PoliSci 311 Part 1 Vocab

Articles of Confederation

the original agreement among the thirteen colonies to form a national government, which functioned from 1781 to 1789

Quorum

the number of members of an assembly needed for a binding vote to occur

Checks and Balances

a constitutional system of governance in which specific powers are granted to each branch of government in order to guard against the encroachment of others

Veto Power

the president’s power to stop legislation, limited by the ability of both chambers of Congress to override the veto

Enumerated Powers

powers explicitly granted to the executive in the Constitution

Pardon Power

the president’s enumerated power to grant pardons and commutations for federal offenses

Unitary Executive

a single individual responsible for putting laws into effect

Plural Executive

a panel of elected officials responsible for putting laws into effect

Electoral College

a deliberative body constrained by a complex set of constitutionally prescribed rules that stipulate how popular votes translate into the selection of U.S. presidents and vice presidents

Three-Fifths Clause

a provision adopted at the Constitutional Convention that counted all enslaved individuals as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of congressional representation

Franchise

the right to vote

Originalism

a school of legal thought that views the Constitution as a document whose meaning was fixed once and ever mire at the time of the nation’s founding

Living Constitution

a school of legal thought that views the Constitution as a document whose meaning evolves flexibly over time

Inherent Powers

presidential powers that are neither explicitly delineated within nor implied by the Constitution

Vesting Clause

the Article II provision that executive power is entrusted exclusively to the presidency

Take-Care Clause

the Article II provision that the president shall “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”

Unitary Executive Theory

the legal argument that presidents legitimately retain unrivaled control over the federal bureaucracy

Progressive Era

a period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries marked by an expansion of presidential powers, a growth of civil service protections, and more interventionalist government policy

Stewardship Theory

a theory of presidential power, pioneered by Theodore Roosevelt, in which Constitutional ambiguity surrounding executive powers invites the president to act when the Constitution is silent

Literalist Theory

the view that presidents may only exercise those powers explicitly granted bb\y the Constitution or congressional delegations of authority (best articulated by Taft)

Modern Presidency

a contested notion that posits FDR (or possibly Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson) as the progenitor of a more powerful and institutionalized American presidency

New Deal

the collection of domestic policy reforms advanced by FDR that were intended to lift the nation out of an economic depression and that established the template for the modern welfare state

Brownlow Committee

commission appointed by FDR in 1936, tasked with offering suggestions for the institutional reorganization and empowerment of the American presidency

Scientific Management

a body of knowledge that, during the Progressive Movement, guided reforms meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of governing institutions

Executive Office of the President

an umbrella organization that houses the White House Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisors, and other administrative units that report directly to the president

Executive Reorganization Act

a 1939 law that enacted many of the formal recommendations made by the Brownlow Committee

Total War

massive wars (like WW1 and WW2) that require the support and mobilization of an entire citizenry