Government of Canada

. politics: making binding decisions about who gets what, when & how

. state: political unit of an entire territory. Consists of terr., pop., and gov't

. government: consists of authoritative structures of the political system

. nation: politically conscious, mobilized group of people w/ sense territory

. sovereign: final authority rests w/ national gov't

. citizen: formal member of a state

. ethnicity: subjective characteristic of groups of people sharing customs

. federation: # of territorial units and central gov't make decisions

. unitary system: power & authority centralized in one gov't

. law: special body of rules by gov't backed with threat of state force

. authority: gov't power to make binding decisions & issue commands

. democratic political system: reconciles competing interests w/ elections

Includes: free elections, voting rights, >1 party, freedom speech, rule of law

. majority principle: policy decisions made by majority or elected body

. authoritarian political system: imposes one dominant interest on all others

. legitimacy: when citizens accept that the gov't can make decisions for them

. policies: broadly based patterns