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| The institutions and processes through which public policies are made for a society. |
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| Goods, such as clean air and clean water, that everyone must share. |
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| According to Harlod Lasswell, "who gets what, when, and how." Politics produces authoritative decisions about public issues. |
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| All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they purse. The most common, but not the only, means of political participation in a democracy is voting. Other means include protest and civil disobedience. |
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| Groups that have a narrow interest, tend to dislike compromise, and often draw membership from people new to politics. These features distinguish them from traditional interest groups. |
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| The process by which political problems are communicated by the voters and acted upon by government policymakers. The policymaking system begins with people's needs and expectations for governmental action. When people confront government officials with problems that they want solved, they are trying to influence the government's policy agenda. |
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| The channels or access points through which issues and people's policy preferences get on the government's policy agenda. In the united States, elections, political parties, interest groups, and the mass media are the three main linkage institutions. |
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| According to John Kingdon, "the list of subjects or problems to which government officials, and people outside of government closely associated with those officials, are paying some serious attention at any given time." |
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| An issue that arises when people disagree about a problem and a public policy choice. |
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| policymaking institutions |
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| The branches of government charged with taking action on political issues. The U.S. Constitution established three policymaking institutions - the Congress, the presidency, and the courts. Today, the power of bureaucracy is so great that most political scientists consider it a fourth policymaking institution. |
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| A choice that government makes in response to a political issue. A policy is a course of action taken with regard to some problem |
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| A system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public's preference. |
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| A fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory. In a democracy, choosing among alternatives requires that the majority's desire be respected. |
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| A principle of traditional democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to to majorities and allows that they might join majorities through persuasion and reasoned argument. |
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| A basic principle of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers. |
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| A theory of government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies. |
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| A theory of government and politics contending that societies are divided along class lines and that an upper-class elite will rule, regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization. |
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| A theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government is weakened. Hyperpluralism is an extreme, exaggerated, or perverted form of pluralism. |
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| A condition that occurs when no coalition is strong enough to form a majority and establish policy. The result is that nothing may get done. |
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| The sum total of the value of all the goods and services produced in a nation. |
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| The belief that individuals should be left on their own by the government. One of the primary reasons for the comparatively small scope of American government is the prominence of this belief in American political thought and practice. |
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