State and Identity (case study)

Exam Card # 3

On discipline "Political science”

What is political power?

Power:

· The ability of one person/group to get another person/group to do something it otherwise would not do

· The ability to keep people from doing something—e.g. keep them from contributing their issues to the agenda

· The ability to shape or determine individual or group political demands by causing people to think about issues in ways that are contrary to their own interests

Malty party system.

A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally larger than two but lower than ten. It is a system where there are large amounts of major and minor political parties that all hold a serious chance of receiving office, and because they all compete, a majority may not come to be, forcing the creation of a coalition.

Unlike a single-party system (or a non-partisan democracy), it encourages the general constituency to form multiple distinct, officially recognized groups, generally called political parties. Each party competes for votes from the enfranchised constituents (those allowed to vote). A multi-party system prevents the leadership of a single party from controlling a single legislative chamber without challenge.

If the government includes an elected Congress or Parliament the parties may share power according to proportional representation or the first-past-the-post system. In proportional representation, each party wins a number of seats proportional to the number of votes it receives. In first-past-the-post, the electorate is divided into a number of districts, each of which selects one person to fill one seat by a plurality of the vote. First-past-the-post is not conducive to a proliferation of parties, and naturally gravitates toward a two-party system, in which only two parties have a real chance of electing their candidates to office. This gravitation is known as Duverger's law. Proportional representation, on the other hand, does not have this tendency, and allows multiple major parties to arise.

Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Taiwan, Spain and Sweden are examples of nations that have used a multi-party system effectively in their democracies (though in many cases there are two parties always larger than the others). In these countries, usually no single party has a parliamentary majority by itself. Instead, multiple political parties usually form coalitions for the purpose of developing power blocs for governing.

State and identity (case study)

Exam Card # 4

What is a modern state? What characteristics do all modern states have?

-The primary political unit of the last several centuries; a state characterized by territory, sovereignty, a claim to internal and external legitimacy, and bureaucracy

-This ideal comprises four defining characteristics:

(1) territory,

(2) sovereignty (external and internal),

(3) legitimacy,

(4) bureaucracy.

Multiparty system.

- Party systems in which more than two parties could potentially win a national election and govern.

 

Exam Card # 5