Bureaucracy, Judiciary, and What Government Does

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering topics on the federal bureaucracy, judicial structure and decision-making, types of laws, federal budget spending, tax structures, and periods of government growth.

Bureaucracy

All non-POTUS members of the executive branch, encompassing executive agencies, independent agencies, and government corporations.

Executive Agencies

Also known as Cabinet departments, these are $15$ departments created by Congress via legislation, led by Secretaries nominated by POTUS and confirmed by the Senate.

Independent Agencies

Executive branch organizations designed to be durable against political changes, led by boards or commissioners serving long, staggered terms who can only be fired 'for cause'.

Government Corporations

Bureaucratic organizations serving as a middle ground between a business and a public service that depend on government funding while raising much of their own money independently.

The Federal Reserve

The central bank of the United States that handles monetary policy independently of presidential and Congressional approval, led by a Board of $7$ Governors serving staggered $14$-year terms.

Spoils System

A practice prevalent from the $1820\text{s}$ to the $1880\text{s}$ where government jobs were awarded as political rewards for electoral assistance without considering technical qualifications.

Pendleton Act (1883)

Legislation that established a merit-based system for federal government appointees evaluated via exams, expanding coverage from $10\%$ of employees in $1883$ to $80\%$ by $1933$.

Principal-Agent Problem

A dilemma where an agent (bureaucracy) working for a principal (Congress) may ignore explicit instructions or establish rules that go beyond the principal's original intentions.

Ex-Ante Congressional Oversight

Congressional oversight performed before bureaucrats act, such as increasing law specificity, rejecting presidential nominees, or incorporating poison pills into legislation.

Police Patrol Oversight

A proactive, frequent method of ex-post oversight where Congress actively investigates agencies through audits and formal Congressional hearings.

Fire Alarm Oversight

A cheap and easy ex-post oversight strategy preferred by Congress where members wait for aggrieved parties to request judicial review before taking action.

Regulatory Capture

A phenomenon occurring when regulatory bureaucrats become influenced or controlled by the specific industries or individuals they are tasked with regulating.

Iron Triangle

A mutually beneficial, potentially corrupt relationship formed between a congressional committee, bureaucrats, and special interest groups.

Revolving Door

The process where political actors assist industry while in government and are later hired by that same industry after leaving office.

Cognitive Capture

A form of capture where regulatory experts come from or naturally share the mindset and viewpoints of the industry they regulate.

Common Laws

Case laws based on previous judicial decisions rather than written statutes or codes, where judges decide how to apply existing law to resolve disputes.

Agency Laws

Rules established by bureaucratic agencies as a result of Congressional delegation, such as EPA rules under the Clean Air Act ($1963$) or OSHA workplace safety rules.

Statutory Laws

Laws enacted directly by legislatures that override any pre-existing common law.

Constitutional Laws

Legal interpretations derived by judges directly from the Constitution, which act as the supreme law of the land and override all other state and federal laws.

Judicial Review

The power of the Supreme Court to declare a law or executive action unconstitutional, established by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison ($1803$).

Countermajoritarian Difficulty

The theoretical concern regarding the legitimacy of unelected Supreme Court justices serving lifetime appointments overriding laws enacted by elected representatives.

Textualism

A conservative legal philosophy holding that legal meaning is fixed, divided into literalism (meaning in the explicit words) and originalism (meaning in the original historical context).

Organicism

A liberal legal philosophy holding that constitutional meaning should be reinterpreted in the context of the era in which a case is being decided.

Legal Model

A decision-making model asserting that judges rule strictly based on the legal merits of the case before them.

Attitudinal Model

A decision-making model asserting that judges decide cases based primarily on their personal political and social beliefs.

Strategic Model

A decision-making model asserting that judges rule based on broader strategic goals, such as preserving court reputation, avoiding defeats, or maintaining personal legacy.

Writ of Certiorari

A formal petition from a party affected by a lower court ruling asking a higher court to review the case, requiring agreement from at least $4$ of $9$ SCOTUS justices.

Stare Decisis

Latin phrase meaning 'to stand by things decided,' establishing that Supreme Court precedents must be followed by lower courts unless overturned by a future SCOTUS decision.

Mandatory Spending

Federal spending required by law for entitlement programs, which cannot be cut easily and constitutes approximately $60\%$ to $\frac{2}{3}$ of the federal budget.

Discretionary Spending

Federal budget spending that Congress can freely choose to adjust each year, accounting for about $\frac{1}{3}$ of the budget, half of which goes to defense.

Progressive Tax

A tax system that affects high-income groups proportionally more than low-income groups, such as the federal income tax.

Regressive Tax

A tax system that affects low-income groups proportionally more than high-income groups, such as sales tax.

Deficit

The annual monetary difference when government spending exceeds total government revenue within a single fiscal year.

Debt

The total cumulative sum of all unpaid annual federal deficits, currently standing at $140\%$ of U.S. GDP.

Progressive Era (1900-1920)

A government growth period focused on political and corporate corruption, introducing political reforms and the $16\text{th}$, $17\text{th}$, and $19\text{th}$ Amendments.

New Deal Era (1933-1945)

A massive expansion of government programs under FDR in response to the Great Depression, introducing Social Security, the WPA, and Unemployment Insurance.