STUDY GUIDE FOR POLS 1203 EXAM 1
Intro to U.S. Govt. National & State
Here’s a list of things I’d want to know if I were you:
That political science is a social science along with philosophy, anthropology, history,
economics, sociology, psychology – because it studies human behavior. Social sciences
are unlike physics, biology, chemistry, geology, astronomy – the “hard” sciences if you
will — which study the physical world we live in and are more apt to be explained by
scientific laws established through experimentation and the scientific method.
That Aristotle was the first political scientist
That “political culture” is the sum total of our feelings, ideas and beliefs about politics
and how the political system we live under works
What some of the shared political values of Americans are – things such as nationalism
(patriotism), idealism, optimism, support for the rule of law applicable to
everybody, majority rule, wide ranging individual freedom and liberty, a belief in
democracy as a superior form of government, and of capitalism as a superior form
of organizing an economic system, etc.
What the 4 major political ideologies in the U.S. are, and you should be able to tell them
