GOVT 1111 Study Guide - Comprehensive Midterm Guide: Commerce Clause, Cooperative Federalism, Habeas Corpus

• School: Cornell University
• Department: Government
• Course: GOVT 1111
• Professor: Mettler

Document Summary

All political behavior has a purpose (rationality principle) All politics is collective action (collective action principle) Political outcomes are the products of individual preferences and institutional procedures (policy principle) How we got here matters (history principle) Government: the institutions and procedures through which a land and its people are ruled. Autocracy: a form of government in which a single individual rules. Oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of landowners, military officers, or wealthy merchants controls most of the governing decisions. Democracy: a system of rule that permits citizens to play a significant part in the governmental process, usually through the selection of key public officials. Constitutional government: a system of rule in which formal and effective limits are placed on the powers of the government. Authoritarian government: a system of rule in which the government recognizes no formal limits but may nevertheless be restrained by the power of other social institution.