Ap Gov Semester Exam Vocabulary

Vocabulary Flashcards

Bicameral legislature

A two-chamber legislature.

Bill

A proposed law.

House Rules Committee

A committee in the House of Representatives that reviews most bills coming from a House committee before they go to the full House.

Pork barrel

Federal projects, grants, and contracts available to state and local governments, businesses, colleges, and other institutions in a congressional district.

Caucus

A group of members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic.

Committee chairs

Members who head the committees.

Incumbents

Those already holding office. In congressional elections, incumbents usually win.

Cabinet

A group of presidential advisors not mentioned in the Constitution, though every president has had one. Today, the cabinet is composed of 14 secretaries and the attorney general.

Conference committee

Congressional committees formed when the House and Senate pass a particular bill in different forms. Party leadership appoints members from each house to iron out the differences and bring back a single bill.

Filibuster

A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation try to talk it to death, based on the tradition of unlimited debate.

Joint committees

Congressional committees on a few subject-matter areas with membership drawn from both houses.

Impeachment

The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution. The House of Representatives may impeach the president by a majority vote for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Legislative oversight

Congress's monitoring of the bureaucracy and its administration of policy, performed mainly through hearings.

Select committees

Congressional committees appointed for a specific purpose, such as the Watergate investigation.

Standing committees

Subject matter committees in each house of Congress that handle bills in different policy areas.

Seniority system

A simple rule for picking committee chairs, in effect until the 1970s. The member who had served on the committee the longest and whose party controlled the chamber became chair, regardless of party loyalty, mental state, or competence.

Legislative veto

The authority of Congress to block a presidential action after it has taken place. The Supreme Court has held that Congress does not have this power.

Pocket veto

A bill fails to become law because the president did not sign it within ten days before Congress adjourns.

Appropriations bill

An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills.

Authorization bill

An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures.

Budget

A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures).

Entitlements

Government programs guaranteeing benefits to a particular group.

Medicare

A federal system of health insurance for the elderly and disabled.

House Ways and Means

The House of Representatives committee that, along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole.

Deficit

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.

Medicaid

A public assistance program designed to provide healthcare to poor Americans.

Tax expenditures

Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions allowed by federal tax law.

Income tax

Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income.

Federal debt

All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding.

Revenues

The financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal government's revenue.

Social Security Act

A 1935 law intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty.

Uncontrollable expenditures

Expenditures that are determined by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program or by previous obligations of the government and that Congress therefore cannot easily control.

Bureaucracy

According to Max Weber, a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality.

Governmental corporations

A government organization that, like business corporations, provides a service that could be delivered by the private sector and typically charges for its services. The U.S. Postal Service is an example.

Iron triangles

Mutually dependent and advantageous relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees.

Merit principle

The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.

Civil service

A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.

Ind. executive agencies

Agencies with presidential appointments who serve at the President's pleasure.

Ind. regulatory agency

A government agency with responsibility for making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest in some sector of the economy and for judging disputes over these rules.

Pendleton Act

Created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

Capitalism

An economic system in which individuals and corporations, not the government, own the principal means of production and seek profits.

Senatorial courtesy

An unwritten tradition whereby nominations for state-level federal judicial posts are usually not confirmed if opposed by a senator of the president's party from the state in which the nominee will serve.

Judicial restraint

A judicial philosophy in which judges play minimal policymaking roles, leaving that duty strictly to the legislatures.

Judicial implementation

How and whether court decisions are translated into actual policy, thereby affecting the behavior of others. The courts rely on other units of government to enforce their decisions.

Antitrust policy

Policies designed to combat monopolies.

Opinion

A statement of legal reasoning behind a judicial decision.

Judicial review

The power of the courts to determine whether acts of Congress and, by implication, the executive are in accord with the U.S. Constitution. Judicial review was established by John Marshall and his associates in Marbury v. Madison.

Courts of appeal

Appellate courts empowered to review all final decisions of district courts, except in rare cases. In addition, they also hear appeals to orders of many federal regulatory agencies.

Supreme Court

The pinnacle of the American judicial system. The Court ensures uniformity in interpreting national laws, resolves conflicts among states, and maintains national supremacy in law. It has both original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction.

Precedent

How similar cases have been decided in the past.

District courts

The 91 federal courts of original jurisdiction. They are the only federal courts in which trials are held and in which juries may be impaneled.

Judicial activism

A judicial philosophy in which judges make bold policy decisions, even charting new constitutional ground.

Stare decisis

A Latin phrase meaning “let the decision stand.” Most cases reaching appellate courts are settled on this principle.

Original intent

A view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the original intent of the framers.

Amicus curiae briefs

Legal briefs submitted by a “friend of the court” for the purpose of raising additional points of view and presenting information not contained in the briefs of the formal parties. These briefs attempt to influence a court's decision.

Class action suits

Lawsuits permitting a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated.

Original jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of courts that hear a case first, usually in a trial. These are the courts that determine the facts about a case.

Justiciable disputes

A requirement that to be heard, a case must be capable of being settled as a matter of law rather than on other grounds as is commonly the case in legislative bodies.

Street-level bureaucrats

Bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable discretion.

Appellate jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of courts that hear cases brought to them on appeal from lower courts. These courts do not review the factual record, only the legal issues involved.