AP GOV ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
According to Federalist No. 70, why is a single executive desirable?
A single executive can act more decisively and quickly; will also be held more accountable by the public and be more responsive to public opinion since public will know who to assign blame or credit to unlike if the executive power was shared among a council, each would blame the other and the public wouldn't know who to blame.
Identify causes of party polarization.
Ideological and partisan voters in primary and congressional elections are more likely to choose more ideological candidates, ideologically-oriented news sources, clear division on political issues between major political parties each have the effect of increasing the ideological division between the two major parties.
According to Federalist No. 78, why is life tenure for judges necessary to maintain an independent judiciary?
If the other branches could remove judges or cut their pay they may not strike down unconstitutional acts by Congress or the president and the purpose of the judiciary is to protect the Constitution from Congress and the president so it must be completely independent of the other branches to ensure that its empowered to carry out its role as the protectors of the Constitution.
How does the exercise of judicial review along with Justice's life tenure lead to debate about the legitimacy of the Court's power?
Justices aren't accountable to the people and can strike down policies that may have popular support. Additionally, judicial review isn't mentioned in the Constitution and the Court can't enforce its rulings, so it relies on the executive branch and states for enforcement.
Where does most of the work in Congress take place? Where do most bills die?
Standing committees; bills are sent here first, markups, edits, and hearings take place at this stage. Most bills don't make it out of the standing committee.
How do congressional oversight hearings enable Congress to limit the power of the bureaucracy?
They can investigate to ensure that the agencies are enforcing laws as intended, can require agency/department heads to testify, can reduce their budget, pass new legislation limiting their discretion, or even abolish an agency.