and regional governments; unitary systems delegate power that the center can revoke.
- Bicameralism
- A legislature with two chambers; the second chamber may represent regions in federal systems or serve as a revising body in unitary systems.
- No-confidence vote
- A legislative vote that removes a prime minister and cabinet; it is a defining feature of parliamentary systems and does not exist in pure presidential systems.
- Electoral system effects
- Single-member plurality rules tend to produce two-party systems; proportional representation tends to produce multiparty systems and coalition governments.
- Political culture
- The set of widely shared attitudes, beliefs, and values about politics in a society; it is broader and more stable than specific public opinion.
- Parochial political culture
- A culture in which citizens have little awareness of or orientation toward the national government, typical of local or traditional communities.
- Subject political culture
- A culture in which citizens are aware of government and its outputs but are passive, expecting to be ruled rather than to participate.
- Participant political culture
- A culture in which citizens are aware of government and actively seek to influence it through voting, organizing, contacting officials, or protesting.
- Political socialization
- The process by which people acquire political attitudes and values, primarily through family, schools, media, religion, and peer groups.
- Conventional participation
- Legally accepted political activity such as voting, campaigning, donating, contacting officials, and joining parties or interest groups.
- Unconventional participation
- Political activity outside normal institutional channels, including protests, boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience, often used by those lacking access.
- Political efficacy
- A citizen's belief in their ability to understand politics (internal efficacy) and to influence government (external efficacy); low efficacy reduces participation.
- Duverger's law
- The tendency of single-member plurality electoral systems to produce two-party systems, because minor parties win few seats relative to their vote share.
- Proportional representation
- An electoral system allocating seats by share of the vote, often with a threshold; it improves minority representation but can fragment parliaments.
- Mixed-member system
- An electoral system combining single-member district seats with party-list seats, allowing voters to split their ticket between candidate and party.
- Catch-all party
- A party that seeks broad appeal across social groups with moderate positions, contrasting with mass parties tied to a specific class or group.
- Interest group
- An organized group seeking to influence public policy rather than contest elections, using lobbying, litigation, or collective action.
- Corporatist interest groups
- A system in which a few peak associations bargain with the state over policy, contrasting with pluralist systems of many competing groups.
- Modernization theory
- The argument that economic development, education, and urbanization are associated with the emergence of democratic institutions; the relationship is correlational, not deterministic.
- Import substitution industrialization
- A development strategy protecting domestic industry with tariffs and quotas to replace imports; it often produced inefficient industries and limited export growth.
- Human Development Index
- A composite measure combining life expectancy, education, and income per capita; it measures development more broadly than GDP alone.
- Resource curse
- The tendency of economies dependent on natural resource exports to experience slower growth, weaker institutions, and higher corruption.