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Pace - Government, 1
Foundations of American Government
| Vocabulary Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| state | Identifies a political community that occupies a definite territory and has an organized government with the power to make and enforce laws without approval from any higher authority. |
| Aristotle | A scholar of ancient Greece who was one of the first students of government. |
| nation | Often used to describe an independent state or country; however, it is a sizeable group of people who are united by common bonds of race, language, custom, tradition, and sometimes, religion. |
| nation-state | A term often used to describe a country whose territorial boundaries of modern states and nations are the same. |
| consensus | States where the population shares a general political and social ____________, or agreement about basic beliefs, have the most stable governments. |
| political sovereignty | A state that has supreme and absolute authority within its territorial boundaries. |
| government | The institution in which the state maintains social order, provides public services, and enforces decisions that are binding on all people living within the state. |
| evolutionary theory | The belief that the state evolved from the family with the head of the primitive family as the authority that served as a government. |
| force theory | The belief that government emerged when all the people of an area were brought under the authority of one person or group. |
| divine right theory | The notion that the gods have chosen certain people to rule. Many civilizations believed that their rulers were descendents of gods or at least chosen by gods to rule. |
| social contract theory | The belief that in the "state of nature," people had to surrender to the state to maintain order. Thomas Hobbes was one of the first philosophers to theorize this. |
| John Locke | A philosopher believing in social contract theory. He wrote that people were naturally endowed with the right to life, liberty, and property. To preserve their rights, they willingly contracted to give power to a governing authority. |
| unitary system | A government that gives all key powers to the national or central government. This central government has the power to create state, provincial, or other local governments and may give them limited sovereignty. |
| federal system | A government that divides the powers of government between the national government and state orprovincial governments. |
| confederacy | A loose union of independent states. |
| constitution | A plan that provides the rules for government. It serves several major purposes including setting the ideals that people share, establishing the basic structure of power, and providing the supreme law for the country. |
| consititutional government | A limited government in which a constitution has authority to place clearly recognized limits on the powers of those who govern. |
| preamble | A statement in most constitutions that sets forth goals and purposes to be served by the government. |
| constitutional law | Involves the interpretation and application of the constitution. |
| politics | The effort to control or influence the conduct and policies of government. |
| 22nd Amendment | A law in the constitution stating that presidents shall be limited to two elected terms. |
| industrialized nations | Nations that generally have large industries and advanced technology that provide a more comfortable way of life than developing nations do. |
| developing nations | Nations that are only beginning to develop industrially. Their incomes are a fraction of those of industrialized nations. |
| interdependence | The interaction and dependence of nations with one another, especially economically and politically. |
| nonstate international groups | Groups that are not states but play an important role in international politics. |
| multinational corporations | Huge companies with factories in many countries. They carry out their activities on a global scale, thus influencing international politics and the internal decisions of their host countries. |
| international organizations | Organizations that undertake a wide variety of taskss, often to serve the needs of member states. Examples might include the United Nations or the World Meteorological Organization. |
| autocracy | Rule by one person. |
| totalitarian dictatorship | A form of autocracy in which the ideas of a single leader or group of leaders are glorified. |
| oligarchy | Any system of government in which a small group holds power. It derives its power from wealth, military power, social position, or a combination of these elements. Sometimes religion is the source of power. |
| monarchy | A form of autocratic government in which a king, queen, or emperor exercises the supreme powers of government. Usually an inherited position. |
| absolute monarch | One person who has complete and unlimited power to rule his/her people. |
| constitutional monarch | One who shares governmental powers with elected legislatures or serve mainly as the ceremonial leaders of his/her government. |
| democracy | Any system of government in which rule is by the people. |
| direct democracy | The people govern themselves by voting on issues individually as citizens. Exists only in very small societies where citizens can actually meet regularly to discuss and decide key issues and problems. |
| representative democracy | People elect representatives and give them the responsibility and power to make laws and conduct government. |
| republic | A government in which voters hold soveign power. Elected representatives who are responsible to the people exercise that power. |
| political party | A group of individuals with broad common interests who organize to nominate candidates for office, win elections, conduct government, and determine public policy. |
| free enterprise | A concept that opportunity to control one's economic decisions provides a base for making independent political decisions. |
| civil society | A complex network of voluntary associations, economic groups, religious organizations, and many other kinds of grops that exist independently of government. |
| social consensus | An agreement between people on the purpose and limits of government. |
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