POL 202 Chapter 6-11 Review

Which of the following is not necessarily true of authoritarian states?

- Authoritarian states avoid holding elections at all costs.

Causes and Effects: What explains Patterns of Representation?

-A function of legislatures is representation which can be conceptualized in different ways and the natures and quality of representation are affected by several factors -Electoral systems can result in representation based on individuals, parties or some mix of the two -Legislatures vary in the ways they function internally and this too affects how they represent the populace -Executive- legislative relations also affect patterns of representation

Concepts

-Democracy has numerous meanings -One major distinction is between procedural and substantive definitions of democracy -Regime change can include both the development of democracy and the breakdown if an exciting democratic regime

Concepts

-Legislatures are deliberate bodies that are the foundation of modern governments -Legislatures pass laws and make policy but they also lead public debate and have responsible for overseeing the executive and other functions

Types

-Legislatures can be bicameral or unicameral -Legislative are elected by single members districts (SMD), Proportional Representation (PR) and mixed or hybrid systems -There are several different patterns of interaction between legislative and executives

Types

-Types of democracy include both representative and direct forms -Democratization can be thought of in terms of both democratic transition and democratic consolidation

What do political scientists mean when they refer to a country's regime?

A form or type of governmental system emphasizing rules and institutions

Which of the following characteristics would qualify a regime as totalitarian?

A police state that aims to monitor and control all speech

What is a referendum?

A popular vote on a specific issue

Which of the following is not an example of direct democracy?

A primary

Which of the following is true?

All totalitarian regimes are authoritarian.

many different possible transitions between regime types other than democratization.

Authoritarian regimes can persist can give way to other authoritarian regimes or can turn to hybrid regimes while democracies can break down and move toward authoritarian or hybrid regimes

Which of the following is not necessarily true of authoritarian states?

Authoritarian states avoid holding elections at all costs.

Concepts

Authoritarianism refers to political systems that are hierarchically ordered and have relatively closed decision making processes

Which of the following is not likely to be included in defining substantive democracy?

Availability of free education and job opportunities to everyone

Which scholar credits class structure as the key factor in determining which type of political regime forms?

Barrington Moore

Which of the following countries has pioneered experiments with direct democracy at the local level through participatory budgeting?

Brazil

Which of the following is rare in single-member district systems?

Closed-list proportional representation

Which of the following would be the best characterization of historical-institutional accounts of regime types?

Coalitions of actors at different historical moments may help account for the persistence or collapse of regime types.

Which of the following best describes the current regime of the United States?

Constitutional republic

Which of the following best describes authoritarian persistence?

Continuation of a single authoritarian regime, or the substitution by another

Which of the following theories is most closely associated with Barrington Moore?

Democracy only happens in societies after the emergence of a bourgeoisie.

Which of the following claims is valid?

Democratic breakdown can yield either an authoritarian or a hybrid regime.

_______ refers to an initial shift from an authoritarian to a democratic regime.

Democratic transition

Which of the following claims about the causes of democratization is supported by some social scientists?

Democratization and democratic consolidation depend heavily on the existence of a strong middle class.

Culture is best described as

Dynamic

Which of the following typically characterizes voting in democratic legislatures?

Each member's vote is equal, but committees and parties shape voting agendas.

Which of the following represents a key idea in the modernization theory of democratization?

Economic development favors democracy.

Which of the following contemporary states could be considered an authoritarian regime?

Egypt

Which of the following characteristics might be a key feature of a regime that is authoritarian, but not necessarily totalitarian?

Elections are not held or are deeply flawed and fraudulent.

Which of the following best summarizes Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson?

Elites may favor repression over democracy if it will protect their privileges.

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson's book Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy can best be captured by this statement:

Elites may favor repression over democracy to protect their interests.

Which of the following countries experienced dramatic democratic breakdown in the first half of the twentieth century?

Germany

Which of the following countries uses a hybrid voting system that has a variable number of seats in the legislature to achieve proportionality?

Germany

Which of the following theories attempts to explain authoritarianism as a function of institutional arrangements and coalitions established at critical junctures in the past?

Historical institutionalist theories

Some political scientists describe the regime of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela as a(n) _______ regime.

Hybrid Competitive-authoritarian Electoral authoritarian

A country that combines elements of authoritarianism with some democratic features is considered a(n)

Hybrid regime

Questions designed to get at what likely might happen under certain circumstances are called

Hypotheticals

Which characteristic is not representative of both right- and left-wing populism?

Institutional arrangements are not the products of ideologically different actors pursuing their interests.

_______ is an example of a country with a hybrid system with both district-based constituencies and proportional representation in its lower chamber.

Japan

What do political scientists tend to think about the role of individual leaders in democratization?

Leaders sometimes matter, but they act against the backdrop of structural conditions.

Which of the following is not true of legislatures?

Legislatures are responsible for enforcing laws.

The United States Senate is known for its

Malapportionment

Causes and effects: What causes authoritarian regimes to emerge and persist?

Many theories about this such as theories historical factors, poverty and inequality, state weakness, political cultures and impediments to collective action

Competitive authoritarianism describes

Mexico before 2000.

The Japanese Diet uses what form of electoral system?

Mixed single-member district and proportional representation

Which of the following is typically considered part of procedural definitions of democracy?

Multiple competitors must be allowed.

If we don't know which theory offers the best explanation for the case(s) we are studying, are we stuck?

No, having many possible answers is often a sign of a good question-it's open-ended and not self-evident.

Which of the following would be considered a totalitarian regime?

North Korea

What do many consider an important advantage of proportional representation?

PR systems tend to involve political representation for a wider range of views.

According to most definitions, which of the following does a country definitely need to have in order to be a democracy?

Periodic elections

Which of the following is not a threat to democratic consolidation?

Political rights and civil liberties permitting a plurality of political parties to compete

Modernization theory argues that economic development predicts democratic status, yet India is relatively poor and a democracy. What does this mean?

Proponents of modernization theory should clarify how frequently they think development and democracy are related.

Which of the following states could be considered a hybrid or competitive authoritarian regime?

Russia

The idea that economic development leads to the creation of a strong middle class, which in turn promotes democratization and democratic stability, is attributed to which academic?

Seymour Martin Lipset

Which of the following forms of voting necessarily requires ranking candidates?

Single transferable vote

Which of the following ideas best describes cultural theories of democratization?

Some cultural traditions, beliefs, attitudes, and values might encourage democracy more than others.

Which type of democracy extends broad rights to the citizenry and reduces income inequality?

Substantive

What would a political scientist encourage with respect to data?

Take all relevant data into account and try to apply theory that can best account for it.

Gary Cox and Matthew McCubbins argue that

The U.S. House conducts business in ways that may be considered a "legislative cartel."

Which of the following contemporary states witnessed a gradual process of democratization and democratic consolidation over centuries?

The United Kingdom

What is a main reason for conducting within-case analysis?

The analyst wishes to trace causal processes over time.

What does the term "horse-trading" refer to in regards to legislation?

The exchanges and compromises that take place between legislators to garner votes

Which of the following would be the clearest example of a personalist regime?

The former Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1970s to the 1990s

Which aspect of the government is generally the most reflective of the political distribution of the population at large?

The lower house or chamber of the legislature

Thinking Comparatively

Theories about the causes of authorianism may all find some supporting evidence and a useful strategy to judge the power of theories for specific research questions is also to consider how evidence may disconfirm a theory

In general, which of the following is not true of congresses?

They are elected from independents, not members of political parties.

What do elections in New Zealand and Germany have in common?

They both use mixed member proportional representation.

Open-list proportional representation uses which of the following procedures?

Vote for individuals, but aggregation of the vote by parties

Which of the following ideas best describes systemic and global approaches to the study of democracy and democratization?

Waves of democratization respond not just to domestic factors but also to international patterns.

Thinking Comparatively

We looked at several key sequences in the history of democratization in the US and introduced the concept of within case analysis

In both Germany and New Zealand, the structure of the electoral systems provides each voter with 2 votes, representing

a local candidate and party vote

The U.S. Congress is more _______ in setting the policy agenda, whereas the British Parliament is _______.

active; reactive

Personalistic dictatorships centered

around individual actors

Traditional oligarchies, empires, monarchies, and sultanates are all examples of _______ regimes.

authoritarian

The continuation of a single authoritarian regime, or the substitution of another, is called

authoritarian persistence.

bureaucratic authoritarian regimes

centered around groups such as the military

A clique of individuals who dominate a single political party governs a state. They hold elections every few years, but the resources of the state give them huge advantages, and they use a variety of formal and informal techniques to ensure that they virtually always win these elections. Such a regime would be an example of a

competitive authoritarian regime

Some theories place more emphasis on

contingency agents and institutional design

Totalitarian regimes that attempt to

control entire societies through ideology

A collapse of democracy is called

democratic breakdown

Systemic and structural theories say that

democratization is more a function of factors operative at the level of the international system and that things happening within societies. The theories focus, among other things on waves of democratization and of democratic breakdown

Ballot initiatives, referendums, and recall can all be considered part of

direct democracy

All contemporary democracies have

elected legislators

Scholars have developed a number of theories to

explain why democratization takes places when and where it does, The most famous is modernization theory which predicts that economic development increases the likelihood of democratization

Russia's government, which combines elements of authoritarianism and democracy, could be defined as a _______ regime.

hybrid

The theory that traces democracy to broad social changes and economic development is known as _______ theory.

modernization

An electoral system in which voters choose individual candidates, but candidates' votes are combined with those for other members of their party, and seats are allocated based on the parties' performances is called

open-list Proportional Representation

Another theory is that

political culture shapes the possibilities for democracy and democratization and that some political cultures increase the possibility of the establishment and persistence of authoritarian regimes as well

A _______ is a popular vote on a specific issue placed on the ballot by a legislature.

referendum

A(n) _______ is a type of governmental system emphasizing various rules and institutions.

regime

Malapportionment in upper chambers in federal states often disadvantages

small and less populous states

Participation, social inclusion, equity, equality, and accountability are part of a _______ definition of democracy.

substantive

The power of the legislature to allocate resources is called

the "power of the purse."

The event that precipitated Indonesia's transition to democracy was

the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis.

Democratization is defined as

the process of a regime becoming more democratic.

Two basic types of legislature are

unicameral and bicameral.

Indirect election for legislators would be most common in

upper chambers in federal systems.

The presence of _______ will increase legislative leverage over the executive.

votes of no confidence in parliamentary systems

When comparativists use _______ analysis, they are trying to get leverage on some key variation.

within-case