powers of the goverment specifically mentioned in the constitution
elastic clause
article 1, section 8 of the constitution also called the necessary and proper clause; gives congress the authority to make whatever laws are necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated responsibilities
bicarmel
as applied to a legislativebody consisting of two houses of chambers
delegate
according to the doctrine articulated by edmund burke, an elected represenitive who acts in perfect accord with the wishes of his or her constituents
trustee
according to the doctorine articulated by edmund burke, an elected represenitive who believes that his or her own best judgement rather than instructions from constituents should be used in making legislative decisions
desriptive representation
sometimes called statistical representation; means that the composition of a representative body reflects the demographic composition of the population as a whole
constituency
the district of a legislator
constituent
a citizen who lives in the district of an elected official
reapportionment
the reallocation of house seats among the states, done after each national census, to ensure that seats are held by the states in proprtion to the size of their populations
redistricting
the redrawing of congressonal district lines within a state to ensure roughly equal populations within each district
partisan
a commited member of a party seeing issues from the point of view of the interests of a single party
gerrymandering
redrawing electoral district lines to give an advantage to particular party or canidate
franking privilege
public subsidization of mail from the members of congress to their constituents
caucus
a regional ethnic racial or economic subgroup within the house or senate. also used to describe the party in the house and senate as in republic cacus
standing commitees
relatively permanet congressional committes that address specific areas of legislation
hearings
the taking of testimony by a congressional committee or subcommittee
markup
the process of revising a bill in committee
reciprocity
deferral by members of congress to the judgment of subject matter specialist mainly on minor technical bills
habeas corpus
the legal doctorine that a person who is arrested must have a timely hearing before a judge
executive office of the president
a group of organization that advise the president on a wide range of issues