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Pols 206 Tamu Practice Exam 1 Questions With Expert
Solutions |Updated & Verified 2025
Government - ✔✔The institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies Functions of Government - ✔✔Maintain a national defense, provide public services, preserve order, socialize the young, and collect taxes Politics - ✔✔the process of determining the leaders we select and the policies they pursue. politics procedures authoritative decisions about public issues. political participation - ✔✔All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue single-issue groups - ✔✔Groups that have a narrow interest, tend to dislike compromise, and often draw membership from people new to politics. policymaking system - ✔✔The process by which policy comes into being and evolves. People's interests, problems, and concerns create political issues for government policymakers. These issues shape policy, which in turn impacts people, generating more interests, problems, and concerns. linkage institutions - ✔✔the political channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the policy agenda public policy - ✔✔A choice that government makes in response to a political issue. A policy is a course of action taken with regard to some problem. policy impacts - ✔✔The effects a policy has on people and problems. Impacts are analyzed to see how well a policy has met its goal and at what cost.
Democracy - ✔✔A system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public's preferences. ideal democratic process - ✔✔1. Equality in voting. Effective participation Enlightened. understanding. Citizen control of the agenda. Inclusion majority rule - ✔✔A fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory. In a democracy, choosing among alternatives requires that the majority's desire be respected. minority rights - ✔✔A principle of traditional democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities. representation - ✔✔A basic principle of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers. Pluralism - ✔✔A theory of government that holds that open, multiple, and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group. Elitism - ✔✔A theory of government and politics contending that an upper-class elite will hold most of the power and thus in effect run the government. Hyperpluralism - ✔✔a theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government is weakened policy gridlock - ✔✔A condition that occurs when interests conflict and no coalition is strong enough to form a majority and establish policy, so nothing gets done. political culture - ✔✔an overall set of values widely shared within a society
the virginia plan - ✔✔"Large state" proposal for the new constitution, calling for proportional representation in both houses of a bicameral Congress. The plan favored larger states and thus prompted smaller states to come back with their own plan for apportioning representation. Connecticut Compromise - ✔✔The compromise reached at the Constitutional Convention that established two houses of Congress: the House of Representatives, in which representation is based on a state's share of the U.S. population, and the Senate, in which each state has two representatives. writ of habeas corpus - ✔✔A court order requiring jailers to explain to a judge why they are holding a prisoner in custody. Separation of Powers - ✔✔A feature of the Constitution that requires each of the three branches of government — executive, legislative, and judicial — to be relatively independent of the others so that one cannot control the others. Power is shared among these three institutions. Checks and Balances - ✔✔Features of the Constitution that require each branch of the federal government to obtain the consent of the others for its actions; they limit the power of each branch. Republic - ✔✔A form of government in which the people select representatives to govern them and make laws. Federalists - ✔✔Supporters of the U.S. Constitution at the time the states were contemplating its adoption. Anti-Federalists - ✔✔Opponents of the American Constitution at the time when the states were contemplating its adoption. Federalist Papers - ✔✔A collection of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison under the name "Publius" to defend the Constitution in detail. Equal Rights Amendment - ✔✔A constitutional amendment originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972, stating that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Despite public support, the amendment failed to acquire the necessary support from three-fourths of the state legislatures. Judicial Review - ✔✔The power of the courts to declare laws unconstitutional Federalism - ✔✔A way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people. It is a system of shared power between units of government. Unitary Government - ✔✔a central government that holds supreme power in a nation Supremacy Clause - ✔✔Article VI of the Constitution, which makes the Constitution, national laws, and treaties supreme over state laws when the national government is acting within its constitutional limits. Tenth Amendment - ✔✔The constitutional amendment stating, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." McCulloch v. Maryland - ✔✔Supreme Court ruling (1819) confirming the supremacy of national over state government enumerated powers - ✔✔Powers specifically given to Congress in the Constitution; including the power to collect taxes, coin money, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, and declare war. implied powers - ✔✔powers of the federal government that go beyond those enumerated in the Constitution Elastic Clause - ✔✔The final paragraph of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which authorizes Congress to pass all laws "necessary and proper" to carry out the enumerated powers. Full Faith and Credit Clause - ✔✔A clause in Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution requiring each state to recognize the official documents and civil judgments rendered by the courts of other states.
Amendment IV Search and Seizure - ✔✔The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Amendment V - ✔✔No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Amendment VI - ✔✔In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. Amendment VII (seven) - ✔✔Right to trial by jury Amendment VIII (eight) - ✔✔protects us from having to pay excessive bail or be punished in cruel unusual ways Amendment IX (nine) - ✔✔protects others rights that have not been listed in the constitution Amendment X - ✔✔The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Due Process Clause - ✔✔part of the 14th Amendment which guarantees that no state deny basic rights to its people incorporation doctrine - ✔✔The legal concept under which the Supreme Court has nationalized the Bill of Rights by making most of its provisions applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Establishment Clause - ✔✔Part of the First Amendment stating that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Free Excercise Clause 1st Amendment - ✔✔A First Amendment provision that prohibits government from interfering with the practice of religion. prior restraint - ✔✔government censorship of information before it is published or broadcast Libel - ✔✔written defamations symbolic speech - ✔✔nonverbal communication, such as burning a flag or wearing an armband. The Supreme Court has accorded some symbolic speech protection under the first amendment. commercial speech - ✔✔Communication in the form of advertising. It can be restricted more than many other types of speech but has been receiving increased protection from the Supreme Court. probable cause - ✔✔reasonable cause for issuing a search warrant or making an arrest; more than mere suspicion unreasonable searches and seizures - ✔✔Obtaining evidence in a haphazard or random manner, a practice prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Probable cause and/or a search warrant are required for a legal and proper search for and seizure of incriminating evidence. search warrant - ✔✔A written authorization from a court specifying the area to be searched and what the police are searching for. exclusionary rule - ✔✔The rule that evidence, no matter how incriminating, cannot be introduced into a trial if it was not constitutionally obtained. The rule prohibits use of evidence obtained through unreasonable search and seizure.
