Governments and Governing

Question 1

The body of people and institutions that make and enforce laws for society.

Answer 1

Governments

Question 2

*Rules made by any social organization other than
government apply, and are intended to apply,
only to members of that organization.
*On the other hand, the rules of the government
apply, and are intended to apply, to all members
of the society

Answer 2

Comprehensive Authority

Question 3

*Membership in most social organizations other
than government is voluntary; that is, people
became members of such an organization and
place themselves under its rules only by
conscious choice.
*Membership in a nation, however, is largely
involuntary; that is, most people initially become
citizens of a nation and subject to its rules
without any deliberate choice or conscious acts.

Answer 3

Involuntary Membership

Question 4

Rules are more binding upon all members of a society than the rules of all other organizations.
In any conflict between the laws of government and the rules of a private organization, there is a general agreement that government laws should prevail.

Answer 4

Authoritative Rules

Question 5

Government can impose all those sanctions as well, but it can also
impose two additional sanctions forbidden to private organizations.
It can send lawbreakers to prison, and it can take their lives.

Answer 5

Legitimate Monopoly of Overwhelming Force

Question 6

The processes of politics and government
have some instructive similarities to their
counterparts in private organizations, but
governments operate in such a different
atmosphere and for such greater stakes.

Answer 6

Highest Stakes

Question 7

The process of forming and expressing demands by political interest groups and transmitting the demands to government authorities

Answer 7

Interest articulation

Question 8

The state of a person or group in government policy: something of value to be gained or lost by what the government does or not does do

Answer 8

Political Interest

Question 9

The process of
combining the demands of different
interest groups into public policies

Answer 9

Interest Aggregation

Question 10

The threat or imposition of force and other
sanctions to get compliance.

Answer 10

Coercion

Question 11

(Nations’ Common Characteristic) Each of the world’s nations is located on a particular area of the earth’s surface and has definite, generally recognized boundaries that do not overlap those of any other nation.

Answer 11

Particular Territory

Question 12

(Nations’ Common Characteristic) Each nation regards certain people as its citizens and all others as
aliens.

Answer 12

Definite Population

Question 13

is a person who has the legal status of being a full member of
a particular nation.

Answer 13

Citizen

Question 14

is a person who is neither a citizen or national of the nations in which he or she is present.

Answer 14

Alien

Question 15

(Nations’ Common Characteristic) Each nation has an officially designated set of persons and
institutions authorized to make and enforce laws for all people within its territory.

Answer 15

Government

Question 16

Are those in which the national
governments are legally supreme over regional and local governments.

Answer 16

Unitary Government

Question 17

Are those in which power is formally divided between the national government and certain
regional governments, each of which is legally supreme in its sphere.

Answer 17

Federal Government

Question 18

(Nations’ Common Characteristic) Each
nation, large or small, strong or weak, has
supreme legal authority over its own
affairs and in that respect is fully equal to
every other nation.

Answer 18

Formal Independence

Question 19

The people’s psychological attachment to
a particular nation, based upon a common
history, common language, and literature,
common culture, and a desire for political
independence.

Answer 19

Nationalism

Question 20

Nations’ two main ways of dying

Answer 20

1. Be conquered and totally absorbed by another nation.
2. The other is to break up into a number of new nations

Question 21

Penalties that a group can impose on those who break its rules

Answer 21

Sanctions

Question 22

A society with no government

Answer 22

Anarchy

Question 23

The Birth of Nations

Answer 23

1. Winning a war of independence
2. Granted independence by their former colonial masters
3. Declaring themselves to be independent from previous unions

Question 24

The general belief of the members of a society that the government’s powers to make and enforce rules are proper, lawful, and entitled to obedience

Answer 24

Legitimacy

Question 25

The basic duty of any government

Answer 25

Ensure the nation’s survival

Question 26

The amount the winners win is the same as the amount the losers lose

Answer 26

Zero-sum game

Question 27

Transferred most governing powers to the republics but reserved some powers of economic and foreign policy coordination for the central government.

Answer 27

Treaty of Union