Chapter 1: The Political Landscape
Terms : Hide Images
| 211506488 | Popular Sovereignty | The right of the majority to govern themselves | |
| 211506489 | Citizen | Member of the political community to whom certain rights and obligations are attached | |
| 211506490 | Oligarchy | A form of government in which the right to participate is always conditioned on the possession of wealth, social status, military position, or achievement. | |
| 211506491 | Social Contract | An agreement between the people and their government signifying their consent to be governed | |
| 211506492 | Conservative | One thought to believe that a government is best that governs least and that big government can only infringe on individual, personal, and economic rights. | |
| 211506493 | Politics | The study of who gets what, when, and how or how policy decisions are made. | |
| 211506494 | Government | A collective of individuals and institutions, the formal vehicles through which policies are made and affairs of state are conducted. | |
| 211506495 | American Dream | An American ideal of a happy, successful life, which often includes wealth, a house, a better life for one's children, and, for some, the ability to grow up to be president. | |
| 211506496 | Political Ideology | An individual's coherent set of values and beliefs about the purpose and scope of government. | |
| 211506497 | Natural Law | A doctrine that society should be governed by certain ethical principles that are part of nature and as such can be understood by reason. | |
| 211506498 | Republic | A government rooted in the consent of the governed; a representative or indirect democracy. | |
| 211506499 | Majority Rule | the central premise of direct democracy in which only policies that collectively garner the support of a majority of voters will made into law. | |
| 211506500 | Indirect (representative) democracy | A system of government that gives citizens the opportunity to vote for representatives who will work on their behalf. | |
| 211506501 | Personal Liberty | A key characteristic of US democracy. Initially meaning freedom from governmental interference, today it includes demands for freedom to engage in a variety of practices free from governmental discrimination. | |
| 211506502 | Monarchy | A form of government in which power is vested in hereditary kings and queens. | |
| 211506503 | Direct Democracy | A system of government in which members of the polity meet to discuss all policy decisions and then agree to abide by majority rule. | |
| 211506504 | Democracy | A system of government that gives power to the people, whether directly or through their elected representatives. | |
| 211506505 | Civil Society | Society created when citizens are allowed to organize and express their views publicly as they engage in an open debate about public policy. | |
| 211506506 | Liberal | One considered to favor extensive governmental involvement in the economy and the provision of social services and to take an activist role in extending the power of the state. | |
| 211506507 | Political culture | Attitudes toward the political system and its various parts, and attitudes toward the role of the self in the system. | |
| 211506508 | Totalitarianism | An economic system in which the government has total control over the economy | |
| 211506509 | Popular consent | The idea that governments must draw their powers from the consent of the governed | |
| 211506510 | Social contract theory | The belief that people are free and equal by God-given right and that this in turn requires that all people give their consent to be governed; espoused by John Locke and influential in the writing of the Declaration of Independence. | |
| 211506511 | Libertarian | One who favors a free market economy and no governmental interference in personal liberties. |
