Government Ch.1 Vocab

Front 1

deciding who gets what, when, and how

Back 1

politics

Front 2

The study of politics: who governs, for what ends, and by what means

Back 2

Political Science

Front 3

Organization extending to the whole society that can legitimately use force to carry out its decisions

Back 3

Government

Front 4

Widespread acceptance of something as necessary, rightful, and legally binding

Back 4

Legitimacy

Front 5

idea that government orginates as an implied contract among individuals who agree to obey laws in exchange for protection of their rights

Back 5

social contract

Front 6

goods and services that cannot readily be provided by markets either because they are too expensive for a single individual to buy or because if one person bought them, everyone else would use them without paying

Back 6

public goods

Front 7

free competition for voluntary exchange among indviduals, firms, and corporations

Back 7

free market

Front 8

Measure of economic performanc in terms of the nation's total production of goods and services for a single year, valued in terms of market prices.

Back 8

gross domestic product (GDP)

Front 9

costs imposed on people who are not direct participants in an activity

Back 9

externalities

Front 10

government transfers of income from taxpayers to persons regarded as deserving

Back 10

income transfers

Front 11

governing system in which the poeple govern themselves from the Greek term meaning "rule by the many"

Back 11

democracy

Front 12

individual dignity, equality before the law, widespread participation in public decisions, and public decisions by majority rule, with one person having one vote

Back 12

democratic ideals

Front 13

potential for conflict between individual freedom and majority rule

Back 13

paradox of democracy

Front 14

principle that government power over the individual is limited, that there are some personal libertiies that even a majority cannot regulate, and that government itself is restrained by law

Back 14

limited government

Front 15

rule by an eliete that exercises unlimited power over individuals in all aspects of life

Back 15

totalitarianism

Front 16

monopoly of political power by an indivual or small group that otherwise allows people to go about their private lives as they wish

Back 16

authoritarianism

Front 17

government system in which every person participates actively in every public decision, rather than deligating decision making to representatives

Back 17

direct democracy

Front 18

governing system in which public decision making is delegated to representatives of the people chosen by the popular vote in free, open and periodic elections

Back 18

representative democracy

Front 19

poplitical system in which power is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small group of indivuals or institutions

Back 19

elitism

Front 20

theory that democracy can be achieved through competition among multiple organized groups and that individuals can participate in politics through group memberships and elections

Back 20

pluralism