Ch. 2 Study Guide - Background of Government

Government that gives all key powers to the

national or central government

• Federal System

• Unitary System

• State

• Nation

Theory that by contract, people surrender to

the state the power needed to maintain order

& the state, in turn, agrees to protect its citizens

• Unitary System

• Divine Right Theory

• Social Contract theory

• Evolutionary theory

Group of people united by bonds of

ethnicity, language, custom, tradition, &

sometimes, religion

• Nation

• State

• Nation-state

• Country

The supreme & absolute authority within

territorial boundaries

• government

• social contract

• consensus

• sovereignty

A country in which the territory of both the

nation and the state coincide

• state

• nation

• nation-state

• government

Political community that occupies a definite

territory and has an organized government

with the power to make and enforce laws

without approval from a higher authority

• state

• nation

• nation-state

• consensus

The institution through which the state

maintains social order, provides public services,

& enforces binding decisions on citizens

• unitary System

• federal system

• sovereignty

• government

an agreement about basic beliefs

• consensus

• government

• politics

• argument

A government in which a constitution has

authority to place clearly recognized limits on

the powers of those who govern

• constitutional law

• confederacy

• constitutional government

• unitary system

a loose union of independent states

• confederacy

• federal system

• preamble

• politics