Political Science 40 Midterm

• veto


  The formal power of the president to reject bills passed by both houses of Congress. A veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in each house.
• unanimous consent


  A unanimous resolution in the Senate restricting debate and limiting amendments to bills on the floor.
• tyranny of the majority


  Decisions made by a majority place its interests above those of an individual or minority group, constituting active oppression comparable to that of a tyrant or despot.

  In context of the Federalists, they held a fear of tyranny of impassioned majority

  because they believed elites are best to govern, “excessive democracy” bad.
• ticket splitting


  The act of voting for candidates from different political parties for different offices—for example, voting for a Republican for president and a Democrat for senator.
• supermajority


  A majority larger than a simple 51 percent majority, which is required for extraordinary legislative actions such as amending the Constitution or certain congressional procedures. For example, in the Senate sixty votes are required to stop a filibuster.
• status quo bias


  Institutional bias that fundamentally favors continuation of current public policy.
• speaker of the house


  The presiding officer of the House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected at the beginning of each congressional session on a party-line vote. As head of the majority party, the Speaker has substantial control over the legislative agenda of the House.
• separation of powers


  The distribution of government powers among several political institutions. In the United States, at the national level power is divided between the three branches: (legislative) Congress, (executive) the president, and (judicial) the Supreme Court.
• random digit dial poll


  Scientific polling historically relies on random sampling.

  A technique used by pollsters to play telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.

  Selecting people for involvement in telephone statistical surveys by generating telephone numbers at random.
• positive claim


  The realm of facts.

  Vs. the Normative: The realm of values
• prisoner's dilemma


  A situation in which two (or more) actors cannot agree to cooperate for fear that the other will find its interest best served by reneging on an agreement.

  Arises whenever individuals who ultimately would benefit from cooperating with each other also have a powerful and irresistible incentive to break the agreement and exploit the other side.

  Unless participants can trust each other to abide by their commitments, they will not achieve a mutually profitable exchange.
• primary election


  An election held before the general election in which voters decide which of a party's candidates will be the party's nominee for the general election.
• performance voting


  Basing votes for a candidate or party on how successfully the candidate or party performed while in office.
• party identification


  An individual's enduring affective or instrumental attachment to one of the political parties; the most accurate single predictor of voting behavior.
• normative claim


  Normative: The realm of values

  Asserts that such-and-such OUGHT to be the case. Something based on value and what "should" be done rather than what could be done.

  Vs. the Positive Claim: The realm of facts.

  Question normative commitments by questioning their positive underpinning
• necessary and proper clause


  The last clause of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. This clause grants Congress the authority to make all laws that are "necessary and proper" and to execute those laws.
• nationalization of politics


  Claim that people vote in local elections based on their national party preferences (Schleicher 2017); Related to the claim that elections have “nationalized.”

  State and local elections are based on people's preference of the national elections.
• motivated reasoning


  People reason in a way that supports their interests. A “tendency to find arguments in favor of conclusions we want to believe to be stronger than arguments for conclusions we do not want to believe.”

  Related: confirmation bias (tendency to put greater credence)

  Cognitive bias; an emotion-biased decision-making phenomenon, a rationalization process driven by unconscious affective biases.
• latent opinion


  Opinions formed on the spot when they are asked about the subject or only when necessary. Delayed/future opinion voters will have if a certain policy is passed. Important for politicians who desire re-election to consider bc they don't want to vote for something that will make them look bad later.
• judicial review


  The authority of a court to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional and therefore invalid.
• incumbency advantage


  Incumbents possess perks of office that challengers do not possess: Resources such as staff, Brand name, Experience, Power (i.e. to allocate pork),

  Challengers do have some advantages as well: Clean record, Outsider status, Newness (?).

  The advantage that the incumbent (individual currently holding office) candidate has over the challenger candidate. The advantage that accrues to the incumbent beyond party because of. actions the incumbent has taken [personal vote]
• great compromise


  The agreement between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention (1787) that decided the selection and composition of Congress. The compromise stipulated that the lower chamber (House of Representatives) be chosen by direct popular vote and that the upper chamber (Senate) be selected by the state legislatures. Representation in the House would be proportional to a state's population; in the Senate each state would have two members.
• gerrymandering


  Drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party a disproportionately large share of seats for the share of votes its candidates win.

  two types of gerrymandering

  basically drawing the districts and the state legislature draws the districts. it is the state legislators who also split or pack voters.

  can help a party gain seats
• free-rider problem


  A situation in which individuals can receive the benefits from a collective activity whether or not they helped to pay for it, leaving them with no incentive to contribute.
• filibuster


  A tactic used in the Senate to halt action on a bill. It involves making long speeches until the majority retreats. Senators, once holding the floor, have unlimited time to speak unless a cloture vote is passed by three-fifths (sixty) of the members.
• federalist


  Name given to two related, but not identical, groups in late-eighteenth-century American politics. The first group, led by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, supported ratification of the Constitution in 1787 and 1788. Subsequently, Hamilton and John Adams led the second group, the Federalist Party, which dominated national politics during the administrations of George Washington (1789-1797) and Adams (1797-1801).
• executive order

  A presidential directive to an executive agency establishing new policies or indicating how an existing policy is to be carried out.
• enumerated powers

  The explicit powers given to Congress by the Constitution in Article I, Section 8. These include the powers of taxation, coinage of money, regulation of commerce, and provision for the national defense.
• electoral college


  A body of electors in each state, chosen by voters, who formally elect the president and vice president of the United States. Each state's number of electoral votes equals its representation in Congress; the District of Columbia has three votes. An absolute majority of the total electoral vote is required to elect a president and vice president.
• duverger's law


  Plurality or “majoritarian” elections tend to cultivate two-party systems.

  Third parties get tired of losing.

  Voters get tired of “wasting” votes. There is a systematic relationship between electoral systems and party systems, so that plutality single-member district election systems tend to creat two-party system in the legislature, while proportional representation electoral systems generate multiparty systems.
• dominant strategy


  The dominant strategy in game theory refers to a situation where one player has superior tactics regardless of how their opponent may play. A dominant strategy is one that is the best response to any strategy chosen by the other player(s). A dominated strategy gives a lower payoff than some other strategy, no matter what the other player does.
• divided government


  A term used to describe government when one political party controls the executive branch and the other political party controls one or both houses of the legislature.
• conference committee


  A temporary joint committee of the House and Senate appointed to reconcile the differences between the two chambers on a particular piece of legislation.
• confederation


  A political system in which states or regional governments retain ultimate authority except for those powers they expressly delegate to a central government.

  political power vested in a central authority.

  an organization which consists of a number of parties or groups united in an alliance or league.
• condorcet's jury theorem


  The more jurors, the more likely they are to make the right decision. The Wisdom of Crowds. Groups of people can arrive at the “right” decision with very high probability as long as each person’s probability of getting it right is greater than 50%. CIT says that the probability of a majority arriving at the “right answer” becomes close to certain as the number of people increases, even if epsilon is really small.
• commerce clause


  The clause in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution that gives Congress the authority to regulate commerce with other nations and among the states.
• correlation is not causation


  Just because two things correlate does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. Correlation is an association
• collective action


  An action taken by a group of like-minded individuals to achieve a common goal.
• cloture


  A parliamentary procedure used to close debate. Cloture is used in the Senate to cut off filibusters. Under the current Senate rules, three-fifths of senators, or sixty, must vote for cloture to halt a filibuster except on presidential nominations to offices other than Supreme Court justice.
• checks and balances


  A constitutional mechanism giving each branch some oversight and control of the other branches. Examples are the presidential veto, Senate approval of presidential appointments, and judicial review of presidential and congressional actions.