Matty
03-27-2005, 07:01 PM
For each chapter, I need to write 3-4 paragraphs on a current news topic using as many chapter terms as possible. I need to describe a problem posed in the article, detail 3 or more alternative solutions, pick a best solution, and defend it.
One internet source is all that is needed (provided it's credible like AP or Reuters).
Any help would be appreciated.
Chapter 6 – Political Choices: The Problems of Justice and Efficiency
Justice A situation in which people are treated as they deserve
Substantive justice - A concept of justice that emphasizes people receiving what they need and deserve, whether on the basis of the contributions they make to common efforts, of their need for the reward, or of at least approximate equality of treatment.
Procedural justice - A concept of justice less concerned with fairness of distribution to the people than with the procedures by which decisions are reached about them.
Arbitrary action – An Action that is taken capriciously. The people affected do not know what to expect before the action and do not learn afterward the grounds on which the action was chosen.
Due process - An expectation that certain procedures must always be followed in making a policy and that if they were not, the policy should be void.
Efficient policy - A policy that produces the greatest good at the least cost.
Incrementalism – A policy of making decisions cautiously and implementing them through small staged changes rather than in bold sweeps.
Radical – Making decisions in bold sweeps and changing policies rapidly, so as not to miss opportunities that might disappear if one moved slowly.
Market mechanism – A mechanism whereby social choice results from choices of all members of the collectivity rather than from a decision made by the central governing unit.
Public good – Something that benefits all members of the collectivity and that no one can be prevented from using. It is usually chosen by governmental authority because it is difficult to get individuals voluntarily to pay part of the cost of the good.
Externality – A situation in which there are social costs or benefits beyond the individual costs and benefits involved in a transaction.
Chapter 7 – Authority and Legitimacy: The State and the Citizen
Authority – Power based on a general agreement that the holder of the power has the right to issue certain commands and that those commands should be obeyed.
Legitimacy – A belief on the part of large numbers of people in a state that the existing governmental structure and/or the particular persons in office should appropriately wield authority.
Social capital – The interwoven network of associational activities (clubs, churches, civic associations, neighborhoods, etc.) through which people are involved in their communities and build a reservoir of trust and positive expectations about collective action.
Political culture – The attitudes and beliefs held communally by a people, forming the basis for their political behavior.
Political socialization – The process of learning the facts, assumptions, and attitudes we use in responding to politics, especially the politics of the state.
Agents of socialization – Those who carry out political socialization: parents, schools, media, friendship groups, etc. The impacts of an agent of socialization on one’s political knowledge and viewpoints is a function of (a) the agent’s relevance to politics, and (b) the agent’s credibility.
Chapter 8 – Democracy and Autocracy
Democracy – A state in which qualified citizens vote at regular intervals to choose, among alternative candidates, the people who will be in charge of setting the state’s policies.
Autocracy – A governmental arrangement in which those who hold power did not gain power by any regular constitutional process and are not responsible in their exercise of power to any formal set of rules.
Coup – The forceful deposition of a government by all or a portion of the armed forces and installation of a new military government.
Military government – An autocracy in which military officers rule, perhaps with the help of appointed civilians, but without any sort of auxiliary structure such as a political party.
One-party state – A state in which the government is based on, and in turn supports, a single political party. No other party is allowed to function in other than a token way.
Court politics - The political process in a state where great power is vested in a single person, as in traditional monarchy or in a personal dictatorship.
Chapter 9 – Constitutions and the Design of Government
Constitution – A set of rules by which power is distributed in a political group, such as the sate. This usually consists in part of a formal set of rules, but it always contains various informal mechanisms, traditions, and understanding by which power is assigned to people.
Incentive compatibility – A situation in which those who make decisions on behalf of society benefit personally when their decisions benefit society. When incentive compatibility is present, society does not need to depend on nobility of character in its officials; it can depend on a more reliable force- their concern for their own self-interest.
Federal sate – A state in which the constitution grants to regional governments a legal monopoly over certain political decisions, such as educational policy. Therefore, two different governments will control the same group of people, but with regard to different political questions.
Unitary state – A state in which no other governmental body but the central government has any areas of policy that are exclusively under its control. In a unitary state, local regional governments may potentially be overruled by the central government in any political decision they make.
Constitutionalism – The doctrine that states’ constitutions should be designed fairly, not to give undue advantage to any particular group, and that the government should then be faithful to that constitution. In this way, individuals are protected against arbitrary governmental action.
Chapter 10 - Elections
Referendum – An election in which voters choose directly whether a particular proposal will become law; this contrasts with other kinds of elections in which voters choose among various candidates for a political office.
Electoral system – A set of rules by which the outcomes of an election (asset of officers elected or whatever) is determined from the distribution of votes cast by the electorate.
Proportional representation electoral system – An electoral system in which parties receive a number of seats in the legislature roughly proportional to the number of votes that were cast for them among the electorate.
Single-member-district electoral system – An electoral system in which the state is divided into geographic subdivisions, each subdivision is represented by a single member in the legislature, and the candidate who attains a plurality of votes in that subdivision is the tone who fills the seat.
Paradox of participation – The paradox that no one should vote if their only reason for voting is that they wish to help their favored candidate win. The odds that the rest of the voters will produce a tie are incredibly small, and that is the only circumstance in which the person’s vote will make any difference to the candidate.
Party identification – A personal identification with a political party; not just agreement with its policies or candidates of the moment but an enduring identification with the party itself.
Chapter 11 – Parties: A linking and Leading Mechanism in Politics
Political party – A group of officials or would-be officials who are linked with a sizable group of citizens into an organization; a chief object of this organization is to ensure that its officials attain power or are maintained in power.
Mobilization – The systematic stimulation of concerted effort by large numbers of people, as in elections or demonstrations. This term is used especially in reference to such stimulation conducted on its own behalf by the government.
Party identification - A personal identification with a political party; not just agreement with its policies or candidates of the moment but an enduring identification with the party itself.
Party system – The set of all parties in a state. Political scientists distinguish among such systems primarily by the number and relative size of the parties: for example, two-party systems, multiparty systems, dominant party systems.
One-party system – A political system in which only a single political party is allowed to be active.
Dominant-party system – A political party system in which various parties are allowed to function openly and with reasonable effectiveness but in which a single party nonetheless holds power all the time.
Two-party system – A democratic system in which two parties regularly receive 90 percent or more of votes cast but in which it is rare for either of them to receive more than 55 or 60 percent of the votes. These two parties will replace each other in office fairly frequently.
Multiparty system – A democratic system in which there are more than two major parties.
Chapter 12 – Structured Conflict: Interest Groups and Politics
Interest group – An organized group of citizens that has as one of its goals ensuring tha the state follows certain policies.
Selective incentive – Benefits that an organization offers its members in addition to the central purposes of the organization. A trade union, for example, may offer its members such added benefits as low-cost package vacations.
Institutional interest group – A group that is primarily set up for some purpose other than political activity but becomes politically active to defend its interest in the policy decision of the state.
Sectoral interest group – A group representing a section of the economy. Examples are trade unions, professional associations, corporations, and trade associations.
Promotional interest group – The “typical” interest group- an organized group of citizens, one of whose primary purposes is to affect the policies of the state.
Pluralism – A system of government and interest groups in which all interests organize and compete freely, with no one group dominating, and in which the government is open to the pressure from the groups so that the policy is largely the outcome of groups’ competing pressures.
Neocorporatism – A system of government and interest groups in which all interests are organized but- instead of responding to groups’ pressures- the government actively involves the groups themselves in the job of governing. This active governmental role distinguishes neocorporatism from pluralism.
Chapter 13 – Social Movements and Contentious Politics
Social movement – A loosely organized group of people who ordinarily have little power but challenge the state power- usually through disruption and sometimes violently. The object of a social movement is usually an emotional issue, which may range from a very local question such as the location of a new highway all the way up to the constitution or identity of the state.
Crisis transitions – Transitions from an autocratic to a democratic system that take place in the context of an economic crisis.
Pacts – In general, agreements; specifically, with regard to democratization, agreements between the leaders of the new democracy and supporters of the older authoritarian system that soften the change for the latter and help them to accept the democracy.
Chapter 14 – National Decision-Making Institutions: Parliamentary Government
Parliamentary government – A democracy in which the executive and legislative functions are merged in one institution, the parliament. The parliament is the state’s supreme legislature, but it also appoints a committee (the cabinet) to serve as the political executive for the state.
Cabinet – The executive portion of a parliamentary government. It consists of ministers, most of whom are usually members of the parliament. Each minister is responsible for the administration of some part of the government’s services, such as health or defense. The cabinet leads the parliament, proposing legislation, conducting the country’s foreign policy, and so on. It serves at the pleasure of the parliament and can be ousted by a majority vote of no confidence.
Coalition – A tactical combination of varied groups, constructed so that the groups will combination be large enough to command power that they can then share among themselves. Frequently applied to parliamentary government, in which 50 percent of the votes in parliament are required to form a cabinet but in which it may be necessary to combine two or more parties to amass 50 percent of the votes.
Question time – A device, originating in the British House of Commons and since imitated in many parliaments, by which cabinet members appear regularly in the parliament to answer questions from members about the administration of their offices. These questions and answers often spark hot debate.
Legislative committees -
Chapter 15 – National decision-Making Institutions: Presidential Government
Presidential government – A democratic system in which the legislature and executive exist independently and are elected independently of each other. The president takes a leading role in forming policy but must have the consent of the legislature if that policy is to be enacted. A presidential system divides power, whereas a parliamentary system unifies it.
Constitutional review – A system under which a judicial or quasi-judicial part of the government can annul acts of other parts of the government if, in its judgment, those acts violate the constitution of the state.
Chapter 16 – Bureaucracy and the Public Sector
Public administration – The set of people who are not involved directly in the making of major political decisions but who construct and implement the policies that carry out those decisions. Examples are police officers, public health nurses, I.R.S. agents, and public university presidents.
Bureaucracy – A way of organizing the public administration that emphasizes professionalism, recruitment, and promotion on the basis of merit, standardization of procedures, and the smooth flow of commands.
Hierarchical command structure – An organization in which there is a single, branching path of power by which a person at the top of the structure issues a command to a set of people at the second tier, each of those in turn passes the command on to a set of people in the next tier, and so on. No commands can move up the structure, and no commands can move laterally across a tier. Bureaucracies are organized hierarchically.
Ombudsman – A government official whose primary duty is to seek out citizens’ complaints of abuse by public administrators and to negotiate changes in the offending practices.
Representative bureaucracy – The idea that members of the public administration should be similar to the groups they serve in such characteristics as class, race, and gender, so that they will be able to serve them better.
Higher civil service – Specialized and executive members of the public administration, corresponding to professionals and managers in the private sector.
Chapter 17 – Law and the Courts
Case law – A legal system emphasizing the independence of the judiciary from the rest of the government. Under case law, the ongoing stream of prior decisions (precedents) becomes an important par t of current law. Predominant in Britain and its former colonies.
Code law – A legal system emphasizing a relative subordination of the judiciary to the rest of the government. Legal interpretation consists primarily of reading and applying codes of legal statue passed by the parliament, rather than looking to the precedent of prior court decision. Used in various forms in most parts of the world except Britain and its former colonies.
Law – A collection of rules laid down by the government, binding all members of the state, including members of the government itself. The law includes both criminal law and civil law.
Legal systems – General, organized sets of legal principles
Courts – Governmental institutions charged with interpreting the law.
Habeas corpus – The right not to be held indefinitely by the police without being formally charged with a crime.
Sharia – Islamic law, based on a set of rules for moral conduct developed over the first few centuries after the death of Muhammad.
Civil law – the body of law regarding relations between people; cases may include disputes about contracts, suits for damages in injury, divorce, etc.
Criminal law – The body of law involving charges that persons have disobeyed a law prescribing proper conduct. In criminal law the state brings the case, against an individual defendant who is charged with a crime.
Constitutional law – The body of law regarding the nature of the political process, and whether laws and governmental actions are consistent with the constitution.
Chapter 18 – Global Politics: Politics Among States (and Others)
International politics – Politics conducted among states rather than within a single state.
Global politics – Politics conducted above the level of a state. It is essentially the same thing as international politics but includes the connotation that not only states but also international organizations and non-governmental organizations are actors in the process.
Fiduciary role – A role in which one acts as an agent on behalf of someone else’s interest. This role often places the agent in problematic positions.
United Nations – An organization of almost all the world’s states. The UN provides a forum at which complaints can be aired; it has often helped to cool off conflicts between states; and its specialized committees seek to improve world standards of health, education, and so on.
International Court of Justice – The court that hears cases at law between states. It has no power to enforce its ruling.
Ambassador – An official charged by his or her state to conduct high-level politics with another state to which he or she is posted.
Consulates – Offices maintained by a state in major cities of another state to deal with individuals’ problem regarding trade, immigration, travel, and so forth.
Diplomacy – The conduct of relations between states and other global actors other than by war.
Economic sanctions – A form of nonmilitary coercion in which a state or group of states deliberately withholds normal economic relations with another state to punish it.
Democratic peace – The observation that democracies have never, or hardly ever, waged war with other democracies.
Balance of power – The idea that the international system works in a natural way to keep the power of the states balanced so that no one state can achieve domination of the entire system.
Regime theory – A theory of international relations emphasizing the importance of “regimes,” or sets of principles and values that transcend state boundaries and regulate in an informal way areas of policy such as trade, development of the popular regions, and so on.
One internet source is all that is needed (provided it's credible like AP or Reuters).
Any help would be appreciated.
Chapter 6 – Political Choices: The Problems of Justice and Efficiency
Justice A situation in which people are treated as they deserve
Substantive justice - A concept of justice that emphasizes people receiving what they need and deserve, whether on the basis of the contributions they make to common efforts, of their need for the reward, or of at least approximate equality of treatment.
Procedural justice - A concept of justice less concerned with fairness of distribution to the people than with the procedures by which decisions are reached about them.
Arbitrary action – An Action that is taken capriciously. The people affected do not know what to expect before the action and do not learn afterward the grounds on which the action was chosen.
Due process - An expectation that certain procedures must always be followed in making a policy and that if they were not, the policy should be void.
Efficient policy - A policy that produces the greatest good at the least cost.
Incrementalism – A policy of making decisions cautiously and implementing them through small staged changes rather than in bold sweeps.
Radical – Making decisions in bold sweeps and changing policies rapidly, so as not to miss opportunities that might disappear if one moved slowly.
Market mechanism – A mechanism whereby social choice results from choices of all members of the collectivity rather than from a decision made by the central governing unit.
Public good – Something that benefits all members of the collectivity and that no one can be prevented from using. It is usually chosen by governmental authority because it is difficult to get individuals voluntarily to pay part of the cost of the good.
Externality – A situation in which there are social costs or benefits beyond the individual costs and benefits involved in a transaction.
Chapter 7 – Authority and Legitimacy: The State and the Citizen
Authority – Power based on a general agreement that the holder of the power has the right to issue certain commands and that those commands should be obeyed.
Legitimacy – A belief on the part of large numbers of people in a state that the existing governmental structure and/or the particular persons in office should appropriately wield authority.
Social capital – The interwoven network of associational activities (clubs, churches, civic associations, neighborhoods, etc.) through which people are involved in their communities and build a reservoir of trust and positive expectations about collective action.
Political culture – The attitudes and beliefs held communally by a people, forming the basis for their political behavior.
Political socialization – The process of learning the facts, assumptions, and attitudes we use in responding to politics, especially the politics of the state.
Agents of socialization – Those who carry out political socialization: parents, schools, media, friendship groups, etc. The impacts of an agent of socialization on one’s political knowledge and viewpoints is a function of (a) the agent’s relevance to politics, and (b) the agent’s credibility.
Chapter 8 – Democracy and Autocracy
Democracy – A state in which qualified citizens vote at regular intervals to choose, among alternative candidates, the people who will be in charge of setting the state’s policies.
Autocracy – A governmental arrangement in which those who hold power did not gain power by any regular constitutional process and are not responsible in their exercise of power to any formal set of rules.
Coup – The forceful deposition of a government by all or a portion of the armed forces and installation of a new military government.
Military government – An autocracy in which military officers rule, perhaps with the help of appointed civilians, but without any sort of auxiliary structure such as a political party.
One-party state – A state in which the government is based on, and in turn supports, a single political party. No other party is allowed to function in other than a token way.
Court politics - The political process in a state where great power is vested in a single person, as in traditional monarchy or in a personal dictatorship.
Chapter 9 – Constitutions and the Design of Government
Constitution – A set of rules by which power is distributed in a political group, such as the sate. This usually consists in part of a formal set of rules, but it always contains various informal mechanisms, traditions, and understanding by which power is assigned to people.
Incentive compatibility – A situation in which those who make decisions on behalf of society benefit personally when their decisions benefit society. When incentive compatibility is present, society does not need to depend on nobility of character in its officials; it can depend on a more reliable force- their concern for their own self-interest.
Federal sate – A state in which the constitution grants to regional governments a legal monopoly over certain political decisions, such as educational policy. Therefore, two different governments will control the same group of people, but with regard to different political questions.
Unitary state – A state in which no other governmental body but the central government has any areas of policy that are exclusively under its control. In a unitary state, local regional governments may potentially be overruled by the central government in any political decision they make.
Constitutionalism – The doctrine that states’ constitutions should be designed fairly, not to give undue advantage to any particular group, and that the government should then be faithful to that constitution. In this way, individuals are protected against arbitrary governmental action.
Chapter 10 - Elections
Referendum – An election in which voters choose directly whether a particular proposal will become law; this contrasts with other kinds of elections in which voters choose among various candidates for a political office.
Electoral system – A set of rules by which the outcomes of an election (asset of officers elected or whatever) is determined from the distribution of votes cast by the electorate.
Proportional representation electoral system – An electoral system in which parties receive a number of seats in the legislature roughly proportional to the number of votes that were cast for them among the electorate.
Single-member-district electoral system – An electoral system in which the state is divided into geographic subdivisions, each subdivision is represented by a single member in the legislature, and the candidate who attains a plurality of votes in that subdivision is the tone who fills the seat.
Paradox of participation – The paradox that no one should vote if their only reason for voting is that they wish to help their favored candidate win. The odds that the rest of the voters will produce a tie are incredibly small, and that is the only circumstance in which the person’s vote will make any difference to the candidate.
Party identification – A personal identification with a political party; not just agreement with its policies or candidates of the moment but an enduring identification with the party itself.
Chapter 11 – Parties: A linking and Leading Mechanism in Politics
Political party – A group of officials or would-be officials who are linked with a sizable group of citizens into an organization; a chief object of this organization is to ensure that its officials attain power or are maintained in power.
Mobilization – The systematic stimulation of concerted effort by large numbers of people, as in elections or demonstrations. This term is used especially in reference to such stimulation conducted on its own behalf by the government.
Party identification - A personal identification with a political party; not just agreement with its policies or candidates of the moment but an enduring identification with the party itself.
Party system – The set of all parties in a state. Political scientists distinguish among such systems primarily by the number and relative size of the parties: for example, two-party systems, multiparty systems, dominant party systems.
One-party system – A political system in which only a single political party is allowed to be active.
Dominant-party system – A political party system in which various parties are allowed to function openly and with reasonable effectiveness but in which a single party nonetheless holds power all the time.
Two-party system – A democratic system in which two parties regularly receive 90 percent or more of votes cast but in which it is rare for either of them to receive more than 55 or 60 percent of the votes. These two parties will replace each other in office fairly frequently.
Multiparty system – A democratic system in which there are more than two major parties.
Chapter 12 – Structured Conflict: Interest Groups and Politics
Interest group – An organized group of citizens that has as one of its goals ensuring tha the state follows certain policies.
Selective incentive – Benefits that an organization offers its members in addition to the central purposes of the organization. A trade union, for example, may offer its members such added benefits as low-cost package vacations.
Institutional interest group – A group that is primarily set up for some purpose other than political activity but becomes politically active to defend its interest in the policy decision of the state.
Sectoral interest group – A group representing a section of the economy. Examples are trade unions, professional associations, corporations, and trade associations.
Promotional interest group – The “typical” interest group- an organized group of citizens, one of whose primary purposes is to affect the policies of the state.
Pluralism – A system of government and interest groups in which all interests organize and compete freely, with no one group dominating, and in which the government is open to the pressure from the groups so that the policy is largely the outcome of groups’ competing pressures.
Neocorporatism – A system of government and interest groups in which all interests are organized but- instead of responding to groups’ pressures- the government actively involves the groups themselves in the job of governing. This active governmental role distinguishes neocorporatism from pluralism.
Chapter 13 – Social Movements and Contentious Politics
Social movement – A loosely organized group of people who ordinarily have little power but challenge the state power- usually through disruption and sometimes violently. The object of a social movement is usually an emotional issue, which may range from a very local question such as the location of a new highway all the way up to the constitution or identity of the state.
Crisis transitions – Transitions from an autocratic to a democratic system that take place in the context of an economic crisis.
Pacts – In general, agreements; specifically, with regard to democratization, agreements between the leaders of the new democracy and supporters of the older authoritarian system that soften the change for the latter and help them to accept the democracy.
Chapter 14 – National Decision-Making Institutions: Parliamentary Government
Parliamentary government – A democracy in which the executive and legislative functions are merged in one institution, the parliament. The parliament is the state’s supreme legislature, but it also appoints a committee (the cabinet) to serve as the political executive for the state.
Cabinet – The executive portion of a parliamentary government. It consists of ministers, most of whom are usually members of the parliament. Each minister is responsible for the administration of some part of the government’s services, such as health or defense. The cabinet leads the parliament, proposing legislation, conducting the country’s foreign policy, and so on. It serves at the pleasure of the parliament and can be ousted by a majority vote of no confidence.
Coalition – A tactical combination of varied groups, constructed so that the groups will combination be large enough to command power that they can then share among themselves. Frequently applied to parliamentary government, in which 50 percent of the votes in parliament are required to form a cabinet but in which it may be necessary to combine two or more parties to amass 50 percent of the votes.
Question time – A device, originating in the British House of Commons and since imitated in many parliaments, by which cabinet members appear regularly in the parliament to answer questions from members about the administration of their offices. These questions and answers often spark hot debate.
Legislative committees -
Chapter 15 – National decision-Making Institutions: Presidential Government
Presidential government – A democratic system in which the legislature and executive exist independently and are elected independently of each other. The president takes a leading role in forming policy but must have the consent of the legislature if that policy is to be enacted. A presidential system divides power, whereas a parliamentary system unifies it.
Constitutional review – A system under which a judicial or quasi-judicial part of the government can annul acts of other parts of the government if, in its judgment, those acts violate the constitution of the state.
Chapter 16 – Bureaucracy and the Public Sector
Public administration – The set of people who are not involved directly in the making of major political decisions but who construct and implement the policies that carry out those decisions. Examples are police officers, public health nurses, I.R.S. agents, and public university presidents.
Bureaucracy – A way of organizing the public administration that emphasizes professionalism, recruitment, and promotion on the basis of merit, standardization of procedures, and the smooth flow of commands.
Hierarchical command structure – An organization in which there is a single, branching path of power by which a person at the top of the structure issues a command to a set of people at the second tier, each of those in turn passes the command on to a set of people in the next tier, and so on. No commands can move up the structure, and no commands can move laterally across a tier. Bureaucracies are organized hierarchically.
Ombudsman – A government official whose primary duty is to seek out citizens’ complaints of abuse by public administrators and to negotiate changes in the offending practices.
Representative bureaucracy – The idea that members of the public administration should be similar to the groups they serve in such characteristics as class, race, and gender, so that they will be able to serve them better.
Higher civil service – Specialized and executive members of the public administration, corresponding to professionals and managers in the private sector.
Chapter 17 – Law and the Courts
Case law – A legal system emphasizing the independence of the judiciary from the rest of the government. Under case law, the ongoing stream of prior decisions (precedents) becomes an important par t of current law. Predominant in Britain and its former colonies.
Code law – A legal system emphasizing a relative subordination of the judiciary to the rest of the government. Legal interpretation consists primarily of reading and applying codes of legal statue passed by the parliament, rather than looking to the precedent of prior court decision. Used in various forms in most parts of the world except Britain and its former colonies.
Law – A collection of rules laid down by the government, binding all members of the state, including members of the government itself. The law includes both criminal law and civil law.
Legal systems – General, organized sets of legal principles
Courts – Governmental institutions charged with interpreting the law.
Habeas corpus – The right not to be held indefinitely by the police without being formally charged with a crime.
Sharia – Islamic law, based on a set of rules for moral conduct developed over the first few centuries after the death of Muhammad.
Civil law – the body of law regarding relations between people; cases may include disputes about contracts, suits for damages in injury, divorce, etc.
Criminal law – The body of law involving charges that persons have disobeyed a law prescribing proper conduct. In criminal law the state brings the case, against an individual defendant who is charged with a crime.
Constitutional law – The body of law regarding the nature of the political process, and whether laws and governmental actions are consistent with the constitution.
Chapter 18 – Global Politics: Politics Among States (and Others)
International politics – Politics conducted among states rather than within a single state.
Global politics – Politics conducted above the level of a state. It is essentially the same thing as international politics but includes the connotation that not only states but also international organizations and non-governmental organizations are actors in the process.
Fiduciary role – A role in which one acts as an agent on behalf of someone else’s interest. This role often places the agent in problematic positions.
United Nations – An organization of almost all the world’s states. The UN provides a forum at which complaints can be aired; it has often helped to cool off conflicts between states; and its specialized committees seek to improve world standards of health, education, and so on.
International Court of Justice – The court that hears cases at law between states. It has no power to enforce its ruling.
Ambassador – An official charged by his or her state to conduct high-level politics with another state to which he or she is posted.
Consulates – Offices maintained by a state in major cities of another state to deal with individuals’ problem regarding trade, immigration, travel, and so forth.
Diplomacy – The conduct of relations between states and other global actors other than by war.
Economic sanctions – A form of nonmilitary coercion in which a state or group of states deliberately withholds normal economic relations with another state to punish it.
Democratic peace – The observation that democracies have never, or hardly ever, waged war with other democracies.
Balance of power – The idea that the international system works in a natural way to keep the power of the states balanced so that no one state can achieve domination of the entire system.
Regime theory – A theory of international relations emphasizing the importance of “regimes,” or sets of principles and values that transcend state boundaries and regulate in an informal way areas of policy such as trade, development of the popular regions, and so on.