Political Science Essay

Chapter 1 1. Authority: the recognized right of officials to exercise power 2. Constitutionalism: the idea that there are lawful restrictions on government’s power 3. Corporate power: operates in part through the influence that firms have with policy makers 4. Democracy: a form of government in which the people govern, either directly or through an elected representative. 5. Elitism: the power well exercised by well positioned and high influential individuals 6. Free market system: operates mainly on private transactions. Firms are largely free to make their own production, distribution and pricing decisions 7. Judicial action: the use of courts as means of asserting rights and interests. 8. Majoritarianism: the situation in which the majority effectively determines what the government does 9. Pluralism: holds that, most issues, the preference of the special interest largely determines what government does 10. Political Science: the systematic study of government and politics 11. Political thinking: careful gathering and sifting of information in the process of forming a knowledgeable view about a political issue 12. Politics: the means by which society settles in conflicts and allocates the resulting the benefits and costs 13. Power: refers to the ability of persons, groups or institutions to influence political developments 14. Public policies: decisions of government to pursue particular courses of action Chapter 2 1. Anti-Federalists: raised arguments that national government would ne too powerful and would threaten self government in the separate states and the liberty of people 2. Bill of Rights: includes those as freedom of speech, religion, due process protections. 3. Checks and Balances: no institution can act decisively without the support or acquiescence of the other institution. 4. Constitution: a fundamental law that defines how government will legitimately operate; the method for choosing its leaders, the institutions through which these leaders will work, the procedures they must follow in making policy and the powers they can lawfully exercise; highest law of the land 5. Constitutional democratic republic: the type of government created in the United States in 1787. a. Constitutional: in its requirement to gain power through elections be exercised in accordance with law and with due respect for individual rights b. Democratic: in its provisions for majority influence through elections c. Republic: in its mix of deliberative institutions, each of which moderates the power of others 6. Delegates: officeholders who are obligated to carry out the expressed opinions of the people they represent 7. Limited government: one that is subject to strict legal limits on the uses of power, so that it would not threaten the people’s liberty 8. Self Government: one in which the people would be the ultimate source of governing authority and would have a voice in their governing 9. Inalienable rights or Natural rights: life, liberty and property, which are threaten by individuals 10. The Virginia Plan:/Large State Plan: included separate judicial and executive branches as well as two chamber congress that would have supreme authority in all areas 11. The New Jersey Plan / Small State Plan: call for a stronger national government than that provided by the articles of confederation 12. The Great Compromise: the agreement of the constitutional convention to create a two chamber congress with the House appointed by population and the Senate apportioned equally by the state 13. 3/5 Compromise: each slave was to count as less than a person. 14. Federalists: Constitution supporters 15. Liberty: the principle that individuals should be free to act, and think as they choose, provided they do not infringe on the well being of others 16. Grants of Power: framers chose to limit the national government in part by confirming its scope of authority to those powers expressively granted in the Constitution. 17. Denials of Power: a means to limit government to prohibit certain practices that European rulers had routinely used to oppressed political opponents 18. Separation of Powers: division of the powers of government among separate institutions or branches 19. Separated institution sharing power: 20. Checks and Balances: No institution can act decisively without the support or acquiescence of the other institutions 21. Judicial Review: the power of the judiciary to decide whether a government official or institution that has acted within its limits of the Constitution 22. Tyranny Sovergnty: a government cannot be sovereign if it can be overruled by another government 23. Federalism: a governmental system in which authority is divided between two sovereign levels of government, national and regional. 24. Unitary system: sovereignty is vested solely in the national government. 25. Confederacy: the type of government that existed under the Articles of confederation 26.