AP United States Government and Politics Vocabulary
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marissalevy on July 19, 2012
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Vocabulary terms for Mr. Waxman's AP US Government and Politics class
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Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Appointment Power | The authority vested in the president to fill a government office or position. Such positions include those in the executive branch and the federal judiciary, commissioned officers in the armed forces, and members of independent regulatory commissions. The appointment power is usually shared by the chief executive, who nominates the candidate, with the legislative body, which confirms the candidate. |
| Bureaucracy | Any administrative system, especially government agencies, that carries out policy on a day-to-day basis, uses standardized procedures, has a hierarchy, and is based on specialization of duties. |
| Cabinet | Any advisory group selected by the President to aid him in making decisions. Cabinet officers are nominated by the President and then presented to the United States Senate for confirmation or rejection by a simple majority. If approved, they are sworn in and begin their duties. Aside from the Attorney General, and previously, the Postmaster General, they all receive the title Secretary. Members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the President, which means the President may remove them at will. |
| Chief Diplomat (President) | The role of the President as the nation's highest-level negotiator and administrator of policies and progras with other nations. Makes the President the official spokesman for US government with all foreign countries. As the Chief Diplomat, the President can negotiate and conclude executive agreements, negotiate and ratify treaties approved by the Senate, grant or withold recognition of new states and governments, send and recieve ambassadors and ministers, and sever diplomatic relations. |
| Chief Executive (President) | The Presiden'ts role as head of the government of the United States and its main decision maker. As chief executive, the President funcitions as: (1) the initiator of broad programs of action to cope with the nation's problems; (2) chief administrator, responsible for the functioning of the federal establishment that he heads; (3) chief enforcement agent, charged with enforcing all federal laws; (4) nation's chief financial officer, charged with responsibility for formulating and expending annual federal budgets. |
| Civil Service | The permanent professional branches (all of a government's administration (all people in the government), excluding military and judicial branches and elected politicians |
| Commander-in-Chief | The role of the President as supreme commander of the military forces of the United States. |
| Executive Agreement | An international agreement, reached by the President with foreign heads of state, that does not require approval from the senate. |
| Executive Branch | The branch of the United States government that is responsible for carrying out the laws. |
| Executive Order | A rule or regulation, issued by the President, a governor, or some administrative authority, that has the effect of law. Used to implement and give administrative effect to provisions of the Constitution, to treaties, and to statutes. |
| Executive Privilege | The right of executive officials to refuse to appear before or to withhold information from a legislative committee or court. |
| Freedom of Information Act | An act requiring federal agencies to provide citizens access to public records upon request. Exemptions are permitted for national defense materials, confidential personnel and financial data, and certain law enforcement files. |
| Honeymoon | When a newly elected President takes office and provides effective leadership in transforming some of his electoral promises into law. An initial period of enthusiasm or goodwill, typically at the start of a presidency. Ends when public support fades, when the President loses key votes in congress, and when the media begins to engage in carping criticism. |
| Impeachment | an expressed power of the legislature that allows for formal charges against a civil officer of government for crimes committed in office. House impeaches, Senate holds trial, which is presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. |
| Imperial Presidency | Misuse or abuse of the powers of office by the President and his administration. Often used when people feel President has exceeded the powers granted to him under the Constitution. |
| Independent Agencies | A federal agency that is not part of the Cabinet-level executive departments. |
| Iron Triangle | A phrase used to describe a strong, resilient relationship among three distinct political entites. Implies that government policy is largely made by well-defined networks of legislators, government bureaucrats, and private sector interests internally tied together by specific policy matters with which they are all concerned and externally insulated to a significant degree from other subgovernments and from oversight by other parts of government or other groups. For the most part, the public knows or seems to care little about the detail or broad outlines of policy leaving the relatively few government and private sector representatives involved with policy making considerable discretion. |
| Issue Network | Issue networks are an alliance of various interest groups and individuals who unite in order to promote a single issue in government policy. Issue networks can be either domestic or international in scope, and many are active solely within the domain of the Internet. |
| Lame Duck | An elected official who is approaching the end of his or her tenure, and especially an official whose successor has already been elected. |
| Line Item Veto | A special form of veto that authorizes a chief executive to delete particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Each country and/or state has its own particular requirement for overriding a line-item veto. |
| Litmus Test | A question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would proceed with the appointment or nomination. |
| Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | Works to assist the President in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies. In helping to formulate the President's spending plans, it evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. |
| Pardon | A remission of the legal consequences of an offense or conviction (one of the President's powers) |
| Patronage | Government appointments made so as to increase political strength |
| Pocket Veto | On bills passed within ten days of congressional adjournment, the ability of the president to effectively veto by withholding his signature |
| Red Tape | Bureaucractic sluggishness; unnecessary paperwork; administrative delay. |
| Schedule C Job | Job based on people you no, not self merit. |
| Veto | A constitutional right to reject a decision or proposal made by a law-making body; when the President refuses to let a bill pass |
| Veto Override | An action by legislators and decision-makers to override an act of veto by someone with such powers - thus forcing through a new decision. In the United States, Congress can override a presidential veto by having a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and Senate, thus enacting the bill into law despite the president's veto. However, a veto may not be overridden if it is a pocket veto, a veto in which the president simply ignores a bill between congressional sessions. |
| White House Staff | The Executive Office of the President (EOP) consists of the immediate staff of the President of the United States, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the President. The EOP is headed by the White House Chief of Staff. |
| Antifederalists | Opposes the concept of Federalism...The central governing authority of a nation should be equal or inferior to, but not having more power than, its sub-national states (state government). States have the power. |
| Articles of Confederation | The original constitution of the US, ratified in 1781, which was replaced by the US Constitution in 1789. Very hard to pass laws, amend; no executive branch. |
| Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791 and guaranteeing such rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship. Very much to protect State rights. |
| Block grants | A grant from a central government that a local authority can allocate to a wide range of services; No strings attached |
| Categorical grants | Issued by the United States Congress, which may be spent only for narrowly-defined purposes. Additionally, recipients are often required to match a portion of the federal funds. Strings attached. |
| Checks and balances | The power of each of the three branches of government to limit the power of the other two, aimed at making certain that neither the President nor the Congress nor the judges "rule." |
| Civil liberties | Rights and freedoms that protect an individual from the state. Civil liberties set limits on the government so that its agents cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens |
| Civil rights | Those rights guaranteed to an individual as a member of society. |
| Coalition | A grouping of often disparate political elements into a major party, or of several nations into an ad hoc alliance. |
| Commerce clause | Says that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." |
| Concurrent powers | Powers that are held by both the states and the federal government and may be exercised simultaneously within the same territory and in relation to the same body of citizens. |
| Connecticut Compromise/Great Compromise | An agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature as proposed by James Madison, along with proportional representation in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. |
| Constitution | The basic written set of principles and precedents of federal government in the US, which came into operation in 1789 and has since been modified by twenty-seven amendments. |
| Constitutional amendment | A change to the constitution of a nation or a state. In jurisdictions with "rigid" or "entrenched" constitutions, amendments require a special procedure different from that used for enacting ordinary laws. |
| Constitutional democracy | System of governance based on popular sovereignty in which the structures, powers and limits of government are set forth in a constitution. |
| Cruel and unusual punishment | A phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person. (Prohibited in 8th Amendment) |
| Declaration of Independence | A document declaring the US to be independent of the British Crown, signed on July 4, 1776, by the congressional representatives of the Thirteen Colonies, including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. |
| Devolution | Transfer of power from a central government to a region or locality; giving power back to States from Federal Government. |
| Double jeopardy | The prosecution of a defendant for a criminal offense for which he has already been tried; forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same, or similar charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction; prohibited in the 5th amendment to the United States Constitution |
| Elastic clause | A statement in the U.S. Constitution granting Congress the power to pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying out the enumerated list of powers (Article I, Section 8 ). |
| Electoral College | A body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. |
| Enumerated powers | A list of items found in Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution which set forth the authoritative capacity of the United States Congress |
| Equal protection clause | Part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". |
| Establishment clause | The clause in the First Amendment of the US Constitution that prohibits the establishment of religion by Congress. |
| Exclusionary rule | A legal principle in the United States, under constitutional law, which holds that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights is sometimes inadmissible for a criminal prosecution in a court of law. |
| Faction | A small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, esp. in politics |
| Federalism | Strong central government. In control of power. |
| Federalist No. 10 | warns about factions; concerned about tyranny of majority; calls for a greater number of factions to increase diversity. |
| Federalist Papers | A collection of essays written under the pseudonym "Publius" by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, addressed to "The People of the State of New York," first published in New York City newspapers between October 1787 and August 1788. The purpose of The Federalist was to persuade New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution adopted in Philadelphia in September 1787. |
| Federalists | An advocate or supporter of federalism; advocated for strong national government. |
| Free exercise clause | "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." |
| Impeachment | Charge (a public official) with an offense or misdemeanor committed while in office; impeached in House, tried in Senate while presided over by Chief Justice |
| Implied powers | Powers not explicitly stated in the Constitution but which are suggested or implied by the "general welfare," "necessary & proper," and commerce clauses in the Constitution. |
| Inherent powers | Those powers that a sovereign state holds. In the United States, the President derives these powers from the loosely worded statements in the Constitution that "the executive Power shall be vested in a President" and that the President should "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"; defined through practice rather than through constitutional or statutory law. |
| Judicial review | Review by the US Supreme Court of the constitutional validity of a legislative act |
| Layer cake federalism | Layer cake federalism is the relationship between the central government of a nation and that of its states, where the powers and policy assignments of the government hierarchy ("layers" of government) are clearly spelled out and distinct from one another. |
| Limited government | A government where anymore than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is not usually allowed by law, usually in a written Constitution. |
| John Locke | An English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory (individuals unite into political societies by a process of mutual consent, agreeing to abide by common rules and accept corresponding duties to protect themselves and one another from violence and other kinds of harm). |
| Mandate | An official order or commission to do something; may be funded or unfunded |
| Marble cake federalism | Mixing of powers, resources, and programs between and among the national, state, and local governments. |
| "Necessary and proper" clause | Elastic Clause |
| Prior restraint | Judicial suppression of material that would be published or broadcast, on the grounds that it is libelous or harmful. In US law, the first amendment severely limits the ability of the government to do this |
| Procedural due process | Due process is the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law. Due process holds the government subservient to the law of the land, protecting individual persons from the state. |
| Republic | A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch |
| Separation of church and state | Concept that religion and government should be separate; basis for the establishment clause of the First Amendment. |
| Separation of powers | A constitutional structure of government where legal authority is divided between various institutions. In the United States, the Constitution divides federal authority between the President, Congress and the Supreme Court, all of which have delimited powers and responsibilities. |
| Shared powers | Powers which are held and exercised by more than one level of government. |
| Substantive due process | Substantive due process (SDP for short) is an aspect of American jurisprudence under the Due Process Clause, involving substantive unenumerated rights. SDP is to be distinguished from procedural due process, which involves procedural unenumerated rights. |
| Supremacy clause | "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." |
| Tenth Amendment | Protect state rights/power; "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." |
| Three-Fifths Compromise | Between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the enumerated population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. |
| Unfunded mandates | In United States law and politics, unfunded mandates are regulations or conditions for receiving grants that impose costs on state or local governments or private entities for which they are not reimbursed by the federal government. |
| writ of habeas corpus | Latin for "that you have the body." It's used to bring a prisoner or other detainee (e.g. institutionalized mental patient) before the court to determine if the person's imprisonment or detention is lawful. |
| Federalist No. 51 | Calls for separation of powers; checks and balances; "ambitions must be made to counteract ambition." |
| Challenger | One who competes against the holder of a office/position |
| Closed primary | a primary in which only registered members of a particular political party can vote |
| Coattail effect | the tendency for a popular political party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election. For example, in the United States, the party of a victorious presidential candidate will often win many seats in Congress as well; these congressmen are voted into office "on the coattails" of the president. |
| Crossover voting | A behavior in which voters who normally participate in the primary of one party instead vote in the primary of another party. The behavior typically happens when the nominee of the one party is a foregone conclusion or when a candidate in one party's primary has an appeal to the voters in another party. |
| Electoral College | Consists of the electors appointed by each state who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States |
| Exit poll | poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. |
| "Favorite Son" | A candidate who holds a state's votes together at a convention for brokerage purposes; not a serious candidate for the presidency, but one who seeks a trading position with a chance a compromise candidate or vice president. |
| Front loading | The practice of scheduling state party caucuses and state primary elections earlier and earlier in advance of the general election. By moving their primaries to early dates, states hope to lend decisive momentum to one or two presidential candidates and thus have disproportionate influence on each party's nomination. |
| Front runner | The leading contender for a nomination |
| Gender gap | In recent elections, American women have tended to vote in patterns different from those of men, often preferring Democratic to Republican candidates or candidates on the more liberal side of the political spectrum. The press has dubbed this phenomenon the "gender gap." |
| General election | Elections to vote on candidates for office; not primaries; ex. presidential election, for congress, etc. |
| Incumbent | In office; an elected official running against a challenger |
| Negative spot/ad | Also known more colloquially as "mudslinging", is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies. |
| Open primary | a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. |
| Open seat | A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat. |
| Personal following | The political support provided to a candidate on the basis of personal popularity and networks. |
| Plurality system | An electoral system in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not recieve a majority; used in almost all American elections. |
| Primary election | an election in which party members or voters select candidates for an election. |
| Reapportionment | is the process of re-allocating the political power of a set of constituent voters among their representatives in a governing body. |
| Referendum | a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. |
| Safe seat | a seat in a legislative body (e.g., Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secured, either by a certain political party, the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. In such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing hands because of the political leanings of the electorate in the constituency concerned and/or the popularity of the incumbent member. The opposite (i.e. more competitive) type of seat is a marginal seat. |
| Split-ticket voting | refers to a ballot on which the voter has chosen candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election. Split-ticket voting is in contrast to straight-ticket voting in which a voter chooses candidates from the same political party for every office on the ballot. |
| Super Tuesday | refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party's presidential candidates are officially nominated. More delegates can be won on Super Tuesday than on any other single day of the primary calendar, and, accordingly, candidates seeking the presidency traditionally must do well on this day to secure their party's nomination. |
| Term limits | a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. |
| Winner-take-all system | the single winner is the person with the most votes; gets all the state's convention or electoral college delegates. |
| 527 campaign committee | An old name for SuperPACs |
| Hard money | direct donations to the candidate; regulated by FEC; cannot exceed $2,500 |
| McCain-Feingold Act (Shays-Meehan) | Overturned in 2010; Banned soft money; interest groups cannot fund "electioneering communications" 60 days before general election/ 30 days before primary |
| Political Action Committee (PAC) | The "checkbook" for interest groups; an organization in the United States that campaigns for or against political candidates, ballot initiatives or legislation. At the federal level, an organization becomes a PAC when it receives more than $1,000 according to the Federal Election Campaign Act. At the state level, an organization becomes a PAC according to the state's election laws. |
| Soft money | indirect donations to the candidate- to their SuperPAC; not regulated by FEC; can exceed $2,500; money can come from union and corporation treasuries |
| SuperPAC | Large PACs; raise unlimited sums from individuals, corporations, unions and other groups. |
| Interest group | Any voluntary association that seeks to publicly promote and create advantages for its cause. It applies to a vast array of diverse organizations. This includes corporations, charitable organizations, civil rights groups, neighborhood associations, professional and trade associations. |
| Lobby | Advocacy of a point of view, either by groups or individuals. |
| Lobbying/Lobbyist | People whose business is trying to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest who hires them or they volunteer for. |
| Public interest group | A group that exist for the express purpose of pursuing public interests that would not otherwised be pursued. Examples include Common Cause (a group that promotes campaign finance reform) and Public Citizen (a broad consumer advocacy group). |
| Caucus (local party) | A closed meeting of party policy makers to nominate candidates and vote on legislation. |
| Democratic Party | A political party that favors greater government action than its conservative opposition does, to direct and promote the welfare of the people in the republic it often governs |
| Gerrymandering | Drawing of political lines by the party in power so as to perpetuate its power; designing a district to fit a voting pattern. |
| National nominating conventions | A convention to select the party's nominee for President, as well as to adopt a statement of party principles and goals known as the platform and adopt the rules for the party's activities, including the presidential nominating process for the next election cycle. |
| Party dealignment | A trend or process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan affiliation, without developing a new one to replace it. |
| Party identification | Party identification is a political term to describe a voter's underlying allegiance to a political party. The term was first used in the United States in the 1950s, but use of the term has decreased in usage as the process of party dealignment has accelerated. |
| Party platform | The list of principles and positions designed to attract most and offend least. |
| Party realignment | Sharp, lasting shift in the popular coalition supporting one or both parties |
| Political machine | a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The power of the machine is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day. |
| Political party | an organization to gain political power and get candidates elected. |
| Religious Right | Voters who are heavily influenced by religion and vote for conservative candidates and measures. |
| Republican Party | A party whose center of gravity is more conservative, more resistant to radical change. |
| Superdelegate | are seated automatically, based solely on their status as current (Republican and Democratic) or former (Democratic only) party leaders and elected officials ("PLEOs"). Others are chosen during the primary season. All the superdelegates are free to support any candidate for the nomination. They may or may not have made a commitment to vote for a candidate. |
| Third parties | A political party organized as an alternative to the major parties in a two-party system. They may or may not have an effect on the turn-outs of elections. |
| Two-party system | A system where two major political parties contend against one-another. In American thinking, a happy medium between tyrannical one-party control and an anarchic profusion of splinter parties. |
| Activist | An individual who is extensibely and vigorously involved in political activity, either within or outside the party system. |
| Authority | Power and influence based on legitimacy. |
| Capitalism | An economic system based on individual and corporate ownership of the means of production and a supply-demand market economy. |
| Civic Duty | the responsibiliy of a citizen |
| Conservatism | Defense of the status quo against major changes in the political, economic, or social institutions of a society |
| Culture War | Political conflict caused by conflicting cultural values (individual lifestyle, beliefs, customs, and values) |
| Democracy | A system of government in which the ultimate political authority is vested in the people. |
| Directed Democracy | A system of government in which political decisions are made by the people directly rather than by their elected representatives. |
| Elite | People who excerise a major influence on, or control the making of, political, economic, and social decisions. They achieve power through wealth, family status, caste systems, or intellectual superiority. |
| Equality | A branch of law that provides a remedy if the common law does not apply. |
| Free Enterprise | An economic and political doctrine holding that a capitalist economy can regulate itself in a freely competitive market through the relationship of supply and demand with a minimum of governmental intervention and regulation. |
| Gender Gap | The differences in roles between men and women that influence positions on political issuesm candidates, and other forms of political activity. |
| Hyperpluralism | A state in which many groups or factions are so strong that a government is unable to function. |
| Ideologue | A person who strongly and uncompromisingly advocates for an ideology |
| Ideology | The "way of life" of a people, reflected in their collectively held ideas and beliefs concering the nature of the ideal political system, economic order, social goals, and moral values. |
| Individualism/ Individual Responsibility | The political, economic, and social concept that places primary emphasis on the worth, freedom, and well-bein of the individual rahter than on the group, society, or nation |
| Initiative | An electoral device, around since the nineteenth century, by which interested citizens can propose legislation or constitutional amendments through initiatory petitions signed by the required number of registered voters. |
| Legitimacy | Recognition and acceptance of the exercise of political power. |
| Liberalism | A political view supporting change in the political, economic, or social status quo to foster the development and well-being of the individual. |
| Libertarianism | A political philosophy based on the freedom of the individual and the curtailment of state power. |
| Liberty | the right to express oneself freely and effectually regarding the conduct, makeup, and principles of the government under which one lives. Freedom to exercise one's rights, |
| Literacy Test | A suffrage qualification used to determine fitness for voting by means of a reading or comprehension test, |
| Majority Rule | A basic principle of democracy asserting that the greatest number of citizens in any political unit should select officials and determine policies. |
| Minority Rights | The term Minority Rights embodies two separate concepts: first, normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or sexual minorities, and second, collective rights accorded to minority groups. The term may also apply simply to individual rights of anyone who is not part of a majority decision. |
| Mistrust of Government | Lack of trust/confidence, skepticism, and suspicion for the government |
| Motor Voter Act of 1993 | Requires states to provide the opportunity to register through driver's license agencies, public assistance agencies, and the mail. Attempt to ease the voter registration process. |
| Nonprobability Sampling | A type of sampling where samples are drawn arbitrarily, without regard to scientific methods; and, therefore, should not be used to make statistical inferences about the target population. |
| Nonvoter (characteristics) | A person who does not vote or a person who is not eligible to vote. |
| Partisanship | Situations that take on the two-party, adversary mode of arriving at effective (or not so effective) government |
| Pluralism | The concept that modern society is made up of heterogeneous institutions and organizations that have diversified religious, economic, ethnic, and cultural interests and share in the excerise of power. |
| Political Efficacy | the amount of faith and trust citizens have in government and his/her own belief that he/she can understand, impact and influence political affairs |
| Poll Tax | small taxes on the right to vote that often came due when poor African American sharecroppers had the least amount of money at hand. |
| Populism | Being attuned to the needs of "the people"; often used with a connotation of old-fashioned radicalism; a liberalism rotted deeply in U.S. History |
| Power | The ability in politics to control or change the behavior of human beings in a way favored by the power wielder. |
| Random Sampling | A method of poll selection that gives each person in a group the same chance of being selected. |
| Red State/ Blue State | Red States: Generally vote for the Republican candidate. (More conservative) Blue States: Generally vote for the Democrat candidate. (More Liberal) |
| Representative Democracy | People vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. |
| Rights | Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory. |
| Rule of Law | An Anglo-American concept that emphasizes the supremacy of the law and restricts the discretionary power of public offials. |
| Sampling Universe | The entire group whose attitudes/opinions a pollster wishes to measure |
| Socialism | A doctrine that advocates economic collectivism through governmental or industrial group ownership of the means of productions and distribution of goods. It aims to replace competiotion for profit with cooperation and social responsibilty and to secure a more equitable distribution of income and opportunity. |
| Tolerance | the practice of permitting a thing of which one disapproves, such as social, ethnic, sexual, or religious practices. |
| Treason | The crime of betraying one's country |
| Trustee | An individual person or member of a board given control or powers of administration of property in trust with a legal obligation to administer it solely for the purposes specified. |
| Valence Issue | Issues on which most voters and candidates share the same opinion. |
| Voter Turnout | the total number of voters who participated; the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election |
| Work Ethic | The idea that work in itself is good for a person, molding character and inspiring a quality of thrift and an understanding of values. |
| Advise and Consent | A legal expression in the United States Constitution that allows the Senate to constrain the President's powers of appointment and treaty-making |
| Appropriation | A sum of money or total of assets devoted to a special purpose; An appropriation bill or running bill is a legislative motion (bill) which authorizes the government to spend money. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In most democracies, approval of the legislature is necessary for the government to spend money. |
| Authorization | An act by Congress creating a policy and structure for a program, including formulae and guidelines for awarding funds; Congressional acts that tell an agency how programs under agency control will be started or modified and the upper limit - or authorization - of the funds the agency will have to spend on these programs. |
| Bicameral | Having two house or chambers |
| Bipartisanship | Interparty cooperation on political matters |
| Caucus (legislative) | A closed meeting of party policy makers to agree on legislative programs/ actions |
| Closed Rule | Rule in the House of Representatives which forbids any amendments to a bill being considered on the floor |
| Cloture Rule | The cutting-off of debate; the majority's forced ending of discussion to produce a veto. |
| Concurrent Resolution | A resolution adopted by both houses of a legislative assembly that does not require the signature of the chief executive and that does not have the force of law |
| Conference Committee | A conference committee is an ad hoc joint committee of a bicameral legislature, which is appointed by, and consists of, members of both chambers to resolve disagreements on a particular bill. |
| Congressional Oversight | Congressional oversight refers to oversight by the United States Congress of the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight refers to the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation. |
| Constituent | A district represented by one or more elected officials; The voters within such a district; An interest group or fan base |
| Divided-party Government | a situation in which one party controls the White House and another party controls one or both houses of the United States Congress. Divided government is suggested by some to be an undesirable product of the separation of powers in the United States' political system. |
| Filibuster | A technique by which a minority of senators attempts to defeat or alter a measure favored by the majority through the device of continuous talking. The rules permit a senator, or a series of senators, to speak for as long as they wish and on any topic they choose, unless "three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn" (usually 60 out of 100 senators) brings debate to a close by invoking cloture under Senate Rule XXII. |
| Frank | An official mark or signature on a letter or parcel, esp. to indicate that postage has been paid or does not need to be paid |
| Joint Committee | a committee made up of members of both houses of a bicameral legislative branch. |
| Legislative Branch | The branch of government which is concerned with the making of laws |
| Legislative Veto | Process in which Congress overturned rules and regulations proposed by executive branch agencies. Struck down in 1983. |
| Logrolling | Mutual aid among politicians; act of exchanging favors for mutual gain- especially trading of influence or votes among legislators to gain passage of certain projects |
| Majority Leader | The head of the majority party in a legislative body, esp. the US Senate or House of Representatives. Majority Leader in Senate has much more power (more influential than the President Pro Tem) compared to that of the House. |
| Mark up | The process of amending a legislative proposal. Held by the Committee of jurisdiction, committee members can offer amendments, which if successful, changes the legislative language of a particular bill. |
| Minority Leader | The head of the minority party in a legislative body, esp. the US Senate or House of Representatives |
| Open Rule | Rule in the House of Representatives which allows for any number of amendments to be made to a bill being considered on the floor. |
| Oversight | Analysis of how the agencies of the executive department go about the performance of their duties; performed by congressional committees |
| Pork Barrel Spending | When politicians divert federal monies to fund specific projects in their district in order to garner favour with their constituents |
| Power of the Purse | The ability of one group (in the U.S.= Congress) to manipulate and control the actions of another group by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds. |
| President Pro Tempore | A high-ranking senator of the majority party who presides over the US Senate in the absence of the vice president (Less influential than the majority party leader) |
| Quorum | The minimum number of votes that needed in order to do something (e.g. in some cases a majority) |
| Rider | A clause added to a bill often beside the point of the legislation; usually created as a tactic to pass a controversial provision which would not pass as its own bill. |
| Senatorial Courtesy | A custom whereby presidential appointments are confirmed only if there is no objection to them by the senators from the appointee's state, esp. from the senior senator of the president's party from that state |
| Speaker of the House | The presiding officer in the House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority party in the House. Behind Vice-President in the line of secession for the Presidency. |
| Standing Committee | In the United States Congress, standing committees are permanent legislative panels established by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate rules. Because they have legislative jurisdiction, standing committees consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration by their respective chambers. They also have oversight responsibility to monitor agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions, and in some cases in areas that cut across committee jurisdictions. Due to their permanent nature, these committees exist beyond the adjournment of each two year meeting of Congress. |
| Subcommittee | Division of existing committees formed to address specific issues. Significant because subcommittees speed up the legislative process and do it in an effective and educated manner. |
| Whip | A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are party 'enforcers', who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy. |
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