Foundations of Government and Citizenship

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering basic principles, forms, origins, and economic foundations of government based on Chapter 1 lecture notes.

Government

The institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies.

Public Policies

All of the things a government decides to do, including taxation, defense, education, crime prevention, healthcare, and environmental protection.

Legislative Power

The basic power of government to make laws and to frame public policies.

Executive Power

The basic power of government to execute, enforce, and administer laws.

Judicial Power

The basic power of government to interpret laws, determine their meaning, and settle disputes within society.

Constitution

A body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of a government.

Dictatorship

A form of government in which political power is held by a single person or a small group of people who are not held responsible to the will of the people.

Democracy

A form of government in which supreme political power rests with the people.

State

A body of people living in a defined territory, organized politically, and with the power to make and enforce laws without the consent of any higher authority.

Sovereignty

The supreme and absolute power of a state within its own territory to decide its own foreign and domestic policies.

Force Theory

A theory on the origin of the state asserting that an individual or small group claimed control over a territory and forced the population to submit.

Evolutionary Theory

A theory on state origin stating that primitive families evolved into clans and tribes, which became a sovereign state once settled in a specific territory.

Divine Right of Kings Theory

A theory holding that God created the state and granted individuals of royal birth a divine right to rule, requiring the population to obey them.

Social Contract Theory

A theory holding that a population in a given territory agreed to give up as much power to a government as needed to promote the safety and well-being of all.

Direct Democracy

Also called pure democracy, a form of government where citizens directly formulate public policy and create laws by voting at mass meetings; works only at a small, local level.

Indirect Democracy

Also called representative democracy or a republic, a system where a group of individuals chosen by citizens formulates public policy and governs on their behalf.

Autocracy

A form of dictatorship in which a single individual holds absolute and unlimited political power.

Oligarchy

A form of dictatorship in which the power to rule is held by a small, typically self-appointed elite group.

Authoritarian

A political characteristic where those in power hold absolute authority over the people.

Totalitarian

A form of dictatorship that exercises complete power over nearly every aspect of human life.

Theocracy

A government in which the legal system of the country is based directly on religious law.

Unitary Government

A centralized system of government in which all powers are held by a single central agency, which may create local units for convenience.

Federal Government

A system of government in which powers are divided between a central national government and several local governments.

Division of Powers

The geographic distribution of governmental powers between a central national government and regional or state governments.

Confederation

An alliance of independent states in which the central government has power to handle only those matters assigned to it by its member states.

Presidential Government

A form of government in which executive and legislative branches are separate, independent, and coequal, with a chief executive chosen by the voters.

Parliamentary Government

A system of government in which the executive branch consists of a prime minister and cabinet who are members of and chosen by the legislative branch.

Council of Five Hundred

A council of citizens in ancient Athens chosen at random each year to handle day-to-day government work.

Patrician

A member of the wealthy, landowning upper class and aristocracy in the ancient Roman Republic.

Plebeian

A member of the common population in the ancient Roman Republic.

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement from the late 1600s to early 1800s based on reason, individual rights, and new concepts of political authority.

John Locke

An Enlightenment philosopher who asserted that all people possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Thomas Hobbes

An Enlightenment philosopher who held that people and their leaders are part of a social contract that defines the rights and powers of each.

Adam Smith

An Enlightenment economist credited as the founder of capitalism who criticized economic policies that enriched monarchs while subjects became poorer.

Baron de Montesquieu

An Enlightenment political thinker who advocated for the separation of powers in government.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that government can exist and function only with the approval and consent of its governed citizens.

Compromise

The process of blending and adjusting competing views and interests in order to reach an agreement, essential to a functioning democracy.

Anarchy

The total absence of government and law.

Citizen

A member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to it by birth or naturalization and is entitled to full civil rights.

Free Enterprise System

An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, private investments determined in a free market, and four fundamental factors: private ownership, individual initiative, profit, and competition.

Law of Supply and Demand

An economic law stating that prices rise when demand is high and supply is low (shortage), and prices fall when demand is low and supply is high (surplus).