What is politics? Why is it important?
� Politics- the process through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common or collective action-eve as the disagree on the intended goals of the action
� Politics is important because each party needs to find a solution to its conf
Why are bargaining and compromise important to politics?
� bargaining- when contending parties agree with each other or to one side's capitulation
� compromise- a settlement in which each side concedes some preferences to secure others
� Important to politics because it is a way a group can reach a collective d
What are preferences?
� preferences- individuals and groups know what they want
� they may reflect individuals economic situation, religious values, ethnic identity, or some other value interest
� commonly associated with some perception of self interest but not so restrictive
What are institutions? Why are they important?
� institutions-
� participants and preferences multiply, issues become complex, so institutions were created to have a prior agreement on rules and procedures for negotiations
What is a constitution? What does it do?
� constitution- the set of rules and procedures institutions must and must not follow to reach and enforce collective agreements
� It establishes its governing institutions and gives the nation a set of rules and procedures to go by
What is a government? Why are they important?
� government- consists of institutions and the legally prescribed process for making and enforcing collective agreements
� needed to enforce the constitution
What is authority? How is it different from power?
� authority- the acknowledged right to make a particular decision
� power- an officeholder's actual influence with other officeholders over the government actions
� Authority is more specific. An office's authority will be an important ingredient in its o
Why have institutional reform and how does it generally occur?
� Institutions tend to stay stable because
o Authority is signed to the office(not the individual) so institutions persist beyond who is occupying them. They contribute a fundamental continuity and orderliness to collective action.
o The people who are af
What is collective action? Why are there problems associated with collective action?
� Collective action- efforts of a group to reach and implement agreements
� Challenges participants to figure out what to do and how to do it
Why are they hard to overcome?
There is no guarantee that a solution will be discovered and implemented
� 2 fundamental barriers are coordination problems and prisoners dilemmas
What is coordination? Make sure you can define coordination and why it is an important aspect of collective action
� coordination- members of the group must decide individually what they are prepared to contribute to the collective enterprise and how to coordinate their efforts with those of other
� coordination problems increase with the size of the group, may be gen
What is the prisoner's dilemma? What is free-riding? What is the Tragedy of the Commons? How are they related and why would we study them in American Government? You should be able to describe each of these and differentiate between them. Also think of wa
� prisoner's dilemma- arises whenever individuals decide that even thought they support some collective undertaking, they are personally better off pursing an activity that rewards them individually despite undermining the collective effort
� whenever ind
What are the costs of collective action? The visible/material ones? What about the not-so-visible/non-material ones?
� successful collective action- lies in designing a system that achieves the benefits of a collective effort while minimizing costs
� costs: individuals money contribution, enforcing agreements, government's effort to combat free riding
Define transaction and conformity costs and explain how they are related. What does it mean to be inversely related? You should be able to tell me the why and how of their inverse relationship.
� Transaction costs- the time effort and resources required to make collective decisions
� They rise sharply as the number of people's preferences are taken into account
� Sometimes high transaction costs are put into place to make collective activities m
Why are majority rule and delegation important concepts? What do they help do in terms of collective action?
� Majority Rule- simple majority, one half plus, political equality which requires that each citizen's vote carries the same weight and offers all citizens the same opportunity to participate. When disagreement arises, preference should prevail
� Pluralit
What are veto and agenda control? How are they different?
� veto- embodies the right of an official or institution to say no to a proposal from another official or institution
� allows its possessors to impose their views regardless of the preferences of others
� 2/3 vote in each chambers of Congress can overrid
What is separation of powers? Why would the Founders create a system like this?
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What is the principle-agent relationship? Can you think of an example from your own life of such a relationship? What do you think is the most important principle-agent relationship in American government?
� principals- possess decision making authority
� agents-exercise authority on behalf of the principals
What is agency loss? Why does it occur?
� agency loss- difference between what a principal would ideally like its agents to do and what they actually do
What is a representative government? What is direct democracy?
� Representative government-citizens limit their decisions to the selection of government officials who, acting as their agents, deliberate and commit the citizenry of collective enterprises
o It eliminates the massive confusion if large communities tried
What is a republic?
� Republic designed to allow some degree of popular control and avoid tyranny
o Voters elect their representatives but these representatives are constrained in following the majority's dictates by constitutional guarantees for minorities and by institutio
How do a parliamentary system government and a presidential system government compare?
� Parliamentary v Presidential
o Parliamentary- lodge decisive authority in a popularly elected legislature whose actions are not subject to the same severe checks by executive and judicial vetoes
� elects a team of executives called cabinet,
� system pro
What is a coalition?
� Coalition- a combination of unlike minded interests who agree to a common course of action
� To win elections politicians have to succeed at building coalitions
Why do politicians act strategically?
� Politicians act strategically when they subordinate their sincere preferences to what is best for their constituents in order to achieve results that stand a better chance of success
� Compromises, defers to a colleague, decides not to resist certain de
What are private versus public goods?
� private goods- things people buy and consume themselves in a market place that supplies these goods according to the demand for them
o ex toll road
� public goods-everyone participates in supplying, through tax dollars, which anyone can freely consume a
How does the institutional design of our federal government mitigate "popular passions"?
� minimizes conformity costs
� separation of power
� staggered legislative terms
� unelected judiciary
� limited national authority
o all constrain majority rule
6. What are some powers denied to the national government? The state governments? Make sure you know at least two examples for each one.
National Govt: Tax state exports, change state boundaries, impose religious tests
state Goverment: Tax imports and exports, coin money, enter into treaties
7. Where do states and the national government share power?
Shared Authority:Tax, borrow money, charter banks and corporations, take property, enforce laws and administer a judiciary
8. What is the argument against nationalization?
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15. How did the Senate aid the cause of states' rights until the 17th Amendment was enacted?
Senators bribed legislators to buy seats, a public consensus formed against indirect election of senators. Senate election quickly turned into a popular election ,and the amendment removed senators' ties to state legislatures.
9. How did the United States become a nation of nationalized public policy instead of a nation of segmented communities?
Nations practices better resemble the overlapping arrangements of shared federalism. The New Deal and Great Society programs helped nationlaize the U.S.. The federal govt. redesigned more limited state and local pension, welfare, and health care progrmas
10. How have policy areas been transferred to the federal government? What problems did this solve?
The government has too many problems to solve. Thus the cooperative strategy across states and levels of government necessary. Wide spread national disasters, policy dilemmas are becoming far too great, and states have to move towards nationalization. Thi
11. Give an example of the coordination problem faced by the states?
� Every state exercises some regulatory control over its electricity industry. Today, power flows through an extensive continental grid; residents of one state consume electricity from dozens of sources throughout the region. Due to occurrences such as wi
1. What is federalism?
A system in which the constitution divides authority between 2 or more distinct levels of govt
Hybrid arrangement that mixes elements of a confederation in which lower-level govt possess primary authority, ans\d unitary govt, in which the national govt mo
2. How are the three systems of government different: unitary, federation, and confederation?
The nation first experienced a unitary govt and then a confederation.
Unitary govt- authority is centralized with state and local governments administering authority delegated from central govt. UK France Japan
Confederation- Authority help by indepenent
3. What are the three conditions required of a federal system?
Satisfying conditions of the Federal System-
The same people and territory are inclined in both levels of the governement
The nation's constitution protects units at each level of government from encroachment by other units
Each unit is in a position to e
4. What is the difference between dual and shared federalism?
Dual Federalism: Dual federalism is the political theory that two different governments share sovereign power over a certain region or people. Generally this is the concept of balancing the scales of power between a large, sweeping government and a more l
5. What are some examples of exclusive powers of the national government? Exclusive powers of the state government?
Exclusive Powers of National Govt.: Coin money, regulate interstate and commerce, tax imports and exports, make treaties, make all laws, makec\ war, regulate postal system Run elections, publics health safety
18. What other Supreme Court cases have had important implications for federalism?
Gitlow V. New York 1925- states can't abridge free rights speech
Near V. minnesota 1931-free press to the states
Palko V. Connecticut- states can't violate rights without "neither liberty nor justice would exist."
Griswold v. Connecticut- privacy of resid
19. What are grants-in-aid and how do they influence the relationship between the federal and state governments?
A giving of federal funds to a state or local government to subsidize a public project. The exact structure of a grant can have an enormous impact on how much control the federal government excercises over the scope of state programs and even over the ide
20. What types of grants are there and how are they different?
Block grant- made by federal govt; it gives each state or local govt an exact amount of money to spend for some purpose
Matching grant- the federal grant promises to provide matching funds, usually between one and 2 dollars, for every dollar that a state
21. What are unfunded mandates and why are they controversial?
An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires a state or local government to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements. Public individuals or organizations can also be required to fulfill public mandate
22. What are cross-cutting requirements?
Statutes that apply certain rules and guidelines to a broad array of federally subsidized state programs.
Example protection of Environment
23. What are crossover sanctions?
Stipulations that a state, to remain eligible for full federal funding for one program, must adhere to the guidelines of an unrelated program.
Ex: Congress's stipulation of tying federal highway funds to state adoption of a mininu drinking age of 21.
Educ
24. What are direct orders?
Requirements that can be enforced by legal and civil penalties.
Clean Water Act bans ocean dumping of sewage sludge.
12. An example of reneging and shirking?
� Movements to reduce pollution - no one wants to breath polluted air, but without some mechanism to arrange and enforce agreements, everyone will continue to pollute under the assumption that doing otherwise will not by itself clean up the atmosphere.
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An example of cutthroat competition?
� Environmental regulation - to lure new businesses, states sometimes are tempted to relax their environmental standards to give them a competitive edge over their neighbors. Thus one state's strong environmental policies may expose it to other states' ga
What does the Constitution say about federalism- how does it promote it?
� Today's constitutional legislation over federalism typically concerns direct efforts by the federal government to regulate the activities of state and local governments and their employees
� -PREEMPTION legislation are federal laws that assert the natio
15. How did the Senate aid the cause of states' rights until the 17th Amendment was enacted?
� Seventeenth Amendment: established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote
16. How is the Supremacy clause related to federalism? The Tenth Amendment? Which of these two has had more of an impact on the relationship between the national government and the state governments?
� PREEMPTION legislation are federal laws that assert the national government's prerogative (their justified right) to control public policy in a field. (owes existence to Supremacy Clause)
� The 10th Amendment offers the most explicit endorsement of fede
17. Why were McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden relevant to the relationship between the federal and state governments?
� Supreme court ruling that stands out for protecting the national government from incursions by the states: McCulloch v. Maryland - in 1816, Congress created a national bank that proved unpopular with many state-level politicians who preferred state-char