Chapter 2 Flashcards
(32 cards)
Power
Ability to exercise control over others and get them to comply. For instance, the National Rifle Association wields power because many legislators
Authority
The recognized right of an individual, group, or institution to make binding decisions for society. While some might disagree with certain Supreme
The federalist papers
The Federalist is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution.
Monarchy
a form of government with a monarch at the head
Constitutional Monarch
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a king or queen acts as Head of State. The ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament, not with the Monarch.
Dictator
a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force.
Oligarchy
a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.
Pluralism
a condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist.
Democracy
a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Republic
a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.
Representative Democracy
Representative democracy (also indirect democracy or psephocracy) is a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy.
totalitarism regime
absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution. the character or quality of an autocratic or authoritarian individual, group, or government: the totalitarianism of the father.
authoritarian regime
favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom.
constitutional government
Constitutional government. Constitutional government is defined by the existence of a constitution—which may be a legal instrument or merely a set of fixed norms or principles generally accepted as the fundamental law of the polity—that effectively controls the exercise of political power.
pilgrims
a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.
Mayflower compact
The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 English colonists on the ship Mayflower on November 11, 1620, was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States.
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years’ War.
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary.
Natural Rights
Rights that people supposedly have under natural law. The Declaration of Independence of the United States lists life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as natural rights.
Social Contract Theory
Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.
Shay’s Rebellion
An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786. Shays’s followers protested the foreclosures of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system.
Constitutional Convention
A constitutional convention is a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution.
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan (also known as the Randolph Plan, after its sponsor, or the Large-State Plan) was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan (also widely known as the Small State Plan or the Paterson Plan) was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787.
