American National Government - POSC 111 Resource Guide

The definition of democracy has been expanded, to describe a philosophy that insists on the right and the capacity of a people, acting either directly or through representatives, to control their institutions for their own purposes

An elite is made up of those persons in a given group who are preeminent in terms of some standard of value; it is the choice or best part of that group. Thus, for example, we can distinguish a scholarly elite (the most learned), an artistic elite (the best painters, the best writers), or a moral elite (the most virtuous, the most just). In this sense an elite is constituted by just those persons whose actions may be said to count the most when measured against some ideal of performance.

Federalism is a principle of government that defines the relationship between the central government at the national level and its constituent units at the regional, state, or local levels. Under this principle of government, power and authority is allocated between the national and local governmental units, such that each unit is delegated a sphere of power and authority only it can exercise, while other powers must be shared.

Any system whereby political authority is exercised. Modern systems of government distinguish between liberal democracies, totalitarian (one-party) states, and autocracies (authoritarian, relying on force rather than ideology).

A broadly pluralist tradition of political sociology flourishes today in its neopluralist reconstructions in political science and, to a lesser extent, sociology. Since the 1970s the pluralist tradition of political analysis, which stressed the causal primacy of a plurality of collective social actors, has passed into a neopluralist phase.

William Jennings Bryan The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience.

Representative democracy is a type of democracy in which the citizens of the state exercise their popular sovereignty through legitimately elected representatives.

Provide access to digital copies of historical, legal, and political documents.

Online library of constitutional history. Digitized and cross-referenced documents written by individuals who drafted, ratified, and influenced the creation of the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments.

The official archive of the U.S. government, the NARA is responsible for maintaining the documents and materials produced by the federal government that it considers the most important.

Access to "100 milestone documents" compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration chronicling United States history from 1776 to 1965.

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, & the Bill of Rights.

Official publication office of the U.S. government. Access congressional hearings, records, court opinions and other current governmental material.