POSI

Topic 1

• Democracy lets people decide for themselves what to think and how much effort to put into it, unlike an authoritarian regime that requires people to think a certain way or risk punishment.

• American political culture centers on  a set of core ideals- liberty, equality, self government, and individualism- that serve as Americans' common bond. The ideals affect what Americans see as reasonable and acceptable, and what they will try to achieve.

• Political culture is the widely shared and deep seated beliefs of its people about politics, these beliefs derive from the country's traditions and help define the relationship of citizens to their government and to each other. 

• Americans are linked not by shared ancestry but by allegiance to a common set of ideals. 

• Liberty- is the principle that individuals should be free from arbitrary and oppressive government so that they can think and act as they choose.

• Individualism- is a commitment to personal initiative and self sufficiency.

• Equality- the notion that all individuals are equal in their moral worth and are thereby entitled to equal treatment under the law

• Self government-the principle that the people are the ultimate source of governing authority and should have a voice in their governing.

• Americans' cultural beliefs are idealistic. They hold out the promise of a government of high purpose, in which power is widely shared and used for the common good, and where individuals are free, self governing and equal under the law.

• Politics is the means by which society settles its conflicts and determines who gets the benefits and who pays the cost.

• Power is basic to politics, the distribution of power in a society affects who wins and who loses when political decisions are made. Those with enough power can raise or cut taxes, permit or prohibit abortions, impose or relax trade barriers, and make war or declare peace.

• Authoritarian government- is one that openly represses its political opponents, most through intimidation and prohibitions on free expression but sometimes through brute force.

• Majoritarianism- is the term used to describe situations in which political leaders act on behalf of the majority, in America's case, majoritarianism occurs primarily through the competition between the republican and democratic parties. 

• Constitutionalism- the idea that there are lawful restrictions on the government's power. Officials are obliged to act within the limit of the law

• Totalitarianism-a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state

• Limited government- one that is subject to strict legal limits on the uses of power so that it would not endanger the people's liberty.

• Representative government- one in which the people would govern through election of the representatives.

• These can conflict, which lead to the framers to craft a constitution that provides for majority rule but with built-in restrictions on the power of the majority and its elected representatives.

• Social contract: a voluntary agreement by individuals to form a government that is then obligated to work within the confines of that agreement.

• Inalienable(natural) rights- those rights that persons theoretically possessed in the state of nature, prior to the formation of government. These rights. Including those of life, liberty, and property, are considered inherent and as such are inalienable. Since the government is established by people, the government has the responsibility to preserve these rights. 

• The Virginia plan- a constitutional proposal for a strong congress with two chambers, both of which would be based on a numerical representation, thus granting more power to larger states. 

• New jersey plan- a constitutional proposal for a strengthened congress but one in which each state would have a single vote, thus granting a small state the same legislative power as a larger state. 

• Electoral votes- the method of voting to choose the US president. Each state has the same number of electoral votes as it has members in congress. By tradition, electoral vote is tied to a state's popular vote. The candidate with the most popular votes in a state receives its electoral votes. 

• Anti federalist- opponents of the constitution during the debate over ratification. They claim that the proposed national government would be too powerful and would threaten the liberty of the states and of the people. 

Writers of the constitution had 4 major goals:

• Strong government: Create a national government strong enough to meet the nation's needs, an objective sought through substantial grants of power to the federal government in areas such as defense and commerce.

• Federal government: a government that would not threaten the existence of the separate states- an objective sought through federalism and through a congress tied to the states through elections.

• Limited government: a government that would not threaten liberty- an objective sought through an elaborate system of checks and balances.

• Representative government: a government based on popular consent- an objective sought through provisions for the direct and indirect elections of public officials. 

• Grants of power: the method of limiting the US government by confining its scope of authority to those powers expressly granted in the constitution. Powers granted to the national government, powers not granted it are denied.

• Denials of power: power expressly denied to the national and state government by the constitution.

• Separation of power: division of national governments power among three power sharing branches, each of which acts as a check on powers of the other two

• Bill of rights: first 10 amendments to constitution, which list individuals rights that the national government cannot abridge or deny.

• Tyranny of the majority: the potential of a majority to monopolize for its own gain and to the detriment of minority rights and interests.

• Direct democracy: a form of government in which citizens meet and directly decide on issues of governing. The form is impartial except at the local level

• Representative government: a government in which a majority of citizens govern through the election of their representatives. Such governments differ in the amount of power granted to elected representatives, everything from nearly unlimited power to power that is substantially checked by institutional and constitutional restraints. 

• Republic: a form of government in which the peoples representatives decide policy through institutions structured in ways that foster deliberation, slow the progress of decision making, and operate within restraints that protect individual liberty. To the framers, the constitutions' separation of powers and other limits on power were defining features of a republican form of government, as opposed to a democratic form, which places no limits on the majority.

• Primary election: also called a direct primary, a form of election in which voters choose a party's nominees for public office. In most states, eligibility to vote in a primary election is limited to voters who designated themselves as party members when they registered to vote.

• Constitutional democratic republic: a government that is constitutional in its provisions for minority rights and rule by law; democratic in its provisions for majority influence through elections; and a republic in its mix of deliberative institutions, which check and balance each other. 

• Social contract: John Locke theory, in which people agree to form a government in order to protect society from the actions of dangerous individuals, also a voluntary agreement by individuals to form a government that is then obligated to work within the confines of that agreement.

• Sovereignty- the supreme authority to govern within a certain geographic area

• Federalism- a governmental system in which authority is divided between two sovereign levels of government: national and regional.

• Unitary system- a governmental system in which the national government alone as sovereign authority

• Confederacy- a governmental system in which sovereignty is vested entirely in state governments

• Enumerated (expressed powers)- the 17 powers granted to the national government under article 1, section 8 of the constitution, these powers included taxation and the regulation of commerce, as well as the authority to provide for the national defense. 

• Supremacy clause-article 6 of the constitution, which makes national law supreme over state law when the national government is acting within its constitutional limits

• Argument against federalism- was that it would correct the defects in the articles, two particularly were the trouble. The first being that the national government had neither the power to tax nor the power to regulate commerce among the states, and the national government could neither promote the general economy nor prevent trade wars between the states.

• Anti federalist were worried that the states would eventually have power over little else than yokin hogs, james madison, alexander hamilton and john jay argued that a federal system would protect liberty and moderate the power of government.

• Necessary and proper clause-the authority granted congress article 1, section 8 of the constitution to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for the implementation of its enumerated powers

• Implied powers- the federal government's constitutional authority( through necessary and proper clause) to take action that is not expressly authorized by the constitution but that supports actions that are so authorized.

• Reserved powers- the powers granted to the states under the 10th amendment to the constitution

• Nationalization- the process by which authority in the american federal system has shifted gradually from the states to the national government. 

• Dual federalism- a doctrine based on the idea that a precise separation of national power and state power is both possible and desirable. 

• Cooperative federalism- the situation in which the national, state, and local levels work together to solve problems.

• Fiscal federalism- the expenditure of federal funds on programs run, in part, through states and localities.

• Grants in aid- federal cash payments to states and localities for programs they administer. 

• New federalism- term used by republicans presidents nixon and reagan to express idea that federal programs, regulations, and spending in policy areas traditionally reserved for the states should be reduced

• Categorical grants- federal grants in aid to states and localities that can be used only for designated projects 

• Block grants- federal grants in aid that permit state and local officials to decide how the money will be spent within a general area, such as education or health .

• Devolution- the passing down of authority from the national government to the state and local government. 

• Elitism- the power exercised by well-positioned and highly influential individuals?

• Commerce clause- the authority granted congress to regulate commerce among the states

• Tenth amendment: amendment of the US constitution that delegates or reserves some powers to the state government or to the people 

• Interstate commerce clause: article in US constitution that gives the executive power to regulate commerce between the states; congress and the courts determine what is interstate commerce.

• Equal protection clause: clause in the fourteenth amendment of the US constitution that requires states to treat all citizens equally. 

• Full faith and credit clause: clause in article of the US constitution that requires states to recognize the judgment, legislation, and public records of other states.

• Categorical grants: grants that may be used to fund specific purposes as defined by the federal government 

• Popular sovereignty: the idea that power granted in state constitutions rests with the people.

• Social contract theory: the idea that all individuals possess inalienable rights and willingly submit to the government to protect these rights.

• Supremacy clause: a clause that makes constitutional provisions superior to other laws. 

• Statutes: laws passed by state legislatures

• Ordinances: laws passed by local governments 

• Unitary system of government: a system of government where all functions of governments are controlled by the central/ national government.

• Initiative: a process that allows citizens to propose changes to the state's constitution through the use of petitions signed by registered voters; Texas does not allow constitutional revision through initiative.

Topic 2

• Federal judges are nominated and appointed to office by the president, subject to confirmation by majority of the senate.

• Federal judges serve until they die or retire, only a handful of lower court judges have been removed through impeachment and conviction by the constitution.

• In federalist No, 78, alexander hamilton argued that life tenure for federal judges was required for the judiciary's independence and authority.

• Statutory law: the federal courts are constrained by statues and by administrative regulations derived from status. Many laws however, are somewhat vague in their provisions and often have unanticipated applications. As a result, judges have some freedom in deciding cases based on statutes.

• Precedent: federal courts tend to follow precedent(or stare decisis), which is a legal principle based on how courts decided previous cases on the same issue. Because times change and not all cases have a clear precedent, judges have some discretion in deciding whether the outcome of earlier cases applies to a current case.

• Judicial review: the power of courts to decide whether a governmental institution has acted within its constitutional powers and, if not, to declare its actions null and void. Needs to be approved by ⅔   majorities in the house and senate and ¾ of state legislatures.

• Jurisdiction: a given court's authority to hear cases of  particular type.

• Original jurisdiction: the authority of a given court to be the first court to hear a case.

• Appellate jurisdiction: the authority of a given court to review cases that have already been tried in lower courts and are appealed to it by the losing party; such a court is called an appeals court or appellate court.

• Us courts of appeals: the United States had 13 courts of appeals. Eleven of them have jurisdiction over a circuit made up of the district courts in anywhere from 3 to 9 states. Of the other two appeal courts, one has jurisdiction over appeals involving patents and international trade. Between 6 and 26 judges sit on each court of appeals. Courts of appeals offer the only hope of reversal for most appellants because the supreme court hears so few cases.

• Supreme court: has 9 members; the chief and 8 associate justices. The chief justice presides over the court in meetings and when hearing cases but has the same voting power as each of the other justices. Article 3 of the constitution grants the supreme court both original and appellate jurisdiction. Also legal disputes involving foreign diplomats and cases in which the opposing parties are state governments. Article 3 prohibits congress from altering the supreme court's original jurisdiction.

• Rule of 4: a supreme court rule whereby, when a losing party appeals a lower court ruling, the case is accepted by the supreme court only if at least 4 justices agree to hear it.

• Writ of certiorari: permission granted by a higher court to allow a losing party in legal case to bring the case before it for a ruling: when such a writ is requested of the US supreme court, four of the courts nine justices must agree to accept the case before it is granted certiorari. 

• Majority opinion: a court opinion that results when a majority of the justices are in agreement on the legal basis of the decision 

• Plurality opinion: a court opinion that results when a majority of justices agree on a decision in a case but do not agree on the legal basis for the decision. In this instance, the legal position held by most of the justices on the winning side is called a plurality opinion.

• Concurring opinion: a separate opinion written by a supreme court justice who votes with the majority in the decision on a case but who disagrees with the reasoning 

• Dissenting opinion: the opinion of a justice in a supreme court case that explains his or her reasons for disagreeing with the majority's decision.

• Per curiam opinion: an unsigned decision written for the court as a whole.

• State courts: in some states, the governor appoints judges, in most states judges are elected to office. Other states use a mixed system called the retention election plan, in which the governor appoints a judge from a list of acceptable candidates provided by judicial selection commission.

• Administrative law, which consists of rules, regulations, and decisions that government agencies make in the process of implementing and enforcing statutory law.

• Interest groups can submit briefs to make a court aware of their position on a case being heard or under consideration for a hearing by an appellate court.

• Judicial restraint: the doctrine that holds judges should defer to precedent and to the policy decisions of elected lawmakers in nearly all situations. Advocates say that, when judges substitute their views for those of elected representatives, they undermine the fundamental principle of self government and the right of the majority, through its elected representatives, to determine how it will be governed.

• Judicial activism: a doctrine of judicial activism holds that, although judges should generally defer to elected officials, they should only do so when, from their perspective, they believe officials are acting within their constitutional authority. They also contend that precedent should be respected only if based on legal reasoning that is as sound today as it was when the precedent was established.

• Orginalism theory: holds that the meaning of constitutional provisions is fixed in the time of their writing and should be binding on judicial officers. Orginalists hold to the idea that the writers of the constitution or a constitutional amendment had a particular meaning in mind and that constitutional ruling should be consistent with that meaning.

• Living constitution theory: holds that constitutional law should change to reflect changing values and conditions. Advocates of this theory see constitutional provisions as containing fundamental principles, such as liberty and self government, that should be applied in the context of the needs of today's society when the provisions was written

• Which interest group regularly files cases seeking to protect individual rights?

• ACLU

• The imperial presidency: an office so powerful that constitutional checks and balances were no longer an effective constraint 

• Imperiled presidency: an office too weak to meet the nation's needs.

• The formal powers of the office are relatively modest, so presidential power changes with political conditions and the personal capacity of the office's occupant. 

• Overtime, the presidency has become a more powerful office, largely because of legacy and to domestic and international developments that have increased the need for executive leadership.

• The president could not control the executive branch without a large number of presidential appointees- advisers, experts, and skilled managers, but the sheer number of these appointees is itself a challenge to presidential control. 

• The presidents election by national vote and position as sole chief executive make the presidency the focal point of national politics, but the formal authority of the president is not substantial enough to meet the demands on the office

• The constitution states the president must be at least 35, and have been a US resident for at least 14 years and be a natural born citizen of the United states.

• Ratification of the 22nd amendment placed another limitation on the occupant, it limits a president to two terms in office.

• Chief diplomat: the constitutional role that assigns the president responsibility for relations with other countries. Rest largely on provisions granting the president power to appoint and receive ambassadors.

• Chief legislature: the constitutional role that gives the president authority to recommend legislative measures to congress and to assess the state of union. The president can recommend measures to congress and inform it of the “state of union”.

• Chief executive: the constitutional role that assigns the president responsible for executing the laws and administering the executive branch.

• Head of government: term used to describe a country's highest ranking executive official.

• Head of state: the largely ceremonial role whereby the president serves as a representative of the country.

• The president has control over the nation's army, but only congress can declare war.

• In federalist 69, alexander hamilton wrote that insurrections and surprise attacks on the united states were the only situations that would justify a president's use of military force without congressional authorization, nevertheless, more than 80 percent of US military engagements since world war 2 have been waged solely on presidential authority.

• Constitutional authority also authorizes the president to act as a diplomatic leader with the power to appoint ambassadors, and also to negotiate treaties with other countries, subject to approval by a two-thirds vote of the senate.

• Presidents increasingly took charge of US foreign policy and today nearly every foreign policy initiative originates with the president.

• The President has executive power, which includes the responsibility to execute the laws faithfully and to appoint the heads of federal agencies.

• The constitution provides the president with legislative authority, including the veto and the option of proposing legislation to congress.

• Members of congress are elected from separate states or districts and operate in an institution where they share power with other members.

• Limited presidency theory: a theory that prevailed in the 19th century and held that the presidency was limited or restrained office whose occupant was confined to expressly granted constitutional authority

• Stewardship theory: a theory that argues for a strong, assertive presidential role, with presidential authority limited only at points specifically prohibited by law. 

• The constitution grants congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, it has ceded much of that power to the president. 

• Executive office of the president(EOP): the EOP includes a number of units, including the white house office(WHO), office of management and budget(OMB), national security (NSC), national economic council(NEC), which are staffed by political and policy experts to assist the president on policy issues and management of the executive branch. 

• The constitution assigns legislative authority to the vice president, the vice president is president of the senate. The vice president normally presides only when there's a possibility of a tie vote on a bill.

• When Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, he redefined the vice presidency by assigning important duties to his vice president and relocating him to an office in the white house.

• Cabinet: a group consisting of the 15 heads of the (cabinet) executive departments, who are appointed by the president, subject to confirmation by the senate. The cabinet was once the main advisory body to the president but no longer plays this role.

• As head of the state department, the secretaries duties include advising the president on foreign policy, overseeing the work of US ambassadors, representing the United States in meetings with foreign leaders, participating as the US representative in international conferences and protecting US citizens living abroad.

• Party leader: the members of the house and senate who are chosen by the democratic or republican caucus in each chamber to represent the parties interest in the chamber and who give some central direction to the chamber's work. 

• congress. 

• Presidents are more successful when their party controls both houses of congress, a situation known as unified government. When the other party controls one or both houses, it's known as divided government.

• Bully pulpit: a term referring to the communication platform provided to the president as a result of being the center of national attention. 

• The President's agenda setting ability is a source of power.

• Presidential veto: the power of a president to veto an act of congress. A veto can only be overridden by a two thirds vote of the house and senate. Can sometimes be used to get congress to bend to the president's demands.

• Executive order: a presidential directive on how a law is to be interpreted or administered. An executive order must be based on an existing law and cannot violate any provision of the law. 

• Executive agreement: a formal agreement with a foreign nation made by a president on his or her own authority.

• A treaty requires senate approval and cannot normally be voided by the president, whereas an executive agreement becomes law simply based on the president's signature.

• War powers act: the act does not prohibit the president from initiating the combat but requires the president to consult with congress whenever feasible, before doing so and requires the president to inform congress within 48 hours of the reasons for military action, unless congress approves an extension, the act requires hostilities to end within 60 days, although the president has an additional 30 days to safely withdraw the troops.

• Framers of the constitution regarded congress as the leading branch of the federal government and granted it the highest power of a democratic government, which is the power to make laws. even the authority to decide the form and function of the executive departments and the lower courts. No executive agency or lower court can exist unless authorized by congress.

• Congressional incumbents get reelected at a very high rate. Holding congressional office provides incumbents with substantial resources (free publicity, staff, and legislative influence) that give them (particularly House members) a major advantage in election campaigns

• Leadership in Congress is provided by party leaders, including the Speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader. In recent decades, congressional Republicans have become more uniformly conservative and congressional Democrats have become more uniformly liberal, which has made it easier for party leaders to take policy positions that will be supported by their party's members.

• Much of the work of congress is done through committees, each of which has its leadership and its designated policy jurisdiction. 

• Congress's policymaking role is based on three major functions: lawmaking, representation, and oversight. 

• Incumbent: the current holder of a particular public office. And have about a 90% chance of winning reelection.

• Constituency: the people residing within the geographic area represented by an elected official. Also how incumbents promote their reelection prospects by catering to their constituency.

• Pork: also called pork barrel spending: spending whose tangible benefits are targeted at a particular legislator's constituency.

• Service strategy: the use of personal staff by members of congress to perform services for constituents in order to gain their support in future elections.

• The frank: although subject to limits, each member of congress is also provided free trips back to their home state and free mailing constituent households.

• Political action committees(PAC’s): which are the fundraising units of interest groups. Most are reluctant to oppose an incumbent unless the candidate appears beatable; more than 85 percent of PAC contributions in recent elections have gone to incumbents.

• Reappointment: the reallocation of the house seats among states after each census as a result of population changes.

• Redistricting: the process of altering election districts in order to make them as nearly as equal in population as possible, redistricting takes place every 10 years, after each population census.

• Gerrymandering: the process by which the party in power draws election district boundaries in a way that enhances the reelection prospects of its candidates.

• Surge and decline theory: there is a surge in the number of voters in a presidential election, followed by a substantial decline in the numbers who turn out for the midterm election.

• The constitution has placed limits on who can be elected to congress, house members must be at least 25 years of age and citizen requirements are 20 years and 9 years, respectively, senators and representatives alike must be residents of the state from which they are elected.

• Lawyers, business executives, educators, bankers, and journalists account for roughly 90 percent of congressional membership.

• Bicameral legislature: a legislature that has two chambers( the house and the senate, in the case of the united state)

• Party leaders: The members of the house and senate who are chosen by the democratic or republican caucus in each chamber to represent the party's interests in that chamber and who give some central direction to the chamber's work.

• Party caucus: a group that consists of a party's members in the house or senate and that serves to elect the party's leadership, set goals, and plan party strategy. 

• The speaker of the house has been called the nation's most powerful elected national official aside from the president. 

• The speaker's formal powers include the right to speak first during house debate on legislation and the power to recognize members, that is, to permit them to speak from the floor. Also chooses the chairperson and the majority party members of the powerful house rules committee, which controls the scheduling of bills.

• The speaker is assisted by the house majority leader and the house majority whip, the majority leader acts as the parties floor leader, organizing the debate on bills and lining up legislative support, while the whip has the job of informing party members when key votes are scheduled. When voting takes place the whip will stand at a location that can easily be seen by party members and let them know where the leadership stands on the bill by giving them a thumbs up or thumbs down signal. 

• In the Senate, the most important party leadership position is that of the majority leader. This role resembles that of the Speaker of the House in that the Senate majority leader develops the majority party’s legislative agenda. Like the Speaker, the Senate majority leader chairs the party’s policy committee and acts as the party’s voice in the chamber. The majority leader is assisted by the majority whip, who sees to it that members know when important votes are scheduled

• The Senate majority leader’s position is less powerful than that of the House Speaker. Unlike the House, where the Speaker directs the floor debate, the Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate. Ordinarily, any senator who wishes to speak on a bill can do so and for any length of time. Also, unlike the Speaker, the Senate majority leader is not the chamber's presiding officer. The Constitution assigns this position to the vice president of the United States. But because the vice president is allowed to vote only in case of a tie, the vice president rarely attends Senate sessions.

• Through the house rules committee, the speaker can introduce a bill under what's called a closed rule, this rule prohibits amendments to any bill, in contrast the senate allows its members to propose amendments to any bill.

• Standing committees: permanent congressional committees with responsibility for a particular area of public policy, an example is the senate foreign relations committee.

• At present, there are 20 standing committees in the house and 16 in the senate.

• House committees, which average about 35 to 40 members each are about twice the size of senate committees.

• Each standing committee has legislative authority in that it can draft and rewrite proposed legislation and can recommend to the full chamber the passage or defeat of the bills it handles.

• Except for the budget committees, each committee has subcommittees within its defined jurisdiction.

• Select committees have a designated responsibility but unlike standing committees, do not create legislation.

• Joint committees: composed of members of both houses, which perform advisory functions.

• Conference committees: joint committees formed temporarily to work out differences in house and senate versions of a particular bill.

• The 1946 legislative reorganization act requires that each bill introduced in congress be referred to the proper committee. 

• Jurisdiction: the policy area in which a particular congressional committee is authorized to act.

• Members of the house typically serve on only two committees, once appointed to a committee, a member can usually choose to stay on it indefinitely, subcommittee assignments are decided by the committee members who take into account the members preferences and the nature of their constituencies. 

• Each committee and subcommittee is headed by a chairperson, who has a degree of control over the committee's work.

• Seniority: a member of congress consecutive years of service on a particular committee.

• Ranking members: the term for the minority parties committee and subcommittee leaders, in these positions, they can pursue local or personal policy agendas that may or may not coincide with the party leadership's goals. 

• Committees are less powerful today than in the past.

• An effect of polarization has been to increase the number of issues on which republicans and democrats compete nationally, this development has led party leaders in congress to seek greater control over the legislative agenda, including the bills committee.

• Less than 10 percent of such bills get to the floor for a vote, most bills are killed when committees decide they lack sufficient merit or support.

• If a bill appears to have merit, the subcommittees will schedule hearings on it, after the hearings, if the subcommittee still feels that the legislation is worthwhile, members will recommend the bill to the full committee, which might hold additional hearings.

• The rules committee also decides whether a bill will receive a closed rule(no amendments will be permitted, an open rule( members can propose amendments relevant to any of the bills sections, or something in between. The rules are a means by which the majority party tries to control legislation.

• All senate bills are subject to unlimited debate unless a three-fifths majority(60 of the 100 senators) vote for cloture, which limits debate to 30 hours.

• Cloture: a parliamentary maneuver that, if a three-fifths majority votes for it, limits senate debate to 30 hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster.

• Filibuster: a procedural tactic in the US senate whereby a minority of legislators prevent a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration.

• For a bill to pass, it must get the support of a simple majority(50 percent plus 1) of the house or senate members voting on it, however, for a bill to become law, it must be passed in an identical form by both the house and the senate. 

• Conference committee: a temporary committee formed to bargain over the differences in the house and senate versions of a bill. A conference committee members are usually appointed from the house and senate standing committees that originally worked on the bill.

• A bill passed in an identical form by the house and the senate is not yet law, the president also has a say, if the president signs the bill, it becomes law, the president also has the option of the veto, either by rejecting it outright or by letting it sit unsigned for 10 days, which is called a pocket veto.

• For a veto bill to become law, a two-thirds vote in both the house and senate is required, thats a large barrier and only rarely does a bill have enough support to override a veto

• Lawmaking function: the authority to make laws necessary to carry out the government's powers. Includes the power to tax, spend, regulate commerce, and declare war. 

• Representation function: the responsibility of a legislature to represent various interests in society.

• Oversight function: a supervisory activity of congress that centers on its constitutional responsibility to see that the executive branch carries out the laws faithfully.

• Executive privilege: the right of the executive branch to withhold confidential information.

• Congress interest in oversight declines when the president is from the same party as the congressional majority.

Topic 3

Public opinion: 

• the politically relevant opinions held by ordinary citizens that they express openly. Public officials have various means of gauging public opinion but increasingly use public opinion polls for this purpose.

• Public opinion is characterized by its direction(whether the people hold a pro or con position on an issue), its intensity (how strongly people feel about their issue position), and its salience(how high a particular issue ranks in people's minds relative to other issues).

• The process by which individuals acquire their political opinions is called political socialization. This process begins during childhood, when, through family and school, people acquire many of their basic political values and beliefs. Socialization continues into adulthood,during which time the news media, peers, and political leaders are important influences.

• Americans' political opinions are shaped by several frames of reference, including partisanship, ideology, and group attachments.

• Public opinion has an important influence on government but ordinarily does not determine exactly what officials will do

• Public opinion poll: a device for measuring public opinion whereby a relatively small number of individuals are interviewed for the purpose of estimating the opinions of a whole community.

• Sample: the relatively small number of individuals who are interviewed for the purpose of estimating the opinions of the entire population.

• Population: the people whose opinions are being estimated through interviews with the sample of these people.

• Sampling error: a measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll, mainly a function of sample size and usually expressed in percentage terms.

• Direction: an opinion dimension: whether people have a pro or con opinion on an issue.

• Intensity: an opinion dimension: how strongly people feel about an issue.

• Salience: an opinion dimension: how highly people rank an issue to other issues.

• Framing: the process by which certain aspects of a situation are highlighted while other aspects are downplayed or ignored.

• Political socialization: the learning process by which people acquire their political opinions, beliefs and values. Influenced by childhood learning and early learning affects later learning. 

• Agents of socialization: agents, such as the family and the media, that have significant impact on citizens' political socialization. Primary agents interact closely and regularly with the individual, usually early in life, as in the case of the family. Secondary agents have less intimate connection with the individual and are usually more important later in life, as in the case of work associates.

• Party identification: the personal sense of loyalty that an individual may feel toward a particular political party.

• Ideology: a general belief about the role and purpose of government.

• Economic liberals: those who believe the government should do more to assist people who have difficulty meeting their economic needs on their own.

• Economic conservatives: those who believe the government tries to do too many things that should be left to private interests and economic markets.

• cultural(social) liberals: those who believe it is not the government's role to buttress traditional values at the expense of unconventional or new values.

• cultural(social) conservatives: those who believe the government's power should be used to uphold traditional values.

• Identify politics: the situation where people base their concerns on a group identity(such as race or religion) and align themselves with those who share identity to the exclusion of other groups.

• Delegate: an elected representative whose obligation is to act in accordance with the expressed wishes of the people he or she represents.

• Trustees: an elected representative whose obligation is to act in accordance with his or her own conscience as to what policies are in the best interests of the public.

• Suffrage: the right to vote.

• State legislatures were granted the power to decide the times, place, and manner of holding elections.

• African Americans were granted suffrage through the 15th amendment.

• Registration: the practice of placing citizens' names on an official list of voters before they are eligible to exercise their right to vote. Also the individual's responsibility.

• Democrats are the Americans who are least likely to have a passport or driver's license.

• Civic duty: the belief of an individual that civic and political participation is a responsibility of citizenship.

• Political interest: the level of interest that a citizen has in politics; political interest is a prime determinant of whether a citizen will pay attention to politics and participate through voting.

• Apathy: a feeling of personal disinterest in or lack of concern.

• Alienation: a feeling of personal powerlessness that includes the notion that the government does not care about the opinions of people like oneself.

• Americans are 5 times more likely to take part in political campaigns and twice as likely to talk with other people about their preferred candidate or party.  

• Social capital: the sum of face to face interactions among citizens in a society.

• Political movements: also called social movements, active and sustained efforts to achieve social and political change by groups of people who feel that the government has not been properly responsive to their concerns.

• The 26th amendment extended voting rights to 18 year olds.

• Women were granted the right to vote because of the 19th amendment.

• Voter turnout: the proportion of eligible adult citizens who actually vote in a given election.

• Democrats have the lowest voter turnout.

• Party center campaigns: election campaigns and other political processes in which political parties, not individual candidates, hold most of the initiative and influence. 

• Candidate centered campaigns: election campaigns and other political processes in which candidates, not political parties, have most of the initiative and influence. 

• Linkage institutions: institutions that connect citizens with the government. Linkage institutions include elections, political parties, interests groups, and the media. 

• Party competition: a process in which conflict over society's goals is transformed by political parties into electoral competition in which the winner gains the power to govern.

• America's first parties originated in the rivalry between alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson. 

• Grassroots party: a political party organized at the level of the voters and dependent on their support for its strength. 

• The civil war was the first and only time in the nation's history that the party system failed to peacefully settle Americans political differences. The issue of slavery was simply too explosive to be settled through elections.

• Party realignments: elections or sets of elections in which the electorate responds strongly to an extraordinarily powerful issue that has disrupted the established political order. A realignment has a lasting impact on public policy, popular support for the parties, and the composition of the party coalitions.

• A realignment typically involves three basic elements:

• the emergence of unusually powerful and divisive issues.

• election contests in which the voters shift their partisan support.

• an enduring change in the parties policies and coalitions.

• There have been 4 realignments since the 1850s. 

• The first was a result of the civil war.

• The second was a result of the 1896 election.

• The Great depression caused the 3rd one.

• The 4th began with the decline of the democrats new deal coalition. The democratic party was divided over the vietnam war and civil rights.

• The party realignment in 1896 was in part caused by a banking crisis that led to a depression.

• Social issue: a loose set of controversies including crime, abortion, drugs, school prayer, and changing sexual and family norms.

• Straight ticket: meaning that they uniformly support their party's candidates. 

• Split ticket: meaning that they vote for one party's presidential candidate and the other party's congressional candidate. 

• Two party system: a system in which only two political parties have a chance of acquiring control of the government.

• Multiparty system: a system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government, separately or in coalition. Most democracies have this type of system.

• Single member districts: the form of representation in which only the candidate who gets the most votes in a district wins office.

• Single member system: also called a winner take all system or a plurality, an electoral system in which the candidate who gets the most votes (the plurality) in an election district is elected to office from that district. Discourages minor parties by reducing their chances of winning anything, even if they perform well by minor party standards.

• Proportional representation system: a form of representation in which seats in the legislature are allocated proportionally according to each political party's share of the popular vote. This system enables smaller parties to compete successfully for seats. Most European countries use this kind of system. Voters are choosing from a list of parties and unlike America not candidates.

• Median voter theorem: the theory that parties in a two party system can maximize their vote by locating themselves at the position of the median voter- the voter whose preferences are exactly in the middle.

• As a result of unrestricted parisian gerrymandering and the fact that the party realignment of recent decades occurred along geographic lines, most states and congressional districts are now so lopsidedly republican or democratic that the stronger party is virtually certain to win the general election.

• Party coalition: the groups and interests that support a political party.

• No greater challenge faces the republican party than finding ways to make inroads among the nation's younger voters.

• The nation has always had minor parties, more than 1000 over its history. 

• The role that single issues parties played in the 19th century is now played by single issue interest groups.

• The most electorally successful factional party was the bull moose party in 1912.

• Party organizations: the party organizational units at national, state, and local levels; their influence has decreased over time because of many factors.

• Party organizations used to enjoy nearly complete control of elections, the two developments of the introduction of primary election and changes in the media system shifted control over to candidates.

• Nomination: the selection of a particular individual to run as a political party's candidate in the general election.

• Primary election: also called the direct primary, a form of election in which voters choose a party's nominees for public office. In most states, eligibility to vote in a primary election is limited to voters who designated themselves as party members when they registered to vote. 

• Money chase: the fact that US campaigns are very expensive and candidates must spend a great amount of time raising funds in order to compete successfully.

• Hard money: campaign funds given directly to candidates to spend as they choose. 

• Packaging: in modern campaigning, the process of recasting a candidate's record into an appealing image.

• Interests groups: organizations that actively seek to influence public policy. Also called factions, pressure groups, special interests, organized interests, or lobbying groups. 

• Interests groups focus narrowly on issues of direct concern, a group may get involved in elections, but its chief goal is to influence policies affecting it. 

• At the federal level, lobbying groups can target the house, the senate, the executive branch, and even the courts.

• Economic groups: interest groups that are organized primarily for economic reasons but engage in political activity in order to seek favorable policies from the government. 

• The dominant labor group is the AFL CIO, which includes the international brotherhood of electrical workers and the American federation of teachers. 

• Citizens groups: also called non economic groups, organized interests formed by individuals drawn together by opportunities to promote a cause in which they believe but that does not provide them significant individual economic benefits. They join because they have the desire to contribute to what they regard as a worthy cause. 

• In federalist 10 James Madison declared that property is the most common and durable source of factions, which means nothing seems to matter more to most people than their economic well being.

• private (individual) goods: benefits that a group (most often an economic group) can grant directly and exclusively to individual members of the group. 

• collective (public) goods: benefits that are offered by groups (usually citizens groups) as an incentive for membership but that are non divisible (such as a clean environment) and therefore are available to nonmembers as well as members of the particular group.

• Free rider problem: the situation in which the benefits offered by a group to its members are also available to nonmembers. The incentive to join the group and to promote its cause is reduced because nonmembers(free riders) receive the benefits without having to pay any of the group's costs.

• AARP is the nation's most powerful citizens lobbying group.

• Lobbying: The process by which interest group members and lobbyists attempt to influence public policy through contacts with public officials. 

• Inside lobbying: direct communicating between organized interests and policy makers, which is based on the assumed value of close contacts with policy makers.

• Lobbyists are required by law to register and file detailed reports on their lobbying expenditures. 

• The biggest spender on lobbying is the US chamber of commerce.

• Agency capture: the situation where a regulatory agency sides with the industry its supposed to regulate rather than with the public that it is supposed to protect

• Interests groups can sometimes achieve their policy goals through the courts.

• Iron triangle: a small and informal but relatively stable group of well positioned legislators, executives,and lobbyists who seek to promote policies beneficial to a particular interest. The three corners of the triangle are the department of defense, the armed services committees of congress, and weapons manufacturers.

• Issue network: an informal and relatively open network of public officials and lobbyists who come together in response to a proposed policy in an area of interest to each of them, unlike an iron triangle, an issue network disbands after the issue is resolved. 

• Outside lobbying: a form of lobbying in which an interest group seeks to use public pressure as a means of influencing officials. 

• Political action committee(PAC): the organization through which an interest group raises and distributes funds for election purposes. By law, the funds must be raised through voluntary contributions.

• PAC can back as many candidates as it wants, but it's legally limited in the amount it can contribute to a single candidate. The ceiling is 10,000 per candidate, 5000 in the primary campaign, and 5000 in the general election campaign.

• PACs contribute roughly 7 times as much money to incumbents as to their challengers.

• Business PACs are more pragmatic than issue based PACs and bestow roughly 95 percent of their contributions on incumbents.

• Super PACs: election committees that are unrestricted in their fundraising and spending as long as they do not coordinate their campaign efforts with that of the candidate. 

• Unlike regular PACs, super PACs can take advantage of loopholes in the law to delay or not disclose the sources of their money.

• Information commons: refers to the period when Americans throughout the country were exposed through the media to a more or less common portrayal of national politics.

• Low choice media system: old news networks like newspapers and news broadcasts.

• High choice media system: today's information system, Americans still have access to broadcast news and local newspapers, but they can now also get their information from cable television, social media, and internet outlets.

• Yellow journalism: a style of reporting that lures readers with loud headlines and sensational claims,

• Objective journalism: a model of news reporting that is based on the communication of facts rather than opinions and that is fair in that it presents all sides of partisan debate.

• Broadcasters were licensed by the federal communications commision(FFC), and the licensees were prohibited because broadcasting frequencies are limited in number, from promotion of a political viewpoint or party.

• Echo chambers:

• Refers to media outlets where audience members are exposed to messages that support what they already believe.

• Under the fairness doctrine, if radio stations carried a conservative talk show in prime time, they also had to carry a liberal one.

• When the fairness doctrine was eliminated, many radio stations shifted from music and other formats to a talk show format, most of which had a conservative slant.

• The long tail: when news based websites are arrayed by the number of visitors to each site, there are a few heavily visited sites on one end and thousands of lightly visited sites on the other end- the long tail.

• Filter bubbles: the situation where algorithms filter content such that a social media user only encounters information that aligns with the users beliefs, thus trapping them in a self defined bubble.

• Misinformation: false information that is held or spread without regard for intent.

• Disinformation: false information that is spread with the intent to deceive.

• Echo chambers can have a motivating effect, persuading citizens that the stakes are high in the next election, increasing the likelihood that they will vote, contribute money or work on a campaign.

• Signaling (signaler) function: the responsibility of the media to alert the public to important developments as soon as possible after they happen or are discovered.

• Agenda setting: the power of the media through news coverage to focus the public's attention and concern on particular events, problems, issues, personalities, and so on.

• Common carrier function: the media's function as an open channel through which political leaders can communicate with the public.

• The president benefits most from the media's common carrier role.

• Framing: the process by which certain aspects of a situation are highlighted while other aspects are downplayed or ignored.

• Priming effect: the way that communicators frame their stories.

• Priming: the process in which the media highlight certain aspects of an issue or event and not other aspects, thereby affecting how people respond to the issue or event.

• Watchdog function: the accepted responsibility of the media to protect the public from incompetent or corrupt officials by standing ready to expose any official who violates accepted legal, ethical performance standards.

• Scholars attribute part of the decline in Americans' trust in government over the past half century to the media's negative tendency. The tendency is also claimed to work to the disadvantage of the democratic party.

• Partisan function: efforts by media actors to influence public response to a particular party, leader, issue, or viewpoint.

• Entertainment function: the efforts of media outlets to make their content pleasurable in order to attract the audience needed to make a profit and remain in business.

• Soft news: news stories with a sensational or entertaining element designed to attract consumers who might not otherwise pay attention to news.

• Hard news: news stories about breaking events involving public figures, major issues, or significant disruptions to daily routines.

• 527 group: is a tax except group organized under section 527 of the internal revenue code to raise money for political activities.

• PACs support candidates whereas 527 groups organize to influence an issue, policy appointment, or election at any level.

• Membership organizations: interests groups that have individual citizens or businesses as members.

• Non Membership organizations: interest groups that represent corporations and businesses and do not have broad based citizen support.

• Government organizations: interests groups that represent state and local governments: also called SLIGs, for state and local interests groups.

• Peak business association: an interest group devoted to statewide business interests.

• Trade associations: interest groups that represent more specific business interests than peak business associations do. Two powerful trade associations are the texas oil and gas association, and texas trucking association.

• Retail trade associations: organizations seeking to protect and promote the interests of members businesses involved in the sales of goods and services.

• Professional associations: organizations promoting the interests of individuals who generally must hold a state issued license to engage in their profession.

• The association of texas professional educators (ATPE) has no affiliation with any national organization and is currently the largest educators group in the state.

• Collective bargaining: negotiations between an employer and a group of employees to determine employment conditions, such as those related to wages, working hours, and safety.

• Right to work laws: legislation stipulating that a person cannot be denied employment because of a membership or nonmembership in a labor union or other labor organization.

• League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC): the oldest organization representing latinos in Texas, established in 1929.

• State and local interest groups: interest groups that represent state and local governments, such as the Texas Association of counties.

• Lobbying: the practice of trying to influence members of the legislature, originally by catching legislators in the lobby of the capitol.

• Lobbyists can be classified into five types: 

• Contract lobbyists are hired to represent a client (an individual, group, or organization) and to try to influence the legislative process on behalf of that client. Many of these lobbyists represent more than one client.

• In-house lobbyists are employees of a particular business or association, and they engage in lobbying as part of their job. 

• Governmental lobbyists and legislative liaisons work for a governmental organization and lobby as part of their job. They might not be required to register formally as lobbyists. 

• Citizen or volunteer lobbyists are unpaid volunteers representing citizen groups and organizations. A good example is volunteers for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

• Finally, there are private individuals, usually with a pet project or issue. Sometimes called “hobbyists,” these individualists act on their own behalf and do not officially represent any organizations.

• Electioneering: various activities in which interest groups engage to try to influence the outcome of elections.

• Texas ethics commission: state agency responsible for enforcing requirements for interest groups and candidates for public office to report information on money collected and activities.

• Geographic distribution: a characteristic of some interest groups in that they have members in all regions of the state.

• Astroturf organization: a political term for an interest group that appears to have many grassroots members but in fact does not have individual citizens as members; rather, it is sponsored by an organization such as a corporation or business association.

• Fragmented government structure: a government structure where power is dispersed to many state agencies with little or no central control.

• Rent seeking: the practice of trying to secure benefits for oneself or one's group through political means.

• Capture: the situation in which a state agency or board falls under the influence of or is controlled by its constituency.

Topic 4 

• The Texas legislature is bicameral, meaning it has two chambers. 

• After 1880, a new house seat was added for every 50000 inhabitants until the membership reached 150 representatives.

• Lower house membership ranges from 40 in Alaska to 400 in New hampshire. 

• The median size for state senates is 38, for the lower houses it is 100.

• Only California has more constituents per state senator.

• Texas has 31 state senators and 36 US house members, a Texas state senator represents more people than does a US congressperson from texas.

• Large bodies of legislatures might better promote the representation of local concerns and diverse interests within the state.

• However, statewide interests might get less attention. Large legislatures can become inefficient at decision making or because of that inefficiency, be dominated by a few members.

• Smaller constituencies mighty also allow a wider array of people to participate in state politics rather than just the rich or well born.

• Biennial sessions: legislature meets every two years.

• Sine die: legislature must adjourn at the end of regular session and cannot continue to meet.

• Extraordinary session: a specially called meeting of the legislature, outside the regular session, to discuss specified matters.

• The lack of ability to call special sessions makes the limit on the regular session even more meaningful.

• The legislature must finish its work in the prescribed time and then adjourn, all but 11 states limit the length of legislative sessions.

• Texas' inability to call itself into special sessions differs from the national trend. Special sessions can be called by either the governor or the legislature in 36 states, and only by the governor in 14 states, including texas.

• Special sessions: in Texas, sessions called by the governor to consider legislation proposed by the governor only.

• there is no limit on the number of special sessions the governor may call

• These sessions may not last more than 30 days each.

• Governor Bill clements holds the record of calling special sessions having called 6 following the 1989 regular legislative session.

• In Texas, the governor determines the subject matter of the session, which gives him a lot of power and a bargaining chip to persuade the legislatures to do what the governor wants.

• no legislature wants to come back for a special session and no legislature wants to answer to taxpayers for the expense of bringing legislators back for a special session.

• legislators are more likely to accede to the governor's priorities when they are under the threat of being forced to come back for another 30 days.

• The Texas legislature's inability to call itself into special session also gives the governor stronger veto power.

• States such as Texas that limit the number of days in regular session often must resort to special sessions, such as budgetary problems, reapportionment issues, school finance, and prison funding have forced the governor to call special sessions in past decades.

• Two thirds of the house members must be present to make a quorum, without which no business can be conducted.

• California, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania have full time legislatures, where legislators have large staffs. 

• The largest number of states fall within a hybrid legislative session, in which legislators spend approximately two thirds of a full time job as legislators, Texas falls within this category.

• Texas, Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota are the only remaining states meeting biennially rather than annually.

• In Texas, the number of state senators is constitutionally set at 31.

• The Texas constitution stipulates there shall be 150 members in the house of representatives. 

• The US constitution requires that congress reapportion the seats in the US house of representatives among the states following each federal census, every ten years.

• Congress determines how many representatives each state will have in the house, based on current population figures.

• The Texas constitution similarly requires the state legislature to reapportion the seats following each federal census.

• Reapportionment: the process of allocating representatives to districts.

• Redistricting: the drawing of district boundaries.

• Gerrymandering: drawing district boundaries lines for political advantage.

• Legislative redistricting board(LRB): state board composed of elected officials that can draw new legislative districts for the house and senate if the legislature fails to act. It is made up of the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house, the attorney general, the comptroller of public accounts, and the commissioner of the general land office.

• Baker v Carr: court case that required state legislative districts to contain about the same number of citizens.

• Reynolds v Sims: court case holding that issues of representation are justiciable, and that one person's vote should be roughly equal in weight to another persons.

• Political gerrymandering: drawing legislative districts to the advantage of a political party.

• Racial gerrymandering: legislative districts that are drawn to the advantage of a minority group.

• Hunt v Cromartie: court case that ruled that while race can be a factor, it cannot be the primary factor in determining the makeup of legislative districts.

• Shadow docket: an emergency measure that allows the court to reach decisions without hearing full arguments to uphold the use of district maps in Alabama that a lower court ruled were an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

• Much of the money raised for candidates comes from contributors who live outside the senators or representatives district.

• Based on the long-standing house statute, members of the Texas legislature are prohibited from accepting campaign contributions during the legislative session; this statute does not apply to special legislative sessions.

• Noncompetitive districts: districts in which a candidate from either party wins 55 percent or more of the vote.

• A district in which party vote is between 44 and 54 percent is considered competitive.

• Composite party vote: combined vote received by either party for all offices and candidates in the district in the previous general election. 

• Most Texas house and senate seats fall between two categories: noncompetitive republican anglo districts and noncompetitive democratic racial and ethnic minority districts.

• Term limits: limitations on the number of times a person can be elected to the same offices in state legislatures. 

• Currently, 15 states impose term limits on legislators, the Texas legislature is not term limited. 

• Turnover: the number of new members of the legislature each session.

• The average turnover in state legislatures around the country is around 25 percent for the lower house and about 15 percent for the upper house.

• Turnover is not due mainly to electoral defeat; most members voluntarily retire from service. Retirement around the country is prompted by generous retirement benefits for eligible members, relatively low pay, the lack of professional staff assistance, redistricting, the requirements of the job, the demands on one’s family, fundraising demands, and the rigors of seeking reelection.

• In the Texas legislature, power is very much concentrated in the hands of two individuals, those being the speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor.

• Speaker of the house: member of the Texas house, elected by the house members, who serves as presiding officer and generally controls the passage of legislation. 

• Speaker is very powerful, they have the power to direct and decide what legislation passes the house.

• The speaker can do the following:

• Appoint the chairs of all committees. 

• Appoint most of the members of each standing committee. About half of these committee seats are assigned based on a limited seniority system. In reality, backers of the speaker often use their seniority to choose a committee assignment in line with the speaker's priorities, freeing the speaker of the need to reward them with a seat and thus allowing the speaker to use appointments to place preferred members in other strategic committee slots. 

• Appoint members of the calendar and procedural committees, conference committees, and other special and interim committees. 

• Serve as presiding officer over all sessions. This power allows the speaker to recognize members on the floor who want to speak, generally interpret house rules, decide when a vote will be taken, and decide the outcome of voice votes.

• Refer all bills to committees. As a rule, bills go to subject matter committees. However, the speaker has discretion in deciding what committee will receive a bill. Some speakers used the State Affairs Committee as their “dead bill committee.” Bills assigned to this committee usually had little chance of passing. Also, the speaker can assign a bill to a favorable committee to enhance its chances of passing.

• Lieutenant governor: presiding officer of the Texas senate; elected by the voters of the state.

• Lieutenant governor in texas can do all of the following:

• appoint the chairs of all senate committees

• select all members of all senate committees, no formal seniority rule applies in the senate.

• appoint members of the conference committees.

• serve as presiding officer of the senate and interpret rules.

• refer all bills to committee.

• More than half of all lieutenant governors serve as the presiding officer in their state's senate.

• In a state without a lieutenant governor, the senate elects one of its members to be the presiding officer, called the pro tempore, president of the senate, or the speaker of the senate.

• Extra legislative powers: legislative leaders serve on boards outside of the legislature.

• Standing committees: committees of the house and senate that consider legislation during sessions.

• Conference committees: joint committees of the house and senate that work out differences in bills passed in each chamber.

• The Texas legislature has, as one of its main functions, the responsibility to create, alter, and enact laws for the state.

• Revenue bills must begin in the house of representatives.besides that any bill can begin in the house or the senate, but it must pass both chambers to become law. 

• Bills generally become effective September 1st following the legislative session, unless classified as emergency bills, which require a two thirds vote in both chambers to become effective immediately with the governor's signature.

• Because Texas must have a balanced budget, each bill must have a fiscal note.

• Resolutions are another method of lawmaking, members of texas legislature can file three types:

• concurrent resolutions

• joint resolutions

• simple resolutions

• Concurrent resolutions: must pass both the house and senate and generally require the governor's signature, a concurrent resolution is used to convey the sentiment of the legislature, request information from a state agency, or call on congress for some action.

• Joint resolutions: require passage of both the house and senate, but they do not require the governor's signature. In Texas they are used to propose constitutional amendments, before proposed constitutional amendments become effective, the voters of texas must approve each by a majority vote.

• Simple resolutions: are used as a method of dealing with measures that concern only one chamber. They only need to pass one chamber and do not require the governor's signature. 

• Budget bill follows a similar process as other bills in the legislature, but it passes to the state comptroller before it goes to the governor, the comptroller must certify that the budget spends no more than the states anticipated revenue for the biennium.

• Another responsibility of the Legislatures is to keep track of what state agencies are doing, assess their performance and determine whether they provide necessary functions. They do this using committees and financial mechanisms.

• Legislature can also impeach, however it's rarely used. Once the house votes to impeach an official, the trial must be held in the senate and requires a two thirds vote to convict and remove the official from office.

• Three fifths of the senate must support consideration to bring a bill to the floor.

• Lieutenant governor Patrick, who championed the rule change, argued it would allow the senate to pass legislation that has been blocked for many years. 

• The governor has 10 days to sign or veto a bill after receiving it, the only exception is during the final 10 days of the session, then the governor has 20 days.

• If the governor does nothing, the bill automatically becomes law. 

• According to the Texas constitution, The legislature can override a governor's veto with a two thirds vote in each chamber.

• Informal rules: set of norms or values that govern legislative bodies.

• Joe Straus, who served five terms as speaker, would occasionally use his power to stop bills he disliked, even if it meant going against his own party.

• Dade phelan, vowed to lead by letting members do the work of the house. Conservatives were suspicious of Phelan from the start of his term, questioning the conservative bona fides of anyone willing to work to build a coalition with democrats. 

• Dan Patrick has caused some internal rifts between moderates and conservatives within the republican party, the most apparent in patricks dealings with speaker joe straus, who blocked many of patricks big ticket social conservatives priorities, similar tension appeared in 2021 between patrick and speaker phelan.

• Delegates: representational role of member stating that he or she represents the wishes of the voters.

• Trustees: representational role of a member that states that the member will make decisions based on his or her own judgment about what is best for voters.

• Legislative professionalism: legislatures with higher pay, longer sessions, and high levels of staff support are considered more professional.

• Citizen legislatures: legislatures characterized by low pay, short sessions, and fewer staff resources. 

• Compared to all other states, texas ranks as the 19th most professional in the squire legislative professionalism index, new hampshire has the least professional legislature( or the strongest citizen legislature) and california has the most professional.

• Texas senate has 31 members

• Texas house of representatives has 150 members

• Texas is one of 14 states where only the governor can call a special session of the legislature.

• The number of women serving in the texas legislature began to increase in the 1970s

• Qualifications for governor in texas:

-at least 30 years of age

-a citizen of the united states

-and a resident of the state for 5 years preceding election

• Most states also require governors to be US citizens and qualified voters.

• Informal qualifications: additional qualifications beyond the formal qualifications required for men and women to be elected governor, holding statewide elected office is an example.

• Most common career path to governor is to begin in the state legislature, move to statewide office, and then to the governor's office.

• Governors receive much higher pay than state legislators.

• Governors in Maine are the lowest paid, governors in California are the highest paid, and Texas governors are above average.

• In 26 states, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected jointly. In 8 of those states,the lieutenant and governor are elected on a party ticket based on the winning candidates in the primary elections.

• In 17 states, including Texas, the lieutenant and governor are elected separately.

• Acting governors: when a governor leaves a state, the position is held by the lieutenant governor, who performs the functions of the office.

• 42% of governors retire to private life, two thirds of whom entered into businesses, only 20% moved on to other forms of public service. 

• All states except Oregon have a procedure for removing governors by a process generally called impeachment.

• Impeachment: the process by which some elected officials, including governors, may be impeached by the lower house adopting articles of impeachment.

• Conviction: Following adoption of articles of impeachment by the lower legislative house, the senate tries the official under those articles, if convinced the official is removed from office.

• 16 US governors have had impeachment trials, and 9 have been removed from office.

• Recall: the removal of the governor or an elected official by a petition signed by the required number of registered voters and by an election in which the majority votes to remove the person from office. Texas does not have this rule for governors.

• Plural executive system: system in which executive power is divided among several statewide elected officials.

• Attorney general: chief counsel to the governor and state agencies, limited criminal jurisdiction. 

• Criminal functions of the office are primarily limited to those cases appealed to federal courts.

• Comptroller of public accounts: chief tax collector and investor of state funds, does not perform financial audits.

• In Texas, the comptroller not only has the pre audit responsibility but also serves as the chief tax collector, revenue forecaster, and investor of state funds.

• Texas is one of only 5 states to have an elected land commissioner

• Land commissioner: elected official responsible for administration and oversight of state owned lands and coastal lands.

• Texas railroad commission(RRC): state agency with regulation over some aspects of transportation and the oil and gas industry of the state. The regulation of the oil and gas industry is the RRCs primary function today.

• Tenure of office: the ability of governors to be reelected to office and the term length.

• The Texas governor has the strongest form of tenure, four year terms with no limit on the number of terms.

• There are currently 174 active agencies in texas.

• Usually, one third of the membership is appointed every two years, in total, the number of governing and policy making positions filled by gubernatorial appointment is about 1500 per 4 years.

• Senatorial courtesy: the favor of the governor clearing his or her appointments with the state senator from the appointee's home district.

• Membership in the Texas municipal retirement system is limited to certain types of city employees, such as firefighters, police, and city managers.

• Secretary of state(SOS): chief election official and keeper of state records, appointed by the governor.

• Military powers: powers giving the governor the right to use the national guard in times of natural disaster or civil unrest.

• Boards and commissions: governing body for many state agencies, members appointed by the governor for fixed term.

• There are 38 separate professional licensing and examining boards.

• Danger of these boards and commissions is that they will be more interested in making rules and regulations favorable to the group than in protecting the population.

• Budgetary powers: the ability of a governor to formulate a budget, present it to the legislature, and execute or control the budget.

• In 27 states, the governor has full responsibility in budget making power, in other states, like Texas, responsibility is shared.

• Line item veto: ability of a governor to veto part of an appropriations bill without vetoing the whole bill.

• Legislative budget board(LBB): state agency that is controlled by the leadership in the state legislature and that writes the state budget.

• Legislative power: the formal power, especially the veto authority, of the governor to force the legislature to enact his or her legislation.

• Partial vetoes: the ability of some governors to veto part of a nonappropriations bill without vetoing the entire bill; a Texas governor does not have this power except on appropriations bills.

• Most states require a two thirds vote to override, although a few allow a simple majority.

• Judicial powers: the ability of a governor to issue pardons, executive clemency, and parole of citizens convicted of a crime.

• Jim Ferguson was charged for selling pardons and paroles to convicted felons. These charges led to the creation of the Texas Board of pardons and paroles. Today this is a 7 member board.

• Sunset advisory commission: agency responsible for making recommendations to the legislature for change in the structure and organization of most state agencies every 12 years.

• The sunset process is the idea that legislative oversight of government operations can be enhanced by a systematic evaluation of state agencies.

• The governor is the most visible officeholder in the state and can command the attention of the news media, holding press conferences and announcing new decisions on policy issues.

• Chief legislator: the expectation that a governor has an active agenda of legislation to recommend to the legislature and works to pass that agenda.

• Party chief: the expectation that the governor will be the head of his or her party.

• Ceremonial duties: the expectation that a governor attends many functions and represents the state; some governors become so active at this role that they get caught in a ceremonial trap and neglect other duties.

• Crisis manager: the expectation that a governor will provide strong leadership in times of a natural or human made disaster.

• Intergovernmental coordinator: the expectation that a governor works smoothly with other state governments.

• Order of succession for governor:

1. Lieutenant governor 

2. President pro tempore of the texas senate

3. The speaker of the house

4. Attorney general 

5. Chief justices of the court of criminal appeals

• Countermajoritarianism: where special circumstances exist that make the application of the general law to a specific individual illegal. In these situations, courts carve out an exception despite the will of the majority expressed in the statute.

• Grand juries: juries of citizens that determine if a person will be charged with a crime.

• Information or an administrative hearing: a hearing before a judge who decides if a person must stand trial; used in place of a grand jury.

• Grand juries consist of 12 people.

• Petit juries: juries of citizens that determine the guilt or innocence of a person during trial; pronounced petty juries.

• A jury pool may be selected randomly from voter registration lists or from a list of licensed drivers.

• Dual court system: a judicial structure where there are two systems in place; federal and state. The federal court system deals with matters subject to federal law, as well as with interstate and international disputes. The state court system deals with almost everything else that falls within a given state's borders.

• Texas has 14 intermediate appellate courts and 2 supreme appellate courts.

• Trial courts: local courts that hear cases; juries determine the outcome of the cases heard in the court.

• Only one judge presides over a trial court, and each court is considered a separate court.

• Citizens participate in trial court activity. They serve as members of juries and as witnesses during trials. 

• Trial courts are primarily concerned with establishing the facts of a case (such as determining whether a person is guilty). 

• Trial courts announce decisions immediately after the trial ends.

• Jurisdiction is limited to a geographical area, such as a county.

• Appellate courts: higher level courts that decide on points of law and not questions of guilt or innocence.

• Appellate courts are centralized, often at the state level. 

• More than one judge presides over an appellate court. 

• Citizen participation is virtually absent. 

• Most importantly, appellate courts decide points of law, not points of fact.

• The Texas constitution creates justices of the peace.

• The state legislature creates municipal courts by statute.

• Municipal court judges are either appointed by city councils or elected.

• Some jurisdictions require municipal court judges to be attorneys.

• De novo: the appeal states with a blank slate, as if no court has heard the claim before.

• All appeals from a JP court are de novo, meaning there is a new trial at the county level.

• Magistrate functions: preliminary hearings for persons charged with a serious criminal offense.

• Trial de novo courts: courts that do not keep a written record of their proceedings; cases on appeal begin as new cases in the appellate courts.

• In texas as of january 2022, there were 487 district courts

• 8 states do not have courts of appeal, and 30 states have only one court of appeal.

• Other states, primarily large urban states, have several courts of appeal.

• Texas has 14 courts of appeal with 80 judges elected by districts in the state. Only California has more judges and courts at this level.

• All states have a supreme court, or court of last resort.

• Oklahoma, like Texas, has two supreme courts.

• Each court consists of 9 judges who are elected statewide for 6 year overlapping terms.

• Eight of the original 13 states allow some judges to be appointed by the governor and serve for life. Two states, also among the original 13, allow the legislature to elect judges.

• Partisan elections; method used to select all judges (except municipal court judges) in Texas by using a ballot in which party identification is shown. 

• Nonpartisan elections: election in which party identification is not formally declared.

• Merit or Missouri system: a system of electing judges that involves appointment by the governor and a periodic retention election.

• a Judicial Merit Selection Commission reviews the qualifications of all applicants and nominates the three most qualified candidates. These three nominees are then voted on by the General Assembly, and the nominee with the highest votes is appointed to the bench.

• Texas prohibited straight ticket voting, so voters now have to mark the ballot for each judicial race.

• Trail court judges are elected in partisan elections for 4 year terms.

• Appellate court judges are elected in partisan elections for 6 year terms.

• Only exceptions to this are municipal court judges who are usually appointed by the mayor or the city council.

• Appointive elective system: in Texas, the system of many judges gaining the initial seat on the court by being appointed and later standing for election.

• Name familiarity: practice of voting candidates with familiar or popular names; a significant issue in Texas judicial elections.

• Straight ticket system: system that allows voters to vote for all candidates of a single political party by making a single mark and that has resulted in an increase in the number of republican judges.

• Three women serve on the Texas Supreme Court, and 4 of the 9 justices on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals are women as of the November 2020 election. Approximately 37 percent of all Texas judges are female.

• Approximately 37% of all Texas judges are female.

• Only 33% of all Texas judges identify as nonwhite.

• 17% of all judges are identified as hispanic.

• Only 5.9% of all Texas judges are black.

• Judicial selection revolves around three basic issues. Citizens expect judges to be (1) competent, (2) independent and not subject to political pressures, and (3) responsive, or subject to democratic control.

• Precedent: an earlier legal decision by a court that can be used to decide similar cases in the future.

• Stare decisis: the principle that court decisions depend on previous ruling of other courts; the term is latin for “to stand by that which was decided before”.

• Objectivity: the appearance that courts make impartial decisions and not political ones.

• Judges must base their decisions on the federal and state constitutions, statutes, and earlier court decisions.

• A public is characterized entirely by its communicative nature.

• Public sphere: a communities arena that allows individuals to freely discuss and identify societal problems and influence political action.

• Political communication: Communication in the public sphere concerned with social and political matters, encompassing all media and messages, between and among citizens, the media, and the governing elite; also an academic field of study that focuses on how information is disseminated and shapes the public sphere.

• Public opinion: the aggregate(sum) of attitudes and opinions of individuals and groups on a particular topic.

• Socioeconomic factors: factors such as income, education, race, and ethnicity that affect voter turnout.

• Straw polls: unofficial, ad hoc personal interview surrounding a formal vote.

• Exit polls: interviews of voters just as they leave the polling center.

• Push polls: illegitimate, unscientific polling technique aimed at attacking a candidate or issue.

• Mass media: means of communication that reaches many individuals.

• The media serve three broad functions within their communities: (1) providing information, (2) shaping perception, and (3) acting as a link “between elected representatives and their constituents.”

• Gatekeeping: the process of filtering information and selecting what to transmit or not transmit as news.

• Frame: the media's attempts to focus attention on certain events and place them within a context for meaning.

• Resonance: the reinforcement and magnification of existing beliefs about reality and commonality of events because of the presentation of reality by the media.

• Print media: means of communication in the form of physically printed materials, such as newspapers, magazines and pamphlets.

• Electronic media: means of communication that uses electronic equipment and can be analog or digital in nature.

• Investigative journalism: deeply researched stores that uncover serious crime, corruption, or corporate wrongdoing.

• CNN effect: the effect of 24 hour broadcasts of live news media.

• Citizen journalism: the collection, dissemination, and analysis of news and information by the general public, especially by means of the internet.

• Traditional media: the term associated with conventional forms of media, such as television, print, radio, direct mail, and billboard signage.

• Media bias: the actual or perceived failure of the media to report news objectively.

• Selection bias: the systematic selection of particular news that presents a distorted view of reality.

• Presentation bias: the act of writing or presenting new stories that reflect a significantly distorted view of reality favoring one party over another in the case of political parties.

• Libel: a published false statement that is damaging to a private individual's reputation.

• Regulations: administrative rules implemented by governmental regulatory agencies to guide or prescribe specific conduct by industry or business.

• Fair use: law that permits the limited use of copyrighted materials without acquiring permission from the rights holders.

• Equal time rule: provided that a broadcaster permitting one political candidate access to the airwaves must afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates seeking the same office.

• Right of rebuttal: candidates must be given an opportunity to respond to any criticism made by a media outlet.

• network(net) neutrality: the principle that internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.

• Police powers: the ability states under the 10th amendment of the US constitution to regulate behavior and enforce order within their geographic territories.

• Political power: influence on government based on some combination of numbers of people; wealth; social norms; ideas; force and violence; and government actions.

• Poll tax: in place from 1902 until 1966 in Texas, citizens were required to pay each year between October and January to be eligible to vote in the next election cycle.

• Voter registration: the act of qualifying to vote by formally enrolling on an official list of voters.

• Absentee voting: a process that allows a person to vote early, before the regular election; applies to all elections in texas, also called early voting.

• Same day registration: voters are allowed to register on election day; no preregistration before the election is required.

• Voter turnout: the proportion of people who cast ballots in an election.

• Voting age population(VAP): the number of people aged 18 and over.

• Voting eligible population(VEP): the voting age population, corrected to exclude groups ineligible to vote, such as noncitizens and convicted felons.

• Voting fraud: when voters intentionally break voting laws when they vote.

• Electoral fraud: the intentional violation of election laws in any part of the process of elections.

• Annual registration: a system that requires citizens to reregister to vote every year.

• Permanent registration: a system that keeps citizens on the voter registration list without their having to reregister every year.

• White primary: from 1923 to 1945 democratic party primary that excluded african americans from participating.

• Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow felons to vote even while they are in prison.

• Focus groups: panel of average citizens who are used by political consultants to test ideas and words for later use in campaigns.

• Campaign advertising by corporations and labor unions cannot be prohibited or restricted at the federal level.

• Every two years, voters also elect all 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives (for two-year terms), one-half of the members of the Texas Senate (for four-year terms), many judges to various courts, and local county officials.

• Ballot form: the forms used by voters to cast their ballots; each county, with approval of the secretary of state, determines the form of the ballot.

• Party column format: paper ballot form where candidates are listed by party and by office.

• Office block format: ballot form where candidates are listed by office with party affiliation listed by their name; most often used with computer ballots.

• For statewide office, signatures equal to 1 percent of the votes cast for governor in the past general election are required.

• Independent candidate: a person whose name appears on the ballot without a political party designation.

• Sore loser law: law in Texas that prevents a person who lost the primary vote from running as an independent or minor party candidate.

• Write-in candidate: a person whose name does not appear on the ballot; voters must write in that person's name, and the person must have filed a formal notice that he or she was a write-in candidate before the election.

• Minor party: a party other than the democratic or republican party; to be a minor party in Texas, the organization must have received between 5 and 19 percent of the vote in the past election.

• In the past 50 years, there have been four minor parties: the Raza Unida Party in South Texas in the 1970s,17 the Socialist Workers Party in 1988, and the Libertarian Party and the Green Party in the 1990s and 2000s.

• Party caucus: a meeting of members of a political party to nominate candidates(now used only by minor political parties in Texas).

• Primary election: an election used by major political parties in Texas to nominate candidates for the November general election.

• Open primary system: a nominating election that is open to all registered voters regardless of party affiliation.

• Closed primary system: a nominating election that is closed to all voters except those who have registered as a member of that political party.

• Semi closed primary system: a nominating election that is open to all registered voters, but voters are required to declare party affiliation when they vote in the primary election.

• Semi open primary system: voters may choose to vote in the primary of either party on election day; voters are considered declared for the party in whose primary they vote.

• Blanket primary system: a nominating election in which voters could switch parties between offices.

• Crossover voting: occurs when voters leave their party and vote in the other party's primary.

• Party raiding: occurs when members of one political party vote in another party's primary in an effort to nominate a weaker candidate or split the vote among the top candidates.

• Runoff primary: election that is required if no person receives a majority in the primary election; primarily used in southern and border states.

• Filing fee: a fee or payment required to get a candidate's name on the primary or general election ballot.

• Absentee voting: a process that allows a person to vote early, before the regular election; applies to all elections in texas, also called early voting.

• Raza unida(united race): minor party that supported election of hispanic americans in texas in the 1970s

• Duvergers law: a law in political science indicating that the electoral system strongly conditions the type of party system that will result.

• Permanent party organization: series of elected officials of a political party that keep the party organization active between elections.

• Precinct chair: party official elected in each voting precinct to organize and support the party.

•  County chair: party official elected in each county to organize and support the party.

• Temporary party organization: series of meetings or conventions that occur every two years at the precinct, county, and state levels.