American Government and Civic Engagement 'What Did You Learn' (Chapter 1)

Describe the pluralism-elitism debate.

-Elitism is a theory that a small group wills power over everything -Pluralism believes that governments should be made up of competing interests (ex: environmental groups, labor unions)

Explain what government is and what it does.

-Government describes the means by which a society organizes itself and assigns authority -It attempts to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits that the society as a whole needs.

Explain the importance of citizen engagement in a democracy.

Citizen engagement is important in a democracy because the people are supposed to control. We need to be engaged in our society to tell our leaders if there is something wrong with the government or if there is an issue in our society.

Discuss factors that may affect people's willingness to become engaged in government.

Partisanship is a big reason some people aren't as engaged as they should be; they're blinded by their own views and biases. (Latent preferences are likely to change over time while intense preferences are not.)

Identify the type of government in the United States and compare it to other forms of government.

The type of government in the United States is a democracy. Unlike other types of government: -monarchy (royal family controls) -oligarchy (the elite control) -theocracy (church controls)

Explain the trade-offs perspective on government.

Sometimes instead of pluralism or elitism, there's a tradeoff, and it's all about compromising.

Describe the main ways Americans can influence and become engaged in government.

protests, strikes, campaigns, voting, writing letters, etc.