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US Govt and Pol 3
Stack #186627
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| interest group | organization seeing to directly influence government policy |
| majoritarianism | tendency of democratic governments to allow the faint preferences of the majority to prevail over the intense feelings of minorities |
| organizational sclerosis | society encrusted with so many special benefits to interest groups that everyone's standard of living is lowered |
| trade associations | interest groups composed of businesses in specific industries |
| public-interest groups | interest groups that claim to represent broad classes of people or the public as a whole |
| single-issue groups | organizations formed to support or oppose government action on a specific issue |
| interest-group entreprenuers | leaders who create organizations and market memberships |
| free-riders | people who do not belong to an organization or pay dues, yet nevertheless benefit from it's activities |
| lobbyist | person working to influence government policies and actions |
| lobbying | activities directed at government officials with the hope of influencing their decisions |
| public relations | building and maintaining goodwill with the gerneral public |
| access | meeting and talking with decision makers, a prerequisite to direct persuasion |
| grass-roots lobbying | attempts to influence government decision making by inspiring constituents to contact their representatives |
| caolition | a joining together of interest groups (or individuals) to achieve a common goal |
| bribery | giving or offering anything of value in an effort to influence government officials in the performance of their duties |
| political action committees (PACs) | organizations that solicit and receive compaign contributions from corporations, unions, trade, associations, and ideological and issue-oriented groups, and their members, and then distribute these funds to political candidates |
| iron triangles | mutually supportive relationships among interest groups, government agencies and legislative committees with jurisdiction over a specific policy area |
| revolving doors | the movement of individuals from government positions to jobs in the private sector, using the experience, knowledge, and contacts they acquired in government employment |
| litigation | legal dispute brought before a court |
| amicus curiae | person or group other than the defendant or the plaintiff or the prosecution that submits an argument in a case for the court's consideration |
| bicameral | any legislative body that consists of two separate chambers or houses; in the United States, the Senate represents 50 statewide voter constituencies, and the House of Representatives represents voters in 435 separate districts |
| power of the purse | Congress's exclusive constitutional power to authorize expenditures by all agencies of the federal government |
| oversight | congressional monitoring of the activities of executive branch agencies to determine if the laws are being faithfully executed |
| advice and consent | the consitutional power of the U.S. Senate to reject or ratify (by a 2/3 vote) treaties made by the president |
| confimation | the constitutionally required consent of the Senate to appointments of high-level executive officials by the president and appointments of federal judges |
| congressional hearings | congressional committee sessions in which members listen to witnesses who provide information and opinions on matters of interest to the committee, including pending legislation |
| congressional investigation | congressional committee hearings on alleged misdeeds or scandals |
| apportionment | the allocation of legislative seats to jurisdictions based on population Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are apportioned to the states on the basis of their population after every ten-year census |
| malapportionment | unequal numbers of people in legislative districts reulting in inequality of voter representation |
| redistricting | dreawing of legislative district boundary lines following each ten-ear census |
| gerrymandering | drawing district boundary lines for political advantage |
| splintering | redistricting in which a strong minority is divided up and diluted to prevent it from electinga representative |
| packing | redistricting in which partisan voters are concentrated in a single district, "wasting" their majority vote and allowing the opposition to win by modest majorities in other districts |
| incumbent gerrymandering | drawing legislative district boundaries to advantage incumbent legislators |
| affirmative racial gerrymandering | drawing district boundary lines to maximize minority representation |
| open seat | seat in a legislature for which no incumbent is running for reelection |
| safe seat | legislative district in which the incumbent regularly wins by a large margin of the vote |
| turnover | replacement of members of Congress by retirement or resignation, by reapportionment, or (more rarely) by electoral defeat, usually expressed as a percentage of members newly elected |
| Government Accountability Office | The GAO Web site provides the latest reports evaluating government programs and spending |
| home style | activities of Congress members specifically directed at their home consituencies |
| casework | services performed by legislators or their staff on behalf or individual constituents |
| pork barreling | legislation designed to make government benefits, including jobs and projects used as political patronage, flow to a particular district or state. |
| franking privilege | free mail service afforded members of congress |
| Speaker of the House | presiding officer of the House of Representatives |
| majority leader | in the house, the majority-party leader and second in command to the Speaker, in thesenate, the leader of the majority party |
| minority leader | in both the House and Senate, the leader of the opposition party |
| whips | In both the House and Seante, the principal assistants to the party leaders and next in command to those leaders |
| standing committee | permanent committee of the House or Senate that deals with matters within a specified subject area |
| ranking minority member | the minority-party committee member with the most seniority |
| subcommittees | specialized committees within standing committees; subcommittee recommendations must be approved by the full standing committee before submission to the floor |
| seniority system | custom whereby the member of Congress who has served the longest on the majority side of a committee becomes its chair and the member who has served the longest on the minority side becomes its ranking member |
| drafting a bill | actual writing of a bill in legal language |
| markup | line-by-line revision of a bill in committee by editing each phrase and word |
Created by:
af_becton
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