Chapter 1 Understanding American Politics Flashcards
Government
The system for implementing decisions made through the political process.
Factions
groups of like-minded people who try to influence the government. American government is set up to avoid domination by any one of these groups.
Separation of powers
The division of government power across the judicial, executive, and legislative branch.
Checks and balances
A system in which each branch of government has some power over the others.
Federalism
the division of power across the local, state, and national levels of government
Public goods
services or actions that once provided to one person become available to everyone. Government is typically needed to provide public goods because they will be under provided by the free market.
Collective Action problems
Situations in which the members of a group would benefit by working together to produce some outcome, but each individual is better off refusing to cooperate and reaping benefits from those who do the work
Free rider problem
the incentive to benefit from others’ work without making a contribution, which leads individuals in a collective action situation to refuse to work together.
Politics
the process that determines what government does.
Three key ideas for understanding politics
- Politics is conflictual
- Political process matters
- Politics is everywhere
Free market
an economic system based on competition among businesses without government intervention
Re distributive tax policies
politics, generally favored by democratic politicians that use taxation to attempt to create social equality (higher taxation of the rich to provide programs for the poor).
Culture wars
political conflicts in the US between red state Americans who tend to have strong religious beliefs and blue state americans who tend to be more secular.
democracy
government by the people. in most contexts,this means representative democracy in which the people elect leaders to enact policies. democracies must have fair elections with at least two options.
liberty
political freedom such as freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion. these and other legal and due process rights protecting individuals from government control are outlined in the bill of rights of the US constitution.
