Chapter 31 Study Guide

Which presidential election joined those of 1876 and 1960 as the closest and most contested in American history?

2000

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

2010 OBAMA LEGISLATION: the law represented the first major reform of the nation's health-care system since the introduction of Medicare in 1965 in an attempt to provide health-care coverage for all Americans, a dream of Democrats since Harry Truman's administration.

In 1998, Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act, which had what effect?

Allowing states to refuse to recognize gay marriages or civil unions

Which election had some drama because the ballots/voting wasn't clear about who won?

Bush v. Gore

Which state had the first majority-minority population?

CA - African Americans, Latinos, and Asians together constituted a majority of the state's residents.

Proposition 187

CA measure that barred illegal aliens from public schools, nonemergency care at public health clinics, and all other state social services. The initiative also required law enforcement officers, school administrators, and social workers to reported suspected illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

What contributed to the expanding role of China as the manufacturer of America's cheap consumer goods?

China's deliberate decision to keep its currency weak

What significant foreign policy move did Bill Clinton make during his presidency?

Committing American forces to the Balkans twice as part of overall NATO operations, first in Bosnia-Herzegovina and later in Kosovo.

World Wide Web/ Internet was ...

Democratic bc everyone had easy access to knowledge @ home

Why did profits of the American financial industry rise from less than 10 percent of total national business profits in the 1950s to more than 40 percent in the 1990s?

FINANCIAL DEREGULATION led to spectacular profits for investors. As a result, financial industry profits in the United States rose from less than 10 percent in the 1950s to more than 40 percent in the 1990s. However, deregulation also produced a more fragile, crash-prone global economy.

The World Trade Organization saw what as the remedy for poverty?

FREE TRADE World Trade Organization was making the case that free trade and the globalization of capitalism were the best solutions for the problem of poverty around the world.

Which factor has been most important for the global integration of the world's economies?

Global financial markets became integrated.

How did George W. Bush justify his desire to invade Iraq in 2003?

He argued that it would be a preventative war against a "grave and gathering danger." Bush and his advisers articulated a new policy of "anticipatory self-defense" in 2002 naming Iran, North Korea, and Iraq as an "axis of evil." The Bush administration moved deliberately to apply this doctrine of preventative war to Iraq in 2003.

The multipolar world that has emerged since the early 1990s is characterized by what?

Multiple major centers of power plus rising regional powers. Since the early 1990s, a multipolar world has emerged with centers of power in Europe, Japan, China, and the United States, along with rising regional powers such as India and Brazil.

What position did the Supreme Court take on affirmative action in its 2003 decisions in the University of Michigan cases?

Promotion of diversity was a legitimate goal. In two parallel 2003 cases, the Supreme Court invalidated one affirmative action plan at the University of Michigan but allowed racial preference policies that promoted a "diverse" student body. Thus, diversity became the law of the land, the constitutionally acceptable basis for affirmative action.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

The extraordinary inflow of immigrants in that time was the unintended result of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, one of the less well-known but most important pieces of Great Society legislation. Known as the Hart-Cellar Act, the act eliminated the quota system from 1924 and created a more equal playing field among nations.

What was the U.S. Congress hoping to achieve when it passed the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001?

The suspension of certain civil liberties protections in the interests of national security. Congress passed the act to give the U.S. government new powers to monitor and apprehend suspected terrorists and their associates.

How did the issue of the Iraq War contribute to the outcome of the 2004 elections?

The war spurred the highest voter turnout since the 1968 election.

Why did the United States, Canada, and Mexico sign the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993?

They wanted to counter the economic power of European Union

Why did critics warn against the massive tax cuts of the Bush administration in 2001?

They warned that the cuts would plunge the government into debt. Sure enough, by 2006, federal expenditures had jumped 33 percent, and the nation's debt had grown to $8 trillion.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

United States, Mexico, Canada