AP Government Ideology And Beliefs

Freedom of: the absence of constraints on behavior

Freedom from: immunity from things like want

Police power: the authority of a government to maintain order and safeguard citizen’s health, morals, safety, and welfare

Order: established patters of authority in society and to traditional modes of behavior

Social Equality: equality in wealth, education, and status

Equality of Outcome: everyone who has the same ability can achieve the same goal

Rights: the benefits of the government to which every citizen is entitled

Original Dilemma: tradeoff between freedom and order

Modern Dilemma: the tradeoff between freedom and equality

Majoritarian Model of Democracy: the classical theory of democracy in which government by the people is interpreted as government by the majority of the people

Deliberative Democracy: citizens and elected representatives exercise reasoned and full debate on questions of public policy

Pluralist Model of Democracy: government run by people operating through competing interest groups

Interest Group: an organized group that attempts to influence public policy

Elite theory: the view that a small group of people actually makes most of the important government decisions

Political Culture: ideologies, values, beliefs, norms, customs and traditions of a country

Political Socialization: the experiences and factors that shape an individual’s political values, attitudes, and behaviors

Generational Effect: the impact of historical events experienced by a generation upon their political views

Life-cycle Effect: the impact of a person’s age and stage in life on his or her political views

Generational Event: a historical event that played a major role in the political socialization of an entire generation

Limited Government: a theory of governance where the government only has the powers delegated to it by law

Rule of Law: a principle in which all people are governed by the law, no one is above the law

Free Enterprise: a type of economy where available products and their prices are determined by the market not the government

Equality of Opportunity: each person has the same chance to succeed in life

Political Equality: equality in political decision making, one vote per person

Laissez-Faire Economy: governments interfere as little as possible in the economic transactions between citizens and businesses

Command-and-Control Economy: government dictates much of a nation’s economic activity, including the amount of production and price of goods

Mixed Economy: many economic decisions left to individuals and businesses, government regulating economic activity

Belief: a stance on a specific topic

Political Ideology: an individual’s coherent set of beliefs about government and politics

Public Opinion: the collective opinion on a specific topic by the general public/society

Gender Gap: a distinctive pattern of voting behavior reflecting the differences in views of men and women

Straw Poll: an unofficial poll taken to determine the opinion of a group or the public on a certain issue

Push Poll: a deceptive form of polling that intends to influence or manipulate a respondents opinion rather than measure public opinion

Population: the number of people in a specific area, the group that we are trying to understand

Exit Poll: a survey conducted outside a polling place in which individuals are asked who or what they voted for and why

Focus Group: a small group of individuals assembled for a conversation about specific issues

Scientific Poll: a representative poll of randomly selected respondents with a statistically significant sample size

Sample: a group of individuals from a larger population used to measure public opinion

Question Wording: the phrasing of a question in a public opinion poll

Question Order: the sequencing of questions in a public opinion polls

Random-digit Dialing: the use of telephone numbers randomly generated by computer to select potential survey respondents

Benchmark Poll: a survey taken at the beginning of a political campaign in order to gauge support for a candidate and determine which issues are important for voters

Representative Sample: a sample that reflects the demographics of the population

Sampling Error: the margin of error in a poll

Weighting: a procedure in which the survey is adjusted according to the demographics of the larger population

Mass Survey: a survey designed to measure the opinions of the population

Random selection/sampling: a method of choosing all poll respondents in a way that does not over or underrepresent any group of the population

Tracking poll: a survey determining the level of support for a candidate or an issue throughout a campaign

Party Ideology: conservatism with Republicans, liberalism with Democrats, where people’s ideologies fall within parties

Party identification: the degree to which an individual identifies with and supports a political party

Conservatism: an ideology favoring more control of social behavior, fewer regulations on businesses, and less government interference in the economy

Liberalism: an ideology favoring less government control over social behavior and greater regulation of businesses and the economy

Libertarianism: an ideology favoring very little government regulation and intervention beyond protecting private property

Socialism: a political and economic system in which property and the means of production are owned by the government

Anarchism: an ideology that is against all forms of government and seeks to abolish those institutions

Populism: an ideology that believes that there are “pure” people and the elite

Fiscal Policy: government use of taxes and spending to attempt to lower unemployment, support economic growth and stabilize the economy

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total value of goods and services produced by an economy

Economic Recession: a period of decline in economic activity

Unemployment Rate: percentage of people actively looking for work who cannot find jobs

Inflation: the rise in prices of goods and services

Consumer Price Index (CPI): the cost of a fixed basket of good and services over time, used to measure the cost of living

Monetary Policy: a set of economic policy tools designed to regulate the amount of money in the economy

Keynesian Economics: the belief the government must manage the economy by spending more money in a recession and cut spending when there is inflation

Supply-Side Economics: reducing government involvement with the market will allow businesses and money to flow easier

Demographics: the characteristics of a population

Medicare: a federal program that provides health insurance to seniors and the disabled

Medicaid: a federal program that provides health care for the poor