PSC exam

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.

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

includes those people whose support is necessary for the leader to stay in power; always large in democracies and small in dictatorships

examines politically feasible coalitions and nominates a formateur

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

Initiated by the legislature; if the government does not obtain a legislative majority in this vote, it must resign

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

Voting bloc composed of legislators who support a piece of legislation

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

the constitutional doctrine by which cabinet ministers must bear ultimate responsibility for what happens

formal vote in the legislature to determine whether a proposed government can take office

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

member parties are located directly next to each other in the policy space

occurs when one person or group called the principal relies one another person or group

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

occurs when the agent has the opportunity to take actions that are hidden from the principal

the number of seats allocated to each district

system of preferential voting

If no candidate wins an absolute majority, then a second election takes place, winner of second round is elected.

legally imposed

exists as a mathematical property of the E.S.

candidates are ranked by the party, and voters are not able to express a preference for a particular candidate.

voters can indicate not just their preferred party but also their favored candidate within the party

diminished partisanship among voters and legislators

proportionally, higher identifiability because voters select candidates

weak connection between constituents and representative, low identifiability

easy to understand, promotes strong partisanship, a diversity of opinions will be represented

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

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.[

• (a type of electoral authoritarian regime) 
• one in which the leader's party routinely wins with overwhelming majorities

"the net change within the electoral party system resulting from individual vote transfer