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CHAPTER 1 The Democratic Republic  LEARNING OUTCOMES The five Learning Outcomes (LOs) below are designed to help improve your understanding of this chapter. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: ▪ LO1 Define the terms politics, government, order, liberty, authority, and legitimacy. ▪ LO2 Distinguish the major features of direct democracy and representative democracy. ▪ LO3 Describe majoritarianism, elite theory, and pluralism as theories of how democratic systems work. ▪ LO4 Summarize the conflicts that can occur between the principles of liberty and order, and between those of liberty and equality. ▪ LO5 Discuss conservatism, liberalism, and other popular American ideological positions.  SUMMARY OVERVIEW To many Americans, politics is seen as a “game.†Winners and losers are increasingly defined, the stakes grow higher in modern times, and the players are more divided. This game is defined as a struggle over power or influence within organizations or informal groups that can grant benefits or privileges. Wherever organized groups of people are found, the game of politics is inevitably played. The preeminent institution within a society is called the government, because it makes decisions that resolve conflicts, and allocates benefits and privileges in society. Governments originally formed to keep order and maintain security, but expanded their role considerably over time. Concerned about too much governmental power, people imposed limitations on it, mostly through guaranteeing individual liberties and civil rights enshrined by law. Normally, people accept a government’s ability to exercise authority. This acceptance is called political legitimacy. A government’s continued existence depends on acceptable levels of both legitimacy and authority. Many different types of government exist, with varying degrees of power over their societies. In most of the world today, democracies are favored, based in some form or another upon rule by the people. The United States has moved i
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