AP Test Prep
Terms : Hide Images
| 9827600892 | Divided Government | Governance divided between the parties, as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress. |  | 0 |
| 9827600893 | Unified Government | A government in which the same party controls the White House and both houses of Congress | 1 | |
| 9827600894 | Representative Democracy | A system of government in which citizens elect representatives, or leaders, to make decisions about the laws for all the people. | 2 | |
| 9827600895 | Direct Democracy | A form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives | 3 | |
| 9827600896 | Electoral College | a group of people named by each state legislature to select the president and vice president | 4 | |
| 9827600897 | Faithless Electors | Members of the United States Electoral College who do not cast their electoral votes for the people they have pledged to vote for. | 5 | |
| 9827600898 | Pyramid Structure | A president's subordinates report to him through a clear chain of command headed by a chief of staff. | 6 | |
| 9827600899 | Circular Structure | a method of organizing a president's staff in which several presidential assistants report directly to the president | 7 | |
| 9827600900 | Ad Hoc Structure | Several subordinates, cabinet officers, and committees report directly to the president on different matters | 8 | |
| 9827600901 | Cabinet | persons appointed by a head of state to head executive departments of government and act as official advisers | 9 | |
| 9827600902 | Executive Office of the President | The cluster of presidential staff agencies that help the president carry out his responsibilities. Currently the office includes the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, and several other units. | 10 | |
| 9827600903 | Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | the office that prepares the president's annual budget proposal, reviews the budget and programs of the executive departments, supplies economic forecasts, and conducts detailed analyses of proposed bills and agency rules. | 11 | |
| 9827600904 | National Security Council (NSC) | An office created in 1947 to coordinate the president's foreign and military policy advisors. Its formal members are the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, and it is managed by the president's national security advisor. | 12 | |
| 9827600905 | Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) | Has 3 members, appointed by the President. They help the President make policy on inflation, unemployment, & other economic matters. | 13 | |
| 9827600906 | Executive Agencies | Federal agencies that are part of the executive branch but outside the structure of cabinet departments. Their heads typically serve at the pleasure of the president and can be removed at the president's discretion. | 14 | |
| 9827600907 | Independent Agencies | Federal regulatory agencies that are independent, thus not fully under the power of the president. Ex. Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission. | 15 | |
| 9827600908 | Acting Appointments | Most appointments are in the President's cabinet, and ambassadors. When those appointments resign, become too ill, die in office, and can no longer function in the position, a temporary member of their staff, usually a deputy or asssistant, assumes their role until the President can nominate, and the Senate approve, a new appointment. | 16 | |
| 9827600909 | Presidential Honeymoon | The period of about 100 days when a newly elected president takes office and the opposing party, media, etc. will not be politically critical of him | 17 | |
| 9827600910 | Veto Message | A message from the president to Congress stating that he will not sign a bill it has passed. Must be produced within ten days of the bill's passage. Ex:, 1832 - Jackson, in his veto message of the recharter of the Second Bank of the U.S., said that the bank was a monopoly that catered to the rich, and that it was owned by the wealthy and by foreigners. | 18 | |
| 9827600911 | Pocket Veto | when a president kills a bill passed during the last 10 days Congress is in session by simply refusing to act on it | 19 | |
| 9827600912 | Line-Item Veto | Presidential power to strike, or remove, specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. | 20 | |
| 9827600913 | Clinton v. New York City (1998) | The Supreme Court ruled that the line-item veto was unconstitutional because it gave powers to the president denied him by the U.S. Constitution. Significant alterations of executive/congressional powers, said the court, require constitutional amendment. | 21 | |
| 9827600914 | Executive Privilege | The power to keep executive communications confidential, especially if they relate to national security. (U.S. v. Nixon) | 22 | |
| 9827600915 | United States v. Nixon (1973) | President does not have absolute privilege against production of relevant information in a criminal investigation, and against the judiciary branch. Check on the president's power. | 23 | |
| 9827600916 | Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act (1974) | an act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process, including by forcing Congress to look at the budget as a whole. It was intended to make Congress less dependent on the president's budget and better able to set and meet its own budgetary goals. | 24 | |
| 9827600917 | Impoundment | Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated. | 25 | |
| 9827600918 | War Powers Act (1973) | Required Nixon and any future president to report to Congress within 48 hours after taking military action, it further provided that Congress would have to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days | 26 | |
| 9827600919 | Trustee Approach and Delegate Model | trustee--do what is best regardless of voter opinion; delegate--do what the voters want | 27 | |
| 9827600920 | Independent Counsel Law | Law that allows the attorney general to appoint an individual to investigate high-profile members of the federal government when suspected of wrong-doing. | 28 | |
| 9827600921 | Lame Duck | an outgoing official serving out the remainder of a term, after retiring or being defeated for reelection | 29 | |
| 9827600922 | Presidential Succession Act of 1947 | Designated order of succession should a president die in office or resign; after Vice President, the order is: Speaker of the House; President Pro Tem of the Senate; Secretary of State; followed by all other cabinet secretaries in the order in which their departments were created. | 30 | |
| 9827600923 | 12th Amendment | Brought about by the Jefferson/Burr tie, stated that presidential and vice-presidential nominees would run on the same party ticket. Before that time, all of the candidates ran against each other, with the winner becoming president and second-place becoming vice-president. | 31 | |
| 9827600924 | 22nd Amendment | Passed in 1951, after FDR's three terms, the amendment that limits presidents to two terms of office. | 32 | |
| 9827600925 | 25th Amendment | Adopted in 1967 to establish procedures for filling vacancies in the office of president and vice president as well as providing for procedures to deal with the disability of a president. | 33 | |
| 9827600926 | Impeachment | The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution. The House of Representatives may impeach the president by a majority vote for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." (The Senate confirms if he should be removed from office) | 34 | |
| 9827600927 | Bully Pulpit | the president's use of his prestige and visibility to guide or enthuse the American public | 35 | |
| 9827600928 | Inherent Power | A power of the president derived from the statements in the Constitution that "the executive Power shall be vested in a President" and that the president should "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"; defined through practice rather than through law. (Like Congress' enumerated powers) | 36 | |
| 9827600929 | Executive Orders | Formal orders issued by the president to direct action by the bureaucracy. | 37 | |
| 9827600930 | Approval Ratings | The percentage of survey respondents who say that they "approve" or "strongly approve" of the way the president is doing his job. Reflects positively/negatively on Congress' decisions. | 38 | |
| 9827600931 | Imperial Presidency | Term used to describe a president as an "emperor" who acts without consulting Congress or acts in secrecy to evade or deceive congress | 39 | |
| 9827600932 | Rule of Propinquity | The closer (physically) you are to the president, the more influence you have over the president and the decisions he/she makes. Also, those in the room with the president at the time decisions are made have the most influence. Ex. First Lady | 40 | |
| 9827600933 | Bureaucracy | system of managing government through departments run by appointed officials | 41 | |
| 9827600934 | Patronage | (politics) granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support | 42 | |
| 9827600935 | Spoils System | The practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs. Jackson made this practice famous for the way he did it on a wide scale. | 43 | |
| 9827600936 | Pendleton Act (1883) | authorized a bipartisan civil service commision to make appointments to federal jobs through the merit system on the basis of preformance on an examintaion | 44 | |
| 9827600937 | Laissez-Faire Economics | Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property. | 45 | |
| 9827600938 | "Supply-Side" Economics | An economic philosophy that holds the sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work, save, and invest. Greater investments will lead to more jobs, a more productive economy, and more tax revenues for the government. Ex. George H. W. Bush | 46 | |
| 9827600939 | "Trickle Down" Theory | Benefits and tax cuts to businesses and the rich will benefit those with less as well, wealth will trickle down. (Reagenomics) | 47 | |
| 9827600940 | Keynesian Economy | business cycles are not natural, and are signs of problem. the government can and should help. encourage demand side policies (Bill Clinton) | 48 | |
| 9827600941 | Monetary Policy | Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling the money supply and thus interest rates. | 49 | |
| 9827600942 | 16th Amendment | Amendment to the United States Constitution (1913) gave Congress the power to tax income. | 50 | |
| 9827600943 | Discretionary Authority | the extent to which appointed bureaucrats can choose coarses of action and make policies that are not spelled out in advance by laws | 51 | |
| 9827600944 | Competitive Service | the government offices to which people are appointed on the basis of merit, as ascertained by a written exam or by applying certain selection criteria | 52 | |
| 9827600945 | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process. | 53 | |
| 9827600946 | Excepted Service | Appointed of officials not based on the criteria specified by OPM | 54 | |
| 9827600947 | Merit System | hiring people into government jobs on the basis of their qualifications, rather than patronage. | 55 | |
| 9827600948 | Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 | recognized that many high level positions in the civil service have important policy making responsibilities and that the president and his cabinet officers ought to have more flexibility in recruiting, assigning, and paying such people. | 56 | |
| 9827600949 | Hatch Act (1933, 1993) | 1993: prohibits federal employees from engaging in certain political activities (running partisan elections, making or soliciting political contributions, influencing elections, running for office as a member of a political party, etc...) 1993: Allow most federal employees to take an active part in partisan political management and partisan political campaigns. | 57 | |
| 9827600950 | Whistle Blower Protection Act (1989) | Created the Office of Special Counsel to investigate complaints from bureaucrats that were punished after reporting to Congress about waste, fraud, or abuse in their agencies. (WHISTLE BLOWER) | 58 | |
| 9827600951 | Issue Network | Relationships among interest groups, congressional committees and subcommittees, and the government agencies that share a common policy concern. | 59 | |
| 9827600952 | Authorization Legislation | Legislation that originates in a legislative committee stating the maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program, and permission on whether to put a plan into action at all. | 60 | |
| 9827600953 | Appropriations | the amounts of money approved by Congress in statutes (bills) that each unit or agency of government can spend | 61 | |
| 9827600954 | Committee Clearance | the right of committees to disapprove of certain agency actions | 62 | |
| 9827600955 | Legislative Veto | The authority of Congress to block a presidential action after it has taken place. The Supreme Court has held that Congress does not have this power | 63 | |
| 9827600956 | INS v. Chadha (1983) | 1983, the Supreme Court case that ruled legislative vetoes were unconstitutional, but Congress continues to enact laws containing them. | 64 | |
| 9827600957 | Red Tape | Complex bureaucratic rules and procedures that must be followed to get something done | 65 | |
| 9827600958 | National Performance Review | called the plan to reinvent government led by VP Al Gore; make it easier for pres and cabinet secretaries to run bureaucracy; efficiency accountability and consistent policies | 66 | |
| 9827600959 | Going Native | Administrators identifying themselves with the interests of their own departments and promoting such interests contrary to the policy preferences of the President | 67 | |
| 9827600960 | Freedom of Information Act (1966) | Provides a system for the public to obtain government records, as long as they do not invade individuals' privacy, reveal trade secrets, or endanger military security. | 68 | |
| 9827600961 | National Environmental Policy Act (1969) | Environmental Impact statements must be done before any project affecting federal lands is started. Created a council on environmental quality. | 69 |
