| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Amnesty | the act of granting pardon to a large group of people |
| Communism | an economic system in which the cental govenment directs all major economic decisions |
| Confederacy | a loose union of independant states; name of government used by the southern states that seceded during the Civil War |
| Conservative | a person who believes government power, particulary in the economy, should be limited in order to maximize individual freedom |
| Corporation | an organization that is autorized by law to carry on an activity but treated as though it wre a single person |
| Detente | relaxation of tesions between the United States and its two major Communist rivials, the Soviet Union and China |
| Ethnic Cleansing | the expulsion, imprisonment,or killing of etnic minorities by a dominant majority group |
| Fascism | a ploitical system headed by a dictator that calls for extreme nationalism and rasism and has no tolerance for opposition |
| Flexible Response | the buildup of conventional troops and weapons to allow a nation to fight a limited war without using nuclear weapons |
| Impeachment | a formal accusation of misconduct in office against a public offical |
| Imperialism | the actions used by one nation to excersize politiacal or economic control over smaller or weaker nation |
| Insurrection | an act of rebellion against the established government |
| Internationalism | a national policy of actively trading with foreign countries of foster peace and prosperity |
| Isolationism | the avoidandce of involvment in world affaris |
| Liberal | a person who generally believes the government should take an active role in the economy and in social programs but that the goverment should not dictate social behavior |
| Multinational Corporation | large corporation with overseas investments |
| Nuclear Proliferation | the spread of nuclear weapons to new nations |
| Nullification | the failure of refusal of a U.S. state to aid in the enforcement of federal laws within its state limits |
| Political Machine | an organized linked to a political party that often controlled local government |
| Segregation | the seperation or isolation of a race, class, or group |
| Self-Determination | belief that people in a territory should have the ability to choose their own government |
| State Sponsored Terrorism | violent acts against civilians that are secrety supported by a government in order to attack other nations without going to war |
| Subversion | a systematic attempt to overthrow a government by using persons working secretly from within |
| Terrorism | the use of violence by non-governing groups against civilians to achive a political goal by installing fear anf frightning governments into changing policies |
| Capitalism | economic system in which private citizens own and use the factors of production in order to generate profits |
| Consumer Price Index | statistic the measures overall changes in price or inflation over time |
| Consumer Sovereignty | to concept that the consumer is the ruler of the market |
| Depression | a state of the economy with large numbers of unemployment, supply shortages, and excess capacity in manufacturing plants |
| Deregulation | relaxation of government regulation on industry |
| Elasticity | a measure of responsiveness that tells us how a dependent variable such as quality responds to an independent variable such as price |
| Federal Reserve System | privately owned, publicty controlled, central bank of the United States |
| Gross Domestic Product | the dollar amount of alll final goods and services produced within a country's boarders in a year |
| Inflation | a rise inthe general level of prices |
| Liquidity | ability to converted an asset into cash quickly |
| Marginal Utility | the extra usefullness gained from consuming one or more unit of a product |
| Money | any substance that seves as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, and a store of value |
| Scarcity | the condition that results from limited resources combined with unlimited wants |
| Supply | the amount of a product that would be offered for sale at all possible prices that could prevail in the market |
| Tariff | a tax on an imported product |
| Trade-Off | alternatives that must be given up when one is chosen over another |
| Bureaucracy | government administrators |
| Civil Society | a complex network of voluntary associations, economic groups, religious organizations, and many other kinds of groups that exist independently from the government |
| Constituent | a person whom a member of congress has been elected to represnt |
| Democracy | a genral description of a government in which the people rule |
| Dimplomacy | the art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations without arousing hostility |
| Due Process of Law | principle in the 5th Amendment starting that the government must follow proper constitutional procedures in trials and in other actions it takes against individuals |
| Federalism | a system in which power is divided between teh national and state governments |
| Government | the institution through which teh state maintains social order, provides public srvices, and enforces binding decisions on citizens |
| Incumbent | elected officail that is already in office |
| Intrest Group | a group of people with common goals who organize to influence government |
| Judicial Review | the power o fthe supreme court to declare laws and actions of local, state, or national governments unconstitutional |
| Jurisdiction | the authority, power, or rightof a court to interpret or apply the law on certain cases |
| Lobbying | direct contact made by an intrest group representative inorder to pursuade government officials to support the policies their intrest group favors |
| Naturalization | the legal process by which a person is granted citizenship |
| Patronage | teh practice of granting favors to reward party loyalty |
| Political Party | a group of individuals with broad common intrests who organize to nominate candidates for office, win elections, conduct government,and determine public policy |
| Politics | the effort to control of influence the conduct and policiesof government |
| Republic | a specific description of a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is excersized by elected officers and representatives to them |
| Sovereignty | the surpreme and absolute authority within territorial bounderies |
| Appeasement | satisfying teh demands of dissatisfied powers in an effort to maintain peace and stabiltiy |
| Autonomous | self-governing |
| Caste System | a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society |
| Conquistador | a spanish conqueror of the americans |
| Crusades | a series of militery expeditions by Christian Europe to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims |
| Dictator | an absolute ruler |
| Disarmament | a limit or reduction in armed forces or weapons |
| Dissient | a person who speakes out against the regime in power |
| Divine Right of Kings | teh idea that kings recieve thier power from God and are responsible only to God |
| Feudalism | a political and social system that developed during the Middle Ages;nobles offered protection and land in return for service |
| Hellenistic | pertaining to Greek language and culture |
| Hersey | thoughts and ideas that are contary to the teachings of the Christian faith |
| Magna Carta | a written code that limited the power of the English monarchy for teh first time; also caled teh Great Charter |
| Nationalism | the unique cultural identity of a people based on common language, religon, and national symbols |
| Natural Rights | the idea that all humans are born with rights, which include the right to lige, liberty, and property |
| Propaganda | ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause |
| Reparation | paymant madeto the victor by thevanquished to cover the costs of a war |
| Rural | of or relating to people who live in the countary |
| Secular | a viewpoint void of religious thought of considerations |
| Social Contract | the idea that an entire society agrees to bo governed by its general will |
| Socilaism | a system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls the means of production |
| Totalitarian | a government that aims to control the political, economic, social, intellectual, and culture lives of its citzens |
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