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Dynamics of American Politics Key Terms

Terms

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Judicial Review
Article 3, Section 2 of Constitution. Judicial review is the power of a court to review a law or an official act of a government employee or agent for constitutionality or for the violation of basic principles of justice. In many jurisdictions, the court has the power to strike down that law, to overturn the executive act, or order a public official to act in a certain manner if it believes the law or act to be unconstitutional or to be contrary to law in a free and democratic society.
Original Jurisdiction
The original jurisdiction of a court refers to matters on which the court rules in the first instance, as opposed to matters in which it reviews the decision of another court. The latter is appellate jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court of the United States generally has appellate jurisdiction over its cases; i.e., cases are appealed through the judicial system until they reach the Court, most commonly through writs of certiorari. However, in a limited class of cases, the Court has original jurisdiction to consider the facts and the law of a case without it having first been passed on by a lower court. Currently, the only original jurisdiction cases commonly handled by the Supreme Court are disputes between two or more U.S. states, typically regarding boundary lines, water claims, or other property issues.
Precedent/Stare Decisis
Stare decisis is a Latin legal term, used in common law to express the notion that prior court decisions must be recognized as precedents, according to case law. This doctrine is not held within most civil law jurisdictions as it is argued that this principle interferes with the right of judges to interpret law and the right of the legislature to make law.
Writ of Certiorari
Certiorari is a legal term in Roman, English and American law referring to a type of writ seeking judicial review.
Certiorari is the writ that an appellate court issues to a lower court in order to review its judgment for legal error, where no appeal is available as a matter of right. Since the Judiciary Act of 1925, most cases cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court as a matter of right; therefore, a party who wants that court to review a decision of a federal or state court files a "petition for writ of certiorari" in the Supreme Court.
Writ of Habeas Corpus
In common law, habeas corpus is the name of several writs which may be issued by a judge ordering a prisoner to be brought before the court. More commonly, the name refers to a specific writ known in full as habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, a prerogative writ ordering that a prisoner be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not the prisoner is being imprisoned lawfully.
Standing
In law, standing or locus standi is the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged. For example, a person cannot bring a suit challenging the constitutionality of a law unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that the plaintiff is (or will be) harmed by the law. Otherwise, the court will rule that the plaintiff "lacks standing" to bring the suit, and will dismiss the case without considering the merits of the claim of unconstitutionality. In order to sue to have a court declare a law unconstitutional, there must be a valid reason for whoever is suing to be there. To put it simply, the party suing has to have something to lose if the law is left on the books. The party suing must have something to lose in order to sue unless they have automatic standing by action of law.
Class Action Suit
In law, a class action is an equitable procedural device used in litigation to determine the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people whose cases involve common questions of law and fact.Class action lawsuits may be brought in Federal court if the case involves issues that affect potential class members in different states or has a nexus with federal law.
Solicitor General
United States Solicitor General is the attorney who represents or advises a government when it is party to a suit, generally in front of its supreme court.
Amicus Curiae
Amicus curiae (plural amici curiae) is a legal Latin prase, literally translated as "friend of the court," that refers to a person or entity that is not a party to a case that volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it". The information may be a legal opinion in the form of a brief, testimony that has not been solicited by any of the parties, or a learned treatise on a matter that bears on the case. The decision whether to admit the information lies with the discretion of the court.
Majority Opinion
Majoritarianism is a political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society. Under a democratic majoritarian political structure the majority would not exclude any minority from future participation in the democratic process.
"switch in time, saved 9"
"The switch in time that saved nine" was the name given by the press to the apparent sudden shift by Justice Owen J. Roberts from the conservative wing of the Supreme Court (represented by the Four Horsemen) to the liberal wing (represented by Three Musketeers) in the case West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937). Roberts joined Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and Justices Louis Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo, and Harlan Fiske Stone in upholding a Washington State minimum wage law. The decision was handed down less than two months after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced his Court-packing Bill and it was widely seen as a reaction to that bill. However, this was apparently not the case, as Justice Roberts had shifted his vote before President Roosevelt submitted his court-packing proposal to Congress. The switch, together with the resignation of Justice Willis Van Devanter a month later are often viewed as having contributed to the defeat of the Bill, preserving the size of the Supreme Court.
Civil Liberties
"The protection of citizens from improper government action." Civil liberties are protections from the power of governments. Examples include due process (the right that the government not take an individual's life, liberty, or property without a fair trial or other appropriate procedure); the right to privacy; freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and freedom of assembly. The United States Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights, protects many civil liberties. Civil liberties are guaranteed to citizens of the United States under the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted and clarified by its Supreme Court.
Civil Rights
"The protection of citizens from the illegal actions of other private citizens and other government agencies." Civil rights are the protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all citizens by law. In the United States, for example, laws protecting civil rights appear in the Constitution, in the amendments to the Constitution (particularly the 13th and 14th Amendments), in federal statutes, in state constitutions and statutes and even in the ordinances of counties and cities.One famous (and controversial) example of a right implied from the U.S. Constitution is the "right to privacy", which the U.S. Supreme Court found to exist in the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut. In the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, the Court found that state legislation prohibiting or limiting abortion violated this right to privacy.
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), is a landmark case in United States law, the basis for the exercise of judicial review of Federal statutes by the United States Supreme Court as a constitutional power.

The Court ruled that it had the power to declare void a statute that it considered repugnant to the United States Constitution. Chief Justice John Marshall presided over the case, and used the case to legally establish the right of the judiciary—and in particular, the Supreme Court— to determine the constitutionality of the actions of coequal branches of government and thus laid the basis for the current power of the Supreme Court.
McCulloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision.

In this case, the state of Maryland attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. Though the law, by its language, was generally applicable, the U.S. Bank was the only out-of-state bank then existing in Maryland, and the law is generally recognized as specifically targeting the U.S. Bank. The Court invoked the doctrine of implied powers in the Constitution, which allowed the Federal government to pass laws not expressly provided for in the Constitution's list of enumerated powers as long as they are in useful furtherance of those powers.

The fundamental case established the following two principles:

1. that the Constitution grants to Congress implied powers inherent in the nature of the Constitution as a blueprint for a practically functional government, and
2. that state action may not impede validly constitutional exercises of power by the Federal government.

The opinion was written by Chief Justice John Marshall, a man whose many opinions shape modern constitutional law.
Clear and Present Danger Test
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre. It does not protect a man from uttering words that have the effect of force. The question in every case is whether the words in such circumstances are such as to create a clear and present danger that will bring about evils the government has a right to prevent. The First Amendment exists to protect the public good as well as individual expression.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, approving de jure racial segregation in public facilities, and ruling that states could prohibit the use of public facilities by African Americans.
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court which explicitly outlawed de jure racial segregation of public education facilities (legal establishment of separate government-run schools for blacks and whites), ruling so on the grounds that the doctrine of "separate but equal" public education could never truly provide black Americans with facilities of the same standards available to "white" Americans.
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case establishing that most laws against abortion violate a constitutional right to privacy, overturning all state laws outlawing or restricting abortion. It is one of the most controversial decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history.

The decision in Roe v. Wade prompted a decades-long national debate over whether terminating pregnancies should be legal (or more precisely, whether a state can deem the act illegal if it chooses to do so); the role of the Supreme Court in constitutional adjudication; and the role of religious views in the political sphere. Roe v. Wade became one of the most politically significant Supreme Court decisions in history, reshaping national politics, dividing the nation into "pro-choice" and "pro-life" camps, and inspiring grassroots activism.
Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)[1], was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The case involved a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives. By a vote of 7-2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy."
Baker v. Carr
Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962) was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which decided that reapportionment issues (attempts to change the way voting districts are delineated) present justiciable questions, thus enabling federal courts to intervene in and to decide reapportionment cases. The defendants unsuccessfully argued that reapportionment of legislative districts is a "political question," and hence not a question which may be resolved by federal courts.
Reynolds v. Sims
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964) was a United States Supreme Court case that ruled that state legislature districts had to be roughly equal in population.

Having already overturned its ruling that redistricting was a purely political question in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962), the Court went further in order to correct what seemed to it to be egregious examples of malapportionment which were serious enough to undermine the premises underlying representative democracy. Before Reynolds, disparities existed between state senates far greater than disparities in the U.S. Senate. Urban and suburban counties were often drastically underrepresented.
Mapp v. Ohio
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), was a landmark case in the area of U.S. criminal procedure, in which the United States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures" must be excluded from criminal prosecutions in state courts, as well as federal courts.
Free-rider Problem
In economics and political science, free riders are actors who consume more than their fair share of a resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. The free rider problem is the question of how to prevent free riding from taking place, or at least limit its negative effects.
Institutionalization
The term 'institutionalization' may be used in a political sense to apply to the creation or organization of governmental institutions or particular bodies responsible for overseeing or implementing policy, for example in welfare or development. (Well-bounded, differentiated, complexity of organization, use of universalistic rather than particularistic criteria.)
Iron triangle
Iron triangle is a phrase typically used by American political scientists to describe what are deemed to be cozy relationships in U.S. politics between the legislature, government bureaucracies, and constituencies; which ultimately result in very tight policy-making circles. The term is frequently used in discussions having to do with "agency capture" - the co-option of government agencies by special interests. One of the most frequent usages of the term relates to the Military-industrial complex. In this context, the term is most often used to refer to the relationship amongst the weapons industry/military contractors, the military bureaucracy headquartered at The Pentagon, and political power exercised by the United States Congress.
Political entrepreneur
"A political entrepreneur refers to a political player who seeks to gain certain political and social benefits in return for providing the common goods that can be shared by an unorganized general public. These common goods that political entrepreneurs attempt to provide to the populace generally include foreign- and domestic-related public policy, while the benefits they hope to gain involve voter support, public recognition, and personal popularity." Hence the term Political entrepreneur can refer to someone who founds a new political project or group, or a politician who seeks to further a new and ambitious policy to further his political career.
Rules Committee
Rules Committee, is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. Rather than being responsible for a specific area of policy, as most other committees are, it is in charge of determining under what rule other bills will come to the floor. As such, it is one of the most powerful committees, and often described as "an arm of the leadership".
When a bill is reported out of one of the other committees, it does not go straight to the House floor, because the House, unlike the United States Senate, does not have unlimited debate and discussion on a bill. Instead, what may be said and done to a bill is strictly limited. This limitation is performed by the Rules Committee.
Logrolls
Logrolling is a colorful phrase used to describe trading of votes by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member.
Pork
Excessive spending for members of congress' pet projects, which usually grease the skids for special interest and hometown support. Figuratively is a supply of money; often the source of one's livelihood.In politics, a pork barrel (or pork barrel politics) is a derogatory term describing government spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. Typically it involves funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples, but they do not exhaust the possibilities. Pork barrel spending is often allocated through last-minute additions to appropriation bills.
Incumbency
The incumbent, in politics, is the current holder of a political office. Incumbency is an especially powerful force within political parties. In the United States, incumbents traditionally win their party's nomination to run for office. Unseating an incumbent president, senator or other figure during a primary election is very difficult.However, there exist scenarios in which the incumbency factor itself leads to the downfall of the incumbent. Popularly known as the anti-incumbency factor, situations of this kind occur when the incumbent has proven himself not worthy of office during his tenure and the challenger demonstrates this fact to the voters.
Bushmander
A more modern term meaning, Gerrymandering (a controversial form of redistricting in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are manipulated for an electoral advantage), with the intention of blaming the republicans and Bush.
EOP
Executive Office of the President (EOP) consists of the immediate staff of the President of the United States, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the President. The EOP was established by the United States Congress in 1939 after the Brownlow Committee recommended that such a support staff for the President be created.
Since its inception under Franklin Roosevelt, the size and influence of the EOP has increased. A CNN article notes that there are about 3,000 EOP staff members as of November 2005.
Unitary executive
In American political and legal discourse, the unitary executive theory is a theory of Constitutional interpretation that addresses aspects of the separation of powers. The theory argues that the power of Congress to divest the President of control of the executive branch is limited.
The theory relies on the Vesting Clause of Article II which states "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." Proponents of the unitary executive use this language along with the Take Care Clause ("[The President] shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed...") to argue that the Constitution creates a "hierarchical, unified executive department under the direct control of the President."
Imperial Presidency
The Imperial Presidency is a term which has been used from the 1960s to describe the presidency of the United States and the President's aides. It was based on the observations that the executive staff has grown immensely in modern times, that many appointments are made on the basis of personal loyalty to the president without outside approval, the sometimes dominant role of the white house chief of staff sometimes being compared to a prime minister position and because the senate does not "advise or consent" on the appointment of EOP positions.
Spoils system
In United States politics, a spoils system refers to an informal practice by which a party after winning an election gives government jobs to its supporters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party. The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor go the spoils." It is opposed to a system of awarding offices on the basis of some measure of merit independent of political activity.
Principal-agent problem
In economics, the principal-agent problem treats the difficulties that arise under conditions of incomplete and asymmetric information when a principal hires an agent. Various mechanisms may be used to try to align the interests of the agent with those of the principal, such as piece rates/commissions, profit sharing, efficiency wages, the agent posting a bond, or fear of firing. The principal-agent problem is found in most employer/employee relationships, for example, when stockholders hire top executives of corporations.
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is an 1883 United States federal law that established the United States Civil Service Commission, which placed most federal employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called "spoils system." Drafted during the Chester A. Arthur administration, the Pendleton Act served as a response to President James Garfield's assassination by Charles J. Guiteau (a "disappointed office seeker"). The Act was passed into law on January 16, 1883. The Act was sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton, Democrat of Ohio, and written by Dorman B. Eaton, a staunch opponent of the patronage system who was later first chairman of the United States Civil Service Commission.
New Deal
Institutionalized via legislation, SC decisions, and shared acceptance, the New Deal is the name given to the series of programs implemented between 1933-37 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the goal of relief, recovery and reform of the United States economy during the Great Depression. Dozens of "alphabet reform" agencies were created. Historians distinguish the "First New Deal" of 1933 that had something for almost every group, and the "Second New Deal" (1935-37) that introduced an element of class conflict. The opponents of the New Deal, complaining of the cost and the shift of power to Washington, stopped its expansion after Roosevelt was reelected in 1936, and managed to abolish many of its programs by 1943. The main programs still important today are Social Security and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the TVA.
Laissez-faire
Laissez-faire is generally understood to be a doctrine opposing economic interventionism by the state beyond that which is perceived to be necessary to maintain peace and property rights.
dictionary->(An economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws.)
Deregulation
Deregulation is the process by which governments remove restrictions on business in order to (in theory) encourage the efficient operation of markets. The stated rationale for deregulation is often that fewer regulations will lead to a raised level of competitiveness, therefore higher productivity, more efficiency and lower prices overall.
Social movement/Interest group
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change.
Radical right
Radical right is a term used to discuss the relative position a group or person occupies within a political spectrum.The far right has often been associated with social and religious conservatism, reactionary nationalism, jingoistic chauvinism, economic protectionism, and/or racism, but this usage varies greatly.
Libertarians
Libertarianism is a political philosophy advocating that individuals should be free to do whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they do not infringe on the same liberty of others. Libertarians hold as a fundamental maxim that all human interaction should be voluntary and consensual. They maintain that the initiation of physical force against another person or his property, the threat of initiating it, or the commission of fraud against any person, is a violation of that principle. Force used against others is considered by libertarians to be illegitimate except in retaliation for initiatory aggressions.
Social conservatives
Social conservatism is a belief in traditional or natural law-based morality and social mores and the desire to preserve these in present day society, often through civil law or regulation. Social change is generally regarded as suspect, but not prohibited, while social values based on tradition are generally regarded as tried, tested and true.
Robert Schuller
Dr. Robert H. Schuller (born September 16, 1926) is an American televangelist and pastor known around the world through his weekly broadcast The Hour of Power. Founded the Crystal Cathedral, the denomination's largest congregation in terms of membership, and arguably the most renowned.
American Creed
The American's Creed is the official creed of the United States of America. It was written in 1917 by William Tyler Page as an entry into a patriotic contest. It was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives the next year.

The text of the American's Creed is:

I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the People, by the People, for the People; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; A democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many Sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of Freedom, Equality, Justice, and Humanity for which American Patriots sacrificed their Lives and Fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to Love it; to Support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to Respect its Flag; and to defend it against all enemies.

Much like the Pledge of Allegiance, the American's Creed reflected the American nationalism that became popular after the U.S. Civil War, and can be seen as an opposition to the threat of Communist revolution and a precursor to the Red Scare.
Article II
Article Two describes the presidency (the executive branch): procedures for the selection of the president, qualifications for office, the oath to be affirmed and the powers and duties of the office. It also provides for the office of Vice President of the United States, and specifies that the Vice President succeeds to the presidency if the President is incapacitated, dies, or resigns, although whether this succession was on an acting or permanent basis was unclear until the passage of the 25th Amendment.

Article Two also provides for the impeachment and removal from office of civil officers (the President, Vice President, judges, and others).
Gideon v. Wainright
Gideon v. Wainwright 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution to provide lawyers for defendants in criminal cases unable to afford their own attorneys.

In a unanimous opinion, the Court held that Gideon had a right to be represented by a court-appointed attorney and, in doing so, overruled its 1942 decision of Betts v. Brady. In this case the Court found that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel was a fundamental right, essential to a fair trial, which should be made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The two presidencies
Domestic v. Foreign/Chief Executive v. Commander in Chief is rooted in the constitution. The concept of the two presidencies is an attempt to define the ever-changing positions of the president as American society and world politics change. This fascinating theory, first spawned in 1966 by Aaron Wildavsky, remains at the forefront of presidency political analysis.
The President of the United States of America, by virtue of formally granted constitutional powers, has several significant leadership roles. While these roles are varied and diverse, they can generally be divided into two large areas of authority and responsibility: domestic policy and foreign affairs. So distinct are the two realms of presidential activity and so different are the degrees of success within each that political scientists generally refer to these two subdivisions as the "two presidencies."
Formal v. Informal powers/resources
A key factor in what makes a president great is the ability to use resources (formal & informal) to get things done. Formal resources include constitutional powers, party, and cabinet. Informal resources are mandate, party, media, "persuassion."
Secular time
Change in institutional resources & governing resposibilities.
Political time
Established commmitments of ideology & interest.
Order Shattering/Order Affirming
Skowronek establishes a threefold description of the office of the presidency as order shattering, order affirming, and order creating. A president must shatter order by virtue of his attempt to purge whatever he views as tainted from the system, and change its focus, program or purpose. A president is order affirming by drawing the basis for his changes from the Constitution, the basic document of order in this society. A president is then order creating by doing his best to enact suitable legislation for the country.
Clientele Agency
An agency of bureaucracy directed by the law to foster or promote the interest of their clientele, e.g. farmers, verterans,small businesses. Often a reciprocal relationship: agency protects interest of clients, clients protect/lobby on behalf of agency.
Police patrols/Fire Alarms
Techniques to control bureaucracy. Police patrols refers to hearings and investigations while fire alarms are constituency feedback.
Warren Court
Refers to the time period from 1953-1969 in which a number of landmark cases went though the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren. Some of these cases include: Brown v. Board of Education, Mapp v. Ohio, Roe v. Wade, and Gideon v. Wainright.
"Rights Revolution"
Is regarding the time period where a substantial number of Supreme Court cases were decided in favor of more peoples rights, reforming the law into what it is today.
Unprotected Speech
The following areas represent some key areas where the Supreme Court has struggled with the idea of a balance between what might be called a right to be offensive or indecent and the government's role to regulate. Such areas that are not protected are Obscenity, Libel, and Fighting Words.
Incorporation/Rights revolution
Incorporation of the Bill of Rights is the legal doctrine by which portions of the U.S. Bill of Rights are applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Bill of Rights was incorporated by a series of United States Supreme Court decisions, mostly in the 1940's and 1950's. It incorporates the 14th amendment of the bill of rights into state government saying that 1)all persons born or naturalized in the US are citizens of the US and the state in which they reside, & 2)No STATE shall make or enforce any law abridging the privleges or immunities of citizens of the US, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty and property without the due process of law.
Politics of Reconstruction
Reconstruction is a time in which a president is an opposition leader dealing with a vulnerable regime. Skowronek views reconstruction as the ideal set of circumstances in which a person can ascend to the presidency. In this situation, a president can completely change the running of the government, due to the outcry of the people for change.
Politics of disjunction
Disjunction is the structure in which a leader is affiliated with a vulnerable regime. Skowronek classifies this situation as "impossible," and sees disjunctive leaders as the main foils for reconstructive leadership. When a leader is affiliated with a failing regime, he is viewed as a part of the problem as opposed to an agent of solution.
Politics of articulation
Articulation is a situation in which a president is affiliated with a resilient or successful regime. Articulation involves a leader with a strong ideological and political commitment to the reigning, successful regime. Skowronek refers to these leaders as "orthodox innovators." They rearrange the ideas and policies of the preexisting regime in order to realize the goals of same.
Kitchen Table Activists
Refer to the women who began the grassroots movement to reform the republican party in the 1950's. They are average citizens who took a strong interest in promoting change. These "housewifes" held coffee's, went door to door, engaging and informing their community on their cause. This is a reference to a particular set of women around which McGirrs suburban warriors was based off. This is significant in showing the diference in political participation in time periods supporting Putnams argument on social capital.
California Fair Housing Act (Rumford Act)
In 1963 the Rumford Fair Housing Act was passed by the U.S. state of California to help end racial discrimination by property owners and landlords who refused to rent or sell their property to "colored" customers. The Act provided that landlords could not deny people housing because of ethnicity, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap, familial status, or any other arbitrary basis. Rumford Fair Housing Act that prohibits discrimination in the rental, purchase and sale of housing accommodations. The Rumford Act, signed by then Governor Edmund G. Brown, was the result of groundbreaking efforts of civil rights’ pioneers to open doors to housing opportunities long closed by racial and religious discrimination. It was the nation’s first housing anti-discrimination law, preceding the federal Fair Housing Act by five years.

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