Parliamentary Systems and Governance Concepts

Study Notes

Concepts

Formateur: A key figure in parliamentary systems, responsible for putting together a government coalition.
Cabinet: The group of ministers in a government.
Government (in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Systems): The executive branch, formed and functioning differently in these systems.
Portfolio: The area of responsibility assigned to a minister in government.
Vote of no confidence: Mechanism to remove a government in parliamentary systems.
Caretaker government: Interim leadership during a transition period. Often between governments.
Hung Parliament: A parliament where no single party holds a majority, and forming a government is difficult.
Coalition (and types of coalitions): Agreements between different political groups to form a governing body. Includes specific types.
Coalitional Presidentialism: A system where coalitions are integral to presidential governance.
Minimum Winning Coalition: Coalition with the smallest number of parties needed to hold power.
Unicameralism vs. Bicameralism: Systems with one or two legislative houses, and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
"One-person, one vote": The principle of equal representation in elections.
Presidential systems: Systems with a president who is both head of state and head of government.
Parliamentary systems: Systems where the executive branch is responsible to the legislative body.
Semi-Presidential/Mixed systems: Hybrid systems blending presidential and parliamentary features.
Electoral System: Rules for translating votes into seats in a legislative assembly.
Electoral formula: Specific math and methodology used to determine seat allocation.
District magnitude: The number of seats in a district and how this determines electoral strategy.
Plurality: A voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins.
Majoritarian systems: Voting systems designed to produce a decisive majority of votes for one candidate.
Alternative Vote: A voting system where voters rank candidates.
Two-round system for presidential elections: Two elections to determine a winner.
Proportional Representation systems: A process where the percentage of votes received directly translates into the percentage of seats held.
Mixed systems (when referring to electoral systems): Combining different types of systems.
Veto Actors: Individuals or groups with the ability to block government actions.
Divisors (D’hondt, Sainte Lague, Modified Sainte Lague): Different methods used for calculating seat distributions in proportional representation systems.
Quotas (for allocating seats): Guidelines for distributing seats.
Thresholds (for allocating seats): Minimum vote requirements for parties to enter the legislature.
Types of electoral lists: Different structures of lists presented by parties for elections.
Head of State: The person officially representing the country.
Head of Government: The person leading the government.
Duverger's law & strategic/ tactical voting vs. sincere voting: A principle linking electoral systems and political party structures. Strategic involves vote choice to achieve desired results. Sincere represents honest voting preferences.
Internally-generated parties: Parties formed organically within a particular society.
Externally generated parties: Parties created from outside influences.
Mass parties: Large-scale political organizations focusing on broad appeal.
Catch-all parties: Broader parties aiming for vast appeal.
Post-materialist parties: Parties prioritizing factors beyond basic material needs.
Cleavages: Social divisions that influence political alignments.
Extreme Right parties: Parties with extreme stances on political ideologies.
Median-Voter Theorem: The tendency of political candidates to moderate their stances to appeal to the political center.