Ch 1 - The Citizen and the Government

Question 1

As the government seeks to protect its citiens, it faces the challenge of doing so in a way that is true to American value. Name these three values.

Answer 1

Liberty - personal freedom and a government whose powers are limited by law

Equality - the idea that all individuals have the right to participate in political life and society on equivalent terms

Democracy - placing considerable political power in the hands of ordinary people.

Question 2

Define citizenship

Answer 2

informed and active membership in a political community

it is based on poltiical knowledge and participation

Question 3

Define government

Answer 3

the formal institutitons and procedures through which a territory and its peoples are ruled

it is made up of the instituions and procedures by which people are ruled

Question 4

Define Authoritarian Government

Answer 4

government recognizes no formal limit but may nevertheless be restrained by the power of other social institutions

Question 5

Deine Totalitarian System

Answer 5

govenrment not exercises great power, but seeks to impose its will by suppressing any and all other groups and individuals in society that might pose a challenge

Question 6

Define democracy

Answer 6

a political system in which popular wishes and preferences regularly and systematically shape who controls the government and what the government does

Question 7

Define Constitutitonal Govermment

Answer 7

governmental power is both described in, and limited by, a governming constitution

Question 8

What is the goal of politics?

Answer 8

to have a say in what happens

Question 9

Define poltiics

Answer 9

the conflict over the leadership, structure and policies of the government

Question 10

Define power

Answer 10

influence over a govenrnment’s leadership, organization or policies

Question 11

define representative democracy and provide one alternative name for this

Answer 11

alternate - republic [little r]

a system of government that gives citizens a regular ooportunity to elect govenrment officials

Question 12

Define direct democracy

Answer 12

a systme that permits citizens to vote directly on laws and policies

Question 13

What three inalienable rights does the Declaration of Independence gie?

Answer 13

life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Question 14

Define liberty

Answer 14

the freedom from government control and economic freedom

Question 15

Define a limited government

Answer 15

powers are defined and limited by a constitution

Question 16

Define the bill of rights (generally)

Answer 16

The first ten amendments to the constitution

Question 17

Define laissez-faire capitalism

Answer 17

an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit with minimal or no government to regulate trade or restrict the use of private property, even in the name of public protection

Question 18

Define equality of opportunity

Answer 18

all people should have the freedom to use whatever talents and wealth they have to reach their fullest potential

Question 19

Define political equality

Answer 19

the right to participate in politics equally, based on the principle of “one person, one vote’

Question 20

Define popular sovereignty

Answer 20

Political authority rests ultimately in the hands of the people

Question 21

Define majority rule with minority rights

Answer 21

the government follows the preferences of the majority of voters but protects the interest of the minority

Question 22

Define government authority

Answer 22

government - a political system which exercises authority

authoity - recognized irght to control public policy

Question 23

Define public policy

Answer 23

who get what, when and how

Question 24

What did John Locke (1690) say about government?

Answer 24

Second treasie on government

Government is not “natural” as the way people/dogs/trees are

Government is created by humans; to understand the goals of man is to understand government

The goals of man: life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (sound familiar?)

Question 25

What is life like without government?

Answer 25

anarchy, chaos, disorganized

disputes hard to settle with no set rules of right and wrogn

Question 26

What did Hobbes say about life and government?

Answer 26

Life will be nasty, brutish and short in a state of nature

a state of nature is no government

the above maladies can be solved by having a dictator

Question 27

Why do governments exist?

i.e. why can’t we live in a state of nature?

Answer 27

There is no known law in a state of nature

we need an indifferent judge to settle disputes

enforcement power to hold the gun

people voluntarily realize that life is crummy without government

social contract - people readily submit if government holds up their end of the deal

Question 28

Name three types of national govenrment in the United States and what they do [briefly]

Answer 28

Law - Congress

Judging - Supreme Court

Enforcement Power - Executive Branch

Question 29

define citizenship

Answer 29

informed and active membership in a political community

Question 30

define authoritarian

Answer 30

a system of rule in which the government recognizes no formal limit but may nevertheless be restrained by the power of other social institutions

Question 31

define constititional government

Answer 31

a system of rule in which governmental power is both described in, and limited by, a governing constitution

Question 32

democracy

Answer 32

a system of rule where popular wishes and preferences regularly and systematically shape who controls the government and what the government does

Question 33

direct democracy

Answer 33

a system of rule that permits citiens to vote directly on laws and policies

Question 34

equality of opportunity

Answer 34

a widely shared American ideal that all people should have the freedom to use whatever talents and wealth they have to reach their fullest potential

Question 35

government

Answer 35

institutions adn procedures through which a territory and its people are rules

Question 36

laissez-faire capitalism

Answer 36

an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit with minimal or no government interferene

Question 37

liberty

Answer 37

freedom from government control

Question 38

limited government

Answer 38

a goveernment whose powers are defined and limited by a constitution

Question 39

majority rule / minority rights

Answer 39

the democratic principle that a government follows the preferences of the majority of voters but protects the interests of the minority

Question 40

political equality

Answer 40

the right to participate in politics equally, based on the prinicple of “one person, one vote”

Question 41

politics

Answer 41

conflict over leadership, structure and policies of govenrments

Question 42

popular sovereignty

Answer 42

a principle of democracy in which political authority rests ultimately in the hands of the peopl

Question 43

power

Answer 43

influence over a governments leadership, organization or policies

Question 44

representative democracy/republic

Answer 44

a system of govenrment that gives citizens a regular opportunity to elect government officials

Question 45

totalitarian government

Answer 45

a system of rule in which the government not only exercises great pwoer, but seeks to impose its will by supressing any and all other groups and inidviduals in society that might pose a challenge to its power