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| 4825164443 | Supremacy Clause | Article VI of the Constitution, which makes the Constitution, national laws, and treaties supreme over state laws when the national government is acting within its constitutional limits. | 0 | |
| 4825165769 | 10th Amendment | Powers not expressly given to federal government by the Constitution are reserved to states or the people. Also known as "reserved powers amendment" or "states' rights amendment" | 1 | |
| 4825188392 | McCullough v. Maryland | Established the right to of congress to have established a Bank of the U.S. and denied the states the power to tax federal government | 2 | |
| 4825192996 | Gibbons v. Ogden | Special permits giving rights to operate steamboats on New York waters exclusively were given. Gibbons (of New Jersey) was told he had to pay a fee to travel in New York. Result: New York cannot require licensing from other states. Only national government has that power - Supremacy clause - NY cannot regulate commerce | 3 | |
| 4825197101 | Reserved Powers | Powers given to the state government alone | 4 | |
| 4825198122 | Enumerated Powers | Powers given to the national government alone | 5 | |
| 4825199395 | Concurrent Powers | Powers held jointly by the national and state governments. | 6 | |
| 4825201328 | Elastic Clause | Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which allows Congress to make all laws that are "necessary and proper" to carry out the powers of the Constitution. | 7 | |
| 4825202623 | States' Rights | the right of states to limit the power of the federal government | 8 | |
| 4825206118 | Full Faith and Credit Clause | Constitution's requirement that each state accept the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state | 9 | |
| 4825207946 | Dual Federalism | A system of government in which both the states and the national government remain supreme within their own spheres, each responsible for some policies. | 10 | |
| 4825211156 | Cooperative Federalism | A system of government in which powers and policy assignments are shared between states and the national government. They may also share costs, administration, and even blame for programs that work poorly. | 11 | |
| 4825213488 | Fiscal Federalism | The pattern of spending, taxing, and providing grants in the federal system; it is the cornerstone of the national government's relations with state and local governments. | 12 | |
| 4825215021 | Categorical Grant | A grant ($) given to the states by the federal government for a specific purpose or program. The federal government tells the states exactly how to spend the money (no state discretion unlike block grants). Example = Medicaid. Most common type of federal grant because it gives Congress the most control over the states. | 13 | |
| 4825216521 | Block Grant | Money given to states for general programs within a broad category | 14 | |
| 4825218344 | Commerce Clause | The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations. | 15 | |
| 4825220801 | Mandate | An official order to do something | 16 | |
| 4825228693 | Policymaking Institutions | The branches of government charged with taking action on political issues. The U.S. Constitution established three policymaking institutions-the congress, the presidency, and the courts. Today, the power of the bureaucracy is so great that most political scientist consider it a fourth policy making institution | 17 | |
| 4825231683 | Single Issue Group | Groups that have narrow interests, tend to dislike compromise and draw membership from people new to poitics | 18 | |
| 4825234367 | Politics (Laswell Definition) | Who gets what, when, and how | 19 | |
| 4825235743 | Policy Agenda | the issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actually involved in politics at any given point in time | 20 | |
| 4825239395 | Policymaking System | The process by which policy comes into being and evolves over time. People's interests, problems, and concerns create political issues for government policymakers. These issues shape policy, which in turn impacts people, generating more interests, problems, and concerns. | 21 | |
| 4825240845 | public policy making | Action by governmental authority | 22 | |
| 4825244080 | Linkage Institutions | Institutions that connect citizens to government. The mass media, interest groups, and political parties are the three main linkage institutions. | 23 | |
| 4825247033 | Political Institutions | institution that determines how power is obtained and exercised | 24 | |
| 4825250103 | political issue | an issue that arises when people disagree about a problem and how to fix it | 25 | |
| 4825261800 | traditional democratic theory | These principles include equality in voting, effective participation, enlightened understanding, citizen control of agenda, & inclusion. | 26 | |
| 4825263463 | pluralism | A theory of government that holds that open, multiple, and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group. | 27 | |
| 4825264450 | hyperpluralism | A theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government is weakened | 28 | |
| 4825265356 | elitism | A theory of government and politics contending that an upper-class elite will hold most of the power and thus in effect run the government. | 29 | |
| 4825267311 | challenges to democracy | increased complexity of issues, limited participation in government, escalating campaign costs, diverse political interests | 30 | |
| 4825270003 | American Creed | the dominant political culture in the United States, marked by a set of beliefs in individualism, democracy, liberty, property, and religion, tied together by the value of equality | 31 | |
| 4825272869 | populism | the political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite | 32 | |
| 4825274268 | liberty | Freedom from government control | 33 | |
| 4825277301 | individualism | Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications | 34 | |
| 4825278872 | egalitarianism | the doctrine of the equality of mankind and the desirability of political and economic and social equality | 35 | |
| 4825280707 | Culture War | A split in the United States reflecting differences in people's beliefs about private and public morality, and regarding what standards ought to govern individual behavior and social arrangements. | 36 | |
| 4825284026 | Declaration of Independence | Heavily influenced by Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu, this document was the proclamation of the second Continental Congress (4 July 1776) asserting the independence of the colonies from Great Britain. | 37 | |
| 4825288845 | Locke | Said human nature lived free and had the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. He said government was created in order to protect these rights and if the government failed to do so it was the duty of the people to rebel. | 38 | |
| 4825292209 | Constitutional Convention | The meeting of state delegates in 1787 in Philadelphia called to revise the Articles of Confederation. It instead designed a new plan of government, the US Constitution. | 39 | |
| 4825294595 | factions | Political groups that agree on objectives and policies; the origins of political parties. | 40 | |
| 4825298066 | Connecticut Compromise | Compromise agreement by states at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature with a lower house in which representation would be based on population and an upper house in which each state would have two senators. | 41 | |
| 4825299361 | New Jersey Plan | A constitutional proposal that would have given each state one vote in a new congress | 42 | |
| 4825300408 | Virginia Plan | "Large state" proposal for the new constitution, calling for proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress. The plan favored larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for apportioning representation. | 43 | |
| 4825302551 | Three Fifths Compromise | the agreement by which the number of each state's representatives in Congress would be based on a count of all the free people plus three-fifths of the slaves | 44 | |
| 4825307044 | Anti-Federalists | A group who opposed the ratification of the Constitution in 1787. They opposed a strong central government (tyranny) and supported states' rights. | 45 | |
| 4825308312 | Checks and Balances | A system that allows each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches in order to prevent abuse of power | 46 | |
| 4825309544 | Federalist Papers | A collection of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison under the name "Publius" to defend the Constitution in detail. | 47 | |
| 4825311983 | Formal Amendment | change or addition that becomes part of the written language of the Constitution itself through one of four methods set forth in the Constitution | 48 | |
| 4825312433 | Informal Amendment | A change made in Constitution not by actual written amendment, but by the experience of government under the Constitution; the methods include: (1) legislation passed by Congress; (2) actions taken by the President; (3) decisions of the Supreme Court; (4) the activities of political parties; and (5) custom | 49 | |
| 4825316368 | Federalism effect on Democracy | Decentralizes politics Disputes resolved at lower levels of govt. Majorities can be heard at state level More opportunities for participation Losing elections less painful | 50 | |
| 4825406140 | Unitary | A nation-state that has a centralized government and administration that exercises power equally over all parts of the state | 51 | |
| 4825407521 | Confederation | a political system in which a weak central government has limited authority, and the states have ultimate power. | 52 | |
| 4847485589 | devolution | The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government. | 53 | |
| 4847487736 | Sovereignty | Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states. | 54 |
