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Explore the economic systems and political ideologies that dominated the Cold War era, from capitalism and socialism to power dynamics and governments.
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Chapter 11, Economics and Politics Key Terms
cold warThe massive military buildup that took place between 1945 and 1989 as the Soviet Union and the United States sought to contain the spread of each other’s economic and political systems. • economic systemAn institution that coordinates human activity in the effort to produce, distribute, and consume goods and services.
goodsAny product that is manufactured, grown, or extracted from the earth, such as food, clothing, housing, automobiles, coal, computers, and so on. • servicesActivities performed for others that result in no tangible product, such as entertainment, transportation, financial advice, medical care, spiritual counseling, and education.
mechanizationThe addition of external sources of power, such as oil or steam, to hand tools and modes of transportation. • colonizationA form of domination in which one country imposes its political, economic, social, and cultural institutions on an indigenous people and the land they occupy.
capitalismEconomic system in which raw materials and the means of producing and distributing goods and services are privately owned. • private ownershipA situation in which individuals own the raw materials, machines, tools, labor, trucks, buildings and other inputs needed to produce and distribute goods and services.
law of supply and demandNatural laws regulate capitalist economies such that as demand for an item increases, prices rise. • socialismAn economic system in which the raw materials and the means of producing and distributing goods and services are collectively owned.
core economiesThe wealthiest, most highly diversified economies with strong, stable governments. • peripheral economiesEconomies that rely on a few commodities or even a single commodity, such as coffee, peanuts, or tobacco, or a single mineral resources, such as tin, copper, or zinc.
semiperipheral economiesEconomies characterized by moderate wealth and moderate diversification. • primary sectorEconomic activates that generate or extract raw materials for the natural environment.
secondary sectorEconomic activities that transform raw materials into manufactured goods. • tertiary sectorEconomic activity related to delivering services, including the creation and distribution of information.
gross domestic productThe monetary value of the goods and services that a nation’s work force produces over the course of the year. • monopolyA situation in which a single producer dominates a market.
oligopolyA situation in which a few producers dominate a market. • conglomeratesLarge corporations that own “smaller” corporations acquired through merger or acquisition.
automateTo use the computer as a means to increase worker’s speed and consistency or as a source of surveillance. • informateTo use the computer to empower workers with decision-making tools, such as employee scheduling software intended to ensure that a sufficient number of employees are scheduled for the busiest times and shifts.
political systemThe institution that regulates the use of and access to power that is essential to articulating and realizing individual, local, regional, national, international, or global interest and agendas. • powerThe probability that an individual can achieve his or her will even against another individual’s opposition.
authorityLegitimate power in which people believe the differences in power are just and proper, that is, people view a leader as being entitled to give orders. • traditional authorityAuthority that relies on time-honored norms that govern the selection of someone to a powerful position and specify responsibilities and conduct for the individual selected.
charismatic authorityA type of authority that derives from the exceptional and exemplary qualities of the person who issues the commands. • legal-rational authorityA type of authority that rests on a system of impersonal rules that formally specifies the qualifications for occupying a powerful position.
governmentThe organizational structure that directs and coordinates people’s involvement in a country's or some other territory’s political activities. • democracyA system of government in which power is vested in the citizen body, and in which members of that citizen body participate directly or indirectly in the decision-making process.
totalitarianismA system of government characterized by a single ruling party led by a dictator, an unchallenged official ideology that defines a vision of the “perfect” society and the means to achieve that vision and a system of social control that suppresses dissent and opposition and centralized control over the media and the economy.
authoritarian governmentA system of government in which there is no separation of power and a single person, group, or social class holds all power. • power eliteThose few people who occupy such lofty positions in the social structure of leading institutions that their decisions have consequences affecting millions of people worldwide.
pluralist modelA model that views politics as an arena of compromise, alliances and negotiation among special-interest groups and power as something that is dispersed among those groups. • special-interest groupsGroups of people who share an interest in a particular issue and form an organization with the goal of influencing public opinion and government policy.
political action committees (PACs)Committees that raise money to be donated to the political candidates that are most likely to support their special interests.
