This is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies.
What is government?
100
This is the classic term, used in political science, to refer to a nation or country. It can be defined as a body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority.
What is the state?
100
This is the theory that government was started when strong men, warlords, used their power to rule over other people.
What is the Force Theory?
100
This is the part of the U.S. Constitution that sets for the reason for creating a new government.
What is the Preamble?
100
These are the three questions that help us classify and category different types of government.
Who can participate?
How is power distributed?
What is the relationship between the legislative and executive branches?
200
All of those things a government decides to do - taxation, defense, education, crime, health care, transportation, the environment, civil rights, working conditions. All of the laws and regulations of a society.
What is public policy?
200
These are the four characteristics of a state.
What are population, territory, sovereignty and government?
200
This is the theory that says that the state naturally developed out of the early family. Since families naturally govern themselves, this theory says that the state came out of networks of related families.
What is the Evolutionary Theory?
200
This is the first reason to establish a new government. It reflects the idea that the old form of government under the Articles of Confederation didn't work. It's the first reason given for ordaining and establishing the U.S. Constitution.
What is "to form a more perfect union?"
200
Its name literally means "the rule of the people." This is the type of government where people are free to participate, to the extent possible. (There are always some limitations on participation.)
What is democracy?
300
Legislative power, executive power and judicial power.
What are the three kinds of power/branches of government?
300
A state has this when it answers to no other authority than itself.
What is sovereignty?
300
This is the theory that God created the state and gave those of royal birth the power and authority to rule. Under this theory, rebellion against the king was the same thing as rebellion against God.
What is the Divine Right Theory a/k/a the Divine Right of Kings?
300
This phrase in the Preamble refers to the establishment of a federal judicial system. Prior to the U.S. Constitution, there were no U.S. or federal courts. Every state had its own court system. Disputes between citizens of different states, or between two or more states, were badly handled because there was no objective court system to handle them.
What is "to establish justice."
300
This is the type of government where people are not free to participate. Those who rule cannot be held responsible to the will of the people.
What is dictatorship?
400
These two types of government are at opposite extremes in terms of who can participate in government.
What are dictatorship and democracy? (Alternative: What are democracy and dictatorship?)
400
He said that government is necessary to avoid "the war of every man against every man." Without government there would be "continual fear and danger of violent death and life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
Who was Thomas Hobbes?
400
This is the idea that the state emerged from agreement, among free men. It claims that the creation of the state was a rational choice based on self-interest. People agree to government. They give up some freedoms in order to have more freedom in general.
What is the Social Contract Theory?
400
These two phrases in the Preamble have to do with putting down rebellions at home and preventing invasions by foreign armies or governments.
What are "To insure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense"?
400
This is a type of dictatorship in which a single ruler holds unlimited political power. It is the most striking form of dictatorship but also the least common today.
What is autocracy?
500
This is a body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures and processes of a government.
What is a constitution?
500
This is the total absence of government. Political philosophers imagined a time when government did not exist, when people were completely on their own.
What is the state of nature?
500
This political philosopher wrote a book called "The Second Treatise of Government." He justified the Glorious Revolution, which kicked out an unpopular king, by arguing against the divine right of kings. He argued that everybody, in the State of Nature, has rights. Government exists to preserve those rights. If a king doesn't do his part, people have a right to choose another king.
Who is John Locke?
500
This phrase in the Preamble sounds like a modern program, involving relief to the poor and needy, but it's actually a more general phrase that has to do with responding to crises and problems - for the benefit of all.
What is "to promote the general welfare"?
500
This is the most common form of dictatorship. It's the one where the dictator is actually a group, a small, usually self-appointed elite.