Final Review American Govt!

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Means Testing

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A procedure that determines eligibility for government public-assistance programs. A potential beneficiary must show need and an inability to provide for that provide for that need.

Role: A way of determining who can benefit from non-contributory programs

Example: TANF

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Contributory vs. Non-Contributory Programs

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Contributory: A social program financed in whole or in part by taxation or other mandatory contributions by its present or future recipients . (i.e- Social Security)

Non-Con- A social program that assists people based on demonstrated need rather than contributions they have made.

Example-Temporary Assistance to Needy families which provides "welfare" to families that cannot provide for themselves as determined by means testing.

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Monetary
vs.
Fiscal Policy

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Monetary- Policies that control the supply of money, the price of money (interest rate), and the availability of credit.

Fiscal- Policies that use spending and taxing to accomplish policy purposes.

Role: Monetary and Fiscal are the two Macroeconomic policies in the United States

Example: Monetary policy- Fed. Reserve, also known as the central bank, can affect total credit through interest rate to banks.

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Lobbying

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An attempt by a group to influence the policy process through the persuasion of government officials.

Role: More than 7000 organizations in the United States employ lobbyists. Lobbying gives companies and organizations power to influence government. It also provides research and information to government officials.

Limits (Example) - As of 1993, businesses may no longer deduct from their taxes the cost of lobbying.

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Regulatory Agency

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A department, bureau, or independent agency whose primary mission is to eliminate or restrict certain behaviors defined as negative in themselves or negative in their consequences.

Role: Creates rules (administrative legislation) that have the effect of legislation and regulate many aspects of American life and economy.

Example: FDA regulates standards for food (social) and the FTC puts regulations on trade of stocks.

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Administrative Legislation

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Rules made by regulatory agencies and commissions.

Role: Have the effect of legislation and regulate many aspects of American life. (Example: Separation of Powers in the Constitution, and the rules work within only the jurisdiction).

Example: The FDA makes administrative legislation when they deem a food additive to be unsafe.

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Measurement Error

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The failure to identify the true distributions of opinion within a population because of errors such as ambiguous or poorly worded questions.

Role: Can cause polls to measure public opinion incorrectly.

Example: 2/3 think we spend too little on assistance for the poor, about 1/2 of Americans think we spend too much on welfare.

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Rule Making

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A quasi-legislative administrative process that produces regulations by government agencies.

Role: Government agencies create the more detailed regulations of how a government will be implemented.

Example: The Forest Service changed rules about road-building in national forests from none to allowing states to make proposals

- New rules only take affect after a period of public comment

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Selection Bias

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A polling error in which the sample is not representative of the population being studied, resulting in some opinions being over/under represented

Role: Selective Bias can distort the measure of public opinion by survey because the actual population is not reflected in the sample.

Example: If a poll was taken on the internet it may discount those without internet access or older citizens.

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Australian Ballot

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An electoral format that presents the names of all the candidates for any given office on the same ballot.

Adopted by most states between 1885-1895

Role: Decreased split-ticket voting
Changed vote to approval of specific candidates rather than party.
* Created more of a secret ballot and increased voting privacy

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Third Party

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A party that organizes to compete against the two major American political parties

Role: Represents the social economic protests not given voice by the two major parties. It takes votes away from major parties and can change the election.

Example: Progressive Party gave voice to interests of the urban middle class in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Single Member District

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An electorate that is allowed to elect only one representative from each district-- the typical method of representation in the United States.

Role: Can have a huge impact on elections, because it depends how the district is set up and leaves the third party out of the picture

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Gerrymandering

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The apportionment of voters in districts in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one political party.

Role: Gerrymandering skews the votes due to manipulative apportionment. It also leaves the opportunity to have a very biased district for a certain candidate and in turn, decreases democracy, fairness and representation.

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Pluralism

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The theory that all interests are and should be free to compete for influence in the government. The outcome of this competition is compromise and moderation.

Role: Pluralism necessitates lobbying so that no single interest can tyrannize the other. Yet, they are not always equal, thus resulting in an upper-class bias.

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Going Public

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The act of launching a media campaign to build popular support.

Examples: Advertising campaigns, protests, and grassroots lobbying efforts.

Role: "Going Public" has a great impact on the Persuasion and Social Influence of the individual. It increases the power of the political candidate. Related to lobbying.

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Bureaucratic Drift

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When a policy can slip away from what voters might want in the direction of what the bureaucracy wants (to an extent).


Role: Bureaucracies are agents of elected representatives used to implement public policies. Two bosses of the bureaucracy-- the president and congress.

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Framing

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The power of the media to influence how events and issues are interpreted.

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Priming

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A process of preparing the public to take a particular view of an event or a political actor.

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Majority Minority District

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District of where the majority of constituents are of ethnic minority. The prevents minority gerrymandering

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Referendum

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A measure proposed or passed by a legislature to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection.

Role :Direct Democracy because the voters govern directly without intervention from government officials. Validity of results subject to judicial action.

Example: 1995-- Cut services to illegal immigrants--overturned.

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Party Identification

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An individual's attachment to a particular political party, which might be based on issues or ideology, past experience, or upbringing.

Role: Public may vote based on emotions rather than practical reasons.

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Proportional representation

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A multiple-member district system that allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the vote.

Role: Provides more equal representation,

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Duverger's Law

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Law of politics, formalized by Maurice Duverger stating that plurality rule and electoral systems will tend to have two political parties.

Role: The law is driven by the idea that in the long run rational politicians and voters will realize that it is hopeless to have more than two parties competing at national level.
Two parties are ideologically broad, which gives more room to appeal to the majority of the public's interests.

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Nomination

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The process by which political parties select their candidates for election to public office.

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Public Good

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A good that, first, maybe be enjoyed by anyone if it is provided and, second, may not be denied to anyone once it has been provided.

Example: Protection provided by the police, fire department, and the military.

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Redistribution

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A policy whose objective is to tax or spend in such a way as to reduce the disparities of wealth between the lowest and highest income brackets.

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Deregulation

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The removal of government controls from an industry or sector, to allow for a free and efficient marketplace. There are many risks that come with deregulation. It downsizes bureaucracy and can lead to privatization

Example: Electricity deregulation was supposed to bring cheaper electricity prices and more choice of suppliers to householders. Instead it brought wildly volatile wholesale prices and undermined the reliability of the electricity supply.

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Primary ( open/closed)

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Closed- A primary election in which voters can participate in the nomination of only those candidates of the party in which they have been enrolled for a period of time before primary day.

Open- A primary election in which voters can choose on the day of the primary which party to enroll in to select candidates for the general election.

Role: Primaries are more open than convention and caucuses.

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Deregulation

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The policy of reducing and eliminating regulatory restraints on the conduct of individuals or political institutions.

Role: Downsizes bureaucracy...can lead to privatization.

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Entitlement

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The eligibility for benefits by virtue of a category defined by law. Categories can be changed only by legislation; Deprivation of individual benefits can be determined only through due process in court.

Role: Court Case, Goldberg vs. Kelly -- 1970: case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires an evidentiary hearing before a recipient of certain government benefits (welfare) can be deprived of such benefits.

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Social Security

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A contributory welfare program into which working Americans place a percentage of their wages and from which they receive cash benefits after retirement.

Role: By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world . Social Security is currently estimated to keep roughly 40 percent of all Americans age 65 or older out of poverty.