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| The committee structure of Congress forces members to develop policy _____ and select committees that are relevant to district needs. |
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| The power of congress is based on ______. |
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| What is the most important formal power of congress? |
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| How do individual senators block legislation? |
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| Why are congress members reelected at such a high rate? |
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| Incumbency advantages like name recognition and campaign contributions, as well as the ability to gerrymander (redraw district boundaries for political advantage) and behavior change, meaning that Congressmen are more likely to engage in pork barreling than actual national lawmaking. |
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| Congress members serve on ______. |
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| American political parties are decentralized, Congress is organized into many committees and subcomittees, and members have very diverse local constituencies. Congress therefor appears to be very ______. Formal party organizations (leaders and whips) attempt to overcome this ______. |
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| What is required for the President to be able to persuade other elected officials and bureaucrats to act? |
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| What are the advantages of the committee structure? |
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| They are a necessity given the volume of work. Congress can address many issues simultaneously. It also permits members to specialize and represent district interests. |
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| What tools are provided in the Constitution for Presidents to meet informal expectations such as economic management or control of Congress? |
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| What are the President's approval ratings generally higher? |
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| During the first year of administration (the honeymoon period), and during periods of foreign crisis (rally around the flag). |
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| What do Presidents do as a tool to gain popularity? |
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| Different constituencies (national versus local), different structure (centralized versus fragmented), different objectives (change versus continuity), different formal powers, and, recently, different poitical parties in chrage of each branch (divided government) are all examples of what? |
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Definition
| Tensions between the White House and Congress |
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| Only Congress has the power to declare war, but the President can deploy troops without a declaration of war. After the Vietnam War, Congress passed the __________, requiring the presidents to (1) consult with Congress prior to sending troops abroad, (2) report any deployment, and (3) return troops to the U.S. if the Congress does not specifically approve the deployment. The recent use of force in Libya reinforces the conclusion that this act is not effective. |
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| _________ courts are the primary policymakers since many more cases are decided at this level (over 40k per year) than by the Supreme Court. |
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| Federal Appeals or Appelate |
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| The Supreme Court grants a writ of certiorari to about ___ cases a year. |
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| In the long run, Presidential approval ratings tend to ______. |
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| Major legal and lobbying efforts by the NAACP led to comprehensive _____________ legislation in the 1960s. |
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| In what case was an African American rejected from admission to a University because of a 'quota' system? |
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| In which Supreme Court case was a white female denied from access to law school due to the University's desire to have a diverse student body? |
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| In which Supreme Court case was a woman promoted to road dispatcher over a man, due to affirmative action? |
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Definition
| Johnson v. Transportation Agency |
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| Which Supreme Court case involved a contracting agency hiring what it believed to be 'socially and economically disadvantaged individuals' in order to receive federal compensation only to be brought to court when they based it soley on race alone? |
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| The "Lemon Test" - from ________ - determines if state aid to religious institutions is permissible. [Establishment] |
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| In ____________ the Court held that the state interest in regulating drug use is more compelling than individual rights to use peyote as a part of a Native American religious sacrament. [Free Exercise Case] |
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| Employment Division v. Smith |
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| What Supreme Court privacy case was about the use of contraceptives? |
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| What Supreme Court case dealt with interracial marriage? [Privacy case - Civil liberties] |
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| What is the most notorious abortion case that was brought to the Supreme court? [Privacy] |
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| Bureaucrats are _________ to control. |
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| What is the problem with bureaucracy when concerning political control? |
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Definition
| The bureaucracy is large, civil servants are protected from political influence, and members of Congress never give bureaucrats specific instructions (elected officials either cannot foresee every contingency or are unwilling to be blamed for failures). |
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| The case where Judicial review originated? |
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| Resolving lower case disagreements is called _____. |
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| What is the definition of civil liberties? |
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| Limits upon government power to balance freedom and order. |
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| Obligations imposed upon government to promote equality. |
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| What is the difference between the Free Exercise and the Establishment clause? |
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| Free Exercise states that government may not restrict religious practices, while the Establishment clause states that the government may not endorse or financially aid churches. |
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Term
| What is the case in which a woman refused to go to work on the Sabbath day and was fired? |
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Definition
| Sherbert v. Vernon. This was a civil liberties case over the free exercise clause. |
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Term
| A centralized and coherent strategy of monitoring, to locate and preempt bureau problems is called _____. |
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| A strategy of monitoring the bureaucracy by listening to info from journalists, groups, etc is called _____. This conserves legislative resources to deal with failures. |
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| In which Supreme Court case did a steel working company get accused of 'reverse' discrimination when it tried to reserve half its positions for blacks in order to increase the number of skilled black workers? |
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Definition
| U.S. Steelworkers v. Weber |
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Term
| What three sets of political actors interact continuously to produce public policy? |
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Definition
| interest groups, congressional committees, and bureaucrats |
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Term
| What do interest groups, congressional committees, and bureaucrats do for politicians? |
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Definition
| Provide opportunities for them and bureaucrats to interact and for elected officials to acquire information about public policy. |
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Term
| How do republicans and democrats differ in how government should manage the economy? |
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Definition
| Republicans favor "supply side" policies - increase supply of labor and capital. Democrats prefer Keynesian policies that aim to increase demand. |
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Term
| What is Keynesian economic policy? |
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Definition
| Conditions under which government interventions can help the economy. In particular, budget deficits can stimulate a depressed economy. Budget deficits during a recession should, according to Keynes, be balanced with budget surplus during period of economic growth. |
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| Who regulates monetary policy? |
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| The Federal Reserve System |
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| What is the aim of monetary policy? |
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Definition
| To control interest rates, and control inflation. |
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| What is fiscal policy and who controls it? |
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Definition
| taxes and spending; congress. The current size of our government debt (15T) suggests that we have little room to cut taxes or raise spending. Congress is truggling to find ways to cut spending (Republicans) or raise revenue (Democrats) or both (partisan). |
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| What two entitlement program are causing us to face severe long-run pressures in the economy? |
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Definition
| Medicare and Social Security |
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Term
| Total Medicare spending - as a % of GDP - is projected to roughly ____ in the next 30 years. |
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Definition
| Double. from 3 to 6 Percent |
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Term
| The ___________ controls monetary policy. Key interest rates are regulated by the _____________. The primary task of the _________ is to control inflation. |
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Definition
| The Federal Reserve System |
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Term
| Republicans say that _____ government = economic growth. |
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Definition
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Term
| The President has a _______ constituency. |
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Definition
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Term
| Does the president have the power to declare war? |
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Definition
| No. While he is the commander in chief, the power to declare war lies with congress, not the executive. |
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Term
| This affirmative action case restricted the use of quota systems. |
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Definition
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| What type of case was Grutter v. Bolinger? |
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Definition
| Affirmative Action. About lawschool admissions. |
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| District Courts hear about 400k cases a year, what is the next level of court that hears around 40k cases? |
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Term
| Was Grutter v. Bollinger a civil rights or civil liberties case? [Point systems] |
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Definition
| Civl Rights, over affirmative action. |
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Term
| Was Johnson v. Transportation agency a civl rights or civil liberties case? |
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Definition
| Civil rights, over affirmative action. |
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Definition
| Asking if state aid to a religious institution serves a secular purpose, if it promotes religion, or if it excessively entangles church and state. |
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Term
| Which SC case had to do withracial preferences in government contracting procedures? |
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| Was Adarand v. Pena a civil rights or civil liberties case? |
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Definition
| Civil rights, over affirmative action. |
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Term
| Employment division v. Smith had to do with ________. |
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Definition
| Two drug rehabilitation offices using peyote for religious reasons. |
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| The functions of government can be grouped into three basic categories: services or actions that maintain order, ____________, or promote equality. |
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