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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Federal System |
A system in which power is formally divided between the national government and regional entities such as states. |
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Confederal System |
A system of government in which power rests primarily with regional entities that have banded together to form a league of independent governments. |
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Unitary System |
A system of government in which the national government has ultimate control over all areas of policy.
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Necessary and Proper (Elastic) Clause |
The last clause of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which authorizes Congress to make "all laws which shall be necessary and proper" for executing the constitutions enumerated powers; sometimes called the elastic clause because it allows congressional powers to expand. |
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Tenth Amendment |
The amendment to the constitution that says: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." |
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Police Powers |
The powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment dealing with health, safety, public welfare, and morality. |
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Supremacy Clause |
Article VI, Clause 2 of the Constitution specifying that federal laws and treaties passed pursuant to the Constitution trump contradictory state laws dealing with the same topic. |
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Concurrent Powers |
Powers shared by the national government and the states (Ex. Tax). |
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Full Faith and Credit Clause |
The requirement of Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution that requires states to recognize "the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other state." |
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Privileges and Immunities Clause |
A provision of Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution that forbids a state from depriving citizens of other stats the rights it confers upon its own citizens. |
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Extradition Clause |
A provision of Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution that requires states to return (extradite), upon request, a fugitive who has fled the law to the state that has jurisdiction over the crime. |
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Interstate Compacts |
Contracts between two or more states that create an agreement on a particular policy issue. |
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Dual Federalism |
An interpretation of federalism that favors states' rights and regards states and the national government as "dual sovereigns" (two relative equals). |
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Cooperative Federalism |
An interpretation of Federalism that favors national supremacy and assumes that states will cooperate in the enforcement of federal regulations. |
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Commerce Clause |
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which gives congress the authority to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." |
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Nullification |
The concept that states can invalidate federal laws that they believe to be unconstitutional. |
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Secession |
The act of withdrawing from membership in a federation. |
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Categorical Grants |
Funds from the national government to state and local governments that must be used to implement a specific federal regulation in a particular way, leaving recipients no flexibility regarding how to spend it. |
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Unfunded Mandates |
A legal requirement imposed on states by Congress to administer a program that comes with no federal money to pay for it. |
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Block Grants |
Funds from the national government to state and local governments that are earmarked for some general policy area, such as education, while giving recipients flexibility to spend those funds within that policy area as they see fit. |