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| A system of rule by the people, defined by the existence of popular sovereignty, political equaloity, and political liberty. |
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| The abuse of power by a ruler or Gov. |
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| A form of political decision making in which the public business is decided by all citizens meeting in small assemblies. |
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| Indirect Democracy, in which the people rule through elected representatives. |
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| The basic principle of democracy that the people ultimately rule. |
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| The form of pol. decision making in which policies are decided on the basis of what a majority of the people want |
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| The principle that says that each person carries equal wieght in the conduct of the public business. |
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| The principle that citizens in a democracy are protected fron gov. interference in the exercise of a range on basic freedoms, such as the freedom of speech, association, and conscience. |
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| Suppression of the rights and liberties of a minority by the majority. |
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| Representatives of the states who formally elect the president; the number of electors in each state is equal to the total # of its senators and congressional representatives. |
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| A loose association of states or territorial divisons formed for a common purpose. |
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| The basic framework of law that prescribes how government is to operate. |
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| A political doctrine advocating limited government based on popular consent, protected against majority tyranny. |
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| Enactments postponing the collection of taxes of mortgage payments |
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| Proposal by the large states to create a strong central government with power apportioned to the states on the basis of population. |
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| Proposal by smaller states to create a gov. based on the equal representation of the states in a unicameral legislature. |
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| Compromise between the Virginia and New Jersey Plan, called for a lower legislative house based on population size and an upper house based on equal representation of the states. |
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| Describing a system in which significant governmental powers are divided between a central government and smaller units, such as states |
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| The provision in Art. VI of the Constit. that the Constit, itself and the laws and treaties of the United states are the supreme law of the land, taking precedence over state laws and constitutions |
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| Art.I Sec.8, of the Constit, also called the 'necessary and proper clause'; gives Congress the authority to make whatever laws are necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated responsibilities. |
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| First 10 amendments to the Constit, concerned with civil liberties. |
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| The distribution of gov. legislative, judicial, and executive powers to seperate branches of gov. |
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| The constitutional principle that gov. power shal be divided and that the fragments should balance or check one another to prevent tyranny. |
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| Proponents of the Constitution during the ratification fight; also the political party of Hamilton, Washington, and Adams |
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| Opponents of the Constitutiona during the fight over ratification. |
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| The power of the Supreme Court to declare actions of the other branches and levels of gov. unconstitutional. |
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| A system in which significant gov. powers are divided between a central gov. and smaller units, such as states. |
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| A sys. in which a central gov. has complete power over its constituent units of states |
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| The 10th Amend., reserving powers to the states or the people. powers not delegated to the central gov.or Constit. |
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| A view that the Constit created a sys. in which the national gov. is supreme, relative to the states, and that granted to it a broad range of powers and responsibilities. |
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| View that holds that the Constitution created a system of dual sovereignty in which the national gov. and the states gov. are sovereign in their own spheres |
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| Federalism in which the powers of the states and the national gov. are neatly seperated like the sections of a layer cake |
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| An attempt by states to declare national laws or actions null and void. |
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| Section of the 14th Amend that prohibits states from depriving anyone of life, liberty, or property "without due process of law" a guarantee against arbitrary or unfair gov. action. |
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| The section of the 14th Amend that provides equal protection of the laws to all citizens |
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| The delegation of power by the central gov. to state or local bodies. |
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| Federalism in which powers of the states and the national gov. are so intertwined that public policies canhappen only if the two levels of gov. cooperate |
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| Any private org. or assoc. that seeks to influence public policy as a way to protect or advance some interest. |
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| An interest group of lobby; a group the brings pressure to bear on gov. decision. |
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| An interest group that seeks to convey the groups interest to gov. decision makers. |
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| Madison's term for parties that try to advance their own interests at the expense of the public good. |
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| A pol. sci. who views American Politics as best understood in terms of the interaction, conflict, and bargaining of groups. |
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| Political Action Committee (PAC) |
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Definition
| A private org. whose purpose is to raise and distribute funds to candidates in political campaings. |
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| A situation in which a regulated industry exercises substantial influence on the gov. agency regulating it. |
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Term
| Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) |
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Definition
| Proposed amend. the the US Constit. stating that equal rights shall not be abridged or denied on account of a person's gender. |
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| A party's statement of its positions on the day |
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| The process by which one party supplants another as the dominant party in a political sys. |
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| A gradual reduction in the dominance of one political party without another party supplanting it |
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| The political position that holds that the federal government has a substantial role to play in economic regulation, social welfare, and overcoming racial inequality |
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| The pol. position that holds that the federal gov. ought to play a very small role in economic regulation, social welfare...etc. |
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| A pol. party that takes clear distinct stands on the issues and enacts them as policy |
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| A theory of democratic elections in which voters decide what gov. will do in the near future by choosing one or another responsible. |
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| Electoral Competition Model |
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Definition
| A form of election in which parties seeking votes move toward the median voter of the center of the political spectrum. |
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Definition
| Refers to the voter at the exact middle of the political spectrum. |
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| Electoral Reward and punishment |
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Definition
| The tendency to vote for the incumbents when times are good and against then when time are bad. |
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Definition
| A form of election in which voters look back at the performance of a party in power and cast ballots on the basis of how well it did in office. |
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| Political activity, including voting, campaign activity,contacting officials and demonstrating |
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| Unconventional participation |
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Definition
| Pol. activity in the form of demonstrations |
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| Conventional Participation |
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Definition
| Pol. activity related to elections (voting,persuading, and campaigning) or to contacting public officials. |
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| State elections in which delegates to national presidential nominating conventions are chosen. |
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| A meeting of party activist to choose delegates to a national presidential nominating convention. |
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| Expenditures by political parties on general public education, voter registration, and voter mobilization. |
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| The Proportion of the votes that each party would win if party identification alone affected voting decisions. |
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| More votes than any other candidate but less than a majority of all votes cast. |
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| Powers of the federal gov. specifically mentioned in the Constitution. |
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| As applied to a legislativebody, consisting of two houses or chambers. |
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| A gove. decree that a person is guilty of a crime that carries the death penalty, rendered without benefit of a trial. |
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| A law that retroactively declares some action illegal. |
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| The legal doctrine that a person who is arrested must have a timely hearing before a judge |
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| The reallocation of House seats among the states, done after each national census, the ensure that seats are held by the states in proportion to the size of their populations |
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Definition
| The redrawing of congressional district lines within a state to ensure roughly equal populations within wach district |
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Definition
| Redrawing electoral district lines to give an advantage to a particular party or candidate |
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| Majority-minority districts |
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Definition
| Districts drawn to ensure that a racial minority makes up the majority of voters |
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| Public subsidization of mail from the members of Congress to their constituents. |
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| Services performed by members of congress for constituents |
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| Also called 'pork barrel'; projects designed to bring the constituency jobs and public money for which the members of Congress can claim credit |
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| An organization of the members of a political party in the House of Senate |
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| A committed member of a party; seeing issues from the point of view of the interests of a single party |
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| A political party member in Congress charged with keeping members informed of the plans of the party leadership, counting votes before action on important issues, and rounding up party members for votes on bills. |
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| Relatively permanent congressional committees that address specific areas of legislation |
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| the taking of testimony by a congressional committee or subcommittee |
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| the process of revising a bill in committee |
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| Temporary committees in Congress created to conduct studies or investigations. They have no power to report bills. |
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| Congressional committees with members from both the House and the Senate. |
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| Ad hoc committees, made up of members of both the Senate and the House of Rep., set up to reconcile differences in the provisions of bills. |
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| Deferral by members of Congress to the judgement of subject-matter specialists, mainly on minor technical bills. |
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| Legislative action taken 'without objection' as a way to expedite business; used to conduct much of the business of the Senate |
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| A parlimentary device used in the Senate to prevent a bill from coming to a vote by 'talking it to death,' made possible by the norm of unlimited debate. |
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| A vote to end filibuster of a debate, requires the votes of 3/5 of the membership of the Senate |
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| A box in the House of Rep. in which proposed bills are placed. |
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| A petition signed by 218 House members to force a bill that has been before a committee for at least 30 days whil the House is in session out of the committee and onto the floor for consideration. |
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| Presidential disapproval of a bill that has been passed by both the House and Senate. The presidents veto can be overridden by a 2/3 vote in each house |
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| Rejection of a bill if the president takes no action on it for ten days and Congress has adjourned during that period |
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| The permanent bureaucracy associated with the presidency, designed to help the incumbent of the office carry out his responsibilities. |
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| A top adviser to the president who also manages the White House staff |
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| National Security Adviser |
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Definition
| A top foreign policy and defense adviser to the president who heads the National Security Council |
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| Executive Office of the President (EOP) |
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Definition
| A group of organizations that advise the president on a wide range of issues; includes the Office if Management and Budget, the National Security Council, and the Council of Economic Advisers. |
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| Office of Management and Budget (OMB) |
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| An organization within the EOP that advises on the federal bedget, domestic legislation, and regulations. |
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| Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) |
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Definition
| Anorganization in the EOP made up of a small group of economists who advise on economic policy. |
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| National Security Council (NSC) |
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Definition
| An organization in the EOP made up of officials form the state and defense dept., the CIA, and the military, who advise on foreign and security affairs |
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| Control of the executive and the legislative branches by different political parties. |
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| The percentage of Americans who approve a president's handling of his job. |
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| A method if evaluating rules and regulations by weighing their potential costs against their potential benefits to society. |
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| Legal authority for a federal agency to spend money from the U.S. Treasury |
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| Gov. benefits that are distibuted automatically to citizens who qualify on the basis of a set of guidelines set by law; for example, Americans over the age of 65 are entitled to Medicare coverage |
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| Products and services that citizens want but the private sector does not provide, such as national defense and pollution control. |
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| Overbearing bureaucratic rules and procedures |
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| The process of turning over certain gov. functions to the private sector |
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| Groups of citizens who decide whether there is sufficient evidence to bring and indictment against accused persons |
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| Juries that hear evidence and sit in judgement on charges brought in civil or criminal cases |
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| Courts that hear cases on appeal from other courts |
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| Documents setting out the arguments in legal cases, prepared by attorneys and presented to courts |
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| The explanation of the majority's reasoning that accomplanies a court decision |
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| Rulings by courts that guide judicial reasoning in subsequent cases |
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| The legal doctrine that sets precedent should guide judicial decision making |
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| Authority to bring legal action because one is directly affected by the issues at hand. |
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| the tradition that judicial nominations for federal district court appointments be delcared by the senior senator of the presidents party from the relevant state |
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| A presidential claim that certain communications with subordinates may be withheld from Congress and the courts |
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| Seperate but equal doctrine |
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Definition
| The principle articulated in 'Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)' that laws prescribing sepeerate public facilities and services for nonwhite Americans are permissible if the facilities and services are equal to those provided for white |
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| The one who brings the suit to the Court |
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| Describing a process by which indigents may file a suit with the Supreme Court free of charge |
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| An announcement that the Supreme Court will hear a case on appeal from a lower court; it issuance requires a vote from 4/9 judges |
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| An unwritten practice that requires at least four justices of the Supreme Court to agree that a case warrants review by the Court before it will hear the Case |
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| Latin for 'a frined of the court;' descirbes a brief in which individuals not party to a suit may have their views heard |
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| The majority opinion that accompanies a Supreme Court Decision. |
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| The opinion of one or more judges who vote with the majority on a case but wish to set out different reasons for their decision |
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| The opinion of the judge or judges who are in the minority on a particular case before the Supreme Court |
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| The political-economic doctrine that holds that gov. ought not interfere with the operations of the free market. |
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| Actions by the courts that go beyond the strict role of the judiciary as interpreter of the law and adjudicator of disputes |
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| An action that a court determines must be taken to rectify a wrong. |
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| The doctrine that the courts must interpret the Constit. in ways consistient with the intentions of the framers rather than in light of contemporary conditions and needs |
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| The doctrine that the provisions of the Constit. have a clear meaning and that judges must stick closely to this meaning when rendering decisions |
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Definition
| A case brought to force a ruling on the constitutionality of some law of executive action. |
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| A suit brought on behalf of a group of people who are in a situtation similar to that of the plaintiffs. |
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| Freedoms found primarily in the Bill of Rights tha tare protected from gov. interference |
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Definition
| The right to own and use property free from excessive gov. interference |
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Definition
| The portion of Art. I SEc. 10, of the Constit that prohibits states from passing any law 'impairing the obligation of contracts' |
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| Privileges and immunites Clause |
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Definition
| The portion of Art.4 Sect. 2, of the Constit that states that the citizens from out of state have the same legal rights as local citizens in any state |
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Definition
| The process by which provisions of the Bill of Rights become incorporated. |
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Definition
| The gradual use of the 14th Amend by the Supreme Court to make th Bill of Rights and other constitutional protections binding on the states. |
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Definition
| The U.S. Supreme Courts gradual and piecemeal making of the protections of the BOR binding on the states |
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| The assumption that the actions of elected bodies and officials are legal under the Constit |
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| The assumption that actions by elected bodies or officals violate constitutional rights |
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| The gov.'s power to prevent publication, as opposed to punishment afterward |
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| As defined by the Supreme Court, the representation of sexually explicit material in a manner that violates community standards and is without redeeming social importance or value. |
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| The part of the 1st Amend. to the Constit that prohibits Congress from establishing an official religion; the basis for the doctrine of the seperation of church and state |
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Definition
| That portion of the 1st Amend to the Constit that prohibits Congress from impeding religous observance or impinging upon religous beliefs |
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| A standard promulgated by the Supreme Court that prevents police and prosecutors from using evidence against a defendant that was obtained in an illegal search |
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| Any crime for which death is a possible penalty |
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| Popular term for the system of legal racial segregation that existed in the american south until the middle of the 20th Cent. |
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| A tax to be paid as a condition of voting, used in the South to keep African-Americans away from the polls |
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| A device used by the Southern states to prevent Afro-Americans from voting before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned its use; usually involved the interpretation of a section of a states constitution |
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Definition
| A device that allowed whites who had failed the literacy test to vote anyways by extending the franchise to anyone whose grandfather had voted. |
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| The invidious, Arbitrary, or irrational designation of a group for special treatment by government |
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| Programs of private and public institutions favroing minorites and women in hiring and in admissions to colleges and universities in an attempt to compensate for past discrimination |
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Definition
| A legal test falling between ordinary and strict scrutiny relevant to issues of gender classifications in laws if they are 'substantially' related to an important government objective. |
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Definition
| Proposed amendments to the U.S. Constit stating that equality of rights shall not be abridged of denied on account of a person's sex. |
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