Intro to American Politics Exam #1: Ch 1-3
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59 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Politics | the process of deciding who is going to get what or whose values everyone is going to live by |
| Government | institution that has the authority to make decisions that are binding on everyone |
| Sovereignty | the authority to legally wield coercive power to allocate values |
| Popular Sovereignty | a distribution of political power in which all citizens have the right to participate in the political process |
| Autocracy Government | the power to authoritatively allocate values is vested in a single person |
| Oligarchy Government | power vested in a small group of people |
| Democracy | power is shared by all citizens |
| Majority Rule | the government follows the course of action preferred by most people |
| Minority Rights | the full rights of democratic citizenship held by any group numerically inferior to the majority |
| Political Equality | individual preferences are given equal weight |
| Equality Under the Law | the law is applied impartially without regard to the identity or status of the individual involved |
| Social Equality | people should be free of class or social barrieres and discrimination |
| Economic Equality | each individual should receive the same amount of material good regardless of his/her contribution to society |
| Equality of Opportunity | the right of every individual to develop hes or her abilities to their fullest extent |
| Direct Democracy | a form of democracy in which ordinary citizens rather than representatives collectively make government decisions |
| Representative Democracy | a system of government where ordinary citizens do not make governmental decisions themselves, but choose public officials to make decisions for them |
| Elections | representatives are chosen in elections, typically by a plurality of citizens who vote |
| Political Parties | organizations that put forward candidates for political office; provide competition for voters to choose the candidate that best represents their preferences |
| Interest Groups | an institution that aggregated the interests of like-minded individuals and organizes to press their common views on policymakers |
| Ideology | a consistent set of values, attitudes, and beliefs about the appropriate role of government in society |
| Partisanship | viewed as a psychological attachement to a political party |
| False Consensus | the tendency of people to believe their views are normal or represent common sense and therefore are shared by most people |
| Pluralistic Political System | power is fragmented and distributed widely among diverse groups and interests |
| Elitist | term used to describe a society in which organized, influential minority interests dominate the political process |
| The Declaration of Independence | lays the foundation of American constitutional theory; justified the struggle for independence on the concept of natural right |
| Articles of Confederation | served as the first constitution of the US; established a national government with a unicameral legislature |
| Unicameral | a legislature with one chamber |
| Federalists | were manufactures, merchants, professionals, and former soldiers; primarily concentrated in the cities |
| Anti-Federalists | subsistence farmers, small businessmen, artisans, laborers, and debtors |
| Shay's Rebellion | an outbreak of an armed revolt by farmers in western Massachusetts resisting state efforts to seize their property for failure to pay taxes & debts |
| The Virginia Plan | first major proposal presented, which formed the basis of the constitution |
| Bicameral | legislature with 2 cambers |
| New Jersey Plan | proposed a 1-house, unicameral, legislature with equal state representation |
| Connecticut Compromise | proposed a 2-house legislature, one based on population, the other representing states equally |
| 3/5 Compromise | agreed to count each slave as 3/5 of a person for purposes of representation |
| The Federalist Papers | originally published as a series of political essays and remain the best source for understanding the justification for the Constitution; James Madison wrote 30 of the 85 essays |
| Representative Government | the system operates with the consent of the governed without establishing a direct democracy |
| Mixed Government | the idea that government should represent both property and the number of people |
| Enumerate Powers | powers specifically listed in the Constitution as belonging to the national government |
| Implied Powers | powers belonging to the national government that are suggested in the Constitution's "necessary and proper" clause |
| Inherent Powers | powers not listed or implied by the Constitution but rather have been claimed as essential to the national government |
| Legislative Interpretation | some laws passed by Congress are far-reaching and fundamentally alter the responsibility and functions of the gov't |
| Judicial Interpretation | power of the courts to declare acts and actions of legislatures and executives unconstitutional |
| Confederation | the central government is not sovereign and it receives no direct grant of power from citizens |
| Unitary System | political system in which the power is concentrated in the national gov't and the regional gov't can exercise only those powers granted them by the central gov't |
| Federalism | a political system in which regional governments share power with the national government. |
| Police Power | the authority of the states to pass laws for the health, safety, and morals of their citizens |
| Concurrent Powers | powers that the national and states governments can exercise; includes authority to tax and borrow money |
| "Full Faith and Credit" | ensures that important civil obligations, such as property rights, wills, and marriages will be valid and honored in all states |
| Enabling Act | which is authorizing the residents of the territory to draft a state constitution and hold a referendum to approve it |
| "Supreme Law of the Land" | the idea that the U.S. Constitution, laws passed by the Congress, and the treaties made by the federal government are supreme and state constitutions and laws are subordinate to them |
| Dual Federalism | views federal and state governments as independent sovereign powers with separate and distinct jurisdictions |
| Cooperative Federalism | recognizes an overlap in state and national responsibilities; state and federal governments have to work together, coordinating their actions to serve and respond to needs of citizens |
| General Revenue Sharing | type of grant that originated in the early 1970's that comes with no strings attached |
| Categorical Grants | programs that not only provide funds for a defined area of activity, but also specify how the programs are to be carried out |
| Block Grants | between general & categorical grants; provide funds for a general policy area and allow states & localities greater discretion than categorical grants in designing the programs being funded. |
| Crossover Sanction | placed on the receipt of grant money that have nothing to do with the original purpose of the grant |
| New Federalism | a movement to take power from the federal government and return it to the states |
| Unfunded Mandates | provisions in federal statues requiring states and localities to take on certain responsibilities without covering any of the associate expenses |
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