American Government Final Exam Review Sheet

American Government Final Exam Review Sheet Judiciary Precedent & Stare decisis Precedent: A court decision that is considered as authority for deciding subsequent cases involving identical or similar facts, or similar legal issues. - Stare Decisis: The legal principle of determining points in litigation according to the precedent Criminal law, civil law, and plea bargain - Criminal Law: A system of law concerned with the punishment of those who commit crimes - Civil Law: The system of law concerned with private relations between members of a community rather than criminal, military, or religious affairs - Plea Bargain: Agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant that the defendant will plead guilty to a lesser offense to avoid having to stand trial for a more serious offense Trial court, appellate courts, and courts of last resort - Trail Court: Courts that listen to testimony, consider evidence, and decide the facts in a disputed situation - Appellate Courts: Court concerned with or dealing with applications for decisions to be reversed - Courts of Last Resort: Highest judicial body within a jurisdiction’s court system; Court with highest appellate authority, meaning that its rulings are not subject to further review by another court Number of Justices on the Supreme Court and how this is determined - 9 total Justices on the Supreme Court - The justices are appointed by the President, but have to be approved by a 2/3 vote of the Senate Which Article of the Constitution grants the Supreme Court power - Article III, Section I grants power to the Supreme Court How many tiers make up the federal court system and who is responsible for creating lower courts - 3 tiers make up the federal court system - In the Constitution, Congress has the power to establish lower/inferior courts Where did the Supreme Court meet in the early years? Where does it meet now? - Supreme Court originally met in New York City during their early years - The Supreme Court now meets in Washington D.C. Types of jurisdictions - The types of jurisdictions are Appellate, Exclusive, and Original How many cases do courts hear (on average) in a given year? Which court hears the most cases? - The courts hear an average of 100-150 cases a year, most cases tend to be Federal Judicial Review and Marbury v. Madison - - Judicial Review is the procedure by which a court can review an administrative action by a Public Body - Marbury v. Madison is the court case that established the principle of “Judicial Review” Weaknesses of the Supreme Court; enforcing rulings, reactionary - The Supreme Court has no power to enforce its decisions. - It cannot call out the troops or compel Congress or the president to obey. - The Court relies on the executive and legislative branches to carry out its rulings. - In some cases, the Supreme Court has been unable to enforce its rulings. - Reactionary: A person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo Cases the Supreme Court is most likely to consider; how many petitioned cases they consider a year - The Court will hear cases to resolve a conflict of law - The Court will hear cases that are of great public importance - The Court hears cases when lower courts ignore Supreme Court precedent - There are 7,00-8,000 petitioned cases they consider each year Supreme Court and lower court decisions; writ of certiorari, rule of four, amicus curiae briefs, briefs - Writ of certiorari: The primary means to petition the court for review is to ask it to grant a writ of certiorari. This is a request that the Supreme Court order a lower court to send up the record of the case for review - Rule of four: Practice of granting a petition for review only if there are at least four votes to do so - Amicus curiae briefs: Brings to the attention of the Court relevant matter not already brought to its attention by the parties may be of considerable help to the Court - Briefs: Written documents in which the attorneys in a case present their legal arguments to the court Oral arguments and time allotted for them - Attorneys for both sides appear before the Court to present their positions and answer justices’ questions - Each attorney has a half hour to present a case - Includes interruptions for questions - Oral arguments can be important to the outcome of the case Conference, deliberation and voting, Chief Justice and the tie breaking vote - Conference: A conversation where the parties or their attorneys have a chance to discuss the case and specifically address the prospects of settlement with the judge, the judge's law clerk, or the court attorney - Deliberation: Process by which a jury in a trial in court discusses in private the findings of the court and decides with which argument to agree upon - Tie breaking vote: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided Opinions; majority, dissent, concurring - Opinion writing (Majority) After a decision is reached, one justice in the majority is assigned to write the opinion When chief justice is not in the majority, then most senior justice in the majority assigns the opinion to a justice - Once the majority opinion has been drafted, it is circulated to the other justices - Dissent - Justices who disagree with majority may choose to publicize their disagreement in a dissenting opinion - Possible reasons for writing a dissenting opinion - May be used to express irritation with the outcome - May be done to signal to the defeated side that their position did have some support - May be done to persuade a swing justice to join their side on the next round of cases dealing with a similar topic - Concurring: An opinion that agrees with the majority opinion but does not agree with the rationale behind it The attorney general, solicitor general - Attorney General: The top legal officers of their state or territory - Solicitor General: To supervise and conduct government litigation in the United States Supreme Court Appointing justices to the Supreme Court and removing them; Senate approval, partisan debate in recent - Federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate o They are generally selected from state court judges or state or local prosecutors - The procedure follows the norm of senatorial courtesy o Practice whereby the president seeks an indication that senators from the judicial nominee’s state support the nomination Federal court appointments - Federal judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate Qualifications for Justices and their past experience - There are no formal qualifications for service as a federal judge o Legal experience, good character, and views that align with the president’s are rough criteria for selection - Senators in the party opposing the president often work to block the president’s judicial nominations to the federal courts o This often includes intense partisan struggle over U.S. Supreme Court nominees Senatorial courtesy - Presidential appointments are confined Judicial restraint and judicial activism - Judicial Restraint: The refusal to exercise judicial review to the process of ordinary politics - Judicial Activism: The exercise of the power of judicial review to set aside government acts Public Opinion Political values: from where they originate, what impacts them Political Values: Beliefs about basic orientations to politics Average citizens do not always have vast information about issues or elections yet they can form opinions about such matters Political ideology; liberal, conservative - Political Ideology: A set of beliefs that form a general philosophy about government - Liberals believe governmental intervention in the economy, more economic equality, expansion of federal social services, and greater concern for consumers and environment - Conservatives support the social and economic status quo, are suspicious of efforts to introduce new political formulae, and believe that a large and powerful government poses a threat to citizens freedom Attitude consistency/inconsistency - Political opinions are unstable over time - Difficulty of staying informed - Political knowledge comes with a cost - People often use shortcuts Reasons for unstable political views - Americans are fickle and that their responses to survey questions may even be random. - The amount of effort required to stay highly informed o Jobs, families, and other responsibilities - The costs associated with being politically knowledgeable o Time, energy, and resources - Plenty of shortcuts that people can take to make decisions in the absence of full information. o Party identification Political knowledge; levels of political knowledge in the general public, trends over time - Zaller’s work points to the importance of political knowledge o The decision to accept or reject information is based on political knowledge o Citizens with more political knowledge can differentiate between information that does and does not fit with their beliefs o Less informed citizens are more influenced by media and politicians o Public opinion is often unstable and unreliable Political shortcuts and cues; examples of political shortcuts - Many people rely on “shortcuts” and “cues” - o Get information from trusted party elites, interest groups, media, family, friends, social media, and similar sources  Many people also just “skim and scan” the news - Ex: Receiving advice from family members or taking the suggestions of friends. Political socialization; sources or “agents” - Political Socialization: Process through which underlying political beliefs and values are formed - There are “agents of socialization”: Social institutions, including families and schools, that help to shape individuals’ basic political beliefs and values Partisanship and party identification - Partisanship: Prejudice in favor of a particular cause; bias - Party Identification: Refers to the political party with which an individual identifies Public opinion polls - A human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample John Zaller - Challenged the idea that voters only have one true preference The effect of political leaders, private groups, and the media on public opinion - Political leaders - Presidential administrations have an enormous capacity to shape public opinion o Stress certain issues and not others o Influence how departments depict issues o Use the “bully pulpit” o The media and the public will turn their attention to issues that the presidential administration advances - Private groups o Include interest groups, churches, community organizations o Have a very deep and wide reach into society o Deploy specific information effectively o Can communicate messages broadly to reach like-minded individuals easily - Media o Effective at telling Americans what issues are important o Can frame what it means for a politician to be successful o Can sometimes shape how people understand the meaning of a conflict Accuracy and trustworthiness of public opinion polls - Internet surveys have become increasingly common - Advantages o More efficient, less costly o More accurate results within age cohorts - Disadvantages o Most online surveys do not use random sampling; Not representative of the U.S. population Population, sample size, random sample, margin of error - Polling must meet certain requirements Random sample: a method used by pollsters to select a representative sample o Every individual in a population has an equal probability of being selected as a respondent o Random-digit dialing generates a random sample; Selects respondents at random from a list of 10-digit telephone numbers - Other requirements - Sample size: a sample must be large enough to provide an accurate representation of the population - All samples have a sampling error (a margin of error) o A polling error that arises based on the small size of a sample Question-ordering effects, question-wording effects - Proper survey design must consider question wording - Question wording can generate measurement error o Survey questions must be worded precisely, or this can jeopardize the reliability of the survey results - Reliability of results can be affected by o Poor question format; faulty ordering of questions o Poor vocabulary; ambiguity of questions o Questions with built-in biases Selection bias and social desirability - Selection Bias: Arises when a sample is not representative of the population being studied; Creates errors in overrepresenting or underrepresenting some opinions - Social Desirability: When respondents to a survey report what they expect the interviewer wishes to hear rather than what they believe Bandwagon effect, push polling - Bandwagon Effect: Polling technique in which questions are designed to shape the respondent’s opinion - Push Polling: Shift in electoral support to the candidate that public opinion polls report is the front-runner Relationship between public opinion and policymaking - Policymaking: The process of formulating policies, especially in politics - People use the results from polling for public opinion to make new policies accommodating the public opinion Politicians and the case for using/relying on public opinion polls - Where to campaign, likelihood of winning, strongest and weakest points The Media Public evaluation of media; credibility, sources of credibility Process of preparing the public to bring specific criteria to mind when evaluating politicians or issue - Calls attention to some matters while ignoring others - - Shapes how the public evaluates leaders Determines who will get media attention, who will be taken seriously, who will be viable candidates Ethical media behavior - Promotes and defends values such as a universal respect for life and the rule of lawpl History/periods of journalism - Digital Journalism - Rise of niche journalism - The last decade has seen an increase in reporting devoted to targeted audiences based on content or ideological presentation - Americans have shifted from getting news from a few general-purpose sources to a large number of niche publications o Now they turn increasingly to more than one source for information on politics, sports, weather, and so on - Citizen Journalism - Journalism is no longer exclusive to professional journalists - Citizen journalism: a key feature of digital media - News is reported and distributed by ordinary citizens o development made possible by the wide availability of cameras on cell phones, used to film events o also enhanced by the ease of starting a blog - Citizen journalists supplement the work of professional journalists - Adversarial Journalism - The media are more adversarial than ever before - Nineteenth century: newspapers were subordinate to political parties o Their financial survival was controlled by party leaders - Twentieth century: newspapers were financially independent o Development of commercial advertising o Led to a nonpartisan press - The Vietnam War led to adversarial journalism Early newspapers in the U.S., partisan era of the press, yellow journalism, muckraking - The Partisan Press Era: 1789 to 1860 - By the 1780s, newspapers were relatively commonplace, with several daily papers providing relevant and current information to readers - Political parties had taken root and were shaping the political debate - Parties that grew from these philosophical movements established their own newspapers - Papers often presented information from a partisan perspective - Era of Sensationalism: 1860 to 1920 - New methods of printing brought down the publishing costs and permitted mass distribution of daily papers - Newspaper presses began to cater to the public o Yellow journalism: Journalists exaggerated or even fabricated news stories to attract readers o Muckraking: Journalism focused on exposing corruption in government or industry o Newspapers also included color comic strips, images, advertising, games, and contests to appeal to those with low literacy levels Post-yellow journalism, professional standards - The Professional Era: 1920 to 1972 - Muckraking led to public discontent with the political climate, which lacked transparency, accountability, and professionalism - The news industry developed ethical standards to guide journalistic practices - Focus on professionalism increased readership and profits Journalism schools - Major schools of journalism turned to training professional editors and reporters - Columbia and Northwestern University established schools by 1915 - Professionally trained editors would enjoy autonomy from corporate ownership and could select stories based on quality instead of profits Investigative journalism; influence on politics, Watergate - Watchdog Journalism: 1973 to 1991 - Journalism after the Watergate Scandal - Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post - Media adopting a much more aggressive and critical posture toward government’ - The press came to view its role as providing not just neutral coverage but adversarial oversight (The “Fourth Branch”). Media and “infotainment”; advantages and disadvantages - The Era of Infotainment: 1992 to the Present - Due to traditional outlets struggling to retain viewership, there has been a shift in journalism toward entertainment o Television programs such as The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight tackle political and pop culture news through satire o MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight combine daily news with bombastic editorializing - Opponents argue that infotainment may neglect factual accuracy and make light of serious political and policy issues - Advocates argue that infotainment may attract audiences that would otherwise ignore the news Framing, priming, and agenda setting; effects on public opinion - Three ways media influence public opinion - Agenda setting and selection bias: direct attention to specific topics - Framing: influences how events are interpreted - Priming: shapes how the audience evaluates leaders, events, or issues Telecommunications Act of 1996, media conglomerates - Lawmakers intended the Act to open up competition among local and national telecommunications companies. o Removing regulatory barriers o Concerns over local monopolies o Allow for affordable access to advanced telecommunications technology (hello information superhighway) - The Act also was aimed at helping schools, libraries, and hospitals gain/provide access to the internet by the end of the 90s. - The reduced regulations allowed corporations to merge and consolidate. - Made possible the rise media monopolies. - Diminished presence of and space for independent media sources. Niche journalism - Rise of niche journalism - The last decade has seen an increase in reporting devoted to targeted audiences based on content or ideological presentation o Examples: Huffington Post, Vice, Buzzfeed, Gawker, Drudge Report - Americans have shifted from getting news from a few general-purpose sources to a large number of niche publications - Now they turn increasingly to more than one source for information on politics, sports, weather, and so on Factors in media persuasion - Message - Source - Recipient - Channel - Context News aggregators; personalized, next generation, positives/negatives, and the Associated Press - Major changes to media with the rise of the Internet - Parallels the impact of the penny press in the nineteenth century o Penny press: cheap, tabloid style newspaper that became inexpensive due to the steam-powered printing press - Today, age groups below 50 rely heavily on online news - Aggregators - A website or software application that gathers together information from a variety of internet sources. - RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) - An application that allows users to receive information from a website without visiting that site. - Online media have created a participatory press - Readers post comments online, upload video, and participate in politics and culture online - Digital citizenship o Ability to participate in society and politics online o Disparities in Internet access according to age, race and ethnicity, and income  digital divide: gap in access to the Internet among demographic groups Fake news, confirmation bias, selective exposure - Fake news: False or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity or making money through advertising revenue. - Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values - Selective Exposure: The phenomenon whereby people choose to focus on information in their environment that is congruent with and confirms their current attitudes Equal time, Fairness Doctrine - Equal time rule: Broadcasters must provide candidates for political office with equal opportunities to communicate their message - “Equal time” refers to paid advertising and they only need to offer to sell the time. - Fairness Doctrine (defunct as of 1985): Broadcasters airing programs on controversial views required to provide time for opposing views. Voting and Elections Elections; general, mid-term, primary/caucus General election: follows the primary elections and determines who is ultimately elected to office - Midterm elections: congressional elections that do not coincide with a presidential election - Primary election: an election held to select a party’s candidate for the general election o Closed primary: only voters of the party in which they are enrolled can participate o Open primary: all registered voters, including independents, can participate - The Supreme Court has determined that parties serve a public and, indeed, quasi government purpose, so their primaries fall under election law. - A caucus is a meeting of voters to choose the party’s candidate Elections; plurality, majority, proportional - Plurality system: the winner is the candidate who earns the most votes (but not necessarily a majority) - Majority system: the winner must receive an absolute majority of all votes cast; include a provision for a runoff election - Proportional Elections: Divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical and political divisions of the electorate. Primaries; open/closed - Open Primary: A primary election in which voters are not required to declare party affiliation - Closed Primary: Only voters registered with a given party can vote in that party's primary - Voting; straight-ticket, split-ticket Straight-ticket voting is the practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot - Split-ticket voting is when a voter in an election vote for candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election Campaigns; grassroots, mass media, micro-targeting - Grassroots campaign: People intensive: requires volunteers to knock on doors, organize rallies, etc. - Mass media campaign: Money intensive: relies on TV, radio, and newspaper - Micro-Targeting: Designs campaign ads and messages for specific demographic groups of voters Direct democracy; referendum, ballot initiative - Ballot initiative: Proposed law or policy change that is placed on the ballot by citizens or interest groups for a popular vote - Referendum: Law proposed by a legislature that is referred to the public for a vote of approval or rejection - Recall elections: allows voters to remove state officials from office before their term expires o 11 states have recall elections Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act - Main Provisions: - Ban on unrestricted money or “soft money” donations made directly to political parties o Soft money: that contributes to general political activities and not candidates - Limits on advertising that unions, corporations, and non-profits can engage in 60 days prior to an election - Restrictions on political parties’ funding for advertising on behalf of candidates Buckley v. Valeo (1976) - A case in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld federal limits on campaign contributions and ruled that spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech. The court also stated candidates can give unlimited amounts of money to their own campaigns. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) - Question on the application of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act o In the prior cases, the Court had held that political speech may be banned based on the speaker's corporate identity. - By a 5-to-4 vote: Under the First Amendment corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited o The majority maintained that political speech is indispensable to a democracy which is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation. Campaign funding; PACs, Super PACs, 527, 501(c)(4) - PACs: Political Action Committee; Formed by a special interest group to raise money for their favorite political candidates - - Super PACs: Engage by making independent expenditures only (no contributions to candidates); There are no limits on donations to, or spending by, Super PACs; Super PACs are required to disclose donors’ names - 527: Engage in issue advocacy; No limits on donations to them, must disclose donors; Political activities are their primary purpose; Do not expressly advocate election/defeat of candidates (Citizens United, America Votes); Cannot coordinate with campaigns - 501©(4): Two classifications: social welfare organizations and local association of employees; No limits on donations to them; “Dark Money”: no disclosure requirement of donors if there is no campaign coordination; Political activities not their primary purpose; May not spend more than ½ their revenue on politics Voter influences at the polls; prospective and retrospective voting - Prospective voting: Voter behavior that evaluates candidates based on forecasts of their future political behavior. - Retrospective voting: Voter behavior that evaluates candidates based on their experience or past performance. Political Parties Political parties; defined, two-party system Political Parties: An organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country’s elections - Two-Party System: Party identification - Party identification refers to an individual voter’s psychological ties to a certain party - Most independents “lean” toward one of major parties - Party attachments formed in youth are likely to last - Many voters rely on partisanship in local races - Party activists are the strongest party identifiers – contribute time and energy Party polarization - Is when political parties move farther away from each other ideologically and also move away from the center Party platforms - A formal set of principle goals which are supported by a political party Party control of government, divided government - If Congress is controlled by the opposition party, then gridlock and delay rather than cooperation are common Party Systems; eras of party systems, dominant parties of those eras and what interests they represented - Party Systems are characterized by competition among political parties Party machines; patronage - The support given by a patron Party realignment; “Southern Strategy” - - Party Realignment: The displacement of the majority party by the minority party, usually during critical election periods - “Southern Strategy”: Third parties; place in the two-party system, influence on platforms and policy outcomes - Represent social and economic interests not voiced by two major parties - Exist mainly as a protest movement against major parties - Potential influence in pushing two parties to address their issues, if they are taken seriously by voters and media - Significant structural obstacles make it hard for third (or more) parties to get on the ballot - Registration fees, petition requirements - “Ranked-choice” (“instant-runoff”) voting: an option that may help minor parties