Explain concepts of political science and government, including political institutions, power and authority, monarchy, totalitarianism, republicanism, democracy, limited government, roles and responsibilities of citizenship
• Political Institution: Set of formal rules (including constitutions), informal norms, or shared understandings that constrain and describe political actors’ interactions with one another.
• Power and Authority: Authority identifies political legitimacy, which grants and justifies the right to exercise power of govt; the term power identifies the ability to accomplish and authorized goal, by way of either compliance or of obedience. Authority is the power to make decisions and the legitimacy to make such legal decisions and order their execution.
• Monarchy: country that is ruled by a king or queen
• Totalitarianism: relating to a government where the ruler or ruling group has complete control.
• Republicanism: it refers to a political system that protects liberty, especially by incorporating a rule of law that cannot be arbitrarily ignored by the government. Always stands in opposition to aristocracy, oligarchy, monarchy, and dictatorship.
• Democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
• Limited government: governing or controlling body whose power exists only within pre-defined limits that are est. by a constitution or other source of authority.
• Roles of citizenship: Obey the law. Pay taxes. Serve in the armed forces. Appear in court (Jury Duty).
• Responsibilities of citizenship: Support and defend the Constitution. Stay informed of the issues affecting your community. Participate in the democratic process. Respect and obey federal, state, and local laws. Respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others. Participate in your local community. Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state, and local authorities. Serve on a jury when called upon. Defend the country if the need should arise
Explain economics, including scarcity, opportunity cost, the operation of supply and demand, the circular flow model of economic changes, the business cycle, fiscal and monetary policy, and international trade and economic globalization
• Scarcity: State of being in short supply
• Opportunity Cost: Loss of potential gain from other alt. when 1 alt. is chosen
• Supply and Demand: How much of that product, item, commodity, or service consumers are willing and able to purchase at a particular price.
• Circular Flow Model of Econ Changes: Shows the flow of money through the economy. (Money flows from producers to workers as wages and flows back to producers as payment for products.) Economy is in an endless circular flow of money.
• Business Cycle: Economy-wide fluctuations in production, trade, and general economic activity.
• Monetary Policy: Involves changing the interest rate and influencing the money supply.
• Fiscal Policy: Involves the govt changing tax rates and levels of govt spending to influence aggregate demand in the economy.
• Internat’l Trade: Exchange of goods and services between countries
• Economic Globalization: Refers to the increasing interdependence of world economies as a result of the growing scale of cross-border trade of commodities and services, flow of internat’l capital and wide and rapid spread of technologies
