“American Politics Today” Textbook Study Guide
Table of Contents
I) Part 1: Foundations
a) Understanding American Politics (pg 2)
1) Key Terms pg 25
2) Main Points pg 24
b) The Constitution and the Founding (pg 26)
1) Key Terms pg 62
2) Main Points pg 61
c) Federalism (pg 64)
1) Key Terms pg 97
2) Main Points pg 96
d) Civil Liberties (pg 98)
1) Key Terms pg 140
2) Main Points pg 139
II) Part 2: Politics
a) Public Opinion (pg 142)
1) Key Terms pg 182
2) Main Points pg 182
b) The Media (pg 184)
1) Key Terms pg 216
2) Main Points pg 215
c) Political Parties (pg 218)
1) Key Terms pg 255
2) Main Points pg 254
d) Elections (pg 256)
1) Key Terms pg 306
2) Main Points pg 305
e) Interest Group (pg 308)
1) Key Terms pg 344
2) Main Points pg 345
III) Institutions
a) Congress (pg 346)
1) Key Terms pg 391
2) Main Points pg 390
b) The Presidency (pg 392)
1) Key Terms pg 427
2) Main Points pg 426
c) The Bureaucracy (pg 428)
1) Key Terms pg 463
2) Main Points pg 462
d) The Courts (pg 464)
1) Key Terms pg 306
2) Main Points pg 305
IV) Part 4: Policy
a) Civil Rights (pg 508)
1) Key Terms pg 554
2) Main Points pg 553
b) Economic Policy (pg 556)
1) Key Terms pg 595
2) Main Points pg 594
c) Social Policy (pg 596)
1) Key Terms pg 632
2) Main Points pg 632
d) Foreign Policy (pg 634)
1) Key Terms pg 673
2) Main Points pg 674
Chapter 2: The Constitution and the Founding
I) Conflict at the Constitutional Convention
a) Aims included popular control of government through republican
democracy, rejection of monarchy, and limitations on government to prevent
tyranny
II) Articles of Confederation: The First Attempt at Government
1) Government is limited
2) Written in 1776
3) Formally ratified in 1781
4) No Federal Judicial branch
5) Week Executive branch
6) Amendments require all states approve
7) 9 out of 13 states approval to pass legislation which is inefficient
8) Unicameral legislature
*Chart on Pg. 31
b) Political Theories of the Farmers
1) Republicanism
2) Equality, Self rule, Natural rights
3) Inspired by Baron de Montesquieu
c) Human Nature and its Implication for Democracy
d) Economic Interests
III) The Politics of Compromise at the Constitutional Convention
a) Majority Rule vs. Minority Rights
b) Small States vs. Large States
c) Legislative Power vs. Executive Power
d) National Power vs. State and Local Power
e) Slave States vs. Nonslave States
IV) Ratification
V) The Constitution: A Frame Work for Government
a) A Exclusive Powers
1) Checks and Balances
b) Shared Powers
c) Negative or Checking Powers
VI) The Question of Relevance: Is the Constitution a “Living Document”
a) Turning a blind eye
b) Ambiguity
c) Changing the Constitution
d) Multiple Interpreters
VII) Conclusion
Key Terms
1. Anti-Federalists
2. Articles of Confederation
3. Bill of Rights
4. Commerce Clause
5. Consent of the Government
6. Constitutional Levitation
7. Enumerated Powers
8. Executive Powers Clause
9. Federalist Paper
10. Federalists
11. Great Compromise
12. Impeachment
13. Implied Power
14. Judicial Review
15. Monarchy
16. National Supremacy Clause
17. Natural Rights
18. Necessary and Proper Clause
19. New Jersey Plan
20. Pluralism
21. Power of the Purse
22. Republican Democracy
23. Republicanism
24. Reserved Powers
25. Three-fifths Compromise
26. Virginia Plan
Chapter 3: Federalism
I) What is Federalism?
a) Federalism in comparative perspective
II) Balancing National and State Power in the Constitution
III) The Evolving Concept of Federalism
a) Federalism in the early years
1) Establishing National Supremacy
b) Dual Federalism
c) Cooperative Federalism
IV) Federalism Today
a) Cooperative Federalism lives on
1) Grants in aid and fiscal Federalism
b) National Supremacy Rights
1) The rise of Coervice Federalism
c) The States fight back
V) Fighting for States’ Rights: The Role of the Modern Supreme Court
a) The 10th Amendment
b) The 14th Amendment
c) The Commerce Clause
VI) Assessing Federalism
Key Terms
1. Block Grants
2. Categorical Grants
3. Coercive Federalism
4. Commerce Clause Powers
5. Competitive Federalism
6. Concurrent Powers
7. Confederal Government
8. Cooperative Federalism
9. Doctrine of Interposition
10. Dual Federalism
11. Federal Preemption
12. Fiscal Federalism
13. Full Faith and Credit Clause
14. General Revenue Sharing (GRS)
15. Picket Fence Federalism
16. Privileges and Immunities Clause
17. Remedial Legislation
18. States’ Rights
19. States Sovereign Immunity
20. Unfunded Mandates
21. Unitary Government
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
I) Civil Liberties: Balancing interests and drawing lines
1) The Supreme Court must “draw a line” between permissible and illegal
conduct concerning a specific liberty
b) Balancing Interests
1) Courts must balance interests between different parties
c) Drawing Lines
II) The Origins of Civil Liberties
a) Origins of the Bill of Rights
b) Civil Liberties before the Civil War
c) Selective incorporation and the 14th Amendment
III) Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and the Press
a) Protected expression
IV) Freedom of Religion
a) The Establishment Clause and Separation of Church and State
b) The Free Exercise Clause
V) The Right to Bear Arms
VI) Law, Order, and the Rights of Criminal Defendants
a) The 4th Amendment
1) Unreasonable searchs and seizures
b) The 5th Amendment
1) Self-Incrimination
c) The 6th Amendment
1) The right to legal counsel and a trial by jury
d) The 8th Amendment
1) Cruel and Unusual Punishment
VII) Privacy Rights
Key Terms
1. Civil Liberties
2. Civil War Amendments
3. Due Process Clause
4. Selection Incorporation
5. Clear and Present Danger Test
6. Direct Incitement Test
7. Symbolic Speech
8. Hate Speech
9. Prior Restraint
10. Gag Order
11. Fighting Words
12. Slander and Libel
13. Commercial Speech
14. Miller Test
15. Establishment Clause
16. Free Exercise Clause
17. Due Process Rights
18. Exclusionary Rule
19. Miranda Rights
20. Double Jeopardy
21. Privacy Rights
Chapter 5: Public Opinion
I) What is Public Opinion?
a) Early theories of Public Opinion
b) The new theory of Public Opinion
1) Describing Public Opinion
2) Many opinions are latent
II) Where do opinions come from?
a) Socialization
1) Family’s &communities
2) Events
3) Group Identity
4) Politicians and other political actors
III) Measuring Public Opinion
a) Problems measuring public opinion
b) The accuracy of public opinion
c) How useful are surveys?
IV) Characteristics of American Public Opinion
a) Ideological Polarization
b) Evaluations of Government and officeholders
c) Policy Preferences
1) Iraq and Afghanistan
2) Terrorism
3) Economic Conditions
4) Healthcare
5) Immigration
6) Global Warming
7) Social Issues
V) Does Public Opinion Matter?
Key Terms
1. Considerations
2. Ideological Polarization
3. Issue Scale
4. Latent Opinion
5. Level of Conceptualization
6. Liberal-Conservative Ideology
7. Mass Survey
8. Policy Mood
9. Political Socialization
10. Population
11. Public Opinion
12. Random Sample
13. Sample
14. Sampling Error
Chapter 6: The Media
I) The new media in America
a) History of the news media in America
1) The Early days
2) Penny Press, Yellow Journalism, Muckrakers
3) New technologies and Federal regulation
4) Deregulation
b) Media Sources
1) Print Media
(i) Newspapers, Magazines, Books
2) Television
3) Radio
4) Internet
c) Are all media the same?
II) What difference does the Internet make?
III) How Political reporters work
a) Sources, leaks, and shield laws
1) Staging the news
2) Revealing sources
IV) How do Americans use the media to learn about Politics?
a) Media usage trends
b) Does the source matter?
V) Studying the impact of media coverage on American citizens and Government
policy
a) How media coverage affects public policy
b) Is media coverage biased?
VI) Assessing Media coverage of American politics
a) One reason why media coverage falls short; market forces
Key Terms
1. Attack Journalism
2. Broadcast Media
3. By-product Theory
4. Concentration
5. Cross-Ownership
6. Equal Time Provision
7. Fairness Doctrine
8. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
9. Filtering
10. Framing
11. Hard News
12. Horse Race
13. Hostile Media Phenomenon
14. Investigate Journalists
15. Leak
16. Mainstream Media
17. Mass Media
18. Media Conglomerates
19. Media effects
20. News Cycle
21. Off the Record
22. On Background
23. Penny Press
24. Press Conference
25. Prime Time
26. Priming
27. Shield Laws
28. Slant
29. Soft News
30. Wire Service
31. Yellow Journalism
Chapter 7: Political Parties
I) Political Parties
A) Includes the party organization, the party in government, and the party in the
electorate
B) Political parties have changed over time, which supports the idea that they aren’t
inevitable.
C) Parties look and act as they do because many politicians, activists, and citizens
support particular party features.
D) Realignments, which are rare because they occur only when a new crosscutting
issue or set of issues captures the attention of a large number of citizens and
politicians. Define the issues that separate American political parties, determine
the balance of power between the [arties, and lead to changes in government
policy.
II) Modern American Political Parties
A) The Republican and Democratic Party organizations consist of thousands of
groups at the national, state, and local levels, some of which are only informally
connected to their party, which are not hierarchical.
B) Public face of political parties: Congress and President, who were elected as party
affiliated candidates and influence legislative strategy.
C) The Party in the electorate consists of voters who identify with a political party.
III) The Role of Political Parties in American Politics
A) They recruit and train candidates and provide ballot access, campaign cash, and a
brand name.
B) In government party groups set the legislative agenda, coordinate action across
the branches of the federal government, and give voters a way to reward and
punish officeholders for government performance.
C) The way party organizations operate is shaped by the way they are organized and
particularly by the distinction between the party in government and the party
organization.
IV) Minor Parties
A) Minor political parties offer citizens additional candidates and platforms to vote
for, but they only rarely elect candidates to national political office.
B) Minor parties face significant legal hurdles to getting their candidates on the
ballot. Moreover, would- be candidates often find that their chances of winning
are better if they run for a major-party nomination.
V) Political Parties and Democracy
A) The actions taken inside party organizations, parties in government, and parties in
the electorate shape both election outcomes and policy outcomes in Washington
D.C.
B) American political parties are not organized as hierarchies; party leaders cannot
control how their candidate’s campaign or what their elected officials to in office.
The party also cannot force citizen members to support the party’s candidates in
elections.
C) As a result, while many people expect political parties to work to simplify
elections and streamline the policy process in government, the individuals inside
these organizations often lack the means or the incentive to do so.
Key Terms
1. Activists
2. Backbenchers
3. Brand names
4. Caucus [congressional]
5. Caucus [electoral]
6. Conditional party government
7. Conference
8. Crosscutting
9. Dealignment
10. Divided government
11. Duverger’s law
12. 527 organization
13. National Committee
14. New Deal Coalition
15. Nodes
16. Nominating convention
17. Parties in service
18. Party coalitions
19. Party identification [party i.d.]
20. Party in government
21. Party in power
22. Party in the electorate
23. Party organization
24. Party platform
25. Party principle
26. Party system
27. Plurality voting
28. Polarized
29. Political action committee [PAC]
30. Political machine
31. Primary
32. Responsible parties
33. Running tally
34. Single-member districts
35. Spoils System
Chapter 8: Elections
I)
Elections and Democracy
A) American national elections allow voters to select members of Congress, the
president, and the vice president, and they create a mechanism for holding these
elected officials accountable for their behavior in office.
B) The American political system is a representative democracy: Americans do not
make policy choices themselves, but they vote for the individuals who get to
make their choices.
II) Election Operation
A) American presidential elections are a two-step process: in primary elections and
caucuses, candidates secure the party’s nominations, and in the general election
officeholders are chosen.
B) Candidates for the House and Senate compete in single-member districts, with the
winner decided using plurality (in some cases majority) voting. Presidential
elections are decided by the Electoral College vote.
C) Election outcomes are shaped by who runs and how those people campaign—but
also by the rules that govern electoral competition.
III) Electoral Campaigns
A) Strategizing for the next election begins the day after the last election, as would
be candidates, party leaders, and interest group staff begin to interpret the election
results and decide where to concentrate their efforts in the upcoming contests.
B) Most incumbents work to secure their reelection throughout the entire election
cycle. These efforts are known as the permanent campaign.
C) During the campaign, candidates try to build name recognition, mobilize
supporters, and publicize their campaign platform. Other important tactics
include emphasizing their knowledge of and sympathy to voters’ concerns and
going negative against their opponent.
IV) Voter Decision
A) The decision to vote is driven by a citizen’s sense of obligation; the closeness of
the election and a citizen’s preferences between the candidates has relatively little
to do with the decision.
B) Very few people are issue voters who are well-informed about candidates, issues,
and the election. The average voter uses a series of simple but powerful cues to
make vote decisions.
C) During normal elections, voters tend to use cutes that focus attention on
individual candidates and their performances in office.
V) Elections Matter
A) Elections matter because candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties
stand for different things and behave differently in office.
B) Most citizens are not policy experts, but they cast reasonable votes.
C) Elections also create a way for citizens to hold their elected officials accountable
for their behavior in office.
D) Many of the seemingly irrational features of American elections are the product of
sensible behavior by candidates, citizens, and other political actors.
Key Terms
1. Absentee ballot
2. Attack ads
3. Campaign platform
4. Caucus [electoral]
5. Challenger
6. Closed primary
7. Coattails
8. Delegates
9. Election cycle
10. Electoral college
11. Electoral vote
12. Federal Election Commission
13. Frontloading
14. General election
15. GOTV
16. Ground game
17. Hard money
18. Incumbent
19. Issue voters
20. Majority voting
21. Mobilization
22. Nationalized election
23. Nomination
24. Normal election
25. Open primary
26. Open seat
27. Opposition research
28. Paradox of voting
29. Party ratio
30. Permanent campaign
31. Plurality voting
32. Political business cycle
33. Popular vote
34. Primary
35. Proportional allocation
36. Push polling
37. Reasonable vote
38. Regional primaries
39. Retail politics
40. Retrospective evaluation
41. Runoff election
42. Seat shift
43. Soft money
44. Split ticket
45. Superdelegates
46. Swing states
47. Turnout
48. Undervote
49. Voting cues
50. Wholesale politics
51. Winner-take-all
Chapter 9: Interest Groups
I) The Interest Group Universe
a) The business of lobbying
b) Types of interest groups
c) Organizational structures
d) Staff
e) Membership
f) Resources
II) Getting Organized
a) The logic of collective action
III) Interest Group Strategies
a) Inside Strategies
b) Outside Strategies
c) Choosing Strategies
IV) How much power do interest groups have?
a) What determines when interest groups succeed?
V) Does money buy policy outcomes?
Key Terms
1. Astroturf Lobbying
2. Centralized Groups
3. Citizen Group
4. Coercion
5. Collective Action Problem
6. Confederation
7. Direct Lobbying
8. Economic Group
9. 501 (c) (3) Organization
10. 527 Organization
11. Free Riding
12. Grass Roots Lobbying
13. Initiative
14. Interest Groups
15. Solidary Benefits
16. Interest Group State
17. Latent
18. Lobbying
19. Mass Association
20. Outside Strategies
21. Peak Assocation
22. Political Action Committee
23. Prisoners Dilemma
24. Purposive Benefits
25. Referendum
26. Revolving Door
27. Salience
28. Selective Incentives
29. Single-Issue Groups
30. Taking the Late Train
31. Trade Association
Chapter 10: Congress
I) Congress’s Place in Our Constitutional System
II) Congress and the People
a) Representation and the Constituency
b) The Electoral Connection
c) Redistricting
III) Congress Image Problem
IV) The Incumbency Advantage and Its Sources
a) In the District: Home Style
b) Campaign Fund-Raising
c) Constituency Service
V) The Structure of Congress
a) Informal Structures
b) Formal Structures
VI) How a Bill Becomes a Law
a) Deviations from the Textbook Process
b) Differences in the House and Senate Legislative Processes
VII) Oversight
VIII) Congressional Reform
Key Terms
1. Advertising
2. Apportionment
3. Bicameralism
4. Casework
5. Closed Rules
6. Cloture
7. Conference Committees
8. Credit Claiming
9. Delegate (Congressional Role)
10. Descriptive Representation
11. Distributive Theory
12. Earmarks
13. Electoral Connection
14. Filibuster
15. Gerrymandering
16. Gridlock
17. Hold
18. Incumbency Advantage
19. Informational Theory
20. Joint Committees
21. Legislative Veto
22. Majority Leader
23. Mark Up
24. Minority Leader
25. Modified Rules
26. Omnibus Legislation
27. Open Rules
28. Party Unity
29. Party Votes
30. Pocket Veto
31. Politico
32. Pork Barrel
33. Position Taking
34. President Pro Tempore
35. Reciprocity
36. Redistricting
37. Roll Call Vote
38. Select Committees
39. Seniority
40. Speaker of the House
41. Specialization
42. Standing Committees
43. Substantive Representation
44. Suspension of the Rules
45. Trustee
46. Universalism
47. Veto
48. Whip System
Chapter 11: The Presidency
I) America’s Presidents
A) Presidents, Power and Politics
II) The Presidents Job Description
A) Head of the Executive
1) Appointments, Executive Orders, Commander in Chief, Treaty Making and
Foreign Policy, Legislative Power, Other Duties and Powers, Executive
Privilege
B) The President as Politician
1) The President as Party Leader, Going Public
C) Presidential Succession
III) The Executive Branch
A) The Executive office of the President
B) The Vice President
C) The President’s Cabinet
IV) The American Public and the President
A) Explaining Presidential Approval
V) Assessing Presidential Power
Key Terms
1. Cabinet
2. Constitutional Authority (Presidential)
3. Executive Agreement
4. Executive Office of the President
5. Executive Orders
6. Executive Privileges
7. Fast-Track Authority
8. First-Mover Advantage
9. Go Public
10. Head of Government
11. Head of State
12. Impeachment
13. Power to Persuade
14. Presidential Approval
15. Recess Appointment
16. Signing Statement
17. State of the Union
18. Statutory Authority (Presidential)
19. Two Presidencies
20. Unilateral Action (Presidential)
21. Unitary Executive Theory
22. Vesting Clause
Chapter 12: The Bureaucracy
I) The Bureaucracy compromises civil service employees, political appointees, and
organizations that make up the executive branch of the federal government
II) Several decades after the Founding, Americas bureaucracy was small with many
employees hired because of political activity
III) The federal bureaucracy is organized into 15 executive departments, each
having a number of agencies, and many independent agencies that operate
outside the departments control
IV) Like employees in the private sector, bureaucrats are motivated by financial
concerns, but many also take a strong interest in enacting public policy
V) Very few Americans believe the federal government can claim a large number of
policy successes. However, Americans tend to have more positive impressions of
government agencies with which they have personal experience
Key Terms
1. Budget Maximizers
2. Bureaucratic Drift
3. Federal Civil Service
4. Independent Agencies
5. Notice and Comment Procedure
6. Oversight
7. Political Appointees
8. Problem of Control
9. Regulation
10. Standard Operating Procedures
11. Street-Level Bureaucrats
12. Bureaucracy
13. Civil Servants
14. Fire Alarm Oversight
15. Neutral Competence
16. Office of Management And Budget
17. Police Patrol Oversight
18. Principal-Agent Game
19. Red Tape
20. Regulatory Capture
21. State Capacity
22. Turkey Farms
Chapter 13: The Courts
I) The Development of An Independent and Powerful Federal Judiciary
A) The Founders view of the Courts
B) The Weakest Branch?
C) Judicial Review and Marbury Vs. Madison
D) Judicial Review in Practice
II) The American Legal and Judicial System
1) Fundamentals of Legal System
2) Structure of the Court System
B) Court Fundamentals
C) Structure of the Court and Federalism
1) District Courts
2) Appeals Courts
3) The Supreme Court
D) How Judges are Selected
1) State-Level Judges
2) Federal Judges
3) The Role of the President
III) Access to the Supreme Court
1) Difficulty to have a case heard by the Supreme Court
B) The Supreme Court Workload
C) Rules of Access
D) The Court’s Criteria
1) Collusion, Mootness, and Ripeness
2) Internal Politics
IV) Hearing Cases Before the Supreme Court
A) Briefs
B) Oral Agreement
C) Conference
D) Opinion Writing
V) Supreme Court Decision Making
A) Legal Factors
1) Precedent
2) The Language of the Constitution
B) Political Factors
1) Political Ideology and Attitudes
2) The Strategic Model
3) Separation of Powers
4) Outside Influences: Interest Groups/ Public Op
VI) The Role of the Court as a Policy Maker
A) Compliance and Implementation
B) Relations with the other branches
VII) Conclusion
Key Terms
1. Adversarial System
2. Amicus Curiae
3. Appeals Courts
4. Appellate Jurisdiction
5. Attitudinalist Approach
6. Briefs
7. Burden of Proof
8. Cases on Appeal
9. Cert Pool
10. Class Action Lawsuit
11. Collusion
12. Common Law
13. Constitutional Interpretation
14. Defendant
15. District Courts
16. Docket
17. Judicial Activism
18. Judicial Restraint
19. Judicial Review
20. Judiciary Act of 1789
21. Jurisdiction
22. Living Constitution
23. Mootness
24. Oral Arguments
25. Original Intent
26. Original Jurisdiction
27. Plaintiff
28. Plea Bargain
29. Precedent
30. Ripeness
31. Senatorial Courtesy
32. Solicitor General
33. Standard of Proof
34. Standing
35. Statutory Interpretation
36. Strict Construction
37. Verdict
38. Writ of Certification
39. Writ of Certiorari
40. Writ of Mandamus
Chapter 14: Civil Rights
I) The Context of Civil Rights
A) African Americans
B) Native Americans, Asians and Latinos
C) Women and Civil Rights
II) A Color-Blind Society?
III) The Racial Divide Today
A) There is a strong divide over how much progress we have made towards
overall unity
IV) The Policy-Making Process and Civil Rights
A) Social Movements
1) Nonviolent Protest
2) The Letter from the Birmingham Jail
B) The Judicial Arena
1) Challenging “Separate but Equal” in education
2) The Push to Desegregate Schools
3) Expanding Civil Rights
4) The Color-Blind Court and Judicial Activism
5) Women’s Rights
6) Gay Rights
C) The Legislative Arena
D) The Executive Arena
V) Continuing and Future Civil Rights Issues
A) Affirmative Action
B) Multicultural Issues
VI) Conclusion
Key Terms
1. Civil Rights
2. De Facto
3. De Jure
4. Disenfranchised
5. Disparate Impact Standard
6. Grandfather Clause
7. Intermediate Scrutiny Test
8. Jim Crow Laws
9. Missouri Compromise
10. Protectionism
11. Reasonable Basis Test
12. “Separate but Equal”
13. Strict Scrutiny Test
14. Substantive Due Process Doctrine
Chapter 15: Economic Policy
I) What are the goals of Economic Policy?
A) There are certain goals that policy makers set when trying to influence the
economy. These goals are full employment, stable prices, promoting the free
market and growth, balanced budget and a balance of payments
II) Who are the key players in economic policy making?
A) Congress is the center of economic policy making because of its control over
the nations fiscal policy of taxing and spending
B) The president is expected to keep the economy running smoothly although
he has no direct control over the economy. Many systems help the president
in this task.
III) What are the tools and theories of economic policy?
A) Fiscal policy is the use of governments taxing and spending power to
influence the economy.
B) The Fed controls monetary policy by monitoring levels of bank lending, the
money supply, and interest rates.
C) Policy makers engage in economic and social regulation to achieve broader
policy goals.
D) Many factors that shape trade policy are beyond the control of policy makers
Key Terms
1. Balanced Budget
2. Budget Deficit
3. Budget Making
4. Budget Reconciliation
5. Business Cycle
6. Council of Economic Advisers
7. Current Account
8. Discount Rate
9. Discretionary Spending
10. Economic Depression
11. Federal Funds Rate
12. Federal Reserve Board
13. Federal Reserve System
14. Fiscal Policy
15. Full Employment
16. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
17. Inflation
18. Keynesian Economics
19. Mandatory Spending
20. Monetarist Theory
21. Monetary Policy
22. National Economic Council
23. Open Market Operations
24. Progressive
25. Regressive
26. Reserve Requirement
27. Supply-side Economics
28. Trade Deficit
29. Treasury Department
30. United States Trade Representative
Chapter 16: Social Policy
I) Social Policy and American Social Policy Development:
A) Social policies provide a “Safety net” to help the poor and disadvantaged. In
early years of our nation’s history, federal government took little
responsibility for social welfare
B) The New Deal in the 1930s and Great Society in the 1960s were the two main
periods of Social Policy creation
1) Poverty and Income Inequality
C) Poverty and Income Inequality create greater need for many social programs
aimed at helping the poor
II) Key Players in Making Social Policy
A) Congress and the President both play central roles in shaping social policy.
Both executive and legislative branches are needed to enact significant policy
B) Social policy interest groups tend to be weaker than other interest groups
III) Policy Making Process
A) Progression of policies- Problem recognition and definition. To getting on the
agenda, to deliberation, and formulation
B) When policy is enacted into law it must be implemented by the national or
state and local bureaucracies
C) Last stages- evaluating and deciding whether to modify, expand, or terminate
the program
IV) State of American Social Policy
A) The U.S. spends 50% more on health care than all other western nations, yet
47 million Americans without healthcare
B) Education policy is controlled by state and local governments but that
national government has played an increasingly important role in recent
decades
Key Terms
1. Aids to Families with Dependent Children
2. Baby Boom Generation
3. Entitlement
4. Great Society
5. Greenspan Commission
6. Income Support
7. Market-Based Solutions
8. Medicaid
9. Medicare
10. New Deal
11. Ownership Society
12. Policy Agenda
13. Privatization
14. Social Policy
15. Social Security
16. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
17. Welfare
Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
I) What is Foreign Policy?
A) History of American Foreign Policy
1) The Founding to World War I
2) The Rise of Internationalism
3) The Cold War
4) After the Cold War: Human Rights, Trade, and Terrorism
II) Foreign Policy Makers
A) The President and the Executive Branch
1) The Department of State
2) The Department of Defense
3) Department of Homeland Security
4) Intelligence Agencies
5) How much Foreign Policy Power does the President Have?
B) Congress
C) The Federal Courts
D) Groups Outside the Federal Government
1) Interest Groups
2) The Media
3) Public Opinion
4) Nongovernmental Organizations and International Organizations
III) The Tools of Foreign Policy
A) Military Force
B) Trade and Economic Policies
C) Diplomacy
D) Foreign Aid
E) Alliances and Treaties
IV) The Politics of Foreign Policy
V) Contemporary Foreign Policy Issues
A) Global Warming
B) Human Rights
C) International Trade
D) America’s Economy and the World
E) Iraq and Afghanistan
F) Terrorism
G) Weapons of Mass Destruction
H) Other Foreign Policy Issues
VI) Conclusion
Key Terms
1. Alliance
2. Bilateral Agreements
3. Bush Doctrine
4. Clash of Civilizations
5. Cold War
6. Containment
7. Détente
8. Diplomacy
9. Domino Theory
10. Foreign Policy
11. Free Trade Zones
12. Idealism
13. International Monetary Fund
14. Internationalism
15. Isolationism
16. Kyoto Protocol
17. Monroe Doctrine
18. Most-Favored-Nation Status
19. Multilateral Action
20. Multilateral Agreements
21. Mutually Assured Destruction
22. National Building
23. National Security Council (NSC)
24. Nongovernment Organizations (NGOs)
25. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
26. Realism
27. Sanction
28. Shuttle Diplomacy
29. Tariff
30. Trade Agreement
31. Treaty
32. Unilateral Action (National)
33. United Nations
34. Weapons of Mass Destruction
35. World Bank
36. World Trade Organization (WTO)