AP Gov Chapters 18, 19, and 20
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44 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 social welfare policies | policies that provide benefits to individuals, either by through entitlements or means testing |
| entitlement programs | government benefits that certain qualifies individuals are entitles to by law, regardless of need |
| means-tested programs | government programs available only to individuals below a poverty line |
| income distribution | the "shares" of the initial income earned by various groups |
| income | the amount of funds collected between any two points in time |
| wealth | the value of assets owned |
| feminization of poverty | the increasing concentration of poverty among women, especially unmarried women and their children |
| progressive tax | a tax by which the government takes a greater share of the income of the rich than the poor |
| proportional tax | a tax by which the government takes the same share of income from everyone, rich and poor alike |
| regressive tax | a tax in which the burden falls relatively more heavily on low-income groups than on wealthy taxpayers. example: sales tax |
| Earned Income Tax Credit | a "negative income tax" that provides income to very poor individuals in lieu of charging them federal income taxes |
| transfer payments | benefits given by the government directly to individuals. Can be be either cash transfers, such as Social Security payments and retirement payments to veterans, or in-kind transfers, such as food stamps and low interest loans for college education |
| Social Security Act of 1935 | Created both the Social Security Program and a national assistance program for poor children, AFDC |
| Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act | the official name of the welfare reform law of 1996. |
| Temporary Assistance for Needy Families | the official name for public assistance to needy families |
| Social Security Trust Fund | the "bank account" into which Social Security contributions are "deposited" and used to pay out eligible recipients |
| health maintenance organization (HMO) | organization contracted by individuals or insurance companies to provide health care for a yearly fee. Limits the choice of doctors and treatments. About 60% of Americans are in this type of organization |
| national health insurance | a compulsory insurance program for all Americans that would have the government finance citizens' medical care. First proposed by Truman, the plan was soundly opposed by the American Medical Association |
| Medicare | A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other health expenses |
| Medicaid | a public assistance program designed to provide health care for poor Americans. Funded by both the states and national government |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | an agency of the federal government created in 1970 and charged with administering all the government's environmental legislation. It also administers policies dealing with toxic wastes. It is the largest federal independent regulatory agency |
| Clean Air Act of 1970 | the law that charged the Department of Transportation with the responsibility to reduce automobile emissions |
| Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 | a law intended to clean up the nation's rivers and lakes. It requires municipal, industrial, and other polluters to use pollution control technology and secure permits from the EPA before discharging waste products into water |
| Endangered Species Act of 1973 | this law requires the federal government to actively protect each of the hundreds of species listed as endangered- regardless of the economic effect on the surrounding towns or region |
| Superfund | a fund created by Congress in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites. Money for the fund comes from taxing chemical products |
| foreign policy | a policy that involves choice taking, like domestic policy, but additionally involves choices about relations with the rest of the world. the president is the chief initiator of this |
| United Nations | created in 1945, an organization whose members agree to renounce war and to respect certain human and economic freedoms. Main powerful body in this organization is the Security Council |
| North Atlantic Treaty Organization | created in 1949, an organization whose members include the United States, Canada, most Western European Nations, and Turkey, all of whom agreed to combine military forces and to treat a war against one as a war against all |
| European Union | a transnational government composed of most European nations that coordinates monetary, trade, immigration, and labor policies, making its members one economic unit. an example of regional organization |
| secretary of state | the head Department of State and traditionally a key adviser to the president on foreign policy |
| secretary of defense | the head of the Department of Defense and the president's key adviser on military policy- a key foreign policy actor |
| Joint Chiefs of Staff | the commanding officers of the armed forces who advise the president on military policy |
| Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | an agency created after WWII to coordinate American intelligence activities abroad. It became involved in intrigue, conspiracy, and meddling as well |
| isolationism | a foreign policy course followed throughout most of our nation's history whereby the US has tried to stay out of other nations' conflicts, particularly European wars. Reaffirmed by the Monroe Doctrine |
| containment doctrine | a foreign policy strategy advocated by George Kennan that called for the US to isolate the Soviet Union, "contain" its advances, and resist its encroachments by peaceful means if possible but by force if necessary |
| Cold War | War by other than military means usually emphasizing ideological conflict. ex: US vs. Soviet Union from the end of WWII to 1990's |
| McCarthyism | the fear, prevalent in the 1950's, that international communism was conspiratorial, insidious, bent on world domination, and infiltrating American government and cultural institutions. Named after Senator Joseph McCarthy. Flourished after Korean War |
| arms race | a tense relationship beginning in the 1950s between the Soviet Union and the US whereby one side's weaponry became the other side's goad to procure more weaponry, and so on |
| détente | a slow transformation from conflict thinking to cooperative thinking in foreign policy strategy and policymaking. it sought a relaxation of tensions between the superpowers, coupled with firm guarantees of mutual security |
| Strategic Defense Initiative | renamed "Star Wars" by critics, a plan for defense against the Soviet Union unveiled by President Reagan in 1983. would have created a global umbrella in space, using computers to scan the skies and high-tech devices to destroy invading missiles |
| interdependency | mutual dependency, in which the actions of nations reverberate and affect one another's economic lifelines |
| tariff | a special tax added to imported goods to raise the price, thereby protecting American businesses and workers from foreign competition |
| balance of trade | the ratio of what is paid for imports to what is earned form exports. when more is imported than exported there is a balance-of-trade deficit |
| Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) | an economic organization consisting primarily of Arab nations that controls the price of oil and the amount of oil its members produce and sell to other nations |
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