Policymaking System
What are the 5 categories of the Policymaking System?
People, Linkage Institutions, Policymaking Institutions, Policies and Policy Implementation
What are the 3 political cultures according to political scientist Daniel Elazar?
Moralistic, Individualistic and Traditionalistic
What are the 3 socioeconomic factors used when comparing states and communities?
Education, Income, and Race
Which constitution is supreme: US Constitution or a state’s constitution?
US Constitution, due to the Supremacy clause
What is government?
The formal institutions that make authoritatively binding decisions for society
What are examples of Linkage Institutions?
Public Opinion, Media, Political parties, Interest groups, Elections
Which political culture states that government is for the elites and does not favor mass participation?
Traditionalistic
What are the main ideologies in America?
Liberalism and Conservatism
What powers does the state constitutions have?
Limits the state government, creates government structure, distributes power among branches, protects the rights of citizens, prescribe the rules of the state
What is Federalism?
A way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government have authority over the same land; shared power.
What is the process where policy come into being and evolve over time?
The Policymaking System
Which political culture emphasizes limited government?
Individualistic culture
What is the ideology of a state that is has a tendency to expand welfare benefits, regulate business, adopt progressive state income taxes, and use government to achieve social change?
Liberalism
Name at least one of the 4 ways to change a state constitution
Legislative proposal, Popular initiative, Constitutional Convention, Constitutional Revision Commissions
What is an Initiative?
A percentage of voters, using a petition, have a law or amendment placed in the ballot without legislative involvement.
Name at least 3 key policy areas for state and local government (there is 5)
Education, Health and Welfare, Transportation, Public Safety and Taxation
What is Texas’ political culture?
A mix of individualistic and traditionalistic
What ideology best fits with the individualistic political culture?
Conservatism
Why is today’s Texas Constitution a notoriously poor document?
It is outdated, over amended, micromanages and although easy to amend, difficult to overhaul
What is Direct Democracy and its three forms?
People themselves can initiate and decide policy questions by popular vote; initiative, referendum, and recall
How is the Policymaking system a loop?
It ends and starts with the people. The system starts with people bring up issues or concerns that the government needs/can solve and the system ends with the feedback of the policies success by the people.
Which political culture views government as necessary to help man search for the good civil society and that government should be involved in the economic and social matters?
Moralistic culture
States and communities provide excellent _____ for applying comparative analysis
laboratories
Which constitution allowed slavery in the state of Texas?
Republic of Texas
According to Harold Lasswell, what is the definition of politics?
Who gets what, when and how