Unit 5 Flashcards
What are the requirements to impeach a president?
Majority vote in House of Representatives
What does the 22nd amendment do?
Limit presidents to two four-year terms
What is the longest possible term a president can serve?
10 years - VP succeeds president (two years of remaining term) and then two subsequent terms
What is the 25th amendment?
Establishes procedures for filling vacancies in office of president and VP and creates protocol for dealing with a president with disability
Who is second in line to the president?
Speaker of the House
Who is third in line to the president?
President Pro-Tempore of the Senate
What is the order of succession to the president?
- Vice President
- Speaker of the House
- President Pro Tempore of the Senate
- Secretary of State
- Secretary of the Treasury
- Secretary of Defense
What are the constitutional duties of the president?
Appointment power, power to convene congress, make treaties/executive agreements, veto power, commander in chief of armed forces, pardoning power
What are the qualifications to be president?
At least 35 years old, natural born citizen, lived in US for 14 years
What is a pocket veto?
The president can exercise a pocket veto at the end of a congressional session by not acting on the bill before Congress adjourns in under 10 days.
What happens to the president’s party during mid-term elections?
They are voted out of office
What are the president’s foreign policy powers?
Appoint ambassadors, make treaties/executive agreements, recognize foreign nations, order military
What is the state department?
Federal executive department that handles international/foreign relations
Represents US as ambassadors in embassies
Issues passports / visas
Negotiate foreign conflicts
What are bureaucrats?
A person who is one of the people who run a government or big company and who does everything according to the rules of that government or company
What is the biggest bureaucratic agency?
Department of Defense
What are iron triangles?
Policy making relationship among congressional committee, bureaucracy, and interest groups
What are executive orders?
A rule or regulation issued by the president that has the effect of law
What is the Spoils System?
The firing of public-office holders of a defeated political party in order to replace them with loyalists of the newly elected party
What was the Pendleton Act and what did it do?
A reform measure that created the Civil Service Commission and merit system and abolished the spoils system
What was the Hatch Act?
Prohibited civil servants from taking an activist role in partisan campaigns, like making contributions, working for the party, or campaigning for the candidate
What is the Cabinet department?
The cabinet’s role is to advise the president on any subject relating to the duties of each member’s respective office ie. homeland security, treasury, etc.
What was the League of Nations and was it successful?
It was created in the Treaty of Versailles that ended WW1 because Woodrow Wilson put great faith in collective security to maintain the peace (idea that if one country attacked another, then other countries in the international community should all unite against the attacking country)
Ultimately unsuccessful because Wilson and US failed to support it
Who warned against the military industrial complex?
Eisenhower in his farewell address
Why was the Department of Homeland Security created?
Created after 9/11 to deal with preparation for terrorist attacks as well as other duties like border security, customs, and emergency management
What are executive agreements?
Presidents can make executive agreements without the approval of senate
these agreements cannot overrule federal or state law
these agreements DO NOT become part of american law
they only remain in force while the current president is serving his or her term or if the next president decided to keep it in power
What are the foreign policy powers of Congress?
Senate approvals all treaties
Congress can declare war
House passes budget and investigating how money is being used
What is isolationism?
A national policy of avoiding participation in foreign affairs
What is containment?
Strategy to oppose expansion of Soviet power, particularly in Western Europe and East Asia, with military power, economic assistance, and political influence
What policy most epitomized containment?
The Truman Doctrine
What was the Truman Doctrine?
US said we will help any country fight communism inside or out so that communism doesn’t spread to US
What is the Marshall Plan?
Give European countries that had been destroyed by WW2 money so they could rebuild and their economy wasn’t crap so they wouldn’t turn to communism
What is the War on Terror?
Started with 9/11/2001 attacks
USA patriot act resulted that increased things like national security
Budget for defense rose
Department of homeland security was created
Transportation Security Administration (the reason we take off our shoes at the airport and occasionally get a pat down instead of just walking through the scanner)
Who makes up the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
The chairman, vice chairman, and chief of staff of army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, commandant of the Marine Corps, and chief of National Guard Bureau
What is the role of the joint chiefs of staff?
Advises the military and all of its branches
What is the National Security Council?
Advises and assists president on national security and foreign policies
Helps coordinate these policies among government agencies
What was the Embargo Act?
Passed by congress in 1807 to prevent US ships from leaving US ports for foreign parts without the approval of the federal government
What was the Monroe Doctrine?
Pledge that the US would oppose attempts by European states to extend their political controls into the Western Hemisphere
What was the Bush Doctrine?
Policy advocated by George Bush of using preemptive military action against a perceived threat to US interests
What was the 9/11 commission?
National commission on terrorist attacks upon the US. Studied circumstances around 9/11 attacks including preparedness and immediate response
What was the Powell Doctrine?
Advocates an all or nothing approach to military intervention. Among other criteria, it emphasises the use of overwhelming force to ensure a quick and decisive victory and the adoption of an exit strategy prior to any intervention
What was the Reagan Doctrine?
Policy that the US would provide military assistance to anti communist groups fighting against pro soviet governments
What was the Truman Doctrine?
US policy initiated in 1947 of providing economic assistance and military aid to countries fighting against communist revolutions or political pressure
What was the War Powers Act?
President is limited in the deployment of troops overseas as to a 60 day period unless congress approves otherwise
What was the Bretton Woods agreement?
International financial agreement signed shortly before the end of WWII that created the world bank and the international monetary fund
What is detente?
The relaxation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the US in the 1970s
What is collective security?
The concept that peace would be secured if all countries collectively opposed any one that invaded one another
What is the National Security Council?
Executive agency responsible for advising the president about foreign and defense policy and events
What is foreign policy?
All the stands and actions that a nation takes in every aspect of its relationships with other countries including diplomatic, military, and economic relationships
Who appoints ambassadors?
President
What is diplomatic immunity?
Condition granted to US ambassadors where they cannot be arrested, sued, or taxed by the country to which they are ambassadors
What is the CIA?
Central Intelligence Agency - responsible for collecting, analyzing, and reporting information for the President and National Security Council
How was American foreign policy changed over time?
Isolationist
Emerged as major world player after WWI and WWII and Cold War
US continues to seek economic, political, and military power
What is the Good Neighbor Policy?
Reduced US military and political involvement in Latin America
What is a bureaucracy?
A system of hierarchial organizations that exist to help a chief executive carry out their duties
What is a merit system?
Where jobs are grouped into levels, and making these jobs are based on skill/performance based on mandated examinations
What is government corporations?
They are businesses established by Congress to perform functions that could be provided by private businesses
What are independent executive agencies?
They closely resemble cabinet departments but have narrower areas of responsibility; perform services rather than regulatory functions
What are independent regulatory commissions?
Agencies created by Congress to exist outside the major departments to regulate a specific economic activity or interest
What is the difference between and iron triangle and an issue network?
Iron triangles represent stable, solid relationships and issue networks are looser relations between a larger amount of the bureaucracy
What was wrong with the Articles of Confederation in terms of presidency?
Established no executive power and the men of the Continental Congress were mostly figureheads
What are the two duties of the VP?
Fill in for the president in case of death or disability
Serve as the presiding officer of the Senate
What is a specific pardon?
Directed at a specific individual or small group
What is a general pardon?
Aimed at mass groups of people
What is the Office of Management and Budget?
Prepares the president’s budget, supplies economic forecasts, and conducts analyses of legislation
What does the Department of Justice do?
Enforce law, administer justice
What does the Department of Health and Human Services do?
Strengthen healthcare, advance scientific knowledge, increase efficiency of healthcare
What does the Department of Treasury do?
Produce currency, collect taxes, supervise national banks
What does the Department of Homeland Security do?
Protect from terrorist attacks, protect borders, defend citizens
What does the Department of Defense do?
Provide military defense, handle war issues
What does the Department of the Interior do?
Management of universities, management of hospitals, handles relations with Native Americans
What does the Department of Veteran Affairs do?
Provide access to national cemeteries, provide healthcare and benefit programs to veterans
What does the Department of Labor do?
Create labor laws, ensure employee safety, provide education
What does the Department of Agriculture do?
Develop policy on farming, protect natural resources, assure food safety
What does the Department of Commerce do?
Create jobs, promotes US exports, grants patents
What does the Department of Education do?
Develop criteria, establish enrollment criteria, establish private organizations to set up schools
