Terms

Question 1

Plurality rule

Answer 1

the candidate with the most votes win (even without a majority)

Question 2

Proportional representation

Answer 2

Parties win legislative seats in proportion to votes won.

National election instead of district elections.

Question 3

Duverger’s Law

Answer 3

plurality rule systems tends to have two parties

Question 4

Spatial Issues

Answer 4

Policy options can be placed on a spatial dimension (left to right, liberal to conservative)

Question 5

Median Voter Theorem

Answer 5

A proposition predicting that when policy options can be arrayed along a single dimension, majority rule will pick the policy most preferred by the median voter (the voter in the middle)

Question 6

Valence Issues

Answer 6

Issue where voters prefer higher value (outcome), regardless of policy choices. Honesty, Competence, Peace, Prosperity / Economic growth.

Question 7

PAC

Answer 7

Candidates raise money from individual donors and political action committees

Question 8

Super PAC

Answer 8

Super PACs spend unlimited money on independent expenditures. Do not donate directly to candidates

Question 9

Primaries

Answer 9

Elections between members of the same party

Question 10

Caucuses

Answer 10

Meetings to elect delegates to select nominees

Question 11

Interest Groups

Answer 11

Interest groups are organized groups of individuals or organizations. IGs make policy-related appeals to government

Question 12

Pluralism

Answer 12

The theory that all interests area and should be free to compete for influence in the government

Question 13

Public goods

Answer 13

Public Goods are benefits that are non-excludable. Everyone has access to them

Question 14

Private goods

Answer 14

Private Goods are excludable. Only some people get the benefit

Question 15

Lobbying

Answer 15

Lobbying is an attempt by a group to influence the policy process through persuasion of government officials

Question 16

Agenda Setting

Answer 16

Process of determining which issues are taken up by politicians and other media outlets

Question 17

Priming

Answer 17

Process of preparing the public to take a particular view of an event or a political actor

Question 18

Framing

Answer 18

Power of media to influence how events and issues are interpreted

Question 19

Before the fact controls

Answer 19

Appointment of sympathetic agency heads

Regulatory review prior to final rule enactment

Question 20

After-The-Fact Controls

Answer 20

Executive orders
Changes in budget authority
Bureaucratic reorganization plans

Question 21

Stare decisis

Answer 21

“Let the decision stand,” judges typically give precedence to past rulings

Question 22

Borking

Answer 22

attempt to obstruct a nomination by arguing they are unfit for office due to their views

Question 23

Judicial Review

Answer 23

the power of the courts to declare actions of the legislative or executive branches invalid or unconstitutional

Question 24

Writ of certiorari

Answer 24

a formal request by an appellant to have the Supreme Court review a decision of a lower court

Question 25

Rule of Four

Answer 25

Four justices must vote to grant cert. and hear a case

Question 26

Jurisprudence

Answer 26

They would be willing to over rule a past precedent due to how the views of the constitution has changed

Question 27

Double Jeopardy

Answer 27

A person cannot be tried twice for the same crime

Question 28

Eminent Domain

Answer 28

power of government to take private property for public use

Question 29

Civil Rights

Answer 29

are the legal or moral claims that citizens are entitled to make on the government

Question 30

Externalities

Answer 30

the differences between the private cost and the social cost of economic behavior

Question 31

Monopoly

Answer 31

a single firm that provides all the goods and services of a particular market; the absence of competition

Question 32

Bubbles

Answer 32

Speculative buying drives the price of major commodities (like real estate) to levels far exceeding their intrinsic value

Question 33

Monetary policy

Answer 33

Monetary policy is an effort to regulate the economy through the manipulation of the supply of money and credit

Question 34

Fiscal policy

Answer 34

Fiscal policy is the government’s use of taxing, monetary, and spending powers to manipulate the economy

Question 35

Social Policy

Answer 35

Programs that promote a range of public goals

Question 36

Foreign Policy

Answer 36

Programs and policies that determine America’s relations with other nations and foreign entities

Question 37

The Two Presidencies

Answer 37

Domestic Affairs | Defense and Foreign Policy