PSC

• Bottom-up transitions 
• Top-down transitions 
• External imposition

one in which the people rise unto overthrow an authoritarian regime in a popular revolution

one in which the dictatorial ruling elite introduces liberalizing reforms that ultimately lead to a democratic transition

• "economic restructuring"
• reform policy aimed at liberalizing and regenerating the Soviet economy
• A restructuring of the Soviet economy to permit more local decision making, begun by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.

The pursuit of some objective by groups of individuals. Typically, the objective is some form of public good.

• Goods that are 
• nonexcludable: you cannot exclude people from enjoying the public good
• nonrivalrous: there is just as much public good for people to enjoy no matter how many people consume it

when one person's participation triggers the participation of another, which triggers the participation of another, and so on

• the size of protest at which an individual is willing to participate
• Everybody has a different revolutionary threshold.
• The distribution of revolutionary thresholds is crucial in determining whether a revolution occurs or not.

refers to the surge in democratic transitions that have occurred around the world since 1974

• Goods that are 
• nonexcludable: you cannot exclude people from enjoying the public good
• nonrivalrous: there is just as much public good for people to enjoy no matter how many people consume it

describes the process by which scientists learn about the world.

a statement that is true by definition.

a set of logically consistent statements that tell us why the things that we observe occur. A theory is sometimes referred to as a model or an explanation.

potentially testable

a state-like entity that cannot coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given territory

view of the state that sees the creation of the state as resulting from a social contract between individuals in the state of nature in which the state provides security in exchange for obedience from the citizen

holds that states that exercise an effective control over the use of violence are in a position to threaten the security of citizens; this makes it possible for them to exploit the citizens that, according to the contractarian view of the state they have a duty to protect

a term used to describe situations in which there is no state

an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory

an implicit agreement among individuals in the state of nature to create and empower the state; in doing so, it outlines the rights and responsibilities of the state and the citizens in regard to each other

predicts that democracy is more likely to emerge and survive as countries develop and become richer

the starting point for any statistical analysis which makes some falsifiable claim about the world

an outcome or thing we want to explain

what we think will explain, or determine the value of, the dependent variable

treat culture as something that is objective and inherited - something that has been fixed since "primordial" times

argues that socioeconomic development does not directly cause democracy, instead economic development produces certain cultural changes, such as the emergence of a civic culture, and it is these cultural changes that ultimately produce democratic reforms

a political regime with high levels of both contestation and inclusion.

classifies political regimes in regard to the outcomes that they produce.

"openness", a reform policy aimed at increasing political openness

refers to the fact that individual members of a group often have little incentive to contribute to the provision of a public good that will benefit all members of the group

democracy in which the people or citizens of the state have less influence than in traditional liberal democracies. This type of democracy is characterized by voters choosing to elect representatives in free elections.