Chapter 10 SG Vocab Flashcards
Bicameral
There are 2 houses of government
Term
Length of time an elected official serves
Session
1 year time period during which congress conducts its business (there are 2 sessions per term)
Convene
Begins
Adjourn
To suspend business until the next session
Recess
To suspend business temporarily during a session
Prorogue
The president has the power to end a session when the 2 houses can’t agree
Sine die
Neither house can adjourn without the consent of the other
Special Session
When the president calls congress together for an emergency meeting
Apportion
Distributed
Reapportion
The seats are redistributed every 10 years in the house
Off-Year election
The congressional elections that occur between presidential election
Single-member district
Voters in each district elect one of the states representatives to run for a seat
District
435 districts in the country
Gerrymandering
The drawing up of district lines to the advantage of the party in power
Incumbent
Current office holder
Continuous body
All seats are never up for election at the same time
Constituency
The people the senators represent
Delegate
See themselves as the agents of the people who elected them
Trustee
Believe that each question they face must be decided according to conscience and judgement
Partisan
Believe that they owed their first allegiance to their political party
Politico
Trys to combine and balance the believers of the delegate, trustee and partisan
Oversight function
Process through which congress checks to see if the executive branch is following its policies/laws
Speech And Debate clause
Protects congressman from law suits for libel or slander arising from their speech in congress
Bill
Proposed law
