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types of democratic transitions
- Bottom-up transitions
- Top-down transitions
- External imposition
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bottom-up democratic transition
one in which the people rise unto overthrow an authoritarian regime in a popular revolution
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top-down democratic transition
one in which the dictatorial ruling elite introduces liberalizing reforms that ultimately lead to a democratic transition
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perestroika
- "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.
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Collective action
The pursuit of some objective by groups of individuals. Typically, the objective is some form of public good.
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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
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Revolutionary cascade
when one person's participation triggers the participation of another, which triggers the participation of another, and so on
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Revolutionary threshold
- 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.
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third wave of democratization
refers to the surge in democratic transitions that have occurred around the world since 1974
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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
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scientific method
describes the process by which scientists learn about the world.
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tautology
a statement that is true by definition.
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theory
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.
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falsifiable
potentially testable
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failed state
a state-like entity that cannot coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given territory
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contractarian view
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
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predatory view of the state
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
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state of nature
a term used to describe situations in which there is no state
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state
an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory
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social contract
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
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modernization theory
predicts that democracy is more likely to emerge and survive as countries develop and become richer
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hypothesis
the starting point for any statistical analysis which makes some falsifiable claim about the world
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dependent variable
an outcome or thing we want to explain
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independent/explanatory variable
what we think will explain, or determine the value of, the dependent variable
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primordialist arguments
treat culture as something that is objective and inherited - something that has been fixed since "primordial" times
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cultural modernization theory
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
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polyarchy
a political regime with high levels of both contestation and inclusion.
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substantive view of democracy
classifies political regimes in regard to the outcomes that they produce.
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glasnost
"openness", a reform policy aimed at increasing political openness
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collective action/free rider problem
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
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Procedural democrac
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.
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