Magruder's American Government: 1. Foundations of Government and Citizenship

Government is the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies.

Every government has and exercises three basic kinds of power: (1) legislative power—the power to make laws and to frame public policies; (2) executive power—the power to execute, enforce, and administer laws; and (3) judicial power—the power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within the society.

Every government has and exercises three basic kinds of power: (1) legislative power—the power to make laws and to frame public policies; (2) executive power—the power to execute, enforce, and administer laws; and (3) judicial power—the power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within the society.

Every government has and exercises three basic kinds of power: (1) legislative power—the power to make laws and to frame public policies; (2) executive power—the power to execute, enforce, and administer laws; and (3) judicial power—the power to interpret laws, to determine their meaning, and to settle disputes that arise within the society.

The ultimate responsibility for the exercise of these powers may be held by a single person or by a small group, as in a dictatorship.

When the responsibility for the exercise of these powers rests with a majority of the people, that form of government is known as a democracy.

The state can be defined as a body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically (that is, with a government), and with the power to make and enforce law without the consent of any higher authority.

Every state is sovereign—that is, it has supreme and absolute power within its own territory and can decide its own foreign and domestic policies.

An autocracy is a government in which a single person holds unlimited political power.

An oligarchy is a government in which the power to rule is held by a small, usually self-appointed elite.

A unitary government is often described as a centralized government.

A federal government is one in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments.

A confederation is an alliance of independent states.

In a parliamentary government, the executive branch is made up of the prime minister or premier, and that official’s cabinet. The prime minister and cabinet are themselves members of the legislative branch, the parliament.

Much of the political history of the republican period revolved around an often violent struggle between two social classes: the patricians, mostly rich upper-class, landowning aristocrats; and the plebeians, the common folk.

Much of the political history of the republican period revolved around an often violent struggle between two social classes: the patricians, mostly rich upper-class, landowning aristocrats; and the plebeians, the common folk.

Feudalism was a loosely organized system in which powerful lords divided their lands among other, lesser lords.

The state, in the person of the monarch, now had sovereignty, or the utmost authority in decision making and in maintaining order.

This consent is known as legitimacy, the belief of the people that a government has the right to make public policy.

Beginning in the late 1400s and early 1500s, several European monarchies embarked on a policy of colonialism—the control of one nation over lands abroad.

Mercantilism is an economic and political theory emphasizing money as the chief source of wealth to increase the absolute power of the monarchy and the nation.

Compromise is the process of blending and adjusting competing views and interests.

A citizen is one who holds both rights and responsibilities in a state.

The American economic system is often called the free enterprise system. It is an economic system characterized by the private ownership of capital goods; investments made by private decision, not by government directive; and success or failure determined by competition in the marketplace.