Chapter 13 Flashcards
A system of democracy in which all members of a group or community participate collectively in making major decisions
Participatory democracy
A form of participatory democracy that allows citizens to vote directly and laws and policies
Direct democracy
Systems of government in which unelected kings or queens rule
Monarchies
Kings or queens who are largely figureheads. Real power rests in the hands of other political leaders
Constitutional monarchies
A type of representative democracy in which elected representatives hold power
Liberal democracies
The belief that politics should reflect the needs and interests of ordinary people rather than those of elite individuals or groups
Populism
A political system in which the governing bodies or leaders use force to maintain control
Authoritarianism
Particular types of states, characteristic of the modern world, in which governments have a sovereign power within defined territorial areas, and populations are citizens who know them selves to be part of single nations
Nation-state
People with a common identity that includes shared culture, language, and feelings of belonging
Nation
A political apparatus ruling over a given territorial order, whose authority is backed by law and the ability to use force
State
The undisputed political rule of a state over a given territorial area
Sovereignty
States in which the central government has lost authority and resorts to deadly force to retain power
Failed states
A set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with the national community
Nationalism
The belief that communities that share a cultural identity should have political autonomy, even with in smaller units of nation-states
Local nationalism
The ability of individuals or the members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold
Power
A government’s legitimate use of power
Authority
Members of a political community, having both rights and duties associated with that membership
Citizens
Legal rights held by all citizens in a given national community
Civil rights
Rights of political participation, such as the right to vote in local and national elections, held by citizens of a national community
Political rights
Rights of social and welfare provision held by all citizens in a national community, including, the right to claim unemployment benefits and sickness payments provided by the state
Social rights
A political system that provides a wide range of a welfare benefits for its citizens
Welfare state
Processes of political change involving the mobilizing of a massive social movement, which, by the use of violence, successfully overthrows in existing regime and forces a new government
Revolutions
Large groups of people who seek to accomplish or to block a process of social change
Social movements
A theory of the limits of democracy, it holds that in large scale societies democratic participation is necessarily limited to the regular election of political leaders
Democratic elitism
Small networks of individuals who hold concentrated power in modern societies
Power elite
A group organized to pursue specific interests in the political arena, operating primarily by lobbying the members of legislative bodies
Interest group
Deprivation a person feels by comparing himself with a group
Relative deprivation
Action undertaken in a relatively spontaneous way by a large number of people assembled together
Collective action
Tension that produces conflicting interests within society
Structural strain
The use of an understanding of history as a basis for trying to change history
Historicity
The arena within which social movements interact with established organizations, often producing a modification of the ideas and outlook of the members of both
Field of action
A set of social movements that have arisen in Western societies since the 1960s in response to the changing risks facing human society. They focus on a range of human rights as opposed to economic concerns and thus draw support from across class lines
New social movements
The realm of activity that lies between the state and the market, including the family, schools, community associations, and non-economic institutions
Civil society
Instances in which the members of a nation lack of political sovereignty over the area they claim as their own
Nations without states
The failure of a political order to be able to govern properly because it did not generate a sufficient level of commitment and involvement on the part of its citizens
Legitimation crisis
