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Selectorate Theory
A way of theorizing regime type.
- Assumes:
- -Political leaders want to gain and maintain office.
- -Political competition is always present, even in authoritarian regimes.
1. Strong economic performance is a good way to maintain power. Something that benefits everyone.
2. Buying off supporters is another alternative. Providing selective benefits to a small subset of people.
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selectorate theory
characterizes all governments by their location in a two-dimensional institutional space; on dimension is the size of the selectorate, and the second dimension is the size of the winning coalition; according to this theory, political leaders must keep members of their winning coalition happy to stay in power
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winning coalition
includes those people whose support is necessary for the leader to stay in power; always large in democracies and small in dictatorships
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Informateur
examines politically feasible coalitions and nominates a formateur
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Legislative Responsibility
Refers to a situation in which a legislative majority has the constitutional power- a vote of no confidence- to remove a government from office without cause
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A vote of no confidence
Initiated by the legislature; if the government does not obtain a legislative majority in this vote, it must resign
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Cohabition
A president from one political bloc and prime minister from another-occurs when the party of the president does not control a majority in the legislature and is not represented in the cabinet
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Legislative Coalition
Voting bloc composed of legislators who support a piece of legislation
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Caretaker Government
Occurs when an election is called or when an incumbent government either resigns or is defeated in a vote of no confidence. It rules the country for an interim period until a new government is formed
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Ministerial responsibilty
the constitutional doctrine by which cabinet ministers must bear ultimate responsibility for what happens
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Investiture vote
formal vote in the legislature to determine whether a proposed government can take office
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Gamson's Law
Cabinet portfolios will be distributed among government parties in strict proportion to the number of seats that each party contributes to the governments legislative majority
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Connected Coalition
member parties are located directly next to each other in the policy space
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delegation
occurs when one person or group called the principal relies one another person or group
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principal-agent or delegation problem
refers to the difficulties that arise when a principal delegates authority to an agent who potentially has different goals than the principal and cannot be perfectly monitored
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moral hazard
occurs when the agent has the opportunity to take actions that are hidden from the principal
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District Magnitude
the number of seats allocated to each district
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Alternative vote
system of preferential voting
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Two Round System
If no candidate wins an absolute majority, then a second election takes place, winner of second round is elected.
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natural
exists as a mathematical property of the E.S.
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closed party list
candidates are ranked by the party, and voters are not able to express a preference for a particular candidate.
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open party list
voters can indicate not just their preferred party but also their favored candidate within the party
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disadvantages of open party list
diminished partisanship among voters and legislators
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advantages of open party list
proportionally, higher identifiability because voters select candidates
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disadvantages of closed party list
weak connection between constituents and representative, low identifiability
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advantages of closed party list
easy to understand, promotes strong partisanship, a diversity of opinions will be represented
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strategic voting
the practice of voting a way that does not reflect one's ideal preference, in order to prevent electoral outcomes one thinks are worse, such as voting for a second-best candidate one thinks can reasonably win
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mixed electoral system
is an electoral system that combines a plurality/majoritarian voting system with an element of proportional representation (PR).[1][2][3] The plurality/majoritarian component is usually first-past-the-post voting (FPTP),[4] whereas the proportional component is most often based on party list PR.[5] A distinguishing characteristic of mixed systems is the fact that every voter can influence both the plurality/majoritarian and PR aspects of an election.[6] In a hybrid system, by contrast, different electoral formulas are used in different regions of a country.[
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hegemonic electoral regime
- (a type of electoral authoritarian regime)
- one in which the leader's party routinely wins with overwhelming majorities
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Electoral Volatility
"the net change within the electoral party system resulting from individual vote transfer
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