Some shitty definitions Flashcards
Separation of Powers
Separation of Powers is the political doctrine in which the power of the state is divided into 3 branches; the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
In the USA, the legislature power is vested in Congress, the Executive power in the President, and judicial power in the Court system.
The aim of Separation of Powers is to prevent the state becoming extremely powerful and using its power for evil; the Framers devised the US government to be like this so that it differed from the European monarchies at the time.
This forces the branches to be independent of one another’s influence, but also dependent on the other branches to achieve anything. This aims to achieve limited government, and limited state action.
Limited Government
Limited government is the political doctrine that the scope and size of the federal government should be limited to that which is necessary only for the common good of the people.
Checks and balances
Checks and balances ultimately are created out of Separation of Powers. Each branch has the ability to counteract the actions of another branch if that branch oversteps its boundaries. For example the Executive may overstep its boundaries as laid out in the doctrine of limited government.
Electoral College
> The system by which the US president is elected, outlined in Article II, section 1 of the US Constitution.
> Each state will have a number of electors proportionate to their population; for example, California has 55 while Maine has 4.
> There are 538 electors overall proportional to the 438 HoR members, 100 Senators and 3 D.C. electors.
> The person to win 270 votes wins.
> In most states whoever wins a majority of the popular vote will win all electoral votes, except Maine and Nebraska who award them proportionally.
> The popular vote is not always represented by this system; for example 2016 Clinton won the popular vote by over 2,000,000 yet only won 227 electoral votes to Trump’s 304.
Pork Barrel Politics
> Refers to spending which is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes.
> EXAMPLE: Gravina Island Bridge or “Bridge to Nowhere” project in Alaska would cost $400 million to build a bridge between the town of Ketchikan and its airport to replace a ferry service.
-The amount of money distributed through pork barrel spending peaked in 2006 with about 14,000 projects receiving about $30 billion. (Wee cheeky addition)
Locality Rule
A state law requiring HoR members to live with their congressional district
Mid-term election
Election of Congress halfway through presidency
Split ticket voting
Voting for different parties in several different electoral races
Coattails Effect
Effect of strong top ticket candidates helping lower ticket candidates of the same party get elected concurrently
Filibuster
Talking out time of a bill in the Senate so as to prevent the bill becoming law
Adderino- Senator Thurmond once talked against a civil rights bill in the 1950s for 24 hours and 18 minutes, officially the longest filibuster speech recorded
Cloture
A petition to end a filibuster, must have 16 signatures and 60 supportive votes to pass.
