Unit 1 Flashcards
Absolute Monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in his or her own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power. Often such monarchies are hereditary.
Absolute Power
Absolutism is the principle of complete and unrestricted government power, usually in the hands of one person, a dictator or despot. This word sounds big, but it’s really just an extension of the word absolute. If you have absolute power, you control everything.
Authoritarian
highly concentrated and centralized power maintained by political repression and the exclusion of potential challengers. It uses political parties and mass organizations to mobilize people around the goals of the regime.
all the power is concentrated in the hands of central government and its leader with little or without political freedom for citizens.
Command Economy
a centralized government controls the means of production and determines output levels.
Confederate
A confederate government is a loose association of states, in which the states have more power than the federal government. The United States under the Articles of Confederation is one example of a confederate government.
Consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities.
Democracy
The word democracy comes from the Greek words “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos” meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: a way of governing which depends on the will of the people. (Rule by the People)
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is a government or a social situation where one person makes all the rules and decisions without input from anyone else. Dictatorship implies absolute power — one person who takes control — of a political situation, a family, a classroom or even a camping expedition.
Direct Democracy
In direct democracy, the people decide on policies without any intermediary or representative, whereas in a representative democracy people vote for representatives who then enact policy initiatives.
Economy
The economy is the system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Factors of Productions/Economic Resources
Economists define four factors of production: land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship. These can be considered the building blocks of an economy.
Land
Natural Resources
Labor
Human Effort
Capital
Machinery, tools, and buildings
Federal System
Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. Generally, an overarching national government is responsible for broader governance of larger territorial areas, while the smaller subdivisions, states, and cities govern the issues of local concern.
Goods
Goods are physical, produced objects for which a demand exists, over which ownership rights can be established and whose ownership can be transferred from one institutional unit to another by engaging in transactions on markets.
Services
A service is an act or use for which a consumer, firm, or government is willing to pay. Examples include work done by barbers, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, banks, insurance companies, and so on. Public services are those that society as a whole pays for.
Limited Government
In political philosophy, limited government is the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.
Majority Rule
Majority rule is the principle that the group which has the most supporters get to decide the rules that all will be compelled to abide by. A majority is more than half of the voters involved, and rule by such a majority is thought to be to the benefit of more than rule by less than half would be.
Market Economy
An economic system in which production and prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
Mixed Economy
A mixed economy is a combination of a market and a command economy. Some industries are owned and controlled by the government, while other industries are allowed to be determined by the market. Mixed economies vary in how much control and regulations the government has. The amount of command and market economy in a mixed economy varies on a case to case basis.
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people.
Opportunity Cost
the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.
Parliamentary Democracy
a parliamentary democracy is a system of government in which citizens elect representatives to a legislative parliament to make the necessary laws and decisions for the country. This parliament directly represents the people.
Presidential Democracy
implies that the executive and legislative branches are separate. It can also imply that their establishment and the time they remain in power are separate. The president normally serves as both the head of state and the head of government, and is elected by popular vote.
Producer
a maker or manufacturer of something.
Purchase
acquire (something) by paying for it; buy.
Representative Democracy
Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy.
Scarcity
the demand for a good or service is greater than the availability of the good or service. Therefore, scarcity can limit the choices available to the consumers who ultimately make up the economy.
Separation of Powers
Separation of powers is a doctrine of constitutional law under which the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) are kept separate.
Social Contract
An implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.
Economic Goals (US)
In a mixed economy like the US, economic goals are the desired fundamental conditions of a mixed economy. In general, the primary economic goals include full employment, economic growth, economic stability, equality, and enhanced efficiency. Notably, specific economic goals are unique to each country.
Totalitarian
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life.
Trade-Offs
When choices are made (collectively or by an individual) to accept having less of one thing in order to get more of something else, the results are called trade-offs.
Traditional Economy
A traditional economy is a system that relies on customs, history, and time-honored believes. Tradition guides economic decisions such as production and distribution. Societies with traditional economies depend on agriculture, fishing, hunting, gathering, or some combination of them.
Unitary
A unitary state, or unitary government, is a governing system in which a single central government has total power over all of its other political subdivisions. A unitary state is the opposite of a federation, where governmental powers and responsibilities are divided.
