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GOVT - Ch 1
America in the Twenty-First Century
Term | Definition |
---|---|
institution | An ongoing organization that performs certain functions for society. |
social conflict | Disagreements among people in a society over what the society's priorities should be when distributing scarce resources. |
politics | The process of resolving conflicts over how society should use its scarce resources and who should receive various benefits. |
government | The individuals and institutions that make society's rules and that also possess the power and authority to enforce those rules. |
authority | The ability to legitimately exercise power. |
public services | Essential services that individuals cannot provide for themselves. |
autocracy | A form of government in which the power and authority of the government are in the hands of a single person. |
monarchy | A form of autocracy in which a king, queen, emperor, empress, tsar, or tsarina is the highest authority in the government; monarchs usually obtain their power through inheritance. |
divine right theory | The theory that a monarch's right to rule was derived directly from God rather than from the consent of the people. |
dictatorship | A form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a single person who usually has obtained his or her power by the use of force. |
democracy | A system of government in which the people have ultimate political authority. |
direct democracy | A system of government in which political decisions are made by the people themselves rather than by elected representatives. |
representative democracy | A form of democracy in which the will of the majority is expressed through smaller groups of individuals elected by the people to act as their representatives. |
republic | Essentially, a representative democracy in which there is no king or queen and the people are sovereign. |
limited government | A form of government based on the principle that the powers of government should be clearly limited either through a written document or through wide public understanding. |
parliament | The name of the national legislative body in countries governed by a parliamentary system. |
bicameral legislature | A legislature made up of two chambers, or parts. The United States has a bicameral legislature composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. |
social contract | A voluntary agreement among individuals to create a government and to give that government adequate power to secure the mutual protection and welfare of all individuals. |
natural rights | Rights that are not bestowed by government but are inherent within every man, woman, and child by virtue of the fact that he or she is a human being. |
political culture | The set of ideas, values, and attitudes about government and the political process held by a community or a nation. |
liberty | The freedom of individuals to believe, act, and express themselves as they choose so long as doing so does not infringe on the rights of other individuals in the society. |
equality | A concept that holds, at a minimum, that all people are entitled to equal protection under the law. |
capitalism | An economic system based on the private ownership of wealth-producing property, free markets, and freedom of contract. |
ideology | Generally, a system of political ideas that are rooted in religious or philosophical beliefs concerning human nature, society, and government. |
liberalism | A set of political beliefs that include the advocacy of active government (intervention to improve welfare & protect civil rights). |
conservatism | a set of beliefs that include a limited role for the national government in helping individuals and in the economic affairs of the nation (support for traditional values/lifestyles & cautious response to change). |
progressivism | An alternative, more popular term for the set of political beliefs also known as liberalism. |
moderate | A person whose views fall in the middle of the political spectrum. |
radical left | Persons on the extreme left side of the political spectrum, who would like major changes in the political order, usually to promote egalitarianism (human equality). |