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270 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Government by the people, both directly or indirectly, with free and frequent elections.
Democracy
Government in which citizens vote on laws and select officials directly.
Direct Democracy
Government in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws; also called a republic.
Representative Democracy
A government that enforces recognized limits on those who govern and allows the voice of the people to be heard through free, fair, and relatively frequent elections.
Constitutional Democracy
The set of arrangements, including checks and balances, federalism, separation of powers, rule of law, due process, and a bill of rights, that requires our leaders to listen, think, bargain, and explain before they act or make laws. We then hold them politically and legally accountable for how they exercise their powers.
Constitutionalism
The idea that the rights of the nation are supreme over the rights of the individuals who make up the nation.
Statism
The idea that a just government must derive its powers from the consent of the people it governs.
Popular Consent
Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.
Majority Rule
The candidate or party that wins more than half the votes cast in an election.
Majority
Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election, not necessarily more than half.
Plurality
Government by religious leaders, who claim divine guidance.
Theocracy
The first governing document of the confederated states drafted in 1777, ratified in 1781, and replaced by the present Constitution in 1789.
Articles of Confederation
A convention held in September 1786 to consider problems of trade and navigation, attended by five states and important because it issued the call to Congress and the states for what became the Constitutional Convention.
Annapolis Convention
The convention in Philadelphia, May 25 to September 17, 1787, that debated and agreed upon the Constitution of the United States.
Constitutional Convention
Rebellion led by Daniel Shays of farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786-1787, protesting mortgage foreclosures. It highlighted the need for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went out.
Shay's Rebellion
The principle of a two-house legislature.
Bicameralism
Initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central government with a bicameral legislature dominated by the big states.
Virginia Plan
Proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by William Paterson of New Jersey for a central government with a single-house legislature in which each state would be represented equally.
New Jersey Plan
Compromise agreement by states at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature with a lower house in which representation would be based on population and an upper house in which each state would have two senators.
Connecticut Compromise
Compromise between northern and southern states at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.
Three-fifths Compromise
Supporters of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government.
Federalists
Opponents of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government, generally.
Antifederalists
Essays promoting ratification of the Constitution, published anonymously by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in 1787 and 1788.
Federalist Papers
God’s or nature’s law that defines right from wrong and is higher than human law.
Natural Law
Constitutional division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, with the legislative branch making law, the executive applying and enforcing the law, and the judiciary interpreting the law.
Separation of Powers
Constitutional grant of powers that enables each of the three branches of government to check some acts of the others and therefore ensure that no branch can dominate.
Checks and Balances
Governance divided between the parties, especially when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.
Divided Government
Election in which voters choose party nominees.
Direct Primary
Procedure whereby a certain number of voters may, by petition, propose a law or constitutional amendment and have it submitted to the voters.
Initiative
Procedure for submitting to popular vote measures passed by the legislature or proposed amendments to a state constitution.
referendum
Procedure for submitting to popular vote the removal of officials from office before the end of their term.
recall
The power of a court to refuse to enforce a law or a government regulation that in the opinion of the judges conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or, in a state court, the state constitution.
judicial review
Court order directing an official to perform an official duty.
Writ of mandamus
Formal accusation by the lower house of legislature against a public official, the first step in removal from office.
impeachment
Directive issued by a president or governor that has the force of law.
executive order
The power to keep executive communications confidential, especially if they relate to national security.
executive privilege
Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated.
impoundment
The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.
devolution revolution
Constitutional arrangement in which power is distributed between a central government and subdivisional governments, called states in the United States. The national and the subdivisional governments both exercise direct authority over individuals.
Federalism
Views the Constitution as giving a limited list of powers—primarily foreign policy and national defense—to the national government, leaving the rest to the sovereign states. Each level of government is dominant within its own sphere. The Supreme Court serves as the umpire between the national government and the states in disputes over which level of government has responsibility for a particular activity.
Dual-Federalism (layer-cake)
Stresses federalism as a system of intergovernmental relations in delivering governmental goods and services to the people and calls for cooperation among various levels of government.
cooperative federalism
Conceives of federalism as a marble cake in which all levels of government are involved in a variety of issues and programs, rather than a layer cake, or dual federalism, with fixed divisions between layers or levels of government.
marble cake federalism
Views the national government, 50 states, and thousands of local governments as competing with each other over ways to put together packages of services and taxes. Applies the analogy of the marketplace: we have some choice about which state and city we want to “use”, just as we have choices about what kind of telephone service we use.
competitive federalism
Implies that although federalism provides “a sharing of power and authority between the national and state governments, the state’s share rests upon the permission and permissiveness of the national government.”
permissive federalism
Championed by Ronald Reagan, presumes that the power of the federal government is limited in favor of the broad powers reserved to the states.
"Our Federalism"
Constitutional arrangement that concentrates power in a central government.
unitary system
Constitutional arrangement in which sovereign nations or states, by compact, create a central government but carefully limit its power and do not give it direct authority over individuals.
Confederation
Powers the Constitution specifically grants to one of the branches of the national government.
express powers
Powers inferred from the express powers that allow Congress to carry out its functions.
implied powers
Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3) setting forth the implied powers of Congress. It states that Congress, in addition to its express powers has the right to make all laws necessary and proper to carry out all powers the Constitution vests in the national government.
Necessary and Proper Clause
The powers of the national government in foreign affairs that the Supreme Court has declared do not depend on constitutional grants but rather grow out of the very existence of the national government.
Inherent powers
The clause in the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.
Commerce Clause
A requirement the federal government imposes as a condition for receiving federal funds.
Federal mandate
Powers that the Constitution gives to both the national and state governments, such as the power to levy taxes.
Concurrent powers
Clause in the Constitution (Article 4, Section 1) requiring each state to recognize the civil judgments rendered by the courts of the other states and to accept their public records and acts as valid.
Full Faith and Credit Clause
Legal process whereby an alleged criminal offender is surrendered by the officials of one states to officials of the state in which the crime is alleged to have been committed.
Extradition
An agreement among two or more states. Congress must approve most such agreements.
Interstate compact
Constitutional doctrine that whenever conflict occurs between the constitutionally authorized actions of the national government and those of a state or local government, the actions of the federal government will prevail.
National Supremacy
The right of a federal law or a regulation to preclude enforcement of a state or local law or regulation.
Preemption
People who favor national action over action at the state and local levels.
Centralists
People who favor state or local action rather than national action.
Decentralists
Powers expressly or implicitly reserved to the states.
State's rights
Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose, such as school lunches or for building airports and highways. These funds are allocated by formula and are subject to detailed federal conditions, often on a matching basis; that is, the local government receiving the federal funds must put up some of its own dollars. Categorical grants, in addition, provide federal supervision to ensure that the federal dollars are spent as Congress wants.
Categorial-formula grants
Congress appropriates a certain sum, which is allocated to state and local units and sometimes to nongovernmental agencies, based on applications from those who wish to participate. Examples are grants by the National Science Foundation to universities and research institutes to support the work of scientists or grants to states and localities to support training and employment programs.
Project grants
These are broad state grants to states for prescribed activities—welfare, child care, education, social services, preventive health care, and health services—with only a few strings attached. States have greater flexibility in deciding how to spend block grant dollars, but when the federal funds for any fiscal year are gone, there are no more matching federal dollars.
Block grants
A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Direct orders must be complied with under threat of criminal or civil sanction. An example is the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, barring job discrimination by state and local governments on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin..
Direct orders
A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Federal grants may establish certain conditions that extend to all activities supported by federal funds, regardless of their source. The first and most famous of these is Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which holds that in the use of federal funds, no person may be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, or national origin. More than 60 cross-cutting requirements concern such matters as the environment, historic preservation, contract wage rates, access to government information, the care of experimental animals, and the treatment of human subjects in research projects.
Cross-cutting requirements
A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. These sanctions permit the use of federal money in one program to influence state and local policy in another. For example, a 1984 act reduced federal highway aid by up to 15 percent for any state that failed to adopt a minimum drinking age of 21.
Crossover sanctions
30-second statements on the evening news shows. The media have been accused of simplifying complicated political issues by relying on sound bites to explain them to the public.
Sound bites
Photo opportunities set up by the candidates. The media have been accused of simplifying complicated political issues by relying on photo ops to explain them to the public.
Photo ops
The means by which individuals can express preferences regarding the development of public policy.
Linkage institutions
Through different grant programs, slices up the marble cake into many different pieces, making it even more difficult to differentiate the functions of the levels of government.
Fiscal federalism
During the Great Society, the marble cake approach of intergovernmental relations.
Creative federalism
A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Total preemption rests on the national governments power under the supremacy and commerce clauses to preempt conflicting state and local activity. Building on this constitutional authority, federal law in certain areas entirely preempts state and local governments from the field. Sometimes federal law provides for partial preemption in establishing basic policies but requires states to administer them. Some programs give states an option not to participate, but if a state chooses not to do so, the national government steps in and runs the program. Even worse from the state’s point of view is mandatory partial preemption, in which the national government requires states to act on peril of losing other funds but provides no funds to support state action.
Total and Partial Preemption
This clause is also known as the elastic clause as is a major and significant power of Congress, granting Congress the ability to interpret its lawmaking ability in a broad manner.
"Necessary and Proper" Clause
The widely shared beliefs, values, and norms about how citizens relate to governments and to one another.
Political culture
Democratic and civic habits of discussion, compromise, and respect for differences, which grow out of participation in voluntary organizations.
Social capital
The rights of all people to dignity and worth; also called human rights.
Natural rights
Widespread agreement on fundamental principles of democratic governance and the values that undergird them.
Democratic consensus
Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.
Majority rule
A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.
Popular sovereignty
The widespread belief that the United States is a land of opportunity and that individual initiative and hard work can bring economic success.
American dream
An economic system characterized by private property, competitive markets, economic incentives, and limited government involvement in the production, distribution, and pricing of goods and services.
Capitalism
The right to vote
Suffrage
Domination of an industry by a single company that fixes prices and discourages competition; also, the company that dominates the industry by these means.
Monopoly
Federal laws (starting with the Sherman Act of 1890) that tried to prevent a monopoly from dominating an industry and restraining trade.
Antitrust legislation
A consistent pattern of beliefs about political values and the role of government.
Political ideology
A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.
Liberalism
A belief that limited government insures order competitive markets and personal opportunity.
Conservatism
An economic and governmental system based on public ownership of the means of production and exchange.
Socialism
An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government, promoting a free market economy, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and an absence of regulation in moral, economic, and social life.
Libertarianism
Belief in the superiority of one’s nation or ethnic group.
Ethocentrism
The process by which we develop our political attitudes, values, and beliefs.
Political socialization
The study of the characteristics of populations.
Demographics
A characteristic of individuals that is predictive of political behavior.
Political predisposition
Divisions within society that reinforce one another, making groups more homogenous or similar.
reinforcing cleavages
Divisions within society that cut across demographic categories to produce groups that are more heterogeneous or different.
cross-cutting cleavages
A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.
Manifest destiny
Conservative Christians who (as a group) have become more active in politics in the last two decades and were especially influential in the 2000 presidential election.
Fundamentalists
The total output of all economic activity in the nation, including goods and services.
Gross domestic product (GDP)
A division of population based on occupation, income, and education.
Socioeconomic status (SES)
A term the founders used to refer to political parties and special interests or interest groups.
Faction
A collection of people who share a common interest or attitude and seek to influence government for specific ends. Interest groups usually work within the framework of government and try to achieve their goals through tactics such as lobbying.
Interest Group
A large body of people interested in a common issue, idea, or concern that is of continuing significance and who are willing to take action. Movements seek to change attitudes or institutions, not just policies.
"Movement"
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment.
Open shop
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.
Closed shop
An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group’s influence.
Free rider
A nonprofit association or group operating outside of government that advocates and pursues policy objectives.
Nongovernmental Organization (NGO)
How groups form and organize to pursue their goals or objectives, including how to get individuals and groups to participate and to cooperate. The term has many applications in the various social sciences such as political science, sociology, and economics.
Collective action
Synonymous with “collective action,” it specifically studies how government officials, politicians, and voters respond to positive and negative incentives.
Public choice
An official document, published every weekday, which lists the new and proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies.
Federal Register
Literally, a “friend of the court” brief, filed by an individual or organization to present arguments in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case.
Amicus curiae brief
A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
Lobbyist
Employment cycle in which individuals who work for governmental agencies that regulate interests eventually end up working for interest groups or businesses with the same policy concern.
Revolving door
Relationships among interest groups, congressional committees and subcommittees, and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
Issue network
The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members, stockholders, or employees to contribute funds to candidates or political parties.
Political Action Committee (PAC)
A PAC formed by an officeholder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.
Leadership PAC
A tactic in which PACs collect contributions from like-minded individuals (each limited to $2000) and present them to a candidate or political party as a “bundle,” thus increasing the PAC’s influence.
Bundling
Unlimited amounts of money that political parties previously could raise for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state and local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Soft money
Something given with the expectation of receiving something in return.
Quid pro quo
The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals, groups, and parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates. When an individual, group, or party does so, they are making an independent expenditure.
Independent Expenditures
Unlimited and undisclosed spending by an individual or group on communications that do not use words like “vote for” or “vote against,” although much of this activity is actually about electing or defeating candidates.
Issue advocacy
A political group organized under section 527 of the IRS code that may accept and spend unlimited amounts of money on election activities so long as they are not spent on broadcast ads run in the last 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election in which clearly identified candidate is referred to and a relevant electorate is targeted.
527 organization
An organization that seeks political power by electing people to office so that its positions and philosophy become public policy.
Political Party
A local or judicial election in which candidates are not selected or endorsed by political parties and party affiliation is not listed on ballots.
Nonpartisan election
The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.
Patronage
Political contributions given to a party, candidate, or interest group that are limited in amounts and fully disclosed. Raising such limited funds is harder than raising unlimited funds, hence the term “hard money.”
Hard money
Period at the beginning of the new president’s term during which the president enjoys generally positive relations with the press and Congress, usually lasting about six months.
Honeymoon
A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.
Caucus
An election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.
Proportional representation
A minor party that believes in extremely limited government. Libertarians call for a free market system, expanded individual liberties such as drug legalization, and a foreign policy of nonintervention, free trade, and open immigration.
Libertarian Party
A minor party dedicated to the environment, social justice, nonviolence, and the foreign policy of nonintervention. Ralph Nader ran as the Green party’s nominee in 2000.
Green Party
A minor party founded by Ross Perot in 1995. It focuses on national government reform, fiscal responsibility, and political accountability. It has recently struggled with internal strife and criticism that it lacks an identity.
Reform Party
An election during periods of expanded suffrage and change in the economy and society that proves to be a turning point, redefining the agenda of politics and the alignment of voters within parties.
Realigning Elections
Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.
Laissez-faire economics
Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and the curve during booms.
Keynesian economics
Governance divided between the parties, as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.
Divided government
The act of declaring party affiliation; required by some states when one registers to vote.
Party registration
The distribution of individual preferences or evaluations of a given issue, candidate, or institution within a specific population.
public opinion
In this type of sample, every individual has unknown and random chance of being selected.
random sample
A widely shared and consciously held view, like support for homeland security.
Manifest opinion
The process – most notably in families and schools – by which we develop our political attitudes, values, and beliefs.
Political socialization
A secret ballot printed by the state.
Australian ballot
How voters feel about a candidate’s background, personality, leadership ability, and other personal qualities.
Candidate appeal
Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.
Prospective issue voting
Holding incumbents, usually the president’s party, responsible for their records on issues, such as the economy or foreign policy.
Retrospective issue of voting
Electoral system used in electing the president and vice president, in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for particular party’s candidates.
Electoral college
The boost that candidates may get in an election because of the popularity of candidates above them on the ballot, especially the president.
Coattail effect
The inclination to focus on national issues, rather than local issues, in an election campaign. The impact of the national tide can be reduced by the nature of the candidates on the ballot who might have differentiated themselves from their party or its leader if the tide is negative, as well as competition in the election.
National tide
A commission created by the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act to administer election reform laws. It consists of six commissioners appointed by president and confirmed by the Senate. Its duties include overseeing disclosure of campaign finance information and public funding of presidential elections, and enforcing contribution limits.
Federal Election Committee (FEC)
Largely banned party soft money, restored a long-standing prohibition on corporations and labor unions for using general treasury funds for electoral purposes, and narrowed the definition of issue advocacy.
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)
Means of communication that are reaching the public, including newspapers and magazines, radio, television (broadcast, cable, and satellite), films, recordings, books, and electronic communication.
Mass media
The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own biases.
Selective exposure
The process by which individuals perceive what they want to in media messages.
Selective perspeption
A close contest; by extension, any contest in which the focus is on who is ahead and by how much rather than on substantive differences between the candidates.
Horse race
A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that prohibits any amendments to bills or provides that only members of the committee reporting the bill may offer amendments.
Closed rule
A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that permits floor amendments within the overall time allocated to the bill.
Open rule
Presidential custom of submitting the names of perspective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work.
Senatorial courtesy
A committee composed of members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate; such committees oversee the Library of Congress and conduct investigations.
Joint committee
A permanent committee established in a legislature, usually focusing on a policy area.
Standing committee
A congressional committee created for a specific purpose, sometimes to conduct an investigation.
Special/select committee
Committee appointed by the presiding officers of each chamber to adjust differences on a particular bill passed by each in different form.
Conference committee
An official who is expected to represent the views of his or her constituents even when personally holding different views; one interpretation of the role of legislator.
Delegate
An official who is expected to vote independently based on his or her judgment of the circumstances; one interpretation of the role of the legislator.
Trustee
A system of government in which the legislature selects the prime minister or president.
Parliamentary system
The joint listing of the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ballot as required by the Twelfth Amendment.
Presidential ticket
A formal agreement between the U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that does not require Senate approval.
Executive agreement
The constitutional requirement (in Article II, Section 3) that presidents take care that the laws are faithfully executed, even if they disagree with the purpose of those laws.
Take care clause
Presidential power to strike, or remove, specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Line item veto
Presidential staff the agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Office of Management and Business
A form of organization that operates through impersonal, uniform rules and procedures.
Bureaucracy
A career government employee.
Bureaucrat
A government agency or commission with regulatory power whose independence is protected by Congress.
Independent regularatory commission
Established by Congress in 1978 as a flexible, mobile corps of senior career executives who worked closely with presidential appointees to manage government.
Senior executive service
Agency that administers civil service laws, rules, and regulations.
Office of Personnell Management
Federal statute barring Federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds.
Hatch Act
Authority given by Congress to the Federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing the laws.
Administration discretion
Providing automatic increases to compensate for inflation.
Indexing
Programs such as unemployment insurance, disability relief, or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.
Entitlement Programs
Review of all executive branch testimony, reports, and draft legislation by the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that each communication to Congress is in accordance with the president’s program.
Central clearance
A judicial system in which the court of law is a neutral arena where two parties argue their differences.
Adversary system
A law that governs relationships between individuals and defines their legal rights.
Civil law
Arrangement whereby public officials are hired to provide legal assistance to people accused of crimes who are unable to hire their own attorneys.
Public defender system
A court order requiring explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody.
Writ of Habeus Corpus
Presidential custom of submitting the names of prospective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work.
Senetorial courtesy
Philosophy proposing that judges should interpret the Constitution to reflect current conditions and values.
Judicial activism
Philosophy proposing that judges should interpret the Constitution to reflect what the framers intended and what its words literally say.
Judicial restraint
The rule of precedent, whereby a rule or law contained in a judicial decision is commonly viewed as binding on judges whenever the same question is presented.
Stare decisis
The list of potential cases that reach the Supreme Court.
Docket
Retroactive criminal law that works to the disadvantage of a person.
Ex post facto law
Legislative act inflicting punishment, including deprivation of property, without a trial, on named individuals or members of a specific group.
Bill of Attainder
Clause in the Fifth Amendment limiting the power of the national government; similar clause in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting state governments from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Due Process Clause
The process by which provisions of the bill of rights are brought within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment and so applied to state and local governments.
selective incorporation
Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted this to forbid governmental support to any or all religions.
Establishment Clause
Money government provides to parents to pay their children’s tuition in a public or private school of their choice.
Vouchers
Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Free exercise clause
Interpretation of the First Amendment that would permit legislatures to forbid speech encouraging people to engage in illegal action.
Bad tendency act
Interpretation of the First Amendment that holds that the government cannot interfere with speech unless the speech presents a clear and present danger that it will lead to evil or illegal acts.
Clear and present danger test
Interpretation of the First Amendment that holds that freedom of expression is so essential to democracy that governments should not punish persons for what they say, only for what they do.
Preferred postion doctrine
Libel, obscenity, fighting words, and commercial speech, which are not entitled to constitutional protection in all circumstances.
Nonprotected speech
Written defamation of another person. For public officials and public figures, the constitutional tests designed to restrict libel actions are especially rigid.
Libel
Attempting to overthrow the government by force or use violence to interrupt its activities.
Sedition
Quality or state of a work that taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex by depicting sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and that lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Obscenity
Words that by their very nature inflict injury on those to whom they are addressed or insight them to acts of violence.
them's "fighting words"
Advertisements and commercials for products and services; they receive less First Amendment protection, primarily to discourage false and misleading ads.
Commerical speech
Censorship imposed before a speech is made or a newspaper is published; usually presumed to be unconstitutional.
Prior restraint
Deliberate refusal to obey law or comply with orders of public officials as a means of expressing opposition.
civil disobedience
The right to renounce one’s citizenship.
Right of expatriation
The rights of an individual to own, use, rent, invest in, buy, and sell property.
Property rights
Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 10) originally intended to prohibit state governments from modifying contracts made between individuals; for a while interpreted as prohibiting state governments from taking actions that adversely affect property rights; no longer interpreted so broadly and no longer constrains state governments from exercising their police powers.
Contract clause
Inherent powers of state governments to pass laws to protect the public health, safety, and welfare; the national government has no directly granted police powers but accomplishes the same goals through other delegated powers.
Police powers
Power of a government to take private property for public use; the U.S. Constitution gives national and state governments this power and requires them to provide just compensation for property so taken.
eminent domain
Government regulation of property so extensive that government is deemed to have taken the property by the power of eminent domain, for which it must compensate the property owners.
regulatory taking
Constitutional requirement that governments proceed by proper methods; limits how government may exercise power.
Procedural due process
Constitutional requirement that governments act reasonably and that the substance of the laws themselves be fair and reasonable; limits what the government may do.
Substantive due process
A jury of 12 to 23 persons who, in private, hear evidence presented by the government to determine whether persons shall be required to stand trial. If the jury believes there is sufficient evidence that a crime was committed, it issues an indictment.
Grand jury
A jury of 6 to 12 persons that determines guilt or innocence in a civil or criminal action.
Perit jury
Assigning police to neighborhoods where they walk the beat and work with churches and other community groups to reduce crime and improve relations with minorities.
Community policing
Remedial action designed to overcome the effects of discrimination against minorities and women.
Affirmitave action
A congressional district created to include a majority of minority voters; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the main factor in redistricting.
Majority-minority disticting
State laws formerly pervasive throughout the South requiring public facilities and accommodations to be segregated by race; ruled unconstitutional.
Jim Crow laws
Segregation imposed by law.
De jure segregation
Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions or personal choice.
De facto segregation
The clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.
Commerce Clause
Lawsuit brought by an individual or group of people on behalf of all those similarly situated.
Class Action suit
A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
restrictive convenant
A theory of international relations that focuses on the tendency of nations to operate from self-interest.
realism
The desire to avoid international entanglement altogether.
Isolationalism
The belief that nations must engage in international problem solving.
Internationalism
A philosophy that encourages individual nations to act on their own when facing threats from other nations.
Unilateralism
A philosophy that encourages individual nations to act on their own when facing threats from other nations.
Unilateralism
A policy adopted by the Bush administration in 2001 that asserts America’s right to attack any nation that has weapons of mass destruction that might be used against U.S. interests at home or abroad.
Bush Doctrine
A philosophy that encourages individual nations tacked together to solve international problems.
Multilateralism
The reliance on economic and military strength to solve international problems.
Hard power
The reliance on diplomacy and negotiation to solve international problems.
Soft power
A theory that is based on creating enough military strength to convince other nations not to attack first.
Theory of deterrence
Trade status granted as part of an international trade policy that gives a nation the same favorable trade concessions and tariffs that the best trading partners receive.
Normal trade relations
The Federal government’s primary intelligence officer, responsible for overseeing all national intelligence agencies and providing advice to the President on terrorist threats.
national intelligence director
Programs that the Federal government requires States to implement without Federal funding.
unfunded mandate
Programs such as unemployment insurance, disaster relief, or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.
entitlements
Programs such as Medicaid and welfare under which applicants must meet eligibility requirements based on need.
means-tested entitlements
Aid to the poor; “welfare.”
Public assistance
Programs in which eligibility is based on prior contributions to government, usually in the form of payroll taxes.
Social insurance
A combination of entitlement programs, paid for by employer and employee taxes, that includes retirement benefits, health insurance, and support for disabled workers and the children of deceased or disabled workers.
Social security
National Health Insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Medicare
Federal program that provides medical benefits for low-income persons.
Medicaid
Alternative means of health care in which people or their employers are charged a set amount and the HMO provides health care and covers hospital costs.
Health Maitenance Organization (HMO)
Alternative means of health care in which individuals make tax-deductible contributions to a special account that can be used to pay medical expenses.
Medical savings account
The informal list of issues that Congress and the president consider most important for action.
Policy agenda
A specific course of action taken by government to achieve a public goal.
public policy
A type of policy that provides benefits to all Americans.
Distibutive policy
A type of policy that takes benefits (usually through taxes) from one group of Americans and gives them to another (usually through spending).
Redistributive policy
A policy-making alliance that involves a very strong ties among a congressional committee, an interest group, and a Federal Department or agency.
Iron triangle
A policy-making alliance among loosely connected participants that comes together on a particular issue, then disbands.
issue network
Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling taxing and spending.
Fiscal policy
Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling the money supply and thus interest rates.
Monetary policy
Tax levied on imports to help protect the nation’s industries, labor, or farmers from foreign competition. It can also be used to raise additional revenue.
Tariff
A tax graduated so that people with higher incomes pay larger fraction of their income than people with lower incomes.
Progressive tax
An agency of Congress that analyzes presidential budget recommendations and estimates the cost of proposed legislation.
Congression Budget Office (CBO)
A tax on increased value of the product at each stage of production and distribution rather than just at the point of sale.
Value-added tax
theory that government should control the money supply to encourage economic growth and restrain inflation.
Monetarism
The system created by Congress in 1913 to establish banking practices and regulate currency in circulation and the amount of credit available. It consists of 12 regional banks supervised by the Board of Governors. Often called simply the Fed.
Federal Reserve System
International organization derived from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that promotes it free trade around the world.
World Trade Organization
An international trade organization with more than 130 members, including the United States and the People’s Republic of China, that seeks to encourage free trade by lowering tariffs and other trade restrictions.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Agreement signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Policy of erecting trade barriers to protect domestic industry.
Protectionism
The practice of exporting U.S. jobs to lower paid employees in other nations.
Offshoring
A company in which new employees must join a union within a stated time period
Union shop
A court order forbidding specific individuals or groups from performing certain acts (such as striking) that the court considers harmful to the rights and property of an employer or community.
Labor injunction
Statement required by Federal law from all agencies for any project using Federal funds to assess the potential affect of the new construction or development on the environment.
environmental impact statement