| A | B |
|---|
| authority | the right to use power |
| legitimacy | politicak authority conferred by law, public opinion, or constitution |
| democracy | term used to describe political system in which the people are said to rule, directly or indirectly |
| democratic centralism | a government said to be democratic if its decisions will serve the "true interests" of the people whether or not the people affect the decision making or select the decision makers |
| direct or participatory democracy | political system in which all or most citizens participate directly by either holding office or making policy |
| representative democracy | a political system in which leaders and representatives aquire power by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote. this form of government is used by nations who call themselves democratic |
| Marxist theory | a theory that those who control the economic system also control the political one |
| bureaucrats | appointed officials who operate government agencies from day to day |
| pluralist theory | a theory that competition among all affected interests shapes public policy |
| elite | an indefinable group of persons who posess a disportionate share of some valued resource-such as political power or money |
| bureaucratic theory | theory that bureaucrats make the key governing decisions |
| elitist theory | theory that a few top leaders make the key decisions without reference to popular desires |
| majoritarian politics | political system in which leaders are constrained to follow closely the wishes of the people |
| political power | power used to determine who will hold government office and the government will behave |
| power | ability of one person to cause another person to act in accordance with the first person's intentions |
| Max Weber | German historian and sociologist who criticized the theories of Karl Marx, arguing that all institutions have fallen under the control of large bureaucracies whose expertise is essential to the management of contemporary affairs |
