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90 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Judicial Review |
The power to determine if a law or act of government conforms to the constitution > Marbury vs. Madison 1803 |
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Mandamus |
A Court Order |
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Federal Court Supremacy |
Agreement that gives federal courts the authority to over turn court decisions and to decide on the constitutionality of state laws and actions |
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Criminal Case |
Involves the government prosecuting another person for a crime against society |
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Civil Cases |
One person suing another person for violating the civil code of conduct ** person can be an individual, organization, business, firm or government |
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Plantiff |
Who charges
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Defendent |
Who is charged |
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Standing |
The official status of a litigant who is entitled to have his or her case decided by the court |
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Class Action |
A lawsuit in which the plantiff or the defendent is a collective group of individuals |
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U.S Court of Federal Claims |
Deals with most civil cases which national government is a part (defendent) |
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U.S Court of International Trade |
Deals with cases involving trade and customs, foriegn persons a party |
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Original Jurisdiction |
the cases start there |
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Appellote Jurisdiction |
Cases were brought there |
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Common Law |
System of jurisprudence in which the judiciary has authority to determine how the law is to be interpreted. Legal precedent established by judges informs future decisions. Under this system, legal codes and statutes (not judges) inform future decisions |
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Stare Decisis |
A legal principale that requires judges to respect the decisions of past court cases |
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Statutory Law |
Laws passed by legislatures or administrative agencies, empowered by legislatures, and the court decisions interpreting those laws |
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Constitutional Law |
Fundamental rules for making statutory laws, regulations, their enforcement and the court decisions interpreting those rules |
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Writ of certiorari |
order by Supreme Court directing an inferior court to deliver the records of a case to be reviewed, effectively means justices of the court have decided to hear the case |
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Moot |
Status of a case in which further legal proceedings would have no impact on the one of both parties *if supreme court decisions not to hear a case, the lower court's ruling automatically stands |
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Amicus Curiae |
Briefs (letters to court) in which those who are not parties in a case provide their opinions on how the case should be decided |
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3 Principals of Judicial Decision Making |
1. Legal Model 2. Attitudinal Model 3. Strategic (rational choice) |
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Legal Model |
Judicial decisions are determined by the case, the plain meaning of text from the constitution of statutes, the intent of the framers, and or legal precedents |
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Attitudinal Model |
The judicial decisions are primarily determined by the policy goals and ideologies of agendas of judges |
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Strategic (rational choice) |
Where judicial decisions are determined by policy goals of judges and the various constraints that stand in the way of achieving those goals |
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Concurring Opinion |
Opinion issued by member of majority of Supreme Court that agrees with decision of the majority but offers alternative legal reasoning |
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Dissenting Opinion |
Issued by member of Supreme Court in opposition to the majority, offering legal reasoning for the decision to oppose |
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Strict Constructivism |
Legal philosophy that judges should use the intention of those writing the law or the constitution as guides for how to interpret the law |
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Judicial Activism |
Judicial rulings that go beyond interpreting the law in order to promote a judges personal or political agenda. |
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Interest Group |
Any group other than a political party that is organized to influence the government *Parties are oriented toward gaining positions of power within the government where as interest groups do NOT seek positions in government, but rather try to INFLUENCE those who are in government |
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Lobbying |
An attempt to influence public officials by speaking to them directly or by pressuring them through their constituents |
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Public Interest Group |
Organizations that "seek a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively or materially benefit the membership or activists of the organization |
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Inside Lobbying |
Activities by lobbyists and interest group leaders that involve direct contact with the policy makers |
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Outside Lobbying |
Aciivities by interest group leaders that seek mobilize constituents and others outside the policy making community to contact or pressure policy makers |
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Latent interest |
A concern shared by a group of people on which they have not yet chosen to act collectively |
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By-Product |
A political activity conducted by groups whose principal organizational purpose is the pursuit of some non political goal |
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Selective Incentive |
A benefit that a group can offer to potential members in exchange for participation as a way to encourage that involvement |
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Special Donor |
A potential participant in a group for whome the cost of participating is very low and/or the benefits of participating are very high |
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Entraprenuer |
A leading group participant who is so commited to those group's goals, and or so skilled in the pursuit of those goals, that he/she does not need selective incentives |
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Social Movement |
A loose coalition of groups and organizations with common goals that are oriented toward using mass action to influence the government |
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Pluralism |
A large number of diverse interest groups are involved in the political process and that any given group may be influential on some occasions and not on others |
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Median Voter Theorem |
A mathmatical result showing that the voter with the ideologies preference in the middle of ranking voters must be satisfied and approve of a majorty-rule winning outcome |
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Electoral rules account for : |
1. how votes are counted and seats are allocated in legislatures 2. How executives are chosen 3. Whether, when and how direct democracy is practiced 4. how eligible electorates are determined |
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Plurality Rule |
A method for determining an elections winner by which the candidate who recieves the most votes win |
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Single-member district |
Electoral district in which a single person is elected to a given office |
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Australian Ballot |
A type of ballot that lists all candidates running for each office and allows voters to cast their votes seceretly and for specific individual candidates |
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Referendum |
An election in which citizens vote directly on whether or not to overturn a bill or a constitution admendment that has been passed by the legislature |
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Initiative |
an election held to vote directly on a ballot proposition that was proposed by a group of individuals |
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Open Primary |
A primary election in which any registered voter can vote, regardless of party affilliation |
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Closed Primary |
A primary election in which only voters registered with the party can vote |
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Political action committee ( PAC ) |
Type of organization regulated by the Federal Election Commission that raises money from donors to support the election campaigns of federal political candidates |
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Federal Election Commission ( FEC ) |
Federal Agency that regulates campaign donations to and spending by candidates for congress and the presidency |
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Super PAC's |
Can spend unlimited sums of money to advocate or the election or for the defeat of a candidate, but is prohibited from contributing funds directly to federal campaigns and parties |
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Hard Money |
Campaign funds given directly to candidates or parties to support a particular candidate and thus are subjected by FEC regulations |
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Soft Money |
Campaign funds given to parties/ organizations to support voter mobilazation or voter education activities and thus typically NOT subject to FEC regulations |
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527's |
organizations that are independent of any party or candidate, not regulated by FEC, advocate publicly for/against specific candidates, parties, policies |
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Models for how individuals vote in certain ways |
1. Parisian Model 2. Retro spective-voting model 3. The spatial model 4. Directional Model |
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Partisian Model (voting) |
Party indentification is a deep psychological attachment to a particular party, and voter's partisanship shapes his/her perceptions of facts and issues |
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Retrospective voting model |
Voters rely on politicians past performances to make judgements about their competence in office |
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The Spatial Model |
Issues/ Ideologies to be the most importants factors in influencing a person's vote |
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Directional Model |
Voters are interested in knowing in which direction the various parties will shift policy and how intensly the various parties pursue these policies |
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Political Participation |
Activities citizens undertake to influence government behavior |
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Popular Sovereignty |
The principle that the authority to make decisions on behalf of society belongs to the people |
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Paradox of voting |
the notion that people still vote despite the face that the individual costs of voting often outwiegh the individual benefits |
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Help America Vote Act of 2002 |
Federal law meant to reduce barries to participation in elections |
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Public Opinion |
the colletion of attitudes and preferences of the mass public |
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Population |
In stats, the entire group about which you want to learm, such as adults in the US |
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Sample |
in Stats, a subset of the population chosen to provide information for the research about the population |
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Random Selections |
Choosing a sample such that each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected into the sample |
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Margin of Error |
In stats, the range of outcomes we expect for a population, given the data revealed by a sample drawn from that population |
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Biased Sample |
A sample that, b/c it does not accurately represent the overall population is likely to lead to erroneous conculsions about the population |
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Rationality |
the habit of choosing the best choice among available options given one's interests and information |
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Priming |
Psychological process of shaping people's perceptions of a particular issue, figure or policy |
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Framing |
Establishing the context for an issue in such a way as to emphasize certain aspects over others |
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Ideology |
A coherent, organized set of ideas and principles that functions as a core on which individuals draw when forming their attitudes about public affairs |
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Party Identification (partisianship) |
loyality or psychological attachment to a political party |
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Non Attitude |
A lack of opinion on an issue, or an opinion so weakly held that it does not enter into a persons calculations about voting or taking some other political action, even though the person may express an opinion to a pollster |
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Infotainment |
Mass media programming that is intended primarily to entertain, but also provide political news |
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Gatekeeping Bias |
The tendency for the media or a particular media or outlet not to report stories of a particular nature |
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Coverage Bias |
The tendency for the media or a particular media outlet to give less attention in terms of column space or airtime to certain kinds of stories or aspects of stories |
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Statement Bias |
The tendency for the media or a particular media outlet to interject opinions into the coverage of an issue |
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Rosenburg believes: |
1. courts in the USA are not highly contrained in bringing about social change 2. the courts follow the other branches of government 3. they do not drive change but rather respond late to social changes and end up trying to catch up with trends of society |
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Marbury V Madison |
John marshal laid out the case in favor of the Supreme court having the final say in determing wether a law/action of government is consitutional |
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Zaller's model for how voters aquire information |
Voters vary in the degree to which they are receptive to new information, depending on their underlying political predispositions and levels of knowledge about politics |
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Reception Axiom |
The greater the person's level of cognitive engagement with an issue, the more likely he/she is to be exposed to and comprehend, in a word, to receive-political messages concerning that issue |
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Resistance Axiom |
People tend to resist arguments that are inconsistent with their political predispositions, but they do so only to the extent that they possess the contextual information necessary to perceive a relationship between the message and their predispositions |
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Accessibility Axiom |
The more recently a consideration has been called to mind or though about, the less time it takes to retrieve that consideration or related considerations from memory and bring them to the top of the head for use |
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Response Axiom |
Individuals answer survey questions by averaging across the considerations that are immediately salient or accessible to them |
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Ethnocentrism |
seeing the world as "us and them" * can shape the different politcal attitudes and parisanship of people from different racial groups, affecting their voting behavior and the nature of their politcal participation |
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Rosenstone and Hansen and why people participate more than others |
Those people who are easily mobilized and who tend to have similar preferences to the organizations that routinely mobilize are the ones most likely to participate |
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Glien and representation |
The poorest Americans recieve only some representation of their policy preferences from certain interest groups, especially unions. The political power of those interest groups has been waning, mostly because the social bases of those groups are shrinking relative to the population size |
