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102 Flashcards

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1
Q

Front

A

Back

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2
Q

What is totalitarianism?

A

A system where the state seeks total control over public and private life (politics, economy, culture, even beliefs). Signal: one-party rule, censorship, secret police, cult of leadership.

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3
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What is authoritarianism?

A

Strong central authority with limited political freedoms; unlike totalitarianism, it doesn’t try to reshape every aspect of life.

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4
Q

What is liberalism (classical)?

A

Emphasizes individual rights, limited government, private property, free markets, and rule of law.

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5
Q

What is liberalism (modern/social)?

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Supports civil liberties plus a stronger state role to ensure social safety nets and equal opportunity.

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6
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What is conservatism?

A

Prioritizes tradition, social order, and cautious change; often skeptical of sweeping reforms.

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7
Q

What is libertarianism?

A

Maximize individual liberty and minimize state power; free markets, free speech, and strong property rights.

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8
Q

What is socialism?

A

Public or cooperative ownership of major industries to reduce inequality and ensure broad social welfare.

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9
Q

What is democratic socialism?

A

Democratic politics + socialist economics (strong welfare state, worker rights, sometimes public ownership).

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10
Q

What is social democracy?

A

Market economy with robust welfare, labor protections, and redistribution to soften market inequalities.

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11
Q

What is communism (Marxist ideal)?

A

Classless, stateless society with common ownership; in practice, parties claiming to build it often centralized power.

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12
Q

What is fascism?

A

Ultranationalist, centralized, often militaristic movement that suppresses dissent and glorifies a mythic national past.

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13
Q

What is nationalism?

A

Political loyalty to a nation’s identity and interests (can be civic-inclusive or ethnic-exclusive).

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14
Q

What is globalism?

A

Integration of economies/cultures/politics across borders; critics see it as eroding sovereignty or local identity.

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15
Q

What is neoliberalism?

A

Policy mix since late 20th c.: deregulation, privatization, free trade, fiscal restraint; pro-market governance.

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16
Q

What is neoconservatism?

A

A right-of-center current favoring assertive foreign policy, democracy promotion abroad, and market-friendly policies.

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17
Q

What is paleoconservatism?

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Emphasizes tradition, nationalism, non-intervention abroad, and skepticism toward mass immigration & globalism.

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18
Q

What is theocracy?

A

Government by religious authorities or where law is explicitly grounded in a sacred text.

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19
Q

What is technocracy?

A

Rule by experts/technicians; policy driven by technical competence over electoral politics.

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20
Q

What is epistocracy / epistocrat?

A

‘Rule of the knowledgeable’: proposals to weight political power toward more informed citizens or experts.

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21
Q

What is populism?

A

Politics that claims to represent ‘the people’ against a corrupt ‘elite’; can be left or right, democratic or illiberal.

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22
Q

What is separation of powers?

A

Dividing government functions (legislative, executive, judicial) to prevent concentration of power.

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23
Q

What are checks and balances?

A

Each branch can limit the others (vetoes, judicial review, confirmations) to avoid dominance.

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24
Q

What is federalism?

A

Shared power between national and regional governments (states/provinces).

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25
What is a unitary state?
Power centralized in the national government; local authorities exercise power delegated from the center.
26
Parliamentary vs presidential systems?
Parliamentary: executive emerges from legislature; Presidential: separately elected executive with fixed term.
27
What is first-past-the-post (FPTP)?
Winner-take-all voting in single-member districts; tends to favor two large parties.
28
What is proportional representation (PR)?
Seats in the legislature are allocated roughly in proportion to each party’s vote share.
29
What is ranked-choice voting (RCV)?
Voters rank candidates; if no majority, lowest is eliminated and votes transfer until someone passes 50%.
30
What is gerrymandering?
Manipulating district boundaries to favor a party or group (packing/cracking voters).
31
What is a filibuster?
Procedure to delay/block a vote by extended debate; usually overcome by a supermajority cloture vote.
32
What is cloture?
A vote to end debate and proceed to a vote; in the U.S. Senate typically requires a supermajority.
33
What is pork-barrel spending?
Targeted spending projects to benefit a legislator’s district, often to secure political support.
34
What is logrolling?
Trading votes: ‘you back my bill, I’ll back yours.’
35
What is regulatory capture?
When agencies meant to regulate an industry start serving that industry’s interests instead of the public’s.
36
What is rent-seeking?
Using political or legal leverage to gain income without creating new value (e.g., lobbying for exclusive licenses).
37
What is moral hazard?
People take bigger risks when they don’t bear the full cost (e.g., insured actors acting recklessly).
38
What is the principal–agent problem?
A leader (principal) relies on agents who may have different incentives or hidden information.
39
What are public goods?
Non-excludable and non-rival (e.g., clean air, national defense); markets under-provide them.
40
What is an externality?
A side effect of an action on third parties (pollution, herd immunity) not priced into transactions.
41
What is the tragedy of the commons?
Overuse of a shared resource because individual incentives favor exploitation over conservation.
42
What is realism (IR)?
States pursue power and security in an anarchic world; self-help, balance of power, deterrence.
43
What is liberal institutionalism (IR)?
Cooperation is possible via institutions, trade, and norms reducing conflict and uncertainty.
44
What is constructivism (IR)?
State interests are shaped by identities, norms, and ideas—not just material power.
45
What is deterrence?
Preventing action by threatening credible punishment (nuclear deterrence being the classic case).
46
What is balance of power?
States align to prevent any one from becoming dominant; alliances shift to maintain equilibrium.
47
What is ad hominem?
Attacking the person instead of the argument (insults, motives, traits).
48
What is straw man?
Misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make it easier to attack.
49
What is steelman?
Rebuilding your opponent’s argument in its strongest form before responding.
50
What is motte-and-bailey?
Defending a bold, controversial claim (bailey), then retreating to a safer, trivial claim (motte) when challenged.
51
What is tu quoque?
‘You too’ appeal to hypocrisy; dismissing a claim because the speaker is inconsistent.
52
What is whataboutism?
Deflecting criticism by pointing to others’ wrongdoing instead of addressing the point.
53
What is a red herring?
Introducing an irrelevant topic to distract from the original issue.
54
What is a Gish gallop?
Overwhelming an opponent with many shallow arguments faster than they can rebut.
55
What is a slippery slope?
Claiming a small step inevitably leads to extreme outcomes without showing the mechanism.
56
What is a false dichotomy?
Forcing a choice between two options when more exist.
57
What is begging the question (circular)?
The conclusion is assumed in the premises; no independent support is offered.
58
What is equivocation?
Using a word in two different senses to make an argument seem valid.
59
What is appeal to authority?
Treating a claim as true because an expert says so—without examining the evidence or relevance.
60
What is appeal to popularity (ad populum)?
Arguing that something is true or good because many people believe it.
61
What is the ‘No True Scotsman’ fallacy?
Redefining a category to exclude counterexamples (‘no true X would do that’).
62
What is the base rate fallacy?
Ignoring how common something is in the general population when evaluating a specific case.
63
What is p-hacking?
Manipulating analysis/metrics until you get statistically significant results (often by chance).
64
What is selection bias?
Sample isn’t representative due to how data or participants were chosen.
65
What is survivorship bias?
Focusing on the winners that ‘survived’ and ignoring the many that failed and disappeared.
66
What is Simpson’s paradox?
A trend appears in groups but reverses when groups are combined (or vice versa).
67
Correlation vs causation?
Two variables moving together doesn’t prove one causes the other; need a causal mechanism or design.
68
What is operationalization?
Turning an abstract concept into measurable indicators for research.
69
What is falsifiability?
A claim is scientific if it could, in principle, be proven false by evidence.
70
What are Bayesian priors?
Initial beliefs before evidence; updated as new evidence arrives (Bayes’ rule).
71
What is the Overton window?
The range of ideas considered politically acceptable at a given time.
72
What is horseshoe theory?
Extreme left and right resemble each other in style/means more than either resembles the center.
73
What is the median voter theorem?
In majority-rule elections, parties tend to converge toward the preferences of the median voter.
74
What is the prisoner’s dilemma?
Individuals acting in self-interest can end up worse off than if they cooperated due to incentives.
75
What is identity politics?
Organizing around aspects of identity (race, gender, religion) to address perceived injustices.
76
What is intersectionality?
How overlapping identities (e.g., race and gender) shape unique experiences of advantage/disadvantage.
77
What is critical race theory (CRT)?
A legal-academic framework arguing that racism can be systemic, embedded in law and institutions.
78
What is the culture war?
Ongoing conflict over social values and identity (education, media, norms).
79
What is cancel culture?
Social/organizational penalties (boycotts, firing) for speech or actions deemed unacceptable.
80
What is gaslighting?
Manipulating someone to doubt their perception or sanity by denying obvious facts.
81
What is tone policing?
Dismissing someone’s message by focusing on their emotional tone instead of the content.
82
What is ‘sealioning’?
Bad-faith, relentless demands for evidence to exhaust or derail a conversation.
83
What is concern trolling?
Feigning concern to undermine or sow doubt about a position you oppose.
84
What is a dog whistle?
A coded message that sounds benign to most but signals specific meanings to a target audience.
85
What is virtue signaling?
Performative displays of moral stance to gain social status rather than solve problems.
86
What does ‘Neoplatonic’ mean?
Relating to Neoplatonism: the idea that everything emanates from one ultimate source and the soul can return to it.
87
What does the prefix ‘neo-’ mean?
New or revived version of something (e.g., neoliberalism = new form of liberalism).
88
What does ‘platonic’ mean?
Relating to Plato’s ideas; in everyday use: non-sexual affection (‘platonic friendship’).
89
What is deontology?
Ethics based on duties/rules (some actions are right/wrong regardless of outcomes).
90
What is consequentialism?
Ethics that judges actions by outcomes; utilitarianism seeks the greatest good for the greatest number.
91
What is virtue ethics?
Ethics focused on character—become the kind of person who naturally does the good.
92
What is a category error?
Treating something as if it belongs to a category it doesn’t (e.g., ‘what color is Tuesday?’).
93
What is a category of analysis vs a moral category?
Analytic labels describe patterns; moral labels judge right/wrong—don’t confuse them.
94
What is Zionism?
Movement supporting a Jewish national homeland, historically in Palestine/Israel.
95
What is antisemitism?
Hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.
96
What is anti-Zionism?
Opposition to the political ideology of Zionism or Israel’s existence as a Jewish state (not always antisemitism, though they can overlap).
97
What is the BDS movement?
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: a campaign to pressure Israel over policies toward Palestinians.
98
What is the two-state solution?
Proposal for independent Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side.
99
Prefix: anti-
Against or opposed to (antiwar, antihero).
100
Prefix: pro-
In favor of (pro-democracy).
101
Prefix: meta-
About itself or beyond (metapolitics, metadata).
102
Prefix: epi-
Upon, in addition, or surface (epidermis; epistemology relates to knowledge).
103
Prefix: pan-
All or every (pan-European, pan-African).
104
Prefix: mono-
One or single (monotheism).
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Prefix: poly-
Many (polytheism, polylateral).
106
Prefix: para-
Alongside/abnormal (paramilitary, paranormal).
107
Prefix: quasi-
As if; seemingly but not actually (quasi-judicial).
108
Prefix: pseudo-
False or fake (pseudoscience).
109
Prefix: hyper-
Over/above/excessive (hyperactive).
110
Prefix: hypo-
Under/below/deficient (hypodermic, hypothyroid).
111
Prefix: trans-
Across/beyond (transnational).
112
Prefix: cis-
On this side of (cisalpine; in gender context, not transgender).
113
Prefix: inter-
Between/among (international).
114
Prefix: intra-
Within (intra-party).
115
Suffix: -ism
A doctrine/ideology or practice (liberalism, realism).
116
Suffix: -ist
A person who advocates/practices an -ism (socialist, realist).
117
Suffix: -ize
To make or become (prioritize, politicize).
118
Suffix: -ology
Study of (sociology, theology).
119
Suffix: -archy
Rule/governance (monarchy, patriarchy).
120
Suffix: -cracy
Rule/power (democracy, technocracy).
121
Suffix: -centric
Centered on (Eurocentric, ethnocentric).
122
Suffix: -phile / -phobia
Attraction to / fear of (bibliophile; xenophobia).
123
Suffix-like: -gate
Scandal shorthand (after Watergate).
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