Democracies, autocracies and transitions: important terms
● Dictatorship= a regime in which the ruler is NOT chosen through elections (Ghandi)
● Regime= a set of institutions that regulate governance (of a state)
● Residual category= all the regimes that are not democratic
● Seizure group= group of people who helped make the regime
● Maximalist/substantive= a view of democracy that classifies political regimes in
regard to the outcomes that they produce
● Minimalist/procedural= a view of democracy that classifies political regimes in regard
to their institutions and procedures
● Suffrage= the right to vote in political election
● Concept= a mental category or construct that captures the meaning of objects,
events or ideas
● Measure/indicator= a quantification of the concept or thing in which we are interested
● Operationalization= the process by which abstract theoretical concepts are translated
into concrete and observable measures or indicators
● Polyarchy= a political regime with high levels of both contestation and inclusion
● Contestation= the extent to which citizens are free to organize themselves into
competing blocks on order to press for the policies and outcomes they desire
● Inclusion= has to do with who gets to participate in the democratic process
● Developmental thesis=as wealth increases, so does the degree of electoral
contestation
● Dictatorship= a regime in which the ruler is NOT chosen through elections (Ghandi)
● Regime= a set of institutions that regulate governance (of a state)
● Residual category= all the regimes that are not democratic
● Seizure group= group of people who helped make the regime
● Maximalist/substantive= a view of democracy that classifies political regimes in
regard to the outcomes that they produce
● Minimalist/procedural= a view of democracy that classifies political regimes in regard
to their institutions and procedures
● Suffrage= the right to vote in political election
● Concept= a mental category or construct that captures the meaning of objects,
events or ideas
● Measure/indicator= a quantification of the concept or thing in which we are interested
● Operationalization= the process by which abstract theoretical concepts are translated
into concrete and observable measures or indicators
● Polyarchy= a political regime with high levels of both contestation and inclusion
● Contestation= the extent to which citizens are free to organize themselves into
competing blocks on order to press for the policies and outcomes they desire
● Inclusion= has to do with who gets to participate in the democratic process
● Developmental thesis=as wealth increases, so does the degree of electoral
contestation
