Political Systems, Regimes, and Governments

Notes

Key terms

• State: a political organization with sovereignty over a territory and population. Nation: a group with a shared identity, language or culture. Regime: the rules and institutions of how power is used (democracy, authoritarian). Government: the people currently in power.
• Sovereignty: a state's authority to govern itself. Legitimacy: the people's belief that the government has the right to rule.
• Sources of legitimacy (Weber): traditional (custom, monarchy), charismatic (a leader's personality), and rational-legal (laws and institutions).

Democracy vs authoritarianism

• Liberal democracies have free and fair elections, civil liberties, the rule of law, and an independent judiciary (the UK).
• Illiberal democracies hold elections but limit rights and the opposition (Russia is often described this way or as authoritarian).
• Authoritarian regimes concentrate power without real accountability: one-party states (China), theocracies (Iran), and military regimes (Nigeria in the past).
• Democratization and democratic backsliding describe movement between types. Mexico moved from a single dominant party (the PRI) toward competitive democracy after 2000.

Measuring states

• GDP and GDP per capita (economic size and average wealth), the Gini coefficient (inequality; higher is more unequal), the Human Development Index (health, education, income), and Freedom House scores.
• Transparency and corruption indexes.
• Failed states can't provide basic services or control their territory.

Sources of power

Constitutions, elections, institutions, and economic resources (Nigeria's and Russia's oil revenue; rentier states rely on resource income rather than taxes, which can weaken accountability).