Government in America people politics and policy chapter 1: introducing government in america
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Created by:
ainigrivvk on January 2, 2012
Subjects:
ap us government, government in america, people, politics, and policy
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21 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 government | the institutions and processes through which public policies are made for a society |
| public goods | goods, such as clean air and clean water, that everyone must share |
| politics | The process by which we select our governmental leaders and what policies these leaders pursue. This produces authoritative decisions about public issues. |
| political participation | All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. (Voting, protest, civil disobedience) |
| single-issue groups | Groups that have a narrow interest, tend to dislike compromise, and often draw membership from people new to politics. |
| policymaking system | The process by which policy comes into being and evolves over time. People's interests, problems, and concerns create political issues for government policymakers. |
| Linkage institutions | The political channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the policy agenda. (elections, political parties, interests groups, media) |
| policy agenda | this issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actually involved in politics at any given point in time |
| political issue | an issue that arises when people disagree about a problem and how to fix it |
| policymaking institutions | The branches of government charged with taking action on political issues. (Congress, presidency, courts, bureaucracy(?)) |
| public policy | a choice that government makes in response to a political issue. a policy is a course of action taken with regard to some problem |
| democracy | a system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public's preferences |
| majority rule | a fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory choosing among alternatives requires that this desire be respected |
| minority rights | a principle of traditional democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities and allows that they might join majorities through persuasion and reasoned argument |
| representation | a basic principle of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers |
| pluralist theory | a theory of govt and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies |
| elite and class theory | a theory of government and politics contending that societies are divided along class lines and that an upper-class elite will rule, regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization |
| hyperpluralism | A theory of govt and politics contending that groups are so strong that govt is weakened. It is an extreme, exaggerated, or perverted form of pluralism. |
| policy gridlock | a condition that occurs when no coalition is strong enough to form a majority and establish policy |
| political culture | an overall set of values widely shared within a society |
| gross domestic product | the sum total of the value of all the goods and services produced in a nation |
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