American National Government and Representative Democracy

Vocabulary flashcards covering government functions, market failures, economic management, constitutional limits, and public opinion on American democracy.

Public Goods

Goods for which it is difficult or impossible to exclude individuals from consuming, and whose consumption is nonrivalrous.

Nonrivalrous Consumption

A condition of public goods where one person's consumption or enjoyment does not reduce the supply available to others.

Market Power

The ability of one or more buyers or sellers to manipulate prices to their advantage, providing a justification for government intervention through antitrust policy.

Negative Externalities

Costs that exist when the full social cost of an activity is not captured by the price charged to the consumer, such as pollution.

Monetary Policy

Actions managed by the Federal Reserve Board to affect interest rates and prices in order to manage the economy.

Social Security

A mandatory retirement insurance program officially named Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, created in 1935, funded by payroll taxes to provide cash payments beginning at age 62.

Medicaid

A government program designed to redistribute resources by providing health insurance for low-income households.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

A government program that redistributes resources to low-income families.

Agricultural Price Supports

A Depression-era government program created to help family-owned farms avoid bankruptcy, whose primary beneficiaries are now large agricultural corporations.

Limited Government

The principle that individuals in positions of authority cannot do whatever they want, but can only perform functions delegated to them.

Federalism

The system where certain powers are reserved to the national government only, others to the states only, and others are shared.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, with the first eight governing relations between individuals or groups and the government.

Protective Model of Democracy

The model of democracy on which the U.S. Constitution is based, emphasizing individual liberty and political equality.

The Federalist Papers

A series of newspaper essays laying out the political theory supporting the design of the U.S. Constitution to remedy the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation.

Administrative Procedure Act

A federal law requiring federal administrative agencies to solicit and respond to public input when adopting rules.

Political Parties

Organized groups that compete in elections to win control of offices and organize the government.

Interest Groups

Organizations representing specific subsets of the governed on targeted issues by participating in elections and advocating before all three branches of government.

Pew Research Center

A nonpartisan fact tank that conducts public opinion research without taking policy positions, which surveyed public attitudes toward American democracy in early 2018.

Justifications and Examples of Government Functions

A table mapping government justifications (such as public goods, market failure, social insurance, and redistribution) to specific policy examples.

Pew Research Survey on American Democracy (2018)

A summary table of public opinion results showing weighted percentages of Americans agreeing with statements about government structure, trust, and representation.