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GOV Topic 1 Vocab
GOV Topic 1 Vocabulary Lessons 1,2,3,4 PEARSON 2016
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| government | the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies |
| public policies | all of the many goals that a government pursues in all of the many areas of human affairs in which its is involved |
| legislative power | the power to make a law and to frame public policies |
| executive power | the power to execute, enforce, and administer law |
| judicial power | the power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes within the society |
| dictatorship | a form of government in which the leader has absolute power and authority |
| democracy | a form of government in which the supreme authority rests with the people |
| Aristotle | Greek philosopher, observed that "man is by nature a political animal" |
| state | a body of people living in a defined territory who have a government with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority |
| sovereign | having supreme power within one's own territory |
| Thomas Hobbs | English philosopher, said that without government there would be "continual fear and danger of violent death and the life of man [would be] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" |
| John Locke | English philosopher, helped to develop the Social Contract Theory, which believed in natural rights, and promoting the safety and well-being of all |
| autocracy | a form of government in which a single person holds unlimited political power |
| Oligarchy | a form of government in which the power to rule is held by a small, usually self-appointed elite |
| unitary government | a centralized government in which all government power belong to a single, central agency |
| federal government | a form of government in which powers are divided between a central government and several local governments |
| division of powers | basic principle of federalism,; which is a system of government in which a written constitution divides power between a central, or national government and regional governments |
| confederation | a joining of several groups for a common purpose |
| presidential government | a form of government in which the executive and legislative branches of the government are separate, independent, and coequal |
| parliamentary | a form of government in which the executive branch is made up of the prime minister or premier, and that official's cabinet |
| Abraham Lincoln | 16th president who freed the slaves; gave immortality to the definition of "democracy" in his Gettysburg Address in 1863: "government of the people, by the people, for the people" |
| Alexander Pope | English poet who wrote a couplet asking the question: Does the form a government takes have any importance? Pope thought NOT. |
| partricians | rich upper-class, landowning aristocrat of ancient Rome |
| plebeians | the common folk in the Roman Republic |
| feudalism | a loosely organized system in which powerful lords divided their lands among other, lesser lords |
| sovereignty | utmost authority in decision making and in maintaining order of a state |
| legitimacy | the belief of the people that a government has the right to make public policy |
| divine right of kings | God created the state, making it sovereign. The government is made up of those chosen by God to rule a certain territory. The population must obey their ruler. |
| mercantilism | an economic and political theory emphasizing money as the chief source of wealth to increase the absolute power of the monarchy and the nation |
| Moses | a Biblical religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet who received the Ten Commandments |
| Francois-Marie Arouet | major enlightenment figure; French philosopher, known as Voltaire, who advocated reason, freedom of religion, the importance of scientific observation, and the idea of human progress. |
| majority rule | in a democracy, the majority of the people will be right more often than they will be wrong, and will be right more often than will any one person or small group |
| compromise | an adjustment of opposing principles or systems by modifying some aspect of each |
| citizen | a member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to it by birth or naturalization and is entitled to full civil rights |
| free enterprise system | an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods |
| James Bryce | British academic, jurist, historian and left-wing Liberal politician; known for the following quote: "No government demands so much from the citizen as Democracy, and none gives so much back." |
| Sir Winston Churchill | British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the UK from 1940-1945 and 1951-1955 |
| Oliver Wendell Holmes | Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court once had this to say about the relative nature of each individual's rights: "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 20th president, leader of the "Rough Riders"; quoted in 1902: "the first requisite of a good citizen in our republic is that he should be able and willing to pull his weight." |
| George Washington | 1st president; quoted in Farewell Address in 1796: on citizenship, "the very idea of the power and right of the People to establish govern presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government |
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