Judicial Jeopardy
______ is the power to determine if a law or act of government conforms to the Constitution. All courts in the US have this power, but is not necessarily true of all democracies in the world.
Judicial Review
_____ refers to all the agencies, departments, and organizations that sit within the Executive Branch of government but are not made up of elected officials, instead they are permanent agents that answer to two principals, the Congress and the president.
Bureaucracy
_____:
•Allow individuals to participate in government
•Ensure all individuals receive due process and equal treatment under the law
•Grant freedom from oppression based on status
Civil Right
An ______ is any group other than a party that is organized to influence government
Interest Group
_____ is the collection of attitudes and preferences of the general public which Members of Congress use to balance their role as a trustee versus a delegate on issues of public policy for example. Presidents too adjust their agenda based on these numbers.
Public Opinion
Name 3 of the US Supreme Court Justices currently on the bench.
§Chief Justice John Roberts (2005: George W. Bush 78-22; 68 years old)
§Clarence Thomas (1991: George HW Bush 52-48; 74)
§Samuel Alito (2006: George W. Bush 58-42; 72)
§Sonia Sotomayor (2009: Barack Obama 68-31; 68)
§Elena Kagan (2010: Barack Obama 63-37; 62)
§Neil Gorsuch (2017: Donald Trump 54-45; 55)
§Brett Kavanaugh (2018: Donald Trump 50-48; 57)
§Amy Coney Barrett (2020: Donald Trump 52-48; 50)
§Ketanji Brown Jackson (2022: Joe Biden 53-47; 52)
Name and explain some of the organizations and offices that fall under the Executive Office of the President
WH Chief of Staff
Office of Management and Budget
Council of Economic Advisors
National Security Council
_____:
•Protect individuals from government interference in individual liberty
•Tradeoff: “Freedom” vs. “National Security”
Civil Liberty
_____ are groups that use popular participation to influence the government
Social Movement
_____ tends to occur during political primaries in which candidates run to the political extremes of their party to serve as a contrast to the more moderate, less die-hard members of their party. Then in general elections we see ______, candidates moving toward the middle and each other.
Divergence; Convergence
A(n) _____ a lower court responsible for holding trials and of which there are 94 across the nation whereas _____ are courts that do not hold trials but only hear appeals for cases decided by the lower court, of which there are 13 across the nation.
District; Circuit
Also referred to as the ______, the practice of patronage is the appointment or hiring of individuals as a reward for their political support or partisan loyalty. Civil service reform and the ______ (Law) mostly limited this practice in American politics.
Patronage and Pendleton Act of 1884
A(n)_____ is a general vote by the electorate on a single political issue as opposed to a(n) _____ or petition to propose amendments to a state constitution. Finally, a(n) _____ is a power reserved to the voters that allows the voters to remove an elected official.
Referendum
Initiative
Recall
Duverger's Law says a ______ with ______ always leads to two major political parties in an electoral system.
Single-Member District and Pluralism
_____ establishes the context of an issue. Elites do so to get voters to consider issues in a particular context when making up their minds. The concept is related to but no the same as priming whereas _____ is the psychological process of shaping people’s perceptions of a particular issue, figure, or policy.
Priming and Framing
_____, a Latin phrase, is the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent; in other words, courts can and should use previous rulings to inform their decisions on current cases while _____ , another Latin phrase, is a command by an appellate court or the Supreme Court to review a case decided by a lower court. The Supreme Court operates on a “rule of four” to grant one.
Writ of Certiorari and Stare Decisis
_____ refers to the reliance on interest groups and citizens to inform Congress when agencies are misbehaving whereas _____ occurs when Members of Congress actively monitor agencies through routine inspection.
Fire-Alarm; Police-Patrol
The _____ of 1971 prohibits corporations and labor unions from electioneering communications, originally an attempt to create limits for campaign spending and imposing disclosure requirements for federal political campaigns whereas The _____ of 2002 set rules on timing of electioneering communications and imposed expanded individual campaign contribution limits and attempted to eliminate the use of soft money to fund campaign ads.
FECA
BRCA
Explain the PIG, the PIE, and the PO.
PIG--Party in Government; imposes party discipline to achieve legislative goals while governing
PIE--Party in the Electorate; the millions of voters and followers of each party
PO--Party Organization; mobilizes voters and raises funds for candidates they support
Discuss the three eras in Media and the Press
Print Era
uFirst Mass Communication: Word of Mouth and Local Meetings
uPartisan Press Print Newspapers and Party Pamphlets, as Biased as Possible
uCommercial Newspapers Grow in 19th Century—appeal to consumers of all political persuasions
uTelegraph and mass production lead to “penny press” newspapers
Radio and TV Era
uRadio Introduced in 1920s for Broadcast News
uTelevision Introduced in 1950s for Broadcast News
u1960: More than 80% of Households Own a TV
uNighly News Broadcasts by CBS, NBC, and ABC
uGovernment Regulated Airwaves so Politically Moderate
uNorm Becomes Moderate News Coverage
Internet and Social Media Era
u1980s: Rise of 24-Hour Cable News Networks
uAllows Partisan Stations to Focus on Specific Political Groups
uSoft News and Infotainment Replace Moderate Government-Regulated News
uThe Internet Alters Mass Media
uFew Limits on Instantaneous News
uCosts to Transmit News Minimized
Name three of the sources of Judicial Power
Article III, Section 1--judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court and other infereior coursts established by Congress
Article III, Section 2--Defines the type of cases federal courts are allowed to hear
Marbury v. Madison (1803)--judicial review
Fletcher v. Peck (1810)--first time the Supreme Court struck down a federal law for violating the constitution
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)--Second time court struck down a federal law for violating the constitution
McCulloch v. Maryland (1813)--SC Rules Constitution Allows Congress to Establish Institutions against state wishes and also to settle disputes between states
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)--struck down NY monopoly and upholds commerce clause of Constitution
Explain the difference between Cabinet Departments, Independent Agencies, and Government Corporations
•Cabinet departments are departments within the executive branch that encompass many of the agencies that implement federal policy. Secretaries appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate are given the responsibility of leading these departments and providing advice to the president.
•Independent agencies are those that exist outside of the cabinet departments and are run with a larger degree of independence from presidential influence. Congress and the president are still the ultimate principals over independent agencies. Their role is regulatory.
•Government corporations are given more discretion than independent agencies are and are charged by Congress with carrying out a task.
_____ is a 1976 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that limits on campaign contributions were not violations of the First Amendment but that limits on campaign spending were unconstitutional whereas _____ is a 2010 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that corporations have the First Amendment right to free speech and provisions of the 2002 campaign finance reform law violated those rights for corporations, nonprofits, and labor unions.
Buckley v. Valeo
Citizen's United v. FEC
Explain each of the Party Systems (1st-6th).
uFirst Party System (1796-1824): Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
uFederalists Push Strong National Government but Fail to Mobilize Voters
uEra of Good Feelings—One Party Dominates in America
uSecond Party System (1832-1860): Whigs and Democratic-Republicans
uSpilt in Democratic-Republicans and Rise of National Conventions
uSpoils System and Patronage Take Hold
uThird Party System (1860-1896): Republicans and Democrats
uGOP Emerges with Lincoln, Civil War
uDemocrats Spilt between North and South
uMachine Politics Develop
uFourth Party System (1896-1932): Republican Dominance and Emergence of a Progressive ‘minor’ party
uProgressive Era Reforms by Both GOP, Dems
uGOP Dominance in Roaring 20s Leads into Great Depression
uFifth Party System (1932-1980): Democrat Dominance Until Demographic Shifts in Party ID
uNew Deal Era Expands Federal Government, Programs
uDemocrats Coalition Frays Over Segregation, Civil Rights
uSixth Party System (1980-2022): Urban-Rural Divide; Party Polarization Worse than Ever
uSouth Becomes Republican
uUrban Areas and Coasts Become Democrat
uNational Parties Grow in Power and Polarization
List and explain the three types of Media Bias
How Bias Occurs
uGatekeeping Bias—not report certain stories for political reason
uCoverage Bias—less attention to certain issues
uStatement Bias—injection of opinion into factual coverage