Political Science: Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Public Opinion, and Elections

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Public Opinion, Political Participation, and Elections from the Political Science lecture notes.

Civil Liberties

Protections received from the Constitution against improper government action that serve as a check on the majority to allow minorities to speak and act as they want.

Substantive Liberties

Constitutional limits on what the government can and cannot do.

Procedural Liberties

Constitutional rules governing how the government must act and conduct itself.

Selective Incorporation

The gradual, piece-by-piece process through which the U.S. Supreme Court applies the provisions of the Bill of Rights to state governments via the Fourteenth Amendment.

Establishment Clause

A provision of the First Amendment that protects citizens from the government imposing any particular religion.

Free Exercise Clause

A provision of the First Amendment protecting the freedom to practice one's religion of choice without state interference.

Strict Scrutiny

The highest level of judicial review applied by the Supreme Court, requiring the government to show a compelling reason to justify actions such as restricting political speech or classifying by race.

Clear and Present Danger Test

A legal standard determining that the First Amendment does not protect speech that leads directly to panic, violence, or death (such as falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater).

Libel

A published false statement made with reckless disregard of the truth that defames and damages someone's reputation.

Due Process

The constitutional right of every citizen to be free from arbitrary action by national or state governments before being convicted of a crime.

Exclusionary Rule

A judicial rule established in Mapp v. Ohio ($1961$) that gives courts the ability to exclude evidence obtained through unreasonable searches and seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Double Jeopardy

A Fifth Amendment protection that prevents an individual from being tried twice for the same criminal offense.

Eminent Domain

The power of the government under the Fifth Amendment to take private property for public use, provided it proves a public purpose and offers fair compensation.

Civil Rights

Legal rights guaranteed to all American citizens by law, typically referring to social freedoms and equal treatment under the law.

Discrimination

The use of any unreasonable and unjust criterion of exclusion against individuals or groups.

Separate but Equal Doctrine

The legal doctrine upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$) that allowed racial segregation as long as facilities provided for separate races were equal in quality.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

A federal law prohibiting employers from discriminating against employees or applicants on the basis of race or sex.

Title IX of the 1972 Education Act

A federal law requiring equal athletics and scholarships in higher education for all sexes and protecting individuals from sexual harassment and abuse on campus.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

A proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution first introduced in Congress in $1923$ to ensure equal rights for men and women, which ultimately was never ratified.

Affirmative Action

Government and institutional policies designed to provide members of previously discriminated groups with special access to educational and employment opportunities.

Public Opinion

The collective opinions, attitudes, and orientations of the general public regarding politics and government.

Values

A person's basic orientation and underlying belief system toward politics.

Ideology

A set of underlying orientations, ideas, and beliefs toward government formed from an individual's basic values.

Liberalism

A political ideology associated with the Left that favors using government intervention to achieve social and economic equality.

Conservatism

A political ideology associated with the Right that supports the social and economic status quo and views a large government as a threat to individual freedom.

Libertarianism

A political ideology that emphasizes personal freedom and voluntary association while advocating for a strictly limited role for government.

Partisanship

An individual's psychological identification with and membership in a specific political party, functioning as a primary heuristic for voting.

Political Socialization

The lifelong process through which individuals acquire their underlying political beliefs and values.

Agents of Socialization

Social institutions—such as families, schools, religious institutions, and the media—that shape an individual's core political beliefs and values.

Random Sample

A polling method in which every individual in a given population has an equal probability of being chosen for a survey.

Random Digit Dialing

A sampling method that selects survey respondents at random from a computer-generated list of ten-digit telephone numbers.

Sampling Error

The margin of error in a poll that is caused by the small size of the sample relative to the target population.

Social Desirability Effect

A survey response bias occurring when respondents give answers they believe are socially acceptable or expected by the interviewer rather than their honest opinions.

Selection Bias

A polling error that occurs when a sample does not accurately represent the broader population, resulting in the over- or under-representation of specific groups.

Suffrage

The legally recognized right to vote in public elections.

Ballot Initiative

A mechanism of direct democracy that allows registered voters to vote directly on a proposed law or public policy placed on the ballot.

Closed Primary

A primary election in which only voters registered in advance with a specific political party can participate in choosing that party's candidates.

Open Primary

A primary election in which any eligible voter can choose on election day which party's ballot to receive and vote on.

Caucus

A closed, in-person gathering of party members organized by precinct to deliberate and select party nominees rather than using a traditional secret ballot.

Plurality Vote

An electoral system in which the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes wins the election, regardless of whether they achieve an absolute majority.

Majority Vote

An electoral rule requiring a candidate to receive more than $50\%$ of all votes cast to win an election.

Runoff Election

A second election held between the top two vote-getters when no single candidate receives an absolute majority in a majority-vote system.

Electoral College

The formal institution comprising $538$ electors allocated among the states that officially selects the President of the United States based on statewide election outcomes.

Political Action Committee (PAC)

A federally regulated political committee organized to raise and donate limited funds directly to political candidates and parties.

Super PAC

An independent expenditure-only committee authorized under Citizens United v. FEC ($2010$) that may raise and spend unlimited funds from individuals, corporations, and unions, provided it does not coordinate with candidate campaigns.

Retrospective Voting

A voting choice based on evaluating a candidate's or ruling party's past performance in office.

Prospective Voting

A voting choice based on expectations of how a candidate or political party will perform or benefit the voter in the future.