Glossary of Political Science Terms: From Agenda Building to Judgement, Quizzes of Local Government Studies

Download Glossary of Political Science Terms: From Agenda Building to Judgement and more Quizzes Local Government Studies in PDF only on Docsity! TERM 1 Interest Group DEFINITION 1 an organized group of individuals that seeks to influence public policy. Also called a lobby. TERM 2 Lobbyist DEFINITION 2 a representative of an interest group. TERM 3 Agenda Building DEFINITION 3 the process by which new issues are brought into the political limelight. TERM 4 Program Monitoring DEFINITION 4 keeping track of government programs, usually by interest groups. TERM 5 Interest Group Entrepeneur DEFINITION 5 an interest group organizer. TERM 6 Free-Rider Program DEFINITION 6 the situation in which people benefit from the activities of an organization (such as an interest group) but do not contribute to those activities. TERM 7 Trade Association DEFINITION 7 an organization that represents firms within a particular industry. TERM 8 Political Action Committee (PAC) DEFINITION 8 an organization that pools campaign contributions from group members and donates those funds to candidates for political office. TERM 9 527 Committees DEFINITION 9 political organizations that are organized under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code; they enjoy tax-exempt status and may accept unlimited funds from unlimited sources cannot expressly advocate a candidate's election or defeat. TERM 10 Direct Lobbying DEFINITION 10 attempts to influence a legislator's vote through personal contact with the legislator. TERM 21 Racial Gerrymandering DEFINITION 21 the drawing of legislative district to maximize the chances that a minority will win election. TERM 22 veto DEFINITION 22 the president's disapproval of a bill that has been passed by both houses of Congress. Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds vote in each house. TERM 23 Pocket Veto DEFINITION 23 a means of killing a bill that has been passed by both houses of Congress, in which the president does not sign the bill and Congress adjourns within ten days of the bill's passage. TERM 24 Standing Committee DEFINITION 24 a permanent congressional committee that specializes in a particular legislative area. TERM 25 Joint Committee DEFINITION 25 a committee made up of members of both the House and the Senate. TERM 26 Select Committee DEFINITION 26 a congressional committee created for a specific purpose and, usually, for a limited time. TERM 27 Conference Committee DEFINITION 27 a temporary committee created to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of a specific piece of legislation. TERM 28 Seniority DEFINITION 28 years of consecutive service on a particular committee. TERM 29 Oversight DEFINITION 29 the process of reviewing the operations of an agency to determine whether it is carrying out policies as Congress intended. TERM 30 Speaker of the House DEFINITION 30 the presiding officer of the House of Representatives. TERM 31 Majority Leader DEFINITION 31 the head of the majority party in the Senate; the second- highest-ranking member of the majority in the House. TERM 32 Filibuster DEFINITION 32 a delaying tactic, used in the Senate, that often involves speech making to prevent action on a piece of legislation. TERM 33 Cloture DEFINITION 33 the mechanism by which a filibuster is cut off in the Senate. TERM 34 Constituents DEFINITION 34 people who live and vote in a government official's district or state. TERM 35 Trustee DEFINITION 35 a representative who is obligated to consider the views of constituents but is not obligated to vote according to those views if he or she believes they are misguided. TERM 46 Mandate DEFINITION 46 an endorsement by voters. Presidents sometimes argue they have been given a mandate to carry out policy proposals. TERM 47 Legislative Liaison Staff DEFINITION 47 those people who compose the communications link between the White House and Congress, advising the president of cabinet secretaries on the status of pending legislation. TERM 48 Bureaucracy DEFINITION 48 a large, complex organization in which employees have specific job responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority. TERM 49 Bureaucrat DEFINITION 49 an employee of a bureaucracy, usually meaning a government bureaucracy. TERM 50 Department DEFINITION 50 the biggest unit of the executive branch, covering a broad area of government responsibility. the heads of the departments, or secretaries, form the president's cabinet. TERM 51 Independent Agency DEFINITION 51 an executive agency that is not part of a cabinet department. TERM 52 Regulatory Commission DEFINITION 52 an agency of the executive branch of government that controls or directs some aspect of the economy TERM 53 Government Corporation DEFINITION 53 a government agency that performs services that might be provided by the private sector but that involve either insufficient financial incentive or are better provided when they are somehow linked with government TERM 54 Civil Service DEFINITION 54 the system by which most appointments to the federal bureaucracy are made, to ensure that government jobs are filled on the basis of merit and that employees are not fired for political reasons. TERM 55 Administrative Discretion DEFINITION 55 the latitude that Congress gives agencies to make policy in the spirit of their legislative mandate. TERM 56 Rule Making DEFINITION 56 the administrative process that results in the issuance of regulations by government agencies TERM 57 Regulations DEFINITION 57 administrative rules that guide the operation of a government program. TERM 58 Incrementalism DEFINITION 58 policymaking characterized by a series of decisions, each instituting modest change. TERM 59 Norms DEFINITION 59 an organization's informal, unwritten rules that guide individual behavior TERM 60 Implementation DEFINITION 60 the process of putting specific policies into operation TERM 71 U.S Court of Appeals DEFINITION 71 a court within the second tier of the three-tiered federal court system, to which decisions of the district courts and federal agencies may be appealed for review. TERM 72 Precedent DEFINITION 72 a judicial ruling that serves as the basis for the ruling in a subsequent case TERM 73 Stare Decisis DEFINITION 73 literally, "let the decision stand"; decision making according to precedent. TERM 74 Original Jurisdiction DEFINITION 74 the authority of a court to hear a case before any other court does. TERM 75 Appellate jurisdiction DEFINITION 75 the authority of a court to hear a case before any other court does. TERM 76 Federal Question DEFINITION 76 an issue covered by the U.S Constitution, national laws, or U.S treaties. TERM 77 Docket DEFINITION 77 a court's agenda TERM 78 Rule of Four DEFINITION 78 an unwritten rule that requires at least four justices to agree that a case warrants consideration before it is reviewed by the Supreme Court. TERM 79 Solicitor General DEFINITION 79 the third-highest-ranking official of the U.S Department of Justice, and the one who represents the national government before the Supreme Court. TERM 80 Amicus Curiae Brief DEFINITION 80 a brief filed (with the permission of the court) by an individual or group that is not a party to a legal action bu has an interest in it. TERM 81 Judicial Restraint DEFINITION 81 a judicial philosophy whereby judges adhere closely to statutes and precedents in reaching their decisions. TERM 82 Judicial Activism DEFINITION 82 a judicial philosophy whereby judges interpret existing laws and precedents loosely and interject their own values in court decisions. TERM 83 Judgement DEFINITION 83 the judicial decision in a court case TERM 84 Argument DEFINITION 84 the heart of a judicial opinion; its logical content separated from facts, rhetoric, and procedure. TERM 85 Concurrence DEFINITION 85 the agreement of a judge with the court's majority decision, for a reason other than the majority reason.