American Politics

Partisanship

A committed member of a political party, politicians who strongly support their parties policies and are reluctant to compromise with they political opponents -helps determine voting behavior

Incumbency Advantage

A congressmen's advantage to being re-elected -more likely to vote for someone you know -harder for newcomers

A dissenting opinion is written by

A justice who disagrees with the majority decision

In Federalist #10, Madison proposes which of the following as the solution to the problem of factions?

A large republic

Strategic Mobilization

*Cannot work without individual mobilization* How to get people to come out and vote; incentives

Which of the following is a technique to block action on legislation in the Senate?

Filibuster

What are the 3 major negative effects of the Electoral College, according to Koza?

4/5 states are disenfranchised, it does not always reflect the popular vote, and not every vote is equal

Executive Order

A rule of regulation issued by the president that has the effect and formal status of legislation -president can use them to set policy while avoiding public debate and opposition

What are the 3 activities described by Mayhew as actions to secure reelection? (Name them, no need to describe)

Advertisement Credit-Claiming Postion-taking

Outside Lobbying

Attempts by interest group leaders to mobilize citizens outside the policy-making community to contact pressure public officials inside the policy-making community. Significance- common means for elite policymakers to experience pressure in the form of popular participation. (outside influence, influential)

Unilateral actions of the president include all of the following EXCEPT

Bargaining with Congress

Which of the following is not one of the way Campbell (Coleman) say party identification is measured?

Based on social group membership

Name two Departments in the federal bureaucracy and briefly describe what each does

Department of defence and the department of agriculture. Defense helps with military, and agriculture helps to regulate food and crops. -commerce, education, energy, health and human services, homeland security, housing and urban development, interior, labor, stat, transportation, treasury

Executive agreements are like treaties except that:

Executive agreements do not require the Senate's "advice and consent."

The Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers are both parts of the ________.

Executive office of the President

Pluralism

Factions inside and outside of government are free to compete for influence with no assigned seat at the table for any given group, factions compete freely -slows things down, minority have a harder time little to no funding

Gridlock

Failure of congress and the president to solve major problems -shuts down congress -HOR and Senate are controlled by different parties, or different than the president

How does Mettler define the submerged State?

Federal policies that function by providing incentives to encourage citizens in activities to serve a public purpose, like the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

Submerged State

Federal policies that function by providing incentives to encourage citizens in activities to serve a public purpose, like the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

Bush Doctrine

Foreign Policy based on the idea that the US should take preemptive action against threats to its national security (helped to build democracy, justified the war in Iraq)

In WTP, what are "death panels" used as an example of?

Framing

What type of grant-in-aid gives the most discretion to the states in how to spend the money?

General Revenue Sharing

De-Facto Segregation

Happens by fact rather than requirement, "by fact" practices that occur when there is no legal enforcement, such as school segregation in much of the US today -supported racism through separation of communities

According to Brooks (online), what does 70% of the public believe?

Income inequality is acceptable if there is equality of opportunity

GIlens (Kollman) concludes that

Interest groups neither facilitate more undermine the influence of the poor on policy

Strict Construction

Interpreting the constitution more conservatively, more stable overtime, they do not agree with abortion

Which of the following is NOT a way to cut the size of the federal bureaucracy?

Iron Triangles

Going Public

Is applied to the president, what policies make public care more. Helps a president to maintain popularity

Beginning in 1937 the Supreme Court laid the groundwork for a stronger federal government by

Issuing a number of decisions that dramatically expanded the definition of the commerce clause.

What does Baum (Kollman 14.1) argue is the effect of soft news on public information?

It increases the level of political information among those least interested in politics

The National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People had the most success with ______ for combating rasicm

Lawsuits

Fire-alarm Oversight

Less centralized and involves less active and direct intervetion congress establishes a system of rules procedure and practices -alerts you to a problem -Government is the tension and media is the fire

Which of the following best describes the growth of the federal service (employees) over the past 35 years?

Little Growth or slight decline

An agreement between members of Congress to trade support for each other's bills is known as

Logrolling

Discounts on purchases and health insurance are examples of

Material benefits

Tyranny of the Majority

Occurs when a majority takes action to thoroughly subjugate the minority -aggressive and unjust -checks and balances were created to stop this and the Bill of Rights -prevents group to pursue self-interest

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin -no segregation in schools or jobs -ending to segregation

Rosenstone and Hansen (Kollman 10.1) describe mobilization as strategic. Name two specific types of people most likely to be mobilized by a party, candidate, or activist.

People who are employed and educated, also partisans, families, rich people, generally centrally positioned in media

Which of the following is not one of the main features of the Affordable Care Act?

Phasing out Medicare in favor of private exchanges

Iron Triangle

Policy-making between Congress, special interest groups, and governmental agencies. creates a self-sufficient (and sometimes corrupt) subgovernmental situations in which American citizens' best interests are ignored in favor of receiving special favors and regulation changes for passing particular legislation. Significance- The iron triangle is a form of client politics, that is, it is only beneficial to few, but a large part of society will pay the cost. They are also very difficult to penetrate or influence from outside of the iron triangle.

Polarization

Politcal distance between parties, wide-gap, beliefs are so different, happens among legislators, issues with budget, raises taxes, Obamacare. -can lead to gridlock

What is the belief that citizens can influence what government does?

Political Efficacy

Citizens United v Federal Elections Commission

Political spending is a form of protected speech under the 1st Amendment and the government may to keep corporations of unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. May not give money directly to campaigns, may persuade public -Ruled it was okay for them to spend as much as they want to convince people *spending is speech*

According to Riker (Kollman Ch. 3.2), who benefits most from federalism in the United States?

Racists

Unfunded Mandate

Regulations or conditions for receiving grants that impose costs on state and local governments for which they are not reimbursed by the federal government (federal government is not loosing money by imposing these)

Lawrence v Texas (2003)

Ruled that laws banning homosexuality are unconstitutional; Homosexual Conduct Law was unconstitutional ( can't arrest someone if they are homosexual)

What did Citizens United, as a company, wish to do that was prohibited by campaign finance law?

Show and advertise an anti-Hilary Clinton documentary

What issues led to the demise of the Whig Party?

Slavery

Name 2 of the 7 undemocratic features of the Constitution explained by Dahl, and explain why they are undemocratic

Slavery, suffrage, electoral college, supreme court had to much power, limit judicial review, selection of a senator, to many limits on congress

Which of the following is not one of the main predicates of a persons vote choice?

Socioeconomic Satus

Men in the US are ____ the ___ party.

Somewhat more likely to support: republican

What is the practice of norm of upholding precedent called?

Stare decisis

Justices who favor a narrow interpretation based on the words written in the Constitution and the original meaning of the text are considered advocates of which judicial philosophy?

Strict Construction

According to Harbridge and Malhotra, what group is most against bipartisanship for a specific member of Congress of their own party?

Strong partisans

Which of the following was not one of the antifederalist objections to the constitution?

The Bill of Rights gave to much power to the states

In a case of workplace discrimination, which government institution would most likely handle the complaint?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Americas welfare state was constructed initially in response to

The Great Depression

Substantive Representation

The ability of a legislator to represent the agenda for interests of a group to which he or she does not personally belong (white representing a black) -interests are represented in the government

Political Efficacy

The ability to influence government and politics, and trust, people believe they can make an impact -the more you have the more you trust the government

Redistricting

When congressional districts are redrawn to reflect changes in population since the last census

Electoral College

The electors from each state who meet after the popular election to cast ballots for presidents and vice president -when it was created it helped people understand history -allowed people to have a say over who would be president -Bush lost popular vote but won the electoral and became president

In Iyengar and Kahn's (Online) study of selective exposure, what is one of the main findings of their study?

The media is partisan

According to Michael Dawson (Kollman 4.1), what is black nationalism?

The political ideology that takes race as the fundamental diving line in the United States

Judicial Review

The power of the courts to review and, if necessary, declare actions of the legislative and executive branches invalid or unconstitutional; the Supreme court asserted this power in Marbury v Madison in 1803 -ensure that administrative decisions will be taken rationally in accordance with a fair procedure -an additional check -Rule of Law

Agenda Setting

The power of the media to bring public attention to particular issues and problems -makes certain issues more prominent and seem more important, helps determine what people talk about

Selective Incorporation

The process by which different protections in the Bill of Rights were incorporated, into the 14th Amendment, thus guaranteeing citizens protection from state as well as national governments

Selective Exposure

The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own bias (what media sights you view, leads to polarization, also can lead to becoming less informed)

Which of the following influences which cases are heard by the supreme court?

The solicitor general and law clerks

What has changed that has lead to increases in the number of voting restrictions (Berman)?

The supreme court overruled pre clearance under the Voting Rights act of 1965

Filibuster

To delay or prevent a vote on the proposal -stops things from getting done

New Federalism

Under Nixon and Reagan, transfer power back to the states (devolution); we are still kind of in this

Gerrymandering

When those in charge of redistricting deliberately divide population groups to favor one party over another -republican area could be split so they become the minority among Democratic areas, favor other parties

The Civil Service Act of 1883 mandated that appointees to public office

be qualified for the job to which they are appointed based on merit.

Unilateral actions by the President

executive orders, executive agreements, national security directives, signing statements

The Fair Housing Act of 1968

had little effect on housing segregation because its enforcement mechanisms were very weak

Digital citizenship requires

high-speed internet access and the technical literacy skills to evaluate and use information online

Define regulated federalism and give an example used in the WTP book of something that was regulated

less power to the states, education, civil rights, war on poverty, medical/medicare, wi-fi. When the government regulated the state state government

What is an example of a president "going public?"

when a president shares his views with society that is in favor of what the majority of society believes/wants... fireside chats, Obamacare