US Government, Economics, and California History Lecture Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering core topics in US Constitution, Supreme Court precedents, macroeconomic and microeconomic principles, and historical California developments directly from the lecture transcript.

Judiciary Act of 1789

The federal law whose provision was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803) to establish the doctrine of judicial review.

Clear and Present Danger Doctrine

A legal doctrine established in Schenck v. United States (1919) permitting restrictions on speech that intentionally incites immediate unlawful action.

Monopoly

A market structure characterized by a single seller, high barriers to entry, and the ability of the firm to act as a price maker.

Demand-Pull Inflation

A short-run economic outcome resulting when a country operating near full employment enacts expansionary fiscal policy via large tax cuts without spending cuts.

Secularization of the California Mission System

An 1833 policy under Mexican rule motivated by political desires to redistribute mission lands to private rancheros and diminish Church influence.

Central Valley Project (CVP)

A major water infrastructure project authorized in the 1930s to transport water from Northern California rivers to irrigate farmland in the Central Valley.

Supremacy Clause

The constitutional principle affirmed in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) establishing that federal laws take precedence over conflicting state laws.

Equal Protection Clause

A Fourteenth Amendment provision serving as the primary constitutional basis for prohibiting state governments from engaging in discriminatory practices based on race, gender, or national origin.

War Powers Resolution of 1973

Legislation passed by Congress over a presidential veto to reassert congressional authority over military engagements and limit unilateral executive war-making powers.

Cloture

A procedural rule in the United States Senate requiring a three-fifths vote of all sworn senators to formally end a filibuster and bring a measure to a vote.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

A landmark Supreme Court case establishing that states must provide legal counsel to indigent criminal defendants charged with felony offenses.

Commerce Clause

Article I, Section 8 clause providing Congress its broadest constitutional foundation for extending federal regulatory authority into economic and social matters within states.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

A landmark Supreme Court decision holding that independent political expenditures by corporations and labor unions are protected speech under the First Amendment.

Principle of Comparative Advantage

An economic concept stating that two nations can mutually benefit from trade whenever they specialize in producing goods for which they have a lower opportunity cost relative to each other.

Structural Unemployment

A category of unemployment occurring when workers lose jobs due to structural technological changes, such as factory workers replaced by automated industrial robots.

Intermediate Goods

Goods used in the production process of final products that are intentionally excluded when calculating GDP using the expenditure approach to prevent double counting.

Inelastic Demand

A classification of price elasticity where the percentage change in quantity demanded is smaller than the percentage change in price, such as a $15\%$ price increase causing only a $2\%$ drop in quantity demanded.

Negative Externality

A market failure occurring when marginal social cost exceeds marginal private cost (e.g., power plant pollution), leading to overproduction relative to the socially optimal quantity.

Compromise of 1850

The federal agreement under which California was officially admitted to the United States directly as a free state following the Mexican-American War.

Executive Order 9066

A 1942 executive order directing the forced relocation and incarceration of California residents of Japanese ancestry in inland internment camps without due process.

Selective Incorporation

The judicial process by which federal courts apply protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Lemon Test

A legal standard established in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) to evaluate whether government actions comply with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Iron Triangle

A durable policy-making alliance among an executive bureaucratic agency, a congressional committee, and an interest group.

Great Compromise

The 1787 Constitutional Convention agreement creating a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation in the Senate.

Exclusionary Rule

A Fourth Amendment doctrine established in Mapp v. Ohio (1961) rendering evidence obtained through illegal search and seizure inadmissible in state courts.

Original Jurisdiction

The authority of the Supreme Court under Article III to hear cases directly without prior judicial appeal, such as disputes between two or more state governments.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment

A 1964 constitutional amendment that expanded civil rights by prohibiting poll taxes in federal elections.

Executive Agreement

An international pact made by the President that differs constitutionally from a formal treaty because it does not require ratification by a two-thirds Senate vote.

Automatic Stabilizer

A macroeconomic mechanism, such as progressive tax revenues automatically falling during a downturn, that moderates economic fluctuations without new legislation.

Stagflation

A macroeconomic condition characterized by stagnant economic growth accompanied simultaneously by high inflation and high unemployment.

Public Good

An economic good characterized by two core properties: non-excludability and non-rivalry in consumption.

Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns

An economic rule stating that continually adding units of a variable input to a fixed input will eventually cause the marginal output generated by each additional variable unit to decline.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

The treaty ending the Mexican-American War in which Mexico ceded Alta California and the Southwest territories to the United States for $15 million.

1879 California Constitution

A revised state constitution featuring anti-immigrant provisions that prohibited municipal governments and corporations from employing Chinese workers.

Okies

Displaced migrants who fled the Dust Bowl region during the 1930s Great Depression to seek migratory agricultural work in California's Central Valley.

Concurrent Power

A power shared simultaneously by both the federal government and state governments, such as the authority to levy and collect taxes.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

A Supreme Court ruling requiring law enforcement to inform detained suspects of their rights prior to interrogation based on the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

Origination Clause

Article I, Section 7 requirement mandating that all legislative bills raising revenue must originate specifically in the House of Representatives.

Judicial Restraint

A philosophy of judicial interpretation holding that judges should defer to precedent and legislative enactment unless a law directly violates explicit constitutional text.

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

A landmark case protecting the right of Amish parents to educate their children at home based on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

Gerrymandering

The redrawing of electoral district boundaries following a decennial census to give a specific political party or group an unfair advantage.

Oligopoly

A market structure characterized by a small number of large, mutually interdependent firms whose pricing decisions directly influence each other.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

An economic indicator that measures inflation by tracking price changes over time within a fixed market basket of consumer goods and services.

Cyclical Unemployment

Unemployment directly attributable to a macroeconomic downturn or recession in the aggregate economy.

Federal Funds Rate

The specific interest rate commercial banks charge one another for overnight loans of reserve balances.

Bear Flag Revolt

An 1846 rebellion in Sonoma led by American settlers seeking to overthrow Mexican rule and establish an independent California republic.

California State Water Project (SWP)

A water conveyance system initiated in the 1960s under Governor Edmund 'Pat' Brown to store and transfer water from Northern California to arid Central and Southern California regions.

Bracero Program

A 1942 bilateral agreement allowing temporary Mexican contract labor into the U.S. to solve wartime shortages in agriculture and railroad construction.

Proposition 13 (1978)

A California constitutional amendment capping local real property tax rates at $1\%$ of assessed value and limiting annual assessment increases.

Federalist No. 10

An essay by James Madison arguing that an extended republic prevents majority factions from easily coordinating to oppress minority interests.

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

A ruling affirming student First Amendment rights, holding that symbolic speech in public schools is protected unless it materially and substantially disrupts school discipline.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

A landmark redistricting decision establishing the constitutional standard of 'one person, one vote' under the Equal Protection Clause.

Pocket Veto

The indirect veto of a bill occurring when the President takes no action and Congress adjourns within $10\text{ days}$ (excluding Sundays) of submission.

Necessary and Proper Clause

Article I constitutional clause granting Congress implied powers to enact laws appropriate for executing its enumerated powers.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

Federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal funding.

Closed Primary

A primary election system where voting is restricted exclusively to individuals registered with that specific political party prior to the election.

Real GDP

Gross Domestic Product adjusted for inflation using constant prices, contrasting with Nominal GDP measured in current market prices.

Complementary Goods

Pair of goods where an increase in the price of one good leads directly to a decrease in market demand for the other good.

Discount Rate

The interest rate charged by the Federal Reserve to commercial banks borrowing directly from the central bank's discount window.

Trough

The point in the macroeconomic business cycle where real economic output reaches its lowest point before expanding.

Import Quota

A trade restriction that establishes a direct physical limit on the quantity of a specific foreign good imported into a country.

Mendez v. Westminster (1947)

A federal court ruling that segregating Mexican American school children violated the Equal Protection Clause, setting a precedent for Brown v. Board of Education.

California Master Plan for Higher Education (1960)

A state policy framework establishing a three-tiered public higher education system comprising UC, CSU, and CCC systems.

Diseños

Hand-drawn geographic boundary maps used under Mexican rule in Alta California to demarcate land grant boundaries for rancheros.

Presentment Clause

Article I, Section 7 provision requiring entire bills to be approved or vetoed by the President, rendering the Line Item Veto Act unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York (1998).

Government Spending Multiplier

Calculated as $\frac{1}{1 - \text{MPC}}$; with an $\text{MPC} = 0.80$, the multiplier is $5$, converting a $\$10\text{ billion}$ spending increase into a potential $\$50\text{ billion}$ Real GDP expansion.

Monopolistic Competition

A market structure defined by many competing sellers, differentiated products, and relatively low barriers to market entry and exit.

Cost-Push Inflation

Inflation driven by a negative aggregate supply shock, such as rising key raw material costs, that increases overall unit production costs.

The 'Big Four'

Industrialists Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins, and Crocker who acquired massive wealth and political influence by organizing the Central Pacific Railroad.

Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Co. (1884)

The landmark 'Sawyer Decision' banning uninhibited hydraulic mining by declaring hydraulic debris dumping into rivers a public nuisance.

Rumford Fair Housing Act of 1963

California anti-discrimination legislation prohibiting racial discrimination in housing sales and rentals, which Proposition 14 (1964) attempted to repeal.