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CHAPTER 1 1 The Democratic Republic Learning Outcomes The five learning outcomes below are designed to help improve students’ understanding of this chapter. LO 1.1: Define the terms politics, government, order, liberty, authority, and legitimacy. LO 1.2: Distinguish the major features of direct democracy and representative democracy, and describe majoritarianism, elite theory, and pluralism. LO 1.3: Summarize the conflicts that can occur between the values of liberty and order, and between those of liberty and equality. LO 1.4: Discuss conservatism, liberalism, and other popular American ideological positions. LO 1.5: Explain how a changing American population and other social trends may affect the future of our nation. Summary Overview Politics is the process by which people decide which members of society receive certain benefits or privileges and which members do not. It is the struggle over power or influence within institutions or organizations that can grant benefits or privileges. Government is an institution within which decisions are made that resolve conflicts and allocate benefits and privileges. It is the predominant institution within society because it has the ultimate decision-making authority. Two fundamental political values are order, which includes security against violence, and liberty, the greatest freedom of the individual consistent with the freedom of other individuals. To be effective, government authority must be backed by legitimacy. Many of our terms for describing forms of government came from the ancient Greeks. In a direct democracy, such as in ancient Athens, the people themselves make the important political decisions. The United States is a democratic republic, also called a representative democracy, in which the people elect representatives to make the decisions. Some states provide a modern interpretation of dire
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