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| 297933485 | Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) | Organization contracted by individuals or insurance companies to provide health care for a yearly fee. Such network heath plains limit the choice of doctors and treatments. About 60 % of Americans are enrolled in these or similar programs. | |
| 297933486 | Patients' Bill of Rights | A controversial proposal before Congress that would give patients certain rights against medical providers, particularly HMOs, including the right to sue them. | |
| 297933487 | National Health Insurance | A compulsory insurance program for all Americans that would have the government finance citizens' medical care. First proposed by Truman, the plan was soundly opposed by the American Medical Association. | |
| 297933488 | Medicare | A program added to the Social Security system in1965 that provides hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other medical expenses. | |
| 297933489 | Medicaid | A public assistance program designed to provide health care for poor Americans. It is funded by both the states and the national government. | |
| 297933490 | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | An agency of the federal government created in 1970 and charged with administering all the government's environmental legislation. It also administers policies dealing with toxic wastes. It is the largest federal independent regulatory agency. | |
| 297933491 | National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) | The law passed in 1969 that is the centerpiece of federal environmental policy in the US. It established requirements for environmental impact statements. | |
| 297933492 | Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) | A report required by the National Environmental Policy Act that specifies the likely environmental impact of a proposed action. NEPA requires that whenever any agency proposes to undertake a policy that impacts the environment, the agency must file a statement with the EPA. | |
| 297933493 | Clean Air Act of 1970 | The law that charged the Department of Transportation with the responsibility to reduce automobile emissions. | |
| 297933494 | Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 | A law intended to clean up the nation's rivers and lakes. It requires municipal, industrial, and other polluters to use pollution control technology and secure permits from the EPA for discharging waste products into waters. | |
| 297933495 | Endangered Species Act of 1973 | This law requires the federal government to protect actively each of the hundreds of species listed as endangered-- regardless of the economic effect on the surrounding towns or region. | |
| 297933496 | Superfund | A fund created by Congress in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites. Money for the fund comes from taxing chemical products. | |
| 297933497 | Foreign Policy | A policy that involves choice-taking, like domestic policy, but additionally involves choices about relations with the rest of the world. The president is the chief initiator of foreign policy in the US. | |
| 297933498 | United Nations (UN) | Created in 1945, an organization whose members agree to renounce war and to respect certain human and economic freedoms. The seat of real power in the UN is the Security Council. | |
| 297933499 | North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) | Created in 1949, an organization whose members include the US, Canada, most Western European nations, and Turkey, all of whom agreed to combine military forces and to treat a war against one as a war against all. | |
| 297933500 | European Union (EU) | An alliance of the major Western European nations that coordinates monetary, trade, immigration, and labor policies, making its members one economic unit. An example of regional organization. | |
| 297933501 | Secretary of State | The head of the Department of State and traditionally a key adviser to the president on foreign policy. | |
| 297933502 | Secretary of Defense | The head of the Department of Defense and the president's key adviser on military policy; a key foreign policy actor. | |
| 297933503 | Joint Chiefs of Staff | The commanding officers of the armed services who advise the president on military policy. | |
| 297933504 | Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | An agency created after World War II to coordinate American intelligence activities abroad. It became involved in intrigue, conspiracy, and meddling as well. | |
| 297933505 | Isolationism | A foreign policy course followed throughout most of our nation's history, whereby the US has tried to stay out of other nations' conflicts, particularly European wars. It was was reaffirmed by the Monroe Doctrine. | |
| 297933506 | Containment Doctrine | A foreign policy strategy advocated by George Kennan that called for the United States to isolate the Soviet Union, "contain" its advances, and resist its encroachments by peaceful means if possible, but by force if necessary. | |
| 297933507 | Cold War | War by other than military means usually emphasizing ideological conflict, such as that between the US and the Soviet Union from the end of World War II until the late 1990s. | |
| 297933508 | McCarthyism | The fear, prevalent in the 1950s, that international communism was conspiratorial, insidious, bent on world domination, and infiltrating American government and cultural institutions. It flourished after the Korean War. | |
| 297933509 | Arms Race | A tense relationship beginning in the 1950s between the Soviet Union and the United States whereby one side's weaponry became the other side's goad to procure more weaponry, and so on. | |
| 297933510 | Détente | A slow transformation from conflict thinking to cooperative thinking in foreign policy strategy and policymaking. It sought a relaxation of tensions between the superpowers, coupled with firm guarantees of mutual security. | |
| 297933511 | Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) | Renamed "Star Wars" by critics, a plan for defense against the Soviet Union unveiled by President Reagan in 1983. It would create a global umbrella in space, using computers to scan the skies and high-tech devices to destroy invading missiles. | |
| 297933512 | Interdependency | Mutual dependency, in which the actions of nations reverberate and affect one another's economic lifelines. | |
| 297933513 | Tariff | A special tax added to imported goods to raise the price, thereby protecting American businesses and workers from foreign competition. | |
| 297933514 | Balance of Trade | The ratio of what is paid for imports to what is earned from exports. When more is imported than exported, there is a ________ deficit. | |
| 297933515 | Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) | An economic organization consisting primarily of Arab nations that controls the price of oil and the amount of oil its members produce and sell to other nations. | |
| 298918329 | Civil Liberties | The legal constitutional protections against government. Although our ______ are formally set down in the Bill of Rights, the courts, police, and legislatures define their meaning. | |
| 298918330 | Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which define such basic liberties as freedom of religion, speech, and press, and guarantee defendants' rights. | |
| 298918331 | First Amendment | The constitutional amendment that establishes the four great liberties: freedom of the press, of speech, of religion, and of assembly. | |
| 298918332 | Fourteenth Amendment | The constitutional amendment adopted after the Civil War that states, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." | |
| 298918333 | Incorporation Doctrine | The legal concept under which the Supreme Court has nationalized the Bill of Rights by making most of its provisions applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. | |
| 298918334 | Establishment Clause | Part of the first amendment stating that "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." | |
| 298918335 | Free Exercise Clause | A first amendment provision that prohibits government from interfering with the practice of religion. | |
| 298918336 | Prior Restraint | A government preventing material from being published. This is a common method of limiting the press in some nations, but it is usually unconstitutional in the United States, according to the First Amendment and as confirmed in the 1931 Supreme Court case of Near v. Minnesota. | |
| 298918337 | Libel | The publication of false or malicious statements that damage someone's reputation. | |
| 298918338 | Symbolic Speech | Nonverbal communication, such as burning a flag or wearing an armband. The Supreme Court has accorded some symbolic speech protection under the first amendment. | |
| 298918339 | Commercial Speech | Communication in the form of advertising. It can be restricted more than many other types of speech but has been receiving increased protection from the Supreme Court. | |
| 298918340 | Probable Cause | The situation occurring when the police have reason to believe that a person should be arrested. In making the arrest, police are allowed legally to search for and seize incriminating evidence. | |
| 298918341 | Unreasonable Searches and Seizures | Obtaining evidence in a haphazard or random manner, a practice prohibited by the fourth amendment. Probable cause and/or a search warrant are required for a legal and proper search for and seizure of incriminating evidence. | |
| 298918342 | Search Warrant | A written authorization from a court specifying the area to be searched and what the police are searching for. | |
| 298918343 | Exclusionary Rule | The rule that evidence, no matter how incriminating, cannot be introduced into a trial if it was not constitutionally obtained. The rule prohibits use of evidence obtained through unreasonable search and seizure. | |
| 298918344 | Fifth Amendment | The constitutional amendment designed to protect the rights of persons accused of crimes, including protection against double jeopardy, self-incrimination, and punishment without the due process of law. | |
| 298918345 | Self-incrimination | The situation occurring when an individual accused of a crime is compelled to be a witness against himself or herself in court. The Fifth Amendment forbids self-incrimination. | |
| 298918346 | Sixth Amendment | The constitutional amendment designed to protect individuals accused of crimes. It includes the right to counsel, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to a speedy and public trial. | |
| 298918347 | Plea Bargaining | A bargain struck between the defendant's lawyer and the prosecutor to the effect that the defendant will plead guilty to a lesser crime (or fewer crimes) in exchange for the state's promise not to prosecute the defendant for a more serious (or additional) crime. | |
| 298918348 | Eighth Amendment | The constitutional amendment that forbids cruel and unusual punishment, although it does not define this phrase. Through the fourteenth amendment, this Bill of Rights provision applies to the states. | |
| 298918349 | Cruel and Unusual Punishment | Court sentences prohibited by the eighth amendment. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory death sentences for certain offenses are unconstitutional, it has not held that the death penalty itself constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. | |
| 298918350 | Right to Privacy | The right to a private personal life free from the intrusion of government. | |
| 298957678 | Civil Rights | Policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals. | |
| 298957679 | Equal Protection of the Laws | Part of the Fourteenth Amendment emphasizing that the laws must provide equivalent "protection" to all people. | |
| 298957680 | Thirteenth Amendment | The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude. | |
| 298957681 | Civil Rights Act of 1964 | The law that made racial discrimination against any group in hotels, motels, and restaurants illegal and forbade many forms of job discrimination | |
| 298957682 | Suffrage | The legal right to vote, extended to African Americans by the Fifteenth Amendment, to women by the Nineteenth Amendment, and to people over the age of 18 by the Twenty-sixth Amendment. | |
| 298957683 | Fifteenth Amendment | The constitutional amendment adopted in 1870 to extend suffrage to African Americans. | |
| 298957684 | Poll Taxes | Small taxes levied on the right to vote that often fell due at a time of year when poor African-American sharecroppers had the least cash on hand. This method was used by most Southern states to exclude African Americans from voting. Poll taxes were declared void by the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964. | |
| 298957685 | White Primary | One of the means used to discourage African-American voting that permitted political parties in the heavily Democratic South to exclude African Americans from primary elections, thus depriving them of a voice in the real contests. The Supreme Court declared White primaries unconstitutional in 1944. | |
| 298957686 | Twenty-fourth Amendment | The constitutional amendment passed in 1964 that declared poll taxes void in federal elections. | |
| 298957687 | Voting Rights Act of 1965 | A law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African American suffrage. Under the law, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were registered and the number of African American elected officials increased dramatically. | |
| 298957688 | Nineteenth Amendment | The constitutional amendment adopted in 1920 that guarantees women the right to vote. | |
| 298957689 | Equal Rights Amendment | A constitutional amendment originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972, stating that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Despite public support, the amendment failed to acquire the necessary support from three-fourths of the state legislatures. | |
| 298957690 | Comparable Worth | The issue raised when women who hold traditionally female jobs are paid less than men for working at jobs requiring comparable skill. | |
| 298957691 | Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) | A law passed in 1990 that requires employers and public facilities to make "reasonable accommodations" for people with disabilities and prohibits discrimination against these individuals in employment. | |
| 298957692 | Affirmative Action | A policy designed to give special attention to or compensatory treatment for members of some previously disadvantaged group. | |
| 298985383 | Twenty-second Amendment | Passed in 1951, the amendment that limits presidents to two terms of office. | |
| 298985384 | Impeachment | The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution. The House of Representatives may _____ the president by a majority vote for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." | |
| 298985385 | Watergate | The events and scandal surrounding a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972 and the subsequent cover-up of White House involvement, leading to the eventual resignation of President Nixon under the threat of impeachment. | |
| 298985386 | Twenty-fifth Amendment | Passed in 1951, this amendment permits the vice president to become acting president if both the vice president and the president's cabinet determine that the president is disabled. The amendment also outlines how a recuperated president can reclaim the job. | |
| 298985387 | Cabinet | A group of presidential advisors not mentioned in the Constitution, although every president has had one. Today the cabinet is composed of 14 secretaries and the attorney general. | |
| 298985388 | 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 assistant. | |
| 298985389 | Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) | A three-member body appointed by the president to advise the president on economic policy. | |
| 298985390 | Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | An office that grew out of the Bureau of the Budget, created in 1921, consisting of a handful of political appointees and hundreds of skilled professionals. It performs both managerial and budgetary functions. | |
| 298985391 | Veto | The constitutional power of the president to send a bill back to Congress with reasons for rejecting it. A two-thirds vote in each house can override a veto. | |
| 298985392 | Pocket Veto | A veto taking place when Congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president, who simply lets it die by neither signing nor vetoing it. | |
| 298985393 | Presidential Coattails | These occur when voters cast their ballots for congressional candidates of the president's party because they support the president. Recent studies show that few races are won this way. | |
| 298985394 | War Powers Resolution | A law passed in 1973 in reaction to American fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia that requires presidents to consult with Congress whenever possible prior to using military force and to withdraw forces after 60 days unless Congress declares war or grants an extension. Presidents view the resolution as unconstitutional. | |
| 298985395 | Legislative Veto | The ability of Congress to override a presidential decision. Although the War Powers Resolution asserts this authority, there is reason to believe that, if challenged, the Supreme Court would find the legislative veto in violation of the doctrine of separation of powers. | |
| 298985396 | Crisis | A sudden, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous event requiring the president to play the role of crisis manager. | |
| 299843720 | Budget | A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures). | |
| 299843721 | Deficit | An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues. | |
| 299843722 | Expenditures | Federal spending of revenues. Major ares of such spending are social services and the military. | |
| 299843723 | Revenues | The financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of revenue. | |
| 299843724 | Income Tax | Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income. | |
| 299843725 | Sixteenth Amendment | The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax. | |
| 299843726 | Federal Debt | All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the federal debt is more than what this textbook thinks it is. | |
| 299843727 | Tax Expenditures | Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions on federal tax law. | |
| 299843728 | Social Security Act | A 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty. | |
| 299843729 | Incrementalism | The belief that the best predictor of this year's budget is last year's budget, plus a little bit more. According to Aaron Wildavsky, "Most of the budget is a product of previous decisions." | |
| 299843730 | Uncontrollable Expenditures | Expenditures that are determined not by a fixed amount of money appropriated by Congress but by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program or by previous obligations of the government. | |
| 299843731 | Entitlements | Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients. Social security benefits are an example. | |
| 299843732 | House Ways and Means Committee | The House of Representatives committee that, along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole. | |
| 299843733 | Senate Finance Committee | The Senate committee that, along with the House Ways and Means committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole. | |
| 299843734 | Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 | An act designed to reform the budgetary process. Its supporters hoped that it would also make Congress less dependent on the president's budget and better able to set and meet its own budgetary goals. | |
| 299843735 | Congressional Budget Office (CBO) | Advises congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president's OMB. | |
| 299843736 | Budget Resolution | A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs. | |
| 299843737 | Reconciliation | A congressional process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments. | |
| 299843738 | Authorization Bill | An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs. | |
| 299843739 | Appropriations Bill | An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. Appropriations usually cover one year. | |
| 299843740 | Continuing Resolutions | When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year. | |
| 299843741 | Bureaucracy | According to Max Weber, a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality. Bureaucracies govern modern states. | |
| 299843742 | Patronage | One of the key inducements used by political machines. A patronage job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone. | |
| 299843743 | Pendleton Civil Service Act | Passed in 1883, an Act that created a federal civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage. | |
| 299843744 | Civil Service | A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service. | |
| 299843745 | Merit Principle | The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill. | |
| 299843746 | Hatch Act | A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics. | |
| 299843747 | Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process. | |
| 299843748 | GS (General Schedule) Rating | A schedule for federal employees, ranging from GS 1 to GS 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience. | |
| 299843749 | Senior Executive Service | An elite cadre of about 9,000 federal government managers, established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, who are mostly career officials but include some political appointees who do not require senate confirmation. | |
| 299843750 | Independent Regulatory Agency | A government agency responsible for some sector of the economy, making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest. It also judges disputes over these rules. | |
| 299843751 | Government Corporations | A government organization that, like business corporations, provides a service that could be provided by the private sector and typically charges for its services. The U.S. Postal Service is an example. | |
| 299843752 | Independent Executive Agency | The government not accounted for by cabinet departments, independent regulatory agencies, and government corporations. Its administrators are typically appointed by the president and serve at the president's pleasure. NASA is an example. | |
| 299843753 | Policy Implementation | The stage of policymaking between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people whom it affects. It involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating, ongoing program. | |
| 299843754 | Standard Operating Procedures | Better known as SOPs, these procedures are used by bureaucrats to bring uniformity to complex organizations. Uniformity improves fairness and makes personnel interchangeable. | |
| 299843755 | Administrative Discretion | The authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem. Discretion is greatest when routines, or standard operating procedures, do not fit a case. | |
| 299843756 | Street-level Bureaucrats | A phrase coined by Michael Lipsky, referring to those bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable administrative discretion. | |
| 299843757 | Regulation | The use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector. ______ pervades the daily lives of people and institutions. | |
| 299843758 | Deregulation | The lifting of restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities for which government rules had been established and that bureaucracies had been created to administer. | |
| 299843759 | Command-and-control Policy | According to Charles Schultze, the existing system of regulation whereby government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders. | |
| 299843760 | Incentive System | According to Charles Schultze, a more effective and efficient policy than command-and-control; in the ________, market-like strategies are used to manage public policy. | |
| 299843761 | Executive Orders | Regulations originating from the executive branch. _______ are one method presidents can use to control the bureaucracy. | |
| 299843762 | Iron Triangles | A mutually dependent relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees. Iron triangles dominate some areas of domestic policymaking | |
| 299843763 | Standing to Sue | The requirement that plaintiffs have a serious interest in a case, which depends on whether they have sustained or are likely to sustain a direct and substantial injury from a party or an action of government. | |
| 299843764 | Class Action Suits | Lawsuits permitting a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people similarly situated. | |
| 299843765 | Justiciable Disputes | A requirement that to be heard a case must be capable of being settled as a matter of law rather than on other grounds as is commonly the case in legislative bodies. | |
| 299843766 | Amicus Curiae Briefs | Legal briefs submitted by a "friend of the court" for the purpose of raising additional points of view and presenting information not contained in the briefs of the formal parties. These briefs attempt to influence a court's decision. | |
| 299843767 | Original Jurisdiction | The jurisdiction of courts that hear a case first, usually in a trial. These are the courts that determine the facts about a case. | |
| 299843768 | Appellate Jurisdiction | The jurisdiction of courts that hear cases brought to them on appeal from lower courts. These courts do not review the factual record, only the legal issues involved. | |
| 299843769 | District Courts | The 91 Federal courts of original jurisdiction. They are the only federal courts in which trials are held and in which juries may be impaneled. | |
| 299843770 | Courts of Appeal | Appellate courts empowered to review all final decisions of district courts, except in rare cases. In addition, they also hear appeals to orders of many federal regulatory agencies. | |
| 299843771 | Supreme Court | The pinnacle of the American judicial system. The court ensures uniformity in interpreting national laws, resolves conflicts among states, and maintains national supremacy in law. It has both original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction, but unlike other federal courts, it controls its own agenda. | |
| 299843772 | Senatorial Courtesy | An unwritten tradition whereby nominations for state-level federal judicial posts are not confirmed if they are opposed by a senator of the president's party from the state in which the nominee will serve. The tradition also applies to courts of appeal when there is opposition from the nominee's state senator. | |
| 299843773 | Solicitor General | A presidential appointee and the third-ranking office in the Department of Justice. The ______ is in charge of the appellate court litigation of the federal government. | |
| 299843774 | Opinion | A statement of legal reasoning behind a judicial decision. The content of an opinion may be as important as the decision itself. | |
| 299843775 | Stare Decisis | A Latin phrase meaning "let the decision stand." Most cases reaching the appellate courts are settled on this principle. | |
| 299843776 | Precedents | How similar cases have been decided in the past. | |
| 299843777 | Original Intent | A view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the original intent of the framers. Many conservatives support this view. | |
| 299843778 | Judicial Implementation | How and whether court decisions are translated into actual policy, thereby affecting the behavior of others. The courts rely on other units of government to enforce their decisions. | |
| 299843779 | Marbury v. Madison | The 1803 case in which Chief Justice John Marshall and his associates first asserted the right of the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of the US constitution. The decision established the Court's power of judicial review over acts of Congress, in this case the Judiciary Act of 1789. | |
| 299843780 | Judicial Review | The power of the courts to determine whether acts of Congress and, by implication, the executive are in accord with the U.S. Constitution. Judicial review was established by John Marshall and his associates in Marbury v. Madison. | |
| 299843781 | United States v. Nixon | The 1974 case in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that the doctrine of executive privilege was implicit in the Constitution but could not be extended to protect documents relevant to criminal prosecutions. | |
| 299843782 | Judicial Restraint | A judicial philosophy in which judges play minimal policymaking roles, leaving that duty strictly to the legislatures | |
| 299843783 | Judicial Activism | A judicial philosophy in which judges make bold policy decisions, even charting new constitutional ground. Advocates of this approach emphasize that the courts can correct pressing needs, especially those unmet by the majoritarian political process. | |
| 299843784 | Political Questions | A doctrine developed by the federal courts and used as a means to avoid deciding some cases, principally those involving conflicts between the president and Congress. | |
| 299843785 | Statutory Construction | The judicial interpretation of an act of Congress. In some cases where __________ is an issue, Congress passes new legislation to clarify existing laws. | |
| 299886415 | Capitalism | An economic system in which individuals and corporations, not the government, own the principal means of production and seek profits. | |
| 299886416 | Mixed Economy | An economic system in which the government is deeply involved in economic decisions through its role as regulator, consumer, subsidizer, taxer, employer, and borrower. | |
| 299886417 | Multinational Corporations | Businesses with vast holdings in many countries, many of which have annual budgets exceeding that of many foreign governments. | |
| 299886418 | Securities and Exchange Commission | The federal agency created during the New Deal that regulates stock fraud. | |
| 299886419 | Minimum Wage | The legal minimum hourly wage for large employers. | |
| 299886420 | Labor Unions | An organization of workers intended to engage in collective bargaining. | |
| 299886421 | Collective Bargaining | Negotiations between representatives of labor unions and management to determine pay and acceptable working conditions. | |
| 299886422 | Unemployment Rate | As measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of the labor force actively seeking work but unable to find jobs. | |
| 299886423 | Inflation | The rise in prices for consumer goods. | |
| 299886424 | Consumer Price Index (CPI) | The key measure of inflation that relates the rise in prices over time. | |
| 299886425 | Laissez-faire | The principle that government should not meddle in the economy. | |
| 299886426 | Monetary Policy | The manipulation of the supply of money in private hands by which the government can control the economy. | |
| 299886427 | Monetarism | An economic theory holding that the supply of money is the key to a nation's economic health. Monetarists believe that too much cash and credit in circulation produces inflation. | |
| 299886428 | Federal Reserve System | The main instrument for making monetary policy in the United States. It was created by Congress in 1913 to regulate the lending practices of banks and thus the money supply. | |
| 299886429 | Fiscal Policy | The policy that describes the impact of the federal budget-- taxes, spending, and borrowing-- on the economy. It is almost entirely determined by Congress and the president, who are the budget makers. | |
| 299886430 | Keynesian Economic Theory | The theory emphasizing that government spending and deficits can help the economy weather its normal ups and downs. Proponents of this theory advocate using the power of government to stimulate the economy when it is lagging. | |
| 299886431 | Supply-side Economics | An economic theory, advocated by President Reagan, holding that too much income goes to taxes and too little money is available for purchasing and the solution is to cut taxes and return purchasing power to consumers. | |
| 299886432 | Protectionism | Economic policy of shielding an economy from imports. | |
| 299886433 | World Trade Organization (WTO) | International organization that regulates international trade. | |
| 299886434 | Antitrust Policy | A policy designed to ensure competition and prevent monopoly, which is the control of a market by one company. | |
| 299886435 | Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | The federal agency formed in 1913 and assigned the task of approving all food products and drugs sold in the United States. All drugs, with the exception of tobacco, must have its authorization. | |
| 299886436 | National Labor Relations Act | A 1935 law, also known as the Wagner Act, that guarantees workers the right of collective bargaining, sets down rules to protect unions and organizers, and created the National Labor Relations Board to regulate labor-managment relations. | |
| 299886437 | Social Welfare Policies | Policies that provide benefits to individuals, either through entitlements or means testing. | |
| 299886438 | Entitlement Programs | Government benefits that certain qualified individuals are entitled to by law, regardless of need. | |
| 299886439 | Means-tested Programs | Government programs available only to individuals below a poverty line | |
| 299886440 | Income Distribution | The "shares" of the national income earned by various groups. | |
| 299886441 | Income | The amount of funds collected between any two points in time. | |
| 299886442 | Wealth | The value of assets owned. | |
| 299886443 | Poverty Line | A method used to count the number of poor people, it considers what a family must spend for an "austere" standard of living. | |
| 299886444 | Feminization of Poverty | The increasing concentration of poverty among women, especially unmarried women and their children. | |
| 299886445 | Progressive Tax | A tax by which the government takes a greater share of the income of the rich than the poor. | |
| 299886446 | Proportional Tax | A tax by which the government takes the same share of income from everyone, rich and poor alike. | |
| 299886447 | Regressive Tax | A tax in which the burden falls relatively more heavily on low-income groups than on wealthy taxpayers. The opposite of a progressive tax, in which tax rates increase as income increases. | |
| 299886448 | Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) | A "negative income tax" that provides income to very poor individuals in lieu of charging them federal income taxes. | |
| 299886449 | Transfer Payments | Benefits given by the government directly to individuals. _________ may be either cash transfers, such as Social Security payments and retirement payments to former government employees, or in-kind transfers, such as food stamps and low-interest loans for college education. | |
| 299886450 | Social Security Act of 1935 | Created both the Social Security Program and a national assistance program for poor children, usually called AFDC. | |
| 299886451 | Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) | The official name of the welfare reform law of 1996. | |
| 299886452 | Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) | Once called "Aid to Families with Dependent Children," the new name for public assistance to needy families. | |
| 299886453 | Social Security Trust Fund | The "bank account" into which Social Security contributions are "deposited" and used to pay out eligible recipients. |
