Government and the State
The body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of a government
What is a constitution?
The power to make laws and to frame public policies
What is legislative power?
What are four?
This is a basic principle of federalism; the constitutional provisions by which governmental powers are divided on a geographic basis (between national, state, and local governments)
What is the division of powers?
One who holds certain rights and responsibilities within a state
What is a citizen?
A government in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local and state governments. Don’t get this confused as another word for the national government!
What is a federal government?
This word represents a body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically with a government, and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority
What is a state?
The power to execute, enforce, and administer laws
What is executive power?
This theory holds that one person or a small group claimed control over an area, and forced all within it to submit to that person’s or group’s rule
What is the force theory?
This type of government features a separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branches of government. The President is chosen by the people, independently of the legislature
What is a presidential government?
The process of blending and adjusting competing views and interests
What is compromise?
A system of government where the executive branch is made up of the prime minister or premier, which are themselves members of the legislative branch, known as parliament. Many democracies have this form of government. Typically, there are multiple political parties.
What is a parliamentary government?
This word describes power held by leaders elected by the people. Supreme authority rests with the people.
What is democracy?
The power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within society
What is judicial power?
This theory, which was popular in the Western world from the 15’th to 18’th centuries, holds that God created the state and that God had given those of royal birth a divine right to rule
What is the divine right theory?
This is the belief that a majority will be right more often that it will be wrong, and that the majority will also be right more often than any one person or small group will
What is majority rule?
A government in which a single person holds unlimited political power
What is autocracy?
This form of government is also a form of centralized government. All powers belong to a single, central agency. The central government creates local government for its own convenience. Those local governments have only those powers that the central government chooses to give them. Most western European nations have this form of government.
What is unitary government?
This word describes power held by a single person or by a small group. Leaders are not held responsible to the will of the people.
What is a dictatorship?
This word describes a state that has supreme and absolute power within its own territory and can decide its own foreign and domestic policies
What is sovereign?
This theory holds, like a descendent from families, families became a network of related families (a clan). When the clan became a tribe, due to economic interests, the clan transforms into statehood.
What is the evolutionary theory?
This is an economic system characterized by the private ownership of capital goods; investments made by private decision, and success or failure determined by competition in the marketplace
What is the free enterprise system?
An with alliance of independent states, created with the power to handle only those matters that the member states have assigned to it, only for specific, limited reasons.
What is a confederation?
These are things that a citizen should do
What are responsibilities?
This is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies
What is government?
All of those things a government decides to do. Examples of these are taxation, defense, education, crime, healthcare, transportation, environment, civil rights, and working conditions.
What are public policies?
This theory 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, and that they are free to give or withhold that power as they choose from the government.
What is the social contract theory?
These are things that a citizen must do
What are duties?
A government in which the power to rule is held by a small, usually self-appointed elite
What is an oligarchy?