CCP GOV

Politics

Requires bargaining and compromise to reconcile individual preferences while recognizing that more people leads to more problems

Effective Political Institutions

The primary solution for managing the problems that arise as the number of participants in a group increases

Rules and Procedures

Essential requirements for all organizations to function effectively

National Success

A outcome that depends on a functional constitution and a government that works

Government Institutions

Bodies consisting of offices that confer specific authority and responsibility on their occupants

Authority

The specific rights assigned to a government office

Power

An officeholder’s actual influence with other officeholders and their subsequent impact on government action

Institutional Stability

The tendency for institutions to remain stable over time and have certain values embedded within them

Successful Collective Action

A challenge that requires participants to figure out both what to do and how to do it

Collective Action Barriers

Two fundamental obstacles known as coordination problems and prisoner’s dilemmas

Coordination Problems

Challenges where group members must decide what they want and what they are prepared to contribute while difficulty increases with group size

Prisoner’s Dilemmas

A situation arising when individuals who would benefit from cooperation have a powerful incentive to break agreements to exploit the other side

Mutual Trust

A necessary condition for achieving mutually profitable exchange between parties

Free Riding

A specific form of the prisoner’s dilemma seen in large groups where citizens recognize their small contribution will not affect the collective enterprise's success or failure

Collective Action Benefits

Gains offered to participants that they cannot achieve on their own

Collective Action Costs

Material burdens known as transaction costs or burdens known as conformity costs

Transaction Costs

The time and effort and resources required to make a collective decision

High Transaction Costs

Costs that can be beneficial such as those intentionally designed by the Framers to make future constitutional change difficult

Conformity Costs

The difference between what any one party prefers and what the collective body requires

Cost Relationship

The principle that transaction costs and conformity costs tend to be inversely related

The Framers’ Toolkit

A set of powers including command and veto and agenda control and voting rules and delegation

Overcoming Costs

Using majority rule and delegation to achieve goals although both methods come with their own problems

Representative Government

The result of combining delegation with majority rule

Republic

The form of government embraced by the Framers

Politicians

Strategic actors created by a republican system

Private Goods

Individual items for personal use such as your car or house or backpack or laptop

Public Goods

Items provided for everyone such as roads and firemen and parks and national defense

Collective Goods

Shared benefits such as education and flu vaccines

Home Rule

A system where the British ceded to America the responsibility for managing their own local problems

Colonial Governance

A period where colonists had elected assemblies that supplied the nation with politicians but where they lacked great experience governing

Colonial Free Riding

A situation where colonists relied on the British to regulate all commerce and military security

Taxation

The primary challenge to colonial home rule

First Continental Congress

A seventeen seventy-four meeting that passed resolutions condemning British taxes and agreed to a trade boycott unless taxes ended

Second Continental Congress

A seventeen seventy-five body that responded to the uprising at Lexington and Concord and acted as the national government

Declaration of Independence

A document drafted by Thomas Jefferson and the Committee of Five and signed by members of the Second Continental Congress on July fourth seventeen seventy-six

Articles of Confederation

The first de-facto constitution that aimed to replicate home rule but failed because states were unwilling to absorb governance costs and feared a strong government

Post-War Troubles

A period characterized by a war-torn economy and trade barriers and popular discontent

Shay’s Rebellion

A specific instance of popular discontent that signaled the failures of the Articles of Confederation

Constitutional Convention

A gathering where delegates wanted to build consensus and create a government whose parts would mesh

Federalists

Convention delegates who wanted to expand government power

Anti-Federalists

Convention delegates who worried that a strong national government would threaten liberty

Virginia Plan

A proposal for three branches and a bicameral legislature based on population and a strong national government

New Jersey Plan

A proposal to amend the Articles with a committee-style executive and a supreme court while keeping one vote per state in the legislature

Connecticut Compromise

An agreement for equal representation for each state in the upper house and appointment by population in the lower house

Enumerated Powers

A list of powers in Article one Section eight that expanded Congressional authority

Commerce Clause

A constitutional provision to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among states and within the Indian Tribes

Necessary and Proper Clause

A provision also known as the Elastic Clause that allows Congress to make all laws that are necessary and proper

Executive Energy

Alexander Hamilton’s guiding concept for creating the executive branch

Take Care Clause

A constitutional provision defining the scope of presidential duty

Executive Tasks

Responsibilities including appointments and legislative veto and presidential veto

Electoral College

The system established for choosing the President

Judicial Branch

The branch that decides states versus federal issues

Supremacy Clause

A provision declaring the Constitution and federal laws the supreme law of the land to avoid jurisdictional impasse

Judicial Review

The power of the court to review government actions established in Marbury versus Madison

Amendment Proposal

A process requiring either a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or a national convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures

Amendment Ratification

A process requiring passage by three-quarters of state legislatures or three-quarters of special state conventions

Prohibition Example

A timeline where the Senate passed the bill on August one nineteen seventeen and the House passed a revision on December seventeen nineteen seventeen and the Senate agreed on December eighteen nineteen seventeen and ratification was complete on January sixteen nineteen nineteen

Federalist Ten

A paper aiming to devise a republic where the majority cannot tyrannize the minority by controlling factions and avoiding conformism or authoritarianism

Federalist Fifty-One

A paper arguing that different branches and checks and balances are necessary so that ambition must be made to counteract ambition

Federalism

A system where the Constitution divides authority between two or more distinct levels of government

Governing Levels

A structure in the United States including municipal and national and state and county and township and school districts

Divided Power

A system the Framers believed protected liberty and delayed reforms and preserved state power

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that people stay sovereign and can create different governments with different purposes

Federal Principle

A rule where two or more governments exercise power and authority over the same people in the same territory

Constitutional Protection

The principle that the distribution of power is written into the Constitution and cannot be changed through ordinary laws

Unitary System

The most common system where everything comes from the central government and lower levels depend on the national level for resources

American States

Entities that function as unitary governments over cities such as when the government in Columbus decides what cities can and cannot do

Confederate System

A system where all powers in the central government are defined and given by the states

Federation

A system where government has relations across levels and each unit can exert some leverage over others

Tenth Amendment

The most explicit endorsement of federalism which reserves powers not delegated to the United States to the States or to the people

Dual Federalism

A type where states and national governments preside over mutually exclusive spheres of sovereignty with a sharp line dividing them

Exclusive Federal Powers

Authorities including coining money and regulating interstate commerce and taxing imports and making treaties and making war

Exclusive State Powers

Authorities including running elections and protecting public health and safety and issuing licenses

Shared Federalism

A type where national and state governments jointly supply services to the citizenry

Shared Powers

Authorities including taxing and borrowing money and chartering banks and enforcing laws

Jurisdictional Power

The combined authority granted by the Elastic Clause and the Commerce Clause and the Tenth Amendment

Firearms Control Regulation Act of 1975

Passed by the D.C. city council on September , to protect citizens from loss of property, death, and injury by prohibiting the purchase, sale, transfer, and possession of handguns by residents other than law enforcement or military

District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)

A legal case initiated by six residents in where the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that a total ban on handguns is unconstitutional

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

A Supreme Court case that challenged Chicago's gun laws and resulted in the ruling that the nd Amendment applies to the states

Open Carry Campus Policies

Regulations that vary based on whether a firearm is inside university owned/operated buildings or outside in public spaces

Concealed Carry State Variations

A legal landscape where states ban carrying a concealed weapon, states allow it, and states—including Ohio—leave the decision to individual universities

Utah Campus Gun Policy

A specific state ruling that public universities do not have the authority to ban concealed carry

The Tiebout Hypothesis

An economic theory proposed by Charles Tiebout stating that people "vote with their feet" by choosing to live in areas where the package of public services and tax levels suit them rather than waiting for elections

Implications of the Tiebout Hypothesis

The idea that preferences are expressed through behavior, home prices indicate good policy, and variation in tax rates and service packages is necessary for efficient sorting

Drivers of National Government Growth

The national economy, pressure for due process, fiscal capacity, federal funding incentives, and mandates serve as major:

State Federalism Problems

The three main challenges of coordination, reneging and shirking, and competing

Bicameralism

The constitutional framework of Congress consisting of two chambers

Congressional Terms

The period of office which is shorter for the House of Representatives and longer for the Senate

Article I Section

The portion of the Constitution defining the enumerated powers of Congress, including taxing and regulating interstate and foreign commerce

Elastic Clause

Also known as the Necessary and Proper or Sweeping Clause, it allows Congress to pass laws needed to carry out its duties

Congressional Foreign Affairs Authority

Significant powers including the exclusive right to declare war, raise and finance an army and navy, and call out state militias

Specific Senate Powers

Constitutional duties to ratify treaties and confirm presidential appointments to support the long-term interests of the nation

Proportional Representation (PR)

An electoral system used in countries like Italy and Russia where parties receive seats in multi-member districts in proportion to their share of the vote

PR Advantages

Benefits such as a "fair" allocation of seats, the existence of more than two parties providing more voter choice, and flexibility in government formation

PR Disadvantages

Drawbacks including difficulty in holding a coalition accountable, fragmentation of the party system, and a lack of parties appealing to unifying public interests

Plurality Representation

Also known as "First-past-the-post," a system used in the US, UK, Canada, and India where the candidate with the most votes wins one seat per district

Plurality Advantages

Benefits including majority rule, a stable -party system that is easy to hold accountable, and high individual accountability due to single-member districts

Plurality Disadvantages

Drawbacks such as less representation for minority parties and fewer choices for voters during elections

U.S. Electoral System Structure

A framework where members of Congress get nominations directly from voters, consisting of House districts with one representative each and Senate seats with two per state

Congressional District Creation

What process uses census data to distribute U.S. House seats to states and allows state bodies, like the Ohio General Assembly, to redraw legislative district boundaries?