Chapter 1 Flashcards
Politics
Resolving conflicts by asking “Who gets what, when, and how?”
Government
System of organization that resolves conflicts and allocates privileges.
Authority
Systems or people in power who have a “right” to make decisions, as viewed by the citizens.
Institutions
Organizations that employ government powers.
Judicial Branch
Interprets laws and makes sure they are constitutional.
Executive Branch
Enforces laws.
Legislative Branch
Makes laws.
Authoritarianism
Regime in which government is controlled by a singular force (person or small group) and citizens have no choice but to submit to their will.
Totalitarianism
Regime in which the government controls EVERY aspect of a citizen’s life; social, economic, and political.
Anarchy
No government or laws, complete disorder. Usually comes from a inefficient government being overthrown.
Democracy
Political authority is held in the people and their willingness to vote.
Power
The ability to get other people to do what you want.
Media
Channels for giving and receiving information (news, internet, etc.)
Social order
The way we live our collective lives, an agreement between citizens to live by the same general moral standards
Legitimate/Legitimacy
Lawful, rightful, reasonable, or justifiable.
Rules
Written directions of expected behaviors from citizens and how the government will distribute resources.
Norms
Informal, unwritten expectations of behaviors.
Political Narrative
A persuasive story about the nature of power, who should have it, and how it should be used.
Gatekeepers
Journalists and media elite determine which news stories are covered and which are not.
Disinformation
False information is purposely given out, usually by a government, for the purpose of creating a false impression
Economics
Production and distribution of a society’s material resources and services.
Socialist Economy
An economic system in which the state determines production, distribution, and price decisions and property is government-owned.
Substantive Guarantees
Government assurance of particular outcomes or results.
Procedural Guarantees
Government assurance that the rules will work smoothly and treat everyone fairly, with no promise of particular outcomes.
Capitalist Economy
An economic system in which the market determines production, distribution, and price decisions, and property is privately owned.
Laissez-faire Capitalism
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit with minimal or no government interference.
Mixed Economies
Economic systems in which some allocation of resources is made by the market and some by the government.
Democratic Socialism
Mixed economy that combines socialism (government owns all properties) with democracy, which socialism as its end goal.
Social Democracy
Political ideology in which there is a gradual transition from capitalism to socialism instead of a sudden violent overthrow of the system.
Regulated Capitalism
Government intervenes to protect rights and make procedural guarantees.
Authoritarian Government
Systems in which the state holds all power over the social order.
Authoritarian Capitalism
A system in which the state allows people economic freedom but maintains stringent social regulations to limit noneconomic behavior.
Popular Sovereignty
A government in which the people rule by their own consent.
Advanced Industrial Democracy
A system in which a democratic government allows citizens a considerable amount of personal freedom and maintains a free-market (though still usually regulated) economy.
Communist Democracy
A utopian system in which property is communally owned and all decisions are made democratically.
Populism
The political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite.
Subjects
Individuals who are obliged to submit to a government authority against which they have no rights.
Citizens
Members of a political community with both rights and responsibilities.
Divine Right of Kings
The belief that kings receive their power from God and are responsible only to God.
Classical Liberalism
A term given to the philosophy of John Locke and other 17th and 18th-century advocates of the protection of individual rights and liberties by limiting government power.
Social Contract
A voluntary agreement among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by creating a government and abiding by its rules.
Republic
A form of government in which citizens choose their leaders by voting.
Digital Natives
Young people (born after 1980) who have grown up using the internet and social networking.
Mediated Citizens
People who are constantly receiving information through multiple channels that can and do shape their political views but who also have the ability to use those channels to create their own narratives
Public-Interested Citizenship
Citizens who put country ahead of self by putting aside their self-interest to advance the public interest.
Hashtag Activism
A form of political engagement that occurs by organizing individuals online around a particular issue.
Information Bubble
A closed cycle in which all the information we get reinforces the information we already have, solidifying our beliefs without reference to outside reality checks.
Thomas Hobbes
Believed that people are born selfish and need a strong central authority.
