State & Local Gov't EXAM 3
Terms
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- What are the powers of the governor?
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1. Appoint powers
2. Budgetary powers
3. Veto powers
4. Power to pardon
5. Power to call special sessions -
How have the powers of the governor changed over time?
*powers impact strength of the office - Gubernatorial power has expanded; also the political & policy responsibilities of governors have expanded
- Governor who takes a leading role in setting the political agenda of the state, as opposed to a gov who views himself more as a manager or caretaker
- activist governor
- Legislative vote of much more than a simple majority, for instance, two-thirds of a legislative chamber voting to override a gov's veto.
- Supermajority vote
- What is the balance of power between gov & legislature?
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1. veto power of gov & leg override provisions
2. Budget authority - Powers explicitly granted to govs according to state law are referred to as these.
- Formal powers
- The ability to effectively communicate with others by commanding media attention and persuading party members are these.
-
informal powers
*determine whether a gov is able to exert a strong or weak influence on the legislative process* - A gov's ability to pick individuals to run state gov't
- appointment powers
- Across the states, the power of ____ is weighted more in favor of the gov than either veto power or budgetary power
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Power of Appointment
(3.5 avg) - What are some gubernatorial characteristics?
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1. Increasingly from variety of professional & demographic backgrounds
2. have some leg experience
3. 4 of the last 5 presidents served as gov
4. more women - Second year of the presidential term is called this?
- "off-year"
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Governor elections are held in off-years to focus on state issues.
Descibe the selection & retention of the gov -
- high re-election margins common
- Rarely removed from office (impeachment, recall, criminal conviction)
- Term limits common (36 states limit to 2 terms or 2 consec terms) - Process by which the legislature can remove executive branch officials, such as the gov, or judges from offices for corruption or other reasons
- impeachment
-
-2nd in charge
-increasingly gaining political clout
-presides over Senate, breaks roll-call ties
-can be appointed to cabinet position
-acting gov - Lieutenant Gov
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-top state law enforcement official
-represents state agencies
-civil suits (tobacco litigation)
-open meetings & records
-enforces laws (envi laws, criminal appeals, corp charters, charities) - Attorney General
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-repository of state records & archives
-presides over state elections
-UCC admin (commercial behavior)
-lobbyist registration
-corp registration - Secretary of State
- Rules or regulations with the force of law that governors can create directly under the statutory authority given them
- Executive orders
- Cases that involve violations of the law.
- Criminal cases
- Cases that involve disputes between private parties.
- Civil cases
- In the new judicial federalism, state supreme courts are shifting attention where?
- to the state constitutions (they expand rights for citizens beyond US Const)
- In this, court interpretations drive spending priorities and act as mandates in some cases Ex: Ohio, NJ, NM ... what happened in each?
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New Judicial Federalism
Ohio: efficient common system of education
NJ: efficient system of free public schools
NM: Bilingual education -
There are 2 basic types of state court systems: criminal & civil.
If parties involved can't reach settlement or plea bargain, case goes to court of first instance = trial court - Characteristics of state court systems
- Agreement in which the accused admits guilt, usually in exchange for a promise that a particular sentence will be imposed.
- Plea bargain
- The starting point (first level) for most court cases
- trial court
- Mutual agreement between parties to end a case before going to trial
- settlement
- A request to have a lower court's decision in a case reviewed by a higher court
- appeal
- What determines which types of cases are permissible in court?
- the Level of Jurisdiction (limited or general)
- Jurisdiction is the authority to hear the case in question. What are the 2 levels?
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1. General
2. Limited (special)
-low amt $
-specific offenses between parties (drugs, child custody), age of offender (adult, juvenile) - A court that reviews court cases to find possible errors in their proceedings, providing outlets for parties who feel they were treated unfairly
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Intermediate Appellate Court
-vary according to level of jurisdiction - Parties can file for an appeal (lower ct's decision reviewed by higher ct) by what?
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alleging error
*not just any error: errors of law (not errors of fact) and prejudicial error - What are the 2 types of jurisdiction?
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1. Mandatory- must hear
2. Discretionary- may hear - What is the highest level of appeals court in a state?
- State Supreme Court
- Retention elections
- Jugdges run uncontested and voters are asked to vote "yes" if they wish to retain a judge in office for another term or "no" if they do not.
- Judicial selection systems in which the gov appoints judges alone without a nominating commission.
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Pure appointive systems
(a way to preserve measure of accountability) - In these races for judicial campaigns, voter turnout is lower
- Down-ticket races
- For judical campaigns, there has been a recent ___ in campaign spending
- rise
- US courts of appeal usually sit in groups of 3 judges to hear a case
- panels
- Refers to appeals court sessions in which all of the judges hear a case together
- En Banc
- What are the stages of case moving through the state court system?
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1. Courts of limited jurisdiction (Civil, City, District, etc)
2. Courts of general juris (Supreme Court, County Ct)
3. Intermediate appellate court (App divisions of sup ct & app terms of sup ct)
4. Court of last resort (Court of Appeals) - Hears any civil or criminal cases that have not been assigned to a special court
- General jurisdiction trial courts
- This is when a trial has no jury and a judge decides the facts
- Bench trials
- In this type of method for selecting justices there is: popular control, democratic principles, diversity potential, and can be partisan or nonpartisan
- Advantages of Popular elections
- What are the 2 methods for selecting justices in state court systems?
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1. Missouri Plan - justices appointed based on merit sys. with nonpartisan nominating committees
2. Popular elections: Justices chosen based on partisan/nonpartisan public elections - The president appoints federal judges with advice and consent of the ___?
- Senate
- What are the 2 characteristics states are forced to choose between when selecting judges?
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Independence: life time tenure
Accountability: public tenure - The use of the past to determine current interpretation and decision making
- Precedent
- Judicial selection systems in which the gov appoints judges alone w/o a nominating commission
- Pure appointive systems
- A government official who conducts criminal cases on behalf of the people.
- Prosecutor -represent the public
- A dimension of the appointment process in which some form of nominating committee screens names and forwards names to the selector (either gov or the leg)
- Merit (may also include partisan politics)
- A gov't lawyer who provides free legal services to those accused of a crime who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
- Public defender
- The tendency of gov't to make a crime out of anything the public does not like
- Legislative over-criminalization
- What are the limitations for prosecutors? (3)
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indictment
grand jury
jury nullification - A formal criminal charge
- Indictment
- A group of b/tw 16 & 23 citizens that decides if a case should go to trial; if yes, indictment is issued.
- Grand Jury
- Occurs when a jury returns a verdict of "notguilty" even though jurists believe the defendant is guilty. The jury cancels out a law that it believes is immoral or was wrongly applied to the def.
- Jury nullification
- A serious crime, such as murder or arson.
- felony
- a less serious crime, such as shoplifting
- misdemeanor
- Private lawyers selected by the courts to handle particular cases and paid from public funds.
- assigned counsel
- Private attorneys who enter into agreements with a state, county, or jud district to work on a fixed-fee basis per case or for a specific length of time.
- contract attorneys
- What does the 6th Amendment say?
- Gives the right to counsel
- What was the effect of the trial Gideon v. Wainwright?
- Right to appointed counsel at state expense
- What causes pressure on state courts?
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1. most (75%) crim defendants can't pay for legal services
2. increasing litigation rates and lack of funding - What/who reduces pressure on state courts and considers the rights of victims of crime?
- Assigned council and contract attorneys
- What 3 factors make a jury trial not required?
- a sentence of 6 or less months, juvenile issues, probation revocation
- What 4 things make you a candidate for selection on a jury?
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1. minimum age
2. literacy
3. english communication
4. some statutory exclusions - A legal obligation or responsibility
- liability
- The interviewing & examination of potential jurors
- Voir Dire
- Occurs when a lawyer asks the judge to excuse a potential juror b/c the individual appears to be biased or unable to be fair.
- For Cause Challenge
- Used by lawyers to dismiss potential jurors for any reason except race or gender.
- Peremptory challenges
- What are some Defendant's Rights (7) from the Constitution?
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1. Presumption of innocence
2. Protection against unreasonable search/seizure
3. Right to lawyer
4. Right to jury trial
5. Right to confront witnesses
6. Right to due process & equal protection
7. Protection against cruel & unusual punishment - The judge sentences an offender to a minimum & a max time in prison. (Parole board decides how long the offender actually remains in prison)
- Indeterminate sentencing
- The judge sentences offender to serve a specific amount of time in prison depending on the crime
- Determinate sentencing
- Majority of states remain with this sentencing
- Indeterminate
- Shortest sentences that offenders may receive upon conviction for certain offenses (All states)
- Mandatory Minimum Sentences (court has no authority to impose shorter sentence)
- These statutes impose harsher sentences for offenders who previously have been sentenced for crimes
- Habitual Offender laws (3 strikes -CA model)
- These laws give parole boards less authority to shorten sentences for good behavior by specifying the proportion of a sentence an offender must serve before becoming eligible for parole.
- Truth-in-sentencing laws
- By increasing caseloads, states are adopting reforms to expedite the judicial process. Name 4
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1. Alternative Dispute Resolution
2. Rocket dockets
3. Magistrates
4. Specialized courts - Way to end a disagreement by means other than litigation (involves appointment of mediator)
- Alternative dispute resolution
- Fast-track cases that often have limited, specific deadlines for specific court procedures.
- Rocket docket
- Local officials or attorneys granted limited judicial powers
- Magistrates
- Public agencies & the programs and services they implement and manage
- Bureaucracy
- Employees of public agencices
- Bureaucrats
- What are the 5 characteristics of bureaucracy?
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1. Division of labor.
2. Hierarchial (structure
& authority)
3. Formal rules (SOPs)
4. Maintenance of files & records
5. Professionalization - Bureaucratic employees earn their jobs based on qualifications & merit
- Professionalization
- Process of taking the expressed wishes of gov't and translating them into actions
- Policy implementation
- Lower-level public agency employees who actually take the actions that represent law or policy.
- Street-level bureaucrats (balance laws, regulations, procedures etc)
- The process of translating laws into written instructions on what public agencies will or will not do.
- Rulemaking
- Bureaucracy varies according to the ___ and ___ of state/local constituencies.
- demands and needs
- States with the most and least bureaucracy vary by what 2 things?
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1. by # of employees
2. by $$$ - Many studies find ___sector more efficient and effective than ___sector in specific job performance.
- public more effective than private
- What are the 3 characteristics of public sector employees?
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1. higher education
2. greater commitment to civic duty
3. ethics codes more strict - An administrative report card on areas of management
- Gov't Performance Project
- States with higher grades from the Gov't Performance Project had...
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-avoided large tax cuts
-divided gov't
-powerful governors - Characteristics of bureaucracy produce what 3 things?
- neutrality, fairness, accountability
- He opened gov't to the common man in 1883
- Andrew Jackson (spoils system and patronage)
- The right of an electoral winner to decide who works for public agencies
- Spoils system
- First civil service law, shifts country from spoils to merit
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Pendleton Act (1883)
-competitive exams of fed jobs
-protection against pol firings
-protection against forced pol contributions from salary - The idea that public agencies should be impartial implementers of democratic decisions
- Neutral competence
- Systems in which employment and promotion in public agencies are based on qualifications and demonstrated ability.
- Merit systems
- What does the merit system ensure?
- neutral competence
- A process in which representatives of labor and management meet to negotiate pay & benefits, job responsibilities, & working conditions
- Collective bargaining
- The length of time spent in a position
- seniority
- Policies designed to help recruit and promote disadvantaged groups
- affirmative action
- Idea that public agencies reflecting the diversity of the communities they serve will be more effective
- Representative bureaucracy
- Excessive use of rules, regulations, and procedures developed to manage affairs of gov't can be cumbersome and self-serving
- Red tape
- The delivery of public services and programs via the internet or other digital means
- ATM Bureaucracy or "E-gov"