American Government and Political Science Exam Review

Comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts across political culture, civil liberties, the Constitution, political power distribution, and federalism based on lecture materials.

Political Culture

A patterned and sustained way of thinking about how politics and economics should be carried out within a society.

Core Values of American Political Culture

The five persistent foundational values in American political culture: liberty, political/social/economic equality, democracy, civic duty, and individual responsibility.

Equality of Opportunity vs. Equality of Results

The U.S. economic culture emphasizes equality of opportunity, whereas political cultures in other industrialized nations place greater emphasis on equality of results.

Culture War

A conflict over cultural issues between progressive and orthodox worldviews that is inherently difficult to resolve.

Public Trust in Government

The percentage of citizens who trust the U.S. government to do what is right, which declined sharply in the 1960s and 1970s due to Vietnam and Watergate and remains near historic lows.

Confidence in American Institutions

Gallup measures of public confidence showing recent declines across major institutions like Congress and newspapers, while small business and the military maintain higher confidence levels.

Civil Society

A collection of private, voluntary groups independent of government that make human cooperation easier.

Civil Liberties

Fundamental individual rights to be free from government interference, protected by the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791.

Civil Rights

Protections designed to safeguard specific groups of people against discrimination.

Selective Incorporation

The judicial process, beginning after the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, by which the Supreme Court applies most parts of the Bill of Rights to state governments.

Establishment Clause

A First Amendment provision directing government not to involve itself in religion, which Thomas Jefferson famously described as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state.

Free Exercise Clause

A First Amendment provision guaranteeing that Congress cannot pass laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion, though secular laws take precedence when conflicts arise.

Imminent Lawless Action Standard

The First Amendment test established in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) stating that political speech is impermissible only if it incites or produces immediate illegal conduct.

Prior Restraint

Government censorship that prevents expression or publication before it occurs, which is generally forbidden under the First Amendment.

Symbolic Speech

Protected nonverbal expression under the First Amendment, such as flag burning, whereas burning draft cards is impermissible because they are government property.

Libel and Slander

Forms of unprotected false speech (written and spoken, respectively) for which public figures must prove "actual malice" to successfully claim damages.

Obscenity Standard

The legal standard established in 1973 defining unprotected sexual expression as work lacking "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value" based on local community standards.

Citizens United v. FEC (2010)

A Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to play a direct political role and spend funds in campaign finance under First Amendment speech protections.

District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)

A landmark Supreme Court decision ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess firearms independent of militia service.

McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

A Supreme Court ruling that incorporated the Second Amendment individual right to bear arms to apply to state governments.

Exclusionary Rule

A legal rule barring law enforcement from introducing illegally seized evidence in criminal trials, subject to "good faith" and "inevitable discovery" exceptions since 1976.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

A Supreme Court ruling establishing that criminal suspects must be informed of their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination before police interrogation.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

A Sixth Amendment Supreme Court ruling establishing the right of indigent defendants to receive court-appointed legal counsel in state criminal cases.

Furman v. Georgia (1972)

A Supreme Court decision that temporarily suspended the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment prohibition.

Natural Law

The core political belief of American colonists that fundamental human rights are imbued by nature rather than granted by government, encompassing life, liberty, and property.

Articles of Confederation

The nation's first constitution ratified in 1781, establishing a weak central government that lacked an executive with real power, a federal judiciary, or authority to tax.

Shays' Rebellion (1786–1787)

An armed uprising of farmers in Massachusetts that exposed the critical weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and catalyzed the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

Connecticut Compromise (Great Compromise)

An agreement creating a bicameral Congress with a House of Representatives based on state population and a Senate giving each state two representatives regardless of size.

Anti-Federalists

Opponents of the 1787 Constitution who argued that a strong central government would overrun individual liberty, successfully securing the addition of a Bill of Rights.

The Federalist Papers

A series of political essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay urging ratification of the Constitution, with Madison's Nos. 10 and 51 providing key arguments.

Government

Derived from the Greek phrase "to pilot a ship," defined as a formal vehicle through which public policies are made and affairs of state are conducted.

Hobbesian State of Nature

Thomas Hobbes's theoretical state in Leviathan describing human existence without government as a perpetual state of war where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

Lockean Social Contract

John Locke's principle that government is founded on an agreement with the public to protect life, liberty, and property, granting citizens the right to rebel if the contract is broken.

Direct Democracy

A system of government, also termed participatory democracy, where citizens participate directly in public policy decisions, such as in New England town meetings or initiatives and referendums.

Representative Democracy

A political system in which leaders and elites are authorized through public elections to make policy decisions on behalf of citizens.

Elites

Persons who possess a disproportionate share of a valued societal resource, such as money, prestige, or expertise.

Federalism

A political system in which governmental authority is divided and shared between national and local or state governments.

Unitary System

A political system, such as Great Britain's, in which virtually all sovereign authority resides in a central national government.

Conditions of Aid

Federal rules and regulations attached to grant funding that state and local governments must adhere to in order to receive federal funds.

Mandates

Federal edicts ordering state or local governments to implement programs or adhere to rules under threat of legal action, often unfunded.

New Federalism

A decentralization movement starting in the 1980s and reflected in the 1995 Contract with America that sought to reduce federal control and restore governing power to state and local levels.