AP GOV STUDY GUIDE VOCAB

• Unfunded Mandates: when the federal government requires state and local action but does not provide the funds to pay for the action.
• Democracy: a system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the publics’ preferences
• Elastic clause: the final paragraph of article 1 section 8 of the constitution which authorizes congress to pass all laws necessary and proper to carry out the enumerated powers.
• Implied Powers: powers of the federal government that go beyond those enumerated in the constitution.
• Media Events: Events purposely stages for the media that nonetheless look spontaneous.
• Cooperative federalism: a system of government in which powers and plicy assignments are shared between states and the national government.
• Single Issue groups: groups that have a narrow interest, tend to dislike compromise and often draw membership from people new to politics.
• Conservatives: those who advocate conservatism.
• Factions: interest groups arising from the unequal distribution of property or wealth that James Madison attacked in federalist paper number 10.
• Judicial review: the power of the courts to determine whether acts of congress and by implication the executive are in accord with the US constitution.
• Beats: specific locations from which news frequently emanates, such as congress or the white house. Most top reporters work a particular beat, thereby becoming specialist in what goes on at the location.
• Gibbons v. Ogden: a landmark case decided in 1824 in which the supreme court interpreted very broadly the clause in ART 1 SEC 8-giving congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, encompassing virtually every form of commercial activity.
• Bill of Rights: the first 10 amendments to the US constitution, drafted in response to some of the anti federalist concerns. These amendments define such basic liberties as freedom of religion, speech and press and offer protections against arbitrary searches by the police and being held without talking to a lawyer.
• Natural rights: rights inherent in human beings, not dependent on governments which include life, liberty and property. The concept of rights was central to English philosopher John Locke’s theories about government and was widely accepted among American founding fathers.
• Liberals: people who believe in equal rights and liberty
• Writ of habeas corpus:  a court order requiring jailers to explain to a judge why they are holding a prisoner in custody.
• New Jersey Plan: equal representation of each state in congress regardless of the states population.
• Privileges and immunities clause: ART 4 SEC 2 according citizens of each state most of the privileges of citizens of other states.
• Shays’ Rebellion: a series of attacks on courthouses by a small band of farmers led by Daniel Shays to block foreclosure proceedings.
• Simpson Mazzolli: an immigration law named after its legislative sponsors that as of june 1 1987 requires employees to document the citizenship of their employees.
• Articles Of Confederation:  the first constitution of the US in 1777. The articles established a national legislature, the continental congress, but most authority rested with the state legislatures.
• Representation: a basic principle of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers
• Policymaking system: the process by which political problems are communicated by the voters and acted upon by government policymakers. The policymaking system begins with people’s needs and expectations for governmental action. When people confront government officials with problems that they want solved, they are trying to influence the government’s policy agenda.
• Elite: the upper class in a society that utilizes wealth for political power. According to the elite and class theory of government and politics, elites control policies because they control key institutions.
• Full faith and credit clause:  ART 4 SEC 1 of the constitution requiring each state to recognize the official documents and civil judgments rendered by the courts of other states.
• Investigative journalism: the use of detective-like reporting to unearth scandals, scams and schemes, putting reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders
• Sample: a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole.
• Tenth amendment: the powers not delegated to the US by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people
• Implied powers: powers of the federal government that go beyond those enumerated in the constitution. The constitution stats that congress has the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution. many federal
• Individualism: the belief that individuals should be left on their own by their government. One of the primary reasons for the comparatively small scope of American  government is the prominence of this belief in American political thought and practice.
• Liberalism: a political ideology whose advocates prefer a government active in dealing with human needs, support individual rights and liberties, and give higher priority to social needs than military
• Anti-Federalists: opponents of the American Constitution at the time when the states were contemplating its adoption. They argues that the constitution was a class-based document, that it would erode fundamental liberties and that it would weaken the power of the states.
• Policy Agenda: John Kingdon, the list of subjects or problems to which government officials and people outside of the government closely associated with those official are paying some serious attention at any given time.
• Melting pot: the mixture of cultures, ideas and peoples that has changed the American nation. The united states, with its history of immigration, has often been called a melting pot
• Policy Impacts: the effects a policy has on people and problems. Impacts are analyzed to see how well a policy has met its goal and at what cost.
• Political culture: an overall set of values widely shared within society
• Exit Polls: public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision.
• McCulloch v Maryland: an 1819 Supreme Court decision that established the supremacy of the nation government over state governments. In deciding this case, chief  justice John Marshall and his colleagues held that congress had certain implied powers in addition to the enumerated powers found in the constitution.
• US Constitution: the document written in 1787 and ratified in 1788 that sets forth the institutional structure of US government and the tasks these institutions perform. It replaced the articles of confederation.
• Public policy: a choice that government makes in response to a political issue. A policy is a course of action taken with regard to some problem.
• Protest: a form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics.
• Connecticut compromise: the compromise reached at the constitutional convention that established two houses of congress: the House of Representatives, in which representation is based on a state’s share of the US population, and the senate, in which each state has two representatives.
• Intergovernmental relations: the workings of the federal system-the entire set of interactions among national, state, and local governments.
• Formula Grants: federal categorical grants distributed according to a formula specified in legislation or in administrative regulations.
• Trial balloons: an intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction.
• Random digit dialing: a technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conduction a survey.
• Political ideology: a coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose. It helps give meaning to political events, personalities, and polices.
• Separation of powers: an important part of the Madisonian model that requires each of the three branches of government, executive, legislative and judicial, to be relatively independent of the others so that one cannot control the others.
• Judicial interpretation: a major informal way in which the constitution is changed by the courts as they balance citizens’ rights against those of the government.
• Unwritten constitution: the body of tradition, practice and procedure that is important as the written constitution. Changes in the unwritten constitution can change the spirit of the Constitution. Political parties and national party conventions are a part of the unwritten constitution in the US.
•  Minority majority: the emergence of non-Caucasian majority, as compared with a white, general Anglo-Saxon majority. It is predicted that, by about 2060, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans together will outnumber white Americans.
• Gender Gap: a term that refers to the regular pattern by which women are more likely to support democratic candidates. Women tend to be significantly less conservation than men and are more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose the higher levels of military spending.
• Policy entrepreneurs: people who invest in their political “capital” in an issue. According to john kingdom, a policy entrepreneur “could be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, in interest groups or research organizations.
• Project Grants: federal grants given for specific purposes and awarded on the basis of the merits of applications. A type of the categorical grants available to states and localities.
• Extradition: a legal process whereby an alleged criminal offender is surrounded by the officials of one states to officials of the state in which the crime is alleged to have been committed.
• Sampling error: the level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed the more confident one can be of the results.
• Random sampling: the key technique employed by sophisticated survey researchers, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample.
• Political socialization: according to Richard Dawson, “the process through which an individual acquires his particular political orientations, his knowledge, feelings and evaluations regarding his political world.
• Agents of socialization: families, schools, television, peer groups, and other influences that contribute to political socialization by shaping formal and especially informal learning about politics.
• Sound bites: short video clips of approximately 15 seconds, which are typically all that is shown from a politician’s speech or activities on the nightly television news.
• Block grants: federal grants given more or less automatically to states or communities to support broad programs in areas such as community development and social services.
• Broadcast media: television and radio, as compared with print media.
• Political participation: all the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common, but not the only, means of political participation in a democracy in voting. Other means include protest and civil disobedience.

• Checks and balances: an important part of the Madisonian model design to limit government’s power by requiring that power be balanced among the different governmental institution. These institutions continually check one another’s activities. This system reflects Madison’s goal of setting power against power.
• Mass media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines and other means of popular communication. They are a key part of high-tech politics.
• 24 traditional democratic theories: a theory about how a democratic government makes its decisions. According to Robert  Dahl, its cornerstones are equality in voting, effective participation, enlightened understanding, final control over the agenda, and inclusion.
• Enumerated powers: powers of the federal government that are specifically addressed in the constitution; for congress these powers are listed in article 1 sec 8, and include the power to coin money, regulate its value, and impose taxes.
• Talking head: a shot of a persons’ face talking directly to the camera. Because this is visually unappealing, the major commercial networks rarely show a politician talking one-on-one for very long.
• Public goods: goods, such as clean air and clean water that everyone must share
• Linkage institutions: the channels or access points through which issues and people’s policy preferences get on the government’s policy agenda. In the US elections, political parties and interest groups are the three main linkage institutions.
• Demography: the science of population changes.
• Virginia Plan: the proposal at the constitutional convention that called for representation of each state in congress in proportion to that state’s share of the US population.
• Government: the institutions and processes through which public policies are made for a society.
• Pluralist theory: A theory of government and politics emphasizing that politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies.
• Unitary government: a way of organizing a nation so that all power resides in the central government today, including those of great Britain and Japan are unitary governments.
• Census: a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes. The constitution requires that the government conduct an actual enumeration of the population every ten years.
• Politics: produces authoritative decision about public issues.
• Constitution: a nation’s basic law. It creates political institutions, assigns or divides powers in government and often provides certain guarantees to citizens.
• Reapportionment: the process of relocating seats in the HOR every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census.
• Narrowcasting: as opposed to the tradition broadcasting, the appeal to a narrow, particular audience which focus on a particular interest.
• Categorical grants: federal grants that can be used only for specific purposes of state and local spending. They come with strings attached like nondiscrimination provisions
• Majority rule: a fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory, in a democracy choosing among alternatives requires that the majority’s desire be respected.
• Newspaper chains: newspapers published by massive media conglomerates that account for almost three-quarters of the nation’s daily circulation.
• Policy gridlock: a condition that occurs when no coalition is strong enough to form a majority and establish policy. The result is that nothing may get done.
• Fiscal Federalism: the pattern of spending, taxing and providing grants in the federal system; it is the cornerstone of the national government’s relations with state and local governments.
• Political issue: an issue that arises when people disagree about a problem and a public policy choice
• Print media: newspapers and magazines as compared with broadcast media
• Limited government: the idea that certain things are out of bounds for government because of the natural rights of citizens. Limited government was central to John Locke’s philosophy in the seventeenth century, and it contrasted sharply with the prevailing view of the divine rights of monarchs
• High-tech politics: a politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers and the political agenda itself are increasingly shaped by technology.
• Hyperpluralism: a theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government is weakened. Hyperpluralism is an extreme, exaggerated or perverted form of pluralism.
• Federalism: a way of organizing a nation so that two levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people. It is a system of shared power between units of government.
• Gross domestic product: the sum total of the value of all the goods and services produced in a nation
• Civil disobedience: a form of political participation that reflects a conscious decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer the consequences
• Declaration of independence: a document approved by representatives of the American colonies in 1776 that stated their grievances against the British monarch and declared their independence
• Supremacy clause: ART 4 of the constitution, which makes the constitution, national laws and treaties supreme over state laws when the national government is acting within its constitutional limits
• Public opinion: the distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and policy issues
• Minority rights: a principle of traditional democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities and allows that they might join majorities through persuasion and reasoned argument
• Equal rights amendments: amendment failed to acquire the necessary support from three-fourths of the state legislatures
• Dual federalism: a system of government in which both the states and the national government remain supreme with their own spheres, each responsible for some policies.
• Consent of the governed: according to John Locke’s view that governments derive their authority from consent of the governed
• Press conferences: meetings of public officials with reporters

• Policy making institutions: the branches of government charges with taking action on political issues. The US constitution established three policy making institutions-the congress, the presidency, and the courts. Today, the power of the bureaucracy consider it a fourth policy making institution
• Republic: a form of government that derives its power directly or indirectly from the people. Those chosen to govern are accountable to those whom they govern. In contrast to a direct democracy, in which people themselves make laws, in a republic the people select representatives who make the laws
• Federalists: supporters of the US constitution at the time the states were contemplating its adoption.
• Federalist papers: a collection of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton
• Conservatism: a political ideology whose advocates fear the growth of government, deplore government’s drag on private-sector initiative, dislike permissiveness in society, and place a priority on military needs over social needs.
• Elite an class theory: a theory of government and politics contending that societies are divided along class lines and that an upper-class elite will rule, regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization.