Terms : Hide Images
| 4831640200 | Government | The institutions that make decisions for a society. | 0 | |
| 4831640201 | Public Goods | Provided to the society by its government - schools, libraries, hospitals, highways, etc. Cannot be denied to anyone, and must be shared by everyone. | 1 | |
| 4831640202 | Politics | The process by which we select our governmental leaders, and what policies these leaders pursue. | 2 | |
| 4831640203 | Political Participation | The ways in which people get involved in politics - voting, protest, civil disobedience. | 3 | |
| 4831640204 | Single-Issue Groups | Groups concerned with one issue, that they often cast their votes on the basis of only that issue. They treat politics as critical to their interests. | 4 | |
| 4831640205 | Policymaking System | The way our government responds to the priorities of its people - how government policy comes into being, and evolves over time. | 5 | |
| 4831640206 | Linkage Institutions | The channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the policy agenda - parties, elections, interest groups, etc. | 6 | |
| 4831640207 | Policy Agenda | The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people involved in politics at a point in time. | 7 | |
| 4831640208 | Political Issue | An issue that arises when people disagree about a problem, and how to fix it. However, government will only act on an issue if it is high on the policy agenda. | 8 | |
| 4831640209 | Policymaking Institutions | Responsible for taking action on political issues - Congress, the presidency, and the courts. (The power of the bureaucracy is considered to be the fourth, but was not deemed as such by the U.S. Constitution.) | 9 | |
| 4831640210 | Public Policy | Every decision that the government makes - every law, budget, and court ruling. | 10 | |
| 4831640211 | Policy Impacts | The effects that a policy has on people, and on society's problems. | 11 | |
| 4831640212 | Democracy | A system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy reflects citizens' interests. | 12 | |
| 4831640213 | Majority Rule | Policies made should reflect the will of over half the voters. | 13 | |
| 4831640214 | Minority Rights | Guaranteed rights to those who do not belong to the majority - freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, etc. | 14 | |
| 4831640215 | Representation | The relationship between the few leaders and the many citizens. | 15 | |
| 4831640216 | Pluralism | The theory that public interest generally prevails - the policymaking process is very open to the participation of all groups with shared interests, with no single group dominating. | 16 | |
| 4831640217 | Elitism | The theory that an upper class elite holds the power and makes policy. | 17 | |
| 4831640218 | Hyperpluralism | "Pluralism gone sour." The theory that many groups together ultimately render the government unable to act. | 18 | |
| 4831640219 | Policy Gridlock | The condition that occurs when conflicting interests are at equal strength. Neither can gain a majority, so nothing gets done. | 19 | |
| 4831640220 | Political Culture | An overall set of values widely shared within a society. | 20 | |
| 4831640221 | Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | The sum total of the value of all the goods and services produced in a year in a nation. | 21 |
