Participatory democracy
A system of democracy in which all members of a group or community participate collectively in making major decisions. (page 298)
Direct democracy
A form of participatory democracy that allows citizens to vote directly on laws and policies. (page 298)
Liberal democracies
Systems of democracy based on parliamentary institutions, coupled to the free-market system in the area of economic production. (page 298)
Monarchies
Systems of government in which unelected kings or queens rule. (page 298)
Constitutional monarchs
Kings or queens who are largely figureheads. Real power rests in the hands of other political leaders. (page 298)
Nation-states
Particular types of states, characteristic of the modern world, in which governments have sovereign power within defined territorial areas and populations comprise citizens who know themselves to be part of single nations. Nation-states are closely associated with the rise of nationalism, although nationalist loyalties do not always conform to the boundaries of specific states. Nation-states developed as part of an emerging nation-state system, originating in Europe; in current times, they span the whole globe. (page 298)
Nation
People with a common identity that ideally includes shared culture, language, and feelings of belonging. (page 298)
State
A political apparatus (government institutions plus civil service officials) ruling over a given territorial order, whose authority is backed by law and the ability to use force. Not all societies are characterized by the existence of a state. Hunting and gathering societies and smaller agrarian societies lack state institutions. The emergence of the state marked a distinctive transition in human history, because the centralization of political power involved in state formation introduced new dynamics into processes of social change. (page 298)
Sovereignty
The undisputed political rule of a state over a given territorial area. (page 298)
Failed states
States in which the central government has lost authority and resorts to deadly force to retain power. (page 298)
Nationalism
A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community. (page 298)
Local nationalism
The belief that communities that share a cultural identity should have political autonomy, even within smaller units of nation-states. (page 299)
Power
The ability of individuals or the members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. Power is a pervasive element in all human relationships. Many conflicts in society are struggles over power, because how much power an individual or group is able to achieve governs how far they are able to put their wishes into practice. (page 299)
Authority
A government's legitimate use of power. (page 299)
Citizens
Members of a political community, having both rights and duties associated with that membership. (page 299)
Civil rights
Legal rights held by all citizens in a given national community. (page 299)
Political rights
Rights of political participation, such as the right to vote in local and national elections, held by citizens of a national community. (page 300)
Social rights
Rights of social and welfare provision held by all citizens in a national community, including, for example, the right to claim unemployment benefits and sickness payments provided by the state. (page 300)
Welfare state
A political system that provides a wide range of welfare benefits for its citizens. (page 300)
Revolutions
Processes of political change involving the mobilizing of a mass social movement, which, by the use of violence, successfully overthrows an existing regime and forms a new government. (page 300)
Social movements
Large groups of people who seek to accomplish, or to block, a process of social change. Social movements normally exist in conflict with organizations whose objectives and outlook they oppose. However, movements that successfully challenge power, once they become institutionalized, can develop into organizations. (page 300)
Democratic elitism
A theory of the limits of democracy that holds that in large-scale societies democratic participation is necessarily limited to the regular election of political leaders. (page 300)
Power elite
Small networks of individuals who, according to C. Wright Mills, hold concentrated power in modern societies. (page 302)
Interest group
A group organized to pursue specific interests in the political arena, operating primarily by lobbying the members of legislative bodies. (page 307)
Relative deprivation
Deprivation a person feels by comparing himself with a group. (page 312)
Collective action
Action undertaken in a relatively spontaneous way by a large number of people assembled together. (page 313)
Multiple sovereignty
A situation in which there is no single sovereign power in a society. (page 313)
Structural strain
Tensions that produce conflicting interests within societies. (page 314)
Historicity
The use of an understanding of history as a basis for trying to change history -- that is, producing informed processes of social change. (page 315)
Field of action
The arena within which social movements interact with established organizations, often producing a??modification of the ideas and outlook of??the members of both. (page 315)
New social movements
A set of social movements that have arisen in Western societies since the 1960s in response to the changing risks facing human societies. New social movements such as feminism, environmentalism, the antinuclear movement, opposition to genetically modified food, and the antiglobalization movement differ from earlier social movements in that they are single-issue campaigns oriented to nonmaterial ends and draw support from across class lines. (page 317)
Civil society
The realm of activity that lies between the state and the market, including the family, schools, community associations, and noneconomic institutions. Civil society, or civic culture, is essential to vibrant democratic societies. (page 317)
Nations without states
Instances in which the members of a nation lack political sovereignty over the area they claim as their own. (page 318)
State overload
A theory that holds that modern states face major difficulties as a result of being overburdened with complex administrative decisions. (page 323)
Legitimation crisis
The failure of a political order to generate a sufficient level of commitment and involvement on the part of its citizens to be able to govern properly. (page 323)