GEOGRAPHY? WHAT'S THAT? UNIT 3

• CIVIL SERVANT: a person employes in the civil service.

• CONSTITUTION: a collection of a country’s fundamental laws that shape the government, institutions and rights and obligations of citizens.

• CULTURAL DIVERSITY:  the quality of diverse or different countries.

• CULTURE: the collection of common customs, knowledge and ways of living that a group of people recognise s their own.

• DEMOCRACY: a government, in which the people have power, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

• DICTATORSHIP: a system of government in which one person with absolute power governs.

• ELECTION: the selection by vote of a candidate from among several political parties to the president of a nation.

• EXECUTIVE POWER: one of three branches of the state with responsibility for executing laws, setting state policy and managing public affairs.

• GLOBALISATION:  the integration and development of a worldwide economic system.

• JUDICIAL POWER:  one of three branches of the state with responsibility for interpreting and applying the law.

• JUSTICE: the administration of law according to prescribed and accepted principles.

• LEGISLATIVE POWER: one of three branches of state with authority to approve, amend and repeal laws.

• LIBERTY: the power of choosing, thinking and acting for oneself.

• MASS CULTURE: a worldwide culture characterized by similar patterns of consumption.

• MONARCHY: a system of government in which the monarch exercises unrestricted power to dictate laws, govern and judge.

• MULTICULTURALISM=INTERCULTURALISM: the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation.

• NGO (non-governmental organization): an entity with humanitarian and social aims.

• REFERENDUM: submission of an issue of public importance to the direct vote of the people.

• REGIONALISM: division of a country into administrative regions having partial autonomy.

• SOVEREIGNTY: the authority to rule over an area.

• STATE: the supreme public power within a sovereign political entity.

• SUBSIDIARITY: when the institutions closest to the citizens make the important decisions.

• SUPRANATIONAL:  beyond the authority of one nation government.

• UN (United Nations): a supranational organization composed of over 190 member states.

• UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE: a system of democratic elections whereby all citizens of voting age can participate regardless of their gender or economic situation.