Unit 4 Glossary Terms

Question 1

What is Equality of Opportunity?

Answer 1

All persons have the right to compete and succeed, based on ability.

Question 2

What is Equality of Results?

Answer 2

All persons should get equal financial rewards.

Question 3

What are Natural Rights?

Answer 3

Rights of all citizens to dignity and self-worth.

Question 4

What is Equality of Condition?

Answer 4

All persons should get an even start in the race for success.

Question 5

What was the Kerner Commission?

Answer 5

The Commission created by President Johnson that concluded that America was rapidly becoming two societies (black and white) separate and unequal.

Question 6

What is Rational Classification?

Answer 6

A classification lacking any discrimination and based on objective evidence.

Question 7

What is Suspect Classification?

Answer 7

Classification based on racial or national origin.

Question 8

What is Quasi-Suspect Classification?

Answer 8

A classification that categorizes persons in questionable ways (illegitimacy or sex).

Question 9

What was the significance of Brown v. Board of Education?

Answer 9

Supreme Court decision of 1954 that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.

Question 10

What was Plessy v. Ferguson?

Answer 10

Supreme court decision of 1896 that legalized the separate but equal doctrine.

Question 11

What is the Voting Rights Act (1965)?

Answer 11

Legislation that outlawed state laws that had effectively kept blacks from the polls.

Question 12

What is the Civil Rights Act (1964)?

Answer 12

Legislation that forbade racial discrimination in a variety of ways.

Question 13

What are Jim Crow Laws?

Answer 13

General name for segregation laws.

Question 14

What is De Jure Segregation?

Answer 14

Segregation by law – now virtually a thing of the past.

Question 15

What is De Facto Segregation?

Answer 15

Segregation that exists in fact, in reality, by virtue of residential patterns and other factors, even though it is legally banned.

Question 16

What is a Poll Tax?

Answer 16

A head tax that was used as a prerequisite for voting. The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections.

Question 17

What is a Majority-Minority District?

Answer 17

A congressional district created to include a substantial number of minority votes; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the sole factor.

Question 18

What is Affirmative Action?

Answer 18

Presidential executive orders and Congressional laws that required states to create programs to overcome past discrimination against women and minorities.

Question 19

What was the Bakke (Bach-A) Case?

Answer 19

Supreme Court decision (1978) that challenged affirmative action programs based on quotas.

Question 20

What is a Class Action Suit?

Answer 20

Judicial ruling that applied to a large group of plaintiffs (a class).

Question 21

What is Women’s Suffrage?

Answer 21

The right of women to vote.

Question 22

What is Social Policy?

Answer 22

The actions taken by the government to meet minimal human needs in nutrition, housing, education, health care, and public safety.

Question 23

What is an Unfunded Mandate?

Answer 23

The practice where one level of government (federal) requires another level of government (state or local) to offer a program of service without providing full or partial funding to offset the cost of implementation.

Question 24

What was the New Deal?

Answer 24

A series of relief programs established by the federal government during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to stimulate the economy and put people back to work.

Question 25

What is the Social Security Act?

Answer 25

The original act (1935) and subsequent amendments established an insurance system supported by employee and employer taxes which provide pensions for retired workers, financial support for disabled workers and for children of deceased or disabled workers, and health insurance of retired and disabled persons.

Question 26

What is an Entitlement Program?

Answer 26

Programs which provide a specified set of benefits as a matter of right to all who meet the criteria established by law.

Question 27

What is a Transfer Program?

Answer 27

A practice which utilizes special purpose taxes currently paid by one segment of society to fund current benefits for another group. Today, Social Security taxes paid by young workers pay for benefits currently received by retirees.

Question 28

What was the Great Society?

Answer 28

President Lyndon Johnson’s mid-1960s broad based social and economic policies aimed at ending poverty and racial prejudice and making educational opportunities available to all children.

Question 29

What is Medicare?

Answer 29

The national health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

Question 30

What is Medicaid?

Answer 30

A medical benefits program for low-income persons funded largely by the federal government but administered and partially funded by the states.

Question 31

What is Universal Health Care?

Answer 31

The provision of health care for the entire population.