Polisci Exam #2

Vocab and Events

Constituency

The citizens who reside in the district from which an official is selected. 

Delegates

Legislators who vote according to the preferences of their constituents.

Trustees

Legislators who vote according to what they think is best for their constituents.

Agency Representation

The type of representation in which representatives are held accountable to their constituents if they fail to represent them properly. That is, constituents have the power to hire and fire their representatives. Constituents have this similar power over Congress members. 

Money Bill

A bill concerned solely with taxation or government spending.

Incumbent

A current officeholder.

Casework

Efforts by members of Congress to gain the trust and support of constituents by providing personal services. One important type of casework is helping constituents obtain favorable treatment from the federal bureaucracy. 

Patronage

Direct services and benefits that members of Congress provide to their constituents, especially by making partisan appointments to offices and conferring grants, licenses, or special favors on supporters. 

Pork-barrel Legislation

Appropriations that members of Congress use to provide government funds for projects benefiting their home district or state.

Gerrymandering

The Drawing of Electoral Districts in such a way as to give advantage to one political party.

Party Caucus/ Party Conference

A nominally closed meeting to select candidates or leaders, plan strategy, or make decisions regarding legislative matters. Caucus in the Democratic Party and conference in the Republican Party.

Speaker of the House

The chief presiding officer of the House of Representatives; elected at the beginning of every Congress on a straight party vote, this person is the most important party and House leader. 

Majority Leader

The elected leader of the party holding a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. In the House, the majority leader is subordinate in the party hierarchy to the Speaker.

Minority Leader

The elected leader of the party holding less than a majority of the seats in the House or Senate. 

Standing Committee

A permanent legislative committee that considers legislation within its designated subject area. 

Gatekeeping Authority

The right and power to decide if a change in policy will be considered. 

Proposal Power

The capacity to bring a proposal before the full legislature. 

After-the-fact Authority

The authority to follow up on the fate of a proposal once the full chamber has approved it. 

Conference Committee

A joint committee created to work out a common promise between House and Senate versions of a bill.

Oversight

The effort by Congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies. 

Seniority

The priority or status ranking given based on how long an individual has served on a congressional committee. 

Agency Loss

The difference between what a principal would like an agent to do and the agent’s performance. 

Staff Agencies

The agencies responsible for providing Congress with independent expertise, administration, and oversight capability. 

Congressional Caucus

An informal association of members of Congress based on party, interest, or social characteristics such as gender or race. 

Closed Rule

The provision by the House Rules Committee that restricts the introduction of amendments during debate. 

Open Rule

The provision by the House Rules Committee that permits floor debate and the addition of amendments to a bill. 

Cloture

A procedure by which three-fifths of the members of the Senate can set a time limit on debate over a given bill.  

Filibuster

A tactic in which members of the Senate prevent action on legislation they oppose by continuously holding the floor and speaking until the majority abandons the legislation. Once given the floor, senators have unlimited time to speak, and a cloture vote of three-fifths of the Senate is required to end a filibuster.

Veto

The president’s constitutional power to reject acts of Congress. 

Pocket Veto

A veto that occurs automatically when Congress adjourns during the 10 days a president has to approve a bill and the president has taken no action on it. 

Distributive Tendency

The tendency of Congress to spread the benefits of a policy over a wide range of members’ districts. 

Party Vote

A roll-call vote in the House or Senate in which at least 50 percent of the members of one party take a particular position and are opposed by at least 50 percent of the members of the other party.

Roll-call Votes

Voting in which each legislator’s yes or no vote is recorded.

Whip System

A party communications network in each house of Congress. Whips poll their party’s members to learn their intentions on specific bills and also convey the leadership’s views and plans to members. 

Logrolling

Agreements among members of Congress to vote for one another’s bills. 

Executive Agreement

An agreement between the president and another country that has the force of a treaty but does not require the Senate’s “advice and consent.”

Impeachment

The process of charging a government official (president or other) with “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” and bringing that person before Congress to determine guilt.

Expressed Powers

Powers that the Constitution explicitly grants to the federal government. 

Delegated Powers

Constitutional powers that are assigned to one branch of the government but exercised by another branch with the permission of the first. 

Inherent Powers

Powers claimed by a president that are not expressed in the Constitution but are said to stem from “the rights, the duties, and obligations of the presidency.”

Commander In Chief

The president’s role as commander of the national military and of the state National Guard units (when they are called into service). 

Reprieve

Cancellation or postponement of a punishment. 

Pardon

Forgiveness of a crime and cancellation of relevant penalty.

Amnesty

A pardon extended to a group of persons. 

Executive Agreement

An agreement between the president and another country that has the force of a treaty but does not require the Senate’s “advice and consent.” 

Executive Privilege

The claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without the president’s consent.

Veto

The president’s constitutional power to reject acts of Congress.

War Powers Resolution

A 1973 resolution by Congress declaring that the president can send troops into action abroad only if Congress authorizes the action or if US troops are already under attack or seriously threatened. 

Legislative Initiative

The president’s inherent power to bring a policy agenda before Congress. 

Executive Order

A rule or regulation issued by the president that has the effect of law; both an inherited and delegated power, has been delegated by Congress over time.  (Article II, Section 1)

Cabinet

The heads of the major departments of the federal government. 

National Security Council (NSC)

 A presidential foreign policy advisory council made up of the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and other officials invited by the president. 

White House Staff

The analysts and advisers to the president, often given the title “special assistant”. 

Executive Office of the President (EOP)

The permanent agencies that perform defined management tasks for the president; created in 1939, it is made up of the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, the National Security Council, and other agencies. 

Regulatory Review

The Office of Management and Budget’s function of reviewing all agency regulations and other rule making before they become official policy. 

Signing Statement

An announcement made by the president when signing a bill into law, sometimes presenting the president’s interpretation of the law, as well as remarks predicting the benefits it will bring to the nation. 

Bureaucracy

The complex structure of offices, tasks, rules, and principles of organization that large institutions use to coordinate the work of their personnel. 

Implementation

The development of rules, regulations, and bureaucratic procedures to translate laws into action. 

Rule Making

A quasi-legislative administrative process that produces regulations by government agencies. 

Clientele Agency

A department or bureau of government whose mission is to promote, serve, or represent a particular interest.  Ex: Department of Commerce and Labor

Regulatory Agency

A department, bureau, or independent agency whose primary mission is to make rules governing a particular type of activity. 

Administrative Legislation

Rules made by regulatory agencies that have the force of Iaw.

Fiscal Policy

Regulation of the economy through taxing and spending powers. 

Monetary Policy

Regulation of the economy through manipulation of the supply of money, the price of money (interest rates), and the availability of credit.The responsibility of the Federal Reserve System

Federal Reserve System (Fed)

The system of 12 Federal Reserve banks that facilitates exchanges of cash, checks, and credit among banks; regulates member banks; and uses monetary policy to fight inflation and deflation in the United States.

Bureaucratic Drift

The tendency of bureaucracies to implement laws in ways that tilt toward the bureaucrats’ policy preferences and possibly away from the intentions of the elected officials who created the laws. 

Coalitional Drift

The prospect that enacted policy will change in the future because of the composition of the enacting coalition is temporary and provisional.

Deregulation

The policy of reducing the number of rules issued by federal regulatory agencies. 

Devolution

The policy of delegating a program or passing it down from one level of government to a lower level, such as from the national government to the state and local governments. 

Privatization

The act of moving all or part of a program from the public sector to the private sector. 

Criminal Law

Cases arising out of actions that allegedly violate laws protecting the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the community. 

Civil Law

Cases involving disputes among individuals or between the government and individuals that do not involve criminal penalties. 

Precedents

Past cases whose principles are used by judges as the bases for their decisions in present cases.

Stare Decisis

Literally “let the decision stand”; the doctrine whereby a previous decision by a court applies as a precedent in similar cases until that decision is overruled. 

Public Law

Cases involving the powers of government or rights of citizens.

Trial Court

The first court to hear a criminal or civil case.

Court of Appeals

A court that hears the appeals of the lower-court decisions. Also called appellate court.  

Supreme Court

The highest court in a particular state or in the country. 

Jurisdiction

The type of cases over which a court has authority. 

Appellate Jurisdiction

The class of cases provided in the constitution and by legislation that may be appealed to a higher court from a lower court. 

Original jurisdiction

The class of cases provided in the Constitution (Article III) that may be taken directly to a federal court. 

Due process

The requirement that citizens be treated according to the law and be provided adequate protection for individual rights. 

Writ of Habeas Corpus

A court order demanding that an individual in custody be brought into court and shown the cause for detention; habeas corpus is guaranteed by the Constitution and can be suspended only in cases of rebellion or invasion. 

Chief Justice

The justice on the Supreme Court who presides over the Court’s public sessions. 

Senatorial Courtesy

The practice whereby the president, before formally nominating a person for a federal district judgeship, finds out whether the senators from the candidate’s state support the nomination. 

Ripeness

The requirement that a case must involve an actual controversy between two parties, not a hypothetical one. 

Standing

The requirement that anyone initiating a court case must show a substantial stake in outcome.

Class-action suits

A lawsuit in which a large number of persons with common interests join together under a representative party to bring or defend a lawsuit. 

Mootness

No longer requiring resolution by the courts, typically because the facts of the case have changed or the problem has been resolved by other means. 

Writ of Certiorari

A formal request to have the Supreme Court review a decision of a lower court.

Rule of Four

The rule that certiorari will be granted for petitions to the Supreme Court only if at least four justices vote in favor of the petition. 

Amicus Curiae

“Friend of the Court”; an individual or group that is not a party to a lawsuit but has a strong interest in influencing the outcome. 

Brief

A written document in which an attorney explains - using case precedents - why a  court should rule in favor of a client.

Oral argument

The stage in Supreme Court proceedings in which attorneys for both sides appear before the Court to present their positions and answer questions posed by the justices. 

Opinion

The written explanation of the Supreme Court’s decision in a particular case.

Concurrence

An opinion agreeing with the decision of the majority in a Supreme Court case but with a rationale different from the one provided in the majority opinion.

Dissenting Opinion

A decision written by a justice who voted with the minority opinion in particular case, which fully explains the reasoning behind the justice’s opinion.

Judicial Restraint

The judicial philosophy that the Supreme Court should refuse to go beyond the text of the Constitution in interpreting its meaning.

Judicial Activism

The judicial philosophy that the Supreme Court should see beyond the text of the Constitution or a statute to consider the broader societal implications of its decisions. 

The Electoral System

Who we choose depends on who decides to run:

• Party Organization

• Personal Attributes

  • Ambition

• Money (either has it or attracts it)

• Interests Groups