Textbook Flashcards
Define power.
The ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions
What is de facto segregation?
Racial segregation that occurs in schools, not as a result of the law, but as a result of patterns of residential settlement
What is the ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions called?
Power
Define authority.
The right to use power
What is the right to use power called?
Authoritt
What is formal authority?
The right to exercise power vested in a governmental oddicw
Define legitimacy.
Political authority conferred by law or by a state or national constitution
What is Political authority conferred by law or by a state or national constitution called?
Legitimacy
Define democracy
Rule of many
Rule of many
Democracy
Define direct or participate democracy
A government in which all or most citizens participate directly
Define representative democracy
A government in which leaders make decisions by winning a competitive struggle for the popular vote
Did the framers favor a representative democracy or a direct democracy?
The framers favored representative democracy over direct democracy
Define elite.
Person who posses a disproportionate share of some valued resource, like money or power
What is the Marxist view?
View that the government is dominated by capitalists.
Marxists hold that in modern societies, two economic classes contend for power. What are the two?
Capitalists (business owners or the bourgeoise)
Workers (laborers or the proletariat)
Who started the power elite view?
C. Wright Mills
To C. Wright Mills, a coalition of three groups dominate politics and government. What are those three?
Corporate leaders, top military officers, an a handful of elected officials
What is the power elite view?
View that the government is dominate by a few top leaders, most of whom are outside of government and enjoy great advantages in wealth, status, or organizational position
Who shaped the bureaucratic view?
Max Weber
What is the bureaucratic view?
View that the government is dominated by appointed iddicials
What is the pluralist view?
The eminence that competition among all affected interests shaped public pikicy
What were the men at the constitutional convention of 1787 going to do?
They were supposed to fix the defects in the Articles of Confederation
What was the goal of the American revolution?
Liberty
What did the American colonists seek to protect when they signed the Declaration of Independence?
The traditional liberties to which they thought they were entitled as British suvjexts
What was the main reason for regarding independence as the only solution for assuring their liberties?
They no longer had confidence in the English constitution
What are unalienable rights?
Rights based on nature, god, and providence, and not on the whims or preferences of people
What were the articles of confederation?
A weak constitution that governed America during the revolutionary war
Could the articles of confederation levy taxes?
No
Could the articles of confederation regulate commerce?
No
How many votes did each state have in congress under the articles of confederation?
Each had one (regardless of size)
How many votes were required to pass any measure in congress under the articles of confederation?
9 of 13
How were the delegates for congress from each state chosen under the articles of confederation?
They were picked and paid for by the state lefislatures
Was there a judicial system under the articles of confederation?
No
How many states had to agree to mend the articles of confederation?
All 13
What was the constitutional convention?
Meeting in Philadelphia that produced a new constitution
What was shays rebellion?
A 1787 rebellion in which ex-revolutionary war soldiers attempted to prevent foreclosures of farms as a result of high interest rates and taxes
How many delegates went to the Philadelphia convention?
55
What was the Virginia Plan?
Proposal to create a strong national government.
What were the two key features if the Virginia plan?
A national legislature would have supreme powers on all matters in which the separate states were not competent to act, as well as the power to veto any and all state laws
At least one house of the legislature would be elected directly by the peiple
What was the New Jersey plan?
Proposal for a weak national government with equal representation for each state
What was the great compromise?
Plan to have a popularly elected house based on state population and a state-selected Senate, with two members for each state
What was the Connecticut Compromise?
Plan to have a popularly elected house based on state population and a state-selected Senate, with two members for each state
What is a republic?
A government in which elected representatives make decisions
What is judicial review?
The power of the courts to declare laws unconstitutional
What is federalism?
Government authority shared by national and state governments.
What are enumerated (delegated) powers?
Powers given to the national government alpne
Examples of enumerated powers
The authority to print money, declare war, make treaties, conduct foreign affairs, and regulate
Commerce among the states and with foreign nationa
What are reserved powers?
Powers given to the state government alone
Examples of reserved powers
Power to issue licenses and to regulate commerce wholly within a state
What are concurrent powers?
Powers shared by the national and state governments
Examples of concurrent powers
Collecting taxes, building roads, borrowing money, having courts
Congress can check the president in these ways: (5)
By refusing to pass a bill the president wants
By passing a law over the president’s veto.
By using the impeachment powers to remove the president from office
By refusing to approve a presidential appointment (senate only)
By refusing to ratify a treaty the president has signed (senate only)
Congress can check the federal courts I these ways: (3)
By changing the number and jurisdiction if the lower courts
By using the impeachment powers to remove a judge from office
By reusing to approve a person nominated to be a judge (senate)
The president can check congress by
Vetoing a bill it has passes
The president can check the federal courts by
Nominating judges
The courts can check congress by
Declaring a law unconstitutional
The courts can check the president by
Declaring actions by him or his subordinates to be in institutional or not authorized by law
What is separation on powers?
Constitutional authority is shared by three different branches of government.
What is a faction?
A group with a district political iterest
What are FEDERALISTS?
Those who favored a stronger national government.
Who were antifederalists?
Those who favor a weaker national government
What is a coalition?
An alliance of factions
What is habeas corpus?
An order to produce an arrested person before a judge
What is bill of attainder?
A law that declares a person, without a trial, to be guilty of a crime.
What is an anendment?
A new provision in the constitution that has even ratified by tgestates
What is a line-item veto?
An executive’s ability to block a particular provision in a bill passed by the legislature
What is the single most persistent source of political conflict since the constitution?
The relations between national able state governments
What is devolution?
The effort to devolve onto the states the national government’s functions in areas such as welfare, health care, ad job traininh
What are block grants?
Money from the national government for programs in certain general areas that the states can use at their discretion with broad guidelines set by congress or responsible federal agencies
What is federalism?
A political system in which there are local units of government as well as a national government, that can make final decisions with respect to at least some governmental activities and whose existence is specially protected
Governments are not federal unless
The local units exist independent of the preferences of the National government and can make decisions on at least some matters without regard to those preferences
Examples of federal systems (6)
United States, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, and seitzerland
Examples of unitary systems (4)
France, Great Britain, Italy, and Sweden
__________ means supreme or ultimate political authority
Sovereignty
A _________ government is in that is legally and politically independent of any other government.
Socereigj
A ___________ is one in which sovereignty is wholly in the hands of the national government, so that the states and localities are dependent in its will
Unitary sstem
A ____________ is one in which the states are sovereign and the national government is allowed to do only that which the states permit
Confederation or confederal ststem
A __________ is one in which sovereignty is shared, so that in some matters the national government is supreme and in others the states are supreme
Federal ststem
What is a federal regime?
Local units I government have a specially protected existence and can make some final decisions over some governmental axticities
What is the “necessary and proper” clause?
Section of the constitution allowing congress to pass all laws “necessary and proper” to it’s duties, and which has permitted congress to exercise powers not specifically given to it (enumerated) by the constitution
What is nullification?
The doctrine that a state can declare null an void a federal law that, in the state’s opinion, violates the Constitution
What is dual federalism?
Doctrine holding that the national government is supreme in its sphere, the states are supreme in theirs, and the two spheres should be kept separate
What is a special-act charter?
Lists what a certain city can and cannot do
What is the free-exercise clause
First amendment requirement that law cannot prevent free exercise of religion
What is the establishment clause?
First amendment ban on laws “respecting an establishment of religion”
What is the wall of separation?
Court ruling that government cannot be involved with religion
What is the exclusionary rule?
Improperly gathered evidence may not be introduced in a criminal trial
What is a search warrant?
A judges order authorizing a search
What is probably cause?
Reasonable cause for issuing a search warrant of making an arrest; more than a mere sispicion
What is good-faith exception?
An error in gathering evidence sufficiently minor that it may be used in a trial.
What are civil rights?
The rights if people to be treated without unreasonable or unconstitutional dogferencea
What are suspect classifications?
Classifications of people on the basis of heir race or ethnicity
What is strict scrutiny?
A Supreme Court test to see if a law denies equal protection because it does not serve a compelling state interest and is not narrowly tailored to achieve that goal
What is de jure segregation
Racial segregation that is required by law
What are police powers?
State power to edge t laws promoting health, safety, and morals
