Fed Goc Ch 1.

What is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public polices, is made up of those people who exercise powers, and contains those who have authority and control over people?

Government

What are all of the things a government decides to do?
For example: taxation, defense, education, crime, and healthcare to transportation, the environment, civil rights, and working conditions.

Public Policies

What is the ability to command or prevent action and the ability to achieve the desired end?

Power

Who has the power to make laws and to frame public policies?

Legislative Branch

Who has the power to execute, enforce, and administer laws?

Executive Branch

Who has the power to interpret laws, determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within society?

Judicial Branch

What is the body of fundamental laws setting our the principles, structures, and processes of the government?

Constitution

What is the type of government in which power is held by a single person (or small group) and are not held responsible to the will of the people?

Dictatorship

What are the four characteristics of a state?

population, territory, sovereignty, and government

What word defines a state by having absolute power within its territory and can decide its own foreign and domestic policies?

Sovereignty

What is the mechanism through which a state makes and enforces its policies?

Government

\______ Theory: an individual or group claim control over territory forced population to submit - state became sovereign and those in control form the government

Forced

\___________ Theory: a population formed other primitive families - The heads of these families became the government - when the family settled in a territory and claimed it as their own they became a sovereign state

Evolutionary

\______ Theory: God created the state making it sovereign - government is made up of those chosen by God to rule certain territory - people (population) must obey the rule

Divine

\______ \________ : a population in a given place (territory) gave up as much power to a government as needed to promote the well-being of all - so they created a sovereign state

Social Contract

What are the four characteristics of a State?

population, territory, sovereignty, and government

What are the two basic types of government?

Democracy and dictatorship

What are the three types of geographic distribution of government power?

Unitary, Federal, and Confederate

\________ Government a type in which the National Government and the States are co-equal partners.

Federal

\___________ Government is a type in which most power belongs to the local (regional) government and the central government has only limited power.

Confederate

\_______ Government is a type in which the power resides with the central government and local government is secondary.

Unitary

What is the type of government in which supreme political authority rests with the people and the government only acts with consent of the people?

Democracy

\______ or \____ Democracy is when the will of the people is translated into public policy directly by the people.

Direct or Pure

\________ or \______________ Democracy is when small groups of people, chosen by the people to act as their representatives, express the popular will.

Indirect or Representative

In a \____________, those who rule cannot be held responsible to the will of the people. (oldest, most common form in history)

Dictatorship

In a \_________, a single person holds unlimited political power.

Autocracy

In a \_________, power to rule is held by a small, usually self-appointed elite group of people.

Oligarchy

In a \____________ Government, there is a separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branches of the government and the two branches are independent and coequal.

Presidential

In a \_____________ Government, the executive branch is made up of the prime minister (or premier) and a cabinet.

Parliamentary

The \____________ Relationship:
Voters elect the Legislative and the Chief Executive who is part of the Executive Branch. The legislative and executive are independent and coequal.

Presidential

The \_____________ Relationship: Voters elect the Legislature. The Chief Executive is drawn from the Legislature.

Parliamentary

What are the four parts of a Free Enterprise System (Capitalism)?

private ownership, individual initiative, profit, and competition

What are the two purposes for a Government's participation serves in the economy?

protect the public and preserve private enterprise