...In American discourse separation of powers is more a name than a description. None of the three branches (legislative, executive, or judicial) of the national government are clearly separate from one another. Congress, for example, has an impeachment club to check the others; the president's veto power is plainly legislative in nature. No wonder James Madison in The Federalist, no. 47, undertook to answer the Anti‐Federalist charge that “The several departments of power are [not separated but] blended in such a manner as at once to destroy all symmetry and beauty of form, and to expose some of the essential parts of the edifice to the danger of being crushed by the disproportionate weight of other parts.” Madison's answer was that Montesquieu—the “oracle” of separation—did not mean that “departments ought to have no partial agency in, or control over, the acts of each other.” He meant rather that “the whole power of one department [should not be] exercised by the same hands which possess the whole power of another department.” The merit of “blending,” according to Madison, was that, along with bicameralism and federalism, it produced a safety net of “checks and balances.” A crucial problem is that split power inevitably entails split accountability. No wonder then that so many difficulties in American government spring ultimately from its divided power system. In contrast, the parliamentary system seeks safety in clear, direct lines of electoral accountability—and less in a...
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...“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”(Madison, 1787) The Federalists, writing under the pseudonym Publius, advocated a strong central government in the new nation. They argued against the Anti-Federalist writers like Brutus, whose ideas of an effective government resided with stronger state governments. Both views of the Federalists and the Anti-federalists were justified in unifying the newly emancipated American colonies. While there is much debate on who theoretically won the political battle that resulted in the ratification of the constitution in 1789, it is clear that the modern American government no longer represents James Madison ideals of a balanced federal...
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...exerting influence on the political and legal systems. These groups play a central role in deciding who gets what, when, where and how in legislative and budget processes. They also play a significant role in deciding which values will be promoted and enforced by the government. When individuals have common interests, it often makes sense for them to join together in pursuit of those interests. When this happens, a special interest group is formed. These groups then compete for a share of the limited resources distributed through the political process. While many groups are formed to compete for economic resources, others are formed to support their positions on issues like abortion and gun control. The limited resource these groups compete for is not money or real estate but rather the use of governmental power to enforce a particular set of values. At the group level, it makes sense for groups to form and do the things they do. However, at the individual level, there are powerful incentives to be a free rider. If a group is pursuing your interests even though you, as an individual, are not contributing your time or your money to the group, what incentive do you have to contribute time or money to the group's efforts? Some people join groups because they are strongly motivated by the group's goals or, perhaps, they believe they can exercise power within the group that they would not otherwise have. Groups also entice people to join them by offering group benefits or even by...
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...government was proposed by A) Plato and Aristotle. B) Aquinas and Luther. C) Newton and the separatists. D) Locke and Hobbes. E) Plato and Luther. 3) Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government sets out a theory of A) the divine rights of kings. B) aristocracy. C) democracy. D) republicanism. E) natural rights. 4) Indirect democracy is based on A) consensus. B) unanimity. C) the system of government used in ancient Greece. D) representation. E) "mob rule." 5) Republics are A) representative democracies. B) direct democracies. C) a hallmark of unitary governments. D) frequently found in totalitarian regimes. E) another name for states. 6) Who was the major author of the Declaration of Independence? A) George Washington B) James Madison C) Thomas Jefferson D) Benjamin Franklin E) Alexander Hamilton 7) According to ____, life without government would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” A) John Locke B) St. Thomas Aquinas C) Jean-Jacques Rousseau D) Thomas Hobbes E) Aristotle 8) The idea of popular sovereignty can first be found in the A) Mayflower Compact. B) Declaration of...
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...of the following is the best explanation of why most American Indian reservations are in the West today? b. European settlers and the U.S. government pushed Indian tribes westward. 4. Ch01-004-p006 Enlightenment thinkers argued that the world could be improved through b. human reason, science, and religious toleration. 5. Ch01-005-p007 The House of Burgesses was c. the first representative assembly in North America. 6. Ch01-006-p008 A social contract theory of government was proposed by d. Locke and Hobbes. 7. Ch01-007-p009 Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government sets out a theory of e. natural rights. 8. Ch01-008-p010 Congress's authority to check the president's judicial appointment power is a concept that can be attributed largely to the ideas of d. Charles-Louis, the Second Baron of Montesquieu. 9. Ch01-009-p010 Why was indirect democracy a necessary alternative to direct democracy? b. It became increasingly difficult to bring all the colonists together in the decision-making process. 10. Ch01-010-p010 Aristotle attempted to devise a way to classify governments. Critical to his analyses was knowledge of d. whom citizens were ruled by and in whose interest. 11. Ch01-011-p011 In an oligarchy, rule is by b. the few. 12. Ch01-012-p011 American political culture embodies many key concepts including I. absolute personal liberty. II. political equality. III. majority rule. IV. individualism...
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...be able to: Identify the basic functions of law. List the various sources of law. Analyze a case using the four steps in the process of legal interpretation. Make a legal decision by applying the three-step, stare decisis process. Explain how law is able to change despite of stare decisis. Read a judicial decision and identify which school of legal jurisprudence the judge has followed. Explain when the attorney–client privilege and work product privilege arise and when they are lost. Jennifer regularly smoked marijuana and crack cocaine throughout the duration of her pregnancy. While she was in labor, she used rock cocaine. After the child was born with an addiction to cocaine, Jennifer was charged with violating a state law that provided: “It is unlawful . . . to deliver any controlled substance to a person under the age of 18 years.” The state asserted that Jennifer “delivered” cocaine to her child via blood flowing through the child’s umbilical cord in the 60- to 90-second period after the baby was expelled from her birth canal but before the cord was severed (Johnson v. Florida, 602 So.2d 1288 (Sup.Ct. Fla. 1992)). • Which of the basic functions of law are implicated by this state law? • What kind of law is this—civil or criminal? • How will a court determine whether Jennifer has violated this law? 3 4 Part One Introduction to the Law Introduction What is law? What roles does it play...
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...Federal Government 01JUN2014 Practical politics are as old as the beginning of time. 1) Practical politics are about trying to make people do what they want to do. a. George Washington Plunckit senator of Tammany Hall, named after a chief Indian. He believed in honest graft” and meant that he would be able to take a little bit of the wealth from the people. b. Kick back scheme is about giving out contracts and then they give money of the government money back to the person to the beginning. c. Niccolo Machiavelli “The Prince” 15, 16 century and condemned by the Catholic Church. Nic and Machiavelli was used by shakespear and the Nick-name was derived from it. Use of the nick name was mostly used to disassociate from the vast amount of evil doing. 2) Political Philosophy and Political theory d. Asks normative as well as empirical question. i. Normative is about value such as the best form of government and justice ii. Empirical is more about factual such as the amount of states or colonies. 1. Aristottle 5th BC and teacher of natural law theory and about natural inequality. a. Very similar about the natural rights theory of John locke’s, written some time in the 1680s. This are the same as the one that Thomas Jefferson’s work in the Declaration of Independence. That by, nature have the right to have the same amount of equality of political rights. e. Karl...
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...Federal Government 01JUN2014 Practical politics are as old as the beginning of time. 1) Practical politics are about trying to make people do what they want to do. a. George Washington Plunckit senator of Tammany Hall, named after a chief Indian. He believed in honest graft” and meant that he would be able to take a little bit of the wealth from the people. b. Kick back scheme is about giving out contracts and then they give money of the government money back to the person to the beginning. c. Niccolo Machiavelli “The Prince” 15, 16 century and condemned by the Catholic Church. Nic and Machiavelli was used by shakespear and the Nick-name was derived from it. Use of the nick name was mostly used to disassociate from the vast amount of evil doing. 2) Political Philosophy and Political theory d. Asks normative as well as empirical question. i. Normative is about value such as the best form of government and justice ii. Empirical is more about factual such as the amount of states or colonies. 1. Aristottle 5th BC and teacher of natural law theory and about natural inequality. a. Very similar about the natural rights theory of John locke’s, written some time in the 1680s. This are the same as the one that Thomas Jefferson’s work in the Declaration of Independence. That by, nature have the right to have the same amount of equality of political rights. e. Karl...
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...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. +Democracy- Form of government in which the people, either directly or through elected representation, hold...
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...Martin Gilens Princeton University mgilens@princeton.edu Benjamin I. Page Northwestern University b-page@northwestern.edu forthcoming Fall 2014 in Perspectives on Politics For helpful comments the authors are indebted to Larry Bartels and Jeff Isaacs, to three anonymous reviewers, and to seminar participants at Harvard and Rochester Universities. Gilens and Page Testing Theories of American Politics 2 Abstract Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics – which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic Elite Domination, and two types of interest group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism – offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little...
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...minutes to complete the exam. Federalism: The Basic elements of a Federal system of government (i.e. how is it structured/how power is shared) • Layers of gov • Equal power • Distinct powers Powers of the federal government: delegated powers, 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...
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...expertise, and that many of you already have a body of knowledge about American law. The task: prepare you for the coming year, give you the basic grounding that you will need for the courses you are going to start taking in September. For this, you need two things: ♥ A great deal of basic factual information about how the courts and the legal system function, and about basic legal concepts (and legal vocabulary); ♥ But more importantly: background information about some of the critical ways in which the American legal system is unique, and differs from legal systems elsewhere in the world. This is hard: often you will find that your professors or fellow‐students will make assumptions or presuppose certain ways of doing things that aren’t explained in class. A large goal of this course is to explain those assumptions, and make them explicit. >> UNIQUENESS OF AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEMS Briefly, there are four aspects of the American legal system that set it apart: 1) Inherited common law, existing out of three components: (a) judicial power; (b) civil jury trial; (c) law‐equity ; 2) Written Constitution and Bill of Rights; judicial...
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...this manual as your personal support group. Since the publication of the first edition, we’ve had the chance to learn from the experiences of hundreds of instructors nationwide, and we’d like to use this manual as a forum where we can share some of their concerns, suggestions, experiments, and hints. We’ll begin with a roundtable on issues you’ll probably want to address before you meet your class. In the first section of this manual, we’ll discuss approaches to Rereading America and help you to think through your class goals. We’ll examine some options for tailoring the book to fit your interests and the time constraints of your term. We’ll also take up some pedagogical issues. We’ll offer advice on how to broach particularly hot topics in your class. We’ll explore in some detail how to get the most out of journal assignments and learning logs. And...
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...OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY OUTLINE OF OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY C O N T E N T S CHAPTER 1 Early America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CHAPTER 2 The Colonial Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 CHAPTER 3 The Road to Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 CHAPTER 4 The Formation of a National Government . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 CHAPTER 5 Westward Expansion and Regional Differences . . . . . . . 110 CHAPTER 6 Sectional Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 CHAPTER 7 The Civil War and Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 CHAPTER 8 Growth and Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 CHAPTER 9 Discontent and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 CHAPTER 10 War, Prosperity, and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 CHAPTER 11 The New Deal and World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 CHAPTER 12 Postwar America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 CHAPTER 13 Decades of Change: 1960-1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 CHAPTER 14 The New Conservatism and a New World Order . . . . . . 304 CHAPTER 15 Bridge to the 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 PICTURE PROFILES Becoming a Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...REGULATION FOR CONSERVATIVES: BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS AND THE CASE FOR “ASYMMETRIC PATERNALISM” COLIN CAMERER, SAMUEL ISSACHAROFF, GEORGE LOEWENSTEIN, † TED O’DONOGHUE, AND MATTHEW RABIN INTRODUCTION Regulation by the state can take a variety of forms. Some regulations are aimed entirely at redistribution, such as when we tax the rich and give to the poor. Other regulations seek to counteract externalities by restricting behavior in a way that imposes harm on an individual basis but yields net societal benefits. A good example is taxation to fund public goods such as roads. In such situations, an individual would be better off if she alone were exempt from the tax; she benefits when everyone (including herself) must pay the tax. In this paper, we are concerned with a third form of regulation: paternalistic regulations that are designed to help on an individual basis. Paternalism treads on consumer sovereignty by forcing, or preventing, choices for the individual’s own good, much as when parents limit their child’s freedom to skip school or eat candy for dinner. Recent research in behavioral economics has identified a variety of decision-making errors that may expand the scope of paternalistic regula- Professor Camerer is the Rea and Lela Axline Professor of Business Economics, California Institute of Technology; Professor Issacharoff is the Harold R. Medina Professor of Procedural Jurisprudence, Columbia Law School; Professor Loewenstein is a Professor of Economics and Psychology...
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