Public Opinion, Political Parties, Elections, and Civil Liberties Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, constitutional amendments, and landmark Supreme Court cases detailed in the lecture notes.

Aggregate public opinion

The sum of all individual opinions within a specific population.

Cognitive shortcuts

Mental strategies or rules of thumb used to make quick decisions with minimal information.

Hostile media effect

The tendency for individuals with strong biases to perceive neutral media coverage as unfair.

Political socialization

The lifelong process through which individuals acquire their political beliefs, values, and ideologies.

Policy mood

The aggregate sentiment of the public demanding more or less government activism.

Random Sampling

A polling method where every individual in a population has an equal chance of selection.

Sampling error

The statistical calculation of the difference between survey results and the true population value.

Divided government

A situation where one political party controls the executive branch and another controls the legislature.

Realignment

A major, enduring shift in popular coalition loyalty from one political party to another.

$15th$ Amendment

The constitutional amendment that prohibited denying the right to vote based on race or color.

$19th$ Amendment

The constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote nationwide.

$26th$ Amendment

The constitutional amendment that lowered the national voting age from $21$ to $18$.

Electoral College

The system used to elect the US president, calculated by adding a state's House members and Senators.

Winning Electoral Threshold

A candidate must secure a majority of $270$ electoral votes out of $538$ total.

Hard money

Political contributions that are heavily regulated, capped, and given directly to specific candidates or committees.

Paradox of voting

The concept that voting is irrational because the individual cost outweighs the mathematical chance of changing outcomes.

Retrospective voting

Voting based on a candidate's or party's past performance and track record while in office.

Free riding

The problem where individuals benefit from an interest group's collective achievements without contributing any effort or money.

Revolving door

The movement of individuals between roles as government legislators/regulators and lucrative jobs in the private lobbying sector.

SuperPAC

An independent expenditure-only committee that can raise and spend unlimited money to support or oppose candidates, but cannot coordinate with them.

Civil Liberties

Constitutional freedoms that protect citizens from arbitrary governmental interference or overreach.

Clear and Present Danger

Historic legal standard allowing government to restrict speech that poses an immediate threat.

Selective Incorporation

The process by which the Supreme Court applies specific Bill of Rights protections to states via the $14th$ Amendment.

Lemon Test

Three-part test determining if a law violates the Establishment Clause by evaluating secular purpose, effect, and entanglement.

Exclusionary rule

Legal principle preventing illegally obtained evidence from being used against a defendant at trial.

Miranda rights

Warnings police must read to suspects before interrogation, informing them of rights to counsel and silence.

Prior Restraint

Government censorship preventing material from being published or broadcasted before it actually happens.

Roe v. Wade

Historic case ruling that the constitutional right to privacy encompasses a woman's right to choose abortion.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Overturned Roe v. Wade, ruling that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.

Civil Rights

Government protections that ensure all individuals are treated equally under the law, regardless of race, gender, or identity.

Brown v. Board of Education

The historic decision ruling that racial segregation in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the $14th$ Amendment.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Infamous decision upholding state racial segregation laws by creating the legal doctrine of "separate but equal."

De Jure segregation

Racial separation that is explicitly mandated and enforced by local, state, or federal laws and government policy.

De facto segregation

Racial separation that occurs organically through socioeconomic factors, housing patterns, and personal choices rather than by law.

Jim Crow

The systemic network of state and local segregation and disenfranchisement laws enforced against African Americans throughout the American South.

Voting Rights Act $1965$

Comprehensive federal legislation that banned literacy tests and authorized federal oversight of voter registration in discriminatory areas.

Strict Scrutiny

Highest judicial standard requiring laws to serve a compelling government interest using the least restrictive means.

Affirmative action

Policies and practices within institutions designed to actively include and increase opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups.

Separate but equal doctrine

The overturned legal fiction holding that racially segregated public facilities were lawful as long as they were equal in quality.