Vocabulary of American Government and Law
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Here are some definitions of key concepts in American government and law in some particular order.
Separation of powers: refers to the division of authority among the three branches of government wherein the Congress makes the law, the President enforces the law, and the Judiciary interprets the law.
Checks and balances: refers to the system of oversight among the three branches of government wherein each branch is able to “look over the shoulder” of the other two branches. For example, the Congress “checks” the President by overriding a veto with 2/3 majority of each house; Congress “checks” the courts by having the Senate confirm judicial nominations. The President “checks” Congress by vetoing a bill; the President “checks” the courts by nominating judges. The courts “check” the Congress and the President through the power of judicial review.
Judicial review refers to the authority of the courts to declare a law passed by Congress or an executive action by the President to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has the final say on the meaning of the Constitution.
Federalism: refers to the division of sovereignty into a federal government and the individual States, wherein each remains supreme within their own jurisdiction. State courts do not enforce federal law, and federal courts do not enforce State law. The federal government may not force a State to enact a federal regulatory program (see Printz v. United States (1997) 521 U.S. 898).
Comity: refers to a principle of cooperation and respect among independent entities who defer to each other out of respect, not obligation—e.g., the President defers to Congressional authority; the President defers to Congress; a House Republican works with Democratic colleagues on a bi-partisan bill; at the local level, one school principal lets another school use their gym while repairs are made at the other school.
Civil liberties: refers to the individual freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights, e.g., free speech, freedom of the press, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process (among others).
Civil rights: refers to the struggle for the equal enjoyment of civil liberties by subordinated outsider groups (think race, gender, and sex discrimination).
Democracy: refers to the rule of the majority (50%+1) wherein the people have a direct say on policy. There are no representatives in a true democracy. A corrupt democracy is mob rule.
Republic: refers to the type of regime where the people have an indirect say on policy through their elected representatives. A corrupt republic is an oligarchy.
Stare Decisis: refers to the principle of judicial decision-making where a lower court judge is obliged to follow the rulings of higher court judges when in the same jurisdiction and dealing with the same questions of fact or law.
Monarchy: refers to the type of regime where one person exercises all the powers of government. A corrupt monarchy is a dictatorship.
Tyranny: refers to the concentration of government authority into a single institution/entity or person. (Also called a despotism.)
Freedom (or “liberty”): refers to the right to do as one pleases, provided what one pleases does not cause harm to other people or interfere with their liberty interest.
Equality: refers to treating similarly situated people the same way. Equality requires a conversation to determine who is fairly or equitably considered to be “similarly situated.”
Justice: exists when each part of a whole plays their role well—e.g., a defense attorney should zealously represents their client’s legal interests; a defense attorney should not try to usurp the role of a jury and make conclusions about their client’s guilt. (Another way to understand justice in this sense is to “mind one’s own business.”)
The pursuit of happiness: refers to the freedom to try and make virtuous choices in one’s own life. Virtue is said to be its own reward, because the consequence of virtuous behavior is joy, a.k.a., happiness. (Notice the difference between liberty, which is a hedonistic enterprise related to pleasure or the absence of pain, and happiness, which is about being a good person.) See George Washington’s Inaugural Address: “…there exists…an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness….”
Prudence: refers to choosing the lesser or two or more bad options or the greater of two or more good options.
Budget: a government’s tax and spending plan. (See also debt and deficit.)
Bureaucrat: a non-elected government official.
Capitalism: an economic system where the private sector controls the means and ends of the production of goods and services, subject to limited government regulation. Financial markets operate according to self-determination under capitalism. (Contrast with communism.)
Citizen: a person who is able to participate in the process of government; an insider in the political community.
Communism: an economic system where the government controls the means and ends of economic production, takes private property by force, and engages in social engineering. (Contrast with capitalism and social democracy.)
Debt: the total amount owed by the government. (See also budget and deficit.)
Deficit: the difference between the amount spent in a given period (e.g., annual) compared to the amount of income collected in the same period; the annual deficit is added to the total national debt owed. (See also budget and debt.)
Deliberation exists when people discuss the merits of public policy on the basis of facts and principled arguments aimed towards the common good.
Demagoguery: the attempt to exercise political power by appealing to baser passions (e.g., bigotry, fearmongering, or flattery). A distinguishing characteristic of demagoguery is the elevation of passionate appeals over truth-telling and the self-serving nature of a demagogue’s message. (See also disinformation and misinformation.)
Disinformation: the intentional spread of false information. (Compare to misinformation.)
Due process: the substantive and procedural protections of civil liberties provided by the Fifth And 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. (The Fifth Amendment applies to the federal government; the 14th Amendment applies to the States.)
Enumerated powers: the 17 or so powers of government expressly listed in Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
Fact: data or information that is verifiable.
Faction: an organized group of citizens, either a minority or a majority of the whole, who are passionate about some cause that is against other people’s individual rights or against the community’s right to govern. (Contrast with interest group and political party.)
Framing: the way a story is told from a particular perspective or vantage. (Compare with spin.)
Incorporation: the legal doctrine by which the protections of the Bill of Rights are made applicable to the States.
Interest group: an organized group whose purpose is to influence policy on a particular cause. (Contrast with faction and political party.)
Iron Triangle: a closed network of lobbyists, congressional members, and administrative bureaucrats who work to enact public policy without input from the public.
Judicial activism: a judicial decision done for the purpose of making public policy and achieving a partisan or ideological outcome (rather than a legal outcome); an example: an umpire suiting up for a particular team and playing the game for their side. (See also, separation of powers and judicial restraint.)
Judicial restraint: a judicial decision done for the purpose of avoiding policy making and achieving a legal outcome (rather than a partisan or ideological one); an example: an umpire applying the rules of the game without any favor for a particular team. (See also, separation of powers and judicial activism.)
Logrolling: trading votes without deliberation.
Manliness: refers to “confidence in a situation at risk” according to Harvey Mansfield; also connected to strength of soul; linked to courage. Subject to debate whether this concept must be understood as connected to sex. (See the fifth grievance listed in The Declaration of Independence: “He [King George] has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people” italics added.)
Misinformation: a confident belief in verifiably false fact(s). Misinformation refers to the “I know I’m right syndrome.” The misinformed person may be guilty of self-delusion or simply mistaken. (Compare to disinformation.)
Mobilization: the ability to get people to the polls to vote, protest, or otherwise engage in government and political affairs.
Natural right: the unalienable rights created by the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (among others), which cannot be justly denied by the government without due process of law. (See also unalienable rights.)
Omnibus legislation: a single bill with multiple ideas.
Opinion: a union or combination of facts and values.
Political participation: individual engagement in public policy discourse via conventional (e.g., voting; contacting a public official; donating money to a candidate, political party, or cause; or volunteering for a candidate, political party, or cause; wearing a political button or t-shirt, or displaying a lawn sign; sending a political message online) or unconventional (e.g., attending a protest or running for office) means.
Political party: an organized group whose purpose is to control all public policy and nominate and support candidates for public office in elections. (Compare with factions and special interest group.)
Political socialization: the process by which people acquire their political beliefs about government and policy (e.g., politicians, lawyers, celebrities, teachers, religious leaders, and other opinion leaders).
Politics: one definition of politics is “us (insiders) vs. them (outsiders)” or friends vs. enemies; put differently, politics is about who gets what (e.g., scarce resources like oil, money, clear air, etc.), when, and how (i.e., via power).
Power: successfully forcing someone to act against their will.
Roles of the media: the first role of the media is to inform people; the second role is to be a “watch-dog” and expose abuse and corruption.
Social democracy: an economic system that attempts to balance capitalism and a free-market with a strong social welfare state. (Contrast with capitalism and communism.)
Sound bite: summary information or clever phrasing presented in the media as a very short segment, measured in seconds.
Spin: a biased observation of an event told in a way that favors the biased observer. (Compare with framing.)
Totalitarianism: a regime that attempts to control every aspect of human life, both public and private. (See also tyranny.)
Traditional lawmaking: the linear lawmaking process where one bill with one idea is introduced for deliberation into one committee in each house of Congress before being voted on by the entire House and Senate, respectively, before being presented to the President for signature, veto, or nothing (after 10 days the bill becomes law without a signature, unless Congress goes out of session within 10 days).
Unalienable rights: the natural rights created by the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (among others), which cannot be justly denied by the government without due process of law. (See also natural right.)
Unilateral presidency: the reckless idea that the President can exercise power without reference to the laws passed by Congress or the opinions issues by the Supreme Court. Also known as the imperial presidency.
Unitary presidency: the idea that the President is the boss of the executive branch.
Unitary presidency theory: see unilateral presidency.
Unorthodox lawmaking: the non-linear lawmaking process where one bill with multiple ideas (omnibus legislation) is introduced for logrolling and demagoguery into multiple committees in each house of Congress before being voted on by the entire House and Senate, respectively, before being presented to the President for signature, veto, or nothing (after 10 days the bill becomes law without a signature, unless Congress goes out of session within 10 days).
Values: predispositions, biases, prejudices, preferences of subjective taste and judgement.