Pol Sci 101 Midterm

• process by which groups of people make collective decisions
• generally applied to the art or sciences of running government or state affairs

• a specialized group of individuals, institutions, and agencies that makes and enforces public decisions
• this is a narrow definition

• the joining of forces by two or more parties during a conflict of interest with other parties
• involves conflict and cooperation
• formed in politics to exclude others and exercise power over them

• 1. small-scale setting, coalitions based on personal relationships (ex. within a party caucus in the parliamentary system)
• 2. formal alliances of organizations (ex. NATO, cabinet coalitions [ex. BC NDP and Green Party])
• 3. less formally, the coalitions of people that back certain political parties (ex. classic republican supporters being groups of white, rural, business people)

the social ability to induce others to do what you want

• influence
• coercion
• authority

• the ability to persuade others to d your will
• the targets of persuasion act voluntarily

• deliberate subjection of one's will to another through fear or harm or threats of harm
• compliance is not voluntary
• can take many forms: violence, inprisonment, monetary penalties, strikes

violence against the government

• form of power where people obey commands because they respect the source of command
• the one who issues the command is accepted as having a right to do so
• the ones who receive the command accept they have the obligation to do so

• when one person spontaneously defers to the judgement of another
• human tendencies to follow and imitate as well as lead and initiate
• ex. smaller kids tagging after bigger kids

• deliberately created by humans
• ex. police officers hold public authority through their position, uniform, title
• public authority survives only as long as it has some degree of legitimacy in society

• the feeling of respect for authority that exists in those who obey
• acceptance of command

coersion

authoritative force

• traditional authority
• legal authority
• charismatic authority

• Max Weber
• domination based on inherited position
• regarded as legitimate because it has the sanction and prestige of tradition
• ex. feudal system of medieval Europe

• Max Weber
• general rules bind all participants in the system
• authority exercised only when called for by these rules
• ex. in Canada, the legal system derives authority from loyalty to the constitution, which is a legal system stronger than any individual

traditional authority by legal authority

• based on the projection and perception of extraordinary personal qualities
• these leaders often had transcendental claims to authority which often placed them in conflict with traditional or legal authorities
• ex. Joan of Arc, Louis Riel
• modern examples: Barack Obama

• "who is superior"
• highest or supreme political authority

• internally, refers to the highest governmental authority in a territorial state
• externally, refers to independence from control by other states (most frequent use of the term today)

• highest court in the land
• can't bind its successors in any way

• supreme authority residing in the consent of the people
• the literal definition of this is very hard to obtain

• exists when a sovereign power effectively rules over a population residing within the boundaries of a fixed territory
• needs to be recognized by other states as a state

population, territory, sovereignty

• have an apparatus of government, but have lost the ability to effectively control the territory over which they claim sovereignty 
• ex. Somalia

• membership of the state
• in the classical polis sense: right to participate in public affairs, vote, hold public office - applied to free adult males
• in the modern sense: universal, right to live within the territorial boundaries of the state, right to participate in politics

• jus soli
• jus sanguinis

• right of soil
• anyone born in the boundaries of the state automatically becomes a citizen
• ex. US?

• right of blood
• only the children of citizens acquire citizenship by birth

those in which the national identity depends primarily on objective factors such as language, race, religion

identify depends primarily on acceptance of political order

• ex. francophones of Canada
• since they could have become sovereign nations if history had gone differently, they unsurprisingly cling to their identifies and insist upon their national status

• ex. North American Aboriginal ppl
• didn't originally describe themselves as nations bc 'nations' are a European construct
• but may claim national status to gain political power

• ex. Italian-Canadians or Chinese-Canadians
• may come from well-established national communities like China, but when they voluntarily move to another country, they generally are thought to have given up claim to national status in their new homelands

• exist where the limits of common identity coincide with the boundaries of sovereign authority
• ex. Iceland, Sweden

• two or more nations exist under a single government
• from one point of view, Canada could be a binational state - a partnership of English Canadians and French Canadians, enriched by presence of indigenous peoples and immigrants

• ex. North and South Korea
• Ease and West Germany in 1945-1990

• older, found in all societies, arises gradually and can't be traced to an identifiable moment in time
• represent reason rather than command because no one actually issued the laws

newer kind of law, conscientiously formulated and deliberately constructed

• essentially the sum of a vast number of past cases decided by English courts since the Middle Ages
• application yields results, which then serve as a model (or precedence) for later cases
• allows the law to grow in an orderly and predictable way

flexibility

particular piece of legislation (conscientious creation of law)

legal code, comprehensive set of interrelated rules

• a mixed legal system
• mixture of common law and some private law (ex. Quebec has codified law, criminal law is codified)

• deals with the relationships of individuals with one another
• ex. contracts

• can foresee situations and try to prevent conflicts
• common-law is more reactive, takes longer to change

rules of conduct binding by virtue of human rationality alone

a law that is formally made or put into place ("posited") by state authority

• rights that all human beings are supposed to enjoy simply by virtue of being a human
• ex. freedom of religion, to marry, to have kids, form torture and arbitrary imprisonment 
• widely accepted in theory but often violated in practice

set of fundamental rules and principles by which a state is organized

• a practice or custom that is consistently followed by those in government even though it isn't legally required
• must exist for a good reason, and those who follow it must be aware that they are following a rational rule

• unwritten/uncodified
• not written down in a single place, must be pieced together from many different sources

• Great Charter
• oldest textual statute, established the principle that the sovereign had to rule within the law of the land

• written
• one systematic, deliberately designed document

• hybrid
• no central document like the American constitution, but does have a substantial written core that consists of a series of statues enacted over a long period of time

• unanimous procedure
• general procedure
• bilateral procedure

for certain fundamental matters, the agreement of all provincial legislative assemblies must be added to that of the senate and the house of commons

requires resolutions of the legislatures of at least 2/3 of the provinces, containing themselves 50% of the population of the provinces, and the consent of the senate and house of commons

• the belief that the government is not the controlling force of society but an instrument within it
• thinks government exercises powers of authority and coercion for the general welfare by doing things other agencies can't do 
• government is still part of society

• -> limited government
• a state restricted in its exercise of power by a constitution and a rule of law

• belief that all actions, of both individuals and governments, are subject to an institutionalized set of rules and regulations
• protects citizens against the abuse of power by laying down a set of procedures governing the use and alleged misuse of coercive power

the person to be punished must have committed a specified act that violates known laws

the flexibility afforded government to decide something within the broader framework of the rules

voluntary acceptance of the legal penalties that may be imposed for breaking unjust laws in order to highlight the coercive nature of a regime, typified by passive resistance

decentralized system without a true government

tells states what limits are set on their actions by the legal rights of others

legally-binding international agreements

a system of formal, regularized communication that allows states to peacefully conduct their business with each other

help states pool their resources and information, coordinate their activities, provide collective action, and discuss problems

• a pattern of regular cooperation governed by implicit and explicit expectations between two or more states
• can be formalized in law, associated with intergovernmental organizations, or be less formal and consist of concepts and modes of behaviour

• tells coastal states and states with vessels sailing the seas which rights and obligations they have
• works at preserving the freedom of navigation while trying to meet the needs of coastal states

• exclusive economic zone
• part of UNCLOS III, gives coastal states 200 nautical miles from shore where they get preferential rights over resources in the water column of that zone

up to 12 nautical miles from coast

commitment by a number of states to join in an alliance against member states that threaten the peace

the theory that international security is best maintained when all states have comparable military strength, so no individual state can dominate the others

• the pattern of beliefs, preferences, and practices of a people
• shaped by the family, religion, and politics

part of culture having to do with government and politics, includes the attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms that people have developed toward government and politics

• parochial culture
• subject culture
• participatory culture

people hold rather negative views of government and as a result participate little in the political system

people hold positive opinions about government but remain largely uninvolved

people expect to participate in politics and that government will be responsive to citizen demands

• ensures democratic stability
• a mix of all three parochial, subject, and participatory political cultures to ensure some people challenge authority that is offset by the obedience of others, participation of some is offset by the apathy of others

• unified
• broad agreement on basic social values and active citizen engagement based on a strong sense of efficacy
• participatory action seen to pay off
• disagreements don't lead to violence, they occur at the policy level
• ex. Canada, US, France

• display high levels of citizen engagement, but combined with relatively low levels of agreement on 'rules of the game'
• disagreement and disunity is normal
• politics is often violent, governments are rarely stable
• ex. Rwanda and Bosnia in the past

• same broad agreement on social values as polyarchal cultures, but combined with little citizen engagement
• stems from the thought that engagement is fruitless or can be dangerous
• ex. North Korea, Cuba

the shift in values since the late 1940s from public order and material prosperity to self-fulfillment

those who are motivated primarily by personal and economic security

• the social networks and levels of trust and reciprocity that exist in a community
• greater the level of community interaction and trust, greater the democratic health of that community is likely to be

• the means by which a political culture is transmitted from generation to generation
• determining how and when young people learn about politics, become interested in politics, decide whether to engage in political and civic life

government, politics

trying to be fair to everyone in the political system, everyone gets the same resources/share of the political pie

in order for you to be just in the allocation of scarce resources, you need to be discriminatory in your allocation

• the process by which an adult is granted citizenship
• ex. taking a citizenship test

punishment of those who violate the norms of society

compensation for those who have been harmed by rule breakers

change in conduct facilitated in the rule breaker

rule breakers are deterred by fear