Mini lesson quiz
A senator wants to incentivize higher education for students from low-income families and wants to provide clear guidelines on how states must implement those incentives. Which type of grant should she propose?
A categorical grant
Which of the following arguments would a proponent of the pluralist system of political participation most likely make?
American democracy is furthered when groups representing all points of view help make public policy
What statement best explains the compromise behind the creation of the Electoral College?
It was a compromise between big and small states so that states with a larger population cannot control presidential elections
Why did the Framers decide to include Article V of the Constitution, detailing an amendment process?
Concerns about protecting self-government
What is the most immediate consequence of impeaching a president?
The president is tried in the Senate
"As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed . . . The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties." -Publius (James Madison), Federalist No. 10 Which of the following statements best summarizes Madison's arguments?
A large republic can control the negative aspects of factions
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government authorized the Justice Assistance Grant in order to provide states and local governments with the funding necessary to support a range of law enforcement and crime prevention programs. What response illustrates the best rationale for the type of grant fitting this scenario?
Block grants provide states with a great deal of flexibility in using federal funds to address specific local needs
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certinaly bias his judgment, and not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time. --- Federalist No. 10 What principle is refected in the quote?
Checks and balances
During the 1980s, members of the Republican Party advocated for devolution (transferring responsibilities for programs from the federal government to state and local governments). What describes a difficulty Congress might face in implementing devolution?
Due to the concurrent powers of state and national government, many programs are administered by both state and federal agencies
Concurrent powers shared with the states
Establish courts
Which of the following aspects of the US Constitution best illustrates the concept of elite democracy?
The original wording of the Constitution regarding the selection of US senators
"When the Articles of Confederation were drafted, Americans had little experience of what a national government could do for them and bitter experience of what an arbitrary government could do to them. In creating a central government they were therefore more concerned with keeping it under control than with giving it the means to do its job." -Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, 1956 What concept is most consistent with the author's argument?
Limited government
Members of the National Organization for Women (NOW) protest a congressional bill that eliminates protections for pregnant workers. After the bill passes, they form a letter-writing campaign hoping to influence the president to veto the bill. This is an example of which of the following principles of American government?
Multiple access points for stakeholders to influence policymaking
We should remember that the Declaration of Independence is not merely a historical document. It is an explicit recognition that our rights derived not from the King of England, not from the judiciary, not from government at all, but from God. --- Mark Levin
Natural Rights
An informal group advocating for a $15 minimum wage collects 590,000 signatures from registered voters in their state. In the next election, this initiative appears on the ballot for voters to decide whether it becomes a state constitutional amendment.
Participatory democracy
In June 2017, voters in Puerto Rico voted on a referendum to make Puerto Rico the 51st state of the United States. This is an example of which of the following models of democracy?
Participatory democracy
"In a pure democracy the people are the sovereign, and their will is declared by themselves; for this purpose they must all come together to deliberate, and decide. This kind of government cannot be exercised, therefore, over a country of any considerable extent; it must be confined to a single city, or at least limited to such bounds as that the people can conveniently assemble, be able to debate, understand the subject submitted to them, and declare their opinion concerning it." -Brutus No. 1, 1787 Based on the text, which of the following statements would the author most likely agree with?
Participatory democracy does not work in large countries
Exclusive power of the federal government
Regulate the postal system
Several oil companies donate to a pro-fracking interest group after hearing that the federal government plans to pass a law banning fracking in the United States . The interest group then appeals to members of Congress in attempt to get them to vote against the bill. Which of the following democratic ideals does this scenario best exemplify?
Republicanism
"In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government; and the usurpations are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself." -Publius (James Madison), Federalist No. 51, 1788 What principle of US government is most consistent with the author's argument?
Separation of powers
"Given the increasing difference in size between the largest and smallest states, combined with other changes in the American political context[,] any effects of Senate apportionment are greater today than in the past. By reference to the one person, one vote standard, the Senate is the most malapportioned legislature in the world . . . Currently Wyoming, with fewer than half a million residents, enjoys the same level of representation as California, with more than 30 million." -Frances E. Lee and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation,1999 What statement best summarizes the author's argument?
The Great Compromise failed to anticipate growing population differences in small and large states, leaving matters unresolved
Read the passage and answer the following question. "In so extensive a republic, the great officers of government would soon become above the control of the people, and abuse their power to the purpose of aggrandizing themselves, and oppressing them. The trust committed to the executive offices, in a country of the extent of the United States, must be various and of magnitude." -Brutus No. 1 Which constitutional provision would the author most likely support?
The addition of a Bill of Rights
What were two were weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
The federal government could not levy taxes. and The federal government could not raise an army.
"Our Debts being unfunded and unprovided for, the Interest cannot be paid. Those therefore who trusted us in the Hour of Distress are defrauded. To expect that under such Circumstances others will confide in the Government would be Folly, and to expect that Foreigners will Trust a Government which has no Credit with its own Citizens must be madness . . . "The United States have call'd for eight Million of Dollars early in November last, of which the first quarterly Payment was to have been made on the first Day of April next. But I cannot find that a single State has laid the Taxes." -Robert Morris, letter to the president of Congress, 1782 Based on the text, what statement would the author most likely agree with?
The national government under the Articles lacks necessary tax enforcement power
What scenario best illustrates the concept of "separation of powers" in the US Constitution?
The president commands the nation's armed forces, while Congress has the power to ratify treaties
Which of the following best illustrates the concept of limited government?
The president vetoing a bill from Congress
In Federalist No. 10,Madison argues that the Constitution disperses power between the federal government and state governments. Which of the following describes a constitutional provision in the newly-ratified Constitution that does that?
US senators were chosen by state legislatures
What scenario is an example of a present-day constitutional issue about democracy and governmental power?
FBI agents being able to obtain phone records without a judge's approval
Read the passage and answer the following question. "Thus every man, by agreeing with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to everyone in that society to submit to the decisions of the majority, and to be bound by it. Otherwise—that is, if he were willing to submit himself only to the majority acts that he approved of—the original compact through which he and the others incorporated into society would be meaningless . . ." -John Locke, Second Treatise of Government,1690 Which of the following democratic ideals is described in the passage?
Social contract
