LC Politics & Society flashcards

31 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Separation of powers

Division of state authority among legislature, executive and judiciary so each checks the others; associated with Montesquieu and embodied in the US Constitution.

Federalism

Constitutional arrangement in which sovereignty is shared between a central government and constituent units, each with protected powers and often its own constitution and courts.

Duverger's law

The claim that single-member plurality electoral systems tend to produce two-party systems, while proportional representation favours multiparty competition.

Weber's legitimate authority

Three ideal types of rule accepted as rightful: traditional (custom and heredity), charismatic (personal exceptionality) and legal-rational (rules and office).

Lukes' three faces of power

Power as visible decision-making, as non-decision-making that keeps issues off the agenda, and as shaping others' preferences so they accept their situation.

Hegemony

Gramsci's concept of domination secured through consent and cultural leadership, exercised by the state and civil society rather than by coercion alone.

Polyarchy

Dahl's term for actually existing democracy, defined by competitive elections, inclusive suffrage, free expression, alternative information and associational autonomy.

Democratic backsliding

Incremental erosion of accountability, judicial independence and civil liberties by elected leaders, often through legal means, producing competitive authoritarianism.

Consensual democracy

Lijphart's model of power-sharing through proportional representation, coalition cabinets, federalism and strong parliaments, contrasted with majoritarian democracy.

Descriptive representation

The extent to which representatives share the characteristics of those they represent, such as gender, ethnicity or class, as distinct from acting for their interests.

Mandate versus trustee

Mandate theory holds representatives should follow the platform they were elected on; trustee theory holds they should exercise independent judgement in the public interest.

Gerrymandering

Manipulation of constituency boundaries to favour a party or group, typically by packing opponents into few seats or dispersing them across many.

Difference principle

Rawls' rule that social and economic inequalities are just only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society, chosen behind a veil of ignorance.

Harm principle

Mill's doctrine that interference with individual liberty is justified only to prevent harm to others, not to enforce morality or paternalistic preferences.

Civic versus ethnic nationalism

Civic nationalism defines the nation by shared citizenship, institutions and political values; ethnic nationalism defines it by descent, language or culture.

Gini coefficient

A measure of income or wealth inequality ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (all income held by one person), derived from the Lorenz curve.

Social mobility

Movement between class or income positions, measured within a lifetime (intragenerational) or across generations (intergenerational), in absolute or relative terms.

Intersectionality

Crenshaw's concept that race, gender, class and other social positions interact to produce distinct experiences of advantage and disadvantage, not simply additive effects.

Social identity theory

Tajfel's account that group membership shapes self-concept and generates in-group favouritism and out-group bias, even with arbitrary group boundaries.

Multiculturalism

A policy orientation recognising and accommodating cultural, religious or linguistic difference in public institutions, contrasted with assimilation into a dominant culture.

Imagined communities

Anderson's argument that nations are socially constructed communities imagined through print capitalism, shared narratives and symbols rather than face-to-face ties.

Welfare regimes

Esping-Andersen's typology of liberal, conservative-corporatist and social-democratic welfare states, distinguished by decommodification, stratification and state-market relations.

Public goods

Goods that are non-excludable and non-rival, such as defence or street lighting, which markets tend to underprovide and states often fund.

Monetarism

A macroeconomic doctrine holding that controlling the money supply is the primary tool against inflation, associated with Friedman and adopted by central banks.

Social capital

Putnam's term for networks, norms and trust that enable cooperation; bonding capital ties similar people, bridging capital links diverse groups.

Resource mobilisation

A social movement theory explaining protest success by access to money, members, skills, infrastructure and organisational capacity rather than grievance alone.

Agenda setting

The media's influence over which issues audiences consider important, distinct from framing, which shapes how those issues are understood.

Democratic peace theory

The liberal claim that democracies rarely or never fight one another, explained by domestic accountability, shared norms and institutional constraints.

Comparative advantage

Ricardo's principle that states gain from trade by specialising in goods they produce at lower opportunity cost, even if less efficient in absolute terms.

Responsibility to protect

A norm that sovereignty entails responsibility to protect populations from mass atrocities, permitting international action when a state fails.

Political obligation

Theories explaining why citizens owe obedience to the state, including social contract, fair play, natural duty and consent-based accounts.