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62 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Schattschneider's Operational Definition of Democracy
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Democracy is a competitive political system in which competing leaders and organizations define the alternatives of public policy in such a way that the public can participate in the decision making process
Significance - Different perspectives can lead to conflict which is not always bad and can help get more people involved and trying to constantly improve the system. |
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Socialization of Conflict
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Democracy leads to the socialization of government getting everyone involved
Significance - The more people have the say the more conflicts there will be because in a democracy not everyone will see eye to eye, leading to new considerations and complications. |
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Representative Democracy
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Modern democracies are representative democracies who choose representatives of the people who have authority to decide what governments do.
Significance - Many voters stress over how they can maintain control over their elected representative and the answer is that they can vote for candidates that most closely match their preferences on issues a delegate which removes many of the practical problems that we would have if citizens had to vote on all of the smaller issues |
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Electoral Incentive
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Desire to be elected or re elected to office
Significance - Compels elected officials to represent the views of their different constituencies. |
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Permanent campaign
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Condition that prevails in the new American democracy when the next election campaign begins as soon as the last has ended and the line between electioneering and governing has disappeared.
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Retrospective Voting
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voting on the basis of past policies rather than guessing at the results of future policies.
Significance - Voters, thus, decide whether the incumbents have done a good or bad job, reelecting the good ones and booting out the bad ones. This goes had in hand with representative democracy. |
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Government Trust
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The publics belief that the government will act in the right way.
Significance - This is needed for government to operate without forcing the people to do something. |
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Scarce Resources
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A resource which is limited but has great and potentially unlimited uses.
Significance - They are valuable and fought over by individuals as well as nations. |
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Oligarchy
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A government by the few, in which individuals in power are not titled nobility but capture power either through military action or through political party.
Significance - The most important modern oligarchy governs China, a small group of communist party leaders has remained in power since 1946. |
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Government
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Organizations of individuals who have the power to make binding decisions on behalf of a particular community.
Significance - Government performs 5 important key functions. Protects citizens from unlawful activity, regulates social and economic relationships, provides services, and defends the country from foreign aggression. |
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Socialist Democracy
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a type of democracy in which the government has control over the economy
Significance - Once social democratic country is Sweden. Socialist Democracy is opposite of the capitalist that we have here in the US, in which the economy is privately owned and operated for profit. |
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Policy Window
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When a political stream, policy stream, and problem stream meet. Problem streams are the perceptions of public problems which require government actions. Through the policy stream, experts examine the problem and propose solutions. In the political stream, there is a swing in national mood, administrative or legislature turnover, and interest group pressure.
Significance - Helps set the agenda; ultimately creates a solution or temporary fix to our nations problems through the government. |
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Domestic Policy
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Government programs and regulations that directly affect those living within a country
Significance - Positions (conservative vs liberal) on domestic policy decide how people vote and their political stance. Domestic policy is often a source of disagreement. |
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Externalities
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consequences which affect people who are not directly engaged in the activities that bring those consequences about.
significance - officials must take these into account when voting on a particular policy. Both positive and negative externalities. |
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Medicaid
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program that provides medical services to those with low income
Significance - a controversial policy, as officials position on this can affect their election or reelection |
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Regulation
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Rules and standards that control economic social and political activities
Significance - without regulation standards would be a lot lower. an example of a regulation is the food and drug administration which sets safety standards for medical devices, agriculture products, and nutrition. |
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entitlement programs
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programs that distribute benefits by law to people in eligible categories. social security, medicaid, and medicare are the three largest entitlements.
Significance - laws which will give some measure of protection to average citizens and to his family against the loss of a job against poverty stricken old age - franklin roosevelt |
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Interest group
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organization or association of people with common interests that engages in politics on behalf of its members. NAACP is an example
Significance - interest groups try to influence government by lobbying public officials. |
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Policy making cycle
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agenda setting, policy deliberation, policy enactment, policy implementation, policy outputs, and policy outcomes.
significance - making of policies is a complex never ending series of events to clarify the messy process political scientists have clarified it in six stages. |
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policy evaluation
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the process of finding out about a public policy in action, the means being employed and the objections being served. Types of policy evaluation include: administrative evaluation, judicial evaluation, and political evaluation
Significance - Attempt to label policy a success or failure, followed by demands for continuation or change; at election time citizens get their opportunity to pass judgement on the gov performance. |
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Welfare Regime
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The american welfare regime consists of three linked elements: the network of direct spending social programs, the constellation of more indirect or hidden government interventions, and private social protections.
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Social construction of target populations
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when policies are created, they are supposed to affect certain populations
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Business Cycle
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The alternation of periods of economic growth with periods of slowdown.
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Monetary Policy
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the actions taken by government to vary the supply of money in an effort to stabilize the business cycle.
Significance - economists believe it to be an effective tool for managing economy because it can be altered quickly in response to changing economic circumstances. |
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Fiscal Policy
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The sum of total government taxing and spending decisions, which determines the level of deficit or surplus.
Significance - once used by presidents and still debated by politicians to manage economy; but importance of policy has been reduced by a combination of factors; divided gov, declining faith in keynesian theory, rising public debt, and globalization og economic activity |
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Recession
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a slowdown in economic activity, officially defined as a decline that persists for two quarters (six months)
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inflation
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a sustained rise in price levels such that people need more money to purchase the same amount of goods and services.
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TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program)
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program to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions, such as AIG or GM to strengthen the financial sector. Pump money to company to stabilize them so that they can move forward.
Significance - Allows financial constitutions to resume business by: stabilizing institutions and slowing further loss, allowing banks to continue lending, and providing the government with the opportunity to profit from the purchased assets |
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Federal Budget
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is a plan for the federal governments revenues and spending for the coming year. The federal budget determines what governmental programs are funded and how much, placing an importance on the various policies that enacted these programs.
Significance - many voters have the opinion that the federal budget is too high, and there should be a bigger focus on decreasing the government deficit. |
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Tax Burden
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analysis of the effect of a particular tax on the distribution of economic welfare.
Significance- most of US tax payers feel taxes are too high even though we have some of the lowest taxes. A reason for this could be that americans feel they are economic individuals and expect less from government and prefer to keep more of their money for their own use. |
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Checks and Balances
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Constitutional divisions of power into separate institutions, giving each institution the power to block the actions of the others
Significance - Creates precautions against tyranny and makes it difficult for any momentary majority to seize total power because each is elected in a different way. |
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anti federalists
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those who opposed ratification of the constitution
Significance - believe that a strong national government would lead to suppression of the rights of states and of individuals. |
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judicial review
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court authority to declare laws null and void on the grounds that they violate the constitution
significance - allows the people to overturn laws that infringe on rights |
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patronage
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appointment of individuals to public office in exchange for their political support
significance - widely practiced in the 18th and 19th centuries and contitnues to present day. This was famously done by President Jackson during his campaign. Otherwise known as spoils system. |
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separation of powers
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a system of government in which different institutions exercise the different components of governmental power.
Significance - no single branch of government can easily achieve dominance, it at least symbolically ensures that there will not be tyranny, the idea on which america was founded. |
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Bill of rights
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The first ten amendments to the constitution, which guarantee civil liberties and protect states rights
Significance - it is a response to criticism by anti federalists(it was enacted by the federalists to win ratification) |
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Constitution
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establishes the basic rule of decision making, rights, and the distribution of authority in a political system
Significance - the constitution provided the framework for rule of law(government) and also provides four key components for allowing government to operate: legitimacy, organization, operation, and limitations |
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supremacy clause
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part of the constitution that says the constitution is the supreme law of the land, to which all judges are bound.
Significance - there were differences in interpretation of this clause that were not settled until the supreme courts final decision which gave the court the power of judicial review over both federal and state laws. |
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popular sovereignty
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a doctrine in political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people
Significance - important part of a nations government. without it, rights and liberties of people are not fully protected. |
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Positive law tradition
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No answer
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1876 Constitution
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democrats regain control. The last teas constitution to be put in place and used today. It was a backlash against radical republicans and the davis administration.This constitution is considered flawed because it is reactionary making it long and confusing. Unfortunately, there is little hope of overhaul.
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categorical grants
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federal grants to a state and/or local government that impose programmatic restrictions on the use of funds. (Include regulation specifying how money is to be spent).
Significance - Food stamps provide funds to states and localities to supply food to eligible low income residents. Without this specified type on regulation many groups of people would not receive the help they need. |
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necessary and proper clause
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says that congress has the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying in to execution its other powers.
Significance - congress has a number of specific powers, including the power to tax, coin money, regulate commerce, declare war, and maintain an army. The clause is very ambiguous so the delegates can interpret the language into their own liking. |
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Commerce clause
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Gives congress the power to regulate commerce "among the states"
Significance - in 1933 national industrial recovery act (NIRA) allowed president to regulate most business in an effort to restrict unfair competition. |
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Devolution
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the return of governmental responsibilities to state and local governments
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McCulloch v Maryland
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Supreme court decision that deals with the distribution of power in the united states federal system. The court held that the federal government has the constitutional authority to enact laws that are necessary and proper for executing its enumerated powers. This case is important in the federalism context because it clarified the scope and nature of dual sovereignty, and strengthened the power of the federal government relative to the states.
Significance - Decision of 1919 in which the supreme court declared unconstitutional the states power to tax a federal government entity |
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Dual sovereignty
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a theory of federalism saying that both the national and state government have final authority over their own policy domains.
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Policy Diffusion
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Occurs when one governments decision about whether to adopt a policy innovation is influence by previous choices by other governments.
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Federalism
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Division of sovereignty between at least two different levels of government (not very common)
Significance - 18 nations have a federal system. Nations with federal systems make up a third of the worlds population and 41% of its land area. These other nations allow sub units to experience with diff policy programs. Come up with diff policies. States learn from success and failure of other states policy laboratory. |
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Marble cake federalism
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The theory that all levels of government can work together to solve common problems. Also know as cooperative federalism.
Significance - according to this theory, first propounded by political scientist Morton Grodzins, all levels of government should and in fact do perform all governmental functions together. |
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Pork barrel projects
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special legislative benefits targeted toward the constituents of particular members of congress.
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Unfunded mandates
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federal regulations that impose burdens on state and local governments without appropriating enough money to cover costs.
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NIMBY
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problem which everyone wants to solve but not in my backyard
Significance - Ex. A case that involved the disposal of radioactive waste created difficulty in choosing a site for waste disposal. Disposal was complicated by the NIMBY problem. Creates controversy. |
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Snowball effect
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When one locality starts passing a law, so other localities start passing a law, which ultimately leads to the states passing a law.
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Ethnoculturalism
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A scriptivist tradition that set rigid boundaries on group membership. In its extreme ethnoculturalism maintains that Americans are white, English speaking protestants of northern European ancestry.
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Political Culture
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Collection of beliefs and values about the justification and operation of a country's government.
Significance - political culture helps you understand why certain policies are passed and others are not |
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Political socialization
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the set of psychological and sociological processes by which families, schools, religious organizations, communities, and other societal units inculcate beliefs and values in their members.
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Red Scare
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Immigrants were persecuted as carries of Boldshevik, anarchist, and other subversive foreign ideologies. Second scare in the 1920s anti catholic and anti jewish energized the Ku klux klan. Gradually ethno cultural tensions died down. Effects of economic depression, WWII, holocaust and the cold war lead to led a general reduction in ethnic and racial tensions that lasted approx a generation.
Significance - Represented a nation wider fear and marked several horrific historical events. These issues of multiculturalism were an important part of us politics. |
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Liberalism
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a philosophy that elevates and empowers the individual as opposed to religious, hereditary, governmental, or other forms of authority.
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Equality of opportunity
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the notion that individuals should have an equal chance to advance economically through their talent and work
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Civic republicanism
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Emphasizes the responsibilities, rather than the right of citizenship. The advancement of a community is more than the sum of individualistic pursuit of private gain.
Significance - A vibrant self governing community needs individual members to act on its behalf. |
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Values
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Refer to a conception of the desirable, not something desired (you may not be able to achieve what you want, but it is still what you strive for); relatively abstract and durable claims about virtue and the good society.
Significance - They transcend particular objects and specific situations. They are motivating. They lead us to take particular position on social issues and they help us to evaluate and judge, to heap praise and fix blame on ourselves on ourselves and others. |
