Midterm 1 Flashcards
Liberal Democracy*
book definition
A form of representative democracy .
Characterized by popular sovereignty, political equality, and liberty. This is what American democracy strives towards
Liberal/Representative Democracy vs. Republican/Direct Democracy
(from class)
Mechanism: Representation vs Participation
Principle: Choice vs Self Government
Goal: Individual Rights vs The Common Good
Direct Democracy*
book definition
Citizens meet together and regularly debate/discuss public affairs
“The American Dream”*
Hochschild
The Theory, in reality, these are less than true
Who: Everyone
What: The reasonable anticipation of success, or upward mobility
How: Through actions and traits under one’s control
Why: “True success is associated with virtue”
American Exceptionalism*
De Tocqueville
The poverty of most nineteenth-century immigrants created a culture of equality.
The religious practices of early settlers promoted a culture of self-governance. Inheritence laws prevented the development of an aristocracy.
The land in America was too poor to support a wealthy land-owning class.
“The American Dream”*
Textbook
American value of Individualism - believing that one’s fate is and ought to be in one’s own hands, and this is tied to one’s efforts. Americans favor “equality of opportunity”
Nativism*
To some, a call for national unity through homogeneity
To others, uneducated fear mongering
Crops up whenever there is large waves of immigrants esp 19th century
We see it now directed at Hispanics
Racial profiling, language laws, dehumanizing language towards immigrants
Is diversity an asset or threat to democracy? And how should our gov react to changing populations
Faction*
Madison’s term for groups or parties that try to advance their own interests independent of (or at the expense of) the public good
Madison believed that American Democracy would benefit from the diverse interests of its people, which would create many factions that would all keep each other in check
Madison also proposes that representatives will exercise their own good judgement to keep factions in check
He was also concerned a big faction of poor people would rise up
To prevent a dominating faction he says - the existence of a common widespread problem must be avoided, or members of the faction must be made unable to communicate and organize with one another
Sample Survey*
A set of people who are supposed to represent the whole population are surveyed, and their answers are considered to be representative of the nation
Used to measure public opinion, may influence policy makers and/or the public
A “snapshot”
American Exceptionalism*
class
America is uniquely powerful, wealthy and religious… sense of divine mission, manifest destiny
Sentiment that we are a “city on a hill,” the image of democracy for the rest of the world
Steps of Lawmaking
simplified
- Citizens identify a problem
- Legislator writes a Bill
- Bill referred to committee
- Committee Action
- Floor Action
- Introduced in other Chamber (repeat 1-5)
- Presidential Action –> Law or Veto
- (if vetoed) 2/3 Congress vote -> Law
Cumulative Voting*
Get 1 vote per candidate, voters can spread them out among candidates or “plump” one candidate with all their votes
Theory that this will increase minority representation because they can plump minority candidates, while majority voters will likely spread their votes out among several majority candidates
(Gets tricky if there are a lot of candidates
Rank Choice/Instant Runoff Voting*
Voters rank candidates according to preference (or do not have to vote for multiple candidates)
Mathematically complicated, if one candidate wins, some of their votes go to the next candidates
Non-Monotonic: You can get your preferred outcome by voting in a way that is different than purely expressing your preference (voting strategically)
Shay’s Rebellion*
Led by Daniel Shay’s, Massachusetts, 1786
armed men took over court houses to prevent judges from ordering the seizure of farms and incarceration of farmers for not paying state taxes
Convinced many of the need for a stronger federal gov, proving the dangers of ineffective state governments. In response, the constitutional convention was called to “amend” the Articles of Confederation
Checks and Balances*
textbook
“ambition be made to counteract ambition”
The division of powers between branches of government so that no one branch could extend their power without infringing on that of another branch, who would ideally keep them in check (to ensure the separation of powers)
Writers of constitution were concerned with the potential for legislative tyranny - in contrast to writers of AoC who were more worried about executive tyranny and advocated legislative supremacy
Enumerated Powers*
Powers of the federal government specifically mentioned in the constitution Enhanced to (potentially) included additional powers with the elastic clause
Elastic Clause
Article 1, Section 8, the “necessary and proper clause” gave Congress the power to pass whatever legislation they deemed necessary to carry out the enumerated powers
McCulloch vs Maryland*
1819 - Maryland tries to tax the Bank of the United States. Says the Bank was unconstitutional, and they can tax anything within state borders
Chief Justice Marshall upholds the constitutionality of the Bank and its immunity from taxation - invoking the elastic clause and establishing that states could not interfere with the national government - “the power to tax is the power to destroy”
Set the stage for later cases which would establish preemption
Preemption
Excludes states from actions that may interfere with federal authority - States can’t act where the federal government has already done so
Interoperability*
Katrina - inability of responding organizations to collaborate with one another, miscommunication or inability to communicate at all (diff radio signals) prevented aid from getting where it needed to go
(watch frontline)
Dual Federalism*
Popular among state’s rights proponents, the idea that there are distinct, non-overlapping areas of responsibility for the national vs state gobs. Each level of gov is sovereign in its own sphere
Not really how politics work today, but is a significant check on the power of the federal gov
House Rules Committee*
Major bills go here before going to floor in the House. Decides where bills will appear in the legislative calendar, and sets rules for the debate (i.e. time constraints, number of amendments allowed). Can drag its feet on legislation it doesn’t like.
Committee set by negotiation between majority and minority party leaders, 9 majority members and 4 minority members Speaker removed in 1910, but the head of the committee is set by speaker
“closed rule”
Set by House Rules Committee, allowing only a yes or no vote without any amendments
Unanimous Consent*
Bills are scheduled for floor debate in the Senate via unanimous consent
This means bills must be expected to pass before they’re brought to the floor and legislation might be tempered by the need to have broad appeal
Purpose is to expedite business
Hold
A senator can threaten to refuse to agree to unanimous consent to bring a bill to the floor, or threaten to filibuster the bill
Holds are regulated by the majority leader (though not in the formal rules of the senate)
Delegate*
An elected representative tries to mirror the views of their constituency
Usually members of the House, because they run for reelection every 2 years
Trustee*
An elected representative who considers both the opinions of their constituents and their own judgement in making legislative decisions
Usually Senators, who run every 6 years. They often edge toward delegate style near elections
Gerrymandering
Named after Gov E. Gerry signed a bill that created a district that looked like a salamander The act of stringing together areas to make a district that would give one party or candidate the majority
The Supreme Court has largely turned a blind eye, except in cases of flagrant abuse
In states with divided party control, there is usually a bipartisan districting agreement to protect incumbents
Majority-Minority District
Amendments to 1965 Voting Rights Act (passed 1982) encouraged states to create House districts in which racial minorities would be in the majority. Created 24 new mmd’s
These districts also take traditionally democratic voters out of other districts - tipping them in favor of republicans - thus policies that favor AAs are less likely to be enacted even though more AA are represented in the House
Signing Statement
Document issued by president when he signs a bill from Congress, sets out their understanding of the law and how it should be carried out by the executive branch. Can alter the meaning of a bill.
Unitary Executive
Constitutional theory, uses Article II’s statement “the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States..” to argue that the entire executive branch is under the direct control of the president without interference from other branches
Invoked by Bush to expand presidential power
Popular Sovereignty
The belief that people are the ultimate source of authority in a government
American Exceptionalism and the American Dream
America is uniquely religious and expects religious sentiment to play out in their politics
America advocates individualism, and a free enterprise economy
Support for equality of opportunity over equality of results
America has high levels of income inequality when compared to other Western democratic nations
Political socialization
The process by which individuals acquire certain core beliefs and attitudes about politics
Family is the greatest influencer
Strongest indicator of political participation
education
Public Opinion trends over time
the collective opinions of the public as a whole are remarkably stable over time
Public Opinion and Government
mutually influence one another, Gov can influence public opinion, but public opinion can also sway gov
Stay Laws
postponed tax and mortgage payments for farmers. Massachusetts did not have these and Shay’s rebellion happened.
The Politics of Fragmentation
Josh Cohen and Joel Rogers
The US political system is unique in that it has never had a substantive labor or socialist movement. This is because it is uniquely fragmented by the constitution, geography/natural resources, racial divisions, religious/ethnic divisions, state repression, uneven economic development
They claim collective action is the essence of politics, but the US political system and environment is not conducive to it
“American Exceptionalism”
Cohen and Rogers
The “peculiar” absence of class politics in the US
“Laboratories of Democracy”
Andrew Karch, State governments are “laboratories of democracy” where policies can be tried out and potentially adopted by other states or nationwide. Provides a template for other states. Additionally, states have unique resources for gathering data for policy. Institutional changes, research and technological advancements. Karch sees “devolution revolution” as a solution to policy problems such as education and health care
Rules Committee
Matt Taibbi
Amendments die if the Rules Committee doesn’t bring them to the floor
Committee can make the process difficult to discourage people from offering amendments
Can also change the content of the bill and then immediately (the next day, although its supposed to be 3) send it to the floor so no one knows what’s in it
Complications with lawmaking
Bills often written in executive branch Bills often written by lobbyists Rules committee can influence bill Conference committee can influence bill President can issue signing statements Bill can die in committee if no one looks at it Lobbyists affecting most of the process Party loyalties Amendment Process Senate has "no germaness" - amendments don't need to be relevant to the bill Legislators dependent on their staff/aides Whales Filibuster
Whales
Politicians with policy expertise and ability to broker major legislation (George Packer)
