CIVICS FINAL: GENERAL

Absolutes

It’s important to try to avoid thinking in __________, which makes most decisions seem like they only have 2 options

Annotated Bibliography

This is a fancy works cited page, meant to gather resources BEFORE writing a research paper

Apportion

This term means “to divide up” (as in seats in the House of Representatives)

Articles of the Confederation

This is the failed first try at a governing document of the United States

Ayatollah Khomeni

The first Supreme Leader of Iran following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. Iran has remained a religious dictatorship ever since.

Bail

This is the collateral given to the courts in order to ensure that the accused shows up for their court date

Benefit

This is what you get in return for giving up something else

Bias

An error in our thought process that often leads to choices/statements which defy logic

Bicameral

This term means “two houses”

The Bill of Rights

The name given to our first 10 amendments to the Constitution, which outline the protections FROM government

Blockbusting

This is the (shady) practice of Real Estate Agents convincing people to sell them homes for cheap, by using the fear of another ethnic or social group moving in… then immediately selling the house for a higher price to a member of said group.

Brian Williams

This lead news anchor used to be the industry standard… until he lied about the helicopter crash

Challenger

This is the name of the space shuttle that exploded minutes after take-off due to an O-ring malfunction that many believed could have forseen.

Circuit Courts

There are 12 ________ in the federal judiciary

Civil

This type of court case is between 2 private parties

Cobra Effect

This term describes a phenomenon in which a well intended incentive scheme can backfire, then actually result in the problem getting worse.

Confederation

This type of government involves strong local governments with only a “loose” alliance in the center

Congress

This is the name of our federal legislature

Congressional District

There are 435 of these jurisdictions, each represented by a member of the US House of Representatives

Constituency

This is a group of people that is represented by a government official

The Constitution

This is the governing document of the United States of America. It serves as a contract between us and our government

Cost

This is what you give up in order to get something else

CRAAP Test

This method of evaluating the usefulness of a source was developed by Librarian Sarah Blakeslee at Cal State Chico

Criminal

This type of court case is between a government and a private party

De Facto

This form of segregation results from “private choices”

De Jure

This form of segregation results from government action (by law)

Deepwater Horizon

This oil rig operated by BP, exploded in 2010, spilling 210 million gallons of oil.

Defendant

In a court case, this is the side being accused.

Democrat

This is a member of the political party most closely associated with “Liberalism”

Discourse

This is the process of ideas being shared from multiple perspectives

District Courts

There are 94 _________ in the Federal Judiciary

Economics

This is the study of how/why we allocate our resources in the way that we do

Electoral College

This is the institution that ACTUALLY chooses the President of the United States

Executive Power

This is the authority to enforce laws

Externality

This is an unintended consequence

Federal

This term is used to describe our national government (as opposed to state/local governments)

Federalism

This type of government organization involves significant authority at both the national and local levels

Gerrymandering

This is the practice of redrawing congressional district lines in order to gain political advantage

The Great Compromise

This was the name of the deal struck between two halves of the Constitutional Convention which resolved the dispute over how the legislative power should be apportioned

House of Representatives

This half of Congress is apportioned based on population

Incentive

This is a “reason or motivation” to do something

Incremental Advantage

This term describes the phenomenon in which small advantages early on result in massive differences in outcomes later

Initiative

This is the voter driven law-making process in California that allows people to bypass state legislatures (Three Strikes was passed using this)

Interest

This is the cost you pay for borrowing money

The Inverted U

This describes the phenomenon in which at a certain point, some interventions actually make us WORSE off than we would have been if we took no action in the first place (think: donuts)

Judicial Power

This is the authority to interpret laws

Judicial Review

This is the process for testing to see whether or not specific cases fall under the protection of the Constitution

Jurisdiction

This term refers to an area which is governed

Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns

This describes the phenomenon in which as we add interventions, each action produces LESS of a benefit than the one before

Legislative Power

This is the authority to make laws

Legislature

This is the term for any “law making body”

Mike Reynolds

This person (a private citizen) may have had more of an impact on the justice system in CA than anyone in the state’s history, after his daughter was tragically killed in an armed robbery in 1992

Mohammad Mossadegh

This democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran was unseated by a coup in 1953 in favor of the exiled Reza Shah. In 2013, declassified CIA documents revealed that the United States orchestrated the entire thing on behalf of their ally, Great Britain.

Mortgage

This is a loan used to buy a house

Normal Accident

This is used to describe a disaster that cannot be easily traced to a single cause, which means that there’s nobody to blame

Normal Distribution

This term describes a data set in which the majority falls in the middle

Nudge

This is a governing policy that tries to incentivize people to START doing things that’ll result in positive outcomes in the future, so that hopefully they can continue on their own in the future

Opportunity Cost

This is what you could have had, had you not chosen something else

Paradox of Choice

This phenomenon, coined by Dr. Barry Schwartz, posits that as we provide more choice to society, it can have many negative externalities (including paralysis, or the inability to choose at all).

Plaintiff

In a court case, this is the person accusing someone else of wrongdoing

Platonic Dish

This is a version of a food that is “absolutely right” for most people

Power Law Solution

This is a way to go about solving a complex social issue by focusing on the worst 1% of the problem

Precedent

This term means “that which came before,” and is used to describe previous court cases which are used as an example to decide current and future cases

Primaries

These “playoffs” are used to narrow down candidates in most American Elections

Principle

This is the amount of money borrowed in a loan agreement

Principle of Legitimacy

This leadership theory/strategy posits that in order for authority to be effective, it matters how people FEEL about those in power. People must feel as if they are heard, that the rules are predictable, and that they are enforced fairly.

Ranked Choice

This is the name of the alternative voting method which allows all candidates to vote on ballots during the election process until they are mathematically eliminated

Regulatory

This type of law protects people from complex systems

Republican

This is a member of the political party most closely associated with “Conservatism”

Scarcity

This is the condition of limited resources and unlimited wants and needs

Senate

This is the half of congress which is apportioned equally

Sentence

This is the punishment for being convicted of a crime

Separation of Powers

This term refers to the dynamic between the three branches of government, each has specific authority over the other 2

Skepticism

This is a “generally questioning” mindset that encourages us to ask critical questions about what we hear or read.

Spectrum

This term is used as a classification to describe something that can rank anywhere between 2 absolutes

Supreme Court

This is the top of the US Judiciary. The precedents that this body sets apply to the entire country.

Supreme Court Justice

This prestigious government position serves for life, is appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and has the potential to set precedents for the entire country

Theory of Risk Homeostasis

This idea claims that we rarely realize safety improvements because when we make one part of a system safer, we generally increase risk somewhere else

Three Fifths Compromise

This was the deal struck between slave and non-slave states before the signing of the Constitution. It temporarily delayed the Civil War.

Three Mile Island

This infamous "'normal accident” occurred at a nuclear power plant on the east coast in 1979 as a result of 5 seemingly insignificant malfunctions that happened to occur on the same day.

Three Strikes

This “first-of-its-kind” law was passed in CA with 70% of the Initiative vote. Although well intended, it has had its lasting consequences, especially in disenfranchised communities

Time Slice Error

This specific “memory mistake” involves remembering something that actually happened, but in the wrong order, at the wrong time, or with important details mixed up

Trade-off

This is the term that describes the cost/benefit dynamic of any choice. It can also be used to describe a cost or a benefit

Unitary

This type of government organization involves a strong central authority and smaller, less powerful authority at the local levels

Veto

This is the presidential action of rejecting a bill passed by congress