Matura Civics / Social Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Socialization

The lifelong process by which individuals learn and internalize norms, values and roles, first in the family and later through school, peers and the workplace.

Anomie

Durkheim's term for normlessness, a condition in which social norms are weak or conflicting, often following rapid social change and producing deviance or disorientation.

Social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social groups by unequal access to valued resources such as wealth, power and prestige, taking estate, caste or class forms.

Social mobility

Movement of individuals or groups between social positions; vertical mobility changes rank, horizontal mobility changes position at a similar level, and intergenerational mobility compares parents and children.

Nuclear family

A household consisting of parents and their dependent children, distinguished from an extended family that also includes grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.

Legitimacy of power

Weber's concept that rule is accepted by the governed; its types are traditional, charismatic and legal-rational, the last being typical of modern bureaucratic states.

Rule of law

The principle that public authority acts only on the basis of law, that law applies equally to rulers and citizens, and that independent courts review state action.

Separation of powers

Montesquieu's doctrine dividing state authority into legislative, executive and judicial branches that check and balance one another to prevent concentration of power.

Proportional representation

An electoral system allocating seats roughly in proportion to votes received, usually from party lists in multi-member districts, often with a minimum threshold.

Duverger's law

The claim that single-member plurality elections tend to produce a two-party system, while proportional representation favours multiple parties and coalition governments.

Political culture

Almond and Verba's pattern of orientations towards politics, classified as parochial, subject or participant, with the civic culture mixing participant and traditional elements.

Suspensive veto

A president's power to return a statute to parliament for reconsideration; it can be overridden by a qualified majority, so it delays rather than blocks legislation.

Constructive no-confidence vote

A parliamentary motion that removes the government only by simultaneously electing a new prime minister, preventing destructive majorities without an alternative.

Gmina

The basic unit of Polish local government, governed by an elected council and a directly elected executive head: wójt in rural, burmistrz in small urban, prezydent in large urban communes.

Constitutional Tribunal

Poland's body reviewing the constitutionality of statutes and ratified treaties, ruling on constitutional complaints and disputes between central state organs.

Hierarchy of legal norms

The ordering of legal sources in which lower-ranking acts must conform to higher ones, typically constitution, ratified treaties, statutes and executive regulations.

Presumption of innocence

The rule that an accused person is treated as innocent until a final conviction by a court, with the burden of proof resting on the prosecution.

Nullum crimen sine lege

The principle that no act is a crime and no penalty may be imposed unless a statute in force at the time of the act so provided.

Directive (EU)

An EU legal act binding member states as to the result to be achieved while leaving the choice of form and methods to national implementation.

Article 5 NATO

The collective defence clause stating that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all, requiring each ally to take necessary action.

UN Security Council

The UN organ with primary responsibility for peace and security, comprising five permanent veto-holding members and ten elected members serving two-year terms.

Preliminary ruling

A procedure in which a national court asks the Court of Justice of the EU to interpret EU law needed to decide a pending case.

Gross domestic product

The market value of final goods and services produced within a country in a period, computed as consumption plus investment plus government spending plus net exports.

Inflation

A sustained rise in the general price level that reduces the purchasing power of money, measured by indices such as the consumer price index.

Market failure

A situation in which unregulated markets allocate resources inefficiently, as with public goods, externalities, monopolies or asymmetric information, justifying state intervention.

Break-even point

The output level at which total revenue equals total cost, so the firm covers fixed and variable costs without profit or loss.

Civil society

The sphere of voluntary organizations and associations between the family and the state, such as NGOs, foundations and trade unions, that mediate citizen interests.

Public benefit organization

In Poland, an NGO registered as OPP that may receive one percent of personal income tax and must report on its public-benefit activity.

Agenda-setting

The media effect whereby issues given prominent coverage become those the public considers most important, shaping the salience rather than the direction of opinions.

Margin of error

The statistical range around a survey estimate within which the true population value probably lies, shrinking as sample size grows and as response variability falls.

Straw man fallacy

A fallacy that misrepresents or exaggerates an opponent's position, refutes the distorted version, and thereby claims to have refuted the original argument.

Correlation versus causation

A statistical association between variables does not by itself prove that one causes the other, since confounders, reverse causation or coincidence may explain it.