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| A proposed law (legislative act) within Congress or another legislature. |
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| A parliamentary maneuver that, if a three-fifths majority votes for it, limits Senate debate to thirty hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster. |
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| Temporary committees formed to bargain over the differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill. A committee's members are usually appointed from the House and Senate standing committees that originally worked on the bill. |
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| The individuals who live within the geographical area represented by an elected official. More narrowly, the body of citizens eligible to vote for a particular representative. |
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| A procedural tactic in the U.S. Senate whereby a minority of legislators prevent a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration. |
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| The process by which the party in power draws election district boundaries in a way that advantages its candidates. |
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| jurisdiction (of a congressional committee) |
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| The policy area in which a particular congressional committee is authorized to act. |
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| law (as enacted by Congress) |
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| A legislative proposal, or bill, that is passed by both the House and the Senate and is either signed or not vetoed by the president. |
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| The authority (of a legislature) to make the laws necessary to carry out the government's powers. |
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| The trading of votes between legislators so that each gets what he or she most wants. |
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| An election in which there is no incumbent in the race. |
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| A supervisory activity of Congress that centers on its constitutional responsibility to see that the executive carries out the laws faithfully and spends appropriations properly. |
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| A group that consists of a party's members in the House or Senate and that serves to elect the party's leadership, set policy goals, and determine party strategy. |
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| The willingness of a party's House or Senate members to act as a cohesive group and thus exert collective control over legislative action. |
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| Members of the House and Senate who are chosen by the Democratic or Republican caucus in each chamber to represent the party's interests in that chamber and who give some central direction to the chamber's deliberations. |
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| Legislative acts whose tangible benefits are targeted at a particular legislator's constituency. |
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| The reallocation of House seats among states after each census as a result of population changes. |
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| The process of altering election districts in order to make them as nearly equal in population as possible. Redistricting takes places every ten years, after each population census. |
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| The responsibility of a legislature to represent various interests in society. |
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| An amendment to a bill that deals with an issue unrelated to the content of the bill. Riders are permitted in the Senate but not in the House. |
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| A member of Congress's consecutive years of service on a particular committee. |
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| Use of personal staff by members of Congress to perform services for constituents in order to gain their support in future elections. |
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| Permanent congressional committees with responsibility for a particular area of public policy. An example is the Senate Foreign Relations committee. |
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| A law containing a provision that fixes a date on which a program will end unless the program's life is extended by Congress. |
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| The president's rejection of a bill, thereby keeping it from becoming law unless Congress overrides the veto. |
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| A group consisting of the heads of the (cabinet) executive departments, who are appointed by the president subject to confirmation by the Senate. The cabinet was once the main advisory body to the president but no longer plays this role. |
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| The president's first months in office, a time when Congress, the press, and the public are more inclined than usual to support presidential initiatives. |
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| The idea that the selection of officeholders should be based on the will of the people as reflected through their votes. |
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| A strong showing by a candidate in early presidential nominating contests, which leads to a buildup of public support for the candidate. |
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| Meetings at which a party's candidates for nomination are voted on and that are open to all the party's rank-and-file voters who want to attend. |
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| presidential approval ratings |
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| A measure of the degree to which the public approves or disapproves of the president's performance in office. |
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| A theory that argues for a strong, assertive presidential role, with presidential authority limited only at points specifically prohibited by law. |
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| A theory that prevailed in the nineteenth century and held that the presidency was a limited or restrained office whose occupant was confined to expressly granted constitutional authority. |
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| The rule that grants all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the state. |
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| The tendency of bureaucrats to place the interests of their agency ahead of other interests and ahead of the priorities sought by the president or Congress. |
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| A system of organization and control based on the principles of hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules. |
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| bureaucratic accountability |
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| The degree to which bureaucrats are held accountable for the power they exercise. |
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| cabinet (executive) departments |
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| The major administrative organizations within the federal executive bureaucracy, each of which is headed by a secretary (cabinet officer) and has responsibility for a major function of the federal government, such as defense, agriculture, or justice. |
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| Special-interest groups that benefit directly from the activities of a particular bureaucratic agency and therefore are strong advocates of the agency. |
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| demographic representativeness |
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| The idea that the bureaucracy will be more responsive to the public if its employees at all levels are demographically representative of the population as a whole. |
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| executive leadership system |
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| An approach to managing the bureaucracy that is based on presidential leadership and presidential management tools, such as the president's annual budget proposal. |
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| A basic principle of bureaucracy that refers to the standardized procedures and established regulations by which a bureaucracy conducts its operations. |
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| Bodies, such as the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak, that are similar to private corporations in that they charge for their services, but different in that they receive federal funding to help defray expenses. Their directors are appointed by the president with Senate approval. |
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| A basic principle of bureaucracy that refers to the chain of command within an organization whereby officials and units have control over those below them. |
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| Bureaucratic agencies that are similar to cabinet departments but usually have a narrower area of responsibility. Each such agency is headed by a presidential appointee who is not a cabinet member. An example is NASA. |
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| A basic principle of bureaucracy that holds that the responsibilities of each job position should be explicitly defined and that a precise division of labor within the organization should be maintained. |
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| merit (civil service) system |
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| An approach to managing the bureaucracy whereby people are appointed to government positions on the basis of either competitive examinations or special qualifications, such as professional training. |
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| The administrative objective of a merit-based bureaucracy. Such a bureaucracy should be "competent" in the sense that its employees are hired and retained on the basis of their expertise and "neutral" in the sense that it operates by objective standards rather than partisan ones. |
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| An approach to managing the bureaucracy whereby people are appointed to important government positions as a reward for political services they have rendered and because of their partisan loyalty. |
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| The primary function of the bureaucracy; it refers to the process of carrying out the authoritative decisions of Congress, the president, and the courts. |
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| Organizations within the bureaucracy that are headed by the commissioners appointed by the president. An example is the Commission on Civil Rights. |
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| Administrative units, such as the FCC and the EPA, that have responsibility for the monitoring and regulation of ongoing economic activities. |
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| The practice of granting public office to individuals in return for political favors they have rendered. |
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| An internal check on the bureaucracy whereby individual bureaucrats report instances of mismanagement that they have observed. |
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| The authority of a given court to review cases that have already been tried in lower courts and are appealed to it by the losing party; such a court is called an appeals court or appellate court. |
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| A written statement by a party in a court case that details its argument. |
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| Disputes between parties where no criminal act is alleged and where the parties are making conflicting claims, as in a property dispute. |
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| The issue of whether a court's decisions will be respected and obeyed. |
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| A separate opinion written by a Supreme Court justice who votes with the majority in the decision ton a case but who disagrees with their reasoning. |
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| Disputes in which an individual is charged by government with engaging in an act that is prohibited by law. |
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| A vote of the Supreme Court in a particular case that indicates which party the justices side with and by how large a margin. |
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| The opinion of a justice in a Supreme Court case that explains his or her reasons for disagreeing with the majority's decision. |
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| The relevant circumstances of a legal dispute or offense as determined by a trial court. The facts of a case are crucial because they help determine which law or laws are applicable in the case. |
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| The doctrine that the courts should develop new legal principles when judges see a compelling need, even if this action places them in conflict with the policy decisions of elected officials |
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| The doctrine that the judiciary should be highly respectful of precedent and should defer to the judgment of legislatures. The doctrine claims that the job of judges is to work within the confines of laws set down by tradition and by lawmaking majorities. |
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| A closed meeting of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to discuss and vote on the cases before them; the justices are not supposed to discuss conference proceedings with outsiders. |
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| jurisdiction (of a court) |
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| A given court's authority to hear cases of a particular kind. Jurisdiction may be original or appellate. |
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| The constitutional provisions, legislative statues, or judicial precedents that apply to a court case. |
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| legitimacy (of judicial power) |
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| The issue of the proper limits of judicial authority in a political system based in part on the principle of majority rule. |
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| A Supreme Court opinion that results when a majority of the justices are in agreement on the legal basis of the decision. |
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| A court's written explanation of its decision, which serves to inform others of the legal basis for the decision. Supreme Court opinions are expected to guide the decisions of other courts. |
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| The authority of a given court to be the first court to hear a case. |
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| A court opinion that results when a majority of justices agree on a decision in a case but do not agree on the legal basis for the decision. In this instance, the legal position held by most of the justices on the winning side is called the plurality opinion. |
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| A judicial decision in a given case that serves as a rule of thumb for settling subsequent cases of a similar nature; courts are generally expected to follow precedent. |
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| The tradition that a U.S. senator from the state in which a federal judicial vacancy arises should have a say in the president's nomination of the new judge if the senator is of the same party as the president. |
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| The high-ranking Justice Department official who serves as the government's lawyer in Supreme Court cases. |
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| Permission granted by a higher court to allow a losing party in a legal case to bring the case before it for a ruling; when such a writ is requested of the U.S. Supreme Court, four of the court's nine justices must agree to accept the case before it is granted certiorari. |
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| The first ten amendments to the Constitution. They include such rights as freedom of speech and trial by jury. |
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| The fundamental individual rights of a free society, such as freedom of speech and the right to a jury trial, which in the United States are protected by the Bill of Rights. |
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| clear-and-present danger test |
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| A test devised by the Supreme Court in 1919 to define the limits of free speech in the context of national security. According to the test, government cannot abridge political expression unless it presents a clear and present danger to the nation's security. |
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| due process clause (of the Fourteenth Amendment) |
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| The clause of the Constitution that has been used by the judiciary to apply the Bill of Rights to the actions of state governments. |
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| The First Amendment provision that government may not favor one religion over another or favor religion over no religion, and that prohibits Congress from passing laws respecting the establishment of religion. |
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| The legal principle that government is prohibited from using in trials evidence that was obtained by unconstitutional means (for example, illegal search and seizure). |
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| Americans' freedom to communicate their views, the foundation of which is the First Amendment rights of freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, and petition. |
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| A First Amendment provision that prohibits the government from interfering with the practice of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. |
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| imminent-lawless-action test |
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| A legal test that says government cannot lawfully suppress advocacy that promotes lawless action unless such advocacy is aimed at producing, and is likely to produce, imminent lawless action. |
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| The publication of material that falsely damages a person's reputation. |
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| Government prohibition of speech or publication before the fact, which is presumed by the courts to be unconstitutional unless the justification for it is overwhelming. |
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| The constitutional requirement that government follow proper legal procedures before a person can be legitimately punished for an alleged offense. |
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| The absorption of certain provisions of the Bill of Rights (for example, freedom of speech) into the Fourteenth Amendment so that these rights are protected from infringement by the states. |
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| Spoken words that falsely damage a person's reputation. |
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| Action (for example, the waving or burning of a flag) for the purpose of expressing a political opinion. |
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