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| 88158872 | Aristotle | a philosopher who defined democracy as the "rule of the many" | |
| 88158873 | authority | the right to exercise political power | |
| 88158874 | bureaucracy | structures of authority organized around expertise and specialization | |
| 88158875 | bureaucratic theory | a theory that appointed civil servants make the key governing decisions | |
| 88158876 | citizen participation | a political system in which those affected by a governmental program must be permitted to participate in the program's formulation | |
| 88158877 | city-state | a relatively small political unit within which classical democracy was practiced | |
| 88158878 | community control | a political system in which local citizens are empowered to govern themselves directly | |
| 88158879 | democracy | a term used to describe three different political systems in which the people are said to rule, directly or indirectly | |
| 88158880 | democratic centralism | discovering and then acting on the genuine needs of the people, within a party cadre | |
| 88158881 | direct/participatory democracy | a political system in which all or most citizens participate directly by either holding office or making policy | |
| 88158882 | elite | an identifiable group of people with a disproportionate share of political power | |
| 88158883 | elitist theory | a theory that a few top leaders make the key decisions without reference to popular desires | |
| 88158884 | legitimacy | the widely shared perception that something or someone should be obeyed | |
| 88158885 | majoritarian politics | a political system in which the choices of the political leaders are closely constrained by the preferences of the people | |
| 88158886 | Marxist theory | a theory that government is merely a reflection of underlying economic forces | |
| 88158887 | Mills | a sociologist who presented the idea of a mostly nongovernmental power elite | |
| 88158888 | pluralist theory | a theory that no one interest group consistently holds political power | |
| 88158889 | political power | power when used to determine who will hold government office and how government will behave | |
| 88158890 | power | the ability of one person to cause another person to act in accordance with the first person's intentions | |
| 88158891 | representative democracy | conferring political power on those selected by the voters in competitive elections | |
| 88158892 | Schumpeter | an economist who defined democracy as the competitive struggle by political leaders for the people's vote | |
| 88158893 | Weber | a sociologist who emphasized the phenomenon of bureaucracy in explaining political developments | |
| 88158894 | Articles of Confederation | the government charter of the states from 1776 until the Constitution of 1787 | |
| 88158895 | Charles A. Beard | a historian who argued that the Founders were largely motivated by the economic advantage of their class in writing the Constitution | |
| 88158896 | Constitution | a set of principles, either written or unwritten, that makes up the fundamental law of the state | |
| 88158897 | Constitutional Convention | a meeting of delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 charged with drawing up amendments to the A of C | |
| 88158898 | Declaration of Independence | a document written in 1776 declaring the colonists' intention to throw off British rule | |
| 88158899 | federalism | a constitutional principle reserving separate powers to the national and state levels of government | |
| 88158900 | Federalist papers | a series of political tracts that explained many of the ideas of the Founders | |
| 88158901 | Great Compromise | a constitutional proposal that made membership in one house of Congress proportional to each state's population and membership in the other equal for all states | |
| 88158902 | John Locke | a British philosopher whose ideas on civil government greatly influenced the Founders | |
| 88158903 | James Madison | a principal architect of the Constitution who felt that a government powerful enough to encourage virtue in its citizens was too powerful | |
| 88158904 | Massachusetts Convention | a state constitution , a state constitution with clear seperation of powers but considered to have produced too weak a government | |
| 88158905 | natural rights | rights of all human beings that are ordained by God, discoverable in nature and history, and essential to human progress | |
| 88158906 | New Jersey Plan | a constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new congress | |
| 88158907 | Pennsylvania Constitution | A governing document considering to be hightly democratic yet with a tendency toward tyranny as the result of concentrating all powers in one set of hands | |
| 88158908 | separation of powers | a constitutional principle separating the personnel of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government | |
| 88158909 | Shay's Rebellion | an armed attempt by Revolutionary War veterans to avoid losing their property by preventing the courts in western Mass. from meeting | |
| 88158910 | Virginia Plan | a constitutional proposal that the smaller states' representatives feared would give permanent supremacy to the larger states | |
| 88158911 | amendment | change in, or addition to, a constitution | |
| 88158912 | Antifederalists | those who opposed giving as much power to the national government as the Constitution did, favoring instead stronger states' rights | |
| 88158913 | bill of attainder | a law that would declare a person guilty of a crime without a trial | |
| 88158914 | Bill of Rights | the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution | |
| 88158915 | checks and balances | the power of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government to block some acts by the other two branches | |
| 88158916 | coalition | an alliance between different interest groups or parties to achieve some political goal | |
| 88158917 | confederation | an agreement among sovereign states that delegates certain powers to a national government | |
| 88158918 | ex post facto law | a law that would declare an act criminal after the act was committed | |
| 88158919 | faction | a group of people sharing a common interest who seek to influence public policy for their collective benefit | |
| 88158920 | Federalists | supporters of a stronger central government who advocated ratification of the Constitution and then founded a political party | |
| 88158921 | judicial review | the power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive unconstitutional and therefore null and void | |
| 88158922 | line-item veto | the power of an executive to veto some provisions in an appropriations bill while approving others | |
| 88158923 | Madisonian view of human nature | a philosophy holding that accomodating individual self-interest provided a more practical solution to the problem of government than aiming to cultivate virtue | |
| 88158924 | republic | a form of democracy in which leaders and representatives are selected by means of popular competitive elections | |
| 88158925 | unalienable rights | rights thought to be based on nature and providence rather than on the preferences of people | |
| 88158926 | writ of habeas corpus | a court order requiring police officials to produce an individual held in custody and show sufficient cause for that person's detention | |
| 88158927 | AFDC | program to distribute welfare benefits, program to distribute welfare benefits that was formerly federally funded then devolved to the states in 1996 | |
| 88158928 | block grants | a federal grant that could be used for a variety of purposes, usually with few accompanying restrictions | |
| 88158929 | categorical grants | a federal grant for a specific purpose, often with accompanying conditions and/or requiring a local match | |
| 88158930 | conditions of aid | federal rules that states must follow if they choose to receive the federal grants with which the rules are associated | |
| 88158931 | confederal system | a system in which state governments are sovereign and the national government may do only what the states permit | |
| 88158932 | devolution | an effort to shift responsibility for a wide range of domestic programs from Washington to the states | |
| 88158933 | dual federalism | the doctrine that both state and national governments are supreme in their respective spheres | |
| 88158934 | federal system | a system in which sovereignty is shared between the national and state governments | |
| 88158935 | grants-in-aid | federal funds provided to states and localities | |
| 88158936 | initiative | a procedure that allows voters to place legislative measures (and sometimes constitutional amendments) directly on the ballot by getting a specified proportion of voter signatures on a petition | |
| 88158937 | intergovernmental lobby | an interest group made up of mayors, governors, and other state and local officials who depend on federal funds | |
| 88158938 | interstate commerce | business that is conducted in more than one state | |
| 88158939 | intrastate commerce | business that is conducted entirely within one state | |
| 88158940 | land grant colleges | state educational institutions built with the benefit of federally donated lands | |
| 88158941 | McCulloch v. Maryland | a Supreme Court decision embodying the principle of implied powers of the national government | |
| 88158942 | mandates | federal rules that states must follow, whether they receive federal grants or not | |
| 88158943 | Medicaid | federally funded medical care for the poor | |
| 88158944 | Model Cities | a program proposed in the 1960s to give federal funds to a small number of large cities with acute problems | |
| 88158945 | national interests | governmental concerns considered to be primarily the responsibility of the central government | |
| 88158946 | necessary and proper clause | the term used by the Supreme Court to create the category of implied powers of the national government | |
| 88158947 | New Federalism | Nixon's attempt in the 1970s to reduce federal restrictions on grants-in-aid | |
| 88158948 | nullification | a doctrine espoused by Calhoun that states could hold certain national policies invalid within their boundaries | |
| 88158949 | police powers | those state laws and regulations not otherwise unconstitutional, that promote health, safety and morals | |
| 88158950 | recall | a procedure whereby voters can remove an elected official from office | |
| 88158951 | referendum | a procedure that enables voters to reject a measure adopted by the legislature | |
| 88158952 | revenue sharing | a federal grant that requires no matching funds and provides freedom in how to spend it | |
| 88158953 | second-order devolution | refers to a flow of power and responsibility from the states to local governments | |
| 88158954 | sovereignty | supreme or ultimate political authority | |
| 88158955 | states' rights | government concerns considered to be primarily the responsibility of state governments | |
| 88158956 | Tenth Amendment | the clause that stipulates that powers not delegated to the U.S. are reserved to the states or to the people | |
| 88158957 | third-order devolution | refers to the increased role of nonprofit organizations and private groups in policy implementation | |
| 88158958 | unitary system | a system in which sovereignty is wholly in the hands of the national government |
