Policy Making Exam Vocabulary
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Created by:
pumptent on April 30, 2011
Subjects:
united states government and politics ap
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35 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 monetarism | An economic philosophy that assumes inflation occurs when there is too much money chasing too few goods. It suggests that the proper thing for government to do is to have a steady, predictable increase in the money supply at a rate about equal to the growth in the economy's productivity. |
| Keynesianism | An economic philosophy that assumes that the market will not automatically operate at a full-employment, low-inflation level. It suggests that the government should intervene to create the right level of demand by pumping more money into the economy (when demand is low) and taking it out (when demand is too great). |
| economic planning | An economic philosophy that assumes that the government should plan, in varying ways, some part of the country's economic activity. |
| price and wage controls | In times of high inflation, it suggests that the governmnent regulate the maximum prices that can be charged and wages that can be paid, at least in the larger industries. |
| industrial policy | Would have the government planning or subsidizing investments in industries that need to recover or in new industries that could replace them. |
| supply-side theory | An economic philosophy that holds that sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work, save, and invest. Greater investments will lead to more jobs, a more productive economy, and more tax revenues for the government. |
| Reaganomics | The federal economic policies of the Reagan administration, elected in 1981. These policies combined a monetarist fiscal policy, supply-side tax cuts, and domestic budget cutting. Their goal was to reduce the size of the federal government and stimulate economic growth. |
| fiscal policy | An attempt to use taxes and expenditures to affect the economy. |
| budget deficit | A situation in which the government spends more money than it takes in from taxes and fees. |
| budget surplus | A situation in which the government takes in more money than it spends. |
| monetary policy | An attempt to alter the amount of money in circulation and the price of money (the interest rate) to affect the economy. |
| fiscal year | The period from October 1 to September 30 for which government appropriations are made and federal books are kept. |
| budget | A document that announces how much the government will collect in taxes and spend in revenues and how those expenditures will be allocated among various programs. |
| budget resolution | A proposal submitted by the House and Senate budget committees to their respective chambers recommending a total budget ceiling and a ceiling for each of several spending areas (such as health or defense) for the current fiscal year. These ______________________ are intended to guide the work of each legislative committee as it decides what to spend in its area. |
| entitlement | A claim for government funds that cannot be abridged without violating the rights of the claimant. |
| sequester | Automatic, across-the-board cuts in certain federal programs that are triggered by law when Congress and the president cannot agree on a spending plan. |
| iron curtain | A metaphor first used by Winston Churchill to describe a military and political barrier maintained by the former Soviet Union to prevent free travel and communication between Eastern and Western Europe. |
| cold war | Refers to the nonmilitary struggle between the United States (and its allies) and the former Soviet Union (and its allies) following World War II. |
| worldviews | More or less comprehensive mental pictures of the critical problems facing the United States in the world and of the appropriate and inapporpriate ways of responding to these problems. |
| isolationism | The view that the United States should withdraw from world affairs, limit foreign aid, and avoid involvement in foreign wars. |
| domino theory | An influential theory first articulated by President Eisenhower holding that if an important nation were to fall into communist hands, other neighboring countries would follow suit. |
| containment (or antiappeasment) | The view that the United States should contain aggressive nations (such as the former Soviet Union). |
| disengagement | A view that U.S. involvement in Vietnam had led to a military defeat and political disaster and that further similar involvements should be avoided. |
| Third World | Originally a French term referring to nations neutral in the cold war between the United States and the former Soviet Union. The term now refers to the group of developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. |
| Fourth World | Refers to underdeveloped nations that had no oil reserves and thus had to pay heavily for imported oil. |
| human rights | In foreign policy, the view that our government should act to enhance the rights of people living in other countries. |
| military-industrial complex | An alleged alliance among key military, governmental, and corporate decision-makers involved in weapons procurement and military support systems. The phrase was coined by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who warned Americans about its dangers. |
| cost overruns | Actual costs that are several times greater than estimated costs. These occur frequently among private contractors producing new weapons for the Pentagon. |
| gold plating | The tendency of Pentagon officials to ask weapons contractors to meet excessively high requirements. |
| environmental impact statement | A report required by federal law that assesses the possible effect of a project on the environment if the project is subsidized in whole or part by federal funds. |
| acid rain | Precipitation in the form of rain, snow, or dust particles, the increased acidity of which is caused by environmental factors such as pollutants released into the atmosphere. |
| command-and-control strategy | A strategy to improve air and water quality, involving the setting of detailed pollution standards and rules. |
| offsets | An environmental rule that a company in an area with polluted air can ________ its own pollution by reducing pollution from another source in the area. |
| bubble standard | The total amount of air pollution that can come from a given factory. A company is free to decide which specific sources within that factory must be reduced and how to meet the ____________________. |
| pollution allowances (or banks) | A reduction in pollution below that required by law that can be used to cover a future plant expansion or sold to another company whose pollution emissions are above the legal requirements. |
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