Politics In America - Ch. 2 - Vocabulary
Terms
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- political culture
- widely shared views about who should govern, for what ends, and by what means.
- values
- Shared ideas about what is good and desirable.
- beliefs
- Shared ideas about what is true.
- subcultures
- Variations on the prevailing values and beliefs in a society.
- classical liberalism
- Political philosophy asserting the worth and dignity of the individual and emphasizing the rational ability of human beings to determine their own destinies.
- legal equality
- beliefs that the laws should apply equally to all persons.
- political equality
- belief that every person's vote counts equally
- equality of opportunity
- elimination of artificial barriers to success in life and the opportunity for everyone to strive for success
- equality of results
- equal sharing of income and material goods regardless of one's efforts in life.
- social mobility
- extent to which people move upward or downward in income and status over a lifetime or over generations.
- class conflict
- conflict between upper and lower social classes over wealth and power.
- class consciousness
- awareness of one's class position and a feeling political solidarity with others within the same class in opposition to other classes.
- immigration policy
- regulating the entry of non-citizens into the country
- aliens
- persons residing in a nation who are not citizens
- amnesty
- government forgiveness of a crime, usually granted to a group of people
- illegal immigration
- the unlawful entry of a person into a nation
- passport
- evidence of U.S. citizenship allowing people to travel abroad and reenter the United States
- visa
- a document or stamp on a passport allowing a person to visit a foreign country
- secular
- in politics, a reference to opposition to religious practices and symbols in public life
- ideology
- consistent and integrated system of ideas, values and beliefs.
- conservatism
- belief in the value of free markets, limited government, and individual self-reliance in economic affairs, combined with a belief in the value of tradition, law and morality in social affairs.
- liberalism
- belief in the value of strong government to provide economic security and protection for civil rights, combined with a belief in personal freedom from government intervention in social conduct.
- libertarian
- opposing government intervention in both economic and social affairs, and favoring minimal government in all sectors of society.
- left
- a reference to the liberal, progressive, and/or socialist side of the political spectrum
- right
- a reference to the conservative, traditional, anticommunist side of the political spectrum
- fascism
- political ideology in which that state and/or race is assumed to be supreme over individuals
- Marxism
- The theories of Karl Marx, among them that capitalists oppress workers and that worldwide revolution and the emergence of a classless society are inevitable.
- Leninism
- The theories of Vladimir Lenin, among them being that advanced capitalist countries turned toward war and colonialism to make their own workers relatively prosperous.
- communism
- System of government in which a single totalitarian party controls all means of production and distribution of goods and services.
- socialism
- system of government involving collective or government ownership economic enterprise, with the goal being equality of results, not merely equality of opportunity.
- end of history
- the collapse of communism and the worldwide movement toward free markets and political democracy
- politically correct (PC)
- repression of attitudes, speech, and writings that are deemed racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise "insensitive."