Ap Government Chapters 12, 13, 14

Front 1

budget

Back 1

a policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)

Front 2

deficit

Back 2

an excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.

Front 3

expenditures

Back 3

government spending. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense.

Front 4

revenues

Back 4

the financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and social security tax are two major sources of the federal government revenue.

Front 5

national dept

Back 5

all the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding.

Front 6

tax expenditures

Back 6

revenues losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions allowed by federal tax laws.

Front 7

social security act

Back 7

a 1935 law intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older americans and thus save them from poverty.

Front 8

medicare

Back 8

a program added to the social security system in the 1965 that provides health insurance for the elderly, covering hospitalization, doctor fees and other health expenses.

Front 9

incrementalism

Back 9

a description of the budget process which the best predictor of this years budget is last years budget, plus a little bit more (an increment).

Front 10

uncontrollable expenditures

Back 10

expenditures that are determined by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program or by previous obligations of the government and that congress therefore cannot easily control.

Front 11

entitlements

Back 11

policies for which congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients.

Front 12

House ways and means committee

Back 12

the house of representatives committee that, along with the senate finance committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of congress as a whole.

Front 13

senate finance committee

Back 13

the senate committee along with the the house ways and means committee, write the tax codes, subject to the approval of congress as a whole.

Front 14

congressional budget office

Back 14

advises congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the presidents office of management and budget.

Front 15

budget resolution

Back 15

a resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs.

Front 16

reconciliation

Back 16

a congressional process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments.

Front 17

appropriation bill

Back 17

an act of congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. appropriations usually cover one year.

Front 18

continuing resolutions

Back 18

when congress cannot reach an agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year.

Front 19

Chapter 12

Back 19

...

Front 20

twenty second amendment

Back 20

ratified in 1951 this amendment limited the powers of the presidents to two terms in office.

Front 21

twenty fifth amendment

Back 21

ratified in 1967, this amendment permits the vice president to become acting president if the vice president and the presidents cabinet determine that the president is disabled, and it outlines how a recuperated president can reclaim the job.

Front 22

impeachment

Back 22

the political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the constitution.

Front 23

Watergate

Back 23

the event and scandal surrounding a break in at the democratic national committee headquarters in 1972.

Front 24

executive orders

Back 24

regulations originating with the executive branch. Executive orders are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy.

Front 25

cabinet

Back 25

a group of presidential advisers not mentioned in the constitution, although every president has had one.

Front 26

national security council

Back 26

the committee that links the presidents foreign and military policy advisers. Its formal members are the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense. and it is managed by the presidents national security assistent.

Front 27

council of economic advisors

Back 27

a three-member body appointed by the president to advise the president on economy.

Front 28

office of management and budget

Back 28

an office that prepares the presidents budget and also advises presidents on proposal from departments and agencies and helps review their posed regulations.

Front 29

veto

Back 29

the constitutional power to send a bill back to congress with reasons for rejecting it.

Front 30

pocket veto

Back 30

a type of veto occurring when congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president and the president simply lets the bill die by neither signing nor vetoing it.

Front 31

presidential coattails

Back 31

these occur when voters cast their ballots for congressional candidates of the presidents party because they support the president.

Front 32

war powers resolution

Back 32

a law passed in 1973, in reaction to American fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Front 33

legislative veto

Back 33

a vote in congress to override a presidential decision.

Front 34

crisis

Back 34

a sudden, unpredictable and potentially dangerous event requiring the president to play the role of crisis manager.

Front 35

chapter 14

Back 35

...

Front 36

bureaucracy

Back 36

according to Max Weber a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality.

Front 37

patronage

Back 37

a system in which jobs and promotions are awarded for political reasons rather than for merit or competence.

Front 38

pendleton civil service act

Back 38

passed in 1883, an act that creates a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Front 39

civil service

Back 39

a system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a non partisan government service.

Front 40

merit principle

Back 40

the ideas that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.

Front 41

Hatch Act

Back 41

A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics while on duty or for employees in sensitive positions at any time.

Front 42

office of personnel management

Back 42

the office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.

Front 43

GS (general schedule) rating

Back 43

a schedule for federal employee, ranging from GS 1 to GS 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.

Front 44

Senior Executive Service

Back 44

An elite cadre of about 9,000 federal government managers at the top of the civil service system.

Front 45

government corporation

Back 45

a government organization that, like business corporations, provides a service that could be delivered by the private sector and typically charged for its services.

Front 46

independent executive agency

Back 46

the government agencies not accounted for by cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations.

Front 47

policy implementation

Back 47

the stage of policy making between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people affected.

Front 48

standard operating procedures

Back 48

better known as SOPs these procedures for everyday decisions making enable bureaucrats to bring efficiency and uniformity to the running of complex organizations.

Front 49

administrative discretion

Back 49

the authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem.

Front 50

street-level bureauctrats

Back 50

a phase coined by Michael Lipsky, referring to those bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion.

Front 51

regulation

Back 51

the use of government authority to control or change some practice in the private sector.

Front 52

deregulation

Back 52

the lifting of government restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities.

Front 53

executive orders

Back 53

regulations originating with the executive branch. Executive orders are one method president can use to control the bureaucracy

Front 54

iron triangle

Back 54

Also know as sub governments, a mutually dependent, mutually advantageous relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees. Iron triangle dominate some areas of domestic policy making.