...‘The broken branch’, to what extent is this a fair assessment of Congress? (45 Marks) Within the constitution, the power of Congress first appears in Article 1, Section 1, ‘all legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States’. This suggests that congress has huge amounts of power Congress in creating legislature, scrutinizing the executive and playing a huge role when it comes to the checks and balances of the three branches of government. However, in recent times, many people argue that congress is ‘broken’. One of the biggest examples of this is the increasingly poor legislative record. Although there is going to be a big bias within congress, especially with the Republicans now controlling both chambers, this essay will look at both sides of the argument and help me decide on whether Congress is, in fact, broken. Time magazine recently stated that congress is now less popular than the Internal Revenue Service and, even more startlingly, Donald Trump! In 2013, congress only had a 6% polling, the lowest it had ever been, and the only other group of people to have a lower approval rating was the Kardashian family, quite disgraceful. Congress is supposed to be the most important branch of Government. It creates legislation, scrutinizes the executive and sets out the budget along doing many other important things. The fact that the approval rating now stands at 13% is very shocking. Mark Twain once said ‘Suppose you were a member of congress...
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...Senate today, it is too difficult to work with members of the opposing party with them actively plotting your demise. An improvement to this problem can be that the personal chemistry between senators can change thorough more interaction in a non-adversarial atmosphere. An example of this could be for senators to be divided by Republicans and Democrats and have a monthly lunch where they can talk about a certain topic without posturing and public talking. Thus, creates necessary progress. b. Another problem is ignoring the ruling in Citizens United v. FEC because if the Senate always thinks about money and what big corporations as well as unions will sponsor them based on their policy voting, then they will only care about making decision companies want...
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...defined and disparate political parties and the Electoral College creates the environment for subversion within the political arena undermining national security. The current American political system is no longer working! Corporations and millionaires now own the political parties resulting in political candidates representing the needs and desires of those entities instead of their constituents - the American people. “Six major corporations donated anywhere from five to seven figures to political organizations during the 2010 election cycle” (Wilson 2010). These companies include News Corp., General Electric, National Amusements, Comcast Corp., Time Warner, and Walt Disney Co. An election is impossible to win without the...
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...of American Independence. As well as essays and book reviews that appear in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Founding Brothers is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that discusses the prominent men in the political atmosphere of America after the Constitutional Convention and the issues that they faced. The book starts off with the infamous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804. The outcome of this duel is that Burr shoots Hamilton and...
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...recently, we had observed a slight resurgence in the power of political parties. A lot of this was demonstrated by the increasingly polarised ideological stances of the Republican Party and the Democrat Party, because as the divide between the two parties became more apparent, ideological differences were more visible, with less policy overlap. The exploitation of primaries by the Republican Party over the last 20 years has also proved an effective deterrent for any Republican who dared to oppose the party line. In recent years, the Tea Party’s hijacking of the process has resulted in more extreme candidates being elected. The Democrats have in turned voiced their support for unpopular Republican social issues all the more readily, such as gay marriage or abortion. Therefore, it would appear that the parties have represented the core beliefs of their voters more successfully than during the 1960s, for example, when the New Deal Coalition comprised both the traditional support of white Southerners who had always voted Democrat, and the African American community that had gained employment through the construction of federally funded infrastructure. This draws a sharp contrast to the Republican Party that swept Bush to the White House in 2004, when the support was made up of almost unanimously social and fiscal conservatives, although Bush’s immigration stance won him a slice of the Hispanic vote as well. Moreover, the parties’ running of government has also generally appeared more...
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...U.S. Health Care Quality Analysis: Legislative History Following up to the 1999 release of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err Is Human, in 2002 a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that only about 5% of physicians considered medical errors as a primary healthcare concern.[1] Congress, however, did not share the physicians’ nonchalant attitude and gave the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) an estimated $50 million towards minimizing medical errors.[2] Senator James Jeffords (R-VT) of the 107th Congress introduced the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (S.2590) to the Senate on June 4, 2002[3] attempting to improve the safety of patients and “…reduce the incidence of events that adversely effect patient safety.”[4] In 2003, President Bush signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act (P.L 108-173).[5] A section of this law authorized AHRQ to research effectiveness in treatments in order to set a guideline to improve the quality of care.[6] John Eisenberg helped build this program that generates summaries that can help provide health care providers with evidence-based practices that help improve quality of care delivered.[7] Realizing the importance of this research to quality of care, the president signed the Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1) into law on February 17, 2009, providing additional funding to continue effective research.[8] This helps to demonstrate the...
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...“The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court”. Despite being put into power in 1789, The debate still exists as to how powerful the Supreme Court truly is, some say it is an imperial power with too much influence over U.S Politics, whilst others argue against this claim stating the Supreme Court is imperilled in many respects. The two main claims that the Supreme Court is still powerful lies in their power of Judicial Review and the fact they have a security of tenure, meaning they cannot be fired and are not subject to elections like other government officials, meaning they can act as they wish and with great freedom. Justices are not completely free to exercise power as they wish, they are of course bound by the constitution (subject to interpretation) and have a responsibility to interpret it correctly. Furthermore, they can be subject to impeachment by the Senate if they act in a manner not fitting that of the highest lawmakers in the land. The United States government is made up of 3 supposedly co-equal branches of Government, a system of checks and balances designed to make the perfect democratic system. However, with the surge of partisanship on the hill coupled with a progressive Executive branch addressing some of Americas most contentious issues, the role of the Supreme Court has been drastically amplified, giving them a position of unrivalled power. Take for example the case of the most recent Congressional session. Since 2010, the...
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...implied powers (necessary and proper clause), and concurrent powers. • Delegated Powers: (expressed/enumerated powers) powers given to the federal government directly by the constitution. Some most important delegated powers are: the authority to tax, regulated interstate commerce, authority to declare war, and grants the president role of commander and chief of the military • Implied Powers: Powers not expressed in the constitution, but that can be inferred. “Necessary and proper clause” • Concurrent powers: powers shared by both levels of government. Ex: Taxes, roads, elections, commerce, establishing courts and a judicial system • Reserved powers: powers not assigned by the constitution to the national government but left to the states or the people. Guaranteed by the 10th amendment. Include “police power”-health and public welfare, intra-state commerce. Example of police powers: Gonzales vs Raich (2005) and California Medical Marijuana. The parts and relevance of the "Triad of Powers" • Interstate commerce clause • General welfare • 10th amendment – non-delegated powers go to the states Federalism between states (i.e. full faith and credit and privileges and immunities clause, original...
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...Government by applying Historical perspectives: -History Repeats Itself +A new Communication medium paves the way to Electoral Victory- Meaning the internet and social media have revolutionized American politics. Campaign advertising is the use of an advertising campaign through the media to influence political debate and ultimately voters. Political advertising has changed drastically over the last several decades. Harry S. Truman was proud of his accomplishment of shaking approximately 500,000 hands but his accomplishment was soon pale compared to the next presidential election with the advent of television, war hero and presidential candidate D.W Eisenhower created commercials to get votes and so on and it different with different elections and different decades. +The Power of Incumbency- It is usually used in reference to elections where races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbents. Incumbents have easier access to campaign finance and government resources that can be indirectly used to boost a campaign. Incumbency is any elected official who is already in office and seeking re-election. 2. Explain the Philosophical underpinnings of American Political System through the Exploration of important theories such as the “Social Contract” theory and the concept of the “Natural Law”: -Forms and Functions of Government +Authority- The ability of public institutions and the officials within them to make laws, independent of the power to execute them...
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...LONDON — Europeans are watching the final stages of the U.S. election campaign closely, concerned about how the outcome might affect global issues. Europeans can't vote in the U.S. election, but, like people everywhere, they have a stake in its outcome. From economic issues to Iran and the war in Afghanistan, the future of Europe is very much linked to the United States. And the two men who are vying to lead it for the next four years would seem to have very different views of the continent. "I think the president wants to turn us into a European-style welfare state, an entitlement nation. That model has not worked anywhere in the world," Romney said on the campaign trail. Barack Obama usually strikes a different tenor when he talks about the continent. "Each step points to the fact that Europe is moving towards further integration rather than breakup and that these problems can be resolved, and points to the underlying strength in Europe's economies," said Obama at the G20 summit last June. Senior fellow Xenia Dormandy of London's Chatham House says that difference in tone has been noticed on this side of the Atlantic. "Romney talks about a strong, exceptional America, a leading America. And he talks about increasing defense spending. All of those things are things that make Europeans a little bit nervous," noted Dormandy. "Contrarily, Obama, I call him a European leader. He's very consensus-driven. He's wanting to work in multilateral institutions, wanting...
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...1975; The 1973 oil crisis put the nation of America in gridlock and caused economic damage throughout the developed world; Both the leaders of Israel and Egypt shake hands after the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978; The 1970 Bhola cyclone kills an estimated 500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (which would become independent as Bangladesh in 1971) in November 1970; The Iranian Revolution of 1979 ousted Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi who was later replaced by an Islamic theocracy led by Ayatollah Khomeini; The popularity of the disco music genre peaked during the middle to late 1970s. Millennium: | 2nd millennium | Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century | Decades: | 1940s 1950s 1960s – 1970s – 1980s 1990s 2000s | Years: | 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 | Categories: | Births – Deaths – ArchitectureEstablishments – Disestablishments | The 1970s, pronounced "the Nineteen Seventies", refers to a decade within the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1970, and ended on December 31, 1979. In the 21st century historians have increasingly portrayed the decade as a "pivot of change" in world history focusing especially on the economic upheavals.[1] In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and political and economic liberty of women, continued to grow. In the United Kingdom the 1979...
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...faced tremendous public protest after implementing relatively small changes to the country’s food subsidy regime. In contrast, during the 1980s, and more aggressively in the 1990s, the government of Hosni Mubarak implemented more consequential reductions to subsidies on core food items while avoiding popular protest on a similar scale. I argue that the Mubarak regime engaged in covert price increases, distribution controls, temporary policy reversals, and repression, which allowed it to successfully reduce food subsidies without igniting regime-threatening public opposition during this period. Following the January 2011 revolution, further reform efforts are unlikely as the transitional democratic politics and the increased number of political participants will block change in the short term. iii iv Acknowledgements This thesis has served to unite my academic experience at Stanford. Four years of preparation, and the past year of writing, have produced this exploration of food, politics, and the Middle East. The CISAC Honors Program has provided a fantastic interdisciplinary home for this pursuit. I am thankful to Professors Blacker and Crenshaw for their guidance in this yearlong process. I will fondly remember the quarterly presentations, Professor Blacker’s insistence on concise language, and Professor Crenshaw’s direction on crystallizing the “puzzle”. My fellow CISAC students were a cornerstone of the thesis experience, both in Washington and on campus. We gained...
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...Edexcel AS Politics Edexcel AS Politics ExamBuster 2009 Introduction to Unit 1- People and Politics Understanding the Examination and Exam Technique Choosing your questions In this unit you are presented with four questions. They are of equal value and each question covers one of the four sections of the specification. These are: Democracy and political participation Party policies and ideas Elections Pressure groups There is no significance to the order in which questions appear. Each question is divided into three sections (a), (b) and (c). When choosing which questions to do, the following principles are recommended: It is almost certain that you will be better off choosing your strongest question to do first. You should choose questions on the basis of how well you can answer the section (c) part. The (c) part carries 25 of the 40 marks available for the whole answer. Do not choose a question simply because you can do part (a) especially well. The (a) question is only worth 5 marks. It would be illogical to choose your strongest (a) part if you cannot do well on section (c). If you cannot decide between several (c) parts, i.e. you can do more than one equally well, make your choice on the basis of part (b) which carries 10 marks. But remember, it is the (c) parts that will determine most what your overall mark will be. So, when you first look at the exam paper, look at the (c) sections first. Assessment Objectives Each question is divided into three sections,...
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...concentrate minds around the world in 2008. One of these is the world economy, which can no longer depend on America, with its housing and credit woes, to drive growth. America should—just—avoid recession, but it will be China (for the first time the biggest contributor to global growth) along with India and other emerging markets that will shine. Another focus of attention will be climate change. As China replaces America as the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, serious efforts on global warming depend on the serious involvement of those two countries. If 2007 was the year when this rose to the top of the global agenda, in 2008 people will expect action. It is striking that green is a theme that links all the contributions from political leaders in this volume, whether at the city level (Michael Bloomberg), the national level (Felipe Calderón, Nancy Pelosi, Nicolas Sarkozy) or the supranational level (the UN’s Ban Ki-moon, ASEAN’s Surin Pitsuwan). The politicians have talked the issue up; will they now let people down? A third preoccupation will be geopolitical risk. The conventional wisdom is that America is...
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...Constitutional Law II Tebbe Spring 08 4 Equality and the Constitution 4 Class 1: Slavery and the Constitution 4 1. The Original Constitution 4 2. State v. Post 4 3. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) 4 4. Reconstruction 5 5. Post-Reconstruction Cases 6 Class 2: The Advent of American Constitutional Law: Brown 7 6. RACIAL EQUALITY 7 7. Brown I (1954) The segregation of children in public schools based solely on race violates the Equal Protection Clause. 7 2. Brown II 8 3. What was the constitutional harm in Brown? 8 4. THEORY 8 5. Subsequent School Desegregation 9 Class 3: Local Efforts to Desegregate: Parents Involved 11 6. Parents Involved 11 Class 4: Rational Basis Review: Cleburne, Romer, etc. 13 2. Tiers of Scrutiny 13 3. Beazer (1979) 13 4. Moreno (1973) 14 5. Cleburne (1985) 14 6. Romer (1996) 15 7. Nordlinger (1992) and Allegheny Pittsburgh (1989) 16 8. Lee Optical (1955) 17 Class 5: Racial Classifications and Heightened Scrutiny: Strauder, Korematsu, Loving 17 9. Heightened Scrutiny Analysis 17 10. Strauder (1880) 17 11. Korematsu (1944) 18 12. Loving (1967) 19 13. Theories Supporting Strict Scrutiny of Racial Classifications 20 14. Tiers of Scrutiny 20 15. Tiers of Scrutiny Table 21 Class 6: Facially Neutral Classifications: Washington v. Davis 21 16. Types of Discrimination (from Fall) 21 X. Disparate...
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