Terms
1. Antifederalist
2. Articles of Confederation
3. Checks and balances
4. Faction
5. Federalist papers
6. Great Compromise
7. Judicial review
8. Line item veto
9. New Jersey Plan
10. Virginia Plan
11. Natural rights
12. Republic
13. Separation of powers
14. Federalism
15. Block grants
16. Categorical grants
17. Devolution
18. Dual federalism
19. Grants-in-aid
20. Mandates
21. Nullification
22. Revenue sharing
23. Sovereignty
24. Equality of opportunity
25. Equality of result
26. External efficacy
27. Internal efficacy
28. Political culture
29. Political ideology
30. Gender gap
31. Conservatism
32. Liberalism
33. Libertarianism
34. Random sample
35. Sampling errors
36. Australian ballot
37. Grandfather clause
38. Poll tax
39. Nineteenth amendment
40. Fifteenth amendment
41. Twenty-sixth amendment
42. Twenty-third amendment
43. Voting Rights Act of 1965
44. White primary
45. Caucus
46. Direct primary
47. Factional party
48. Ideological party
49. Plurality
50. Closed primary
51. Open primary
52. Political action committee
53. Realignment
54. Valence issue
55. Interest group
56. Lobbyist
57. Prior restraint
58. Selective attention
59. Equal time rule
60. Fairness doctrine
1. Anti federalist:
a) People who opposed ratification of the Constitution. All three branches of the new central government threatened Anti-federalists' traditional belief in the importance of restraining government power. The President's vast new powers, especially a veto that could overturn decisions of the people's representatives in the legislature, were especially disturbing. The court system of the national government appeared likely to encroach on local courts. Meanwhile, the proposed lower house of the legislature would have so few members that only elites were likely to be elected. Furthermore, they would represent people from such a large area that they couldn't really know their own constituents.
b) Opposed the adoption of the U.S. Constitution b/c it gave too much power to the national got at the expense of the state goats and it lacked a bill of rights.
2. Articles of confederation:
a) Formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. The Articles were replaced with the U.S. Constitution.
b) 1st Constitution of the U.S. 1781-1788 (weaknesses-no executive, no judicial, no power to tax, no power to regulate trade)
3. Checks and balances:
a) The system of checks and balances is an important part of the Constitution. With checks and balances, each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of the others. This way, no one branch becomes too powerful. Each branch “checks” the power of the other branches to make sure that the power is balanced between them.
b) Each branch of got is subject to restraints by the other two branches.
4. Faction:
Is a group of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a common political purpose?
5. Federalist papers:
a) Are a series of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. The Federalist Papers (specifically Federalist No. 84) are notable for their opposition to what later became the United States Bill of Rights. Federal judges, when interpreting the Constitution, frequently use the Federalist Papers as a contemporary account of the intentions of the framers and ratifies.
b) Written by Hamilton, Jay, & Madison to support ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
6. Great Compromise:
The Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise of 1787 or Sherman's Compromise) was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature as proposed by Roger Sherman, along with proportional representation in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. Each state would have two representatives in the upper house.
7. Judicial review:
Is the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review (and possible invalidation) by the judiciary? A specific court with judicial review power must annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher authority (such as the terms of a written constitution). Judicial review is an example of check and balances in a modern governmental system (where the judiciary checks the other branches of government).
8. New Jersey Plan:
a) Was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787.[1] The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population.[2] The less populous states were adamantly opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to the more populous states, and so proposed an alternative plan that would have kept the one-vote-per-state representation under one legislative body from the Articles of Confederation. The New Jersey Plan was opposed by James Madison and Edmund Randolph (the proponents of the Virginia Plan).
b) Proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by William Paterson of New Jersey for a central gov with a single-house legislature in which each state would be represented equally.
9. Line Item Veto:
a) Is a special form of veto that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill.
b) power held by some chief executives (governors) to excise some portions of a spending bill without rejecting the entire bill. the purpose of this power is to allow executives to eliminate frivolous appropriations. the president's claim to the line item veto was denied by the supreme court (clinton).
10. Virginia Plan:
a) (Also known as the Randolph Plan, after its sponsor, or the Large-State Plan) was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch.
b) initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central gov with a bicameral legislature, the lower house to be elected by the voters and the upper chosen by the lower, representation based on wealth or population.
11. Natural Rights:
a) Political theory that maintains that an individual enters into society with certain basic rights and that no government can deny these rights.
b) the rights of all people to dignity and worth (human rights).
12. Republic:
Is a form of government in which affairs of state are a "public matter" (Latin: res publica), not the private concern of the rulers. In a republic, public offices are appointed or elected rather than inherited, and are not de jure the private property of the individuals who hold them. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch.
13. Separation of Powers:
a) Under this model, the state is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that no branch has more power than the other branches. The normal division of branches is into a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary.
b) constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the legislative branch making law the executive applying and enforcing hte law, and the judiciary interpreting the law.
14. Federalism:
a) The term "federalism" is used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation.
b) Powers that are shared and divided among federal and sub-divisional government (state/local).
15. Block grants:
a) Is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent. This can be contrasted with a categorical grant which has more strict and specific provisions on the way it is to be spent.
b) Money given to states for general programs within a broad category.
16. Categorical grants:
Are the main source of federal aid to state and local government, can only be used for specific purposes and for helping education, or categories of state and local spending. Categorical grants are distributed either on a formula basis or a project basis.
17. Devolution:
Is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. It is a form of decentralization. Devolved territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area. Devolution differs from federalism in that the devolved powers of the sub-nationalauthority may be temporary and ultimately reside in central government, thus the state remains, de jure unitary. Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any statute. Example: District of Columbia.
18. Dual Federalism:
a) Is a political arrangement in which power is divided between national and state governments in clearly defined terms, with state governments exercising those powers accorded to them without interference from the national government. Dual federalism is defined in contrast to cooperative federalism, in which national and state governments collaborate on policy. Dual and cooperative federalism are also known as 'layer-cake' and 'marble cake' federalism, respectively, due to the distinct layers of layer cake and the more muddled appearance of marble cake. The general consensus among scholars is that dual federalism ended during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency in 1937[when the New Deal policies were decided constitutional by the Supreme Court.
b) Constitution is a limited list of powers reserved for the national gov, saving the rest for the states each level of gov is dominant within its own sphere.
19. Grants-in-aid:
Is money coming from central government for a specific project. A grant-in-aid is funds allocated by one level of government to another level of government to be used for specific purposes. Such funds are usually accompanied by requirements and standards set by the governing body for how they are to be spent. An example of this would be how the United States Congress required states to raise the drinking age for alcohol from 18 to 21 in order for the individual states to continue to qualify for federal funds for interstate highways located within each state.
20. Mandates:
a) A command or authorization to act in a particular way on a public issue given by the electorate to its representative: The president had a clear mandate to end the war.
b) Requirements imposed by the national govt on state &local govts to comply w/ fed. rules ®ulation
21. Nullification:
In United States constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional. The theory of nullification has never been legally upheld;[1] rather, the Supreme Court has rejected it.
22. Revenue sharing:
a) The dispensing of a portion of federal tax revenue to state and local governments to assist in meeting their monetary needs.
b) Giving money back to the state and local government with no strings attached.
23. Sovereignty:
Supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community.
24. Equality of opportunity:
Equality of opportunity means that everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed in life—in education, employment, and housing—regardless of ethnicity, religion, income, or sex. Ensuring equality of opportunity for all Americans has its roots in the Constitution and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
25. External efficacy:
A belief that the system (government) will respond to a citizen's demands.
26. Equality of result:
Making certain that people achieve the same result. It describes a state in which people have approximately the same material wealth or in which the general economic conditions of their lives are similar.
27. Internal efficacy:
Confidence in a citizen's own abilities to understand and take part in political affairs.
28. Political culture:
Broadly shared way of thinking about political and economic life that reflects fundamental assumptions about how government should operate.
29. Political ideology:
A more or less consistent set of views as to the policies government ought to pursue.
30. Gender gap:
a) A term that refers to the regular patterns by which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates. Women tend to be significantly less conservative than men and are more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.
b) The difference between the political opinions or political behavior of men and of women.
31. Conservatism:
a) Is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions. A person who follows the philosophies of conservatism is referred to as a traditionalist or conservative.
b) Political views that favor more local, limited govt, less govt regulations, conformity to social norms &values; tough on criminals.
c) A belief that limited government ensures order, competitive markets, and personal opportunity.
32. Liberalism:
a) Descriptive of an ideology that tends to favor government spending on social programs, affirmative action, a woman's right to an abortion, and an active government, and to disfavor defense spending and school prayer. Liberals are generally affiliated with the democratic party.
b) a belief in the positive uses of government to bring about justice and equality of opportunity.
33. Libertarianism:
An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on a sharply limited government, promoting a free market economy, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and an absence of regulation in the moral and social spheres.
34. Random sample:
Key technique employed by sophisticated survey researchers, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample.
35. Sampling errors:
Percentage of possible errors in the polling process.
36. Australian ballot:
a) A secret ballot printed by the state.
b) A government-printed ballot of uniform dimensions to be cast in secret that many states adopted around 1890 to reduce voting fraud associated with party-printed ballots cast in public.
37. Grandfather clause:
a) U.S. History - a clause in the constitutions of some Southern states after 1890 intended to permit whites to vote while disfranchising blacks: it exempted from new literacy and property qualifications for voting those men entitled to vote before 1867 and their lineal descendants.
b) A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.
38. Poll tax:
a) A tax levied on people rather than on property, often as a requirement for voting.
b) A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote.
39. Nineteenth (19th) amendment:
Prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920.
40. Fifteenth (15th) amendment:
Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments.
41. Twenty-sixth (26th) amendment:
Bars the states and the federal government from setting a voting age higher than eighteen. It was adopted in response to student activism against the Vietnam War and to partially overrule the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Mitchell. It was adopted on July 1, 1971.
42. Twenty-third (23rd) amendment:
Permits citizens in the District of Columbia to vote for Electors for President and Vice President. The amendment was proposed by Congress on June 17, 1960, and ratified by the states on March 29, 1961.
43. Voting Rights Act of 1965:
Suspended literacy tests, empowered federal officials to register voters, empowered federal officials to ensure that citizens could vote, empowered federal officials to count ballots, prohibited states from changing voting procedures without federal permission.
44. White Primary:
The practice of keeping blacks from voting in the southern states' primaries through arbitrary use of registration requirements and intimidation.
45. Caucus:
A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.
46. Direct Primary:
a) A preliminary election in which a party's candidates for public office are nominated by direct vote of the people.
b) Election in which voters choose party nominees.
47. Factional Party:
Parties that are created by a split in a major party, usually over the identity and philosophy of the major party's presidential candidate. Examples include the "Bull Moose" Progressive party, States' Rithgts ("Dixiecrat") party and the Henry Wallace Progressive party.
48. Ideological Party:
Parties that value principled stands on issues above all else, including winning. They claim to have a comprehensive view of American society and government radically different from that of the established parties.
49. Plurality:
An electoral system, used in almost all American elections, in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not recieve a majority (50 Percent) of the votes. Winner takes all.
50. Closed Primary:
Primary election in which only peopel registered in the party holding the primary may vote.
51. Open Primary:
Primary election in which any voter, regardless of party, may vote.
52. Political Action Committee:
The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members, stockholders, or employees in order to contribute funds to favored candidates or political parties.
53. Realignment:
A shift of voting patterns to form new coalitions of party support.
54. Valence issues:
An issue on which voters distinguish rival parties by the degree they associate each party or candidate with goals or conditions that the electorate usually agrees/ disagrees on. The electorate all agree on how they feel about the issue, they then try to judge which candidates comes closest to how strongly they feel about the issue. (Example: tough on crime. But how tough is each candidate).
55. Interest group:
A collection of people who share some common interest or attitude and seek to influence government for specific ends, usually work within the framework of gov and employ tactics such as lobbying to achieve their goals.
56. Lobbyist:
A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
57. Prior restraint:
Censorship of information before it is published or broadcast (unconstitutional in most cases).
58. Selective attention:
Paying attention only to those parts of a newspaper or broadcast story with which one agrees. Studies suggest that this is how people view political ads on television.
59. Equal time rule:
A rule of the federal communications commission (FCC) stating that if a broadcaster sells time to one candidate for office, he or she must be willing to sell equal time to opposing candidates.
60. Fairness Doctrine:
A former rule of the FCC that required broadcasters to give time to opposing views if they broadcasted a program giving one side of a controversial issue.