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ISD Government Test 4

Terms

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A large, complex organization composed of appointed officials. The department and agencies of the US government make up the federal ___________.
bureaucracy
Another phrase for political patronage- that is, the practice of giving the fruits of a party's victory, such as jobs and contracts, to the loyal members of that party.
spoils system
An economic theory that government should not regulate or interfere with commerce.
laissez-faire
The extent to which appointed bureaucrats can choose courses of action and make policies that are not spelled out in advance by laws.
discretionary authority
The government offices to which people are appointed on the grounds of merit as ascertained by a written examination or by having met certain selection criteria (such as training, educational attainments, or prior experience).
competitive service
A job to be filled by a person whom a government agency has identified by name.
name-request job
A close relationship between an agency, a congressional committee, and an interest group that often becomes a mutually advantageous alliance.
iron triangle
A network of people in Washington-based interest groups, on congressional staffs, in univerisities and think tanks, and in the mass media who regularly discuss and advocate public policies-say, health care or auto safety. These are split along political,
issue network
Legislative permission to begin or continue a government program or agency. This type of bill may grant permission to spend a certain sum of money, but that money does not ordinarily become available unless it is also appropriated. These may be annual, m
authorization legislation
A legislative grant of moneyto finance a government program.
appropriation
Funds for government programs that are collected and spent outside the regular government budget; the amounts are determined by preexisting law rather than by annual appropriations. The Social Security ______ is the largest of these.
trust funds
Many programs are authorized yearly instead of multiyear or permanent, so every year the legislative committees, as part of a reauthorization process, get to set limits on what these agencies can spend.
annual authorizations
The ability of a congressional committee to review and approve certain agency decisions in advance and without passing a law. Such approval is not legally binding on the agency, but few agency heads will ignore the expressed wishes of committees.
committee clearance
The rejection of a presidential or administrative-agency action by a vote of one or both houses of Congress without the consent of the president. In 1983 the Supreme Court declared the legislative veto to be unconstitutional.
legislative veto
Complex bureaucratic rules and procedures that must be followed to get something done.
red tape
The power of the courts to declare acts of the legislature and of the executive to be unconstitutional and hence null and void.
judicial review
The view that judges should decide cases on the bases of the language of the Constitution.
strict-constructionist approach
The view that judges should discern the general principles underlying the Constitution and its often vague circumstances, in come cases with the guidance of moral or economic philosophy.
activist approach
A federal court exercising the judicial powers found in Article III of the Constitution and whose judges are given Constitutional protection: they may not be fired (they serve during "good behavior"), nor may their salaries be reduced while the
constitutional court
The lowest federal courts where federal cases begin. They are the only federal courts where trials are held. There are a total of 94 in the US and its territories.
district courts
The federal courts with authority to review decisions by federal district courts, regulatory commissions, and certain other federal courts. SUch courts have no original jurisdiction; they can hear only appeals. There are a total of 12 in the US and its t
courts of appeals
A court that is created by Congress for some specialized purpose and staffed with judges who do not enjoy the protection of Article III of the Constitution. _______ include the Court of Military Appeals and the territorial courts.
legislative court
In chemistry a way of finding out whether a liquid is acid or alkaline. The term is used in politics to mean a test of ideological impurity, a way of finding out whether a person is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal or conservative or what his or her views are
litmus test
Cases concerning the Constitution, federal law, or treaties over which the federal courts have jurisdiction as described in the Constitution.
federal question cases
Cases involving citizens of different states over which the federal courts have jurisdiction as described in the Constitution.
diversity cases
The body of rules defining relationships among private citizens. It consists of both statutes and the accumulated customary law embodied in judicial decisions (the "common law")
civil law
The body of rules defining offenses that, though they harm an individual (such as murder, rape, and robbery), are considered to be offenses against society as a whole and as a consequence warrant punishment by and in the name of society.
criminal law
A Latin term meaning "made more certain." An order issued to a higher court by a lower court to send up the record of a case for review. Most cases reach the Supreme Court through the _____, issued when at least 4 of the 9 justices feel that th
writ of certiorari
A procedure whereby a poor person can file and be heard in court as a pauper, free of charge.
in forma pauperis
A law or rule that allows the plaintiff (the party that initiates the lawsuit) to collect its legal costs from the defendant if the defendant loses.
fee shifting
The party that initiates a lawsuit to obtain a remedy for an injury to his or her rights.
plaintiff
A legal concept establishing who is entitled to bring a lawsuit to court. For example, an individual must ordinarily show personal harm in order to acquire standing and be heard in court.
standing
A doctrine that a citizen cannot sue the government without its consent. By statute congress has given its consent for the government to be sued in many cases inolving a dispute over a contract or damage done as a result of negligence.
sovereign immunity
A case brought into court by a person on behalf of not only himself or herself but all other persons in the country under similar circumstances. For ex., in Brown vs Board of Education Topeka, KS, the Supreme Court decided that not only Linda Brown but a
class-action suit
A legal document prepared by an attorney representing a party before a court. The document sets forth the fact of the case, summarizes the law, gives the arguments for its side, and discusses other relevant cases.
brief
A Latin term meaning "a friend of the court." Refers to interested groups or individuals, not directly involved in a suit, who may file legal briefs or make oral arguments in support of one side.
amicus curiae
A brief, unsigned opinion issued by the Supreme Court to explain its ruling.
per curiam opinion
A supreme court opinion written by one or more justices in the majority to explain the decision in a case.
opinion of the Court
A supreme court opinion by one or more justices who agree with the majority's conclusion but for different reasons.
concurring opinion
A Supreme Court opinion by 1 or more justices in the minority to explain he minority's disagreement with the Court's ruling.
dissenting opinion
A Latin term meaning "let the decision stand." The practice of basing judicial decisions on precedents established in similar cases decided in the past.
stare decisis
An issue that the Supreme Court refuses to consider because it believes the Constitution has left it entirely to another branch to decide. Its view of such issues may change over time, however. For ex., until the 1960s the Court refused to hear cases abo
political question
A judicial order preventing or redressing a wrong or enforcing a right.
remedy
Charges that unfairly or dishonestly tarnish the motives, attack the patriotism, or violate the rights of individuals, especially of political opponents. Refers to the numerous unsubstantiated accusations of communism made against public and private indi
McCarthyism
The constitutional rights of Americans to "freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" as outlined in the first Amendment to the Constitution.
freedom of expression
The religous rights of Americans outlined in the first Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion; or abridging the free exercise thereof."
freedom of religion
The traditional view of the press's free speech rights as expressed by William Blackstone, the great English jurist. According to this view the press is guaranteed freedom from censorship-that is, rules telling it in advance what it can publish. After pu
prior restraint
A legal interpretation that reconciled 2 views of the First Amendment right of free speech, the first that Congress could not pass any law to restrict speech and the second that it could punish harms caused by speech. Proposed by Supreme Court justice Ol
clear-and-present-danger test
Protection against arbitrary deprivation of life, liberty, or property as guaranteed in the fifth and fourteenth amendments.
due-process clause
A written statement that falsely injures the reputation of another person.
libel
An act that conveys a political message, such as burning a draft card to protest the draft.
symbolic speech
A clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution stating that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the "free exercise" of religion.
free-exercise clause
A clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution stating that Congress shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion."
establishment clause
A Supreme Court interpretation of the establishment clause in the First Amendment that prevents government involvement with religion, even on a nonpreferential basis.
wall-of-separation principle
A rule that holds that evidence gathered in violation of the Constitution cannot be used in a trial. The rule has been used to implement two provisions of the Bill of Rights-the right to be free from unreasonable searches or seizures (Fourth Amendment) a
exclusionary rule
An order from a judge authorizing the search of a place; the order must describe what is to be searched and seized, and the judge can issue it only if he or she is persuaded by the police that good reason (probable cause) exists that a crime has been com
search warrant
a good reason to arrest someone because of the thought that someone has committed a crime
probable clause
Admission at a trial of evidence that is gathered in violation of the Constitution if the violation results from a technical or minor error.
good-faith exception
The rights of citizens to vote, to recieve equal treatment before the law, and to share equally with other citizens the benefits of public facilities (such as schools).
civil rights
Classification of people on the basis of their race and ethnicity. The courts have ruled that laws classifying people on these grounds will be subject to "strict scrutiny."
suspect classifications
A slang expression for African Americans that emerged in the 1820s and came to signify the laws and governmental practices designed to segregate blacks from whites, especially in the American South.
Jim Crow
The doctrine established in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), in which the Supreme Court ruled that a state could provide "separate but equal" facilities for African Americans.
separate-but-equal doctrine
Racial segregation that occurs because of laws or administrative decisions by public agencies. When state laws, for ex., required blacks and whites to attend different schools or sit in separate sections of a bus, ______ resulted.
de jure segregation
Racial segregation in schools that occurs not because of laws or administrative decisions, but as a result of patterns of residential settlement. To the extent that blacks and whites live in separate neighborhoods, neighborhood schools will often be segr
de facto segregation
A philosophy of opposing a law one considers unjust by peacefully violating it and allowing oneself to be punished as a result.
nonviolent civil disobedience
The standard by which the Supreme Court judges classifications based on race. To be accepted such a classification must be closely related to a "compelling" public purpose.
strict scrutiny
The requirement imposed by law or administrative regulation, that an organization (business firm, government agency, labor union, school, or college) take positive steps to increase the number or proportion of women, African Americans, or other minoritie
affirmative action
Using race or sex to give preferential treatment to some people.
reverse discrimination
A view that it is wrong to use race or sex either to discriminate against or give preferential treatment to minorities or women.
equality of opportunity
An action designed to help members of disadvantaged groups especially minorities and women, catch up, usually by giving them extra education, training, or services.
compensatory action
The commentary for Lesson 4 points out that the appointed career bureaucracy provides the federal government with _____.
both technical expertise and operational continuity
Compared with its Western European counterparts, the American federal bureaucracy is _____.
more likely to share functions with subnational agencies
The story of the creation of the Department of State suggests that the president can really control only those bureaucrats whom he can _____.
fire
In the 19th century, presidential patronage served the useful purpose of _____.
making appointees supportive of presidential policies
From the Civil War to the beginning of the 20th century, most new federal beaucratic agencies were created to _____.
assist assortive private sector groups
The federal bureaucracy became politically powerful when the Supreme Court finally agreed with Congress that federal appointed as well as elected officials could _____.
develop specific policies and programs to implement legislation
Today's federal bureaucracy is largely a product of the Great Depression and World War II partly because during that era the _____.
prior passage of the Sixteenth Amendment provided a new source of funds for expanded governmental activity
Federal bureaucratic operational autonomy tends to ____ as Congress’s delegation of legislation-implementation authority increases.
increase
Since the 1930s, Congress has given the federal bureaucracy considerable discretionary authority in all of the following areas except _____.
enforcing adherence to the constitutional amendment process
Of the following, the best choice of a competitive-service merit appointee would probably be a(n) _____.
Department of Education Student-loan reviewer
Presidents benefit from the complete federal merit system partly because it _____.
protects them from demands for patronage
Using the buddy system, agencies can circumvent the usual OPM procedures by _____.
tailoring a job description to a specific candidate
If the Environmental Protection Agency uses networking in recruitment, its main concern is hiring individuals on the basis of their _____.
policy compatability
Once past their probationary period, federal competitive-service bureaucrats are _____ suspended, demoted, or fired at some point in their careers.
seldom
The retention and recruitment policies of the federal civil service tend to ensure that _____.
most bureau chiefs have served only in their own agencies and hold “agency” viewpoints
One advantage of having a civil service dominated by "one agency" careerists is that _____.
agency “behavior” exhibits a substantial amount of continuity regardless of the political party that happens to be running the government at a given time
Drawing on data from both American Government and the commentary, you find that roughly _____ percent of the federal civilian workforce is located outside the Washington, D.C., area.
90
Survey research suggests that among top-level career federal bureaucrats, differences in political attitudes would, of the following four choices, seem to be the most closely associated with differences in _____.
agency affliation
A strong agency culture (i.e., informal employee understandings about what constitutes proper job behavior) will tend to _____.
do not discourage hardwork by employees nor encourage rapid change by an agency
________ are the ultimate source of red-tape constraints on federal agencies and their employees
We, the people of the US,
Nowadays, iron triangles are less common than before partly because _____.
proliferating interest groups subject most agencies to pressures from many powerful competing interests
________ have decreased appropriations committees’ power over bureaucratic agencies
trust funds and annual authorizations
Bureaucratic pathologies and reform difficulties occur partly because _____.
governmental problems (e.g., red tape, conflict) often result from the need to comply with congressionally imposed political and legal requirements
Survey research suggests that most Americans _____.
have good personal experiences with some government bureaucrats
The commentary for Lesson 4 points out that _____.
political scientists generally agree that sooner or later most important policy questions wind up in the courts
The judiciary’s chief check on the legislative and executive branches is the power of _____.
judicial review
In contrast to judicial activists, judicial strict constructionists tend to _____.
judge according to literal or clearly implied constitutional language
Today, _____ tend to be liberal.
judicial activists rather than judicial strict constructionists
From the late 1930s to the present day, the great issues of special concern to the federal judiciary (especially the Supreme Court) have involved the potential conflict between _____.
personal liberty and social equality
The Supreme Court decision in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) established all of the following constitutional principles except _____.
judicial review of the constitionality of the actions of the branches of the federal government
after the 1937, Supreme Court decisions began allowing Congress to give the bureaucracy ________.
broad discretionary authority to regulate the economy
Since about 1992, the Supreme Court has been handing down states’ sovereignty decisions tending to make Congress’s power over the states’ actions _____.
more limited than before
The words of the Constitution specifically provide for the Supreme Court and _____.
no other courts at all
The words of the Constitution state the Supreme Court’s _____.
original jurisdiction
Oklahoma is in the _____ federal judicial circuit and has ____ judicial districts.
tenth... three
_____ of judicial appointees are but two determinants of these individuals’ behavior once they are confirmed and making decisions
Party affliation and political ideology
The practice of _____ means that federal district court nominations are rarely defeated.
senatorial courtesy
Think about this one (and possibly review the commentary for this lesson). American Government says that we have a dual-court system consisting of one federal system and one state system. Because of the way that American federalism works, this statement
51
from a strictly legal standpoint, one commits a crime against ______
against society as a whole, not the victim(s).
Supreme Court justices will often issue a ________ when two or more federal circuit courts of appeal have decided the same issue in different ways
writ of certiorari
Getting into the federal courts has become somewhat easier than before partly because Congress and the courts have _____.
broadened the rules for gaining standing to challenge governmental actions
A key duty of the federal solicitor general is _____.
choosing the cases from the lower courts that the federal government will appeal
American Government characterizes amicus curiae briefs as a form of _____.
polite lobbying
With respect to evaluating the voting patterns of Supreme Court justices, the authors of American Government believe that, the most important thing to consider is(are) the _____.
quality of the judicial reasoning exhibited in the decisions
The principle of precedent is important because it _____.
helps to give consistency to the meaning of laws and to prevent chaotic judicial decision-making
American Government cites four measures of the federal judiciary’s power to make public policy. The most potent of these measures would, according to the text, be well illustrated by a court’s _____.
order for all school districts in a large mentropolitan area to use bilingual education
In imposing sweeping remedies, the Supreme Court will _____.
often, in essence, tell Congress what its own legislation means
Persons favoring judicial activism today contend that _____.
court action is sometimes necessary when federal and/or state executive and legislative branches fail to correct social injustices
According to American Government, of the following four choices, the most plausible explanation for the increased activism of the courts in recent decades would seem to be that _____.
Congress and the courts have facilitated individuals' getting standing, paying litigatoin costs, and bringing class-action suits
If Congress passes a vaguely worded law mandating “maximum feasible participation” of citizens in antipoverty or neighborhood-rebuilding programs, the practical operative meaning of this term will eventually be determined by the _____.
bureaucracy and the courts
Thanks to bureaucratic-agency regulatory decisions, the federal government is more likely to be a _____ in court cases than it was a few decades ago.
defendant
An important restraint on judicial power is that _____.
judges have no coercive forces of their own to ensure compliance with their decisions
congressional threats to change some of the jurisdiction of the federal courts would seem to be more
practicable checks on judicial power than would actually making such jurisdictional changes
The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to specify things that the _____.
federal government could not do
The Bill of Rights is an important restriction on _____.
majority preferences
The politics of civil liberties differs from the politics associated with most other issues because ______ come into conflict.
political culture principles
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights contain a list of _____ rights and duties.
competing
A law prohibiting a person from falsely shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater represents no unconstitutional restriction on his or her freedom of speech because it meets the test of _____.
clear-and-present danger
Comment: In the 20th century, the Court has in fact made most (but not all) of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.

Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment opened the possibility of the Supreme Court’s using the ______ clause of this a
due process
The oral equivalent of a libel is called a _____.
slander
The Supreme Court has, in effect, held that localities may place restraints on obscene acts and materials by _____.
passing zoning ordinances
The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment _____.
permits high schools to regulate students’ speech in school-sponsored curricular activities reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns
Supreme Court rulings related to the First Amendment have
led to the courts’ favoring, in effect, members of one church over members of another church in some cases.
The Supreme Court, in the most recent cases discussed in American Government, has held that _____.
governmental employers have less latitude in searching employees’ desks and files than do private-sector employers
The key issue in civil rights is ascertaining _____.
whether a government’s differing treatment of different persons is neither arbitrary nor unreasonable and relates to a legitimate public policy
To achieve their civil rights, in the 1960s many African Americans pursued an overall strategy that partly involved _____.
publicizing their grievances so as to win additional elite and mass public-opinion support
By the 1970s, Southern resistance to court-ordered school integration was largely gone partly because _____.
federal legislation used financial assistance to encourage school integration and discourage school desegregation
After the Brown decision, America still had constitutionality problems with _____ segregation.
de facto but not de jure
Compared with the 1960s and 1970s, by the late 1980s and early 1990s, U.S. Supreme Court and congressional views with respect to school integration generally appeared to favor _____ restrictive oversight and control.
less
One reason why the civil rights campaign in Congress finally began to get solid results was the _____.
mass-media depiction of white violence against African American demonstrators
Since the 1960s, congressional support for civil rights legislation has _____, and the political clout of Southern African Americans has ______.
increased/ increased
Compared with the standard that the Supreme Court developed to test laws that classify persons on the basis of race, the 1971 test that it developed to test legal classifications on the basis of sex was _____ stringent.
less
American Government suggests that the most far-reaching Supreme Court cases defining the rights of women have involved _____.
abortion and conscription
Regarding the civil rights of women discussed in American Government, the Supreme Court has held that _____.
states may place some restrictions on the circumstances under which a woman may obtain an abortion
most Americans favor giving minorities and the disadvantaged ______.
compensatory-action assistance rather than preferential treatment

Deck Info

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