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AP Gov Ch. 1 study
AP Gov. Ch. 1 Terms study guide
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11th Grade
05/23/2014

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Term
Economy
Definition
A system of producing and distributing goods and services.
Term
Subsistence economy
Definition
A type of economy in which human groups live off the land and have little or no surplus.
Term
Conspicuous consumption
Definition
Thorenstein Veblen' s term for a change from the protestant ethic to an eagerness to show off wealth by the consumption of goods.
Term
Medium of exchange
Definition
The means by which people place a value on goods and services in order to make an exchange, for example, currency, gold, and silver.
Term
Barter
Definition
The direct exchange of one item for another.
Term
Fiat money
Definition
Currency issued by a government that is not backed by stored value.
Term
Gross domestic product
Definition
The amount of goods and services produced by a nation.
Term
Credit card
Definition
A device that allows its owner to purchase goods and to be billed later.
Term
E-cash
Definition
Digital money that is stored on computers
Term
Capitalism
Definition
An economic system characterized by the private ownership of the means of production, the pursuit of profit, and market competition.
Term
Laissez-Faire capitalism
Definition
Unrestrained manufacture and trade (literally "hands off" capitalism.
Term
Welfare-Capitalism
Definition
An economic system in which individuals own the means of production but the state regulates many economic activities for the welfare of the population.
Term
Monopoly
Definition
The control of an entire industry by a single company
Term
Socialism
Definition
An economic system characterized by the public ownership of the means of production, central planning, and the distribution of goods without a profit motive.
Term
Democratic socialism
Definition
A hybrid economic system in which capitalism is mixed with state ownership.
Term
Politics
Definition
The excercise of power and attempts to maintain or to change power relations.
Term
Power
Definition
The ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others
Term
Authority
Definition
Power that people consider legitimate, as rightly exercised over them; also called legitimate power.
Term
Coercion
Definition
Power that people do not accept as rightly excercised over them; also called illegitimate power.
Term
State
Definition
A political entity that claims monopoly on the use of violence in some particular territory; commonly known as a country.
Term
Traditional Authority
Definition
Authority based on custom.
Term
Charismatic authority
Definition
Authority based on an individual's outstanding traits, which attract followers.
Term
City-State
Definition
An independent city whose power radiates outward, bringing the adjacent area under its rule.
Term
Monarchy
Definition
A form of government headed by a king or queen.
Term
Citizenship
Definition
The concept that birth ( and residence) in a country impart basic rights.
Term
Democracy
Definition
A system of government in which authority derives from the people; the term comes from two Greek words that translate literally as "power to the people".
Term
Dictatorship
Definition
A form of government in which an individual has seized power.
Term
Oligarchy
Definition
A form of government in which a small group of individuals hold power; the rule of the many by the few.
Term
Noncentrist party
Definition
A political party that represents less popular ideas.
Term
Coalition Government
Definition
A government in which a country's largest party align itself with one or more smaller parties.
Term
Polygyny
Definition
A form of marriage in which men have more than one wife.
Term
Polyandry
Definition
A form of marriage in which women have more than one husband.
Term
Nuclear family
Definition
A family consisting of a husband, wife, and child(ren).
Term
Extended Family
Definition
A nuclear family plus other relatives, such as grandparents, uncles, and aunts.
Term
Family of orientation
Definition
The family in which a person grows up.
Term
Family of procreation
Definition
The family formed when a couple's first child is born.
Term
Endogamy
Definition
The practice of marrying within one's own group.
Term
Exogamy
Definition
The practice of marrying outside one's group.
Term
Egalitarian Society
Definition
Authority more or less equally divided between people or groups, in this instance between husband and wife.
Term
Romantic Love
Definition
Feelings of erotic attraction accompanied by an idealization of the other.
Term
Empty nest
Definition
A married couple's domestic situation after the last child has left home.
Term
Machismo
Definition
An emphasis on male strength and dominance.
Term
Blended family
Definition
A family whose members were once part of other families.
Term
Cohabitation
Definition
Unmarried couples living together in a sexual relationship.
Term
Serial Fatherhood
Definition
A pattern of parenting in which a father, after divorce, reduces contacts with his own children, serves as a father to the children of the woman he marries of lives with, then ignores these children, too, after moving in with or marrying another woman.
Term
Education
Definition
A formal system of teaching knowledge, values, and skills.
Term
Manifest Function
Definition
The intended beneficial consequences of people's actions.
Term
Latent functions
Definition
Unitended beneficial consequences of people's actions.
Term
Credential functions
Definition
The use of diplomas and degrees to determine who is eligible for jobs, even though the diploma or degree may be irrelevant to the actual work.
Term
Cultural transmission of values
Definition
In reference to education, the ways in which schools transmit a society's culture, especially its core values.
Term
Mainstreaming
Definition
Helping people to become part of the mainstream of society
Term
Gatekeeping
Definition
The process by which education opens and closes doors of opportunity; another term for the social placement function of education.
Term
Tracking
Definition
The sorting of students into different educational programs on the basis of real or perceived abilities.
Term
Social placements
Definition
A function of education - funneling peoplento a society's various position.
Term
Hidden curriculum
Definition
The unwrittten goals of schools, such as teaching obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms.
Term
Correspondence principle
Definition
The sociological principle that schools correspond to ( or reflect) the social structure of their society.
Term
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Definition
Robert Merton's term for an originally false assertion that becomes true simply because it was predicted.
Term
Grade inflation
Definition
Higher greades given for the same work; a general rise in student grades without a corresponding increase in learning.
Term
Social promotion
Definition
Passing students on to the next level even though they have not mastered basic materials.
Term
Functional illiterate
Definition
A high school graduate who has difficulty with basic reading and math.
Term
Sacred
Definition
Durkheim's term for things set apart or forbidden, that inspire fear, awe, reverence, or deep respect.
Term
Profane
Definition
Durkheim's term for common elements of everyday life.
Term
Church
Definition
According to Durkheim, one of the three essential elements of religion - a moral community of believers; a second definition is a type of religious organization - a large, highly organized group with formal, sedate worship servises and little emphasis on personal conversion.
Term
Ecclesia
Definition
A religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where the one begins and the other leaves off; also called a state religion.
Term
Civil Religion
Definition
Robert Bellah's term for religion that is such an established feature of a country's life that its history and social institutions become sanctified by being associated with God.
Term
Functional Equivalent of Religion
Definition
In this context, a substitute that serves the same functions (or meets the same needs) as religion, for example, psychotherapy.
Term
Ritual
Definition
Ceremonies or repetitive practices; ni this context, religious observances or rites, often intended to evoke a sense of awe of the sacred.
Term
Cosmology
Definition
Teaching or ideas that provide a unified picture of the world.
Term
Religious Experience
Definition
A sudden awareness of the supernatural r a feeling of coming in contact with God.
Term
Born Again
Definition
A term describing Christians who have undergone a life-transforming religious experience so radical that they feel they have become new persons.
Term
Modernization
Definition
The transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies.
Term
Monotheism
Definition
The belief that there is only one God.
Term
Polytheism
Definition
The belief that there are many gods.
Term
Animism
Definition
The belief that all objects in the world have spirits, some in which are dangerous and must be outwitted.
Term
Evangelism
Definition
An attempt to in converts.
Term
Medicine
Definition
One of the social institutions that sociologists study; a society's organized ways of dealing with sickness or injury.
Term
Health
Definition
A human condition measured by four components: physical, mental, social, and spiritual.
Term
Sick role
Definition
A social role that excuses people from normal obligations because they are sick or injured, while at the same time expecting them to seek competent help and cooperate in getting well.
Term
Fee-for-service program
Definition
Payment to a physician to diagnose and treat a patient's medical problems.
Term
Epidemiology
Definition
The study of diseases and disability patterns in a population.
Term
Two-tier system of medical care
Definition
A system of medical care in which the wealthy receive superior medical care and the poor inferior medical care.
Term
Defensive medicine
Definition
Medical practices done not for the patient's benefit but in order to protect a physician from malpractice suits.
Term
Depersonalization
Definition
Dealing with people as though they were objects; in the case of medical care, as though patients were merely cases and diseases, not people.
Term
Medicalization
Definition
The transformation of a human condition into a matter to be treated by physicians.
Term
Euthanasia
Definition
Mercy killing
Term
Health maintenance organization
Definition
A health care organization that provides medical treatment to its members for a fixed annual cost.
Term
Dumping
Definition
The practices of sending unprofitable patients to public hospitals.
Term
Disabling environment
Definition
An environment that is harmful to health.
Term
Demography
Definition
The study of the size, composition, growth, and distribution of human population.
Term
Malthus theorem
Definition
An observation by Thomas Malthus that although the food supply increases arithmetically (from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 and so on), population grows geometrically (from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 and so forth)
Term
Exponential growth curve
Definition
A pattern of growth in which numbers double during approximately equal intervals, thus accelerating in the latter stages.
Term
Demographic transition
Definition
The three-stage historical process of population growth: first, high birth rates and high death rates; second, high birth rates and low death rates; and third, low birth rates and low death rates; a fourth stage has begun to appear in the most industrialized nations.
Term
Population shrinkage
Definition
The process by which a country's population becomes smaller because its birth rate and immigration are too low to replace those who die and emigrate.
Term
Population pyramid
Definition
A graphic representation of a population, divided into age and sex.
Term
Demographic Variables
Definition
The three factors that influence population growth: fertility, morality, and net migration.
Term
Fertility Rate
Definition
The number of children that the average woman bears.
Term
Fecundity
Definition
The number of children that women are capable of bearing
Term
Growth Rate
Definition
The net change in a population after adding births, subtracting deaths, and either adding or subtracting net migration.
Term
Basis demographic equation
Definition
Growth rate equals birth minus death plus net migration
Term
Zero population growth
Definition
A demographic condition in which women bear only enough children to reproduce the population.
Term
City
Definition
A place in which a large number o people are permanently based and do not produce their own food.
Term
Urbanization
Definition
The process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities and has a growing influence on the culture.
Term
Metropolis
Definition
A central city surrounded by small-scale patterns of society.
Term
Collective behavior
Definition
Extraordinary activities carried out by groups of people; includes lynching, rumors, panics, urban legends, and fads and fashion.
Term
Collective mind
Definition
Gustave LeBon's term for the tendency of people in a crowd to feel, think, and act in extraordinary ways.
Term
Circular reaction
Definition
Robert Park's term for a back-and forth communication among the members of a crowd whereby a "collective impulse" is transmitted.
Term
Acting crowd
Definition
An excited group of people who move toward a goal.
Term
Milling
Definition
A crowd standing or walking around as they talk excitedly about some event.
Term
Minimax strategy
Definition
Richard Berk's term for the efforts people make to minimize their costs and maximize their rewards.
Term
Riot
Definition
Violent crowd behavior directed at people and property.
Term
Panic
Definition
The condition of being so fearful that one cannot function normally, and may even flee.
Term
Role extension
Definition
The incorporate of additional activities into a role.
Term
Mass hysteria
Definition
An imagined threat that causes physical symptoms among a large number of people.
Term
Urban legend
Definition
A story with an ironic twist that sounds realistic but is false.
Term
Alterative social movement
Definition
A social movement that seeks to alter only some specific aspects of people.
Term
Redemptive social movement
Definition
A social movment that resists to change people totally, to redeem them.
Term
Proactive social movement
Definition
A social movement that promotes some social change.
Term
Agent provocateur
Definition
Someone who joins a group in order to spy on it and to sabotage it by provoking its members to commit extreme acts.
Term
Social change
Definition
The alteration of cultures and societies over time
Term
Modernization
Definition
The transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies.
Term
Invention
Definition
The combination of existing elements and materials to form new ones; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change.
Term
Discovery
Definition
A new way of seeing reality; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change.
Term
Diffusion
Definition
The spread of an invention or a discovery form one area to another identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change.
Term
Cultural lag
Definition
Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations.
Term
Postmodern society
Definition
Another term for postindustrial society; a chief characteristic is the use of tools that extend human abilities to gather and analyze information, to communicate, and to travel.
Term
Alienation
Definition
Marx's term for workers' lack of connection to the product of their labor; caused by their being assigned repetitive tasks on a small part of a product - this leads to a sense of powerlessness and normlessness; others use the term in the general sense of not feeling a part of something.
Term
Sustainable environment
Definition
A world system that takes into account the limits of the environment, produces enough material goods for everyone's needs, and leaves a heritage of a sound environment for the next generation.
Term
Acid rain
Definition
Rain containing sulfric acid and nitric acid (burning fossil fuels release sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that becomes sulfuric ad nitric acids when they react with moisture in the air.)
Term
Greenhouse effect
Definition
The buildup of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere that allows light to enter but inhibits the release of heat; believed to cause global warming.
Term
Global warming
Definition
An increase in the earth's temperature due to the greenhouse effect.
Term
Corporate welfare
Definition
The financial incentives (tax breaks, subsides, and even land and stadiums) given to corporations in order to attract them to an area or induce them to remain.
Term
Environmental injustice
Definition
Refers to the pollution of our environment affecting minorities and the poor the most.
Term
Ecosabotage
Definition
Actions taken to sabotage the efforts of people who are thought to be legally harming the environment.
Term
Government
Definition
: The institution and processes through which public policies are made for a society.
Term
Public goods
Definition
Goods, such as clean air and clean water, that everyone must share.
Term
Politics
Definition
The process by which we select our governmental leaders and what policies these leaders pursue. Politics produces authoritative decisions about public issues
Term
Political participation
Definition
All the activities by which citizens attempt to influence the selection of political leaders and the policies they pursue. Voting is the most common means of political participation in a democracy. Other means include protest and civil disobedience.
Term
Single-Issue Groups
Definition
Groups that have a narrow interest, on which their members tend to take an uncompromising stance.
Term
Policymaking System
Definition
The process by which policy comes into being and evolves. People's interests, problems, and concerns create political issues for government policymakers. These issues shape policy, which in turn impacts people, generating more interests, problems, and concerns.
Term
Linkage Institution
Definition
: The political channels through which people's concerns become politcal issues on the policy agenda. In the United States, linkage institutions include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.
Term
Policy Agenda
Definition
The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people involved in politics at a point in time.
Term
Political Issue
Definition
An issue that arises when people disagree about a problem and how to fix it.
Term
Policymaking institutions
Definition
The branches of government charged with taking action on politcal issues. The US Constitution Established three policymaking institutions- congress, the presidency, and the courts. Today, the power of the bureaucracy is so great that most politcal scientists consider it a fourth policymaking institution.
Term
Public Policy
Definition
A choice that government makes in response to a political issue. A poliy is a course of action taken with regard to some problem.
Term
Policy Impacts
Definition
The effects a policy has on people and problems. Impacts are analyzed to see how well a policy has met its goal and at what cost.
Term
Democracy
Definition
A system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public's preferences.
Term
Majority Rule
Definition
: A fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory. In a democracy choosing among alternatives requires that the majority's desire be respected.
Term
Minority rights
Definition
A principle of traditional democratic theory that garuntees rights to choose who do not belong to majorities
Term
Representation
Definition
A basic principle of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers.
Term
Pluralism
Definition
A theory of American democracy emphasizing that the policymaking process is very open to the participation of all groups with shared interests, with no single group usually dominating. Pluralists tend to believe that as a result, public interest generally prevails.
Term
Elitism
Definition
A theory of American democracy contending that an upper-class elite holds the power and makes policy, regardless of the formal governmental organization.
Term
Hyperpluralism
Definition
A theory of American democracy contending that groups are so strong that government, which gives in to the many different groups, is thereby weakened.
Term
Policy gridlock
Definition
A condition that occurs when interests conflict and no coalition is stron enough to form a majority and establish policy, so nothing gets done.
Term
Political culture
Definition
A overall set of values widely shared within a society.
Term
Gross Domestic Product
Definition
(GDP), The total value of all goods and services produced annually by the United States.
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