Chapter 15 Domestic Policy

Question 1

Domestic Policy

Answer 1

a category of public policy that is comprised of policy decisions on matters affecting individuals within a political system

Question 2

Social Welfare

Answer 2

governmental programs, such as social insurance and poverty programs, directed specifically toward promoting the well-being of individuals and families

Question 3

Social Entitlements

Answer 3

programs, such as social security and medicaid, whereby eligible individuals receive benefits according to law

Question 4

Social Darrwinism

Answer 4

a set of ideas applying Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution to society and holding that social relationships occur within a struggle for survival in which only the fittest survive

Question 5

Progressive Era

Answer 5

an urban reform movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that called for direct primaries, restrictions on corporations, and improved public services that was influential in the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson

Question 6

New Deal

Answer 6

the first two terms of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945), whose revolutionary policy initiatives established a pervasive and active role for the national government

Question 7

Great Society

Answer 7

President Lyndon Johnson’s term for an egalitarian society that aggressive governmental action to help the poor and disadvantaged would attempt to create in the 1960s

Question 8

Social Insurance Programs

Answer 8

welfare programs that provide cash or services to the aged, the disabled, and the unemployed, regardless of income level

Question 9

Social Security Act of 1935

Answer 9

landmark legislation enacted in 1935 that firmly established for the first time a social welfare role for the national government by providing old age insurance, unemployment compensation, and grants to the states to provide cash assistance to dependent children and to the blind, disabled, and aged

Question 10

Incrementalism

Answer 10

a model of decision making that holds that new policies differ only marginally from existing policies

Question 11

Medicare

Answer 11

a public health insurance program in which government pays the providers of health care for medical services given to patients who aged or disabled

Question 12

Unemployment Compensation

Answer 12

a social insurance policy that grants temporary financial assistance to the unemployed

Question 13

Means-Tested Programs

Answer 13

type of social welfare program in which government provides cash or in-kind benefits to individuals who qualify by having little or no income

Question 14

Relative Deprication

Answer 14

a definition of poverty that holds that individuals with less, regardless of their absolute income level, will feel poor or deprived relative to those who have more

Question 15

Poverty Threshold

Answer 15

Income level differentiated by family size and annually adjusted for inflation, below which government defines individuals as being poor

Question 16

Working Poor

Answer 16

individuals who, despite being employed or seeking employment, are still defined as poor because their low earnings are not enough to put them above the poverty threshold

Question 17

Underclass

Answer 17

a proportion of the poor comprised of individuals isolated from the rest of society and for whom poverty is a continuing way of life

Question 18

Curative Strategies

Answer 18

policy strategies designed to reach the fundamental causes of poverty and to enable individuals to get out of poverty and lead productive, self-sufficient lives

Question 19

Alleviative Strategies

Answer 19

policy strategies designed to make poverty more bearable for individuals rather than designed to attack poverty by reaching ts fundamental causes

Question 20

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

Answer 20

social welfare program, administered by the states and jointly funded by state and national revenues, that provides cash assistance, in participating states, to needy children, and one adult relative or an unemployed parent

Question 21

Welfare Reform Act

Answer 21

a 1996 law that fundamentally altered the AFDC welfare program by renaming it TANF and placing requirements, as well as time limits, on its use

Question 22

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

Answer 22

social welfare program administered by the social security administration whereby the national government guarantees a certain level of income for the needy, aged, blind, and disabled

Question 23

Medicaid

Answer 23

a means-tested medical care program providing in-kind medical benefits for the poor

Question 24

In-Kind Benefits

Answer 24

noncash benefits, such as medical care services, that the needy receive from some social welfare programs

Question 25

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Answer 25

a means-test program (formerly known as the food stamp program) that provides the eligible needy with cards that can be used only to purchase food

Question 26

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Answer 26

an independent agency that controls and abates air and water pollution and protects the environment from pollution by solid wastes, pesticides, radiation and toxic substances

Question 27

Risk Assessment

Answer 27

the process of estimating the potentially dangerous consequences of damage that might be caused by a particular practice, such as smoking, or by the use of a particular product, such as the impact of the burning of fossil fuels on global warming

Question 28

Risk Management

Answer 28

the process of making decisions that try to reduce or contain identified risks