| A | B |
|---|
| Personal presidency | including issues such as marriage, affairs, children, etc. |
| Public presidency | every action is judged and scrutinized by the media |
| Power and presidency | the presidential power has consistently expanded throughout the years; Congress used to be more powerful, and there is thus a conflict |
| Senatorial courtesy | the practice of consulting the home-state senator on a nomination; the senate rarely approves presidential appointments if the home senator does not support the individual |
| Constitutional powers | also called enumerated powers or listed powers |
| Executive orders | a directive issued by the president |
| Roles of the president | many different hats including chief executive, commander in chief, and head diplomat |
| Executive privilege | an assertion made by the president or other member of the executive branch where they refuse to give Congress, the courts, or private parties information or records that have been requested or subpoenaed |
| 22nd Amendment | sets term limits for the president (the president can only serve two terms) |
| 25th Amendment | sets the presidential succession (if the president dies, the vice-president takes over. The Speaker of the House is the next in line after the vice-president) |
| Impeachment | trying the president or another government official for breaking the law (this does not mean they are removed from office. This only means they are tried) |
| White house staff | includes all of the people who work for the president such as the chief of staff, the senior advisers, and the press secretary |
| National Security Council | president’s principle forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisor and cabinet officials |
| Office of Management and Budget | cabinet-level office that is the largest in the executive branch. They are in charge of providing information on a large number of items to the senior White House officials including information on federal policy, management, legislation, regulation, and budgetary issues |
| Budget and Impound Control Act | U.S. federal law that governs the role of Congress in the budget process; they have the “power of the purse” |
| Council of Economics Advisors | assists the president with the development and implementation of economic policy by providing thorough and timely economic analysis |
| Pocket veto | an indirect veto of a legislative bill where the president leaves the bill unsigned until the legislative body adjourns. This effectively vetoes the bill without the president having to actually veto the bill. Since the President does not have the power of line-item veto, this is a strong tool for him |
| Cabinet | a body of advisers to the president |
| President and the media | it is a symbiotic relationship but also an adversarial one |
| Imperial presidency argument | describes the modern presidency (beginning in the 1960s) stating that the presidency is out of control and has exceeded the Constitutional limits |
| Framers’ intent | that the president would not be as powerful as Congress (due to concerns caused by the king) |
| Modern presidency | very public and scrutinized and revolves largely around the personal life and sound bites rather than actual achievements |
| United States v Nixon | the Supreme Court ruled that even the president cannot use executive privilege to without evidence that is “demonstratably relevant in a crime” |
| Congressional-Executive relations | long-term conflict caused primarily by a power struggle, differing needs, and different constituents |
| Bureaucracy | non-elected government officials that work for the government (examples include the police, teachers, firemen, etc.) |
| Civil service | the administrative service of a government excluding the armed services, especially jobs that are decided by a competitive exam (mailmen are a great example) |
| Merit principle | people receive positions based on their abilities and skills (this is the opposite of the patronage system where you received jobs based on whom you knew) |
| Hatch Act | 1939 act that prohibits civil servants from engaging in partisan political activity |
| Pendelton Act | the law established a three-person, bi-partisan panel to develop exams to hire federal employees based on merit |
| Independent agencies | agencies that keep the government and economy running smoothly; they are created by the government but independent (examples include NASA, CIA, OSHA, etc.) |
| Monetary policy | policies made by the fed (this will be studied much more thoroughly in economics) |
| Bureaucracy policy making | while Congress funds the bureaucracy, the details of policy implementation are normally left up to the agencies (example: NCLB was passed by the federal government, but it is left up to the states and school districts to implement the policy) |
| Discretionary authority | the freedom given to agencies to make implementation, hiring, and policy (within the agency) decisions |
| Implementation | putting policies into place |
| Controls on bureaucracy | Congress can reduce their budget or intervene or dissolve the bureaucracy entirely if needed |
| Mandatory spending | spending that is required each year (example includes social security. Mandatory spending makes up the majority of the government’s yearly budget. This will be discussed in more depth in economics) |
| Discretionary spending | spending that is decided on based by need in the year (this is mostly in the form of grants) |
| Distributive policy | policies that extend goods or services to an organization (examples include public education, highways, public safety, etc.) |
| Regulatory policy | limits the discretion of individuals and agencies by placing restrictions on policies (examples- there are regulations for safe drinking water, dumping nuclear waste, pollutants allowed in the air by vehicles, etc.) |
| Redistributive policy | think about Robinhood. The idea is taking money from some and giving money to people who “need” it more. Unemployment and welfare are both examples of such a policy |
