GOVERNMENT - FINAL Flashcards
What is Bureaucracy?
A large, complex, hierarchically structured administrative organization that carries out specific functions.
What is bureaucrat?
An individual who works in a bureaucracy. As generally used, the term refers to a government employee.
What is independent EXECUTIVE agency?
A federal agency that is not located within a cabinet department.
What is independent REGULATORY agency?
A federal organization that is responsible for creating and implementing rules that regulate private activity and protect the public interest in a particular sector of the economy.
What is government corporation?
An agency of the government that is run as a business enterprise. Such agencies engage primarily in commercial activities, produce revenues, and require greater flexibility than most government agencies have.
What is judiciary?
The court system. One of the three branches of government in the United States.
What is constitutional law?
Law based on the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of the various states.
What is statutory law?
The body of law enacted by legislatures (as opposed to constitutional law, administrative law, or case law).
What is administrative law?
The body of law created by administrative agencies (in the form of rules, regulations, orders, and decisions) in order to carry out their duties and responsibilities.
What is case law?
The rules of law announced in court decisions. Case law is the aggregate of reported cases that interpret judicial precedents, statutes, regulations, and constitutional provisions.
What is jurisdiction?
The authority of a court to hear and decide a particular case.
What is judicial review?
The power of the courts to decide on the constitutionality of legislative enactments and of actions taken by the executive branch.
What is Marbury vs Madison
was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established for the first time that federal courts had the power to overturn an act of Congress on the ground that it violated the U.S. Constitution.
This power allows the supreme court and the lower courts to invalidate laws or actions that violte the Us Constitution.
the case involved a dispute over the appointment of a federal judge by president john adams.
What is McCullough vs Maryland
is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1819. In this case, Chief Justice John Marshall affirmed the constitutional doctrine of Congress’ implied powers. The ruling determined that Congress not only had the powers expressly conferred upon it by the Constitution but also all authority “appropriate” to carry out such powers.
In 1790, Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, advocated for the creation of a federal bank. Hamilton believed that a central, government-controlled financial institution, similar to the Bank of England, was crucial for stabilizing the young nation’s economy. Despite opposition from critics like Thomas Jefferson, who feared a federal bank would undermine state banks, Congress passed the bill creating the First Bank of the United States in 1791. The bank played a vital role in managing public funds, issuing paper money, and handling commercial transactions.
The case reached the Supreme Court, where the ruling in McCulloch v. Maryland upheld the federal government’s authority to establish a national bank and declared that states couldn’t tax federal entities. This decision significantly expanded Congress’s powers beyond what was explicitly stated in the Constitution, allowing for the federal government’s growth and its ability to take on unforeseen responsibilities over the next two centuries
What is domestic policy?
Public policy concerning issues within a national unit, such as national policy on health care or the economy.
What is policy making process?
(study guide says there are 7 steps but Iooks like there are only 6)
- agenda setting - identify the problem
- policy formation - setting objectives
- policy adoption - decision making
- policy implementation - intentions are put into action - the most crucial stage
- policy evaluation - assessing the extent to which a policy is successful
- policy outcomes - maintain, replace or terminate it.
What is Medicare?
A federal government program that pays for health care insurance for Americans aged sixty-five years and over.
What is medicaid?
A joint federal–state program that pays for health care services for low-income persons.
What is entitlement program?
A government program (such as Social Security) that allows, or entitles, a certain class of people (such as older persons) to receive benefits.
What is national health insurance?
health insurance that the federal government of a nation provides to its citizens. This insurance coverage is generally funded through taxation.
What is individual mandate?
In the context of health care reform, a requirement that all persons obtain health care insurance from one source or another. Those failing to do so must pay a penalty.
What is global warming?
a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.
What is renewable energy?
Energy from technologies that do not rely on extracted resources, such as oil and coal, that can run out.
What is carbon capture?
A process where carbon is caught, transported and then stored underground in geological reservoirs
What is geoengineering?
the deliberate large-scale manipulation of an environmental process that affects the earth’s climate, in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming.
What is economic policy?
Policies aimed at regulating US economy to promote growth and encourage specific behavior
What is recession?
A period in which the level of economic activity falls. It is usually defined as two or more quarters of economic decline.
What is unemployment?
The state of not having a job when actively seeking one.
What is gig economy?
a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs
what is monetary policy?
Policies that control the supply of money, the price of money, and the availability of credit.
What is fiscal policy?
The use of changes in government expenditures and taxes to alter national economic variables.
What is public (national) debt?
The total amount of money that the national government owes as a result of borrowing. Also called the national debt.
What is shrinkflation?
It is the practice of reducing a product’s amount or valume per unit while continuing to offer it at the same price.
What is foreign policy?
A plan that guides a country’s actions toward the rest of the world that includes all of the economic, military, commercial, and diplomatic positions and actions that a nation takes in its relationships with other countries.
What is moral idealism?
In foreign policy, the belief that the most important goal is to do what is right. Moral idealists think that it is possible for nations to cooperate as part of a rule-based community.
What is political realism?
In foreign policy, the belief that nations are inevitably selfish and that we should seek to protect our national security, regardless of moral arguments.
what is presidential’s constitutional powers?
The Constitution explicitly assigns the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors. The president shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and the president has the power to appoint and remove executive officers.
what is department of state?
is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country’s foreign policy and relations.
what is department of defense?
is an executive branch department of the federal government of the United States charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the U.S. government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces
What is National Security Council?
acts to advise the President on all domestic, foreign, and military matters that relate to the nation’s security.
What is Central Intelligencey Agency?
is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) and conducting covert action through its Directorate of Operations. As a principal member of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet of the United States.
What is Congress constitutional powers?
The Constitution specifically grants Congress its most important power — the authority to make laws.
A BILL, or proposed law, only becomes a law after both the House of Representatives and the Senate have approved it in the same form. The two houses share other powers, many of which are listed in Article I, Section 8. These include the power to declare war, coin money, raise an army and navy, regulate commerce, establish rules of immigration and naturalization, and establish the federal courts and their jurisdictions.
What is isolationism?
A political policy of noninvolvement in world affairs.
What is Monroe Doctrine?
A U.S. policy, announced in 1823 by President James Monroe, that the United States would not tolerate foreign intervention in the Western Hemisphere and, in return, would stay out of European affairs.
What is colonial empire?
A group of dependent nations that are under the rule of an imperial power.
What is neutrality?
The position of not being aligned with either side in a dispute or conflict, such as a war.
What is soviet Bloc?
The group of Eastern European nations that fell under the control of the Soviet Union following World War II.
What is iron curtain?
the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas.
What is Marshall Plan?
program for U.S. economic assistance to European nations following World War II to help those nations recover from the war.
What is containment?
A U.S. policy designed to contain the spread of communism by offering military and economic aid to threatened nations.
What is cold war?
The war of words, warnings, and ideologies between the Soviet Union and the United States that lasted from the late 1940s through the late 1980s.
What is deterrence?
A policy of building up military strength for the purpose of discouraging (deterring) military attacks by other nations. This policy supported the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
What is mutually assured distruction (MAD)?
A phrase referring to the assumption that if the forces of two nations are capable of destroying each other, neither nation will take a chance on war.
What is Cuban Missile Crisis?
A nuclear standoff that occurred in 1962 when the United States learned that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear warheads in Cuba.
What is detente?
(french word) The easing of hostility or strained relations, especially between countries.
What is coalition?
An alliance of individuals or groups with a variety of interests and opinions who join together to support all or part of a political party’s platform; an alliance of nations formed to undertake a foreign policy action, particularly a military action.
What is weapons of mass distruction?
Chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons that can inflict massive casualties.
What is ISIS?
The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria—a terrorist organization that by 2014 had taken over substantial portions of Iraq and Syria. Also known as ISIL (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) or the Islamic State.
What is ciberwarfare?
the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes
