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22 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Chapter 1
Principles of Government History 12 |
Chapter 1
Principles of Government History 12 |
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Government
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the insitution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies.
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Public Policies
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All the things the governement decides to do. Cover matters ranging from taxation, national defense, education, crime, and health care to transportation, the enviornment, civil rights, bussiness practices, and working conditions.
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State
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a body of people, living in a definded territory, organized politically-that is, with a government-and with the power to make and enforce law with-out the consent of higher authority.
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Sovereign
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ever state is sovereign. having supreme and absolute power within its own territory
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Unitary Government
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described as a centralized governemnt. In which all powers held by the government belong to a single, central agency.
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Federal Government
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the powers of goverment are divided between a central government and several local governments.
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Confederation
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an alliance of independent states. Has the power to handle only those matters that the member states have assigned to it.
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Presidential Government
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features a separation of pwoers between the executive and legislative branches of the government. The 2 branches are independent of one another and coequal.
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Parliamentary Government
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the executive is made up of the prime minister or premier and that official's cabinet.
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Dictatorship
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exists where those who rule cannot be held responsible to the will of the people. The government is not accountable for its polices, nor for the ways in which they are carried out.
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Democracy
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supreme political authority rest with the people. The people hold the sovereign power, and government is conducted only by and with the consent of the people.
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Direct Democracy
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A.K.A. "Pure Democracy" exists where the will of the people is trandslated into public policy, directly by the people themselves, in mass meetings.
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Anarchy
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the total absence of government
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Representative Democracy
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a small group of persons chosen by the people to act as their representatives express the popular will.
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Compromise
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the process of blending and adjusting, or reconcilling competing views and interest-in order to find the position most acceptable to the largest number
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Presidential Government
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features a separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of the government. The two branches are independent of one another and coequal. The chief executive-president- is chosen independently of the legislature, holds office for a fixed term, and has broad powers not subject to the direct control of the legislative branch.
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Parliamentary Government
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the executive is made up of the prime minister or premier and that official’s cabinet. They themselves are members of the legislative branch, the parliament. The prime minister is the leader of the majority party or of a coalition of parties in parliament and is chosen by that body. With parliament’s approval, the prime minister selects the members of the cabinet from among the members of parliament. The executive is thus chosen by the legislature, is a part of it, and is subject to its direct control.
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The Social Contract Theory
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argues that the state arose out of a voluntary act of free people. It holds that the state exists only to serve the will of the people, that they are the sole source of political power, and that they are free to give or to withhold that power as they choose.
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The Divine Right Theory
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the theory of divine right was widely accepted in much of the Western world from the 15th through the 18th centuries. It held that the state was created by God and that God had given those of royal birth a “divine right” to rule.
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The Evolutionary Theory
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The state developed naturally out of the early family. They hold that the primitive family, of which one person was the head and thus the “government,” was the first stage in political development.
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The Force Theory
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Many scholars believed that the state was born of force. They hold that one person or group claimed control over an area and forced all within to submit to that person’s or group’s rule.
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