AP Gov Chapter 1 Vocab Flashcards
Public goods
Goods,such as clean air and clean water,that everyone must share.
Government
The institutions and processes through which public policies are made for a society.
Politics
The process by which we select our governmental leaders and what policies theses leaders pursue. Politics produces authoritative decisions about public issues.
Political participation
All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. Voting is the most common but not the only means of political participation in a democracy. Other means include protest and civil disobedience.
Single-issue groups
Groups that have a narrow interest,tend to dislike compromise , and often draw membership from people new to politics. These features distinguish them from traditional interest groups.
Policy making system
The process by which policy comes into being and evolves over time. People’s interests, problems, and concerns create political issues for government policy makers. These issues shape policy, which in turn impacts people, generating more interests, problems and concerns.
Linkage institutions
The political channels through which people’s concerns become political issues on the policy agenda. In the United States, linkage institutions include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.
Policy agenda
The issues that attract the serious attention of public office as and other people actually involved in politics at any given point in time.
Democracy
A system of selecting policy makers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public’a preferences.
Minority rights
A principal democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities and allows that they might join majorities through persuasion and reasoned argument.
Majority rule
A fundamental principal of the traditional democratic theory. In a democracy choosing among alternatives requires that the majority’s desire be respected.
Representation
A basic principal of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers.
Traditional democratic theory
This theory rests on a number of key principles that specify how governmental decisions are made in a democracy.
Pluralist theory
A theory if government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups each one pressing for its own preferred policies.
Elite and class theory
A theory of government and politics contending that societies are divided along class lines and that an upperclass elite will rule regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization.
