+
Related Flashcards
Cards In This Set
| Front | Back |
|
Legislature
|
The branch of government whose chief function is to make laws, although it is seldom the only body with legislative power.
|
|
Responsible government
|
A government that is answerable or accountable to an elected assembly and, through it, to the people.
|
|
Elective dictatorship
|
An imbalance between the executive and the assembly that means that, once elected, the government is only constrained by the need to win subsequent elections.
|
|
Lobby fodder
|
A pejorative term denoting assembly members who vote consistently and unquestioningly as their parties dictate.
|
|
Immobilism
|
Political paralysis stemming from the absence of a strong executive, caused by multiple divisions in the assembly and (probably) society.
|
|
Checks and balances
|
Internal tensions within the governmental system that result from institutional fragmentation.
|
|
Superpresidentialism
|
A president-heavy constitutional order in which the presidency is invested with great power and the assembly or parliament operates as a mere ‘rubber stamp’.
|
|
Pork barrel politics
|
Government projects whose only, or primary, purpose is to bring money or jobs to a representative’s district or constituency.
|
|
Standing committee
|
A permanent committee within a legislative chamber, which considers bills and oversees executive activities.
|
|
Rhetoric
|
The art of using language to persuade or influence; rhetoric can imply high-sounding but essentially vacuous speech.
|
|
Unicameralism
|
The principle or practice of having an assembly composed of a single legislative chamber.
|
|
Bicameralism
|
The principle or practice of fragmenting legislative power through the establishment of two (in theory, co-equal) chambers in the assembly.
|
|
Bill
|
Proposed legislation in the form of a draft statute; if passed, a bill becomes an act.
|
|
McCarthyism
|
The use of witch hunts and unscrupulous investigations, as practised in the 1950s against ‘communists’ by US Senator Joseph McCarthy.
|
