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82 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Veto
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A constitutional right to reject a decision or proposal made by a lawmaking body.
Importance: filibusters are a veto for the minority against the majority in the senate. |
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The Paradox of congress
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Congress is very good at serving individual interests, and not very good at serving public interests. This includes spending irresponsibly.
Importance: Legislation in congress tends to be incoherent and irresponsible. Gridlock is an example of this, where a system doesn't work therefore the government shuts down. |
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Logrolling
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Vote trading, (if you vote for my..., then I'll vote for your...) This is done through riders.
Importance: because of this we see more distributive policy, or more policy towards the individual interest. |
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The Distributive Tendency
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Tendency to turn all legislation into distributive legislation to bring money to people's district.
Importance:? |
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Rider
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An amendment that is generally not germane, or does not have to do with the content of the bill, that appropriates money for someone's district or multiple districts.
Importance: because of this we always spend more money than we have to spend. |
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African drought bill YEAR
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1984. A bill that provided emergency aid ($60 Million) to relieve the drought in Ethiopia and Somalia. 35 Amendments were added to this bill as riders( having nothing to do with the actual bill). This turned into 1.1 billion worth of pork for america.
Importance: example of incoherent legislation that comes from fragmented power. |
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Consolidated Appropriations Act of YEAR
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2005. A bill that claimed to include all of the consolidated necessities for the US. It included 11,772 riders. 16 Billion dollars were spent on pork. At this time Republicans had the majority of both houses and the president.
Importance: Republicans soon became like the democrats when it came to pork. This shows that it doesn't matter which party it is doing the irresponsible spending, just that the US congress overall is irresponsible. |
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NAFTA YEAR
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1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, a bill that eliminated the trade boundaries between canada, us, and mexico. Sponsored by bill clinton-democrat, voted for by republicnas.
Importance: Who do you blame for this? You can't blame either party. Example of irrespsonsible legislation due to fragmented power. |
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Emergency Economic Stabilization Act YEAR
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2008 Bill for a 800 billion dollars to bailout rich wallstreet bankers. Sponsored by Bush, voted for by democrats.
Importance: Who do you blame? You can't blame either party. Example of irresponsible legislation. due to fragemented power. |
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filibuster
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Unlimited talking in the senate. Institution that allows minority to stop the majority.
Importance: this is used becuase there is no rules committee in the senate. TO bring the process of lawmaking to a halt. Gives minority a veto over legislation in the senate. |
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filibuster
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Unlimited talking in the senate. Institution that allows minority to stop the majority.
Importance: this is used becuase there is no rules committee in the senate. TO bring the process of lawmaking to a halt. Gives minority a veto over legislation in the senate. |
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Head of State
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function of the chief executive, the person who civilizes, father figure. The person we all love because we are patriotic.
Importance: When the head of state dies in office we go into mourning because we love the symbol of our country. Symbolic of what unites us. In the US the president is both the Head of State and Head of Government. |
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Head of Government
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function of the chief executive, person who makes decisions about politics, decides what the government will do.
Importance: the hed of government acts on things that divide us, the president is both head of state and head of government. |
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Transformation of George W. Bush
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During Bush's campaign his verbal clumsiness became very humorous, 9/11 happened, it immediately became impolite to make fun of him. It became important to portray the president as strong, decisive, and intelligent. A month after 9/11 bush had the highest presidential popularity rating ever recorded.
Importance: After the country has been attacked people tend to respect the head of state. |
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"commander-in-chief" clause
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article II of the constitution that says the president is also given the power to negotiate treaties. In charge of american foreign policy: send and recieve ambassadors.
Importance: President has much more formal constitutional power to run foreign policy than to run domestic policy. |
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The power to persuade
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a phrase that means in domestic policy the president is a chief bargainer.
Importance:? |
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"bully pulpit"
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a phrase teddy roosevelt used, meaning bully as cool/good referring to the executive office/presidency.
Importance: president does not have much influence over the public opinion even though they are seen as a "superstar". |
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Gridlock
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a metaphor based upon traffic jams that means nothing moves. Importnace: When there is a president in one party and at least one house in congress has the majority of the party that the president is not associated with gridlock occurs.
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Domestic policy
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policy that presents laws that deal with issues which are directly related to that country.
Importance: the president has limited domestic policy. |
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capital-gains taxes (DATE)
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1989-1992
Taxes on profits from investments. During George Bush Sr's presidency his number one goal was to lower these taxes. He always failed democrats voted agains it every year. Importance: When considering domestic policy, what party controls congress is very important. If the house is against the president in domestic policy the house usually wins. |
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health-care reform (DATE)
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1993-1994
A bill presented by Clinton to institute a national health insurance. All signs pointed to the bill getting passed. Clinton and the majority of congress were democrats, however it failed. Importance: in domestic policy even if the president's party is in control of congress, even if public seems to be in favor of the president's policy the president can still fail. |
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ANWR(DATE)
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2003,2006
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in North Alaska, explored and foun oil. Bush and republicans wanted to pass a law to open up ANWR to oil drilling. Republicans had the majority bu tht bill didn't pass. Importance: Even if the president has majority of both houses, even if there is a war on, even if the president is persoannly popular, domestic policy initiatives can still fail. |
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Deepwater Horizon (DATE)
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2010
the deepwater horizon oil rig blew out in the gulf of mexico on april 20th. Obama issued exectuive order to stop drilling. Oil companies sued, and judge ruled executive order unjust. Importance: even if president has both houses, is trying to deal with a national emergec, and even when public is supported the president can still fail. |
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Foreign policy
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laws made in national interests that safeguard a country based on international relations.
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opening to china (DATE)
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1970-1979
1950-turman brok relations with china, unrecognized as acountry, recognized china republic in taiwan. Nxon- wanted to recognize china to balance power of soviet union. Ping pong diplomacy- very subtle way of letting china know this info. Jimmy carter ultimately did what chinese wanted: recognized china, unrecognized china republic. Importance: the president did this under the power of foreign policy, congress had nothing to do with it. |
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Iran-Contra Affair(DATE)
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1985-1986
Reagan 2 foreign policy problems: 1. communist revolution in Nicaragua (funding contras) 2. 8 americans hostage by Islamic Militants in Lebanon. Solved by: Iran & Iraq war. Iraq- US gives info on troops Iran- US gives weapons Takes profit from secret illegal missile sale and gives it to the Contra. Importance: everyone was tried for the crime, but Reagan got away with it because he said he knew nothing about it. Illustrates presidential power in foreign policy. |
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Landing troops (DATES)
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65,80,83,89,94
Troops were put into battle without informing congress. |
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Imperial Presidency(DATE)
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1945-?
A phrase that refers to the fact that the president runs foreign policy now ever since WWII. Congress has tried to gain some control but has failed. Importance:? |
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Korematsu v. United States(DATE)
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1944
A man rounded up after the attack on pearl harbor sued the US. Supreme court ruled that during a war we won't second guess what the president does. Importance: during a war a president gets extraordinary powers, powers that we wouldn't think anyone could have in america. |
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"unitary executive theory" (DATE)
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2001-?
A new theory of the US constitution made by the Bush administration in 2001. It holds that in areas which were considered to be executive that protect the government are to be immune to checks and balances. Importance:? Presidential ower in foreign policy? |
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Signing Statements (DATE)
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2001-?
One of the practical consequences of the unitary executive theory; when a president signs a bill he adds a statement, stating his belief that some parts of the bill may be unconstitutional and he reserves the authority to not observe those parts of bills that he believes to be not constitutional. Importance: George W. Bush has signed more of theses than all presidents before him combined, many which were a secret. |
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Detainee treatment act of 2005
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Law that states all prisoners must be interrogated accordin o the rules of the army.
Importance: Bush signed this with a signing statement saying he was going to ignore this if the country was in danger. |
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Non-political Myth
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The idea that judges are above politics, and they try to convince people that what they do is not political even through they interpret laws and the constitution which is a political act.
Importance: federal judges are very powerful because they have judicial review. |
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Judicial Review
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Authority to declare an act of congress, president, or state unconstitutional and therefore void. Not in the constitution bu strongly implied.
Importance: The supreme court not only has this power, but they also use this. It makes the US courts extremely powerful. |
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Partisan Appointment
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Taking into account that judges will decide according to their political party when they are appointing them.
Importance: Presidents usually appoint judges that belong to the same party as themselves. |
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Robert Bork (DATE)
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1987
A supreme court justice to be appointed by Reagan he was an extremely distinguished judicial theorist that was in favor of interpreting constitution by original intent. Liberal groups campaigned against bork and he was defeated. Importance: Introduced political campaign into the politics of supreme court appointments. |
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Wesberry v. Sanders (DATE)
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1964
US supreme court declared unconstitutional the reapportioning decision in state legislatures where areas were represented. The rural areas had more representation that the urban areas. The idea is now "one person, one vote." Importance: Powere shifted from rural areas to urban areas. |
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Roe V. Wade (DATE)
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1973
Case that came out of Texas, where before 1973 abortion was left up to state legislator. Principle established in 1965 that protects sexual privacy and all state could not outlaw abortion, but could regulate it. Importance: This created a political opposition in the courts and the supreme court took sides in this issue. |
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Texas V. Johnson(DATE)
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1989
Gregory Johnson was convicted for burning a flag and chanting against the US govt. You can burn a flag if you are disposing of it, but not with "malice and contempt". Importance: Prindle argues that this was not a good decision and that if you believe in freedom of expression you cannot suppress unpopularity. |
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bureaucracy
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a government agency created to implement policy
Importance: There is always a tension between the experts that work in the bureaucracy that want more freedom and the politicians that want to control the bureaucracy. |
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bureaupathology
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The tendency to create an administrative policy to accomplish a goal, but the organization takes on its own goals. Frankenstein monster analogy.
Importance: ? |
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NATO (DATE)
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1949
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, created to stop expansion of the communist soviet union. in 1991 the soviet union disintegrated but NATO is still active. Importance: when NATO lost its purpose it became a peace keeping organization for western europe where it needed a military. |
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the "fireman first" principle
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says that when you are a legislator and you threaten to cut the budget of a bureaucracy they will then threaten to fire the person that it's most painful to the community to fire.
Importance:? |
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Parkinson's Law
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1. Work expands to fill the time available for its completion
2. Expenses rise to meet income. Importance: This is why bureaucracies tend to take so much time and spend so much money on a goal. |
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Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion DATE
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1994
created to inform americans about healthy eating habits, and ti urge american to put less fat in their diets, therefore cheese. Importance: The department of agriculture is urging contradictory behavior on americans, and it doesn't matter to the bureaucracy that it is spending money giving contradictory information. |
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Dairy Management
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1995
an organization that manages a partnership between government and dairy industry. Importance: The department of agriculture is urging contradictory behavior on americans, and it doesn't matter to the bureaucracy that it is spending money giving contradictory information. |
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National Intelligence Director DATE
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2004
Congress created htis position in response to terrorist attacks to have authority over all agencies having to do with intelligence so that they will cooperate with each other and share information. Importance: the government had to force control on bureaucracies that did not want any outside direction/control. |
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FEMA DATE
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2005-2007
Federal Emergency Management Agency Hurricank Katrina- 2005 destroyed the aquarium of the americas. The aquarium was restocked with 100,000 dollars and the other 500+ they treid to give back. FEMA wouldn't take it to give to the treasury and they did not refund the aquarium their 100,000 dollars. Importnace: FEMA technically followed the rules here. Bureaucracies will follow rules even if they don;t make much sense. |
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Bush V. Gore DATE
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2000
An extremely close election where Bush won electoral vote but Gore one the popular vote. Democrats asked for a manual recount but supreme court justice said that it was unconstitutional. Importance: Supreme court not only took side in a political issue but also decided who would be president. |
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Citizens United V. Federal Election Commission DATE
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2010
Case in which the supreme court held that a corporation is a person and money is speech and that the mccain-feingold act is unconstitutional. Importance:Gives judicial branch the power to change legislation, but they aren't elected which goes against democratic theory. |
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Imperial Judiciary
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phrase that means there is an alarm in the decisions of the judiciary because they have too much power and they are concerned about their democratic legitimacy.
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Inflation
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rise in prices across the board, falling value of the dollar.
Importance: Federal reserve is trying to match the growth of economy to the amount of dollars the country has. |
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Discount Rate
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interest rate at which money is lent to the banks by federal reserve bank.
Importance: when the fed lowers the discount rate mortgage and car interest rates go down. When fed raised the discount rate mortgage and car interest rates go up. The rates ripple through the economy. |
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Monetary Policy
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the ability of the fed to put more or less money into the economy.
Importance: This can cause inflation or deflation. |
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Independent Central Bank
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Institution that controls money and has a big influence on the economy.
Importance: problem with democratic legitimacy, why are the people who work for the bank not elected? |
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sea otters (DATE)
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1989
Sea otters are protected by the law. Oil spill in the gulf of alaska where these otters live. The birds and sea otters were cleaning oil off of themselves and dying. So people cleaned the sea otters and took care of them until they could be let free. The bureaucrat said in order to take care of the otters you must let them die. Importance: When bureaucracies misbehave they think they are doing the right thing. They consider the enemy to be someone who doesn't follow the riles- whistleblower. |
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Sibel Edmonds (DATE)
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2001-2005
Worked for FBI in language translation section. Was fired for leaking information to the press that her coworkers were making incompetent translations and one coworker was a spy. She sued under whistelblower protection act. Importance: the whistle-blower protection act did not save Sibel Edmonds job. Bureaupathology is still alive in the FBI. |
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The Peter Principle
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states that in a bureaucracy people tend to be promoted to their level of incompetence. Importance:
Most people in bureaucracies are incompetent in their job and this is why they are so bad at what they do. They are extremely inefficient. |
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American Postal Workers Union(DATE
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2010
Democracy, have elections, the election 2010 had t be postponed becuase many of the ballots were lost in the mail. Importance: proves the inefficiency of bureaucracies. |
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Pendleton Act (DATE)
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1883
What makes bureaucracies independent. This act ended the spoil system (when president hires people in their party and fires the ones that aren't) organizations hire and fire for themselves. |
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constituency service
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personal favors for those in district; those who hold the “purse-strings” of the representatives
Importance: Extremely effective way of dealing with government is through representatives. |
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pork barrel
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used by people who do not like that Congress members are so concerned with bringing $$ to their own district
Importance: i. Way too many military bases than we need, but bases bring federal $$ to an area-wastes $$ on building bases military doesn’t need |
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the "politico" style
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?
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gerrymandering
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The drawing of legislative district boundary lines for the purpose of obtaining partison or factional advantage. A district is said to be gerrymandered when its shape is manipulated by the dominant party to maximize electoral strength at the expense of the minority party.
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authorizations vs. appropriations
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Authorization- a formal declaration by a legislative committee that a certain amount of funding may be avaialble to an agency. Some authorizations terminate in a year; others are renewable automatically without further congressional action.
Appropriation- The passage, by Congress, of a spending bill specifying the amount of authorized funds that actually will be allocated for an agency's use. |
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“politico” style(pg 202)
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legislators who don't follow one style, but instead combine both perspectives of law making: (1) trustees (a legislator who acts according to her or his conscience and the broad interests of the entire society and (2)instructed delegates (a legislator who is an agent of the voters who elected him or her and who votes according to the views of the constituents regardless of personal beliefs)
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Clinton v. City of New York(pg 236)
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In 1996, Congress passed the Line Item Veto Act which provided for the line item veto(president's ability to veto Congress's spending). Clinton used the line-item veto several times, but the act was eventually challenged in court. In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled by a 6-3 vote to overturn the Line-Item Veto Act. The Court stated that “there is no provision in the Constitution that authorizes the president to enact, to amend, or repeal statutes.”
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Youngstown Tube Company v. Sawyer (pg 241/239)
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In 1952, during the Korean War, President Truman authorized the federal seizure of steal plants and their operations by the national government. Truman claimed he could do this because of his inherent emergency powers (an inherent power exercised by the president during a period of national crisis) as chief executive and commander in chief to safeguard the countries weapon supply from steel mill worker strikes. Supreme Court ruled against the president's action and it was the first time a president's emergency powers had been limited.
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United States v. Nixon(pg 242)
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(Watergate scandal)In the 1970's 5 men had snuck into the headquarters of Democratic National Convention in order to search for documents that would damage the candidacy of the Democratic nominee, George McGovern. Later it was discovered that Nixon had planned this and his plans had been tape-recorded on a secret system. Nixon was order to turn over the tapes, but he refused claiming executive privilege (the right of the executive officials to withhold information from, or to refuse to appear before a legislative committee). In 1974 the Supreme Court Justices unanimously voted that Nixon had to hand the tapes over. The court held that executive privilege could not be used to prevent evidence from being heard in criminal proceedings.
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25th Amendment(pg 247)
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In 1967, established procedures for filling presidential and vice-presidential vacancies and makes provisions for presidential incapacity.
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Stare decisis
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a latin phrase that means “to stand on decided cases.” the judicial policy of followng its precedents established by past decisions
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FISA (pg283
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Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act- established a court to hear requests for warrants for the surveillance of suspected spies.Officials can request a warrant without having to reveal to the suspect or to the public information used to justify the warrant. The FISA court has approved almost all of the thousands of requests for warrants that officials have submitted. There is no public access to the court's proceedings or records.
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Marbury v. Madison (pg 291)
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Supreme court decision that established (It wasn't originally in the Constitution) judicial review(the power of the courts to determine whether a law or action by the other branches of government is constitutional)
Judicial Implementation: the way in which court decisions are translated into action/policy |
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.1 percent (pg264):
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It is very difficult to discharge civil servants. In recent years, fewer than .0.1 percent of federal employees have been fired for incompetence. Because discharged employees may appeal their dismissals, many months or even years can pass before the issue is resolved conclusively.
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FOIA (pg267)
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Freedom of Information Act. It required federal government agencies, with certain exceptions, to disclose to individuals information contained in government files.
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Whistle-Blower Protection Act(pg 269)
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in 1989, provided protection for whistle-blowers(someone who brings gross inefficiency or an illegal action to the public's attention. the act established the Office of Special Council (OSC), to investigate complaints brought by government employees who been demoted, fired, or otherwise sanctioned for reporting government fraud or waste
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Implementation
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the act of carrying out a policy or enforcing a law, just because you pass a lawy doesn't mean the law will get enforced or succeed. Important: passing a law is not enough, you have to implement it, and implementation is hard. There is a long list of policies that have failed to be implemented. This is especially difficult in the american democracy because it was designed to be difficult to use.
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New Towns
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created by LBJ administration, idea to get low cost govt. housing for the poor, federal goct. Owns large amounts of land in almost every state, people in HUD- department of Housing and Development would find land that wasnt being used or used right, and they would declare that land federal govt. land. This allowed available land for low-cost houses to the poor. They would be eligible for loans and grants to subsidize housing. This law is still in the books, but the program failed.
Why did it fail? San Antonio- half of fort sam Houston should be declared surplus and become eligible for grants and loans, but the fort had plans for that part of the base, the commander convinced congressmen to oppose the program, and he made speeches attacking the program Washington D.C.- Fort lincoln (civil war fort)- this was declared surplus, was surrounded by a middle class african-american neighborhood, poor people in the housing would also be african american, HUD decide this wouldn't be a problem because there would be no racism, they did not think about class hostility. The community organized against the project. So much opposition tha HUD abandoned the program. San Francisco- fort funston, designed to shoot down soviet missiles, by the 60s the missiles were obsolete, HUD declared surplus, people got made because they would ruin the view. Formed an organization to lobby against this project. Opposition from citizens all over the area killed the program in san francisco. Importance: Three expensive failures, example of failure of implementation. |
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Nuclear Waste Policy Act DATE
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1982--
Texas gets about 10% of energy from nuclear power plants, US has 104, they create radioactive waste. When Nuclear rods are no longer hot they are still radioactive and deadly for about 10,000 years. 2000 tons of nuclear waster per year, has been piling up for at least 50 years. What to do with nuclear waste? Shoot into outer space? *directed DOE department of energy to study the three most practical areas of the country, in the east, west texas (new mexico border), nevada, to decide the best place to put nuclear waste. NIMBY (not in my backyard) 2001- Congress decided on Nevada to put the waste. Various groups filed lawsuit, the lawsuits have been successful, found various problems with dumpsite Yuca mountain nevada, and they abandoned the site. 100,000 tons of nuclear waste around the country not buried. Importnace: US spent billions of dollars and 29 years to figure out what to do with waste and they have failed to figure anything out. Opposition form local members, members of congress, opposition from environmental groups, etc. have combined to prevent any solution to fix the problem of what to do with nuclear waste. |
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Project Apollo DATE
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(1961-1969)
61- kennedy said an american will walk on the moon before the end of the decade, and in 69 an american did. Importance: successfully implemented ppolicy. It was a technological policy that did not get entangled in local politics. No congressional representatives from the moon, no local citizens, etc. This is how this policy differed from the other failed policies. |
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Head Start
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1965--
a program of Johnson administration. Had two goals: 1. Identify poor children before they went to kindergarden, and put them in a program with good nutrition and taught basic things such as the alphabet. 2. That it be administered by parents in the area, not by local politicians. Head start has been a great success, still going strong, it is now administered by non-profit corporations and still avoids local politicians. Is a success does preprare children for schooling, they show an average increase of 7 IQ points, do better than children who go to schools with children that don't go through head start. Less likely to be arrested when they are teenagers.Budget 6.9 Billion dollars. Importance: successful social program because it avoided getting entangled in the checks and balances of local politics. |
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Democratic Success
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need a connection between what the people want and what govt. does; to what extent does the federal govt. do what the people want it to do?
In order to do research on this: You have to ask about issues or policies that the public knows about. Public has to be largely in favor one way or the other. People's opinion can not be irrational. (NIMBY, YBNIIMP- yes, but not if I must pay) Conclusion/Importnace: about 60% of the time the federal govt. does what the people want. Is 60% enough? |
