Government cheat sheet

Branches and functions

Legislative, executive and judicial functions concern making, implementing and interpreting law. Their institutional arrangements differ between systems.

A constitution determines how powers are allocated and constrained.

Authority and legitimacy

Authority concerns a recognised right to govern; legitimacy concerns the grounds on which power is accepted as rightful.

The existence of coercive power does not by itself establish legitimacy.

Electoral systems

Electoral rules translate votes into representation in different ways. Outcomes depend on district design, thresholds and allocation rules.

A plurality winner need not receive more than half of all votes.

Accountability

Accountability involves information, explanation and mechanisms for consequences. Elections are one mechanism among others.

Audits, courts and legislative scrutiny perform different accountability roles.

Unitary and federal arrangements

A federal system constitutionally divides authority between levels of government. A unitary system can devolve powers without having the same constitutional structure.

Compare the legal source of regional authority, rather than simply counting levels of government.

Constitutions and conventions

Constitutions, statutes, judicial decisions and political conventions can all structure government. Their roles and legal status differ across systems.

A political convention should not automatically be described as an enforceable statutory rule.

Representation

Representation can concern voters’ preferences, constituencies, parties, interests or descriptive characteristics. Different electoral arrangements create different incentives and trade-offs.

A representative’s local responsibilities and party commitments may pull in different directions.

Policy processes

Policy involves agenda-setting, formulation, decision, implementation and evaluation, often with feedback between stages. Formal adoption does not guarantee effective implementation.

Evaluate both the stated objective and evidence of the resulting outcomes.

Worked example: vote shares

In a simplified election, a party wins 40% of votes and 55% of seats. The seat share exceeds the vote share by 15 percentage points; this does not identify the electoral rule on its own.

Compare constituency boundaries, district size and the voting system before explaining the difference.

Common mistake: institutions are identical everywhere

Terms such as president, cabinet and parliament can describe different powers and relationships. Compare the specific constitutional arrangement and period.

Do not transfer a rule from one country to another merely because the institution has the same name.

Check your understanding

Does having local councils alone make a country federal?

No. Federalism concerns the constitutional distribution of authority, not just the existence of local administration.

Curriculum connections

Sources