| A | B |
|---|
| Authority | the legal right and power to give orders and enforce rules |
| Government | Organization of authority figure necessary to organize and carry out public policy. |
| Power | the possibility of imposing one’s will upon the behavior of other persons. |
| Legitimacy | the quality of being accepted as an authority, often applied to laws of those in power |
| Mandate of Heaven | An ancient Chinese doctrine that the ruler was the "son of heaven" and thus enjoyed supreme authority. |
| Divine Right of Kings | the idea that European monarchs had a God-given right to rule and thus deserved absolute power |
| Social Contract Theory | the idea that the legitimacy of a government stems from an unwritten contract between the ruler and the ruled; a ruler who breaks this contract by abusing people’s rights loses legitimacy and may be overthrown |
| Nation-States | an independent state, especially one in which the people share a common culture |
| Sovereignty | the right to exercise supreme authority over a geographic region, a group of people, or oneself |
| Politics | the process and method of making decisions for groups, generally applied to governments though also seen in other human interactions |
| Institutions | an established organization, especially one providing a public service, and the rules that guide it |
| Machiavellian | characterized by cunning or ruthless methods to obtain and maintain power; associated with the political philosophy of Niccoló Machiavelli that “the end justifies the means” |
| Civil Disobedience | a form of protest in which people disobey a law they consider unjust |
| Monarchy | an autocracy governed by a single person (usually a king or queen) who usually inherits the authority |
| Dictatorship | a form of government where absolute power is allotted to an individual or a small clique |
| Direct democracy | a democratic form of government in which citizens make public decisionsdirectly, either in a public assembly or through popular vote. |
| Republic | a nation in which supreme power rests with the citizens and is exercised by their elected representatives |
| Representative Democracy | A democratic form of government in which elected representatives make public decisions on behalf of the citizens. |
| Parliaments | a meeting or assembly for conference on public or national affairs. |
| Absolute Monarchies | A government led by a hereditary ruler who claims unlimited power |
| constitutional monarchy | A system of goverment in which the powers of a monarch are limited by a constitution, either written or unwritten |
| Constitutional democracies | a democratic government based on a written constitution |
| Authoritarian Regimes | A system of government in which the state exercises broad control over the lives of its citizens |
| Totalitarianism | an extreme form of authoritarian rule in which the state seeks to control every aspect of its citizens' lives. |
| Fascism | a totalitarian system in which businesses remain in private hands but under government control |
| Nazism | a variety of fascism built in part on the myth of racial superiority; Germany under Hitler |
| Coup d’ etat | the sudden overthrow of a government by a small group of military officers or political leaders; from a French term meaning “blow to the state |
| Unitary System of Government | a political system in which the constitution concentrates power in the national, or central, government |
| Federal System of Government | A type of government in which power is shared between national government and smaller regional government within the nation |
| Confederal System of Government | a political system in which independent states form a nation but retain their power under a weak central government. |
