LEARNING OUTCOMES The eight learning outcomes below are designed to help improve your understanding of this chapter. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: ❑ Learning Outcome 1: Define the terms politics and government. ❑ Learning Outcome 2: Explain some of the ways in which Americans interact with their government. ❑ Learning Outcome 3: State what is meant by the words order, liberty, authority, and legitimacy. ❑ Learning Outcome 4: Distinguish the major features of direct democracy and representative democracy. ❑ Learning Outcome 5: Describe majoritarianism, elite theory, and pluralism as theories of how democratic systems work. ❑ Learning Outcome 6: Summarize the conflicts that can occur between the principles of liberty and order, and also those of liberty and equality. ❑ Learning Outcome 7: Discuss conservatism, liberalism, and other popular American ideological positions. ❑ Learning Outcome 8: Determine how the basic political principles addressed in this chapter were reflected in the 2012 elections.  SUMMARY OVERVIEW 1. Politics is the process by which people decide which members of society receive certain benefits or privileges and which members do not. It is the struggle over power or influence within institutions or organizations that can grant benefits or privileges. Government is an institution within which decisions are made that resolve conflicts and