USPS midterm 3 Flashcards

Question

Example of Congress being vague when directly bureacracy

Answer 1

In 1914, authorized FTC to enforce laws against "unfair methods of competition... and unfair or deceptive acts or practices" without defining what these methods/acts/practices were

Answer 2

police patrols and fire alarms

Answer 3

Congress directly monitors agencies to ensure they are faithfully impleneting the law - and does so visibly, so bureaucrats are aware they are being watched Patriot Act of 2001 extended DOJ's power to investigate and detain terrorists, but only until 2005, could only be extended at Congress's will so DOJ had to stay in line

Answer 4

Congress doesn't act direclty. Sets up processes allowing interest groups and private individuals to detect failures in implementation and alert Congress In 1983, FTC wanted to pass legislation that would create more transparency on funeral and used car costs. Congressmen knew that undertakers and car dealers could wield influence in their districts, so when they started to protest, Congress heard them and shut down the FTC.

Answer 5

1. Appoint loyal officials to senior administrative posts 2. As first mover in the process of drafting the national budget, agencies have strong interest in keeping White House happy to receive favorable treatment 3. In general, able to quickly communicate with agencies as well as pass EOs to restirct bureacratic power

Answer 6

During Obama's healthcare reform, (FDA?) wanted to possibly require movie theaters to post calories for popcorn. Obama's deputy chief of staff worried this would seem overly controlling, called the FDA and made them backdown Trump issued the EO of Schedule F, allowing him to appoint/fire up to 50,000 government officials instead of 4,000. Gives him massive powers over bureacracy and also gives people major incentive to keep the president happy

Answer 7

power of judicial review: motivates bureacrats to engage in good faith with the implementaiton process (and public participation in policymaking) EPA The Supreme Court can overturn agency decisions that might violate Administrative Procedure Act of 1946: law that governs how federal agencies create and eforce regulations

Answer 8

1. ICE agency issued guidance that international students should be deported if only taking online courses dyrung COVID-19, universities filed suit and the threat of judicial review caused ICE to rescind the rule 2. In 2022, Supreme Court curtailed EPA's authority to limit carbon emissionsby forcing closure of coal-fired power plants. West Virginia sued EPA, sayign only Congress could do this, court interceded and protected congressional authority.

Answer 9

Traditional news outlets Digital-only platforms Social media

Answer 10

News outlets: org that gather, package, and trasmit news through comms tech traditional/legacy: orgs basing most of content on work of trained reporters

Answer 11

Newspaper (which became extensions of parties subsidizing them), radio/TV (30s-60s), by early 90s and 2000s, cable and satelllite took over, and finally digital media and streaming services dominated

Answer 12

1. News that Matters 2. Algorithms/social media 3. Fake news

Answer 13

Team of political scientists wanted to understand effect of media coverage on American's policy priorities Created experiment 1. Control group: watches actual newscast 2. Treatment: watches doctored version of newscast that emphasizes different set of policy issues After: asked to rank policy issues on order of importance

Answer 14

Found that policy issues recieving greater coverage in the news become more important to viewers, while those ignored lose their credibility

Answer 15

Agenda setting

Answer 16

Dynamic where readers and watchers of news are influenced by what the press covers, become more attentive to the issues covered by news sources. Occurs when consumers of news are drive to think about about specific issues and topics getting more attention in media environment

Answer 17

Dynamic occuring where watchers of media and influenced to think about candidates and elected officials

Answer 18

Media does have power to shape people's priorities, but not to persuade them or change their attitudes

Answer 19

Might not seem as powerful as persuasion, but you don't have to change people's minds to change the decisions that they make. If an issue or topic benefits one party or candidate, increasing importance of issue in person's mind may influence who they support/vote for.

Answer 20

Concern that social media might be increasing partisan division in the American electorate. Meta offered up their data to researchers to study how FB and IG might impact 2024 election in 2020. First results came out in 2023

Answer 21

1. Company algoritihms do filters users to see partisan info - but info they likely already agree with 2. Limited impact in changes to people's attitudes about politics and self-reported political participation Connect with earrlier research that polarization has increased among groups least likely to use digital media

Answer 22

1. stories intentionally and verifiably false 2.accusations that mainstream media sources themselves propogate "fake news" and are "enemies of the people"

Answer 23

Fake news unlikely to persuade people any more than other news stories, continued trend in difficulties of persuasion

Answer 24

Opinions held by private persons which government should heed and take seriously (if they want to keep their jobs)

Answer 25

as a political force to be shaped and exploited to push policy agendas

Answer 26

Federalist papers, then the bill of rights In early Republic, party leaderrs took control of newspapers to promote candidates and policy proposals

Answer 27

ad campaigns, pamphlets, newspapers, editorials, demonstrations

Answer 28

Through scientific polling

Answer 29

1. Systematic random samples taken from populations 2. Equal chance of being studied to avoid systematic sampling error

Answer 30

Consistent differences between observed and actual values that bias the outcomes of analysis in a specific direction

Answer 31

1. What if not everyone selected is willing to answer questions? 2. What if the people who refuse to answer differ systematically from people who agree? Use stats now to construct samples

Answer 32

Reflect underlying attitudes

Answer 33

combines feelings, beliefs, thoughts and predispositions when thinking about and reacting to things in one's environment

Answer 34

express the attitudes evokd by the choices they face

Answer 35

a comprehensive, integrated set of views about gov and politics related to political attittudes

Answer 36

Liberals favor using gov. to reduce economic inequalities, prefer smaller defense, more taxes on rich Conservatives: distrust gov, faith in private enterprise, lower taxes, more assertive pursuit of national self-interest

Answer 37

Party IDs/partisanship

Answer 38

Can introduce bias into perceptions of real politicla info, because voters use party ID as a "shortcut" Voters pay more attention to sources/info aligning with their partisan ID More ambiguous the situation, the more an attitude like party ID can shape underlying beliefs and the opinions they express

Answer 39

race, ethnicity, gender, education, region, religion, age

Answer 40

On averge, 78% of Americans have a great deal/fair amount of confidence in police to act in best interests of public only 56% of black, 84% of whites, 74% of hispanic

Answer 41

56% of women identify with Dems, 42% of men

Answer 42

lower income people more inclined to support spending on gov service helping those like them Higher income less enthusiastic about gov spending on these programs

Answer 43

1/4 century ago, voters w/higher levels of educations leaned Republican, but today lean towards Democrats

Answer 44

After death of George FLoyd on may 25,2020, 15-26 million people took to streets to protest his death. At the cetner was M4BL, a coalition of interest groups seeking to uplift black civil rights Released proposal BREATHE Act in July 2020

Answer 45

Basically divested taxpayer dollars from policing into alternative approaches to public safety Ultimatley did not pass, but M4BL has made massive progress at the state level

Answer 46

1. 16 state legislatures took up police reform 2. NYC created an office within state legislature that would investigate police misconduct 3. COlorado banned chokeholds and expanded use of body cams

Answer 47

Groups fighitng for national social economic justice spent 15 million on lobbying. The rest of the lobbying population spent 3.5 billion.

Answer 48

Outnumbered, out-resourced, less likely to retain a legal staff, hire lobbyists, or have affiliated Political Action Committees

Answer 49

Most discourse is negative, and 52% fo Amreicans view the work of lobbyists and interest groups to be "very serious problem" in government

Answer 50

organized groups of people seeking to influence public policy

Answer 51

activities through which individuals, interest groups, and other institutions seek to influence public policy by persuading gov officials to support groups' positions

Answer 52

Professionals who work to influence public policy in favor of clients' interests

Answer 53

Tripled during or. after great broadening (60s-90s), the pop. today is 43000 groups

Answer 54

Lobbying. filing lawsuits, circulating petitions, submitting public comments, meeting w/member of Congress

Answer 55

1. Represent constituents interests before gov - act as primary connection between 2. Offer constituents opportunity to politically participate (writing a letter, attending protest, contributing time and money, effort beyodn jjust a vote) 3. Educating constituents about political issues and possible solutions 4. Still are self-intersted, sway opinion toward issues by agenda setting and framing 5. Dedicate effort to monitoring policy implementation - will sound alarm if not done well and also lobby federal agencies, occassionally taking them to court

Answer 56

Framing a policy issue in a different manner to appeal or disappeal to a certain democraphic and gain their support example: capital punishment or gay marriage

Answer 57

They're assumed to, and there is much public cynicism surrounding it

Answer 58

1. Thousands of bills being introduced, not all can be read and understood (esepcially the implications of policy) 2. Members would rely on saff, but staff levels in Congress are declining (66% from 1985 to 2015, gingrich), while member constituencies have increased. At the same time, support offices in Congress (created to provide non-partisan professional advice - lost 37% of their staff) 3. Gutting of capacity means there has been steady decline in # of issues Congress can address and its capacity to gather info needed to create policy in house Thus, they increasingly rley on information provided by interest groups

Answer 59

1. interest groups tie preferences to the interests of Members' home states or districts. for example, oil industry lobbyists might try to show how proposed legislation might help, or harm, the local economy 2. Interest groups provide Members with expertise. Lobbyists are experts in entire industries, specialize in specific subjects and can provide Members with much more info (info including scientific studies, economic analyses, etc). Not all selfless - helping members gives groups an edge 3. Interest groups gain influence by becoming part of a Member's re-election team (buying influence, but this isn't fully accurate)

Answer 60

Members often have strong opinions on the most major issues, few legislators have been found to sell out

Answer 61

When members hire fundraising consultants and create committees, interest groups and their reps may take these roles. They meet the members at the committees, and thena gain at the events they plan. Members will start to view them and their interest groups as allies. Interest groups play on human nature -people more inclined to listen to friends than to strangers

Answer 62

human, personal relationships. Money follows votes: groups give to Members who have a demonstrated record of supporting their causes

Answer 63

Social movements composed of groups, are broad and decentralized and not led by any one person or org. Comprise many groups with different ideologies

Answer 64

Conscious, sustained effort by everday people to change some aspect of society using extra-institutional means More than a protest, more to them than formal organizations

Answer 65

groups without institionalized power. Use unconventional strats (marches, media events) and mroe conventional strats (petitions, letter writing)

Answer 66

outsider status and use of unconventional tactics - they are excluded from institional, economic, and political power and this is their primary motive for engaging in social movement actions

Answer 67

sustained, collective challenges made by excluded social groups attempting to protect themselves from social, political, and economic harms

Answer 68

1. collective and sustained. will last for arounda. year for naitonal-level movements. A single protest is not a movement 2. Social movements are made up of groups with less political and economic power (groups that aren't excluded benefit from existing socio-poltiical arrangements) excluded groups must resort to unconventional means 3. Presence of real and perceived harms to a criticla mass of people who want to mobilize to end their suffering

Answer 69

In fed 10, madison argued that the americna political system was built to make it hard for factions to enact passions into public policy Political scientists have generally found that social movements have little effect on congressional action example: CRM struggled for decades to put equal employment opportunity legislation on national policy agenda women's movement lobbied for 7 decades to influence congressional votes on suffrage

Answer 70

law that governs how federal agencies create and eforce regulations