Government Midterm
Terms
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- The constitution sets up a _____________ form of government.
- Unitary
- The primary principal states...
- What is learned first is learned best
- Governemnt money awarded for broad, general purposes is called a __________ grant.
- Block
- Politics requires
- Some unity among people, some conflict among people and a ruling authority
- Decisions with the Supreme Court with regard to the powers of national government typically...
- Tend to support expansion of national authority, but recently have been placing limits on that authority
- The Second Face of power is being exercised when...
- X is able to control the agenda or determine the choices
- The Constitution established this but the Articles of Confederation did not
- The authority to regulate interstate commerce
- According to a study of public opinion Americans are...
- Less informed than those in most other comparable countries
- Definition of Politics
- The process that determines the authorative allocation of values
-
Normative or Descriptive?
49% of eligible US voters voted in 1996 - Descriptive
-
Normative or Descriptive?
Because most people have little information about the American Political System, major policy decisions shouldbe left to elected officals - Normative
-
Normative or Descriptive?
It should be the responsibility of the US government to ensure that all Americans have access to health insurance - Normative
-
Normative or Descriptive?
One-Third of Americans cannot name the Vice President - Descriptive
- Two agents of political socialization important in early life
- School and Parent
- Two agents of political socialization important in later life
- Peers and Co-workers
- Two important clauses of the Constitution that have been important in the development of federalism
- Commerce and Supremacy
- Seperation of Powers is defined as
- Each branch of government judicial, executive and legislative is seperate from the other
- Madison worried about the dangers of ______________ in Federalist Paper No. 10.
- Majority Factions
- The majoritarian model of government says
- The majority rules
- The elite model of government says
- The elect rules
- Authority is different from power in that power is that ability to rule but authority is
- The right to rule
- One argument for the Constitution made by the Federalists
- System of checks and balances
- Federalism is defined as
- Sharing of power among multiple governments
- ________________ federalism is when the federal government makes money the basis of its relationship between state and local governments.
- Fiscal
- Mass Media
- Method by which large groups of people are communicated with
- Types of Mass Media
- Broadcast (TV, radio) and Print (Newspaper, Magazines)
- Yellow Journalism
- Sensational Journalism
- Muckracking
- Digging up dirt, investigative reporting
- Liberal biases come from...
- Reporters (Democratic/Liberals), Editors and Owners(Republicans/Conservatives)
- Content analysis is typically...
- More negative than positive in comments, more critial of front runners than underdogs, not continually partisen biased
- Two sources of biases
- Ownership (in the private media) and Journalistic Norms (unwritten rules of what is news worthy)
- Characteristics of Private Ownership
-
1) Need for audience appeal
2) Sensationalism
3) Conflict
4) Good visuals/pictures
5) Pressure to be the first in reporting breaking news - Journalistic Norms
-
1) Unusual/different
2) Conflict
3) Failure
4) Timeliness in news stories
5) Objectivity - Minimal impacts of the media altering ones beliefs...
- Americans pay selective attention to the media, they have selective perception and their level of education matters
- In the early canidate selection media can have an impact on...
-
1) Primaries
2) Perceptions of viability
3) The momentum of the campaign (money contributions) - Personalities vs. Institutions
- Personalities get coverage over institutions and processes
- There is a lower trust in the government and a rising level of __________________.
- Cynicism
- Priming
- The impact of how one evaluates political leaders
- Framing
- How the media presents the issue
- Agenda Setting influences...
- What you think about and how important it is
- Why participate?
- It is good and legitimate
- Why does anyone participate to begin with?
- Individual costs and benefits
- Does it matter whether your group votes?
- Politicians respond to groups that participate
- Unconventional varieties of participation
- Protest, Terrorism, Petitions, Bribert, Picketting
- Conventional Varieties of Participation
- Voting, contacting a member of office, puplic opinion polling, campaigning, running for office, campaign contribution, joining a group, litigation/civit lawsuit
- US voting rates are lower...
-
1) No holiday, lose work time
2) Registration is up to the individual
3) No mandatory voting
4) Counting differences
5) More frequent and numerous elections - Puzzle of low voting rates
- Despite higher education and easing registration laws voting has gone down
- Solutions to the puzzle
-
1) Less mobilizaion
2) Younger electorate
3) Poorer evaluation of canidates and parties
4) Less social involvement
5) Lover feelings of political efficacy - Definition of Political Efficacy
- Sense that one can understand politics and their participation makes a difference
- Psychological factors influencing participation
- Political efficacy, sense of duty, interest in politics
- Sociological factors influencing participation
- Education, Race, Age, Sex
- Two preliminary basics of elections
- Primaries/Caucus and General election
- Primaries/Caucus chooses...
- Party nominees
- General Election chooses...
- Office holder
- Difference between two primaries
- Closed- must be a registered party member to participate, Open- one chooses which primary to participate in (democratic or republican)
- Blanket Primaries
- Now illegal, one person is choosen per office
- Consequences of increasing use of primaries
-
1) Reduced power of the party
2) Democratized process
3) Campaigining becmes more media intensive
4) Expensive
5) Longer process
6) Front loaded process (importance of early wins) - Campaigning Strategies
- Issues, Framing, Mobilization
- In appealing to issues the person running for office adapts to...
- The voters sentiment
- Mobilization of Democratic Base
- less well off economically, unions, minorities, immigrants, Catholic, Jews, southerners
- Mobilization of Republican Base
- More well off economically, businesses, white, Protestant, higher educated
- Definition of Checks and Balances
- No branch can exercise power without interference from another
- Central Argument of the Declaration of Independence
- The people have a right to revolt if government is denying legitimate rights
- The Great Compromise provided for a...
- Two chamber legislature with representation equal for all states in the one chamber and according to population in the other.
- A power not specifically mentioned in the Constitution
- Assigned Power
- Two major developments in federalism
-
1) Increase in authority of national government and power
2) Seperate spheres federalism to cooperative federalism - Causes of changes in federalism
- Violence (Civil War), Constitutional Amendments and Judicial Interpretation
- Pluralist movel of government says that ___________ rule.
- Group, diverse interests