AP Gov Final Key Terms Review

Filibuster

A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation use their right to unlimited debate to prevent the Senate from ever voting on a bill. Sixty members present and voting can halt a filibuster on legislation

Whip

Party leaders who work with the majority leader or minority leader to count votes beforehand and lean on waverers whose votes are crucial to the passage of a bill favored by the party.

Committee Chair

The most important influencers of their committees’ agendas, committee chairs play the dominant roles in scheduling hearings, hiring staff, appointing sub-committees, and managing committee bills when they are brought before the full house.

Bill

A proposed law, drafted in legal language. Anyone can draft a bill, but only a member of the House of Representatives or the Senate can formally submit a bill for consideration.

Speaker of the House

An office mandated by the Constitution. The Speaker is chosen in practice by the majority party, has both formal and informal powers, and is second in line (after the vice president) to succeed to the presidency should that office become vacant.

Majority Leader

The principal partisan ally of the Speaker of the House or the majority party’s manager in the Senate. The majority leader in each house is responsible for scheduling bills, influencing committee assignments, and rounding up votes on behalf of the party’s legislative positions.

Joint Committee

Committees that exist in a few policy areas, such as the economy and taxation, and draw their membership from both the Senate and the House.

Minority Leader

The principal leader of the minority party in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.

Standing Committee

Committees in each house of Congress that handle bills in different policy areas.

Caucus

A system for selecting convention delegates used in about a dozen states in which voters must attend an open meeting to express their presidential preference

Caucus (congressional)

A group of members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic. Many are composed of members from both parties and from both houses

Seniority System

A simple rule for picking committee chairs, in effect until the 1970s. The member who had served on the committee the longest and whose party controlled the chamber became chair, regardless of party loyalty, mental state, or competence.

Majority System/Rule

A fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory. In a democracy, choosing among alternatives requires that the majority’s desire be respected.

Crisis

A sudden, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous event requiring the president to play the role of crisis manager.

25th Amendment

Ratified in 1967, this amendment permits the vice president to become acting president if the vice president and the president’s cabinet determine that the president is disabled, and it outlines how a recuperated president can reclaim the job.

Cabinet

A group of presidential advisers not mentioned in the Constitution, although every president has had one. Today the cabinet is composed of 14 secretaries, the attorney general, and others designated by the president

17th Amendment

Ratified in 1913, this amendment provided for direct election of senators.

11th Amendment

Gives states immunity from certain prosecution.

• It prohibits federal courts, state courts, or federal administrative agencies from hearing cases in which a private party names a state as a defendant or seeks monetary relief from a state officer in his or her official capacity (for example, a police officer for violating one’s rights) unless the state gives its consent to the hearing.

Impeachment

The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution. The House of Representatives may impeach the president by a majority vote for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Pocket Veto

A type of veto occurring when Congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president and the president simply lets the bill die by neither signing nor vetoing it.

National Security Council

The committee that links the president’s foreign and military policy advisers. Its formal members are the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, and it is managed by the president’s national security assistant.

Council of Economic Advisors

A three-member body appointed by the president to advise the president on economic policy

22nd Amendment

Ratified in 1951, this amendment limits presidents to two terms of office.

Presidential Coattails

A phenomenon that occurs when voters cast their ballots for congressional candidates of the president’s party because those candidates support the president.

Budget

A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)

Expenditures

Government spending. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense.

Revenues

The financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal government’s revenue.

Deficit

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.

Medicare

A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides health insurance for the elderly, covering hospitalization, doctor fees, and other health expenses.

16th Amendment

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax.

Senate Finance Committee

The Senate committee, along with the House Ways and Means Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.

Tax Expenditures

Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions allowed by federal tax law.

Social Security Act

A 1935 law intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty.

Incrementalism

A description of the budget process in which the best predictor of this year’s budget is last year’s budget, plus a little bit more (an increment). According to Aaron Wildavsky, “Most of the budget is a product of previous decisions.”

Entitlements

Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients. Social Security benefits are an example.

Income Tax

Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income.

National Debt

All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the national debt is about $25 trillion.

Reconciliation

A congressional process through which pro-gram authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments

Authorization Bill

An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs.

Appropriations Bill

An act of Congress that funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. Appropriations usually cover one year.

House Ways & Means Committee

The House of Representa-tives committee that, along with the Senate Finance Commit-tee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.

Congressional Budget Office

Advises Congress on the prob-able consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president’s Office of Management and Budget.

Bureaucracy

According to Max Weber, a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality.

Independent Regulatory Commission

A government agency with responsibility for making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest in some sector of the economy and for judging disputes over these rules.

Government Corporation

A government organization that, like business corporations, provides a service that could be delivered by the private sector and typically charges for its services. The U.S. Postal Service is an example.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

Passed in 1883, an act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Patronage

One of the key inducements used by party machines. A patronage job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone.

Independent Executive Agency

The government agencies not accounted for by cabinet departments. Their administrators are appointed by the president and serve at the president’s pleasure. NASA is an example.

Policy Implementation

The stage of policymaking between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people affected. Implementation involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating, ongoing program.

Civil Service

A body of government employees who are hired and promoted through a system based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.

Hatch Act

A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics while on duty. The same law applies at all times to federal employees in sensitive positions.

Senior Executive Service

An elite cadre of about 9,000 federal government managers at the top of the civil service system.

Command and Control Policy

The typical system of regulation whereby government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders.

Merit Principle

The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.

Administrative Discretion

The authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem. Discretion is greatest when routines, or standard operating procedures, do not fit a case

Standard Operation Procedures

Better known as SOPs, these procedures for everyday decision making enable bureaucrats to bring efficiency and uniformity to the running of complex organizations. Uniformity promotes fairness and makes personnel interchangeable.

Office of Personal Management

The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.

Street-level Bureaucrats

A phrase referring to those bureau-crats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion.

Regulation

The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector

Deregulation

The lifting of government restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities.

Executive Orders

Regulations originating with the executive branch. Executive orders are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy.

Iron Triangle

Also known as subgovernments, iron triangles consist of interest groups, government agencies, and congressional committees or subcommittees that have a mutually dependent, mutually advantageous relationship; they dominate some areas of domestic policymaking.