AP Flashcards

7516871743	Government	Institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies (law or laws)	0
7516871744	Public policies	all the things a government decides to do (majority party in legislative and executive branches decide)	1
7516871745	Legislative power	Power to make laws	2
7516871746	Executive power	Power to enforce and administer laws	3
7516871747	Judicial power	The power to interpret laws	4
7516871748	Dictatorship	a government in which all power rests with an individual (or small group)---(more like an oligarchy)	5
7516871749	Democracy	a government in which supreme authority rests with the people	6
7516871750	State	a body of people, living in a defined territory, with a government that can make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority	7
7516871751	Sovereign	to have supreme and absolute power within a territory	8
7516871752	Divine Right	the theory that governments gain their authority from the Will of God	9
7516871753	Requirements of a state	Population; territory (in control); sovereignty (absolute power---no answer to higher power); government	10
7516871754	The force theory	An individual or group claims control over a territory and forces the population to submit; The state then becomes sovereign and those in control form a government	11
7516871755	Evolutionary theory	A population formed out of primitive families (or tribes); The heads of these families become the government (i.e. Saudi Arabia); When these families settled in one territory and claimed it as their own, they became a sovereign state	12
7516871756	Divine Right Theory	God created the state, making it sovereign; The government is made up of those chosen by God to rule a certain territory. The population must obey their ruler.	13
7516871757	Social Contract Theory	Developed by philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau and has had the greatest influence on US government; People chose to give the state enough power to promote the well-being of everyone and that all political power comes from the will of the people (voting); promotes popular sovereignty, limited gov't, and individual rights	14
7516871758	Autocracy	government in which a single person holds all political power (i.e. Dictatorship)	15
7516871759	Oligarchy	government in which a small, usually self-appointed group has the sole power to rule (Elite)	16
7516871760	Unitary government	a government in which all power belongs to one central agency (e.g. Parliament in Great Britain)	17
7516871761	Federal government	a government in which power is divided between one central (Fed) and several local governments (state, local: city, county)	18
7516871762	Division of powers	the split of power between central and local governments (i.e. Conceptual federalism)	19
7516871763	Confederation	an alliance of independent states (e.g. Articles of Confederation, EU)	20
7516871764	Presidential government	a government with separate executive and legislative branches (USA)	21
7516871765	Parliamentary government	a government in which the executive branch is part of the legislative branch and subject to its control (GB legislation picks Prime Minister)	22
7516871766	Constitutional monarchy	UK's gov't	23
7516871767	Constitution-based federal republic	US's gov't	24
7516871768	Political ideology	the coherent set of values and beliefs people hold about the government	25