JUDICIAL BRANCH
This landmark 1803 case established the Supreme Court's power of judicial review.
What is Marbury v. Madison?
This term describes the excessive rules and paperwork that slow down the bureaucratic process, often criticized as a symbol of government inefficiency.
What is red tape?
This clause grants Congress the power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated powers.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
This constitutional branch has the power to confirm cabinet appointments, appropriate funding, and conduct oversight — making it the primary check on the bureaucracy.
What is Congress (the legislative branch)?
This theory of democracy holds that a small number of wealthy individuals dominate government policymaking.
What is elite theory?
This type of judicial philosophy holds that the Constitution should be interpreted as written, not as a "living document."
What is judicial restraint (or originalism)?
This system, criticized for appointing unqualified individuals, rewards political loyalty rather than merit.
What is the patronage (spoils) system?
In Federalist No. 51, Madison argued this structural feature of government prevents tyranny by dividing power.
What are checks and balances and separation of powers?
This practice by both political parties manipulates district boundaries to gain a partisan advantage in the House.
What is gerrymandering?
This concept, central to democratic theory, holds that government authority derives from the consent of the governed.
What is popular sovereignty?
A justice who writes "Generations from now, lawyers and judges will look back at today's ruling with utter contempt" is authoring this type of opinion.
What is a dissenting opinion?
This is the term for the relationship between a congressional committee, a federal agency, and an interest group that mutually benefit each other.
What is an iron triangle?
This philosopher believed civil society corrupts naturally good individuals, contrasting with Hobbes's view.
Who is Rousseau?
This term describes elections held in the middle of a presidential term, often resulting in the president's party losing seats in Congress.
What are midterm elections?
Brutus No. 1 and Federalist No. 39 represent opposing sides of this foundational debate in American political history over how much power the national government should hold relative to the states.
What is the debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists (or centralism vs. states' rights)?
This is the term for when the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case by granting this...
What is a writ of certiorari?
This civil service reform replaced the patronage system with a merit-based hiring process, protecting workers from politically motivated firings.
What is the Pendleton Civil Service Act?
In Federalist No. 39, Madison distinguished between this type of government, where regional authorities have independent spheres of power, and a unitary system.
What is a federal system (federalism)?
This clause grants Congress the flexibility to pass laws beyond its enumerated powers, as long as they serve those enumerated ends.
What is the Necessary and Proper (Elastic) Clause?
Both Hobbes and Rousseau believed individuals give up some freedoms in exchange for the protections of organized society — a concept captured in this foundational political theory term.
What is the social contract?
In ___________, Hamilton called the judiciary the least dangerous branch because it controls neither the sword nor the purse.
Federalist No. 78
Unlike iron triangles, these looser, broader coalitions include a wider variety of participants such as academics, journalists, and advocacy groups, making policymaking more open.
What are issue networks?
The author of this Anti-Federalist essay argued the Constitution would create a central government threatening individual liberty and state sovereignty.
What is Brutus No. 1?
This constitutional provision, found in Article I, gives Congress its _______ _____________ and forms the basis for checking executive overreach, as described by Hamilton in Federalist No. 69.
What are the expressed (enumerated) powers of Congress?
This theory of democracy argues that competition among many organized interest groups produces fair policy outcomes for society as a whole.
What is pluralist theory?