| A | B |
|---|
| balance of payments | The total flow of money into a country minus the total flow of money out of a country. |
| balance of trade | The level of merchandise exported minus the level of merchandise imported. |
| barter | The direct trade of goods or services. |
| Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. |
| capital | Wealth in the form of money or property owned, used, or accumulated in business by an individual, partnership, or corporation; any form of material wealth used in the production of more wealth. |
| citizen | A member of a political society who has obligations to and is entitled to protection by and from the government. |
| citizenship | The status of being a member of a state; the quality of the individuals response the state as one who owes allegiance to it and is entitled to its protection and to the political rights it upholds. |
| community | A group of people living in the same locality under the same government. |
| comparative advantage | The principle that a country benefits from specializing in the production of the commodity that it is most efficient at producing. |
| confederal system | An alliance of independent states manifesting a degree of national unity through a central government of united powers (e.g., the United States under the Articles of Confederation, the Commonwealth of Independent States). |
| consumer price index | A number used to calculate changes in the average level of prices for a number of items typically bought by urban families. |
| corporation | An organization created by legal charter to conduct some type of business. |
| culture | Learned behavior of people, which includes their languages, belief systems, social relationships, institutions, and organizations as well as their material goods. |
| demand | The quantities of a good that consumers are willing and able to purchase at various prices during a given period of time. |
| democracy | A form of government in which political control is exercised by all the people, either directly or indirectly through their elected representatives. |
| depression | A prolonged and severe decline in the level of economic activity. |
| developing nation | An area of the world that is changing from uneven growth to more constant economic conditions and that is generally characterized by low rates of urbanization and relatively high rates of infant mortality and illiteracy. |
| diffusion | The spread of people, ideas, technology, and products throughout a number of places. |
| distribution | The arrangement of items over a specified area. |
| diversity | The variety of experiences and perspectives that arise from differences in race, culture, religion, mental or physical abilities, heritage, age, gender, and other characteristics. |
| due process of law | The right of every citizen to be protected against arbitrary action by government. |
| economics | The social science that deals with the way society allocates its scarce resources among its unlimited wants and needs. |
| entrepreneur | An individual who assumes the risk in producing a product for a profit. |
| entrepreneurship | The managerial ability and risk-taking that contribute to a productive society. |
| environment | Everything surrounding one (e.g., the Earths environment includes everything in and on the Earths surface and its atmosphere within which organisms, communities, and objects exist). |
| federal system (federalism) | The form of political organization in which power is divided among a central government and territorial subdivisionsin the United States, among the national, state, and local governments. |
| foreign policy | Guidelines of a government directed to matters beyond its borders, especially regarding relations with other nation-states. |
| government | Institutions and procedures through which a territory is administered. |
| gross domestic product | The total dollar value of all goods and services produced by resources located in the United States during one years time. |
| industrialization | The growth of machine production and the factory system; the process of introducing manufacturing into countries or regions where most of the people are engaged in primary economic activities. |
| inflation | A rise in the average level of prices. |
| institution (political) | A custom, practice (e.g., the institution of slavery), organization (e.g., Congress), relationship, or behavioral pattern of importance in the life of a community or the larger society. |
| interdependence | The condition in which people rely on each other for ideas, goods, and services. |
| interest | The price one pays for the use of someone elses money. |
| justice | The upholding of what is justespecially, fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards of equity and morality, or the law. |
| law of demand | The quantity demanded of a good will be greater at a lower price than the quantity demanded of the same good at a higher price. |
| law of supply | The quantity of a good supplied will be greater at a higher price than it will at a lower price. |
| map | A graphic representation of a portion of the Earth that is usually drawn to scale on a flat surface. |
| market | Exchange activities between buyers and sellers of goods and services. |
| market economy | A system of commercial enterprise in which decisions are made on the basis of current trade factors. |
| migration | The act or process of peoples moving from one place to another with the intent of staying at the destination permanently or for a relatively long period of time. |
| monarchy | The form of government in which political power is exercised by a single ruler under the claim of divine or hereditary right. |
| nation-state | A political unit that claims sovereignty over a defined territory and jurisdiction over everyone in it. |
| opportunity cost | The value of any alternative that one must give up when one makes a choice. |
| places | Locations having distinctive characteristics that give them meaning and character and distinguish them from other locations. |
| population density | The calculation of the number of individuals occupying an area derived from dividing the number of people by the area they occupy. |
| price index | A number that compares prices in one year with those of some earlier base year. |
| quota | A predetermined limited quantity; in economics, a limit on the amount of imports or exports. |
| region | An area with one or more common characteristics or features that give it a measure of homogeneity and make it different from surrounding areas. |
| representative government | The form of government in which power is held by the people and exercised indirectly through elected representatives who make decisions. |
| resources | An aspect of the physical environment that people value and use to meet a need for fuel, food, industrial product, or something else of value. |
| rule of law | The principle that every member of a society, even a ruler, must follow the law. |
| sovereignty | Ultimate, supreme power in a state; in the United States, sovereignty rests with the people. |
| technology | The application of knowledge to meet the goals and to supply the goods and services needed and desired by people. |
| totalitarianism | A form of authoritarianism in which the government attempts to control every aspect of the lives of individuals and prohibits independent associations. |
| unitary government | A system of government in which all authority is vested in a central government from which regional and local governments derive their powers. |
| urbanization | A process through which a geographical area is transformed from a rural to an urban environment as the result of an increase in the numbers of people who live and work there. |
