INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMPETITION: A fiscal structure characterized by many competing
governments.
INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS: All the activities and interactions occurring between or
among governmental units of all types and levels within the American federal system.
INTERJURISDICTIONAL EXTERNALITIES: Arise when governments fail to fully account for
costs and benefits imposed on citizens of other governments.
INTERNAL RATE OF DISCOUNT: Discount rate at which the present value of a project is zero.
INTERNALIZATION OF COSTS: The allocation of resources by private markets on the basis of
full social costs.
INTERORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS: Patterns of relationships within and among various
groups and organizations working in a single policy area.
IRON TRIANGLE: Term given to a coalition of interest groups, agency personnel, and members of
Congress created to exert influence on a particular policy issue.
ISSUE NETWORKS: Open and fluid groupings of various political actors (in and out of
government) attempting to influence policy.
ITEM VETO: A constitutional power available to more than forty of America's governors, under
which they may disapprove some provisions of a bill while approving the others.
JURIDICAL DEMOCRACY: The restoration of the rule of law and the requirements of
administrative formality in which a corps of professional administrators would implement detailed
legislative policies through formal administrative procedures instead of receiving broad delegations
of power and developing governmental policy themselves in conjunction with special interest
groups.
JURISDICTION: In bureaucratic politics, the area of programmatic responsibility assigned to an
agency by the legislature or chief executive; also, a term used to describe the territory within the
boundaries of a government entity (as a local jurisdiction).
LACK OF EXCLUSION: Characteristic of public goods making it difficult of impossible to restrict
the enjoyment of benefits to any individual.
LEGISLATIVE INTENT: The purposes and objectives of a legislative body, given concrete form
in its enactment (though actual intent may change over time); the bureaucracy is assumed to follow
legislative intent in implementing laws.