POLSCI 111 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Oligarchy, Representative Democracy, Public Good
12 Jun 2018
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Political Science Terms:
A. Identify term & explain its meaning in textbook (not short and concise)
B. Explain in 3 ways its significance/importance
1. Discuss broader implications (importance in society & politics)
2. How it links/contrasts to other terms (application to lecture & readings)
Chapter 1: Introduction/ Constitution:
Politics:
- Process of making collective decisions
- Allocates public resources
- Create and enforce rules for society
- The struggle of who gets what, how, when (people have preferences to what they
want/need)
Political System:
- Way a society organizes & manages its politics
- Applies to various levels of public authority
- A bundle of Institutions that satisfy diverse preferences
- Federal System:
o System with multiple levels
o Each level has independent authority over certain policy areas
- Authoritarianism:
o The absence of any expectation that the government represents the peoples interest and the
institutions of gov’t do not give the people a direct voice in who will lead
o Dictatorship:
§ An authoritarian system in which sovereign power is given to one individual
o Monarchy:
§ A system in which the ruler is chosen by being heir of the previous ruler
o Oligarchy:
§ A system in which sovereign power resides in a small segment of society
§ One-Party State:
· A system of oligarchy in which one party controls gov’t and seeks to prevent other parties
from contesting power
- Democracy:
o Ruled by the people, everyone has an equal vote in public decisions and everyone has basic
civil liberties and rights
o Republics:
§ A system in which public officials are chosen to represent the people and make policy
decisions
o Countries are more or less democratic based on two criteria
§ Civil Liberties:
· The degree to which a country’s people are free to express their views and organize political
parties/groups, run for office, pressure gov’t and insist on independence of judiciary
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§ Political rights:
· The degree to which a country allows for open and extensive participation of citizens with
free and fair elections
Collective Dilemmas:
- A situation in which there is a conflict between group & individual goals or self-interest
- Without a soverign/government there is no authority and chaos would rampage
- A soverign is necessary so governments can solve collective dilemmas
- Collective- action Problem:
o A situation in which people are better off trying to free ride and benefit from a public good
w/o contributing to the production of that good
§ Public good: a benefit to a group of people without having to pay costs for it, but people
would be better off if they contributed to it
§ Private good: a product or benefit that is limited to specific people, and an individual’s
consumption precludes anothers
§ Free ride: people benefitting from a public good without paying the costs of contributing to it
- Prisoners Dilemma:
o An interaction between two groups/people in which neither has an incentive/interest to
cooperate, even though they are better off cooperating
§ Collective action problem where b/c self-interest
o Transaction cost: the challenges people face when they try to cooperate w/ each other
- Coordination Problem:
o A situation in which people are all better off coordinating on the same course of action, but
there is more than one course of action to take and disagreement about which one is the best
results
- Unstable Conditions
o When three or more people/groups make a collective choice, and any voting coalition in favor
of an alternative can be divided by another alternative
o Agenda setter: can solve these conditions by choosing an authority that controls what
options are decided on by a group, and limiting alternative options
Principle- Agent Problems:
- An instance or situation in which one person/principle hires another agent to do a job on the
principles behalf
- Problem arises when the agent has different incentives/preferences than the principle and
the agent deceives the principle for personal gain, and the principle may not have the means to
observe and correct all the agent’s behavior
- Bureaucracy: an agency or office devoted to carrying out the task for gov’t that align with
the principles interest and within the law
o Bureaucrat: a gov’t employee who is not a part of ruling powers, and carry out work for
elected representative (principle)
Institutions:
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- Refers to organizations (branch of government) or specific rules for conducting debates in
congress
- Rules or practices that determine HOW people make collective decisions and shape political
outcomes
- Gov’t establish institutions to address collective dilemmas and principle-agent problems
by creating public policies
- Public Policies:
o Programs and decisions made by the government that are enforced by the rule of law
- Path Dependence:
o The process of designing institutions early on shapes the public policies and that early
decisions and events affect current and future policy decisions or outcomes
Understanding Politics:
- People prefer more benefits and fewer costs
- Collective benefit would be nearly impossible w/o gov’t
- Libertarians: bare minimum gov’t
- Socialists: gov’t does everything, acts as safety net
- With Reader:
o Hardin- very pessimistic viewpoint, people pursue own interest &
overdraw public goods, population problem (inc pop growth=finite
resources) cannot be solved and there is no technical solution
o Olson- small organ are better, large group=free riding is easy and
demand cooperation and results are worse
Chapter 2/ The Constitution pt.1
Rule of Law:
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The struggle of who gets what, how, when (people have preferences to what they want/need) Way a society organizes & manages its politics. Applies to various levels of public authority. A bundle of institutions that satisfy diverse preferences. Federal system: system with multiple levels, each level has independent authority over certain policy areas. Authoritarianism: the absence of any expectation that the government represents the peoples interest and the institutions of gov"t do not give the people a direct voice in who will lead, dictatorship: An authoritarian system in which sovereign power is given to one individual: monarchy: A system in which the ruler is chosen by being heir of the previous ruler: oligarchy: A system in which sovereign power resides in a small segment of society. A system of oligarchy in which one party controls gov"t and seeks to prevent other parties from contesting power.
