PSC101 Exam 1 Set

Political Science 101 Exam 1 Key Terms

56 cards   |   Total Attempts: 183
  

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Cards In This Set

Front Back
Spurious Relationship
A relationship between two variables that reflects correlation but not causation. (Related but their relationship is not casual.)
Democracy
  • A form of government in which people rule directly or indirectly. (Ruled by many.)
Direct Democracy
A form of democracy that people themselves make the laws and set the policies.
Representative (or Indirect) Democracy
A form of democracy in which the people, through free elections, select representatives to make laws on their behalf and set policies adopted by the government. (People vote for their leaders through election.) (Different forms of rep democracy: Representative, Constitutional, and Republic.)
Constitutional Democracy
  • A form of democracy in which there is a foundation document (such as the U.S. Constitution) that describes the structure, power, and limits of government. (Meaning there’s a document with the force of law that defines and constrains government’s exercise of power.)
Presidential System
  • A political system in which the head of the executive branch is selected by some form of popular vote and serves a fixed term of office. Example the US. (Where voters select separately their chief executive and their legislators.)
Parliamentary System
  • A political system in which the head of the executive branch is selected by members of the legislature rather than by popular vote.
Political Culture
  • The values and beliefs of citizens toward the political system and toward themselves as actors in it. (Refers to the orientation of the citizens toward the political system and towards themselves participants- the basic values, beliefs, attitudes, predispositions, and expectations that citizens bring to political life.)
Social Contract
An agreement among members of a society to form and recognize the authority of a certain government that is empowered to make and enforce laws governing the members of that society.
Politics
  • Individuals and collective efforts to influence the workings of government.
American Creed
  • The dominant political culture in the United States, marked by a set of beliefs in individualism, democracy. Liberty, property, and religion, tied together by the value of equality.
Equality
  • The value advocating that all Americans should be treated the same under law, be able to influence government and have equal opportunity to succeed in life.
Individualism
  • A belief that all individuals should be able to succeed to the maximum extent possible given their talents and abilities, regardless of race, religion, or other group characteristics.
Liberty
  • The belief that government should leave people free to do as they please and exercise their natural right to the maximum extent possible.
Natural Rights
  • Rights inherent in the essence of people as human beings; government does not provide these rights, but it can restrict the exercise of them.