Thanks to James Cisneros who supplied these definitions.....
CHAPTER 14
Civil Liberty: Liberty guaranteed to people that are inherent to the necessity of lifeCivil Right: Powers and privileges guaranteed to individuals that are protected
against government interference
p. 519
Incorporation: in constitutional law, the application of almost all of
the Bill of Rights to the states through the Fourteenth AmendmentFree Exercise Clause: A clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution
that prohibits the federal government from restricting religious beliefs and
practices
p. 521
No Establishment Clause: A clause in the First Amendment to the
Constitution that is interpreted to require the separation of church and stateWall of Separation Doctrine: The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the
No Establishment Clause that laws may not have as their purpose aid to one religion
or aid to all religions
p. 524
Clear and Present Danger Doctrine: A standard used by the courts
to determine whether speech may be restricted; only speech that creates
a serious and immediate danger to society may be restrictedPreferred Position: Refers to the tendency of the courts to give
preference to the First Amendment rights to speech, press, and assembly
when faced with conflicts
p. 527
Freedom of Expression: Collectively, the First Amendment rights to
free speech, press, and assemblySymbolic Speech: Actions other than speech itself but protected by the
first Amendment because they constitute political expression
p. 529
Commercial Speech: Advertising communications given only
partial protection under the First Amendment to the Constitution
p. 533
Prior Restraint: Government actions to restrict publication of a
magazine, newspaper, or books on grounds of libel, obscenity, or other
legal violations prior to actual publication of the work
p. 535
Shield Laws: Laws in some states that give reporters the right to refuse
to name their sources or to release their notes in court cases; may be
overturned by the courts when such refusals jeopardize a fair trial
for a defendantGag Order: An order by a judge banning discussion or reporting of
a case in order to ensure a fair and impartial trial
p. 540
Crime Rates: Numbers of crimes reported to law enforcement authorities
in relation to the population
p. 543
Victimization Rate: The incidence of crime as reported in public
opinion polls; exceeds the crime rate because it takes into account
individuals who are victimized but decline to take the issue to the policeWrit of Habeas Corpus: A court order directing public officials
who are holding a person in custody to bring the prisoner into court and
explain the reasons for confinement; the right to habeas corpus is protected by
Article I of the Constitution
p. 545
Bill of Attainder: A legislative act inflicting punishment without
judicial trial; forbidden under Article I of the ConstitutionEx Post Facto Law: A retroactive criminal law that works against
the accused; forbidden under Article I of the ConstitutionSearch Warrant: A court order permitting law enforcement officials
to search a location in order to seize evidence of a crime; issued
only for a specified location, in connection with a specific investigation,
and on submission of proof that “probable cause” exists to warrant such a search
p. 546
Indictment: Determination by a grand jury that sufficient evidence
exists to warrant trial of an individual on a felony charge; necessary
before an individual can be brought to trialGrand Jury: A jury charged only with determining whether sufficient
evidence exists to support indictment of an individual on a
felony charge; the grand jury’s decision to indict does not represent
a conviction
p. 547
Immunity from Prosecution: A grant by the government to an individual
of freedom from prosecution on a particular charge in return for
testimony by that individual that might otherwise be self-incriminating
p. 548
Exclusionary Rule: A rule of law that evidence found in an
illegal search or resulting from an illegally obtained confession
may not be admitted at trial
p. 550
Plea Bargaining: The practice of allowing defendants to plead guilty to
lesser crimes than those with which they were original charged
in return for reduced sentences
CHAPTER 15
p. 556
Redistribution: Government policies meant to shift assets from one group to another
p. 557
Abolition Movement: A social movement before the Civil War whose goal was to
abolish slavery throughout the United States
p. 559
Jim Crowism: The second-class-citizen status conferred on blacks by
southern segregation laws; derived from a nineteenth-century
song-and-dance act (usually performed by a white man in blackface) that
stereotyped blacksSeparate but Equal: The ruling of the Supreme court in the case of
Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) to the effect that segregated facilities were
legal as long as the facilities were equalColorblind Standard: The view that laws should take no account of race at all,
that they should neither discriminate against nor grant preference to any
individual based on race
p. 566
Nonviolent Direct Action: A strategy used by civil rights leaders such as
Martin Luther King, Jr., in which protesters break “unjust” laws openly
but in a “loving” fashion in order to bring the injustices of such laws
to public attention
p. 569
Affirmative Action: Any program, whether enacted by a government or by a private
organization, whose goal is to overcome the results of past unequal
treatment of minorities and/or women by giving members of these groups
preferential treatment in admissions, hiring, promotions, or other aspects
of life
p. 570
Quota: A provision of some affirmative action programs in which specific
numbers or percentages of positions are open only to minorities and/or women
p. 572
Set-aside Program: A program in which a specified number or percentage of
contracts must go to designated minorities
p. 581
Direct Discrimination: The now-illegal practice of differential pay for men
versus women even when those individual have equal qualifications and
perform the same job
p. 582
Comparable Worth: The argument that pay levels for traditionally male and
traditionally female jobs should be equalized by paying equally all jobs that
are “worth about the same” to an employer
p. 583
Glass Ceiling: The “invisible” barriers to women rising to the highest
positions in corporations and the professions
CHAPTER 16
p. 600
Free-Market Economic System: An economic system in which individual choices
by consumers and firms determine what shall be produced, how much,
and for whom; this economic system relies on voluntary exchanges of buying
and sellingPolitical Economy: The study of relationships among politics and economics and
governments and marketsInflation: A rise in the general level of prices, not just the prices of some productsRecession: A decline in the general level of economic activity, usually coupled with
an increase in unemployment
p. 601
Classical Economic Theory: Views a market economy as a self-adjusting mechanism that
will achieve full employment, maximum productivity, and stable
prices if left alone by the governmentKeynesian Economic Theory: Suggests that the economy could fall into a recession
and stay there unless government added to demand by spending more money
itself and lowering taxes
p. 602
Stagflation: Inflation and high interest rates combined with unemployment
and a stagnant economySupply-side Economic Theory: Rejects Keynesianism's short-term manipulation
of demand; instead, supply-siders argue that the key is economic growth,
which increases the overall supply of goods and services and thereby
holds down prices, thus reducing or ending inflation altogetherMonetarist Economic Theory: Contends that economic stability can only be
achieved by holding the rate of monetary growth to the same rate as the
economy's own growth
p. 604
Fiscal Policy: Focuses on the taxing, spending, and borrowing activities of the
national government
p. 605
Government Bonds: Certificates of indebtness that pay interest and promise repayment
on a future dateFederal Reserve Board (the Fed): An independent agency of the executive branch of the
federal government charged with overseeing the nation's monetary policy
p. 607
Monetary Policy: Increasing or decreasing the supply of money and hence largely
determining interest rates
p. 608
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): A nation's total production of goods and services
for a single year valued in terms of market pricesUnemployment Rate: The percentage of the civilian labor force who are looking for
work or waiting to return to or begin a job
p. 611
Entitlement Programs: Federal programs that provide classes of people with a
legally enforceable right to benefitsIndexing: The tying of benefit levels in social welfare programs to the
general price levelIn-Kind (Noncash) Benefits: Benefits of a social welfare program that are not
cash payments, including free medical care, subsidized housing,
and food stampsBalanced Budget: A government budget in which expenditures and revenues are equal,
so that no deficit or surplus existsNational Debt: The total current debt owed by the national government, produced
by deficit spending over many yearsBackdoor Spending: Spending by agencies of the federal government whose operations
are not included in the federal budget
p. 613
Deficit: an imbalance in the annual federal budget in which spending exceeds revenues
p. 614
Default: Refusal or inability to pay a debt
p. 615
Monetarize a debt: A system of debt reduction in which a government simply prints
more money and uses that money to pay its debts; because such money is more
plentiful and thus worth less, inflation (and sometimes hyperinflation) resultsHyperinflation: Annual inflation rates of 100 to 1,000 percent or more
p. 616
Individual Income Tax: Taxes on individual's wages and other earned income, the primary
source of revenue for the U.S. federal government
p. 618
Tax Expenditures: Tax revenues lost to the federal government because of exemptions,
exclusions, deductions, and special treatments in tax laws
p. 619
Incidence: The actual bearer of a tax burden
p. 620
Progressive taxation: A system of taxation in which higher-income groups pay a
larger percentage of their incomes in taxes than do lower-income groupsRegressive Taxation: A system of taxation in which lower-income groups pay a larger
percentage of their incomes in taxes than do higher-income groupsProportional (flat) taxation: A system of taxation in which all income groups pay
the same percentage of their income in taxes
p. 623
Capital Gains: Profits from buying and selling property including stocks,
bonds, and real estate
CHAPTER 17
p. 628
Transfer payments: Direct payments (either in cash or in goods and/or services) by governments
to individuals as part of a social welfare program, not as a result of
any service or contribution rendered by the individualPoverty line: The official standard regarding what level of annual cash income
is sufficient to maintain a "decent standard of living"; those with incomes
below this level are eligible for most public assistance programsMeans-tested spending: Spending for benefits that is distributed on the basis of the
recipient's income
p. 631
Underclass: People who have remained poor and dependent on welfare over a prolonged
period of time
p. 634
Social insurance programs: Social welfare programs to which beneficiaries have made
contributions so that they are entitled to benefits regardless of their
personal wealthPublic assistance programs: Those social welfare programs for which no contributions
are required and only those living in poverty (by official standards) are eligible;
including food stamps, Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children
p. 635
Entitlements: Any welfare program for which there are eligibility requirements, whether
financial or contributory
p. 636
Social security: A social insurance program composed of the Old Age and Survivors Insurance
program, which pays benefits to retired workers who have paid into the program
and their dependents and survivors, and the Disability Insurance program,
which pays benefits to disabled workers and their families
p. 637
Unemployment compensation: A social insurance program that temporarily replaces part
of the wages of workers who have lost their jobsSupplemental Security Income (SSI): A public assistance program that provides
monthly cash payments to the needy elderly (sixty-five or older), blind,
and disabledAid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC): A public assistance program that provides
monies to the states for their use in helping needy children through payments
to their parentsMedicare: A social insurance program that provides health care insurance to elderly
and disabled people
p. 638
Medicaid: A public assistance program that provides health care to the poorFood stamp program: A public assistance program that provides low-income households with
coupons redeemable for enough food to provide a minimal mutritious diet
p. 639
Dependency ratio: In the social security system, the number of recipients as a percentage
of the number of contributing workers
p. 640
COLAs: Annual cost-of-living adjustments mandated by law in social security and other
welfare benefits
p. 642
Workfare: Federal and state programs designed to assist welfare recipients in
finding employment
p. 647
Deductibles: Initial charges in insurance plans, paid by beneficiaries
p. 649
Preferred provider organizations (PPOs): Groups of hospitals and physicians who have
joined together to offer their services to private insurers at a discountManaged care: Programs designed to keep health care costs down by the establishment of
strict guidelines regarding when and what diagnostic and therapeutic
procedures should be administered to patients under various circumstancesHealth maintenance organizations (HMOs): Health care provider groups that provide a
stipulated list of services to patients for a fixed fee that is usually
substantially lower than such care would otherwise cost
p. 651
Managed competition: An approach to health care cost control in which individuals and/or
companies join health insurance purchasing organizations that negotiate
with private health insurance companies, HMOs, PPOs, and private physicians
and hospitals to obtain the best care possible at a low costHealth insurance purchasing alliances: Regional cooperatives that obtain the best
care-lowest cost health care for individuals and businesses in a managed
competition situation
CHAPTER 18
p. 658
Balance of Power: An attempt to bring order to international relations in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by creating a system of alliances among
nations so that the relative strength of each alliance balanced that of
the others
p. 659
Collective Security: An attempt to bring order to international relations by all nations
joining together to guarantee each other's "territorial integrity" and
"independence" against "external aggression"Soviet Union: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) consisting of Russia and
its bordering lands and ruled by the communist regime in Moscow, officially
dissolved in 1991
p. 660
Superpowers: Refers to the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II,
when these two nations dominated international politicsRegional Security: An attempt to bring order to international relations during
the Cold War by creating regional alliances between a superpower and
nations of a particular regionNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): A mutual-security agreement and
joint military command uniting the nations of Western Europe, initially formed
to resist Soviet Expansionism
p. 661
Cold War: The political, military, and ideological struggle between the United States
and the Soviet Union following the end of World War II and ending with
the collapse of the Soviet Union's communist government in 1991
p. 662
Truman Doctrine: A U.S. foreign policy, first articulated by President Harry S. Truman,
that pledged the United States to "support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"Containment: A policy of preventing an enemy from expanding its boundaries and/or influence,
specifically the U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union during
the Cold WarMarshall Plan: A U.S. program to rebuild the nations of Western Europe in the aftermath
of World War II in order to render them less susceptible to communist
influence and takeover
p. 663
Third World: Those nations of the world that remain economically underdeveloped
p. 665
Détente: The relaxation of strained relations between nations, specifically used to refer to
the relaxation of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union
during the Cold War
p. 667
Perestroika: A Russian term meaning "restructuring," referring to Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of
restructuring the Soviet systemGlasnost: A Russian term meaning "openness," referring to Mikhail Gorbachev's removal of many
restrictions on individual freedom in the Soviet Union
p. 669
Deterrence: The U.S. approach to deterring any nuclear attack from the Soviet Union by
maintaining a second-strike capabilitySecond-strike Capability: The ability of a nation's forces to survive a surprise
nuclear attack by the enemy and then to retaliate effectivelyFirst-strike Capability: The ability of a nation's forces to completely destroy
its enemy's ability to retaliate in an initial attackMutual Assured Destruction (MAD): Nuclear peace maintained by the capability of
each side's missile forces to survive a first strike and inflict
heavy damages in retaliation against the aggressor's population
p. 670
SALT I: The first arms limitation treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union,
signed in 1972, limiting the total number of offensive nuclear missiles;
the treaty reflected the theory that the population centers of
both nations should be left undefendedSALT II: A lengthy and complicated treaty between the United States and Soviet Union,
agreed to in 1979 but never ratified by the U.S. Senate, that set limits on
all types of strategic nuclear launch vehicleSTART I: The first treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union that actually
reduced the strategic nuclear arms of the superpowers, signed in 1991
p. 671
START II: The capstone of strategic nuclear arms control requiring the United States and
Russia to reduce total nuclear warheads by more than two-thirds from
Cold War levels and to eliminate all multiwarhead land based missiles by 2003
p. 672
Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD): Weapons capable of detecting, intercepting, and destroying
missiles in flight
p. 678
Bottom-Up Review: Clinton Administration's assessment of post-Cold War military force
requirements focusing on regional threats
Other definitions that aren't listed here can be found in the lecture notes.
