Question | Answer |
Governments | Organizations of individuals who are legally empowered to make binding decisions on behalf of a particular community. |
Night Watchman State | Government that provides basic law and order, defense, and protection of property rights but little else. Common in 19th century Western countries. |
Police State | Seen in many authoritarian societies, under communism and fascism. |
Welfare State | Type of government that includes programs of social welfare assistance, unemployment pensions, public education, etc. Originated in 1880's Germany and copied by many democratic countries. |
Regulatory State | Developed alongside welfare state. |
State of Nature | the condition philosophers thought would occur if no government existed - some barbaric, fear, eternal conflict OR humanity before fall from grace, free from corruption OR in between |
Political Cultures | world vies, values and expectations- the more similar to all within a nation, the easier to coexist peacefully |
Public Goods - defining characteristics (2) | --if they are provided to one consumer they cannot be withheld from another
--one persons enjoyment or consumption cannot detract from anyone elses
example : clean air or defense |
Externalities | occur when economic activity produces costs that are not borne or taken into account by any party. May be bad or good. (pollution, prisons, major highways) |
Libertarians | Individualists who see society as composed of individual human beings with fundamental rights. They believe the more tasks government takes on, the more prone it is to violate basic rights. Want society of free individuals to seek out their own groups. |
Anarchists | Communitarians that see societies as naturally close knit communities. They feel government corrupts and leads to oppression and alienation. Want voluntary cooperation and natural communities. |
Rent Seeking | political pursuit for private gain, self interest |
Political System | type of social system involved in the making of authoritative public decisions, a set of institutions that formulate and implement the collective goals of a society or the groups within it |
State | a political system that has sovereignty |
Sovereignty | independent legal authority over a population in a particular territory |
Nation-States | territories in which common national identification and the scope of legal authority largely coincide |
United Nations (UN) | organization formed in 1945 that encompasses almost all the worlds states. Forces are deployed as peacekeepers in countries stricken by civil war and lawlessness |
Nation | a group of people with a common identity. - self identification of the people built upon common language, history, race, culture, territory, etc |
Ethinicity | groups with a subjective belief in their common descent NOT objectively necessarily based on genetics, culture or history |
Religious Fundamentalism | occurring in every religion, those who affirm the absolute truth of their bible or teachings and who reject some elements of modernaty while still being technoloically adaptive. Some employ violence & acts of terrorism |
Political Cleavages | when national, ethnic, linguistic and religious divisions affect political allegiances and policies |
Types of political cleavages (2) | cumulative - pit the same people against each other on many different issues cross-cutting- groups are on same side of some issues and opposite sides of another |
Gross National Product (GNP) | total economic output per person |
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) | newer measure of economic state of a country. Takes into account differences in price levels from one country to another. In some countries a dollar goes further ( cost of living) |
Democracy | political system in which it's citizens have a number of basic civil and political rights and where leaders are elected in free and fair elections and are accountable under a rule of law |
Oligarchies | "rule by the few" important political rights are withheld from the majority of the population |
Totalitarian | government constricts the rights AND privacy of citizens in a particularly severe and intrusive manner ex. Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union |
Democratization | a countries move toward democracy |