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AP GOV UNIT 2
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| redistricting | redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following a census , to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population |
| single member districts | only one representative is chosen from each district |
| House of Representatives | representatives elected by each state, # depends on population size; advantageous for larger states |
| Senate | 2 representatives from each state;advantageous for smaller states |
| bicameral | a legislature divided into 2 houses, US Congress and every US state legislature except Nebraska's are bicameral |
| gerrymandering | drawing of congressional districts to favor one political party or group over another |
| census | tool for understanding demographic changes; Constitution requires an annual one |
| reapportionment | process of reallocating seats in the House every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census |
| two party system | several political parties exist, but only 2 major political parties compete for power and dominate elections |
| entitlements | policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay x level of benefits to y number of recipients (Social Security) |
| legislative intent | when creating a legislation, the judiciary branch may be considered when interpreting the law; judiciary may attempt to assess where legislation is ambiguous |
| Civil Rights Act of 1964 | law that made racial discrimination against any group in hotels, motels, and restaurants illegal and forbade many forms of job discrimination |
| Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 | law passed that requires employers and public facilities to make "reasonable accommodations" for people with disabilities and prohibits discrimination against these individuals in employment |
| amendments | revolution of change to a bill, law, or constitution |
| mandatory spending | required government spending by permanent laws |
| discretionary spending | spending set by the government through appropriations and bills (operating expenses and salaries of gov. employees) |
| filibuster | strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation try to talk it to death, based on unlimited debate |
| incumbency effect | tendency of those already holding office to win reelection due to advantages because they already hold office |
| Franking privilege | privilege that allows members of Congress to mail letters and other materials to constituents postage-free |
| legislative veto | ability of Congress to override a presidential decision |
| Speaker of the House | office mandated by the Constitution; Speaker is chosen in practice by the majority, has both formal and informal powers, and is second in line to succeed to the presidency should that office become vacant |
| Majority Leader | principal position ally of the Speaker of the House or the party's wheel horse in the Senate; responsible for scheduling bills, influencing committee assignments, and rounding up votes on behalf of the party's legislative positions |
| Whip | party leaders who work with the majority or minority leader to count votes beforehand and lean on waverers whose votes are crucial to a bill favored by the party |
| Voter Revolution of 1994 | Republican Party success in 1994; US midterm elections--> a net gain of 54 seats in the House and 8 seats in the Senate (led by Newt Gingrich) |
| Rules Committee | determines the rules of debate for bills in the House |
| plurality | largest # of votes to be received by any candidate (not necessarily more than half the votes, just most of them.) |
| fiscal policy | policy that describes the impact of the federal budget- taxes, spending, and borrowing- on the economy; determined by Congress and president |
| monetary policy | based on monetarism, it is the manipulation of the supply of money in private hands by which the government can control the economy |
| Riders (on a bill) | an addition or amendment added to a bill that often has no relation to the bill but that may not pass on its own merits |
| 10th Amendment | powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people |
| informal/inherent powers | powers that exist for the national govt. because the govt. is sovereign |
| President | person who holds office of head of state of the US government |
| The SEC | Securities and Exchange Commission; federal agency created during the New Deal that regulates stock fraud |
| Social Security | any government system that provides monetary assistance to people with inadequate or no income; provides benefits |
| Iron Triangle | entities composed of bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees, which have dominated some areas of domestic policy making; have mutual dependency |
| Policy networks | explain differences in policy making and power in different policy sectors |
| lobbying | communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his own behalf, directed to a government decision maker with hope of influencing his decision |
| Conference Committee | congressional committees formed when Senate and House pass a bill in different forms; party leadership appoints members from each house to iron out the differences and bring back a compromise bill |
| joint committee | congressional committees on a few subject-matter areas with membership drawn from both houses |
| select committee | congressional committees appointed for a specific purpose (ex. Watergate investigation) |
| congressional caucuses | association of congressional members who advocate a political ideology, regional, ethnic, or economic interest |
| seniority system | simple rule for picking committee chairs, lasted until 1970s, member who had served on the committee the longest and whose party controlled Congress became chair, regardless or party loyalty, mental state, or competence |
| trustee | legislator who uses his or her best judgement to make policy in the interests of the people |
| cloture motions | prevents filibustering and ends debate in the Senate, by a 3/5 vote of Senate |
| Ways and Means Committee | charged with reviewing and making recommendations for the gov. budgets; imposes taxes |
| divided government | one party controls the executive, and the other party controls one or both houses of Congress |
| Welfare Reform Act of 1996 | |
| Medicaid | federal and state funded program that provides healthcare for the needy |
| party coalitions | groups and interests that support a political party |
| legislative oversight | Congress' monitoring of the bureaucracy and its administration of policy, performed mainly through hearings |
| advise and consent power | allows Senate to constrain President's powers of appointment and treaty making |
| budget making process | creates US federal budget, controlled by Congressional Budget Office |
| pork barrel spending | gov. spending for localized projects to bring $$ to a representative district; legislation giving benefits to constituents through sometimes unnecessary or unwise projects within a state or district, to enhance a members chance of reelection |
| open primary | elections to select party nominees in which voters can decide on Election Day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contests |
| blanket primary | elections to select party nominees in which voters are presented with a list of candidates from all parties; voters can then select some Democrats and Republicans if they choose |
| casework | activities of members of Congress that help constituents as individuals; cutting through bureaucratic red tape to get people what they think they have a right to get |
| President Pro Tempore | high-ranking senator of the majority party who presides over the US Senate in the absence of the Vice President |
| Senate is less formal than House | only 100 Senators, easier to make decisions on bills, easier to organize, need to pass bills to go through legislation process |
| House is more formal than Senate | 435 reps--> harder to organize, has more formal rules in order to control more people, bills can only be discussed for a certain period of time, only popular bills will be discussed |
| reciprocity (logrolling) in Congress | exchange of political favors for support of a bill |
| advantages of incumbency in Congress | name recognition, credit claiming (office holder brought gov. projects and money into state/district), casework for constituents (office holders may have helped), constituents solve money problems in gov. and bureaucracy, more visible to constituents, med |
| interest groups | group of private citizens whose goal is to influence and shape public policy |
| Political Action Committees (PAC) | extensions of an interest group that contributes $$ to political campaigns |
| super PAC | form of a PAC that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of $$ from corporations, unions, individuals, and associations; easy to create, independent expenditure-only committee |
| grassroots | average voter at the local level |
| mass media | all forms of communication that reach a large portion of the population |
| party dealignment | gradual disengagement of people and politicians from the parties, seen by shrinking party identification |
| party realignment | displacement of majority party by minority party, usually during critical election period |
| Winner Take All | electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded only to the candidates who came in first in their constituencies (in US, winner of popular votes of a state receives all electoral votes) |
| National Party Chairperson | appointed by committee as head of party |
| soft money | distributed from national political party organization that was not regulated b y law; restricted by Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 |
| straight ticket voter | voter voting for all candidates, all of the same party |
| linkage institutions | channels or access points through which issues and people's policy preferences get on the government's policy agenda (political parties, interest groups, and mass media) |
| New Deal Coalition | alliance of Southern conservatives, religious, and ethnic minorities who supported the Democratic Party for 40 years |
| National Party Convention | meeting of party delegates every 4 years to choose a presidential ticket and write the party's platform |
| Proportional Representation | electoral system used throughout most of Europe that awards legislative seats to political parties in proportion to the # of votes won in an election |
| closed primary | only registered party members can vote |
| electioneering | direct group involvement in electoral process; groups can help fund campaigns, provide testimony, and get members to work for candidates; some form PACs |
| amicus curiae briefs | riend of the court, interested groups may be invited to file legal briefs supporting or rejecting arguments of a case |
| class action lawsuit | lawsuits permitting a small # of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated |
| free-rider problem | problem faced by unions and other groups when people do not join because they can benefit from group's activities without officially joining; the bigger the group --> more free-rider problem |
| union shop | provision found in some collective bargaining agreements requiring all employees of a business to join the union within a short period (30 days) and to remain members as a condition of employment |
| Right-to-Work Law | state law forbidding requirements that workers must join a union to hold their jobs, permitted by Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 |
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