Chapter 1 America in 21st Century
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32 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 authority | The ability to exercise power, such as the power to make and enforce laws, legitimately. |
| autocracy | a political theory favoring unlimited authority by a single individual |
| bicameral legislature | a lawmaking body made up of two chambers or parts |
| capitalism | an economic system based on private ownership of capital |
| conservatism | A set of beliefs that includes a limited role for the national government in helping individuals and in the economic aff airs of the nation, support for traditional values and lifestyles, and a cautious response to change. |
| democracy | A system of government in which the people have ultimate political authority. The word is derived from the Greek demos (people) and kratia (rule). |
| dictatorship | A form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a single person who has usually obtained his or her power by the use of force. |
| direct democracy | A system of government in which political decisions are made by the people themselves rather than by elected representatives. This form of government was practiced in some areas of ancient Greece. |
| divine right theory | A theory that the right to rule by a king or queen was derived directly from God rather than from the consent of the people. |
| equality | A concept that holds, at a minimum, that all people are entitled to equal protection under the law. |
| government | The individuals and institutions that make society's rules and that also possess the power and authority to enforce those rules. |
| ideologue | An individual who holds very strong political opinions. |
| ideology | Generally, a system of political ideas that are rooted in religious or philosophical beliefs concerning human nature, society, and government. |
| institution | An ongoing organization that performs certain functions for society. |
| ideology | A set of political beliefs that includes the advocacy of active government, including government intervention to improve the welfare of individuals and to protect civil rights. |
| 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. |
| 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; characterized by institutional checks to ensure that government serves public rather than private interests. |
| moderate | A person whose views fall in the middle of the political spectrum. |
| 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. |
| natural rights | Rights that are not bestowed by governments but are inherent within every man, woman, and child by virtue of the fact that he or she is a human being. |
| parliament | The name of the national legislative body in countries governed by a parliamentary system, such as Britain and Canada. |
| political culture | The set of ideas, values, and attitudes about government and the political process held by a community or a nation. |
| politics | The process of resolving conflicts over how society should use its scarce resources and who should receive various benefi ts, such as public health care and public higher education. According to Harold Lasswell, politics is the process of determining "who gets what, when, and how" in a society. |
| power | The ability to infl uence the behavior of others, usually through the use of force, persuasion, or rewards. |
| progressivism | An alternative, more popular term for the set of political beliefs also known as liberalism. |
| public services | Essential services that individuals cannot provide for themselves, such as building and maintaining roads, providing welfare programs, operating public schools, and preserving national parks. |
| radical left | Persons on the extreme left side of the political spectrum who would like major changes to the political order, usually to promote egalitarianism (human equality). |
| radical right | Persons on the extreme right side of the political spectrum. The radical right includes reactionaries (who would like to return to the values and social systems of some previous era) and libertarians (who believe in no regulation of the economy and individual behavior, except for defense and law enforcement). |
| 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 term referring to a representative democracy in which there is no king or queen and the people are sovereign. The people elect smaller groups of individuals to act as the people's representatives |
| social conflict | Disagreements among people in a society over what the society's priorities should be with respect to the use of scarce resources |
| 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. |
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