Mid-Term Governments #2
What does the department of Veteran's Affairs do?
"takes care" of our countries soldiers but it has forever wait times and disgusting conditions
What are 3 controversial bureaucracies?
-Department of Veteran's Affairs -Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -Department of Homeland Security
What is Racism?
-Excluding someone based on their assumed race -Institutionalized power inequalities in society based on the perception of racial difference
What does Congress do?
-Financial: taxing and borrowing; pay debts; provide for common defense; regulate trade -Legal: enact laws subject to presidential approval (US citizenship laws; bankrupcy laws) -Institutional: organize judicial and executive branches (establish postal system; admit new states; control US territories) -National Defense: declare war & raise and run US Army, Navy, and other defense forces (the last time we declared war was WWII)
Max Weber
-Studied bureaucracy Concluded that there must be a >hierarchy (chain of command) >Specialization >Explicit Rules >Merit (to prevent nepotism)
What can be done to reform the controversial bureaucracies?
-Transparency: Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) -Privatization: Competitive Contracting
Why do we have bureaucracies?
-War -Economics -Geography -Taxing
Why is the census important?
-determines the population -allows politicians to redraw the lines of districts
What is the honeymoon period?
-the first 100 days of any presidency -often enact their policies that set the tone for their tenure -the public is more willing to hear new policies
How many campaign promises did Barack Obama accomplish?
1 (healthcare)
Campaign Promises: Barack Obama
1. Close Guantanamo Bay 2. Healthcare Reform 3. Path to Citizenship 4. End wars in the Middle East
Campaign Promises: Donald Trump
1. US/Mexico Border Wall 2. Cut Taxes 3. Remove all undocumented immigrants 4. Renegotiate NAFTA
Senate
100 members; 2 from each state; 6 year terms; holds the trial for impeachment (decides on removal); approves treaties negotiated by president (2/3 majority); reviews presidential appointments; supreme court nominees go before Senate Judiciary Committee and then confirmed by full senate; can filibuster which can only end with a cloture vote (3/5 of senate)
What Congress session are we currently in?
117th
The Case of Trayvon Martin
2012; 17 year old kid in Florida gets stopped by George Zimmerman who was the Neighborhood watch; George shot Trayvon and was acquitted by Florida law; this sparked the #blacklivesmatter movement and widespread protests
The Case of Michael Brown
2014; A man matching Michael Brown's description is wanted for theft; After an encounter with the police (details are fuzzy) he gets shot; FBI takes the case and clears the officer; this exploded the issue of race in America; this is especially notable because there was already a class war (economically) going on and the media changed the narrative of the country from class to race
There are ________ types of representation
3
How many campaign promises did Donald Trump accomplish?
3 (cut taxes, NAFTA, 1/2 US/Mexico Border Wall, 1/2 Undocumented Immigrants)
US National Departments and agencies employ___________
4 million civilians (the government is the largest employer of Americans)
House of Representatives
435 members; based on population size; 2 year terms; a district represents about 700,000 people; can impeach public officials including the president
President __________ is well known for his association with the spoils system
Andrew Jackson
How are executive powers limited?
Appoints cabinet, federal judges, military officers (limited by Senate approval)
2016 Election
BLM crashed a Bernie Sanders campaign and a Hilary Clinton campaign rally
What does the Department of Homeland Security do?
Combines and synthesizes info from the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. (formed after 9/11) *do we need someone to combine and synthesize the information?*
A primary justification for choosing committee chairs by seniority is that ______
Congress should follow the example set by the british parliament
Native Americans' problems in American society are exacerbated by ___________
Congress' abrohation of various treaty provisions
University of Missouri (Click Incident)
Dr. Melissa Click (PhD) is a communications professor who got fired because she attempted to take away the press' freedom of speech; (her publications are inspired by mostly teenage media)
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is part of the _________
Executive Office of the President
Which statement regarding executive agreements and treaties is correct?
Executive agreements are more common than treaties because the former do not require Senate ratification
Presidential Expectations vs Reality
Expecations: voting public believes... -campaign promises -leaders of change -economic stability Reality: -constitutional limitations >founding fathers wanted a limited and balanced government
Descriptive Representation
Extent to which they look like the people they represent in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, etc.
Barbour and Wright contend that bureaucratic and democratic decision-making genderally have the same goals and methods
False
Dwight Eisenhower is generally considered to be the first "modern" president.
False
Most whistleblowers are supported in their efforts by their coworkers and supervisors
False
The federal government found it much easier to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment than it did the Nineteenth Amendment.
False
The last few months of a president's term in office are called the honeymoon period, a time when the president's popularity ratings are higher than normal.
False
All new bureaucratic regulations are published in the _______ for public view.
Federal Register
University of Missouri Protests (football)
Football team boycotts college football because there was a poop swastika in the locker room (no footage)
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) was instituted by President ___________
Franklin Roosevelt
BLM
Inspired by Civil Rights and Black Power movements; group centered model; no leader and no motto; they have a hard time agreeing on goals and properly tracking and distributing funding
Previously, scholars described the relationship between the bureaucracy and Congress as _________, but the concept of _________ is more accurate and popular today.
Iron triangles; issue networks
The Supreme Court provided a relatively early victory for gay rights advocates as part of their decision in the case entitled ___________
Lawrence v Texas (2003)
What were Trump's major policy shifts after the honeymoon period?
Left the Paris Climate Agreement; Increased Military Budget 10%; Diverted EPA Funding; Signed a $1.5 trillion tax break; Lowered taxes for the masses; recognized Jerusalem as the "official" capital of Isreal; Moved the US embassy to Jerusalem
George Floyd Case
May 2020; All four officers were charged; George Floyd was accused of handling a counterfeit $20 bill; the Police showed up and attempted to arrest him; one officer kneeled on his neck and killed him; after this case, BLM zeroed in on a message: "Defund the police"
What makes someone racist?
Mostly it comes from intent
Is the president the most powerful person in the world?
No
How are legislative powers limited?
Presidentual veto; Executive orders
Given his hands-off management style and sunny disposition, it is not surprising that many presidential scholars classify _________ as a passive-positive president.
Ronald Reagan
The House _______ Committee determines how and when debate on proposed legislation takes place in the lower chamber of the federal legislature
Rules
How is judicial power limited?
SCOTUS (Supreme Court Of The United States); Appointments; Limited by Senate Approval
Substantive Representation
Shares views about political issues
A member of the House of Representatives who wanted to maximize his or her power within the institution would be well-advised to seek a seat on _________
The Rules Committee
An example of the head of state function would be when the president greets ambassadors from other countries at the White House.
True
Barbour and Wright believe that the rolling election created by almost continuous polling of presidential popular support gives all actors in American politics a good idea of exactly how much political capital presidents have to spend on particular issues at any one time.
True
Bureaucratic adjudications have the full force of law.
True
Citizens have frequently used interest groups to acquire and protect their rights
True
Grandfather clause requirements were often combined with literacy test requirements in ways that prevented Black voters from casting ballots while still allowing illiterate Whites to vote.
True
Iron triangles are composed of members of congressional committees, bureacrats, and clientele groups who all share the same policy interests.
True
It is much easier to stop legislation from passing through Congress that it is to successfully get a bill onto the president's desk.
True
Senate rules currently require a two-thirds supermajority vote to invoke cloture.
True
Senate terms are staggered so that they do not all come up for reelection in the same year.
True
The Department of the Interior is in charge of the federal government's relations with Native American tribal governments.
True
The National Security Council was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra affair
True
The Privacy Act of 1974 permits American citizens to access most files that the federal government is keeping on them.
True
The Supreme Court concluded in 1976 that age is a nonsuspect classification.
True
The coattail effect has become less important in recent presidential election years.
True
The idea of allocative representation is very closely related to pork barrel spending.
True
Trump vs Biden
Trump: signed travel ban; approved the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline Biden: Overturned Trumps travel ban; Ended the Keystone XL Pipeline
What is polarization?
When left is extreme and right is extreme and no one is reaching across the aisle. We have seen increased polarization (more democratic democrats and more republican republicans)
What are executive orders?
While powerful, they are not laws. They are a way to interpret the laws.
When a bill passes the House and Senate in different forms __________
a conference committee is formed to resolve the bill's differences
Bicameral Legislature
a lawmaking body of government that consists of two seperate houses or chambers (House of Representatives and Senate make up Congress)
When Congress sends a bill to the president within 10 days of the end if its session and the president does not sign it into law, what results is _________
a pocket veto
The use of bureaucracy in a democratic society is reasonable on the basis of ___________
accountablility and fairness
Bureaucrats processing the paperwork for applications for Social Security benefits would be an example of the bureaucracy acting as ___________
adminstrator
Why are iron triangles problematic yet pervasive?
all parties involved benefit from their existence
The most important ongoing role of the vice president is to __________
be there to take over if the president becomes incapacitated
One problem that Barbour and Wright point out concerning regulatory bureaucrats is that they tend to _______
become captives of the interests they are supposed to police
Barbour and Wright argue that commitment to a particular set of policy goals is a common element of the culture inside____________
bureaucratic agencies
One controversial method of addressing the educational effects created by de facto discrimination in the North was___________
busing
A feature of the racial gerrymandeering is that it __________
can be employed to both harm and help the representation of ethnic minorities in Congress
Which office controls the president's daily schedule?
cheif of staff
Which of the following presidential roles actually became less important in the era of the modern presidency?
chief administrator
Over the past several decades, reforms in the House of Representatives have tended to weaken the implications of the seniority system in favor of _________
concentrating power in favor of the speaker of the house
Barbour and Wright contend that the word independent when it refers to independent agencies means that they are free from ____________
control by cabinet departments
Discrimination that exists in reality, even if it is not legally prescribed, is called __________ discrimination.
de facto
Government corporations are created by the federal government to _________
deliver goods and services that for-profit firms cannot supply
The modern president's cabinet is predominantly composed of __________
department heads
What is de facto discrimination?
discrimination not by law but by culture/tradition/habit (police butality) (stop and frisk laws)
What is de jure discrimination?
discrimination that arises from the law ("seperate but equal") (Jim Crow laws) (segregation)
What is a boycott?
economic punishment
In the aftermath of a change in legal interpretation during the 1980s concerning gambling, many Native American tribes have _________
experienced improved economic prosperity and political power
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were________
extremely helpful in advancing the cause of equal rights for all Americans
The Reconstruction Amendments that were passed to protect the rights of Blacks were not effective because ___________
federal and southern state governments were reluctant to enforce them
Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers for the NAACP challenged the "seperate but equal" precedent created by the Plessy decision by ___________
focusing first on cases with limited public importance, like segregated law schools
Most bills introduced in Congress do not pass; in fact, they usually ___________
get pocket vetoed
It is in the best interest of minority group members to obtain suspect status for their groups because it...
gives them greater legal protections against discrimination
When presidents conduct local rallies and town hall meetings to gather support for one of their initiatives, one might conclude that they are _________
going public with an important issue
Pork barrel spending generally refers to _________
grants for specific districts funded by general revenues
The primary reason why congress has so many paid employees is that its members need a __________
great deal of help sorting through and processing the information necessary to write legislation
From the time of Washington's presidency to the present, the size and scope of the cabinet has___________
grown considerably
Select committees are designed to ________
handle issues that do not necessarily fit the remit of any particular committee easily
The ________ role of the president has become considerably more important since the New Deal era.
head of government
In order for a bill to be considered for passage, it must first be ________
introduced by a sitting member of Congress
Divided government makes it less likely that_________
items on the president's legislative agenda become law
Which statement most accurately descibes northern public schools in the 1960s?
just as segregated as those in the South due to de facto discrimination
An example of de jure discrimination is a(n) _____________
law that mandates where Asian Americans live
The schedule of issues that members of congress want to address during the coming term is the _________
legislative agenda
Geographic Representation
lives in the same state or district as their constituents
Even though presidents have some influence over the bureaucracy through their power of offering a yearly budget proposal for it, much of the time bureaucrats can get the funding they want by _________
lobbying sympathetic members of Congress
In the modern day, State of the Union addresses are _________
major statements fof the president's political agenda
The Americans with Disabilities Act was controversial because it ____
mandated expensive renovations to many public accomodations
Within Weber's model of bureaucracy, resources are distributed based upon ____________
merit
Which statement accurately describes the nature of presidential popularity?
newsworthy events might help or hurt a president's standing with the public
Presidents can have their greatest long-term impact on the judiciary by ___________
nominating idealogically like-minded judges to the federal bench
Hyperpartisanship in recent years has __________
not affected the two parties equally
Women were unique in their battle for equal rights because they were________
not outside the system in the way various racial and ethnic groups were
The White House staff and cabinet members are often at odds because __________
of the different backgrounds and perspectives of the two groups
What is presidential approval?
polling the people of their approval of the president
Barbour Wright imply that despite the increased powers of the modern executive branch, the most important limit on the president that remains is the __________
president's inability to ensure that his or her proposals will make it through Congress
The phrase "birds of passage" refers to __________
presidential appointees to the the bureaucracy who come and go quickly
Calvin Coolidge's infamous reticence to speak to the press would be part of what Barbour and Wright would refer to as his_________________
presidential style
Southern states enacted poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests after Reconstruction to _____________
prevent Blacks from voting
The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 _______________
prevents whistleblowers from being punished for exposing official wrongdoing
An example of the black codes in action would be a southern state's post-Civil War law____________
prohibiting freed slaves from owning land
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in many partisan political activities because it was designed to ___________
protect bureaucrats from undue political pressures
The overall purpose of regulations is to ________
protect the public from some economic problem
Districts
redrawn to "fit" the population of a state every TEN years
The ethos of bureaucracy and democracy are in conflict because bureaucracy _____________
relies on expertise but democracy is based on popular sovereignty
Many scholars of the national legislature have argued for a long time that members of Congress face an everyday conflict between________
representing the interests of their consituents and serving the national interest
The main purpose of a conference committee is to______
resolve differences between similar bills passed by the House and Senate
George W. Bush's frequent use of signing statements was part of the attempt by him to __________
ressurect the imperial presidency
The president's head of state role refers to the _______
service as a symbol for the whole country
According to the Constitution, Congress can check the judiciary by ________
setting the jurisdiction of particular courts
Just as with members of congressional committees, bureaucrats gain power by _____________
specializing in particular policy areas
Joint committees are often formed in order to _______
speed up consideration of complex legislation
Permanent committees that are responsible for legislation related to a particular set of issues are called ______ committees
standing
What does the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) do?
stop the smuggling of drugs and humans but they have been accused of deporting innocent people and seperating families
A heightened standard of review used by the Supreme Court to assess the constitutionality of laws that affect people belonging to a suspect classification is called_________
strict scrutiny
Which statement most accurately summarizes the outcome of Reconstruction?
temporarily afforded most Blacks protections of their political rights
Affirmative action programs are extremely controversial in American politics and culture because of ____________
the American commitment to procedural over substantive values
Barbour and Wright use the example of Lincoln's promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation to support their contention that_____
the Civil War was not just a moral cursuade against slavery
Barbour and Wright imply that in disputes between political bureaucratic appointees and career civil servants, _________
the civil servants have time on their side, although the appointees have the advantage of their position
When it comes to economic equality between Black and White Americans____________
the lingering effects of de facto discrimination have finally worked their way out of the system
Bureaucratic offices try to offer unique services to their clientele groups because they _________
want to survive by having a monopoly on those particular services
The drafting and redrafting of legislation is done primarily _______
within congressional committee