American Government and Civic Engagement Flashcards
What parts of people’s lives does gov affect
All aspects
Government defined
Describes the means by which a society organizes itself and how it allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits that the society as a whole needs.
Goals of the government
Among the goals that governments around the world seek to accomplish are economic prosperity, secure national borders, and the safety and well-being of citizens.
Common services provided by the government
education, health care, and an infrastructure for transportation.
politics
refers to the process of gaining and exercising control within a government for the purpose of setting and achieving particular goals, especially those related to the division of resources within a nation.
Why are governmental systems confused with economic systems?
because certain types of political thought or governmental organization are closely related to or develop with certain types of economic systems.
Who said “all people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property.”
John Locke (English political philosopher)
Which Scottish philosopher believed that “all people should be free to acquire property in any way that they wished.”
Adam Smith
Whose ideas formed the fundamentals of capitalism
Adam Smith
Adam Smith’s ideas
Instead of being controlled by government, business, and industry, Smith argued, people should be allowed to operate as they wish and keep the proceeds of their work. Competition would ensure that prices remained low and faulty goods disappeared from the market. In this way, businesses would reap profits, consumers would have their needs satisfied, and society as a whole would prosper.
Who wrote the ‘Wealth of Nations’
Adam Smith
What two forms of government developed together in the US
Representative government and capitalism
What form of government does the US equate democracy with
capitalism
Democratic Government in theory
In theory, a democratic government promotes individualism and the freedom to act as one chooses instead of being controlled, for good or bad, by government.
Socialism
The industries are owned by the government who redistributes the wealth to the people
In many socialist countries the government is an ______
oligarchy
oligarchy
only members of a certain political party or ruling elite can participate in government.
In the US, the government works closely with what economic system
capitalist economic system.
Such goods or services that are available to all without charge are called what?
public goods
goods that all people may use free of charge but that are of limited supply, such as fish in the sea or clean drinking water.
common goods
Is it the government’s job to protect common goods?
yup
politics
the process by which choices are made regarding how resources will be allocated and which economic and social policies government will pursue.
individualism
a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control.
direct democracy
people participate directly in making government decisions.
monarchy
one ruler, usually a hereditary ruler, holds political power.
totalitarianism
government is more important than the citizens, and it controls all aspects of citizens’ lives.
elite theory
Many Americans fear that a set of elite citizens is really in charge of government in the United States and that others have no influence.
Pluralist theorists
which says that political power rests with competing interest groups who share influence in government. Pluralist theorists assume that citizens who want to get involved in the system do so because of the great number of access points to government.
toll good
. Toll goods are available to many people, and many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price.
The government checks the actions of business. Does Adam Smith align with how Adam Smith beleived it should be run?
No, Smith believed the US should be almost entirely unregulated.
Roles of (most) governments
- provides goods to citizens
- mantains public saftey
- provides a means for the citizens to participate in the government
What is politics the process of?
politics is the process of who gets what and how.
What might a government do if it chooses to support an ideal such as individualism,
it may choose to loosen regulations on business and industry or to cut taxes so that people have more money to invest in business.
What might a government do if it chooses to support an ideal such as egalitarianism
it may raise taxes in order to be able to spend more on public education, public transportation, housing for the poor, and care for the elderly.
What does egalitariansm call for?
it calls for equal treatment for all and the destruction of socioeconomic inequalities,
Forms of political engagement
forms: reading about politics, listening to news reports, discussing politics, attending (or watching televised) political debates, donating money to political campaigns, handing out flyers promoting a candidate, voting, joining protest marches, and writing letters to their elected representatives.
democracy
democracy is a government in which political power—influence over institutions, leaders, and policies—rests in the hands of the people. In
a representative democracy
The people elect representatives to represent them in the government
Most representative governments favor what rule?
Majority rule
Majority rule
: the opinions of the majority of the people have more influence with government than those of the minority. (if more people favor a rule then oppose it it gets put in place)
Protection of minority rights
protected: people cannot be deprived of certain rights even if an overwhelming number of people think that they should be.
direct democracy
people participate directly in making government decisions.
Why can’t any sort of american government be a direct democracy?
The constitution prevents it
What form of gov do most countries have?
Some form of representative gov
What did Wright Mills argue in his book ‘The Power Elite’?
Mills argued that government was controlled by a combination of business, military, and political elites.
What theory says that “the wealthy use their power to control the nation’s economy in such a way that those below them cannot advance economically.”
elite theory
“one-third of U.S. presidents have attended Ivy League schools, a much higher percentage than the rest of the U.S. population.” What theory does this support?
elite theory
social capital
—“the collective value of all ‘social networks’ [those whom people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other”—accompanies this decline in membership in small, interactive groups.
What does Putnam argue
The decline of social capital and civic engagement
Why is the theoretical decline of the social capital unfortunate?
becoming active in government and community organizations is important for many reasons.
Benefits and cons of social media to politics
More political engagement (pro), complaints of fake news (con)
How are city council members, mayors, state legislators, and governors elected?
popular vote
How is the president elected?
electoral vote
Typical political engagement of young people today
Although young people today often shy away from participating in traditional political activities, they do express deep concern for their communities and seek out volunteer opportunities.
“buycotts,”
consumers purchase goods and services from companies that give extensively to charity, help the communities in which they are located, or take steps to protect the environment.
Why are younger Americans less likely to become involved in traditional political organizations?
One answer may be that as American politics become more partisan in nature, young people turn away.
partisanship
is the tendency to identify with and to support (often blindly) a particular political party,
Robert Putman’s thesis about social capital
That’s right! While Americans are more ‘connected’ than ever through technologies suchj as social media, Putman believes that a decay in community-based face to face organizations has eroded the collective value of our social networks.
True or false: Young adults are more likely to be liberal than older age groups?
True
A supporter of what theory might make this statement: “Congress does not provide adequate funding for public education because most members of Congress can send their children to public schools”
Supporter of elite theory
According to the pluralist theory of government _______________________.
Government policy is formed as a result of the competition between groups with different goals and interests
True or false: The primary diff between a representative democracy and a direct demacracy is that in a representative democracy the people elect leaders to make government decisions on their behalf, whereas in a direct democracy the citizens make government decisions collectively
True
In a _______, unlike representative democracy, the people participate directly in making government decisions.
direct democracy
Public education, public roads and national security are considered _______ goods because all people have access to them without charge and one person;s use of the good does not limit its availability for others
public
True or false: Traffic deaths in the US (per mile driven) have declined substantially since the early 1980s
true
What has been the trend with the highway fatality rate in the U.S since 1980
The fatality rate has declined sharply
Most of the funding to mantain the US roads & transportation comes from ____
gasoline taxes
