Chapter 1 Flashcards
The institution through which a society makes and enforces its pubic policies.
Government
The power to make laws and to frame public policies.
Legislative Power
All of those things a government decides to do.
Public Policies
The power to execute, enforce, and administer laws.
Executive Power
The power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within the society.
Judicial Power
Form of government where the power to rule is held by a single person or a small group.
Dictatorship
The body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of a government.
Constitution
A body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically, and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority.
State
Form of government where the power to rule is held by the people.
Democracy
Form of a dictatorship where the power to rule rests with a single person.
Autocracy
Form of a dictatorship where the power to rule rests with a small, usually self-appointed elite group.
Oligarchy
All powers held by the government belong to a single, central agency.
Unitary Government
Powers of the government are divided between a central government and several local governments.
Federal Government
Describes how government powers are divided based on geographic location.
Division of Powers
An alliance of independent states
Confederate Government
Features a separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branches of the government. The two branches are independent of one another and coequal.
Presidential Government
Features the executive branch made up of the prime minister and that official’s cabinet. The prime minister and cabinet members are all members of the legislative branch
Parliamentary Government
In a democracy, the majority of the people will be right more often than they will be wrong, and will be right more often than will any one person or small group.
Majority Rule
Process of blending and adjusting competing views and interests.
Compromise
One who holds both rights and responsibilities in a state.
Citizen
An economic system characterized by the private ownership of capital goods; investments made by private decision, not by government directive; and success or failure determined by competition in the marketplace.
Free Enterprise System
Having supreme and absolute power within its own territory and can decide its own foreign and domestic policies.
Sovereignty
