Monster Vocab Flashcards
Grassroots Lobbying
A form of lobbying designed to persuade officials that a group’s policy position has strong constituent support.
Caucus
A group of members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic. Many are composed of members from both parties and from both houses.
Direct Democracy
Government controlled directly by citizens. Procedures in some states such as the initiative, the referendum, and the recall give voters a direct impact on policy making and the political process by means of the voting booth and can therefore be considered forms of direct democracy.
Block Grants
Federal grants given more or less automatically to states or communities to support broad programs in areas such as community development and social services.
Oversight
(Congressional) Refers to the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation.
Dealignment
The graduate disengagement of people from the parties, as seen in part by shrinking party identification.
Fiscal Policy
Use of the federal budget–taxes, spending, and borrowing–to influence the economy; along with monetary policy, a main tool by which the government can attempt to steer the economy. Fiscal policy is almost entirely determined by Congress and the president.
General Election
A regular election for statewide or national offices, as opposed to a primary election.
Closed Primary
Elections to select party nominees in which only people who have registered in advance with the party can vote for that party’s candidates, thus encouraging greater party loyalty.
Motion for Cloture
With sixty members present and a voting, this can halt a filibuster.
Super Pac
Political-action committee that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, individuals and associations.
Federalism
A way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people. It is a system of shared power between units of government.
Political Socialization
The process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge, based on inputs from family, schools, the media, and others.
Expressed powers
The notion that the constitution grants to the federal government only those powers specifically named in its text
Lame duck period
A lame duck or outgoing politician is an elected official whose successor has already been elected or will be soon
Midterm election
Midterm election refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term of the executive
Franking privilege
The ability of members of Congress to mail letters to their constituents free of charge by substituting their facsimile signature (frank) for postage
Lobbying
According to Lester Milbrath, a “communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his or her own behalf, directed to a governmental decision maker with the hope of influencing his or her decision.”
Party polarization
Public opinion becoming more divided, less consistency with views
Amicus Curiae
Legal briefs submitted by a “friend of the court” for the purpose of influencing a court’s decision by raising additional points of view and presenting information not contained in the briefs of the formal parties
Judicial activism
A judicial philosophy in which judges make bold policy decisions, even charting new constitutional ground. Advocates of this approach emphasize that the courts can correct pressing needs, especially those unmet by the majoritarian political process
Horse race journalism
Journalism that focuses on who is winning or ahead in the polls rather than on candidates’ policy agenda or debates
Case work
Activities of members of Congress that help constituents as individuals, particularly by cutting through bureaucratic red tape to get people what they think they have a right to get
Issue network (iron triangle)
Also known as subgovernments, a mutually dependent, mutually advantageous relationship between interest groups interested in a particular policy, government agencies that administer that policy, and the congressional committees and subcommittees that handle it. Iron triangles dominate some areas of domestic policymaking
Political party
According to Anthony Downs, a “team of men [and women] seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election.”
Gerrymandering
The drawing of legislative district boundaries to benefit a party, group, or incumbent
White House staff
Today, the White House staff includes about 600 people, many of whom the president rarely sees. They provide a wide range of services to the president, including making advance travel preparations and answering letters from citizens
Filibuster
A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation use their right to unlimited debate to prevent the Senate from ever voting on a bill. Sixty members present and voting can halt a filibuster.
Executive order
Regulations originating with the executive branch. Executive orders are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy.
Critical elections
An electoral “earthquake” where new issues emerge, new coalitions replace old ones, and the majority party is often displaced by the minority party. Critical election periods are sometimes marked by a national crisis and may require more than one election to bring about a new party era
Pork barrel spending
Federal projects, grants, and contracts available to state and local governments, businesses, colleges, and other institutions in a congressional district.
Entitlements
Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients. Social Security benefits are an example.
Original intent
A view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the original intent of the Framers. Many conservatives support this view.
Logrolling
An arrangement in which two or more members of Congress agree in advance to support each other’s bills.
Monetary policy
Government manipulation of the supply of money in private hands–along with fiscal policy, an important tool by which the government can attempt to steer the economy
Selective incorporation
Selective incorporation is a doctrine describing the ability of the federal government to prevent states from enacting laws that violate some of the basic constitutional rights of American citizens
Suffrage
The legal right to vote, extended to African Americans by the Fifteenth Amendment, to women by the Nineteenth Amendment, and to people over the age of 18 by the Twenty-sixth Amendment
Fiscal Federalism
The pattern of spending, taxing, and providing grants in the federal system; it is the cornerstone of the national government’s relations with state and local governments.
Writ of certiorari
This is Latin for “to make more certain.” This order directs a lower court to send its records on a case to the Supreme Court for review. This happens if one of the parties in a case claims that the lower court made an error. Nearly all cases come to the Supreme Court on appeal from a lower court.
Litigation
Pursuing a case or claim through the judicial process.
Uncontrollable spending
The portion of the Federal budget that is spent on programs, such as Social Security, that the president and Congress are unwilling to cut.
Political efficacy
The belief that one’s political participation really matters–that one’s vote can actually make a difference.
Gender gap
The regular pattern in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.
Single-member districts
A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder.
Pocket veto
A type of veto occurring when Congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president and the president simply lets the bill die by neither signing nor vetoing it.
Redistricting
The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census, to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.
Independent expenditures
Type of communication (newspaper, commercial, ad) that either expresses the support or opposition of a candidate, without explicitly benefitting the candidate or relating to them.
Policy agenda
The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people involved in politics at a point in time
Cooperative federalism
A system of government in which powers and policy assignments are shared between states and the national government
Stare decisis
A Latin phrase meaning “let the decisions stand”. Most cases reaching appellate courts are settled on this principle.
Devolution
Transferring responsibility for policies from the federal government to state and local governments.
Demographics
The science of population changes.
Political culture
An overall set of values widely shared within a society.
Divided government
A government in which one party controls the White House and another party controls one or both houses of Congress.
Open primary:
Elections to select party nominees in which voters can decide on Election Day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contests.
PAC:
Political action committees. Political funding vehicles created by the 1974 campaign finance reforms. A corporation, union, or some other interest group can create a PAC and register it with the Federal Election Commission, which will monitor the PAC’s expenditures.
Judicial Review
The power of the courts to determine whether acts of Congress and, by implication, the executive are in accord with the U.S. Constitution. Judicial review was established by Marbury v. Madison.
Categorical grants
Federal grants that can be used only for specific purposes, or “categories,” of state and local spending. They come with strings attached, such as nondiscrimination provisions.
Interest group
An organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals. Interest groups pursue their goals in many arenas.
Pluralism
A theory of government and politics emphasizing that many groups, each pressing for its preferred policies, compete and counterbalance one another in the political marketplace.
Unfunded mandate
An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires a state or local government to perform certain actions, yet provides no money for fulfilling the requirements.
Implied powers
Powers of the federal government that go beyond those enumerated in the Constitution, in accordance with the statement in the Constitution that Congress has the power to “make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the powers enumerated in Article I
Incumbent
Those already holding office. In congressional elections, incumbents usually win.
Realignment
The displacement of the majority party by the minority party, usually during a critical election period.
Republic
A form of government in which the people select representatives to govern them and make laws.
Bipartisan
Two political parties working together to reach a common goal.
Discharge petition
A device by which any member of the House, after a committee has had a bill for thirty days, may ask to have it brought to the floor. If a majority of the members agree, the bill will leave the committee. This was designed to prevent a committee from killing a bill by holding it for too long
