American gov CH 12-14 - It is a study guide given for an exam given Spring Semester of 2017 over chapters PDF

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It is a study guide given for an exam given Spring Semester of 2017 over chapters 12-14....

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Chapter 12: Congress A. What is an incumbent? What are some of the advantages to being an incumbent in Congress? What are some of the pitfalls of incumbency? ● Incumbent: Current Office holder Advantages: ● Promotes his or her reelection prospects by catering to the constituency: the people residing in the incumbent’s state or district (The Service Strategy: Taking Care of Constituents) ○ Incumbents respond to their constituents’ individual requests, a practice known as the service strategy. Whether a constituent is seeking information about a government program or looking for help in obtaining a federal benefit, the representative’s staff is ready to assist. ● Raising campaign funds. ● Redistricting; House members have a final electoral advantage (not senators), has to do with population Pitfalls: ● Disruptive Issues (existing political issues) ○ when people are angry about existing political conditions, they are more likely to believe that those in power should be tossed out of office ● Personal Misconduct (scandals) ● Turnout Variation: The midterm Election Problem ○ As the president’s support declines, so does voters’ inclination to support congressional candidates from the president’s party ● Primary Election Challengers ○ widening ideological gap between the parties has made primary elections a riskier time for incumbents with moderate views ○ If they break with their party on key congressional votes or otherwise alienate party activists, they may find themselves in a primary election against a strong challenger who represents the party’s extreme wing. They stand a chance of losing because intense partisans are more likely than moderate incumbents prevail, they have fared less well in primary elections than they did a few decades ago ● General Election Challengers: A problem for Senators ○ Governors and House members are frequent challengers for Senate seats, and they have the voter base, campaign organization, fundraising ability, public recognition, and credentials. The U.S. Senate lures wealthy challengers. ○ House incumbents have less reason to fear strong challengers. A House seat often is not attractive enough to induce prominent local politicians, such as mayors or state legislators, to risk their political careers in a challenge to an incumbent

a. Which group raises and spends more money on average, incumbents or challengers? ● Incumbents B. Be sure to be able to define and understand the following terms: reapportionment, redistricting, and gerrymandering. ● Reapportionment: the reallocation of House seats among states after each census as a result of population changes. ● Redistricting: the process of altering election districts in order to make them as nearly equal in population as possible. Takes place every ten years, after each population census ● Gerrymandering: the process by which the party in power draws election district boundaries in a way that advantages its candidates. C. When should turnout be higher, in a midterm or presidential election year? ● Presidential election year D. According to the book, has party unity in Congress gone up or down since 1970? ● Gone Up E. What are the different leadership positions and their roles in Congress (for example: House Majority Leader, Speaker of the House, etc.)? House ❏ Speaker of the House: said to be the most powerful after the president. - Assigns bills to committees - Power over committee assignments - Leads Majority party - Almost nothing happens without Speaker’s approval ❏ Majority Leader: assists speaker in scheduling and collecting information - Often a stepping stone to being a Speaker ❏ Minority Leader: leads minority party, helps in scheduling ❏ Whips: helps organize votes and informs party members of leader’s positions Senate ❏ Majority Leader: similar to speaker of the house, controls agenda, power over committee assignments ❏ Minority Leader ❏ Whips ❏ President pro tempre: largely ceremonial and inconsequential F. What is the role of standing committees? ● Permanent congressional committee that is responsible for a particular area of public policy. Each standing committee has legislative authority in that it can draft and rewrite proposed legislation and can recommend to the full chamber the passage or defeat of the bills it handles. G. What is the difference between a standing committee, a joint committee, a select committee, and a conference committee?

● Standing committees are permanent subject-matter committees, formed to handle bills in different policy areas ● Joint committees are study committees that exist in a few policy areas, with membership drawn from both the Senate and the House. ● Conference committees are formed to work out the differences when different versions of a bill are passed by the two houses. Membership is drawn from both houses. ● Select committees are temporary committees appointed for a specific ("select") purpose, such as the Senate select committee that looked into Watergate. H. Which party has more seats on a committee, the majority or minority? ● The majority I. Is it easy for a bill to become a law or is the process difficult? ● The process is difficult where MC introduces bill => Chamber leader refers bill to committee => report bill to chamber or not => If reported chamber debated bill, possibly amends. => Goes to other chamber, follows same process => President signs or vetoes bill => if vetoed can be overturned by 2/3 majority vote J. What is a filibuster? Which chamber allows for a filibuster of legislation? How many votes are needed to end a filibuster? ● Filibuster is procedural tactic in the US Senate whereby a minority of Senators prevents a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration. ● Senate chamber allows filibuster of legislation ● Three-fifths majority necessary are needed to end a filibuster K. What are the three major functions of Congress discussed in the textbook? Be sure to be able to describe each of them. ● Lawmaking: Through its constitutional grant to enact law, Congress makes the laws authorizing federal programs and appropriating the funds necessary to carry them out. ● Representation: Through its elected constitutional officers—U.S. senators and representatives—Congress represents the interests of constituents and the nation in its deliberations and its lawmaking. ● Oversight: Through its constitutional responsibility to see that the executive branch carries out the laws faithfully and spends appropriations properly, Congress oversees and sometimes investigates executive action. L. What is logrolling? ● - Logrolling is the trading of votes between legislators so that each gets what he or she most wants. M. What are the differences (discussed in the textbook) between Congress and other legislatures around the world?

● The U.S. has elected leaders with limited formal powers, a network of relatively independent and powerful committees, and members who are free to follow or ignore other members of their party. It is not uncommon for a fourth or more of a party’s legislators to vote against their party’s position on legislatures issues. ● European legislatures have a centralized power structure. Top leaders here substantial authority, the committees are weak, and the parties are unified. European legislators are expected to support their party unless granted permission to vote otherwise on a particular bill. ● Only U.S and Mexico are Two equal houses. N. What is the condition we discussed in class in “conditional party government”? Is this condition currently met? ● Conditional party government: when parties are unified, more power is delegated to central authority ○ Condition: party responsibility exists only if there is a widespread policy agreement among the majority party; yes it is met ■ According to Conditional Party Government Theory, a unified majority party will try to alter the inner organizational structure of a legislature, to reinforce the power of the party leader, and therefore enact priority legislation without any support from the minority. When the policy goal within the majority is in itself diverse, then the power of leadership will be weakened. ● Why is the rules committee so important? ○ It has significant power to determine which bills will be brought to the floor of the House for consideration and whether amendments will be allowed on a bill when it is debated by the entire House. O. Is the process to pass a bill an easy one or is it complicated? ● Complicated P. Did we conclude that MCs act as delegates, trustees, or a mix of the two? ● Delegate: vote with constituent interests. ● Trustee: make decisions based on expertise Q. What do we mean when we say “the public has a short memory”? ● The public tends to remember what the president does for the public towards the end of their presidency when remembering contributions that he made for the country

I. Chapter 13: The Presidency A. What are the different roles of the president? Be sure to know the differences between them. ● Head of State: the president represents the country ● Chief Executive: the president is in charge of federal bureaucracy

● Crisis Manager: the president must manage to act quickly and effectively when events around the world dictate an American response and must be able to lead government response in events of crisis domestically as well. ● Commander-in-chief: the president is the leader of armed forces ● Chief Diplomat and Chief Foreign Policy Maker: the president serves as the top representative of the country to foreign nations. It is generally done through policy decisions and hosting of ambassadors from other countries. President is also primarily responsible for both making and implementing his/her’s country’s foreign policy. ● Chief Legislator: the president is responsible to set the legislative agenda and to initiate major policies. ● Party Leader: the president is the symbolic leader of his party and should lead party effectively B. Which part of the Constitution establishes the two-term limit for presidents? Who is the only president who served for more than two terms? ● The Twenty-second amendment which was ratified in 1951, prohibiting future presidents from being elected to more than two consecutive terms. ● President Franklin D. Roosevelt served for four terms C. What is the process to remove a president from office? Which presidents have been impeached by the House? Which, if any, of those presidents were removed from office? ● Impeachment: the action of the House of Representatives in which that body adopts, by at least a majority vote, one or more articles of impeachment accusing a sitting president of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” An impeached president is then tried before the Senate and at least ⅔ of the Senate must vote to have a president removed from office ● Only two presidents have been impeached, but neither of them were removed from office: ○ President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for political reasons and narrowly escaped conviction by the senate ○ President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 with the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He remained in office as those charges were removed by the Senate D. Is the language about what offense impeachable very clear in the constitution? ● The language about what offense is impeachable is vague in the constitution E. Where in the Constitution are the powers of the president located? What are the powers of the president? ● Article II ● Authority to appoint judges and ambassadors ● Veto legislation ● Call Congress into special session ● Grant pardons ● Serve as Commander-in-chief of armed forces

F. What are the different options for a president when legislation is sitting at his or her desk? ● Constitutional Theory: James Madison argued that presidential power is restricted to those powers specifically listed in Article II ● Stewardship Theory: Alexander Hamilton argued that the president enjoyed broad power. He believed that the general doctrine of our Constitution is that the executive power of the nation is vested in the President, subject only to the exceptions and qualifications expressed in that instrument ○ the president is a steward empowered to do anything deemed necessary, short of what is expressly prohibited by the Constitution, in the pursuit of the general welfare for which he is primarily responsible. ○ The problems of modernization, the complexities of living in a technological age, and the need for the United States as a superpower to speak to other nations with a unified voice and respond quickly to threats to the national security have forced us to recognize the stewardship presidency as both necessary and legitimate. a. What is a veto override? What is a line item veto? Is it still used commonly today? What is a pocket veto? ● Veto override: this occurs when the President vetoes a bill, which Congress overrules with a ⅔ majority of both the Senate and House of Representatives ● Line-item veto: a veto that only rejects part of a proposed bill. Congress attempted to allow presidents to employ a line-item veto in the 1990s, but this effort was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Thus, presidents currently do not have line-item veto power ● Pocket veto: a quasi-veto that results when the President does not sign a bill and then Congress adjourns fewer than ten days after the bill was presented to him or her. G. What is executive privilege? Is executive privilege limitless? ● Executive privilege: a president’s asserted right to withhold information from Congress and the courts; an inherent power and mentioned nowhere in the Constitution ● It basically is limitless, as past presidents have not gotten in trouble for it, besides Clinton, but he was not removed from office and only impeached H. What is the difference between a treaty and an executive agreement? Which is harder to put into effect for a president? ○ Treaty: an agreement between two or more nations in which they promise to behave in specified ways. Treaties require approval from the senate which makes it harder for a president to put it into effect ○ Executive Agreement: a non-binding agreement between two heads of state in which the president does not need approval of the Senate. I. Which branch of the government has the power to declare war? ● Legislative branch, Congress

J. What are the three main sources of staff assistance to the president? ● The White House Staff ● The Executive Office of the President ● The Cabinet a. Who is generally considered the president’s closest advisor? ○ The White House Staff -- Chief of staff b. What are the different functions of the president’s cabinet? ○ Originally consisted of the attorney general and the secretaries of state,war, and treasury; now includes heads of the fifteen major executive departments in addition to certain other high-level executive officials; used to be the closest advisers to the president ○ The bureaucracy retains access to large volumes of information, expertise, experience, and policy ideas, but often presidents do not fully utilize it because of the lack of trust, the rivalry between agencies, and the vast number of points where information can be cut off on the way to the president K. What is the “honeymoon period” for presidents? ● Honeymoon period: the first 100 days a president begins his term in office as president a. When is a president most likely to pass legislation and influence major policy changes? ○ During the honeymoon period, the early days of the term L. We said in class in terms of the power of the presidency, “we’re living in Hamilton’s America.” What did this mean? ● According to this perspective, the president is a steward empowered to do anything deemed necessary, short of what is expressly prohibited by the Constitution, in the pursuit of the general welfare for which he is primarily responsible. American constitutional history has, for the most part, vindicated the views of Hamilton and Roosevelt. ● The problems of modernization, the complexities of living in a technological age, and the need for the United States as a superpower to speak to other nations with a unified voice and respond quickly to threats to the national security have forced us to recognize the stewardship presidency as both necessary and legitimate. M. What is the spoils system? ● Spoils System: government jobs awarded according to party loyalty N. Why is the Pendleton Act important? ● Pendleton Act of 1883: federal legislation that created a system in which federal employees were chosen based upon competitive exams. This made job positions based on merit or ability and not inheritance or class. O. How does Congress enforce oversight on the bureaucracy? ● Police patrol oversight: systematically monitoring different agencies looking for problems in program implementation ● Fire alarm oversight: wait until alarm is sounded

○ members of Congress do not initiate investigations but wait for adversely affected citizens or interest groups to bring bureaucratic perversions of legislative intent to the attention of the relevant congressional committees

II. Chapter 14: Judiciary A. What did Hamilton mean when he called the judiciary the “least dangerous branch”? ● Because it would have “no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction of the strength or the wealth of a society; and can take no active resolution whatever.” a. Who controls the “sword” and the “purse”? ■ The Executive branch controls the sword whereas the Legislative branch controls the purse. B. What is the significance of Marbury v. Madison (1803) for the power of judicial review? ● Approx. 170 federal statutes have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court as well as invalidating 1200 state and local laws. This has allowed for an increased activism of modern court. C. Who is the plaintiff in a case? Who is the defendant? ● the plaintiff is the one who files a complaint alleging wrongdoing on the part of a defendant, who must either admit to the wrong or defend against the accusation. D. What are the different types of cases? ● Civil case: begins when a plaintiff brings a lawsuit, usually seeking monetary damages for an injury that occurred as result of the defendant’s actions. ● Criminal case: begins when the government prosecutes someone for allegedly committing a crime. E. What is jurisdiction? ● The authority of a court to hear and decide a case. F. What is standing? ● A requirement for a court to hear a case in which a party must have suffered, or will soon suffer an injury. a. Be sure to understand the “case or controversy principle” ■ This is a principle of jurisdiction that there must be some conflict for a federal court to hear and decide a case. G. What is a political question? Why doesn’t the judiciary answer political questions? ● The political question doctrine prevent a court of law from determining issues which are essentially political. The judiciary doesn’t answer these questions because they are extremely political. They are usually taken up by the legislative or executive branch. H. What is stare decisis? What role does it play? ● “stand by decided matters” this refers to the fact that American courts rely heavily on precedent (authoritative rule established by a court in an earlier case that guides future decisions in relevantly similar cases).

I. Which article of the Constitution establishes the constitutional basics of the federal judiciary? ● Article III “the judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” a. What does that article say about the Supreme Court? Lower Courts? ● the Court was not officially established until the adoption of Judiciary Act. The Supreme Court was given the authority to hear certain appeals brought from the lower federal courts and state courts. b. What protections are given to federal judges? ■ Life terms which protect them from partisan forces and public passions so that they could dispense justice impartially according to the law. J. What is the basic hierarchy of the federal judiciary? ● Three main levels: U.S. District Court, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...