Government Vocabulary

a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.

• Anarchy

• Sovereignty

• Confederacy

• Socialism

supreme power or authority.

• Divine Right

• Constitution

• Sovereignty

• Democracy

an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.

• Divine Right

• Social Contract

• Bourgeoisie

• Free Market

the right of a sovereign to rule as set forth by the theory of government that holds that a monarch receives the right to rule directly from God and not from the people

• Divine Right

• Social Contract

• Unitary System

• Natural Right

a system of political organization in which most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government, in contrast to a federal state.

• Unitary System

• Divine Right

• Capitalism

• Federal System

Political authority is divided between two autonomous sets of governments, one national and the other subnational, both of which operate directly upon the people.

• Unitary System

• Democracy

• Federal System

• Communism

form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.

• Authoritarian

• Dictatorship

• Totalitarian

• Communism

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

• Communism

• Democracy

• Socialism

• Capitalism

the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes.

• Aristocrats

• Bourgeoisie

• Capitalist

• Communist

a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

• Communism

• Capitalism

• Totalitarianism

• Authoritarian