FSO U.S. Government Review

A. The Marshall Plan called for the reconstruction of Europe to prevent Soviet incursion, Point Four was aimed at developing countries. The other two -- NATO and SEATO -- were collective security agreements.

D) The 25th amendment said a new vice president could be appointed by the president and approved by a majority of the Congress to serve out the term. Prior to the 25th Amendment, the office remained vacant.

A. Income distribution has become more unequal. This was a focus of a recent American Political Science Association Task Force. Inequality can be shown on a Lorenz curve, which now bows further out, representing greater inequality. The area under the curve is measured by the Gini coefficient, which is an index of income inequality ranging between 0 (perfect equality) and 1 (absolute inequality)

B. Robert Dahl and others have written about the American political system as being pluralistic.

C. The War powers Act was enacted in 1973 over the veto of President Nixon. It allows the president to engage in military actions (Also instituted if troops are moved into harm's way) for 60 days (90 to get troops out safely)
The Congress must pass a resolution or the troops must come out. The Court has said that an appropriation to support the action constitutes a resolution supporting the engagement. The Supreme Court has never ruled on the constitutionality of the act, and there are no penalties specified in the act. Several presidents have questioned the constitutionality of the act but followed it.

D. Youth received the vote by constitutional amendment ratified in 1971 - the 26th Amendment . Women were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment, and African Americans by the 15th.

A. Realigning elections have been extensively discussed in the party literature in the party literature. Clearly, 1932 was a realigning election. Speculation is that the election of George W. Bush could represent another, but we have not seen the massive change that occurred in previous realigning periods and it is uncertain whether the realignment will be long term.Some political scientists are considering this a realignment, while others are not sure.

D. The constitution does not include any requirements for a Supreme Court Justice. There are also no requirements in the judiciary statutes.

B. Judicial Review allows the courts to overturn a statute on the basis that it is not constitutional. Marbury v. Madison is the famous case in a decision by John Marshall that overturned a portion of the Judiciary Act of 1789 on the basis of its constitutionality, establishing the judicial review precedent for the court.

C. A separate Director of Intelligence was created to coordinate the 15 agencies in the intelligence community. Prior to this time, the Director of the CIA was also the Director of Intelligence. However, it was argued that it was difficult to be director of one agency in the intelligence community while also coordinating all agencies, because, in doing the latter role, the individual had little power. In establishing the new office, there was conflict over whether to give the new director personnel and budget authority. The final bill establishes limited budget authority.

D. The spoils system is based on the idea that jobs are given to supporters of the winning candidate. "To the victor belongs the spoils" is not dead, but such patronage has been reduced on the national level by civil service reforms, beginning with the Pendleton Act in 1883 that followed the assassination of President Garfield by a disappointed office seeker. State and local government have civil service systems that vary in the completeness of their coverage.

C. The supreme court had ruled against many New Deal programs. He recommended adding members to the court for every member who was over 30

B. Conference Committees are used when differences exist between House and Senate bills. Each house's conferences vote separately and both sets must agree to approve a provision. Ultimately, the floors of each chamber must approve a Conference Committee's report.

B. The literacy test. among other means, was used by a number of states to keep blacks from voting. It tended to be implemented in an inequitable way. Whites were given simple tests, while blacks were given tests that required knowing the provisions of their states constitutions. The 1965 Voting Rights Act suspended the test in many states, and this was extended in the 1970 Voting Rights Act.

Trust in government has declined over the years, although there have also been some years of improvement . For example, more people believe that government wastes money than it did in former years. Trust in government represents an attitudinal index based on several public opinion questions. The most often cited trust index is derived from the regular survey by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

B. The Federalist Papers were written by Jay, Hamilton, and Madison. It was a series of newspaper pieces to encourage the ratification of the new constitution.

D. The President, unlike many governors, does not have an item veto. There was an attempt to give him the equivalent of one through legislation, but the Supreme Court ruled that attempt unconstitutional

b. the court has ruled in all of these areas. The only one protected are the Amish, who do not have to send their children to school after the 8th grade (Wisconsin v. Yoder)

C. Progressive taxes that take a greater percent income from the rich than the poor. They are advocated based the principle of the "ability to pay." Of the taxes listed, the income tax with its graduated tax brackets is typically progressive. All the others are regressive. Few sales taxes are progressive - only those that exempt many necessities and also tax services such as attorney's fees that wealthy people use more tend to be.

A. States are required to give full, faith, and credit to papers and legal decisions made in other states. Marriage has generally been considered part of the full, faith, and credit provisions. Historically some states had refused to accept mixed racial marriages if their own state did not allow it. today, states may not accept same-sex marriage. The federal law known as the Defense of Marriage Act explicitly excludes same-sex marriage from the full, faith, and credits provision. However, it still remains to be seen whether the courts will accept this act as constitutional .

b. The marble cake theory of federalism was described by Morton Grodzins. It is frequently used to describe the sharing of functions between the federal government and the states.

A. The writ of centiorari is the main way that cases go to the Supreme Court . The writ asks for Supreme Court review. Only a small percent of writs received by the Court are granted

B. Stare decisis, meaning "let the decision stand", are decisions that act as precedent for future decisions. cases are cited by attorneys as precedents that the decision in their case should follow.

B. Article V gives the method of approval. There are actually two methods, one allowing the states to call for a constitutional convention. The most common method, however is a proposal by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and approval by the legislatures of three--fourths of the states. (The Congress could select conventions in the states for approval.) The president does not have to approve.

B. TANF's main feature is that welfare is limited to five years, although there can be some people exempt from this requirement. AFDC did not have any such time limit. AFDC sis go to immigrants, while TANF restricts immigrants, while TANF restricts immigrants who are not citizens from getting funding.

C. The Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo limited the regulations of money in campaigns, arguing that to control spending would be tantamount to controlling speech, which is protected by the 1st amendment.

B. Malapportionment prior to the Supreme Court decision ordering reapportionment resulted in rural areas being overrepresented and urban areas underrepresented. The apportionment of congressional and state legislative districts did not keep pace with the movement of people from rural areas to cities (and, subsequently, to suburban areas) and immigrants who came primarily to cities.

C. The scientific management school of public administration was aimed at developing organization and management that would achieve the goals of efficiency and economy. (A similar movement can be found in business administration.) In terms of cities, they viewed the city as delivering services, which would be done as efficiently as possible, and not making the same type of policy decisions found at the state and national levels. The city manager form of government was advocated by this school of thought.

B. Medicare's Part B, which goes for physician and other outpatient services, includes tax dollars. Three-fourths of the cost comes from genera taxes. Part A, which pays for hospital care, comes only from money in the trust fund, which people pay into while they are working. Custodial nursing home care is not covered by Medicare, nor are experimental procedures.

C. The District of Columbia secured the right to vote for president by the 23rd Amendment in 1961. The Number of votes is specified as equal to that of the smallest state.

A. Mutually assured destruction (MAD) has been the U.S. defense policy. It worked to keep the Soviet Union from acquiring a first-strike capability, which meant that if the Soviet Union struck first, the United States would be able to knock out an effective retaliation. The MAD doctrine said that if a nation struck first, the other side would be able to retaliate and inflict unacceptable damage. Based upon this policy, the international system was said to be in balance.

D. All the conditions in A through C must be present before a court will consider a case. the case need not be a common law case but could be based upon statutory law. Statutory law is a law that is passed by the legislature Common law is a law that comes from judicial decisions.

C. Habeas Corpus, which requires that someone who is arrested be taken before a judge, can be suspended the Congress but only when there is a rebellion or an invasion. President Lincoln tried to suspend the right during the Civil War, but the Supreme Court said only Congress can do so.

C. Since the Bakke case, the Supreme Court has allowed affirmative action. However, they have states that there cannot be quotas or adding a specific number of points to a minority's application. The latter was a focus of the University of Michigan affirmative action decisions (Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger) D. is not correct because the court did not limit affirmative action to simply encourage applicants; it can be used as a factor in making decisions. In the two University of Michigan cases cited (those involving Bollinger), the Supreme Court

D. The National Security Council was established in 1947 to ensure that both military and diplomatic viewpoints were heard in making foreign policy. The Statutory membership is limited. Others can be invited by the president to participate. For example, the secretary of the Treasury is often involved although not a statutory member. During the Ford Administration, legislation was enacted to add the Treasury Secretary, but President Ford vetoed it, stating that he did not want to make the group too large. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the assistant to the president for national security affairs are both advisory and not statutory members.

D. Since 1983 Medicare pays a specific sum based upon the condition for which the person was admitted. This system is called the Progressive Payment System (PPS) and bases its payment on a classification of illnesses called Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG). Which the former system of paying the individual's bill, physicians and hospitals were encouraged to keep patients longer. With the PPS system, early discharge is pushed.

C. Incumbency has been a powerful force in congressional elections. Deviations from party go overwhelmingly to the incumbent. The incumbent typically has more money to spend, has the experience of past campaigns, has performed consistent service, and is better known than the challenger.

D. The constitution (Article I, Section 3) specifically allows a person to be charged and tried for a crime even if he has been impeached. This has occurred with federal judges.

A. Maximum feasible participation was on of the most controversial aspects of the war on poverty. Its intent was to involve clients - the poor- in the development of community programs. It was a fundamental shift in philosophy of having the programs developed for the poor by the middle class reformers. The argument was that the poor knew the most about their problems, involvement would encourage a sense of community, and there would be more acceptance of programs they developed themselves. CAP boards challenged local government, which resulted in significant controversy for the program. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, political scientist and later senator from New York, wrote a book on the subject titled Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding.

A. Started to make sure that policy proposals from the departments did not conflict with the president’s budget, it has been extended to all policy proposals made by the departments to ensure conformity to the administration’s policy. Central clearance function began after the president received executive budget authority in the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921.

A. Open market operations involve the buying and selling of securities by the Federal Reserve. An Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed) Makes the Decision. Securities are sold to counter inflation and are bought to put more money in the economy to counter a recession.