Chapter 1 What is Gov't? Key Terms - AP Gov't

State

A political community that occupies a definite territory and has an organized government with the power to make and enforce laws without approval from any higher authority.

Direct democracy = pure democracy = participatory democracy

A political system in which all or most citizens participate

Representative Democracy = Republican form of government = indirect democracy

A political system in which leaders and representatives acquire political power by means of a competitive struggle for people's vote. This is the form of government used by nations that are called democratic.

Confederation

A political system in which states or regional governments retain ultimate authority except for those powers that they expressly delegate to a central government. The United States was a confederation from 1781-1789 under the Articles of Confederation.

Federalism

A political system in which ultimate authority is shared between a central government and state or regional governments.

Minority rights

A principle of traditional democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities and allows that they might join majorities through persuasion and reasoned argument.

Federal Government

A system in which sovereignty is shared so that on some matters the national government is supreme and on others the state, regional, or provincial governments are supreme.

Unitary Government

A system in which sovereignty is wholly in the hands of the national government so that subnational political units are dependent on its will.

Democracy

A term used to describe a political system in which the people are said to rule, directly or indirectly.

Bureaucratic Theory

A theory that bureaucrats make the key governing decisions. According to this theory the influence of government bureaucracies has become so great that elected officials are almost powerless to affect policy.

Pluralist Theory

A theory that competition among all affected interests shapes public policy A theory of government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies.

Elite Theory

An identifiable group of persons who possess a disproportionate share of some valued resource - such as money or political power A small group of people identified by wealth or political power, who rule in their self-interest.

Majority minority

When you sum up the number of ethnic minorities in a district and collectively they amount to more than 50% of the population in that district.

Dictatorship

A government controlled by one person or a small group of people

Bureaucracy

A large, complex organization composed of appointed officials. The department and agencies of the U.S. government make up the federal bureaucracy.

Parliamentary government

A form of government in which executive and legislative functions both reside in an elected assembly, or parliament.

Presidential government

A form of government in which the executive and legislative branches of the government are separate, independent, and coequal.

Government

(government) the system or form by which a community or other political unit is governed

Bureaucrats

A appointed officials who operate government agencies from day to day.

Majority rule

A basic principle of democracy asserting that the greatest number of citizens in any political unit should select officials and determine policies.

A republic - republican form of government

A form of democracy in which power is vested in representatives selected by means of popular competitive elections.

Politics

Method of maintaining, managing, and gaining control of government (who gets what, when, and how)

Sovereignty

Supreme or ultimate authority; a sovereign government is one that is legally and politically independent of any other government.

Power

The ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person's intentions.