POLI SCI TEST Flashcards
Coordination Problem
Difficult to decide collectively how to make decisions about how to resolve our individual preferences.
Ex: Management of domestic Economy
International Commerce and Trade
Condorcet’s Paradox
Majority preferences. can be inconsistent with one another-leading to cycling.
Public Good
?
Prisoner’s Dilemma
A game in which players act in rational, self-interested ways that leave everyone worse off.
Tragedy of the Commons
A situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (also called a common) act in their own interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource.
Free Rider Problem
The burden on a shared resource that is created by its use or overuse by people who aren’t paying their fair share for it or aren’t paying anything at all.
Ex: Can’t force states to build armies.
Can’t tax to fund the war.
Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the United States. This document officially established the government of the union of the thirteen states.
Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The point of the event was decide how America was going to be governed.
Connecticut Compromise
The compromise provided for a bicameral legislature, with representation in the House of Representatives according to population and in the Senate by equal numbers for each state.
Three-fifths Compromise
It determined that three out of every five slaves was counted when determining a state’s total population for legislative representation and taxation.
Federalist Papers
A collection of essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton in 1788. The essays urged the ratification of the United States Constitution
Separation of Powers
Three independent branches: legislative, executive, judicial. Reinforced by checks and balances.
Checks and Balances
Counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups
Federalism
A system of government in which powers are divided between a national government and regional government. It allows for shared power, dual sovereignty and creates a compound republic.
Confederation
An association of independent states. The central government gets its authority from the independent states. Power rests in each individual state, whose representatives meet to address the needs of the group.
Unitary Government
A completely centralized government. All powers held by the government belong to a single, central agency.
Grants-in-aid
Grants provided by the government
Categorical Grants
Given to states for specific purposes and most of the discretion remains in the hands of federal officials and officeholders.
Block Grants
Given for general purposes and allow state officials greater discretion on how funds will be spent.
Matching Grants
Matching sum in relation to state spending on a program. For example, if a state spends 100,000 on a program, the federal government might match that with an additional 100,000 or even more.
Cross-Cutting requirements
Crosscutting requirements are a specific type of mandate. They impose requirements or conditions on all grants and programs involving federal money.
Cross-over sanctions
Stipulations that to remain eligible for full federal
funding for one program a state must adhere to the
guidelines of an unrelated program.
Preemption
Allows the national government to override state and local actions in certain policy areas.
Strong incentive for party in control nationally to pass laws that preempt state laws they dislike
Preemption
Allows the national government to override state and local actions in certain policy areas.
Strong incentive for party in control nationally to pass laws that preempt state laws they dislike
Unfunded mandates
Rules forcing states to spend their own money to comply with federal law
Competitive Federalism
Federalism as a market of competing governments. States can experiment with reform and, if successful, their methods can be replicated elsewhere
Laboratories of democracy
By allowing states to be “laboratories of
democracy,” federalism can appeal to progressives as well. A state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
Log roll
The trading of favors, or quid pro quo, such as vote trading by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member.
American Creed/core values
Liberty
Egalitarianism
Democracy/Popular Sovereignty
Individualism
Private Property
Liberal Political Culture (Classical Liberalism
Popular Sovereignty
The principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political power.
Classical Liberalism
A term given to the philosophy of John Locke and other 17th and 18th century advocates of the protection of individual rights and liberties by limiting government power.
Emphasizes freedom, democracy, and the importance of the individual.
Ascriptive Americanism
In this way of thinking, society is a hierarchy, where some groups are on top and others are below. Groups on top are deserving of the rights and benefits of liberal tradition those on bottom are not (hierarchy based on race and gender)
Multiple Traditions
?
Civic Republicanism
A political philosophy that emphasizes the obligation of citizens to act virtuously in pursuit of the common good
Populism
A range of political stances that emphasize the idea of “the people” and often juxtapose this group against “the elite”. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment.
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment addresses many aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens. The most commonly used phrase in the amendment is “equal protection of the laws”, which figures prominently in a wide variety of landmark cases.
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote.
First Reconstruction
The First Reconstruction was a period in American history from 1865 to 1877 during which the Southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union after the Civil War, with former slaves gaining citizenship and constitutional rights through a series of legislative acts and constitutional amendments.
Second Reconstruction
The Second Reconstruction was the period in American history from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s when African Americans made major gains in civil rights and equal protection under the law through a series of legislative acts and court decisions, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Voting Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.
