UNIT 1
The constitutional clause that makes federal law superior to state law.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
The term describes the power of the purse.
What is Congress controlling federal spending?
The selective incorporation process uses this clause of the 14th Amendment.
What is the Due Process Clause?
A group of people with similar beliefs that influence policy.
What is an ideology?
A media strategy where candidates try to control how the public perceives their message.
What is framing / message discipline?
A system dividing power between national and state governments.
What is federalism?
A committee formed to reconcile the House and Senate versions of a bill.
What is a conference committee?
The constitutional principle that requires the government to treat people equally under the law and was used in cases like Brown v. Board of Education.
What is the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment?
The measurable error range that shows how accurate a poll is.
What is the margin of error?
The system that awards electoral votes based on who wins the popular vote in a state.
What is winner-take-all / plurality system?
The compromise that counted enslaved people partially toward representation.
What is the Three-Fifths Compromise?
The idea that Congress members vote based on what they think is best, not what voters want.
What is the trustee model?
Case establishing “symbolic speech” protections under the First Amendment.
What is Tinker v. Des Moines?
The tendency of opinions to shift toward the average when polling multiple times.
What is the bandwagon effect?
A group independent from a campaign that can spend unlimited money but cannot coordinate.
What is a Super PAC?
This theory argues that government protects natural rights and can be overthrown if it fails.
What is the Social Contract Theory?
The Senate rule requiring 60 votes to end debate.
What is cloture?
The clause that ensures states recognize each other’s public acts and records.
What is Full Faith and Credit?
A belief supporting government action to reduce inequality but allow social liberty.
What is modern liberalism?
A voting behavior where voters choose based on predictions of the future.
What is prospective voting?
The doctrine stating that states can’t interfere with constitutional federal actions (established in court decisions).
What is federal supremacy as seen in McCulloch v. Maryland?
The theory that bureaucracy makes policy through its discretionary authority.
What is bureaucratic rule-making?
The case that set a test for government involvement with religion: purpose, effect, and entanglement.
What is Lemon v. Kurtzman / the Lemon Test?
The concept that views individuals as responsible for their own outcomes rather than government.
What is individualism?
The theory that political participation decreases when citizens feel overwhelmed by too many choices, information, or complex politics.
What is rational disengagement / voter fatigue theory?