- Arab Spring
- a movement across the Arab world in the early 2010s seeking to expand democracy
- authority
- the permission, conferred by the laws of a governing regime, to exercise power
- blasphemy
- insulting speech or publications about a religion or its tenets
- broad legitimacy
- the trait a government has of being seen by the broad population subject to its authority as rightfully exercising its power
- bully pulpit
- the potential power of the president to influence legislators and the broad population
- charismatic legitimacy
- the accumulation of legitimacy through forceful leaders whose personal characteristics captivate the people
- civil disobedience
- the nonviolent refusal to follow authorized exercises of governmental power with the purpose of demanding political change
- coalition government
- an alliance of individual parties that by themselves do not have the support of the majority of a parliament but that, by agreeing to work together, can form a team of ministers that can acquire the support of the majority of parliament
- failed state
- a condition where a state has collapsed so thoroughly that the area it once ruled experiences the absence or near absence of governmental power altogether or becomes an empty shell ruled by an unauthorized group
- federalism
- a regime type that authorizes a national government to exercise some powers and governments whose laws cover only a small region, such as a state or province, to exercise other powers
- Fidesz
- an ideologically conservative, nationalist party that enjoys popular support in Hungary
- fragile state
- a condition where the capacity of a state to exercise control over an area such that it can provide minimal conditions of law, order, and social stability deteriorates to a precariously low level
- governing regime
- a set of organizations, and their associated rules and procedures, that has the authority to exercise the widest scope of power—including the power to have the final say over when the use of force is acceptable—over a defined area, and which seeks to exercise its authority with legitimacy
- hard authoritarianism
- the condition where a regime acts without any consultation with the broad majority of citizens
- head of state
- a political leader who represents the unity of the country
- Hindu nationalism
- a political movement that sees India as an inherently Hindu country
- Juche
- the North Korean regime’s ideology of national self-reliance
- judgments about legitimacy
- the perspective of individual citizens or groups of citizens who make determinations about whether their government is or is not legitimate
- Knesset
- the unitary national parliament of the State of Israel
- manufactured consent
- support for a regime that results from state programs and activities designed to indoctrinate the people and instill that support
- monopoly on the right to use violence
- a government claim to the right to use violence or to approve its use by others
- police state
- a state that uses its police or military force to exercise unrestrained power (see also: security state)
- political freedom
- the freedom to participate in a meaningful way in democratic elections that can shape the actions of one’s government
- power
- the ability to impose one’s will on others to secure desired outcomes
- propaganda
- misleading statements and depictions meant to persuade by means other than rational engagement
- rational-legal legitimacy
- a type of legitimacy that develops as a result of the clarity and even-handedness with which a regime relates to the people
- rightfulness
- the property a constitution, law, policy, or electoral outcome has of being morally appropriate and consistent with basic justice and social welfare
- rule of law
- a condition where states operate within clearly defined legal rules
- security state
- a state that uses its police or military force to exercise unrestrained power (see also: police state)
- shadow government
- an organization, not authorized or desired by the government asserting rule over an area, that effectively displaces and serves the same function as the official government
- soft authoritarianism
- a condition where a regime affirms its right to rule apart from consultation with or approval from the public but nevertheless frequently seeks the input of the people and frequently attempts to advance what the people desire
- Supreme Leader
- in Iran, an office vested with ultimate political authority that must be held by a Shi‘a cleric of the Twelver school who is respected among the leading clerics of Iran; in North Korea, the popular name used for the nation’s most powerful leader
- theocracy
- a system of government in which religious leaders have authorized governmental power and possess either direct control over the government or enough authorized governmental power to be able to control the government’s policies
- third wave of democratization
- a movement that began in the 1970s that saw democratically accountable structures of government emerge in Spain, Portugal, South Korea, and, somewhat later, in Latin American countries such as Chile
- traditional legitimacy
- a form of legitimacy that accrues when the governing regime embraces traditional cultural myths and accepted folkways
- unicameral
- a legislative body that has only one house or chamber
- unitary system
- a system of government in which all major electorally accountable officials are responsive to the entire citizenry and make and enforce laws for the entire country (often with the exception of minor local-level matters that are handled by locally elected assemblies)