Suggested Presidential Vocabulary Definitions

Commander-in-chief: Role of the president as head of the armed forces.

>Pardon: Official act by the president or by a governor forgiving a person convicted of a crime.

Agenda: List of things you want to see happen. It often includes the political views of a candidate or the platform of a party.

Incumbent: the person in charge. It is the candidate who is in office at the time of the election.

Republicans: The party founded to fight the spread of slavery before the Civil War, it now stands for smaller government and less federal spending, especially with the goal of balancing the Federal budget.

Democrats: The political party of Andrew Jackson, the dominate political force from 1828 to the Civil War, it was the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who greatly expanded the power of the Federal government. This party is associated with deficit spending, social programs, and government regulation of the economy.

Economy: Careful management of wealth resources. It is the exchange of goods and services within a society.

Deficit: The amount of money where income falls short of expenditures.

Presidential Succession- the order in which the office of the President is to be filled if it becomes vacant for an election.

Executive Privilege: The theoretical right of a President and other top officials of the executive branch to withhold information from Congress and the courts.

Executive Agreements: Agreements not requiring the Senate's approval between the President of the United States and leaders of foreign governments.

Conservative: The political view that things should stay the way things are. Belief in little or no socialized spending.

Liberal: Political view that supports gradual change and government spending to assist lower classes in society.


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