| A | B |
|---|
| Chief of State | Symbol head of government |
| Chief Executive | Runs the federal government |
| Chief Administrator | Appoints people to help him |
| Chief Diplomat | Runs foreign policy, makes treaties |
| Commander-in-Chief | In charge of military |
| Chief Legislator | Signs or vetoes bills |
| Chief of Party | Head of political party |
| Electoral College | System in which the United States elects a president |
| Economics | The study of how society uses its scarce resources |
| Opportunity Cost | The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action |
| Production Possiblity Frontier | A curve depicting all maximum output possibilities of two or more goods given a set of inputs (resources, labor, etc.). |
| Command Economy | When a government controls all aspects of economic activity |
| Market Economy | When people make decisions on all aspects of the communitu |
| Traditional Economy | When people produce enough to survive |
| Scarcity | needs and wants exceed the resources available to meet them |
| Shortage | Temporary loss of a want |
| Absolute Advantage | General ability to produce more goods using fewer resources |
| Comparative Advantage | The ability to produce one good at a relatively lower opportunity cost then other goods |
| Davide Ricardo | Developed the Theory of Comparative Advantage |
| Theory of Comparative Advantage | Discusses the benefits of specialization and free trade |
| Natural Resources | Ex. Land |
| Human Resources | Ex. Labor |
| Capital Resources | Equipment used to make other things |
| Production | Process by which resources are transformed into useful forms |
| Confederation | Power to the states, central government very weak |
| Unitary Government | Central government has the power |
| Federal Government | Central government and states share power |
| Democracy | Type of decion making where government controlled by the people |
| Dictatorship | Any person, party, or class that holds all the power |
| Monarchy | One person has power, like a king |
| Totalitarian | Type of decision making, where single person or group that has all the power |
| Direct Democracy | All citizens participate in the decision-making process |
| Republic/ Indirect Democracy | People elect representatives to make decisions for them |
| Capitalism | Economic system where individuals control economic decisions, with little or no government interference |
| Socialism | Government owns businesses |
| Federalist | Supported the Constitution- James Madison, Alexander Hamilton |
| Anti-Federalist | Did not support the Constitution because there was no mention of God, states could not print their own $, and it lacked a Bill of Rights- John Hancock, Patrick Henry |
| Veto | "I forbid" in Latin, the President rejects a law |
| Override a veto | 2/3 of Congress vote to override a presidential veto |
| New Jersey Plan | "Small state plan"- wanted unilateral govt, with equal representation |
| Virginia Plan | "Large state plan"- wanted representation to be based on population |
| 3/5 Compromise | Blacks counted as three-fifths of person |
| Connecticut Compromise | Bilateral Congress- One based on equal representation, one based on population |
| Preamble | Beginning section of the Constitution ("We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...") |
| Magna Carta | 1st document that limited the kings power |
| Declaration of Independence | Written by Thomas Jefferson, officially separated the United States from England |
| Articles of Confederation | Failed document that made a weak central government and a strong state governments- "firm league of friendship" |
| Interstate Commerce | Business between states |
| Legislative Branch | Makes laws (Congress- House of Representatives and Senate) |
| Judicial Branch | Interprets laws (Supreme Court- Judges) |
| Executive Branch | Enforces laws (President) |
| Judicial Review | Power of the judicial branch to declare an act of the president or a law unconstitutional |
| Delegated Powers | Powers given to the national government according to the Constitution |
| Reserved powers | Powers held by the states |
| Concurrent powers | Powers held byt the national and state governments |
| Impeach | Charge against a public official |
| Pardon | Forgive criminals |
| Jurisdiction | Who has the power to try the case, a court is limited in the type of case they can try |
| Plantiff | One who initiates the suit |
| Defendant | the party who must defend against the complaint |
| Appeal | When a higher court hears your case after a lower case had already ruled |
| Judicial Review | Power of the courts to declare acts of legislative and executive branch unconstitutional |
| Precedents | Decisions reaced in earlier court cases that can be applied to a case presently being tried |
| Perjury | Lie under oath |
| Justices | Judges in Supreme courts |
| Brown v. Board of Education | Desegregated schools, said "separate but equal" does not work |
| Engle v. Vitale | Abolished prayer in school |
| Tinker v. Des Moines | Students were allowed to express themselves by wearing peace symbol armbands to school |
| Bakke v. University of California | Race could only be used as part of the admission process, not the only reason |
| Roe v. Wade | States can't make laws making abortions illegal |
| TLO v. New Jersey | Schools are allowed to search students' personal property for evidence if there is suspicion of a crime |
| Rider | An addition to a bill |
| Pigeonhole | To kill a bill |
| Filibuster | A strategy the Senate can use to talk for a really long time to prevent a vote on a bill |
| Veto | When the President kills a bill |
| Pocket Veto | If the president does not sign a bill for 10 ten days, and the bill dies |
| Page | Youth, a helper to a congressmen |
| Majority Leader | Leader of the political party in charge |
| Minority Leader | Leader of the political party not in charge |
| President Pro Tempore | Fills in as president of the senate when he is absent |
| Vice President | President of the Senate |
| Committee | Place a bill goes after it is introduced in either the House or the Senate. It also deals with specific issues |
| Gerrymander | To make district lines to the advantage of the political party in charge |
| Constituents | People one represents |
| Ideology | Views and beliefs by an individual or group |
| Public Opinion | Attitudes expressed by citizens about the country and government |
| Moderate | Believe in the government should stay out of peoples lives, but believes that government should help those who can't help themselves. |
| Conservative | Believe in limited government, and allowing people to make their own decisions with their money |
| Liberal | Believe the governments role is to help those who can't help themselves, even if that means raising taxes to help them |
| Mass Media | Sources of information that reach a large number of the public (TV, Radio, News) |
| Interest Group | Group that seeks to influence the government by supporting a candidate who believes in the single issue that they believe |
| Caucus | Meeting of party leaders to determine their candidate |
| General Election | Regularly scheduled election which determines who will take the office |
| Coattail Effect | Candidate who links with a popular elected official |
| Soft Money | Money not regulated by federal law, can be given to the party and not the candidate |
| Electorate | People who can vote in an election |
| Sufferage | Right to vote |
| Congress | House of Representative and the Senate |
| article I | legislative branch |
| makes the laws | What does the legislative branch do? |
| 25 | Age requirement for the House if Representatives |
| 30 | age requirement for the Senate (US) |
| 7 years | residency requirement for the House of Representatives |
| 9 years | residency requirement for the US Senate |
| 2 years | term of office of the House of Representatives |
| legislative branch | Congress |
| 6 years | term of office for the US Senate |
| 435 | number of members in the house of Representatives |
| 100 | number of members in the US Senate |
| Speaker of the House | the main officer of the House of Represenatives and House of Delegates |
| equal representation | determines the number of members in the US Senate |
| population | the state's ___ determines the number of members in the House of Representatives |
| Great Compromise | settled the dispute over creating a bicameral legislature |
| Virginia Plan & New Jersey Plan | made up the Great Compromise |
| impeachment | a process of removing those people in office that abuse their power |
| accuses and impeaches | the Houses role in impeachment |
| Convicts and removes | the senates role in impeachment |
| Johnson & Clinton | 2 US Presidents that have been impeached |
| Zero | number of US Presidents that have been removed from office |
