American Government Midterm

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can be defined as theinstitutions and processes that make and implement authoritative decisions fora society. The government unit can be a city, county, state, regional,national, or international government.

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Government

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is a basic concept that ishard to precisely define. It can be generally understood to mean that anindividual is treated fairly. Politically, justice usually means that anindividual is treated fairly by the government. The definition of justice asfairness includes the belief that individuals should get what they deserve:good or appropriate behavior is recognized and rewarded; bad or inappropriatebehavior is recognized and punished.

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Justice

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explains why the American colonists were justified in fighting theRevolutionary War against Great Britain.

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The Declaration of Independence

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alsodeclares an interest in creating a form of government that promotes justice. Itexplains that the Constitution was established “in Order to form a more perfectUnion, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the commondefence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty toourselves and our Posterity…”

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The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

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is concerned with the properresponse to wrongdoing. Retributive justice is most relevant to the criminaljustice system and the theory and practice of punishment as reflected insentencing policy. The law of retribution—lex talionis—reflects the concept ofretributive justice—the belief that punishment should fit the crime.

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Retributive justice

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is also relevant to the criminal justice system.However, unlike retributive justice, which is primarily concerned withpunishing an offender, restorative justice emphasizes the importance ofrestoring the victim (making the victim whole again) and rehabilitating theoffender.

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Restorative justice

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isconcerned with the proper distribution of values or valuables among theindividuals or groups in a society. The valuables can be things of materialvalue (such as income, wealth, food, health care, tax breaks, or property) ornon-material values (such as power, respect, or recognition of status).Distributive justice is based on the assumption that values or valuables can bedistributed equitably based upon merit.

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Distributive justice

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One of the most important concepts in westernpolitical thought is __________. It is usedto explain the origin of government. The 17th Century English politicalphilosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) believed that life in a state of nature(that is, without government), would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, andshort” because human beings are self-interested actors who will take advantageof others

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“the state of nature.”

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is one that, once provided,cannot be limited to those who have paid for it. Clean air, clean water, safestreets, and national security are often cited as examples of public goods.

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A public good

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Problem where individuals have an economic incentive to enjoy the benefit without paying thecost.

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The free rider problem:

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Asecond market failure is _______. In aperfect market, an economic transaction (the buying/selling of a good orservice) will include the total cost of the good or service so there is no needfor government intervention or regulation of a market transaction that does notaffect parties other than the buyer and seller. An example of a negative externality is thepollution that is caused by making or using a product but which is notreflected in its price. Examples of positive externalities include education,vaccination, and crime control. Education can benefit an individual, and itcould be limited to those who actually pay for it.

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externalities

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is the branch of the socialsciences (e.g., economics, sociology) that systematically studies the theoryand practice of government. It includes the description, analysis, andprediction of the political behavior of individuals and organizations (such aspolitical parties and interest groups) as well the workings of politicalsystems.

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Political Science

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can be defined as theability to make another person to do what you want, to force others to do whatyou want. Power is using coercion or force to make someone comply with anorder.

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Power

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can be defined as the rightto make other people do what you want. A person is authorized to make anothercomply with their demands. The authorization could be based upon a person’sposition as a duly elected or appointed government official. The word authorityderives from the Latin word “auctoritas.”

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Authority

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refers to the appropriateability to make others do what you want, the legal right to make others complywith demands. It is a normative or value-based word that indicates something isapproved of. Political legitimacy is the foundation of governmental authorityas based consent of the governed.

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Legitimacy

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is a smallgroup of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.

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Oligarchy

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is government according to the rule of a basic or fundamental law. Constitutional government is not merelygovernment based on the rule of law. It is government based on a particularkind of the rule of law: the rule of a basic or fundamental law. Theconstitution provides the foundation for the system of government.

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Constitutional government

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The ______ __ ____ has become so important in American thinking aboutgovernment that it is consideredpart of an “American Creed.” A creed is a statement of beliefs. It is usually meant torefer to a statement of religious beliefs or faith but the American political creedrefers to the widely-shared set of political beliefs or values about the best way to form andadminister good government. The AmericanCreed consists of the country’s basicgoverning principles: the rule of law, popular sovereignty, checks and balances(principally the separation of powers and federalism), individual rights, and judicial review.

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rule of law

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Which era includes the colonial experience culminating with theDeclaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War; the Articles of Confederation,which was the first form of government; and the creation of the republicansystem of government in1787.

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The founding era

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Which era is not as clearly defined as the founding era. Itextends from the early years of the republic to the Progressive Era (from 1890to the end of World War I).

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The development stage

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Which era of American government is usually traced to the1930s. The Great Depression wasa national—indeed, an international—economic problem that the American public expected the nationalgovernment to address

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The modern era

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is thetheory that the government controls and directs economic activity, particularlyforeign trade, in order to maximize the state’s wealth. Mercantilism wasresponsible for the triangle trade: slaves were brought to America from Africa;sugar, cotton, and tobacco were exported to England; and manufactured goods,textiles, and rum were sent to Africa to pay for slaves.

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Mercantilism

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The long and expensive war with the French and Indians ended with the Britishin control of most of North America.

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Seven Years War (1756—1763).

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Which act taxed sugar, wine, coffee, and other products commonlyexported to the colonies. The colonists resented these taxes and began to cry“no taxation without representation!”

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The Sugar Act of 1764

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Parliament furtherangered the colonists by passing the ______ Act, whichrequired all printed documents to bear a stamp. The printer had to pay for thestamp. In the same year, theParliament passed the Mutiny (Quartering) Act that forced colonists to either providebarracks for British soldiers or house them in their homes.

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Stamp Act in 1765

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In 1767,Parliament enacted the _____ Acts that imposed duties on many productsincluding tea. The Sons of Liberty started a boycott which prompted the Britishto send troops to Boston. When British soldiers fired on a crowd of protesters,killing five people, the event was depicted as the _______ ___________.

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Townshend Acts; Boston Massacre

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What is the name of the Madisonian system

designed to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of one individual or one institution.

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checks and balances

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Which acts allowed Britain to blockade Boston harbor and placed 4,000 more soldiersin Boston. These actions increased resentment on both sides of the Atlantic.

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The Coercive Acts, or the Intolerable Acts

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The first American form of government was the ________ ___ ____________. TheContinental Congress approved the _______ ___ ____________ and they tookeffect in 1781 upon ratification by all thirteen states.

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Articles of Confederation.

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is a loose association of sovereign states that agree to cooperate in a kind of voluntary “league of friendship.”

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A confederation

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is a geographicdivision of power between the national government and the stategovernments.

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Federalism

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is a functional division ofpower among the legislative, executive, andjudicial branches of government. It serves two purposes. First,it is part of the Madisonian system of checks and balances designedto prevent theconcentration of power in the hands of one individual or one institution. Second, itcontributes to good governance.

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The separation of powers

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is a two-tiered system of government in which power is divided between a national(or central) government and subnational units (states, provinces, or regionalgovernments). Therefore, it is ageographic division of power.

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Federalism

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a political system with one level of government. Powerconcentrated in one central government. The central government has sovereignty or thehighest governing authority. The centralgovernment may create local or regional unitsto help govern but these units are “creatures” of the national or unitary government. Theyare created by the national government and they can be abolished by the nationalgovernment—and the national government also can determine how much power the localunits have because the local units do not have sovereignty.

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A unitary system

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is a political system where theconstituent units (the states, provinces, or regional governments) are morepowerful than the central (or national) government. Power is decentralized. Thecentral government is comparatively weak, with fewer powers and governingresponsibilities than the units.

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A confederal system (or a confederation)

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All otherpowers—those not delegated to the national government, or prohibited to the states—wereto be reserved (or left with) the states or the people. These are the _______ _______ and are dictated by the 10thAmendment: “The powers notdelegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to theStates, are reserved to the states respectively,or to the people.”

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reserved powers

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Who was an ardent Federalist.He believed that one of the lessons of history was that threats to good publicorder came from a government that was too strong to hold government officialsaccountable and from government that was too weak to create or maintain goodpublic order. He believed that federalism solved some of the problems ofa weak national government under the Articles of Confederation, weaknesses thatwere exposed by Shays’ Rebellion and other domestic disturbances by creating astronger national government. Federalists also supported a strong nationalgovernment to direct economic development.

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Alexander Hamilton

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were a loosely-organized group of individuals who advocated for what wouldtoday be called states’ rights. They believed that the powers of the nationalgovernment should be limited and that the states should be the primarypolitical unit within the American system of federalism.

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The Anti-federalists

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how muchpower to centralize in the national government and how much power to leavedecentralized with the states. The Constitution does not solve this problem in the sense that it does not specify, except for certain areas such ascoining money and regulating interstate commerce, whether the nationalgovernment or the state governments have power to act in an area of publicpolicy.

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Power problem

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is a theoryof federalism that describes both the federal government and the stategovernments as co-equal sovereigns.

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Dual federalism

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The Courtdeveloped the _________ ________ to decide whether a matterwas for local or national regulation. According to it,subjects that are “in their nature national, or admit only of one uniformsystem, or plan of regulation, may justly be said to...require exclusivelegislation by Congress.” Subjects thatare not national and require local diversity of regulation are left to thestates. Assumes that the national and state governmentshave separate areas of responsibility. For example, the national government would have exclusive power overinterstate commerce, national security, and foreign affairs, while the stategovernments would have exclusive power over schools, law enforcement, and roadbuilding.

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Cooley Doctrine

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describes the national and state governments as sharing power over areas ofpublic policy.

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Cooperative federalism

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is useful for understanding how modern federalism worksbecause it captures how the national, state, and local governments interactwith one another to make and administer policy.

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intergovernmental relations

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In the ________ _________ ________ the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutionalbecause it regulated private behavior—the decisions of owners of hotels andrestaurants not to serve Black customers.

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Civil Rights Cases (1883)

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He is an important political figure inthe states’ rights movement. Hewas a precursor of the modern conservative movement’s criticism of biggovernment, by which he meant a federal government with the power to order statesto change their laws regarding race relations. He is a good example of howthinking about federalism is interwoven with thinking about civil rights in theU.S.

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George Wallace

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The keyconstitutional doctrine for understanding whether states have the power to actin an area or policy field is __________.

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preemption

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Article VI of theConstitution, which provides that the Constitution, federal laws, and treatiesshall be the “supreme Law of the Land.” It guarantees national union.

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The Supremacy Clause

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True or False:

Federal law can preempt or trump state law.

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True

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isone of the reasons why the press is the only business that is given constitutionalprotection (the First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press

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The educative role

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iswhen institutional media are expected to play an important role in checking government power by investigating and reporting ongovernment and public affairs.

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The watchdog role

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havealso played a socialization role by presenting the same information andportraying cultural values to national audiences.

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The modern mass media

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acknowledgesthe importance of freedom of the press: “Congress shall make no law...abridging thefreedom....of the press....”

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The language of the First Amendment

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a pejorative reference tojournalism that features scandal-mongering, sensationalism, jingoism, or otherunethical or unprofessional practices and coverage.

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yellow journalism

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emerged in the latter part of the 19thCentury as an early form of investigative reporting. A muckraker is a journalist who digsaround in the muck to expose corruption.

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Muckraker journalism

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has largely taken the form of protection from prior restraint, or the governmentbanning expression of ideas prior to their publication. The most famous case upholding the press right to publish what it thinks isnewsworthy is New York Times v. United States (1971). This is the Pentagon Papers case.

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Freedom of the press

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established the FederalCommunication Commission (FCC) to oversee “interstate and foreign commerce inwire and radio communication.” The FCC is considered one of the independentcommissions because its members serve terms of office, can be removed onlythrough impeachment, and no more than three of its five members can be from onepolitical party.

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The Communications Act of 1934

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requiredradio and television broadcast license holders to present controversial issuesof public importance in a fair and balanced manner. The fairness doctrine is an example of anadministrative regulation or “law” created by an administrative agency. It is a law in the generic sense that it isan official, binding policy that individuals or organizations are not free todecide whether to comply with it.

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The fairness doctrine

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is the broadcasting of television programs and radioprogramming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship.

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Commercial media broadcasting (also called private broadcasting)

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is defined as the aggregateof public attitudes or beliefs about government or politics. According to the delegate model,public opinion is the principal source of government legitimacy becausegovernment power is only properly exercised when it is based on public opinion.

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Public opinion

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thebelief that a system of government is lawful, right, or just.

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Political system’s legitimacy

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describes elected government officials as obligatedto do the will of the people—to represent the constituents who elect them tooffice.

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The delegate theory of representation

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is a person, party, or philosophy that advocates for “the people” or “thecommon person” or “the middle class” as opposed to the elites.

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A populist

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allows government officials more freedom of choice todecide what is in the public interest. The trustee model of democracy is basedon the trustee model of representation, where a government official is notobligated to do what the people want, but can decide what is best.

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The trustee model

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created an indirectdemocracy or republic, whereby the public selects individuals torepresent their interests in government decisions. They believe that a republicwas a better form of government than a direct democracy because they worriedabout majority rule.

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The Framers

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Thegender difference in party identification is the ________ _____.

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gender gap

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This term describes how the mediadecides what issues the public should be thinking about. The media decide whatconstitutes “news” that is worth reporting.

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“setting the agenda”

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Inpolitics, _______ is the ability to make another person do what you want.

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power

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is the art of usinglanguage, both public speaking and writing, to communicate, to persuade, or toconvince.

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Rhetoric

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refers to the ability to pick and choose fromamong the competing ideologies and parties the way that consumers are able topick and choose from among the competing sellers of goods and services.

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The political marketplace of ideas

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is a belief system that consists of a relatively coherent set of ideas,attitudes, or values about government and politics, AND the public policiesthat are designed to implement the values or achieve the goals

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An ideology

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is aplan of action to implement ideas or values or achieve specific goals.

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A public policy

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isprimarily concerned with ideas or values. For example, political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about thegovernment, politics, liberty, justice, equality, property, rights, law, andwhat constitutes a good or moral public order. Political philosophers examine questions about the legitimacy of government;the difference between power and authority; the nature of freedom and equality;civic duties and obligations; and the nature and scope of government power tolimit individual liberty.

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A philosophy

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Who isremembered as the architect of American government because he designed a form ofgovernment with elaborate institutional checks and balances. He believed thatpeople were by nature self-interested and needed to have their ambitionschecked.

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James Madison

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Who believed people had a natural moral sense. The question was whether it was based on religion, whichwould justify government support for religion, or a natural sense of moralobligation or conscience.

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Thomas Jefferson

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what government power isactually being used for.

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Role of government

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is someone who advocates basic, even revolutionary change. can beleftwing or rightwing.

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A radical

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This term refers to those conservatives who consider themselvespart of an organized cause to work for conservative ideas.

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“movement conservative”

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the belief that law shouldbe used to support liberty and mediate disputes where one person has harmedanother and the reminder that “[t]he armed forces and law enforcement exist tobolster private defense, not supplant it.”

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Individual liberty

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Classicalliberalism is rooted in the ideas ofthe English political philosopher ________. His ideas greatlyinfluenced the thinking of the American founders. His words about theimportance of life, liberty, and property found their way into the Declarationof Independence.

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John Locke (1632-1704)

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value freedom and believethat individuals and groups can organize life with only minimal government. have a positive view of human nature. The belief that governmentthreatens freedom—that more government means less freedom—is reflected in their motto: “Maximum freedom. Minimal Government.”

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Libertarians

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means total control with nodistinction between the public sector and the private sector. In a totalitariansystem, the government is authorized to use its powers and laws to regulateindividual behavior, family policy, business and labor, as well as all aspectsof social life.

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Totalitarian

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is the belief that economicpower is the basis of political power and that economic equality is essentialfor political equality. Karl Marx is the most famous figure associated with socialismbecause he developed a comprehensive, systematic analysis of therelationship between economics and politics, thereby giving earlier socialistthinking an ideology or world view.

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Socialism

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oppose all forms ofgovernment because governments by definition have the power to coerceindividuals to join a community or require obedience to laws. believe that government is not necessary because people can use their capacityfor reasoning to decide whether to freely and voluntarily agree to live inorderly and just societies without government requiring them to do so.

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Anarchists

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This term refersto “of the people.” Advocate on behalf of the common person who theydepict as being unfairly treated by the rich and powerful or some otherprivileged elites. In this sense, these movements tend to be protestmovements representing farmers, the average American, or workers.

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populism

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is a social or politicalmovement that strives for equal rights for women. It is multi-faceted movementthat has political, economic, social, legal, and cultural components.

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Feminism

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is a movement whose membersadvocate protecting the natural environment. The Environmental ProtectionAgency also was created in 1970. The EPA is the primary federal governmentagency responsible for providing clean air and clean water.

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Environmentalism

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is an idea which has animportant impact on modern American politics and the politics of othercountries. is usually defined as a movement within a religiousdenomination—a movement that reacts against modernity by advocating a return tothe basics or the fundamentals of a particular faith.

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Fundamentalism

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is the belief thatgovernment and politics should be separate from religion, that religion isappropriate for the private (social) sphere, not the public (governmental)sphere. In the U.S., is reflected in the idea that there should be a“wall of separation” between church and state.

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Secularism

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is the belief that valuesare subjective and conditional rather than universal and objectively true.

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Relativism

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the belief that judgesshould decide cases based on the original intentions of those who wrote thewords of the Constitution rather than their interpretation of the words or themodern meanings of the words.

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Originalism,

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is a normative or value-laden term. is one that has a value judgment about its worth, whether it is desirableor undesirable, whether it is good or bad.

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A prescriptive term

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is not a normative or valueladen term.

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A descriptive term