A | B |
culture | THe way of life that distinguishes a people, for example, government, language, religion, customs, and beliefs |
population density | The average number of people living in a given area |
birthrate | The number of live births each year per 1,000 people |
immigrant | A person who moves into a country |
emigrant | A person who leaves the country to live elsewhere |
urbanization | The growth of city populations |
rural | Of, or characteristic of, the countryside |
culture hearth | A place in which important ideas begin and thereafter spread to surrounding cultures |
cultural convergence | The contact and interaction of one culture with another |
diffusion | The process by which a cultural element is transmitted from one group or individual to another |
cultural divergence | The restriction of a culture from outside influences |
sovereignty | A country's freedom and power to decide on policies and actions |
unitary system | A system of government in which one central government holds most of the political power |
federation | A government structure in which some powers are given to the national government and other powers are reserved for more local governments |
confederation | A system ofgovernment in which individual political units keep their sovereignty but give limited power to a central government |
authoritarian | Descriptive of a system of government in which the leaders hold all political power |
dictatorship | A system of government in which absolute power is held by a small group or one person |
totalitarianism | A system of government in which central authority controls all aspects of society |
monarchy | A system of authoritarian government headed by a monarch-a king, queen, shah, or sultan- whose position is usually inherited |
democracy | A system of government in which the people are invested with the power to choose their leaders and determine government policy |
traditional economy | An economic system in which families produce goods and services for their own use, with little surplus and exchange of goods; also known as a subsistence economy |
market economy | An economic system in which decisions about production, price, and other economic factors are determined by the law of supply and demand |
command economy | An economic system that is controlled by a single central government |