UNIT I – VOCABULARY
TERMS
FORMAT
• SYNONYM
ANTONYM
• DEFINITION
• EXAMPLE / ANALOGY
VISUAL
1. GOVERNMENT
GOVERNMENT
GOVERNMENT
• All the institutions and
organizations and people that
have power to make policy
(laws)
• SYNONYM: AUTHORITY OR REGIME
2. POLITICS
• Any attempt to control the
decisions and policies made
by a government
• SYN: CAMPAIGNING OR
STATECRAFT
3. LAWS
• THE RULES AND
REGULATIONS PASSED BY
A GOVERNMENT
SYN: ACT, RULES, REGULATIONS,
ORDINANCES, PUBLIC POLICY
4. PUBLIC POLICY
• THE FINAL DECISIONS (laws, rules, and
regulations) made by a government.
• SYN: LAWS
5. LEGITIMACY
• The amount to which people accept
(agree) with their form of government
and with their political leaders.
• SYN: VALID OR CONSTITUTIONAL
5. LEGITIMACY
6. SOVEREIGNTY
• A GOVERNMENT’S POWER / RIGHT TO
RULE
• POWER TO RULE OVER PEOPLE IN A
TERRITORY WITHOUT OUTISDE
INTERFERENCE
• Syn: Power / Authority
7. AUTOCRACY
• Rule by 1 in a country
• EX: Monarchs (who rule by
heredity or by divine right) and
Dictators (who take power
though the military)
8. OLIGARCHY
• Rule by a few or a small group
of people in a country who take
power through heredity,
connections, strength, or religion
• EX: China
• SYN:AUTHORITARIAN
9. DEMOCRACY
• Rule by the Many in a country
• A country in which the people
hold the power over the
government either directly or
indirectly
10. REPUBLIC
A/K/A - INDIRECT OR REPRESENTATIVE
DEMOCRACY
•
A form of democratic government in
which the citizens hold the power but
exercise their power by voting in
elections to choose representatives
who then run the day-to-day
operations of government
11. NATURALIZATION
• The process by which an alien
becomes a new citizen in the
United States
• SYN: CITIZENSHIP
12. POLITICAL
SOCIALIZATION
• How we pass along our
beliefs about government
and our attitudes about
America to the youth of
society.
• SYN: TRADITION
13. CAPITALISM
• An economic system in which the
means of production are privately
owned and operated for a profit in
competitive markets.
SYN: MARKET
SYSTEM
14. SOCIALISM
• An economic system in which the
means of production are either
state owned or controlled
SYN: COMMUNISM / COMMAND
ECONOMY