Democracy (Vocab) Flashcards
the separation of power to avoid one entity or body wielding too much power
Checks and Balances
political system in which citizens of a country or other political entity vote for representatives to handle legislation and otherwise rule that entity on their behalf
Representative Democracy
a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm
Utilitarianism
a system of government that is ruled by a king or queen whose power is limited by its country’s constitution
constitutional monarchy
a lack of interest among voters in the elections of representative democracies
voter apathy
a single-winner system of positional voting where voters mark one candidate as their favorite, and the candidate with the largest number of points is elected
first past the post (like horse racing)
any type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body
proportional representation
a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the legislature
minority governments
a mixed electoral system which combines local majoritarian elections with a compensatory tier of party list votes, which are used to allocate additional members in a way that aims to produce proportional representation overall
mixed proportional voting
an alliance for combined action, especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government or of states
coalition
(of a legislative body) having two branches or chambers
bicameral
a group of members of the principal political party in opposition that are chosen as counterparts of members of the government who hold cabinet positions
shadow cabinet
no one is above the law
rule of law
official documents … through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government
executive orders
