Download Politics: Terms, Definitions, Historians, Philosophers, Methods, Government Types, & Value and more Quizzes Local Government Studies in PDF only on Docsity!
Two groups of Politics
Historian- address the IS question and is descriptive Philosophers- Address the SHOULD question What is the best society, how should we be- values judgment TERM 2
Political Historians
DEFINITION 2 Observe the legal institutions of government Describe it TERM 3
Political Philosophers
DEFINITION 3 Discovering the best life by reflection Normative- subjective or value TERM 4
Scientific Method
DEFINITION 4 Concept- abstraction from reality and an over simplification of some complex phenomenon or event. Hypothesis- educated guess number of concepts within it in an attempt to explain Test Hypothesis Develop explanations (theories that are not normative) Laws- do a test and you get the same result every single time TERM 5
Concepts
DEFINITION 5 Government- the formal(legal) institutions in society which are the ultimate power source. Politics- process of deciding who gets what, when and how. Contains an element of power. Government provides the framework within which politics are carried out.
Types of Government
Autocracy Oligarchy Democracy TERM 7
Autocracy
DEFINITION 7 An autocracy is a form of government in which one person possesses unlimited power. TERM 8
Oligarchy
DEFINITION 8 An oligarchy (Greek , Oligarkha) (oligocracy) is a form of government in which power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, military might, or religious hegemony. TERM 9
Democracy
DEFINITION 9 Democracy is a political government carried out either directly by the people (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (Representative democracy). TERM 10
Direct Democracy
DEFINITION 10 people make the laws themselves we dont elect people to make them for us. Initiative- A citizen write a proposal of law then the voters put it into law Referendum- state level not national: legislative propose the bill then give it to citizens to pass the bill Recall- election to remove an officer from office by the people
