The Final Review
National Labor Relations Act
A 1935 law also known as the Wagner Act that guarantees workers the right of collective bargaining sits down rules to protect unions and organizers and created the National Labor Relations Board to regulate Labor Management relations
New York Times v Sulllivan ( 1964)
A 1964 case decided by the Supreme Court that established the guidelines for determining whether public officials and other public figures could win damages suits for libel. To do so, individuals must prove defamatory statements were made with actual malice and disregard for the truth.
National health insurance
A compulsory insurance program for all Americans that would have the government Finance Citizens Medical Care first proposed by President Harry S Truman. Also proposed by first lady Hillary Clinton, sought-after yet failed to accomplish by President Barack Obama.
Environmental impact statements
A detailing a proposed environmental effects of a policy, which agencies are required to file with the EPA every time they proposed to undertake a policy that might be disruptive to the environment.
Superfund (CERCLA)
A fund created by Congress in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites. Money for the fun comes from tax and chemical products.
Prior restraint
A government preventing material from being published. This is a common method of limiting the press in some nations, but it is usually unconstitutional in the United States.
New York Times v United States (1971)
A landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the First Amendment. The ruling made it possible for the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censorship or punishment
Water Pollution Control Act of 1972
A law intended to clean up the nation's rivers and lakes by enabling regulation of Point sources of pollution
Relative deprivation
A perception by an individual that he or she is not doing well economically in comparison to others
High-tech politics
A politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers and the political agenda itself are increasingly shaped by technology.
Medicare
A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides health insurance for the elderly, covering hospitalization, doctor fees, and other health expenses.
Medicaid
A public assistance program designed to provide healthcare for poor Americans and funded by both the states and the national government
Regressive tax
A tax in which the burden Falls relatively more heavily on low-income groups been on Wealthy taxpayers the opposite of a progressive tax in which tax rates increase as income increases
European Union
A transnational government composed of most European nations a coordinate monetary trade immigration and labor policies making its members one economic unit
Congressional Budget Office
Advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president's Office of Management and Budget
Amendment 18
Alcohol sales are illegal
Amendment 14
All citizens get due process, privileges and immunities, and equal protection of the law. States can keep felons from voting
Endangered Species Act of 1973
Allow requiring federal government to protect all species listed as endangered
Amendment 16
Allowed to lay direct tax (income tax)
Article V
Amendment process is two steps with two options at each step: Proposal requires 2/3rds acceptance at national level, either in Congress or national convention. Ratification requires 3/4ths acceptance at state level either in state legislature or state conventions.
gatekeeper
As part of public agenda, what is the term used to describe the influence on what subjects become national political issues and for how long
Proportional tax
Attacks by verse the government takes the same share of income from everyone rich and poor alike
Progressive tax
Attacks by which the government takes a greater share of income of the rich than of the poor for example when a rich family pays 50% of its income in taxes and a poor family pays 5%
Amendment 3
Ban against quartering of troops
Amendment 4
Ban against unreasonable searches and seizures
Transfer payments
Benefits given by the government directly to individuals either cash transfers such as Social Security payments or in-kind transfer such as food stamps and low-interest college loans
Amendment 20
Change of inauguration dates and start of Congress; Presidential disability before inauguration
Amendment 12
Changes Electoral College so that president and vice president ballots are separate
Amendment 27
Changes to congressional income take effect in the following congressional term.
United Nations
Created in 1945 and currently including 192 member nations, with a central peacekeeping Mission and programs in areas including economic development and health, education, and Welfare the seed of real power in the UN is the security Council
Amendment 23
DC gets three electors in electoral college
Protectionism
Economic Policy of shielding an economy from Imports
Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
Established the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which supports development of radio and television programs
media events
Events that are purposely staged for the media and that are significant just because the media are there.
Amendment 11
Federal courts cannot hear suits of individuals against states; creates sovereign immunity of the state governments
Federalist 51
Federalist paper by James Madison analyzing the addition of checks and balances to Montesquieu's call for separation of powers. Rests predominantly on states having inserted checks and balances as a way to prevent tyranny of one branch (or man) by requiring the action of another branch (or man) to accomplish core actions of the office.
Amendment I
Freedom of religion, expression, association, and petition
Freedom of Information Act of 1966
Gives all citizens the right to inspect all records of federal agencies except those containing military, intelligence, or trade secrets; increases accountability of bureaucracy
Entitlement programs
Government programs providing benefits only to individuals who qualify based on specific needs
Means-tested programs
Government programs providing benefits only to individuals who qualify based on specific needs
Expenditures
Government spending. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense
Amendment 5
Grand jury guarantee, double jeopardy, ban on being compelled to witness against self, due process, eminent domain
World Trade Organization
International organization that promotes free trade
Federalist 10
Madison believes a large state is suitable because factions are spread over a large geographic area, allowing for the many of opinions. The largest source of faction is unequal distribution of property. Factions will ultimately be forced to compromise.
narrowcasting
Media programming on cable TV or the internet that is focused on a particular interest and aimed at a particular audience, and contrast Broadcasting.
press conferences
Meetings of public officials with reporters.
print media
Newspapers and magazines, as compared with electronic media.
Amendment 8
No excessive bail or cruel and unusual punishment
Amendment 15
No limitation to vote based on race or condition of servitude.
Net Neutrality (Open Internet Rule)
Open Internet rules protect and maintain open, uninhibited access to legal online content without broadband Internet access providers being allowed to block, impair, or establish fast/slow lanes to lawful content.
Health maintenance organization (HMO)
Organization contracted by individuals or insurance companies to provide health care for a yearly fee. Such Network Health Plans limit the choice of doctors and treatments. More than half of Americans are enrolled in HMO or similar programs
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Original organization that was created in 1949 by Nations including the United States Canada and most Western European nations for Mutual defense and has subsequently been expanded
National Environmental Policy Act
Passed in 1969, the centerpiece of Federal Environmental Policy, which requires agencies to file environmental impact statements.
Social welfare policies
Policies that provide benefits cash or in kind to individuals based on either entitlement or means-testing
Antitrust policy
Policy designed to ensure competition and prevent monopolies
foreign policy
Policy that involves Choice taking about relations with the rest of the world. The president is the chief initiator of US foreign policy
Amendment 24
Poll tax and other taxes in order to vote are illegal
Amendment 25
Presidential disability, vice presidential appointment
Amendment 22
Presidential term limits
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Replacing Aid to families with dependent children as the program for public assistance to needy families, T ANF requires people on welfare to find work within two years and sets a lifetime maximum of five years
Amendment 10
Reservation of all un-enumerated powers to the people or the states
Amendment 2
Right to bear arms for the purpose of a militia
Amendment 6
Right to jury trial
Amendment 26
Right to vote for 18 and above
Amendment 19
Right to vote not based on gender
Amendment 9
Rights retained to the people that are yet to be enumerated or written down
Amendment 17
Senate is directly elected
Income tax
Share of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income.
Amendment 13
Slaves are citizens
broadcast media
Television and radio, as compared with print media.
mass media
Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the internet, and other means of popular communication.
Near v Minnesota (1931)
The 1931 Supreme Court decision holding that protects newspapers from prior restraint.
House Ways and Means committee
The House committee that writes tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.
Social Security Trust Fund
The account into which Social Security employee and employer contributions are deposited and used to pay out eligible recipients
Slander
The action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.
Income
The amount of money collected between any two points in time
media bias
The bias or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered.
Earned Income Tax Credit
The earned income tax credit, or the eitc, isn't refundable federal income tax credit for low to moderate-income working individuals and families, even if they did not earn enough money to be required to file a tax return
Security and Exchange Commission
The federal agency created during the new deal that regulates the stock market.
Food and Drug Administration
The federal agency formed in 1913 with broad regulatory Powers over the manufacturing content marketing and labeling of Food and Drugs sold in the United States
Revenues
The financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal government's revenue.
Poverty line
The income threshold below which people are considered poor, based on what a family must spend for an austere standard of living, traditionally said it three times the cost of a subsistence diet
Climate change
The increase in the earth temperature that according to most scientist is occurring as a result of the carbon dioxide that is produced when fossil fuels are burned collecting in the atmosphere and trapping energy from the Sun
Feminization of poverty
The increasing concentration of poverty among women, especially unmarried women and their children
Environmental protection agency
The largest Federal independent regulatory agency, created in 1970 to administer much of the US Environmental Protection policy
Minimum wage
The legal minimum hourily wage
linkage institution
The political channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the policy agenda. In the United States, linkage institutions include all actions, political parties, interest groups, in the media.
Libel
The publication of false or malicious statements that damage someone's reputation.
Freedom of Press
The right to circulate opinions in print without censorship by the government. Americans enjoy freedom of the press under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
horse race journalism
The tendency of the media to focus on which candidate is ahead in the polls rather than focusing on the issues
investigative journalism
The use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and schemes, at times putting reporters an adversarial relationship with political leaders.
Wealth
The value of assets owned
Income distribution
The way the national income is divided into shares ranging from the poor to the rich
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
The welfare reform law of 1996 which implemented the temporary assistance for needy families program. featured requirements that states would receive a fixed amount of money to run their own welfare programs in the form of block grants that people on welfare would have to find work within two years or lose benefits and that there would be a lifetime cap of 5yrs
Deficit
an excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues
Amendment 21
repeal of prohibition
Federal Communication Act of 1934
responsible for assigning broadcast frequencies, for licensing radio and television stations, and for regulating the use of wireless communication devices.
sound bite
short video clips of approximately 10 seconds. Typically they are all that is shown from a politician's speech on the nightly television news.
Clean Air Act of 1970
the law aimed at combating air pollution, by charging the EPA with protecting and improving the quality of the nation's air
political polarization
the vast and growing gap between liberals and conservatives ideologies and the Republican and Democratic parties. Often there is increased ideological consistency and larger divisions along party lines. For instance, in cases in which an individual's stance on a given issue, policy, or person is more likely to be strictly defined by their identification with a particular political party
