Chapter 1
Order by
20 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 government | institutions that make authoritative decisions for a given society |
| politics | process of selection of government leaders and the policies they pursue |
| political participation | activities citizens use to influence selection of political leaders or policies; how people get involved |
| single-issue groups | have a narrow interest, dislike compromise, tend to draw membership from people new to politics |
| policymaking system | process by which policy comes into being, evolves over time |
| linkage institutions | transmit American preferences to government policymakers (include elections, political parties, interest groups, and media) |
| policy agenda | issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics at a given time |
| political issue | result of people disagreeing about a problem/public policy needed to fix a problem |
| policymaking institutions | branches of government that take action on a political issue (include Congress, presidency, courts, and bureaucracy) |
| public policy | every decision that government makes in response to a political issue |
| democracy | a system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public's preferences |
| majority rule | in a democracy, choosing among alternatives requires that the majority's desire be respected; will of over half the voters |
| minority rights | guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities, allows that they might join majorities through persuasion/reasoned argument |
| representation | principle that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers |
| pluralist theory | emphasizes that politics is mainly a competition among certain groups, each pressing for own preferred policies |
| elite and class theory | contends that societies are divided along class lines and that an upper-class elite will rule regardless of formal niceties of government organization |
| hyperpluralism | contends that groups are so strong that government is weakened (extreme/exaggerated form of pluralism) |
| policy gridlock | a condition that occurs when no coalition is strong enough to form a majority, establish policy; result: nothing may get done |
| political culture | an overall set of values widely shared within a society |
| gross domestic product (GDP) | sum total of all goods and services produced in a nation |
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