CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCING GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
Distinguish among the fundamental concepts of g overnment
, politics, and public

policy.
Understand how government

, politics, and p ublic policy are interrelated.

Ascertain how people can influence the governments policy agenda.
Describe the basic concept of the policymaking

system.

Determine the essential principles of traditional democratic

theory.
Examine the three contemporary theories of American democracy:

pluralism, elite and

class theory, and

hyperpluralism.
Discuss and analyze the challenges

to democracy presented in the text.

Understand how the components of American political cultureliberty, egalitarianism,
individualism, laissez-faire,

and populismcontribute to democracy and shape

government.
Begin to assess the two questions that are central to governing and that serve as themes for
this textbook: How should we govern? and What should government do?

Vocabulary
Government
Public goods
Politics
Political participation
Single-issue groups
Policymaking system
Linkage institutions
Policy agenda
Political issue
Policymaking institutions
Public policy
Democracy
Majority rule
Minority rights
Representation
Pluralist theory
Elite and class theory
Hyperpluralism
Policy gridlock
Political culture
Gross domestic product