UNIT 1
Foundations of American Democracy
Foundations of American Democracy
A political system in which the people are said to rule (directly or indirectly).
What is democracy?
The authority of a court to hear cases for the first time.
What is original jurisdiction?
What is 10?
The process by which individuals develop their political beliefs, values, and attitudes.
What is political socialization?
The term for the right to vote in political elections.
What is suffrage?
A form of democracy in which power is vested in representatives selected through popular competitive elections.
What is a republic?
The term for when a person or organization that is not part of a court case provides information or expertise that may help the court make its decision.
What is an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) brief?
The process by which the Supreme Court applies the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
What is selective incorporation?
This factor of political socialization has the greatest impact on an individual's political beliefs.
What are parents?
This amendment banned voting-rights discrimination on the basis of race (but measures like grandfather clauses, poll taxes, literacy tests, and white-only primaries were still used to disproportionally prevent African Americans from voting).
What is the 15th Amendment?
The Social Contract Theory (in which people agree to give up some of their freedoms to the government in exchange for order and protection) is attributed to this philosopher.
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
The Iron Triangle is a policymaking relationship made up of these 3 groups, which share a mutually beneficial relationship.
What are congressional committees, the bureaucracy, and interest groups?
The highest form of judicial review that courts use to evaluate the constitutionality of laws (used in cases of discrimination based on a protected class such as race, national origin, or religion).
What is strict scrutiny?
An initial poll on a candidate and issues on which campaign strategy is based and against which later polls are compared.
What is a benchmark poll?
This amendment granted suffrage to women in the United States.
What is the 19th Amendment?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are *these 3 rights*. These natural rights were inspired by the philosopher John Locke.
What are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
There are this many members of the United States House of Representatives.
(Note: This number does not change every 10 years with a census; the number of representatives per state just gets rearranged.)
What is 435?
This amendment states that there are implied rights that citizens have despite not being explicitly stated. Courts have used this amendment to rule in favor of a right to privacy.
What is the 9th Amendment?
A method of polling in which a relatively small number of respondents who accurately reflect the variety of opinions or demographics in the broader population is chosen.
What is representative sampling?
This amendment granted suffrage to citizens aged 18 years or older.
What is the 26th Amendment?
This type of federalism (also known as layer-cake federalism) refers to a system of government in which federal and state governments have separate and distinct powers.
To stop a filibuster in the Senate, three-fifths (or 60) of the senators must vote to do this.
What is invoke cloture?
The 1st Amendment in the Bill of Rights contains these 5 rights.
What are freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition?
An inability to enact legislation because of partisan conflict within Congress or between Congress and the president. (This can become more of a problem with increased political polarization.)
What is gridlock?
The 4 types of linkage institutions (which connect citizens to the government and translate inputs from the public into outputs from policymakers).
What are political parties, interest groups, the media, and elections?