Political Culture and American Values

Vocabulary flashcards covering core American values, political culture, liberty, privacy, equality, and related historical concepts.

Political Culture

The people's collective beliefs and attitudes about government and the political process.

Liberty

Both freedom from government interference in our lives (limited government) and freedom to pursue happiness.

Religious Freedom

A specific notion of liberty that motivated the founding of many of the colonies that eventually became the United States.

Economic and Political Freedom

The notions of liberty that those who fought in the War for Independence were intent on obtaining.

National Security Agency

The agency revealed to have recorded information about 125 million cell phone communications in a 30-day period in 2013, including 3 million communications originating in the United States.

Metadata

Data about communications data, such as the length of a phone call.

GPS

Global positioning system, used to track movements of individuals suspected of a crime.

Equality of Opportunity

The ancient Greek concept from which the American founders' ideas of equality evolved, envisioning a merit-based system.

Declaration of Independence

The U.S. founding document that explicitly states that "all men are created equal…."

Monticello

Thomas Jefferson's plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia, where his descendants gathered for a group photo in 2008.

Sally Hemings

The enslaved half-sister of Thomas Jefferson's wife, with whom Jefferson fathered children.