AP Gov Unit #2

Chapter 4

1. Pork Barrel Spending - Federal projects, grants, and contracts available to state and local governments, businesses, colleges, and other institutions in a congressional district.
2. Logrolling - the practice of exchanging favors, especially in politics by reciprocal voting for each other's proposed legislation. Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.
3. oversight - Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization. Can be in response to a crisis of some kind or part of routine review.
4. Constituency - bodies of voters in an area who elect a representative or senator
5. Apportionment - the process of determining the number of representatives of each state using census data
6. Redistricting - states redraw the boundaries of electoral districts
7. Gerrymandering - the intentional use of redistricting to benefit the specific interest or group of voters.
8. Partisan Gerrymandering - the intentional use of redistricting to benefit a specific political party
9. Majority-minority districts - majority of voters of a minority ethnicity within a district
   10. Speaker of the House - leader of house, elected by house members. most powerful, controls house agenda and committee assignments.
   11. House Majority Leader - second-in-command, assists the speaker, sets the agenda for majority party
   12. Whip - collects information on how members plan to vote. corralling support on key votes.
   13. Minority Leader - leader of the party with the second-highest number of seats.
   14. Senate Majority Leader - head of majority party, most powerful person under the speaker, shapes legislative agenda.
   15. Filibuster - A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation use their right to unlimited debate to prevent the Senate from ever voting on a bill. Sixty members present and voting can halt a filibuster.
   16. Cloture - Cloture is a procedure used occasionally in the U.S. Senate to break a filibuster. Cloture, or Rule 22, is the only formal procedure in Senate parliamentary rules, in fact, that can force an end to the stalling tactic. It allows the Senate to limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours of debate.
   17. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
   18. Entitlement Program
   19. Mandatory Spending - spending required by existing laws that is “locked in” the budget.
   20. Discretionary Spending - spending for programs and policies at the discretion of congress and the president.
   21. Budget Surplus - government spending less than government revenue
   22. Budget Deficit - government spending greater than government revenue
   23. National Debt - multiple deficits over time.
   24. Politico Role - emphasizes that congress is a politicized body: members of congress balance their choices with the interests of constituents and parties

Chapter 5

1. Executive Branch - a branch headed by the presidents, charged with putting the nations laws into effect
2. Formal (or enumerated) Powers - powers explicitly given to the president
3. Informal Powers - Powers necessary to the president to carry out enumerated powers
4. Treaty - making power. requires 2/3rd senate ratification
5. Veto - formal rejection. by the president of a bill
6. Pocket Veto - informal veto caused when the president chooses not to sign a bill within ten days, during a time when congress has adjourned at the end of a session
7. Executive Privilege - a right claimed by presidents to keep certain conversations, records, and transcripts confidential from outside scrutiny, especially that of Congress
8. Signing Statement - Written comments issued by presidents while signing a bill into law that usually consist of political statements or reasons for signing the bill but that may also include a president’s interpretation of the law itself
9. Executive Order - policy directives issued by presidents that do not require congressional approval
   10. Impeachment - The process of removing a president from office, with articles of impeachment issued by a majority vote in the House of Representatives, followed by a trial in the Senate, with two-thirds vote necessary to convict and remove
   11. Executive Power of the President - The President can issue executive orders, which direct executive officers or clarify and further existing laws. The President also has the power to extend pardons and clemencies for federal crimes.
   12. Bully Pulpit - appeal to the public to pressure other branches of government to support their policies

Chapter 6

1. Federal Judiciary  - a branch of the federal government whose role is to interpret and apply the laws of the nation
2. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) - highest court in the united states
3. Original Jurisdiction - court has the authority to hear the case first
4. Appellate Jurisdiction - court has the right to revise the decision of a lower court and to overturn or revise the decision (most scotus cases)
5. Federalist No. 78 - written by Alexander Hamilton to reassure skeptics
6. Marbury v. Madison (1803) - Marbury did not receive his commission from Madison, he filed a lawsuit. The court decided that he was owed the commission but the court did not have the authority to write a writ of mandamus to force its delivery. The Judiciary act of 1978 allowed the court to do so. First use of  judicial review.
7. Judicial Review -  the power of the court to rule on the constitutionality of laws, acts, statutes, executive orders.
8. Federal District Courts - lowest level court, trial court, original jurisdiction, most work.
9. Federal Courts of Appeals - middle level, appellate jurisdiction only, reviewing decisions made by courts.
   10. Precedent - acts as a basis for future decisions of similar circumstance.
   11. Stare Decisis - A Latin phrase meaning "let the decision stand." Most cases reaching appellate courts are settled on this principle.
   12. Majority Opinion - binding supreme court decision which serves as precedent for future cases.
   13. Concurring Opinion - an opinion which agrees with majority opinion providing additional or different reasoning, which does not serve as precedent.
   14. Dissenting Opinion - an opinion that disagrees with the majority opinion and does not serve as precedent.
   15. Judicial Restraint - philosophy in constitutional interpretation that justices should be cautious when overturning laws.
   16. Judicial Activism - philosophy in constitutional interpretation that justices should wield the power of review, sometimes creating bold new policies

Chapter 7

1. Federal Bureaucracy - the department and agencies within the executive branch that write rules and procedures that implement laws passed by congress.
2. Bureaucrat - officials employed by government agencies.
3. Iron Triangle - Bureaucracy, congress and interest groups work together to achieve shared policy goals.
4. Bureaucratic Discretion - bureaucrats have some power to decide how laws are.
5. implemented. - putting into action the legislation created by congress.
6. Regulation - the process through which the federal bureaucracy fills in critical details of the law.
7. Bureaucratic Adjudication - bureaucracy acts as a court to settle disputes between parties.