Chapter 1

Question 1

Social Conflict

Answer 1

Disagreements among people in a society over what the society’s priorities should be

Question 2

Politics

Answer 2

The process of resolving conflicts over how society should use its scarce resources and who should receive various benefits, such as public health care and public higher education; “who gets what, when, and how” — Harold Lasswell

Question 3

Government

Answer 3

an institution; the individuals and institutions that make society’s rules and also possess the power and authority to enforce those rules

Question 4

Three Essential Purposes of Government

Answer 4

1. It resolves conflicts
2. It provides public services
3. It defends the nation and its culture against attacks by other nations

Question 5

Power

Answer 5

The ability to influence the behavior of others, usually through the use of force (coercion), persuasion, or rewards

Question 6

Authority

Answer 6

The ability to legitimately exercise power, such as the power to make and enforce laws; when power is collectively recognized and accepted by society as legally or morally correct

Question 7

Institution

Answer 7

An ongoing organization that performs certain functions for society;
Ex: government is humanity’s oldest and most universal institutions

Question 8

Public Services

Answer 8

essential services that individuals cannot provide for themselves, such as building and maintaining roads, establishing welfare programs, operating public schools, and preserving national parks.

Question 9

Autocracy

Answer 9

a form of government in which the power and authority of the government are in the hands of a single person; can gain power by traditional or nontraditional means

Question 10

Monarchy

Answer 10

a form of autocracy in which a king, queen, emperor, empress, tsar, or tsarina is the highest authority in the government. Monarchs usually obtain their power through inheritance;
historically, many monarchies were “absolute monarchies,” in which the ruler held complete and unlimited power; however, most modern monarchies are “constitutional monarchies,” in which the monarch shares governmental power with elected lawmakers (Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom)

Question 11

Divine Right Theory

Answer 11

the theory that a monarch’s right to rule was derived directly from God rather than from the consent of the people; widely accepted until the eighteenth century

Question 12

Dictatorship

Answer 12

a form of government in which absolute power is exercised by an individual or a group whose power is not supported by tradition

Question 13

Totalitarian

Answer 13

a dictatorship in which a leader or group of leaders seeks to control almost all aspects of social and economic life; the needs of the nation come before the needs of individuals, and all citizens must work for the common goals established by the government;
Ex: Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Kim Jong Il, Muammar Gadhafi

Question 14

Democracy

Answer 14

a system of government in which the people have ultimate political authority; derived from the Greek “demos” (“the people”) and “kratia” (“rule”); idea: government exists only by the consent of the people and reflects the will of the majority

Question 15

Direct Democracy

Answer 15

a system of government in which political decisions are made by the people themselves rather than by elected representatives; form of government practiced in some parts of ancient Greece

Question 16

Representative Democracy

Answer 16

a form of democracy in which the will of the majority is expressed through groups of individuals elected by the people to act as their representatives;
Ex: U.S. (Republic); Britain (Constitutional Monarchy)

Question 17

Republic

Answer 17

Essentially, a representative democracy in which there is no king or queen and the people are sovereign

Question 18

Presidential Representative Democracy

Answer 18

a representative democracy in which the lawmaking and law-enforcing branches of government are separate but equal; Ex: in the United States, Congress is charged with the power to make laws, and the president is charged with the power to carry them out

Question 19

Parliamentary Representative Democracy

Answer 19

a representative democracy in which the lawmaking and law-enforcing branches of government overlap; Ex: in Britain, the prime minister and the cabinet are members of the legislator, called Parliament, and are responsible to that body; Parliament both enacts the laws and carries them out

Question 20

Aristocracy

Answer 20

Greek for “rule by the best”; a government run by members of old, noble families; rarely had complete power, usually shared with another force, such as a monarch

Question 21

Plutocracy

Answer 21

“government by the wealthy”; refers to systems in which the rich have a disproportionate influence; (blue bloods)

Question 22

Theocracy

Answer 22

derived from the Greek words meaning “rule by the deity” or “rule by God”; no separation of church and state; government rules according to religious precepts;
Ex: Islamic rule in Muslim countries

Question 23

Limited Government

Answer 23

a form of government based on the principle that the powers of government should be clearly limited either through a written document or through wide public understanding; characterized by institutional checks to ensure that government serves public rather than private interests

Question 24

Magna Carta (Great Charter)

Answer 24

a document which provided for a trial by a jury of one’s peers (equals), prohibited the taking of a free man’s life, liberty, or property except through due process of the law, and forced the king to obtain the noble’s approval of any taxes he imposed on them; forced upon King John in 1215 by nobles; first document to clearly establish the principle of limited government

Question 25

Ideas of English Bill of Rights (1689)

Answer 25

1. the king or queen could not interfere with parliamentary elections
2. the king or queen had to have Parliament’s approval to levy (collect) taxes or to maintain an army
3. the king or queen had to rule with the consent of the people’s representatives in Parliament

Question 26

Parliament

Answer 26

the name of the national legislative body in countries governed by a parliamentary system, such as Britain and Canada

Question 27

Social Contract

Answer 27

a voluntary agreement among individuals to create a government and to give that government adequate power to secure the mutual protection and welfare of all individuals

Question 28

Natural Rights

Answer 28

rights that are not bestowed by government but are inherent within every man, woman, and child by virtue of the fact that he or she is a human being

Question 29

Political Culture

Answer 29

the set of ideas, values, and attitudes about government and the political process held by a community or a nation

Question 30

Social Contact Theory

Answer 30

developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by philosophers such as John Locke (1632 - 1704); theory that individuals voluntarily agree with one another, in a “social contract,” to give up some of their freedoms to obtain the benefits of orderly government

Question 31

Five Fundamental Principles of American Democracy

Answer 31

1. Equality in Voting - citizens need equal opportunities to express their preferences about policies or leaders
2. Individual Freedoms - all individuals must have the greatest amount freedom possible without interfering with the rights of others
3. Equal Protection of the Law - the law must entitle all persons to equal protection
4. Majority Rule and Minority Rights - the majority should rule, while guaranteeing the rights of minorities
5. Voluntary Consent to be Governed - the people who make up a democracy must collectively agree to be governed by the rules laid down by their representatives