Power

The ability to get people or groups to do what they otherwise would not do through coercion, persuasion, or leadership.

State

All individuals and institutions that exert power and make public policy through direct action or political participation whether they are in the government or not.

Government

The leadership in power or hold authority at a particular moment in as state- roughly akin to an American administration.

Nation

The primarily psychological sense of identification with a people becase of culture, geography, or linguistic ties.

Executive

The people and agencies which implement or execute government policy (from the head of government to the lowest bureaucrat).

Legislative

The political structure that passes law.

Judicial

The political structure (usually courts) that adjudicates cases and applies the law.

Judicial review

The power of the courts to modify or nullify the actions of the legislatures and executive.

Seperaration of Powers

The system of governement where power is divided into several structures- executive, legislative, and judicial- with the ability to check the power of the other structures.

Regime

The institution and practices that endure from government to government

Ideology

The set of beliefs or convictions that (1) identify problems in a political culture, (2) explain why they exist, and (3) prescribe a cure for the problems.

Sovereignty

 Independent legal authority over a population in a particular place.

Rule of law

A system that operates according to a predictable, known, and visible set of laws and precedures.

Politics

The process through which groups of people govern themselves or are governed through authority.

Legitimacy

The belief the authority is properly ruling.

Supranational Organization

An international organization that a state may surrender sovereignty to in order to pursue a broader regional or global purpose.

State-building concerns

Unitary state

Regimes in which subnational units have little or no power.

Federal state

Constitutional practice in which sub national units are granted considerable power.

Political culture

The collection of history, values, beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, traditions, and symbols that define and influence political behavior with a state.

Political socialization

The institutions and methods of developing and reinforcing significant public beliefs, attitudes, and practices.

Public policy

The decisions made by a state that define what it will do.

 Political party

An organized group of people with their primary purpose of electing its members, promoting a particular ideology, or advancing a particular issue.

Democracy

Power by the people or as John Locke once said a government that has the consent of the people.

Democratization

The spread of representative government to more countries and process of making governments more representative.

Globalization

The increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of people, cultures, economies, and nation state facilitated by technology, trade, and cultural diffusion.

Revolution

A process by which a political regime is overthrown and replaced because of broad popular support and fundamental economic, social, or political changes are made.