| Question | Answer |
| Power | the ability of one person to cause another person to act out on his intentions |
| Who Governs? | The question of who governs helps throughout this course, as it leads you to question government and all of its functions. |
| To What Ends? | The whole understanding of power, legitimacy, authority, and other fields of governemnt will help you determine the extent of governing power one may hold. |
| Authority | the right to use power, however not everyone who exercise political power have it |
| Legitimacy | what makes a law or constituion a source of right |
| What is Democracy? | Democracy is a nation governed by its people. There are two types of Democracy; Participatory and Representative. |
| Participatory Democracy | This type of democracy derived from the Aristotelian "rule of many", where citizens would participate in formulating programs, such as town meetings. |
| Representative Democracy | A figurehead represents a group of people that they appoint in order to participate in government for them. These representatives act as a type of liason between the government and its people, to ensure that their wishes are heard. |
| Who are the founders of the Declaration of Independance? | the Founders were Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. |
| The Declaration of Independance was based off of what ideas? | It was based off of ideas of Englightenment thinkers, such as the ideas of natural rights; life, liberty, and property; to be able to question the government as well as have the government limited with power. |
| List the grievances against Great Britain. | Taxation without representation, unjust trials, the priority of having to quarter British soldiers in homes, taking away their freedom to assemble their own colonies, and mercantilism. |
| What are some key concepts of the Framers of the Constitution? | The concept of having government rule by the people (democracy) was taken from many books like Rousseau's - Social Contract. John Locke's - Second Teatise of Civil Government gave teh key concept of judicial reveiw. |
| Define the Great Compromise. | The Great Comrpomise was a combination of two plans discussed in the process of creating representation in Congress. By combining ideas from both the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan, the people of the Constitutional Convention came to consensus. |
| What party emerged at the start of our government? | The Federalists, led by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison. They supported the ratification of the Consitution, and supported their cause by writing a series of papers called "The federalist Paper". |
| What other party emerged, in dispute with another party at the birth of our government? | The Antifederalists, led by George Mason and Richard Henry Lee, supported a Constitution that would establish an economic elite within the nation, but they complained that the current one lacked a Bill of Rights. |
| What is stated in the Preamble of the Constituion? | It defines the objective of the document in general; for a more perfect union, to establish justice and to ensure domestic peace, provide for the common defense of its people, and promote general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty, for all. |
| Describe Article I of the Constitution. | Article I defines the legistlative powers Congress holds, and how the power and responsibility is split between the House of Representatives and the Senate. |
| Describe Article II of the Constitution. | Article II defines the powers of the President, and how he is entitled to written powers, as well as powers given to any leader of a nation that isn't written. |
| Describe Article III of the Constitution. | Article III defines the nature of the judicial branch, especially the Supreme Court, and how cases get to them. |
| Describe the House of Representatives by structure, terms, etc. | The House is made up of 435 members based on a ten-year census. Each member's term is two years in office, and they must be 25years of age, and a U.S. citizen for seven and live in the state they wish to represent. |
| Describe the Senate by structure, terms, etc. | The Senate has 100 members, each holding a term for seven years. They must be 30years of age, and a U.S. citizen for nine, and must be a resident of the state they represent. |
| Define "Enumerated Powers" and explain how they differ from "Implied Powers". | Enumerated Powers are powers which are specifically written out, given to Congress; such as the power to tax, borrow money, regulate commerce between states and countries, and to coin money. They differ from implied powers because they are written out. |
| Define "Implied Powers" and explain how they differ from "Enumerated Powers". | Implied Powers are powers which are given to Congress due to the "necessary and proper clause," giving them the power to "make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers..." These are more difficult to interpret. |
| Define the structure of the President. | The president must be 35 yeares old, natural born U.S. citizen, and reside in the U.S. for at least 14 years. He has a 4 year term, limited to 2 terms. |
| Define the powers of the President. | He is the Commander in Chief, grant pardons, make treaties by consenting with the Senate, power to veto, and inherent powers of the president. |
| What is Political Participation? | Political Participation refers to the ways in which people include themselves in politics, such as by voting, campaigining, etc. |
| The policymaking system is important to government, how? | Since it is a set of groups and activities that are linked together in government, politics, and public policy, things like political parties, elections, and interest groups, and the media are key things that build up to it. |
| What are political parties, and why are they important? | Political parties are groups of people who share the same ideas about government, and seek to change the government in the way the want it. So by campaigning and running for a party leader position, they hope to change government policy to better our gov. |
| Who was Robert Dahl, and what was his importance? | He was a democratic theorist who believed in five things essential for a democratic process. |
| What were the five things Robert Dahl believed in? | He believed in equality of voting - one person, on vote, effective representation, enlightened understanding - like freedom of speech of press, citizen control, and the inclusion of all within the nation. |
| Describe the Pluarlist Theory | A theory of an American democracy where groups compete with one another for control of public policy, with no one specific group dominating. Various attempts of bargaining and compromising would be associated with this type of democracy. |
| Describe the Elite and Class Theory. | This theoretic American democracy basically divides society up by ecomnomic status, the upper-class elites would have most power, since they would contribute more to the economy. Money is power, is basically what they would go off by. |
| List some challenges to having a democratic society | Challenges would include having a limited participation and knowledge about government and politics, cost of compaigining, and political diversity. All these present challenges in having a 100% effective government because we're all different. |
| Define the gross domeestic product. | The Gross Domestic Product is the value of all goods and services produced by the United States annually. One out of every three dollars the local, national, and state governments collectively spend. |
| What does our nation spend it's money on? | National defense - which tkaes up about one-sixth of the fedreal budget, Social Security - which is the largest item on our budget, taking up more than one-fifth. |
| Mentioned in the reading, what is the dominant theme in American political culter? | Individualism is a dominant theme, as everybody always wants something more or different, and public policy can't always satisfy those needs, but continually try and satisfy them anyway they can. |
