Regents Preparation - Modern Presidents

Regents Preparation: Key terms

United States History Regents                                                                                                                                                 Key Terms

DEMOCRACY - Type of government that recognizes the people's right to take part directly or indirectly in controlling the government. Key idea: government must have consent of the governed.

CONSTITUTION - Term for a written plan of government. Establishes how the government works.

FEDERALISM - A system of government in which power is shared between state governments and a strong central/national government.

LEGISLATIV - Branch of government whose primary duty is to make the laws. Branch that Congress is.

EXECUTIVE - Branch of government whose primary duty is to enforce/carry out the laws. The President is the head of this branch.

JUDICIAL - Branch of government whose primary duty is to interpret the laws. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the nation performing this function.

SEPARATION OF POWERS - The division of government power into different branches with each branch having different duties/functions.

CHECKS AND BALANCES - A system that allows each branch of government to limit the power of the other branches. The Presidential veto and the Senate's power to reject Presidential treaties and appointments are key examples.

AMENDMENT - A formal change or addition to the Constitution. Allows the government to meet the changing needs of American society.

JUDICIAL REVIEW - The power of the Supreme Court to declare whether an action of the President or a law passed by Congress violates the Constitution. This is an example of checks and balances.

ELASTIC CLAUSE - Section of the Constitution that allows Congress to extend its powers/duties because it states that Congress may pass such other laws as may be "necessary and proper." Allows Congress to pass laws to meet the changing needs of American society.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE - Method of indirectly electing the President included in the Constitution because the writers of the Constitution did not trust the common people to choose the President.

IMPEACH - Power of the House of Representatives to formally accuse a public official such as the President of wrongdoing.

LOBBYIST - A person who is not an elected official who is a member of a special interest group that tries to influence what laws are passed.

UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION - Political practices that are followed, but are not part of the actual Constitution. Examples include political parties, judicial review, and the Presidential Cabinet.

NEW IMMIGRANTS - Refers to the immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who came primarily during the age of Industrialization in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

NATIVISM - The belief in the U.S. that immigrants are inferior and should not be allowed into the U.S.

MELTING POT THEORY - The belief that different immigrant groups will assimilate into American society but in the process a new American identity will emerge from the blending of cultures.

CULTURAL PLURALISM - Belief that immigrants to the U.S. maintain their own cultural identity and thus the U.S. is a type of society in which diverse ethnic, racial, national groups go-exist while maintaining their own cultural heritage.

SOCIAL DARWINISM - Idea commonly held by the wealthy and big business in the late 1800's that the principle of survival of the fittest applies to humans.

MUCKRAKERS - American journalists/writers who tried to improve society by exposing corruption, health hazards, and other social problems.

CIVIL SERVICE - Reform movement which insisted that government jobs and promotions should be based on merit rather than on the spoils system/political patronage.

INITIATIVE/REFERENDUM - Key democratic reform of the Progressive Era which allowed citizens to vote directly on proposed laws.

PROGRESSIVE/GRADUATED - Type of tax in which incomes are taxed at a higher rate or percentage than lower incomes. Key reform of the Progressive Era.

JIM CROW - Term used for the segregation laws passed in the Southern states following the period of Reconstruction.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - Nonviolent protest against unjust laws. This method was used by Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION               - Actions taken by businesses, colleges, the government, etc to increase the number of minorities and women in jobs and higher education. Critics of this call it reverse discrimination.

SUFFRAGETTES - People who campaigned for women's right to vote in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

FEMINIST MOVEMENT - The struggle of women starting in the 2nd half of the 1900's for equality. Key concerns included equal pay for equal work and the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment.

ISOLATIONISM                - Foreign policy begun by Washington in which the U.S. avoiding forming alliances with other nations of the world.

MANIFEST DESTINY - Idea commonly held by Americans that the U.S. had the God given right to expand westward across the entire North American continent.

IMPERIALISM - Foreign policy U.S. began in the late 1800's in which the U.S. believed that it could take control of other countries either directly or through economic or political dominance.

YELLOW JOURNALISM - Sensational style of reporting used by newspapers in which the newspaper uses dramatic pictures and language to attract the attention of readers. Considered one of the causes of the Spanish American War.

UNRESTRICTED SUB WARFARE - Policy followed by Germany during W.W. I in which they sunk merchant and passenger without warning. Main cause of U.S. entry into W.W. I.

COLLECTIVE SECURITY - System in which member nations agree to take joint action to meet threats to international peace. League of Nations and United Nations are examples.

COLD WAR - State of tension and conflict between the U.S. and Soviet Union that lasted from the end of W.W. II in 1945 until the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991.

DOMINO THEORY - The idea commonly held in the U.S. during the Cold WAr that if one country in an area became communist, other neighboring countries would also fall to communism.

CONTAINMENT - The U.S. policy during the Cold War of trying to stop the spread of communism.

RED SCARE  - Term used to describe periods in the 1920's and 1950's when American fear of the communist threat within the U.S. was at its height. In both periods it led to the violations of people's rights.

DÉTENTE - Term associated with the easing of tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union in the early 1970's.

INTERDEPENDENCE - The idea that technology in the late 1900's has created a situation in which the countries of the world are reliant upon each other.

CAPITALISM - Economic system in which businesses are privately owned and operated for profit. Competition is necessary for this system to work.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE - Noninterference - a policy by which the government does not regulate business and does not interfere with the economy.

CORPORATION  - Type of business organization developed in the U.S. during the late 1800's in which a business is begun by selling shares of stock to investors to raise the venture capital to begin the business.

MONOPOLY/ TRUST - Business that eliminates competition and thus gains total or near total control of an entire market for a particular good or service.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING - Process in which a union negotiates with management (business owners) for a contract.

INJUNCTION - A court order prohibiting a certain action - in the late 1800's these were used to stop or limit strikes showing that government favored the businesses over the workers.

TARIFF - Tax on imported goods designed to discourage Americans from buying foreign goods so as to promote the development of American industry and products.

CENSUS - Requirement of the Constitution that the population of the United States be counted every ten years so as to determine how many representatives each state should have in the House of Representatives.

SUPPLY-SIDE ECONOMICS - Economic policy that tries to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes, especially for the wealthy and businesses. Policy is connected with Presidents Hoover and Reagan.