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COD Poli Sci 001
Chapter 9-11
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What was the first branch in our nations history? | Congress. |
| Name the powers of Congress. | Regulating commerce, coining money, raising and supporting armies, creating the courts, establishing post offices and road, declaring war and levying taxes. |
| Where do many of Congresses extensive powers come from and where are they rooted? | Implicit powers, the elastic cause of Article I. |
| What does the elastic cause of Article I give Congress the power to do? | "Make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the forgoing Powers. |
| How is Congress divided? | Into a Bicameral institution. |
| What does Bicameral mean? | Two-chambered |
| Which chamber serves a two-year term, with the intention to tie legislatures to public sentiment? | The House of Representatives. |
| Which chamber serves a six-year term and is more likely to speak for the national interests? | The Senate. |
| What does pork barrel mean? | Legislative appropriations that benefit specific constituents, created with the aim of helping local representatives win re-election. |
| What is demographic representation? | Describes how the representative may look similar to his or her constituents |
| What is descriptive representation? | Describes how the representative shares the same values as his of her constituents |
| What is substantive representation? | Describes how the representative serves his or her constituents' interests. |
| What is the role of a Trustee? | Represents the constituents' interests from a distance, weighing numerous national, collective, local and moral concerns. They are more interested in being responsible. |
| What is the role of the Delegate? | Carries out the direct desires of the voters. They are more interested in being responsive. |
| What does the role of the Politico? | A member of Congress who acts as a delegate on issues that constituents care about and as a trustee on more complex or less salient issues. |
| What is the Electoral Connection? | The idea that congressional behavior is centrally motivated by members' desire for re-election. |
| Name three ways that members of Congress promote their chances for re-election. | Advertising, credit-claiming and positions taking. |
| Define advertising. | Refers to the appeals or appearances without issue content that get the member's name before the public in a favorable way |
| Define Credit-Claiming. | Involves the member of Congress taking credit for something of value to the voter-most commonly, pork barrel policies targeted to specific constituents of the district. |
| Define Position taking. | Refers to any public statement-such as a roll call vote, speech, editorial, or position paper-about a topic of interest to constituents or interest groups. |
| What is redistricting? | Redrawing the geographic boundaries of legislative districts. This is the task of state legislatures. |
| What is apportionment? | At the national level, states gain or lose legislative seats after each census as the fixed number of House seats (435) is divided among the states. |
| Which legislature in America is not redistricted? | The U.S. Senate. |
| What is Gerrymandering? | Named after Elbridge Gerry, it is an attempt to use the process of redrawing district boundaries to benefit a political party, protect incumbents, or change the proportion of minority voters in the district. |
| What is the responsibility-responsiveness dilemma? | Part of the national frustration with Congress arises because we want our representatives to be both responsive and responsible; we want them to be great national leaders and take care of our local and, at times, personal concerns. |
| What is the incumbency advantage? | The relative infrequency with which members of Congress are defeated in their attempts for re-election. |
| Name the four informal structures of Congress. | Universalism, reciprocity, specialization, and seniority. |
| What is Universalism? | A norm stating that when benefits are divided up, as many districts and states as possible should benefit. |
| What is Reciprocity? | This norm, also called logrolling, leads members of Congress to support bills that they otherwise might oppose in exchange for another member's vote on a bill that is very important to them. |
| What is Specialization? | This norm allows members of Congress to provide valuable information to the institution as a whole and also create a basis for credit claiming. This norm is stronger in the House than in the Senate. |
| Define Earmarks. | Federally funded local projects attached to bills passed through Congress. |
| What is Seniority? | This norm holds that the member with the longest service on a committee will chair the committee. |
| Name the four formal structures of Congress. | Political Parties, Party leadership, committee system, and staff. |
| Who is the top party leaders the House of Representatives and the only House leader mentioned in the Constitution? | The Speaker of the House. |
| What is the role of the Speaker of the House? | They are the head of the Majority party and he or she influences the legislative agenda, committee assignments, scheduling, and overall party strategy. |
| Who is the Majority Leader? | He or she is not only the key national spokesperson for the party, but also helps out with the day-to-day operation of the legislative process. |
| What is the Whip System? | An organization of House leaders who work to disseminate information and promote party unity in voting on legislation. |
| What are the three functions of the whip system? | Information gathering, information dissemination, and coalition building. |
| Who is the Minority Leader? | The elected head of the party holding the minority of seats in the House or Senate. |
| What role does the Vice President play in the Senate? | He is the president of the Senate, but only appears in the chamber when needed to cast a tie-breaking vote. |
| What is the role of the President Pro Tempore? | Mentioned in the Constitution, their formal duties involve presiding over the Senate when the Vice President is not president. This role is usually filled by the most senior member of the Majority Party, although the position does not hold any real power. |
| What are the four types of committees? | Standing, select, joint and conference. |
| What is a Standing Committee? | Committees that are a permanent part of the House or Senate structure, holding more importance and authority than other committees. |
| What is a Select Committee? | Committees in the House or Senate created to address a specific issue for one or two terms |
| What is a Joint Committee? | Committees that contain members of both the House and Senate but have limited authority. |
| What is a Conference Committee? | Temporary Committees created to negotiate differences between the House and Senate versions of a piece of legislation that has passed through both chambers. |
| The first step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | A member of Congress introduces the bill. |
| The second step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | A subcommittee and committee craft the bill. |
| The third step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | Floor action on the bill takes place in the first chamber (House or Senate). |
| The fourth step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | Committee and floor action takes place in the second chamber. |
| The fifth step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | The conference committee works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill (if the two chambers pass the same version, steps 5 and 6 are not necessary). |
| The sixth step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | The floor of each chamber passes the final conference committee version. |
| The seventh step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | The president either signs or vetoes the final vision. |
| The eighth step in the conventional process of making a bill a law. | If the bill is vetoed, both chambers can attempt to override the veto. |
| What is the process of markup? | One of the steps through which a bill becomes a law, in which the final wording of the bill is determined. |
| What is cloture? | A procedure for which the Senate can limit the amount of time spent debating a bill (cutting off a filibuster), if a supermajority of sixty senators can agree. |
| What is a filibuster? | A tactic used by senators to block a bill by continuing to hold the floor and speak--under the Senate rule of unlimited debate--until the bill's supporters back down. |
| What is a pocket veto? | The automatic death of a bill passed by the House and Senate when the president fails to sign the bill in the last ten days of a legislative session. |
| What is omnibus legislation? | Large bills that often cover several topics and may contain extraneous, or pork-barrel, projects. |
| Name three central differences between the legislative processes of the House and the Senate. | The continuity of the membership and the impact that it has on the rules; the way in which bills get to the floor; and the structure of the floor process, including debate and amendments. |
| Name three ways in which the President gets their power. | Provisions of the Constitution to their administration of the executive branch of government; the increase of the nation, its emergence as a dominant actor in international politics, and the expansion of the federal government |
| Name the three Presidents that forged new compromises on issues such as choosing a permanent location for the nation's capital, establishing the federal courts, and devising a system for financing the government. | George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. |
| Name the two presidents that were instrumental in the forming of the Democratic Party and its local party organizations. | Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. |
| What was the Monroe Doctrine? | Stated that America would remain neutral in wars involving European nation and that these nations must cease attempts to colonize or occupy areas in North and South America. |
| Which Presidents oversaw the admission of the huge territory of Texas into the Union following the Mexican-American War? | John Tyler and James Polk. |
| What did the Sherman Anti-Trust act do? | Broke up the Northern Securities Company, a mammoth nationwide railroad trust. Roosevelt increased the power of the interstate commerce commission to regulate businesses and expand federal conservation programs. |
| What did President Roosevelt's New Deal reform do? | Created numerous federal agencies that helped individual Americans and improved many new corporate regulations. |
| What is the Presidential Constitutional authority? | Powers derived from the provisions of the Constitution that outline the President's role in government. |
| What is the Statutory authority? | Powers derived from laws enacted by Congress that add to the powers given to the President of the Constitution. |
| What is the Vesting Clause? | Article II, Section I, of the Constitution, which states that, "executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America," making the President both the head of the government and the head of state. |
| What does it mean by, "head of government." | One of the roles of the President, through which he or she has authority over the executive branch. |
| What does it mean by, "head of state." | One of the roles of the President, through which he or she represents the country symbolically and politically. |
| Who does the President have authorization to appoint? | Ambassadors, senior bureaucrats, and members of the federal judiciary, including Supreme Court Justices. |
| Of the 8,000 (approximate) positions the president has the authority to appoint, 1,200 of these appointments are considered high-level and require who's approval? | Senate Confirmation |
| What is a recess appointment? | Selection by the president of a person to be an ambassador or the head of a department while the Senate is not in session, thereby bypassing Senate approval. Recess appointees only serve until the end of the congressional term. |
| What are executive orders? | Proclamations made by the president that change government policy without Congressional approval. |
| While the Constitution makes the president the Commander in Chief, who has the power to declare war? | Congress. |
| There have only been FIVE actual declarations of war since the founding of our country, what are they? | The War of 1812, the Mexico-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II. |
| How is treaty-making shared between the President and Congress? | Presidents and their staff negotiate treaties; these are then sent to the senate for approval, which requires the support of a two-thirds majority. |
| What is an executive agreement? | An agreement between the executive branch and a foreign government, which acts as a treaty but does not require Senate approval. |
| What is the executive privilege? | The right of the president to keep executive branch conversations and correspondence confidential from the legislative and judicial branch. |
| What is the Presidential Approval rating? | The percentage of Americans who feel that the president is doing a good job in office. |
| If the President and the Vice President were to die, who would take over? | The Speaker of the House of Representatives. Next in line would be the pro tempore of the Senate. |
| What does the twenty-fifth amendment allow the President to do in the event that the vice president must be replaced? | The president can nominate a new vice President, who must be confirmed by majority votes in the House and Senate. |
| Who is the President's cabinet comprised of? | The group of 15 executive department heads who implement the President's agenda in their respective positions. |
| What is unilateral action? | Any policy decision made and acted upon by the president and his staff without the explicit approval or consent of Congress. |
| What does bureaucracy mean? | The system of civil servants and political appointees who implement congressional or presidential decisions; also known as the administrative state. |
| What are civil servants? | Employees of bureaucratic agencies within the government. |
| Who are political appointees? | People selected by an elected leader, such as the president, to hold a government position. |
| What is the task of the bureaucracy? | To implement policies established by congressional acts or presidential decisions |
| What is a regulation? | A rule that allows the government to exercise control over individuals and corporations by restricting certain behaviors. |
| What is the Judiciary Act? | The law in which Congress laid out the organization of the federal judiciary. The law refined and clarified federal court jurisdiction and set the original number of justices at six. |
| Which policy changed the number of justices to nine, where it still sits today? | The Reconstruction Policy. |
| How many district courts and circuit courts were created with the 1789 Act? | 13 district and 3 circut. |
| What is the appellate jurisdiction? | The authority of a court to hear appeals from lower courts and change or uphold the decision. |
| What did Marbury V. Madison give the Supreme Court the power of? | Judicial review: The supreme court's power to strike down a law or executive branch action that it finds unconstitutional. |
| What is constitutional interpretation? | The process of determining whether a piece of legislation or governmental action is supported by the constitution. |
| What is Statutory interpretation? | The various methods and tests used by the courts for determining the meaning of law and applying it to specific situations. |
| Who is the plaintiff and the defendant? | The plaintiff brings the case and the defendant is the party who is being sued or charged with a crime. |
| What are the circuit courts also known as? | The Appeals courts. |
| How many district courts are there? | 89 in 50 states, with at least one district court per state; there are 94 districts wit 678 judges across the 50 states, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, DC, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. |
| How many Appeals Courts are there? | 12. |
| Which court is considered, "the court of last resort." | The Supreme Court. |
| What are the five different methods in which a state judge can be selected? | Appointment by governor, appointment by the state legislature, partisan elections, nonpartisan elections, and the Missouri Plan (a governor makes appointments from a list compiled by a nonpartisan screening committee). |
| What is the writ of certiorari? | The most common way for a case to reach the Supreme Court, in which at least four of the nine justices agree to hear a case that has reached them via an appeal from the losing party in a lower court's ruling. |
| What is mootness? | The controversy must still be relevant when the Court hears the case. |
| What is ripeness? | The controversy has not started yet. |
| What is amicus curiae? | Refers to an interest group or person who shares relevant information about the case to help the court reach a decision. |
| What is the difference between strict and living constitution? | Strict constitution is the way of interpreting the Constitution based on its language alone while Living Constitution takes into account evolving national attitudes and circumstances rather than text alone. |
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