POLS 1101 Midterm 2 Review Sheet

This set of flashcards includes key terms and definitions related to the structure and functions of Congress, the Presidency, Bureaucracy, and the Courts, as discussed in the POLS 1101 midterm review.

Casework

Solving problems for constituents, especially problems involving government agencies.

Cloture

The mechanism by which a filibuster is cut off in the Senate.

Conference

Committee

A temporary committee created to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of a specific piece of legislation.

Constituents

People who live in a government official’s district or state.

Delegates

A legislator whose primary responsibility is to represent the majority view of their constituents, regardless of their own view.

Descriptive

Representation

A belief that constituents are most effectively represented by legislators who are similar to them in such key demographic characteristics as race/ethnicity, religion, or gender.

Earmarks

Federal funds appropriated by Congress for use on local projects.

Filibuster

A delaying tactic used in the Senate that allows any senator to prevent a bill from coming to a vote.

Gerrymandering

Redrawing a congressional district to intentionally benefit one political party.

Hold

A letter requesting that a bill be held from floor debate.

Impeachment

The formal charging of a government official with “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Incumbents

A current officeholder.

Joint

Committee

A committee made up of members of both the House and the Senate.

Majority

Leader

The head of the majority party in the Senate; the second-highest ranking member of the majority party in the House.

Oversight

The process of reviewing the operations of an agency to determine whether it is carrying out policies as Congress intended.

Parliamentary

System

A system of government in which the chief executive is the leader whose party holds the most seats in the legislature after an election or whose party forms a major part of the ruling coalition.

Racial

Gerrymandering

The drawing of a legislative district to maximize the chance that a minority candidate will win election.

Reapportionment

Redistribution of representatives among the states based on population change. The House is reapportioned after each census.

Select Committee

A temporary congressional committee created for a specific purpose and disbanded after that purpose is fulfilled.

Seniority

Years of consecutive service on a particular congressional committee

Speaker of the

House

The presiding officer of the House of Representatives.

Standing

Committee

A permanent congressional committee that specializes in a particular policy area.

Trustees

A representative who is obligated to consider the views of constituents but is not obligated to vote according to those views if they believe said views are misguided.

Vetoes

The president’s disapproval of a bill that has been passed by both houses of Congress. Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds vote in each house.

Senioritis*

members in their legally mandated final term in office enjoy this - the apathy that can hit students in their last term of high school or college - in their legislatures because they don't have to face the voters again at the ballot box
(See additonal reading for further information)

What’s lost

with a weak

Congress?*

-district/local problems are less likely to be addressed
-local perspectives on national issues are not represented
-variations in economy, demographics, and geography are not properly accounted for when there is presidential control over the process
-weak Congress + Imperial Presidency can lead to an unnaccountable president; Congress can not efficiently or effectively check presidential power
(See additonal reading for further information)

Bully Pulpit

A term that refers to the presidency as an office well suited to communicating directly with the public in order to advocate legislation.

Cabinet

A group of presidential advisers; the heads of the executive departments and other key officials.

Delegation of

Powers

The process by which Congress gives the executive branch the additional authority needed to address new problems.

Divided

Government

The situation in which one party controls the White House and the other controls at least one house of Congress.

Executive

Agreement

A pact between the heads of two countries that does not require Senate ratification.

Executive Office

of the President

(EOP)

The president’s executive aides and their staffs; the extended White House executive establishment.

Executive Orders

A presidential directive that instructs executive branch officials and agencies to create or modify public policies, without the direct approval of Congress.

Executive

Privilege

The right of a president to maintain confidential executive branch communications in some circumstances, declaring immunity from subpoenas and information requests made by Congress and the courts.

Gridlock

A situation in which government is incapable of acting on important issues.

Industrial policy

Government efforts to develop specific segments of the economy, usually in manufacturing.

Inherent

Powers

Authority claimed by the president that is not clearly specified in the Constitution. Typically, these powers are inferred from the Constitution.

Legislative

Liaison Staff

Those people who act as the communications link between the White House and Congress, advising the president or cabinet secretaries on the status of pending legislation.

National

Security

Directive (NSD)

A highly classified presidential order that guides national security policy.

Pardons

The presidential power to release persons accused or convicted of a federal crime from all or part of their punishment.

Pocket Veto

A veto that takes effect when the president does not act on a bill and Congress adjourns within ten days.

Presidential Memorandum

A presidential policy directive similar to an executive order but not published in the Federal Register

Proclamations

A presidential statement that is usually ceremonial but may declare a president’s intention to use their formal or delegated powers.

Signing Statement

A statement issued by the president declaring their interpretation of legislation being signed into law.

Treaties

A legal agreement between two or more countries.

War Powers Resolution

An act of Congress that forces that body to decide whether a commitment of troops into a war zone is permissible.

White House Office (WHO)

The president’s chief of staff and closest advisors; coordinates the president’s schedule, press relations, and political strategy.

Trump v. United States*

the Supreme Court held by a vote of 6 to 3 that a president is immune from prosecution for his “official” actions under the Constitution but liable for “unofficial” acts and returned cases pending against him to lower federal courts for decision. Legal scholars said that the ruling materially expanded presidential power.

Agency Advisory Committee

A formal group of people drawn from communities that a government agency serves to help the agency solve problems and hold it accountable for its work.

Bureaucracy

An organization that administers or carries out a set of activities.

Bureaucratic Discretion

The ability of bureaucrats to use their professional judgment when deciding how to carry out a policy.

Bureaucratic Network

A collection of bureaucracies, which can include public or private organizations, working together to achieve a substantive goal.

Bureaucrats

Employees of a bureaucracy, usually meaning a government bureaucracy.

Civil Service

The system by which most appointments to the federal bureaucracy are made to ensure that government jobs are filled on the basis of merit and that employees are not fired for political reasons.

Coproduction

Individual people in communities whom government bureaucracies serve coming forward and working with bureaucrats to help them carry out their work.

Critical Tasks

Concrete actions that bureaucrats need to perform to help the bureaucracy address the key issues for which it is designed.

Departments

The biggest units of the executive branch, covering a broad area of government responsibility. The heads of the departments, or secretaries, are members of the president’s cabinet.

Executives

Top-level bureaucrats responsible for entire bureaucracies, or major parts of them, who make strategic decisions about the total collection of the organization’s programs, financial resources, organizational arrangements, and personnel.

Fire Alarm Oversight

Congressional oversight of a bureaucracy that is reactive and indirect.

Government Corporations

Government agencies that perform services that might be provided by the private sector but that either involve insufficient financial incentive or are better provided when they are somehow linked with government.

Incrementalism

Policymaking characterized by a series of decisions, each typically instituting modest change.

Independent Agencies

Executive agencies that are not part of a cabinet department.

Managers

Midlevel bureaucrats who lead parts of government bureaucracies by overseeing programs, budgets, and personnel.

Operators

Front-line bureaucrats who have the most direct contact with the daily work of their organization.

Organizational Culture

How bureaucrats think about critical tasks and human relationships within their bureaucracy.

Police Patrol Oversight

Congressional oversight of a bureaucracy that is proactive and direct.

Red Tape

Rules and other constraints that democracies demand that restrict bureaucrats’ behavior.

Regulations

Administrative rules that guide the operation of a government program.

Regulatory Commissions

Agencies of the executive branch of government that control or direct some aspect of the economy.

Representative Bureaucracy

A theory explaining that government bureaucracies with bureaucrats who share personal characteristics with the communities they serve are more likely to represent the interests of those communities.

Rulemaking

The administrative process that results in the issuance of regulations by government agencies.

Satisficing

Making a decision that is acceptable and good enough to get a job done.

Sense of Mission

The condition of having agreement among bureaucrats about the critical tasks and key human relationships that should operate in a bureaucracy.

Standing

The condition of having a direct interest in a case before a court.

Strategic Triangle

An approach to leadership whereby managers and executives of bureaucracies articulate public value, secure external legitimacy, and maintain capabilities for their organizations to succeed.

Chevron Doctrine*

Chevron v. Natural Resources

Defense Council (1984), a decision that had allowed federal

agencies to create rules as long as the interpretation was

"reasonable"

Amicus Curiae Brief

A “friend of the court” brief filed with the permission of the court by an individual or group that is not a party to a legal action but has an interest in it.

Appellate Jurisdiction

The authority of a court to hear cases that have been tried, decided, or reexamined in other courts.

Argument

The heart of a judicial opinion, its logical content separated from facts, rhetoric, and procedure

Civil Cases

Court cases that involve a private dispute arising from such matters as accidents, contractual obligations, divorce, and bodily injuries or harm.

Common Law

Legal precedents derived from previous judicial decisions.

Concurrence

The agreement of a judge with the majority decision for a reason other than the majority reason.

Criminal Cases

Court cases involving a crime or violation of public order.

Dissent

The disagreement of a judge with a majority decision.

Docket

A court’s agenda.

Judgment

The judicial decision in a court case.

Judicial Activism

A judicial philosophy by which judges tend not to defer to decisions of the elected branches of government, resulting in the invalidation or weakening of those decisions.

Judicial Restraint

A judicial philosophy by which judges tend to defer to decisions of the elected branches of government.

Judicial Review

The courts power to overturn orders deemed unconstitutional

Opinion

The written explanation that justifies a court’s judgment in a case.

Original Jurisdiction

The authority of a court to hear a case before any other court does.

Plea Bargain

A defendant’s admission of guilt in exchange for a less severe punishment.

Precedent

A judicial ruling that serves as the basis for the ruling in a subsequent case.

Rule of Four

An unwritten rule that requires at least four justices to agree that a case warrants consideration before it is reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senatorial Courtesy

A norm under which a nomination must be acceptable to the home-state senator from the president’s party.

Solicitor General

The third highest official of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the person who represents the national government before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Stare Decisis

Literally, “let the decision stand”; decision making according to precedent.

Statutory Construction

Judicial interpretation of legislative acts that clarify the meaning of law.

Tribal Justice Systems

Courts that administer justice on Native American lands, consistent with the law and sovereignty of tribal nations.

US Courts of Appeals

Courts within the second tier of the three-tiered federal court system, to which decisions of the district courts and federal agencies may be appealed for review.