Political Science Chapter 1 & 2 Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, government forms, historic dates, and political structures from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 lecture notes.

Hybrid Regimes

Low-intensity democracies (also called illiberal democracies) where voting exists without political equality, freedom is limited, checks and balances are absent, and elections are not competitive.

Democracy

The process for choosing a leader through free and fair elections along with popular participation and voting.

Liberal Democracy

A political system that combines free and fair elections with the mandatory protection of individual rights from government and majority tyranny.

Anarchy

A society without a government and with no rule of law.

Aristocracy

A system of government ruled by an elite group deemed best suited to govern, often passed down generationally through royal families.

Oligarchy

A system of government ruled by a small group of elites who make decisions specifically to benefit themselves and their group.

Dictatorship

A dictatorial regime where one person or a small group holds absolute, concentrated power, citizens do not choose their leaders, and no right to protest exists.

Republic

A political system where citizens elect agents to represent them, and all citizens hold the right to choose.

Aristocratic-Republic

A republican government system where participation in politics and elections is restricted to only a few people.

Direct Democracy

A pure form of democracy, first attempted in 5th century B.C.E. Athens, where citizens meet face-to-face in assemblies to directly deliberate and vote on laws.

Metics

Foreigners residing in ancient Athens who came from other country city-states, or whose parents were not both Athenian citizens, making them ineligible for Athenian citizenship.

Representative Democracy

An indirect form of democracy where rule by the people is exercised through elected representatives chosen by the public.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that ultimate authority resides in the people, and the government exists to carry out the people's bidding.

Political Equality

The principle that no individual is superior to another in governance, and every vote and value is counted equally.

Political Liberty

Basic freedoms protected by the government, including freedom of conscience and thought.

Declaration of Independence (1776)

Document adopted on July 4, 1776, establishing national sovereignty, separating the colonies from Great Britain, and declaring that a tyrant is unfit to rule over free people.

Articles of Confederation (1777)

The first U.S. constitution (ratified 1781) that established a weak central government without a president or central military, leaving primary power with independent state sub-units.

Framers

The wealthy, educated delegates with political and military backgrounds who drafted the U.S. Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Fugitive Slave Law

A constitutional provision requiring that enslaved people who escaped from Southern states into Northern states must be returned.

New Jersey Plan

A proposal at the Constitutional Convention supported by smaller states to provide equal representative seats in Congress for every state regardless of population.

Virginia Plan

A proposal at the Constitutional Convention advocating that state representation in Congress be determined by population size.

Connecticut Compromise

An agreement establishing a two-house U.S. Congress that combined equal state representation in the Senate with population-based representation in the House of Representatives.

3/5th Compromise

An agreement to count three-fifths of the enslaved population for state population totals to determine representation in the House of Representatives.

Electoral College

The system for electing U.S. presidents where each state receives a number of electors based on its total members in the House of Representatives plus its two Senators.

Swing States

Battleground states with neutral party allegiance targeted during presidential campaigns to secure state popular majorities and win electoral votes.

Federalist

Supporters of ratifying the 1787 U.S. Constitution who advocated for power shared between a strong central government and state governments.

Anti-Federalist

Opponents of the 1787 U.S. Constitution who feared that a strong central government would strip away state power and individual freedoms.

Federalist Papers

A series of opinion pieces written in newspapers by the Framers to persuade political elites to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Bill of Rights

The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, designed to limit government power over individual liberties.

Judicial Review

The power established in Marbury v. Madison (1803) allowing the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution and declare acts unconstitutional.