what is congress’ role in the governing process?
lawmaking
If the U.S. House of Representatives chooses to impeach a president, who conducts the trial?
U.S. Senate, Chief Justice Preceding
what is the size of the current House/Senate?
House: 435 members
Senate:100 members
How long are the members of the senate elected for?
6 years
- What are the enumerated powers of Congress as listed in Article I, Section 8?
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like
- What are the different committees?
-Standing Committee- A permanent committee in Congress
-Select Committee- A temporary committee that is formed usually for some sort of investigation or fact finding purpose, can become a permanent committee if ongoing issue.
-Joint Committee- Committee made up of members from the House and Senate
-Conference Committee- A temporary committee made up of members of both the House and Senate to settle the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. This bill is then referred to each house for passage. *Type of Joint Committee ** Purpose is to merge two different versions of a bills into one******
- The idea that representatives ought to “Do what I tell them to do” is an example of what kind of model?
Delegate Theory of Representation
- How can the Senate end a filibuster?
cloture
- A bill has been approved in the House and Senate, albeit in slightly different versions, goes to what committee?
Conference Committee
- The trading of votes between members of Congress so that each gets the legislation he or she wants is called what?
Logrolling (reciprocity)
- What are the term limits for state legislators? (book is outdated on this point)
Assembly- 3 terms (Terms are 2 years so a total of 6 years)
Senate-2 terms (4 year terms so a total of 8 years)
- What is the current number of state senators/assembly members we have in California?
Senate- 40
Assymbly-80
- Which elected official in California has a role in the state senate similar to the Vice President’s role in the U.S. Senate?
President Pro Tempore
- How many individuals does a single California state senator represent?
931,000 people
- Which part(s) of Congress has the power to confirm presidential appointees subject to their “advice and consent”?
US Senate
- What does the Whig theory of the presidency hold?
The theory of restrained presidential powers; the idea that presidents should only use the powers explicitly granted in the Constitution. Under this approach Congress, not the president, would lead the policy process
- What is the formal staff structure of the White House called?
EOP (Executive Office of the President)
- Congress authorized the formal impeachment of what president in the 1800s?
Andrew Johnson (Bill Clinton, Both impeached, never removed from office)
- What is Heclo’s “the illusion of presidential government”?
The perception that the president is in charge of the national government
- How did Theodore Roosevelt change the way we think about the presidency?
Stewardship Theory-a strong president that is limited not by what the Constitutionallows, but by what it prohibits
- What is the rally-round-the-flag effect?
People put differences aside and come together; increase in president support in event crisis.
- What is the unit rule?
All states except Maine and Nebraska grant all their electoral votes as a unit to the candidate who wins the states popular vote
- What are the constitutional war powers granted to the President?
Commander in Chief, Power to use military power in defense of the nation
- The War Powers Act (1973) was enacted in order to do what?
Curb presidential power
- What are the formal qualifications to become President?
35 years old, 14 years resident, natural born citizen
- Who is the only other executive official besides the president created by the Constitution?
Vice President
- Which president first made use of vetoes on policy grounds?
Andrew Jackson
- What are the duties performed by the bureaucracy?
Bureaucrats help to interpret and implement laws
Bureaucrats make rules
Bureaucrats Provide Expert Advice
Bureaucrats Resolve Disputes
- Which Article(s) of the Constitution overtly mention the bureaucracy?
None (Falls under the Executive)
- Amtrak is an example of what kind type of bureaucratic organization?
Government Corporation
- What is the administrative concept of neutral competence?
The theory that employees are hired and retained based on their skills, and is neutral in the sense that employees are not partisan appointees and are expected to be at service to everyone
- How is the spoils system different from the merit system?
Soils System- based on who you know, political patronage
Merit System- Employment in public institution will be based on merit
- What was the Pendleton Act?
Act in 1883 that changed from the spoils system to make jobs in public institutions based on merit
- What methods can Congress use to reign in the Bureaucracy?
Power of the purse (funding)
- What are whistleblowers?
The act of reporting instances of official mismanagement
- Legally, where does the bureaucracy derive general authority for its programs?
Delegated buy Congress
- What are the different determinants of a bureaucrat’s behavior?
Recruitment and retention
Personal attitudes
Roles and mission
Outside forces
- What are the three tiers of bureaucracy?
Operators (frontline workers)
Managers
Executives
- What is “the rule of four”?
It takes 4 justices to agree that a case has merit to be heard before the SCOTUS
- The Supreme Court invoked what clause of the Constitution in rendering a decision for Bush v. Gore (2000)?
14th Amendment equal protection clause
- What is judicial review?
The power to review the constitutionality of a law or decision made by the government
- In what case was judicial review established?
Marbury v. Maddison
- What is precedent?
A judicial decision that serves as a rule for setting subsequent cases similar in nature
- What determines the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court?
The constitution
- What are the three main levels of the federal court system?
Federal District Courts
Appellate Courts (Circuit Courts)
SCOTUS
- A strict constructionist interprets the Constitution based on what?
Using the meaning of original constitution
- What is the term for a party appealing a holding in a case?
Appellant
- The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in legal disputes involving what/who?
Diplomats, Disputes between 2 or more states,
- What is the independent state doctrine of the California Supreme Court?
State constitution can provide for rights that a person may not have in the US Federal Court
- The lowest tier of the California state court system is called what?
Superior Court