American Government--Chapter 1
Order by
20 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Social Contract | the idea that citizens give up their individual sovereignty to the state and the state provides order and peace. but that this arrangement, according to John Loche, means that the government is legitimate only because the people give up authority to govern them |
| Federal System | The power distribution system in which power is divided among local, state, and national governments with each level of government having the power to make laws and elect officials as is in the U.S. |
| Presidential Democracy | In this form of representative democracy, the chief executive is selected independently of the legislature and heads the exectuive branch |
| Unitary System | The name for the power distribution system in which the national government has all the legal power |
| Confederal System | The Southern states during the Civil War is an example of this form of power distribution of government--the independent states jointed together to carry out common goals but there were no exectuive or judicial branches |
| Representative Democracy | Form of democracy in which the people elect other citizens to conduct the buisness of government for them |
| Direct Democracy | Form of democracy in which people rule themselves as in some small New England towns today or like in ancience Greece |
| Constitutional Monarchy | A governemnt in which the monarch is a ceremonial head of state with little real power |
| Sovereignty | Term for the absolute authority a government has over its citizens as members of the state |
| Absolute | When a monarch has almost complete power, he/she is called an ____ monarch |
| Oligarchy | a system of government in which political power and control is held by a small group of political elite |
| Totalitarian | The term that is used to refer to the total control that dictators exercise over their citizens |
| Dictatorship | a system of governmeent in which one person or a small group of ruling elite has total poltical power |
| Parliamentary Democracy | A representative democratic system, in many European countries, in which the chief executive is called a prime minister |
| Natural Rights | The right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are examples of these |
| Democracy | `A system of government in which political authority is held by the people |
| Public Good | Term for when the government is acting for the good of the whole society |
| Government | The instituation in a nation that maintains order, promotes values, etc. |
| Natural Laws | Terms for rules derived from nature rather than from the rules made by the society |
| Laws | The set of rules made and enforced by local, state, or national governments |
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