GED Social Studies study guide questions and answers 2023(diagrams included)

checks and balances the Constitutional mechanisms that authorize each branch of government to share powers with the other branches and thereby check their activities civil rights the protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all U.S. citizens by the Constitution and Bill of Righ communism a political and economic system in which factors of production are collectively owned and directed by the state confederate of, or pertaining to, a group of states more or less permanently united for common purposes human resources labor used to produce goods and services democracy the practice of the principle of equality of rights, opportunity, and treatment dictatorship a system of government in which one person has absolute authority, including complete domination of the citizens' lives; the most basic of citizens' rights are taken away in order to guarantee the leader's hold on power due process of law the right of every citizen to be protected against arbitrary action by government economics the study of the process of producing and distributing a good and how it relates to buying, selling, and making a profit in a society entrepreneur a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture environment everything near and on Earth's surface equal protection of the law the idea that no individual or group may receive special privileges from, nor be unjustly discriminated by, the law federalism a form of political organization in which governmental power is divided between a central government and territorial subdivisions—in the United States, among the national, state, and local governments Federalists advocates of a strong federal government and supporters of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution global warming the progressive gradual rise of Earth's surface temperature thought to be caused by the greenhouse effect and responsible for changes in global climate patterns amendment changes in, or additions to, a constitution; must be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by a convention called by Congress at the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures; ratified by approval of three-fourths of the states graph a visual aid that makes comparisons of numbers or amounts by using lines, bars, circles, or pictures human capital the knowledge and skills that enable workers to be productive immigration the process of moving to a country (or other political unit) income tax a percentage of wages, profits, and other income paid to federal, state, and local governments judicial review the doctrine that permits the federal courts to declare unconstitutional, and thus null and void, acts of the Congress, the executive branch, and the states; the precedent was established in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison