psci study guide

substantive representation

"does my member of congress represent my interests?" trustee vs delegate model, districts vary widely in the types of voters and interests and tend to elect representatives who reflect those interests

descriptive representative

"does my member of congress resemble me and my experiences?"

senate

-100 members distributed equally across 50 states -elections every six years

house

-435 members distributed based on population -elections every two years -more partisan than the senate, because they stick to their party

general elections (which nominees get to hold office)

-House of Representatives (2 year term) -president (4 year term) -senate (6 year term)

SCOTUS

-nine members -life-long terms -chief justice John roberts

electing judges

-president nominates -senate confirms

Reapportionment relies on the Census. The Census takes place every ______ years.

10

Members of the House are up for reelection every ______ years, and members of the Senate are up for reelection every _____ years.

2, 6

For a case to be heard in the Supreme Court, a minimum of how many justices must vote to hear the case?

4

The House has _______ total members

435

california has ____ congressional districts

53

There are ________ electoral college votes

538

California has _____ electoral college votes.

55

how many electoral votes does CA have?

55 votes; 53 members in the house and 2 senators

Which incident would MOST likely lead to a class-action lawsuit?

A group of people are all injured taking what turned out to be a harmful medication.

What is an executive order?

A presidential written directive to agencies on how to implement the law, without the explicit consent of Congress.

Which statement about presidential military authority is true?

As commander-in-chief, the president has day-to-day control over military operations, including the authority to put troops into action without congressional consent.

In Chapter 6 of How Democracies Die, the authors describe the animosity between Democrats and Republicans after the Civil War. Interestingly, our current political climate in the U.S. is in the midst of growing animosity as well, as the chart shows; Democrats and Republicans do not like each other, and even view each other as a threat, much like the time period reviewed in Chapter 6. But how, according to the authors, was "mutual toleration" between the parties restored after the Civil War?

By giving in to Southern Democrats' demands, which effectively ended Reconstruction.

How are the number of electors for each state determined in the electoral college?

Each state receives an elector for every member of the House and Senate it has.

__________ of the __________ justices must agree to hear a case in order for it to be granted a writ of certiorari.

Four; nine

Which modern presidents won the electoral college vote but NOT the popular vote?

G.W. Bush and Trump

What would be the BEST way to describe the representation of minor parties in American political life?

Individuals from minor parties do hold a few elected positions in government, but rarely for major public offices

Why is promoting descriptive representation valuable in itself?

It encourages trust in the system among various demographic groups.

Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?

John Roberts

Electoral votes are allocated on a winner-take-all basis in all but two states. What are the two states in question?

Maine and Nebraska

Which states use proportional representation?

Maine and Nebraska

Which states have the first primary and caucus in the nation every four years?

New Hampshire and Iowa

who represents the 31 district?

Pete Aguilar

How are presidential primaries different from presidential caucuses?

Primaries involve voting by secret ballot, whereas caucuses take place as a local meeting in a public space.

Which if the following is true of majority-minority districts?

Race is a significant, but not always the predominant, factor in drawing the lines of majority-minority districts.

_______ nominates judges to the Supreme Court, while __________ confirms judges to the Supreme Court.

The President, Senate

The leader of the House of Representatives is called:

The Speaker of the House

What distinguishes the modern presidency from the institution originally envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution?

The modern presidency has become the central focus of American politics since the 1930s, supplanting Congress as the "first branch" of government.

What is the purpose of the president using the veto as a threat?

The president can influence the legislative process in Congress.

How are minor political parties usually significant?

They push major parties to incorporate new ideas through a process referred to as absorption

All Democratic primaries and caucuses use proportional allocation to divide delegates.

True

plurality voting

a candidate must win more than 50 percent of the vote to win the election. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election is held between the top two candidates

The Supreme Court would have original jurisdiction in a case involving

a dispute between two states over oil drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was ___________ signed during the Obama administration.

a memorandum

standing committee

a permanent part of both houses but with limited authority

A negotiated agreement in a criminal case in which a defendant agrees to tell the court that he or she is guilty in return for the state's agreement to reduce the severity of the criminal charge or prison sentence the defendant is facing is known as __________.

a plea bargain

According to the authors of "How Democracies Die," the vast majority of democracies in the world __________.

a remain intact

According to Chapter 6 of How Democracies Die, when we have high levels of partisan animosity, ___________ is the undemocratic response by Congress under unified government, and _________ is the undemocratic response by Congress under divided government.

abdicating to the president on everything, confronting the president on everything

memos

an official document issued to manage the federal government, that carry the weight of law, but they are not numbered or required by law to be published by the office of the federal registrar

__________ is the process of allotting congressional seats to each state according to its proportion of the population.

apportionment

unilateral actions

are unilateral (literally meaning one side) actions, and are changes to government policy without congressional approval, or consent

earmarks

attached to bills

gerrymandering

attempting to use the process of redrawing district boundaries to benefit a political party, protect incumbents, or change the proportion of minority voters in a district

Where do party members attend a neighborhood meeting to vote for a candidate to represent them?

caucus

writ of __________ is a request submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court decision.

certiorari

executive orders

change in government policy without congressional consent

What role was George W. Bush performing when he created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives?

chief executive

What role was Barack Obama performing when vetoed H.R. 3808 the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010?

chief legislator

party-in electorate

citizens who identify with political party

commander and chief

congress raises and supports army and declares war, president controls troops and often has discretion when congress unable (or unwilling) to oppose action

joint committees

contains members of both houses but with limited authority

select committees

created to address a specific issue (than dissolve)

conference committees

created to negotiate differences between the house and senate versions of legislation

The American political parties are

decentralized organizations with loose coordination across groups

During the last several decades, the number of ideologically moderate members in Congress has

decreased significantly

primary elections (which candidates get the party's nomination?)

democrats run against democrats to get their party's nomination; same for republicans

______________ representation is when the Congress resembles its constituents on metrics like race, gender, and age.

descriptive

Executive agreements _____ require senatorial approval.

do not

party-in-government

elected politicians who belong to a party

What is the electoral college?

electors from each state who cast ballots for president and vice president

the census

every 10 years, determines number of house members from each state; shift is called reapportionment

A case involving Utah and California would originate in a state court

false

executive orders are laws passed by congress

false

Drawing district lines to the favor of the majority party, or to secure a seat for an incument, are two types of __________.

gerrymandering

What are the three elements of parties (the tripartite structure)?

government, electorate, and organization

Appellate jurisdiction refers to the Court's power to __________.

hear appeals from lower courts

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, George W. Bush added the Department of _______to the President's Cabinet.

homeland security

class action lawsuit

is a type of civil suit brought by a group of individuals on behalf of themselves and others in the vernal public who are in similar circumstances

plaintiff

is the person/party against whom the case in brought

defendant

is the person/party against whom the case is brought

What is the source of the president's statutory authority?

laws enacted by Congress

chief legislator

legislator powers, veto power, state of the union

what are minor parties role in democracy?

little but some impact on election outcomes, attempt to get major parties to absorb their issues, can increase efficacy among disaffected voters

Congressman Ramsey votes for a farming bill that Congressman Walcott cares about in exchange for Congressman Walcott voting for a housing bill that Congressman Ramsey supports. This is an example of what norm?

logrolling

Districts that are redrawn in a manner that packs one or more minority groups into a single district are referred to as

majority-minority districts

chief diplomat

making treaties, and forms relationships with other world leaders

Compared to the Senate, the House is _______ partisan.

more

Redistricting can may yield boundaries that look highly unusual. Are highly unusual districts always gerrymandered?

no

Based on previous court rulings, which of these would be an illegal gerrymander?

one that is solely based on the racial distribution of the state's population

Mordor has just been added as the 51st state in the United States. When people go to vote in presidential primaries in Mordor, they get to decide on the day of the election if they are going to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary. This is an example of what kind of primary?

open

The three elements of party organization has three general components. Which one refers to the formal structure that sets rules for party operations and provides services for various party units and candidates?

party as organization

party-organization

party leaders and workers

A voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins is called ________.

plurality voting

In a similar previous case the court ruled for the plaintiff. The court will now consider that previous ruling in deciding how to deal with the current case. This is an example of __________.

precedent

To win a party's nomination, a candidate must win the

primary election

difference between a primary and a caucus

primary; people vote in secret caucus; gym four hours

Which type of executive action would be used to declare a new holiday?

proclamation

All Democratic primaries and caucuses (and some Republican primaries and caucuses) use a system where the number of delegates a candidate receives is determined by the percentage of the popular vote they received. This is known as ____________.

proportional allocation

__________ happens every 10 years years to ensure that individual districts remain roughly equal in population.

redistricting

incumbency advantage

refers to a series of conditions and circumstances that hep elected office holders keep their positions

If you had to guess what party a white male from the South belongs to, you would probably predict he aligns with the __________ Party.

republican

When an incoming president undoes an outgoing president's executive order, that is called_______________.

revocation

Every 2 years, 435 members of the house and 1/3 of the senate are up for reelection. This is called ______-

rotation

All federal judicial nominations are first referred to which of the following for a hearing?

senate judiciary committee

_________ committees are committees that are a permantent part of the House and Senate structure.

standing

The Senate Judiciary committee is a

standing committee

The president represents the country symbolically and politically through their role as the head of __________.

state

redistricting

states redraw congressional districts to reflect population shifts

In Chapter 9 of "How Democracies Die" the authors identify three possible "futures" for a post-Trump America: 1) A swift democratic recovery, where anti-democratic policies are undone and anti-democratic behaviors are condemned. 2) The white nationalist bloc of the GOP tightens their grip on the party. 3) More of the same -- departures from unwritten conventions and weakening guardrails. Which do you think (as of now) has come to pass? (there is no wrong answer).

swift democratic recovery, where anti-democratic policies are undone and anti-democratic behaviors are condemned.

head of state

symbolically represents the nation as a whole

What event precipitated a large increase in the size and scope of the federal government, particularly in the area of executive domestic authority?

the Great Depression

Which house of Congress did the Founders envision as being the more responsible one, with the greater concern about national, rather than local, interests?

the Senate

The 15 executive department heads who help the president implement policy make up what office?

the cabinet

At what stage of the Supreme Court decision-making process are the justices' law clerks most influential?

the creation of a cert pool

Which party is more likely to believe that "climate change" should be a top priority in politics?

the democrats

Some scholars argue the War Powers Resolution has effectively expanded the power of _______________, despite its intent.

the president

bicameralism

the system of having two chambers within one legislative body, like the house and the senate in the U.S congress

what is a political party?

they are a loose network, not rigid hierarchy

the party in government comprises:

those politicians who have been elected into office under a party label.

A primary election is an election carried out by the political parties to select their candidate.

true

California has the most electoral voters of any state.

true

Trump appointed 3 justices to the Supreme Court as president

true

The American Congress has ____ chambers?

two

chief executive

vesting clause

Imagine Justice Thomas and Justice Alito both agree on the outcome of a case. Justice Thomas is asked to write the majority opinion. Justice Alito agrees with the majority opinion, but differs from the other justices in his legal reasoning. He is MOST likely to

write a concurring opinion