Chapter 2 – The Constitution

Essential Question: Describe the ideas behind the American Revolution and their role in shaping the Constitution.

The Origins of the Constitution

Declaration of Independence (1776)

• The document lists grievances against the king of England.

• The document justifies revolution.

• The document is based on the idea of natural rights.

Philosophy of John Locke

• Rights that are derived from people’s basic moral sense supersede the authority of a government.

• Consent of the governed: A government is legitimate only if people approve of it (social contract).

• Limited government: Because natural rights are superior to a government, governments should have limited power.

• Government should protect people’s property.

The American Revolution ends in 1783.

Essential Question: analyze how the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation led to its failure.

The Government That Failed: 1776-1787

The Articles of Confederation

• The Articles established the first government of the United States (enacted in 1781).

• The Articles was designed to preserve the independence of the states.

• The Articles created a national government without any centralized power; proves to be ineffectual.

Key Provisions of the Articles of Confederation

• Unicameral national legislature

• No executive or judicial institutions (branches)

• Most power rests with states legislatures

• No power to tax

• No regulation of foreign or interstate trade

• No national currency

• No national defense

Weaknesses of the Articles

• Without the power to collect taxes, the national government had few financial resources with which to repay its war debts.

• The development of a national economy was inhibited also by the government’s inability to establish and regulate trade.

• The Articles prevented the formation of a unified nation out of a collection of states with different political, economic, and social concerns.

• States retained full sovereignty.

Consequences of the Weaknesses of the Articles

• Shays’ Rebellion was not easily quelled, because the government had no power to raise a militia.  The incident provided the final proof that the Articles were not a sufficient plan of government.

• Annapolis Convention in 1786 attempted to suggest reforms of the Articles, but it was determined instead to ask Congress to schedule a convention for 1787.

Essential Question: Describe the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and the core ideas they shared.

Making a Constitution: The Philadelphia Convention

• Many issues were hotly debated during the writing of the Constitution.  In effect, the framers faced the momentous task of defining the nature of government.  They did, however, agree on some basic principles:

  • The government should check the self-interest of the people yet protect their individual liberties and advance natural rights such as equality.

  • Factions should not be allowed to create political conflict and thereby undermine the government.

  • No one faction should have the opportunity to prevail upon the others.

Gentlemen in Philadelphia:

• Although the 55 founders at the Constitutional Convention were almost all wealthy and well-educated, they had divergent views about major issues, including:

  • Human nature

  • Political conflict and the nature of factions

  • Purposes of government

  • Nature of government

Essential Question: Discuss the issues at the Constitutional Convention and the resolutions reached on each type of issue.

Critical Issues at the Convention

The Equality Issues:

• Two plans were proposed to ensure equal representation of the people in the legislature: the Virginia Plan (representation in the national Congress should be determined by the population of each state) and the New Jersey Plan (each state should be allowed the same number of representatives in the nation Congress).

• The Connecticut Compromise, or Great Compromise, established a bi-cameral legislature.  The Senate would include two representatives from each state as per the New Jersey Plan, and representation in the House would be determined by the population of each state.

• The Three-Fifths Compromise mandated that only three-fifths of slaves be counted in determining state representation (this was repealed by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868).

The Economic Issues:

• The authors identified interstate tariffs, worthless paper money, and economic recession as serious problems of the American economy.

• These concerns led the Philadelphia delegates to strengthen the economic powers of the new national government to address these problems.

The Individual Rights Issues:

• The writ of habeas corpus cannot be suspended.

• The Bills of attainder, which punish people without a trial, cannot be passed.

• Ex Post Facto laws, which are retroactive criminal laws, are prohibited.

• Religious qualifications cannot be used as a prerequisite for public office.

• All citizens are entitled to a trial by jury in a criminal case.

Essential Question: Analyze how the components of the Madisonian system addressed the dilemma of reconciling majority rule with protection of minority interests.

The Madisonian System

• James Madison warned that both the majority (poorer and less-educated Americans) and minority (the wealthy elite) factions could pose a threat to the stability of a government.

• To protect government from the will of the majority, the president would be chosen by the Electoral College and, until the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators would be chosen by states’ legislatures, not directly by the people.

• Madison proposed that the national government be divided into three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial.  Each branch would have its own powers and responsibilities.

• A system of checks and balances would ensure that no branch could become more powerful than the others.  The majority or the minority might be able to take control of any one branch but not necessarily the whole political system.

• Establishing a federal system of government allowed power to be shared between the national and state government.

Checks and Balances

Legislative Branch

• The House and Senate can veto a bill of the other house

• The Senate approves presidential nominations for judges and other officials.

• The legislative branch can impeach the president (House impeaches, Senate removes).

• The legislative branch controls the budget.

• The legislative branch can pass laws over a president’s veto with a two-thirds majority.

Executive Branch

• The president can veto bills passed by Congress.

• The president can nominate judges and other government officials.

Judicial Branch

• The judicial branch can declare laws passed by Congress to be unconstitutional.

• The judicial branch can declare acts of the president to be unconstitutional.

• The Constitution did not grant to the courts the power to check the other branches.

• The Supreme Court did not asset its authority to declare laws unconstitutional until the case Marbury v. Madison in 1803.

The Constitutional Republic

• The Constitution established that the government would be one of elected representatives.

Essential Question: Compare and contrast the Federalists and Anti-Federalists in terms of their background and their positions regarding government.

Ratifying the Constitution

• The approval of at least nine states was needed to ratify the Constitution, and it did not come easily.

Anti-federalists

• Anti-Federalists feared that the Constitution favored an elite minority.

• Anti-Federalists believed that the Constitution failed to protect too many individual freedoms.

• Anti-Federalists published scathing articles and political cartoons denouncing the Constitution as a tool of the aristocracy.

Federalists

• Federalists published a series of articles called the Federalist Papers to defend the Constitution.

• Federalists asserted that the Constitution would benefit the growing middle class of tradesmen as well as the wealthy plantation owners.

• Federalists promised to add a bill of rights to guarantee individual liberties. 

• The Constitution was ratified in 1787, largely because the authors promised to add a bill of rights.

• The Constitution established the United States as a federal republic in which power would be divided among levels of government.

• The Constitution is considered a “living document” because it can be amended as the United States grows and changes.

Essential Question: Explain how the Constitution can be formally amended and how it changes informally.

Changing the Constitution

Formal Amendment Process

• Amendments can be proposed by Congress with a 2/3 vote in each house or by National Convention called by 2/3 of the states.

• Amendments can ratified by ¾ of state legislature or by Convention in ¾ of the States (21^st Amendment)

Informal Amendment Process

• The Constitution can be informally amended through judicial interpretation (established in Marbury v. Madison)

• The Constitution can be informally amended by changing political practice, technology, and increased demands on policymakers.

• Over the Constitution has become more democratic than the authors intended.

Essential Question: Assess whether the Constitution establishes a majoritarian democracy and how it limits the scope of government.

Understanding the Constitution

• The Constitution did not establish a majoritarian democracy because majorities do not always rule in America.

• There has, however, been a gradual democratization of the Constitution.

• The Constitution limits the scope of government by protecting individual rights and by dispersing power among institutions.

Chapter 3 - Federalism

Essential Question: Compare and contrast federalism, unitary and confederate forms of government and discuss why the “framers” chose federalism.

• Federal government: Government is divided into more than one level.  Different bodies share power over the same group of people.

• Unitary government: Only one central government has authority over a nation.  There are no levels of government that share power. 

• Confederation: An association of states with some authority delegated to a national government.  The states in such a system retain most of the power.

• Intergovernmental relations become especially important in a federal system because of the elaborate communication necessary to share power.

  • “Framers attempted confederation and it failed (Articles of Confederation) and were wary of unitary government (concentration of power) because of their experiences under the British.

Essential Question: Discuss the constitutional basis for the division of power between national and state governments, the establishment of nation supremacy, and states’ obligations to each other.

The Constitutional Basis of Federalism

Supremacy Clause:

• The Supremacy Clause is located in Article VI

• The Supremacy Clause asserts the authority of the national government over the states.

• In cases of discrepancy, federal laws usually supersede state laws.

Tenth Amendment:

• The Tenth Amendment is located in the Bill of Rights.

• The Tenth Amendment grants all powers not specifically delegated to the national government to be reserved to the states.

• The Tenth Amendment is often cited in arguments in favor of states’ rights.

Enumerated Powers:

• Enumerated powers are located in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

• Enumerated powers are granted to the national government, and specifically to Congress.

Implied Powers:

• Implied powers were established in McCulloch v. Maryland, an 1819 Supreme Court case in which the states battled the formation of a national bank.

  • The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Marshall, ruled against the states, thereby reinforcing the supremacy of the national government.

  • The constitutional basis for implied powers is Article I, Section 8.  This is known as the elastic clause, also called the necessary and proper clause.

  • Implied powers give Congress the authority to pass any laws necessary to carry out its duties as enumerated in the Constitution.

  • The elastic clause, as interpreted in McCulloch v. Maryland, allows Congress to act on implied powers that are not specifically defined in the Constitution.

• The case Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824 expanded congressional power to regulate commerce.

Full Faith and Credit Clause:

• The full faith and credit clause is located in Article IV, section 1

• Full faith and credit requires each state to formally recognize the documents and judgements handed down by courts in other cases.

• Full faith and credit helps coalesce the state laws under a national umbrella.

Extradition:

• Extradition is located in Article IV, Section 2.

• Requires the return (extradition) of fugitive criminals (including escaped slaves) arrested in one state to the state in which the crime was committed for prosecution. 

Privileges and Immunities Clause:

• The privileges and immunities clause is located in Article IV, Section 2.

• The privileges and immunities clause helps unify the states by assuring that all citizens are treated equally when they travel from state to state.

Essential Question: Discuss the shift from dual to cooperative federalism and the role of fiscal federalism in intergovernmental relations today.

• Dual federalism: Each level of government has distinct responsibilities that do not overlap.

• Cooperative federalism: Levels of government share responsibilities.

• Shared costs: To receive federal aid, states must pay for part of a program.

• Federal guidelines: To receive funding, state programs must follow federal rules and regulations.

• Shared administration: Though programs must adhere to basic federal guidelines, they are administered according to the state’s directives.

• Fiscal federalism: The system of distributing federal money to state governments.

• About a quarter of states’ fiscal spending is derived from federal aid.

• Money is distributed through relatively restrictive categorical grants and block grants, which allow states more spending discretion.

• Mandates, however, can create economic hardships for states when Congress creates financial obligations for the states without providing funding for those obligations.

Identify and explain the consequences of federalism for diversity in public policies among the states.

• States have certain powers which allow them to adopt policies different from other states.

Essential Question: Discuss the impact of federalism on democratic government and the scope of government.

Federalism and Democracy

• Federalism contributes to democracy by increasing access to the government at all levels, but it also creates disadvantages due to differences in the resources of individual states.

• These differences can lead to inequities among the states in areas such as education.

Essential Question: Compare and Contrast Landmark Supreme Court Cases related to Federalism

Chapter 5 – Civil Liberties

Essential Question: Discuss the process by which the Bill of Rights has been applied to the states.

The Bill of Rights:

• The Bill of Rights protects freedoms at the national level, but these freedoms were not necessarily guaranteed in some state constitutions.

• The First Amendment established the four great liberties of freedom of press, speech, religion, and assembly.

• In the case of Barron v. Baltimore (1883), the Supreme Court ruled that the Bill of Rights did not protect individuals against state governments.

• In Gitlow v. New York (1925), the Court reversed its earlier decision, citing the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as a reason to protect individuals’ free speech and free press rights, found in the First Amendment.

• Gitlow began a tradition called selective incorporation doctrine, by which the Supreme Court has gradually, on a case-by-case basis, ensured the protection of most freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights from state infringement by means of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Essential Question: Distinguish the two types of religious rights protected by the First Amendment and determine the boundaries of those rights.

• Establishment Clause: In the First Amendment, prohibiting Congress from making laws establishing any religion in conjunction with the government.

  • Some critics interpret the clause loosely: The government should not favor one religion over another in its policies.  Others, including Thomas Jefferson, argue that the establishment clause endorses the separation of church and state. 

  • The establishment clause is at the center of the debate over prayer in school and over federal funding to private religious schools.

  • Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971): The Supreme Court allowed federal funding of parochial schools, provided that the money neither advances nor inhibits religious teaching, but instead is used for administrative purposes.  In 2002, the Supreme Court also permitted state vouchers to be used for parochial schools in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.

  • Engel v. Vitale (1962) and School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp (1963): Forbade the practice of prayer in school as a violation of the establishment clause and breaching of the separation of church and state.

  • Federal funds may be used to construct school buildings and to provide administrative and academic supplies, but not to endorse religious teaching.

  • Student religious groups cannot be denied access to school buildings for the purpose of meeting or worship if other groups are also allowed access (Westside Community School District v. Mergens)

• Free Exercise Clause: A First Amendment right that guarantees the freedom to practice or not to practice any religion.

  • The Court has upheld that the government cannot infringe on people’s beliefs, but it can regulate religious behavior to some degree

    • No illicit drug use (Oregon v. Smith)

    • No polygamy (Reynolds v. US)

  • State laws can ban religious practices that conflict with other laws, but they cannot forbid religious worship itself.

Discuss the rights of free expression protected by the First Amendment and determine the boundaries of those rights.

Freedom of Expression:

Speech

• Courts grapple with the definition of “speech”.  Political protests and picketing are protected by the First Amendment, but libel, slander, and obscenity are not.

• Fraud and incitement to violence are considered action, not speech, and are not protected.

• The Constitution forbids prior restraint, or government censorship of the press.  This policy was strengthened by the case Near v. Minnesota (1931), in which the Court ruled in favor of the press.

• Prior restraint is granted in situations where national security might be compromised.

• As decided in Schenck v. United States (1919), freedom of Speech may be curtailed when it threatens public order.

• Acts of symbolic speech, such as protesting and flag burning (Texas v. Johnson, 1989), are protected under the First Amendment.

• Commercial speech, such as advertising, is more closely regulated by the Federal Trade Commission.

• Commercial speech on radio and television is regulated by the Federal communications Commission.

• The broadcast media have significantly less freedom than do print media (Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission, 1969), though they are not required to print replies from candidates they have criticized (Miami Herald v. Tornillo)

The Press

• Freedom of the Press can conflict with the right to a fair trial, but the press does have a right to report on any criminal proceeding, and all trials must be open to the public.

• However, in Branzburg v. Hayes (1972), the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a fair trial over a reporter’s right to protect sources, and in Zucher v. Stanford (1978) the Court sided with the police over the press.

• Roth v. United States (1957): The Court asserted that obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment.  However, the definition of “obscenity” continues to be a point of controversy.

• Miller v. California (1973): Allowed community standards, varying in different parts of the country, to be used in determining if material is obscene. 

• Cases of libel are usually difficult to win because public figures must prove that the insults were intentionally malicious, as mandated in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964).

Essential Question: Describe the rights to assemble and associate protected by the First Amendment and their limitations.

Freedom of Assembly

• Freedom of assembly includes, first, the right to protest, picket, or hold a demonstration within reasonable limits called “time, place, and manner restrictions” and with virtually no limitations on the content of a group’s message.

• In NAACP v. Alabama (1958), the Supreme Court held that the right to establish groups of people within similar political interests, from political parties to the Ku Klux Klan, was also protected under the freedom of assembly.

Essential Question: Describe the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment and its limitations.

Right to Bear Arms

• The right to keep and bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment, but it has rarely been the subject of Supreme Court review.

• States have generally had wide latitude in restricting firearms as the Second Amendment has not been incorporated.

• In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), however, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment did protect an individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within a home.

• This was extended to state and local laws (Washington D.C. is governed by Congress and is not a state) in McDonald v. Chicago (2010).

Essential Question: Discuss defendant’s rights and identify issues that arise in their implementation.

Defendant’s Rights

• As with free speech, the courts must continually interpret the vague language of the Constitution to apply it to today’s issues and events.

• Searches and seizures: The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures.

  • Police investigators cannot search private property without a search warrant issued by a court unless there is a reason to believe that the evidence will disappear or be destroyed or removed in the meantime.

  • The Police cannot arrest someone unless there is probable cause to believe that he or she is guilty.

  • The exclusionary rule prevents prosecutors from using evidence acquired through unreasonable search and seizure.  Mapp v. Ohio (1961) extended the exclusionary rule to states as well as the federal cases (incorporation).

  • In recent years, the Supreme Court has made exceptions to the exclusionary rule; for example, when police are thought to have acted in “good faith”, even if their actions technically violate the rule, the Court has allowed use of the evidence seized (US v. Leon, 1984).

  • The USA PATRIOT Act (2001) and the 2008 revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that followed revelations about warrantless eavesdropping by federal agencies expanded  the government’s right to investigate terrorism suspects without warrants.

• Self-incrimination: The Fifth Amendment protects people from being forced to supply evidence against themselves.

  • Because a person is innocent until proven guilty, the prosecution is responsible for proving a defendant’s guilt.

  • Miranda v. Arizona (1966): Established that suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights before they are questioned by the police.

• Right to Counsel: The Sixth Amendment guarantees that all accused persons tried in a federal court have the right to be represented by an attorney.

  • Gideon v. Wainwright (1963): Extends this privilege to cases tried in state courts as well.

  • Most cases are settled by plea bargaining between lawyers instead of by a trial.

  • The Sixth Amendment requires a trial by a jury of 12 people in federal cases; in state cases this number may be fewer, and a conviction does not require a unanimous vote.

• Cruel and unusual punishment is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment, though the term is not clearly defined in the Bill of Rights.

  • In Greg v. Georgia (1976) and McCleskey v Kemp (1987), the Supreme Court confirmed that the death penalty does not violate the Bill of Rights- that is, it is not considered “cruel and unusual”.

  • The Supreme Court has, however, placed an increasing number of restrictions on who can be executed, such as the mentally ill (Ford v. Wainwright, 1996), mentally retarded persons (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002), those under the age 18 when they committed their crimes (Roper v. Simmons, 2005), and those who committed individual crimes where the victim’s life was not taken (Kennedy v. Louisiana, 2008).

  • The Court has also required that a jury, not just a judge, find an aggravating circumstances necessary for imposition of the death penalty (Ring v. Arizona, 2002) and that lawyers for defendant’s in death penalty case make reasonable efforts to fight their clients at a trial’s sentencing phase (Rompilla v. Beard, 2005).

  • Debate over the death penalty continues.  DNA tests sometimes prove the innocence of inmates on death row, leading some states to declare moratoria on executions.  The number of executions has generally been declining.

Essential Question: Discuss the evolution of the right to privacy and its application to the issue of abortion.

Right to Privacy

• The right to privacy is not specifically guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, but the Supreme Court has interpreted the first ten amendments to imply this right.

  • Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) asserted the right to privacy, which became more controversial when the principle was applied, in Roe v. Wade (1973), to forbid states from controlling abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy.

  • Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989): The Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that prevented the use of state funds for abortion clinics and that prohibited state employees from performing abortions.

  • The Supreme Court, while allowing abortions, has increasingly permitted regulation of them (Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 1992).

    • 24-48 hour waiting periods

    • Parental consent laws

  • Medical technology also causes debate over the right to privacy in cases of surrogate parenthood and physician-assisted suicide.

Discuss how civil liberties affect democratic government and how they both limit and expand the scope of government.

• When any of the Bill of Rights, including defendant’s rights, conflicts with majority rule, rights prevail.

• Civil Liberties limit the scope of government action, yet substantial government effort may be necessary to protect the exercise of those rights.

Chapter 6 – Civil Rights and Public Policy

The Constitution and Inequality

• The original Constitution did not mention, and under most state constitutions only white males were allowed privileges such as voting rights.  The Fourteenth Amendment first clarified the concept of equality by ensuring that all citizens must receive “equal protection of the laws”.

• The Supreme Court’s modern interpretation of equality has brought civil rights to the forefront of the political agenda.

• The courts have identified three standards of review for determining whether an inequality in public policy is impermissible.

• Race and ethnic classifications are inherently suspect and therefore subject to “strict scrutiny”: They are presumed unconstitutional unless they serve a compelling public interest.

• Gender classifications are subject to “intermediate scrutiny”, meaning that they must bear a substantial relationship to an important governmental purpose.

• In all other cases, a classification must simply bear a rational relationship to some legitimate governmental purpose (called the “reasonableness” or “rational basis” standard) and are presumed constitutional until proven otherwise.

Discuss the evolution of protections of the rights of African Americans and explain the application of nondiscrimination principles of issues of race.

African Americans’ Civil Rights

Slavery and Segregation

• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) upheld the constitutionality of slavery and forbade Congress from banning it in new states.

• The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) outlawed slavery after the Civil War.

• The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) extended rights of citizenship to former slaves.

• With the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) guaranteeing the ability to vote, many African Americans were elected to government posts.

• In the 1876 election, a deadlock in the Electoral College led to a deal that allowed the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, to be selected by a commission created by the House of Representatives, in exchange for the promise to withdraw federal troops from southern states.

• Civil Rights advances came to a halt and Jim Crow laws took effect segregating blacks from whites in the South, and preventing blacks from voting and running for public office.

• The Supreme Court officially recognized a policy of “separate, but equal” facilities, thereby allowing the practice of segregation, in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Equal Protection and the Civil Rights Movement

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the Plessy decision- asserting that segregation is unconstitutional- and ordered the desegregation of public schools.

• Brown was the beginning of a string of Supreme Court decisions holding various forms of discrimination unconstitutional.

• Brown and these other cases gave the civil rights movement momentum that would grow in the years that followed.

• Congress also passed the Civil Rights Act (1964) which…

  • Outlawed racial discrimination in public places

  • Prohibited discrimination in employment

  • Withheld government funding from any school or institution that practiced discrimination.

  • Established the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to monitor job discrimination, and granted the Justice Department power to enforce civil rights laws by suing institutions still practicing segregation.

• Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg County Schools (1971): The Supreme Court allowed busing to be used as a means to balance racial percentages in schools, which became a matter of great national controversy.

Voting Rights

• The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) formally granted African Americans suffrage- the right to vote- but had little effect in practice.

• Southern states circumvented the law by instituting literacy tests that most former slaves could not pass.

• Poll taxes were implemented and most former slaves could not afford to pay.

• Grandfather clauses were implemented to exempt from literacy tests illiterate whites whose grandfathers had been allowed to vote before 1860.

• White primaries were implemented that restricted voting in Democratic Party elections (the only ones that mattered given Democratic dominance is the South) to whites.

• Most of these were struck down in the early 20^th century.

• Grandfather clauses were found unconstitutional in Guinn v. United States (1915).

• The Supreme Court outlawed the use of white primaries to exclude African Americans from the election process in Smith v. Allwright (1944).

• Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) outlawed the use of poll taxes.

• Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to prevent states from using any methods to disenfranchise voters.

  •  The law provided for enforcement by allowing federal registrars to oversee elections and voter registration; therefore only with the Voting Rights Act did the Fifteenth Amendment’s guarantee of suffrage without regard to race become meaningful in practice.

Essential Questions: Discuss the progress made by other ethnic groups in the United States.

The Rights of Other Minority Groups

• Other minority groups, including Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans, have all suffered discrimination and benefited from advances made in the civil rights movement.  The Civil Rights Act applies to all races and has encouraged many minority groups to speak out for their rights.

• Native Americans were isolated on “reservations” until Dawes Act of 1887 and they were given the right to vote only in 1924.

• Beginning in 1970, they have used courts to pursue equal rights, largely through the Native American Rights Fund (NARF)

• Hispanic Americans (or “Latinos” as some prefer to be called) are now the largest minority group, with heritage from many Caribbean, Central American, and South American nations.

• They have pursued equal rights in court through the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), as well as through labor organizations such as the United Farm Workers, led by Cesar Chavez from the 1960s through the 1980s.

• Asian Americans are the most rapidly growing group, and while often hailed as the most successful, they have suffered significant discrimination, most notably the internment of Japanese Americans in isolated camps during WWI, which the Supreme Court upheld in Korematsu v. US (1944).

• Though smaller in numbers than most minority groups, the Arab and Islamic population has faced significant challenges since 9/11 attacks.

Discuss the Evolution of women’s rights and explain how civil rights principles apply to gender issues.

The Rights of Women

• Women were also excluded from the rights of equality implied in the Constitution.

• The women’s rights movement grew out of abolitionism in the 1840’s, when female activists encountered discrimination among male activists.

• The efforts of the first generation of feminists culminated in the Nineteenth Amendment (1920), which granted women the right to vote.

• Progress bogged down after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA, 1923) was intended to enforce full equality for women, who still were discriminated against in such areas as employment.

• It was passed by Congress in 1972 but was never ratified by the necessary three-fourths of state legislatures.

• The Second Wave of feminists relied heavily on the courts for progress.  In Reed v. Reed (1971), the Supreme Court for the first time found a law unconstitutional based on arbitrary gender bias, and in 1976, Craig v. Boren established an “intermediate scrutiny” standard for determining gender discrimination.

• Since then, it has struck down laws that discriminate against both women and men.

• Recent efforts to promote gender equality have focused on the workplace.

• Civil rights legislation barring discrimination in the workplace applies to women as well as to other minority groups, and it includes employment opportunities, equal pay, and pregnancy leave.

• In 1986, the Supreme Court established a women’s right to sue employers for sexual harassment under the Civil Rights Act.

• The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the issue of comparable worth, which insists that women be paid the same as men for jobs that require the same skills.

• Title IX of the Education Act of 1972 has helped to end employment discrimination because it forbids gender discrimination in federally subsidized education programs (which include almost all colleges and universities), including athletics.

• The Supreme Court extended this to prohibiting all-male schools in 1996 in a case involving the Virginia Military Academy.

• Women are allowed to serve in all branches of the military but cannot serve in ground combat units of the Army and Marine Corps.

Essential Question: Discuss how civil rights principles have been applied to seniors, people with disabilities, and gays and lesbians.

• Discrimination laws prevent employers and universities from rejecting applicants because of their age.

• Congress also revoked the policy of mandatory retirement, unless a compelling reason can be provided based on age.

• The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 protects disabled Americans against job discrimination and requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations,” but controversy has arisen over who is considered disabled.

• Gay Rights are protected by some laws but are frequently challenged by courts, legislatures, and voters.

• The “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy introduced by President Clinton in 1993 bypasses restrictions on homosexuality by preventing labeling; even this restriction was struck down by a federal court in 2010 as the President and the Secretary of Defense asked Congress to repeal the law barring service by homosexuals.

• The right to privacy also factors into debates over gay rights; Lawrence v. Texas (2003) overturned state anti-sodomy laws as well as the Court’s own decision in Bower’s v. Hardwick (1986)

• By 2015, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Vermont had legalized some form civil unions between same-sex couples, but the Defense of Marriage Act (1996) allowed other states to disregard these unions.   The Supreme Court struck down state laws banning same-sex marriage in 2015 (Obergefell v. Hodges).

Chapter 8 – Public Opinion and Political Participation

REVIEW SHEET- Public Opinion and Political Participation

Essential Question: Discuss the various forms of socialization that shape political opinions. 

How Americans Learn About Politics: Political Socialization 

• People learn about politics and form their political beliefs through the process of political socialization. 

• There are several different means through which people informally acquire political information. 

• The family: Families have a significant degree of influence, especially over younger members.  Most people identify with the same party that their parents do. 

• The mass media: Most Americans, especially children and teenagers, watch a significant amount of television. 

• Political information is often disseminated through TV. 

• Younger people are much less likely to watch the news than adults, however, and as a result, young people’s political knowledge is significantly lower today than that of young people a few decades ago. 

• School: Schools educate children in American values such as democracy and capitalism, both through academics and through practices such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. 

• A good education also tends to produce more politically active and aware citizens.  In addition to the influence of the educational system, young people are also influenced by members of their peer group when formulating their political attitudes and beliefs. 

• Religious groups and associations also influence political attitudes.  Ideology is now determined more by religiosity- the degree to which religion is important in one’s life- than by religious denomination.  

• Socialization is a dynamic process, with learning taking place over one’s entire lifetime.  Socialization is part of the very important nurturing process. 

Essential question: Identify and explain how polls are conducted and what can be learned from them about American public opinion. 

• Polls are the most common means of assessing public opinion. 

• A random sample, or group that statistically represents the whole population of the United States, is asked to fill out a questionnaire or answer some questions over the phone. 

• Commonly, modern polls rely on random digit dialing to draw telephone samples. 

• Famous nonrandom sample, The Literary Digest poll of 1936, wrongly predicted that Republican Alf Landon would defeat Franklin Roosevelt in that year’s election. 

• The wording of a question is critical, and ambiguously worded questions can affect the accuracy of a poll. 

• Polls must also ask comprehensible questions that respondents might be able to answer. 

• The validity of a poll could be skewed through the use of loaded or emotional statements.  

• The size of the sample can also affect the accuracy of a poll and thus the level of confidence in the poll (sampling error). 

• Exit polls are conducted by media as voters leave the voting booth in order to predict the outcomes of elections. 

• Some critics argue that polls allow politicians to be influenced easily by shifts in public opinion and that polls receive more media attention than do candidates’ (“horserace” journalism) political platforms during elections. 

• Others assert that, by advancing the public’s political agenda to poll-sensitive politicians, polls advance the principles of democracy. 

• Recent polls indicate the Americans have little political knowledge and little faith that the government is acting on their behalf (political efficacy). 

• Public opinion polls have shown a trend indicating that Americans trust the government less than they used to. 

Essential Question: Identify and explain the factors that influence whether people vote. 

Whether to Vote: A Citizen’s First Choice 

• Suffrage has been expanded several times throughout American history and, although the Constitution left the issue up to the states, generally only white, male, property owners had the right to vote. 

• Today, almost all Americans over the age of 18 can vote in elections. 

• 15^th Amendment- granted suffrage to African American males 

• 19^th Amendment- extended voting privileges to women. 

• 26^th Amendment- set the minimum voting age at 18. 

• Although more people are able to vote, fewer people are exercising this right 

• Some people do not vote because they believe that one vote in more than 1000 million makes no difference 

• Some people do not vote because they are unable to take time off of work to vote on a Tuesday; reformers have suggested moving Election Day to a Saturday. 

• Some people do not vote because voter registration is difficult or inconvenient in most states. 

• Procedures have been made easier, especially with the Motor Voter Act, but turnout has still decreased. 

• Some people do not vote because there is little ideological difference between the two parties’ candidates. 

• Some people are more likely to vote because they perceive a significant ideological difference between the two parties’ candidates. 

• Some people are more likely to vote because they have a sense of political efficacy- they believe their vote will make a difference.  

• Some people are more likely to vote because they want to perform their civic duty in a democracy 

Who Votes? 

• People with a college education are more likely to vote. 

• Older people, especially senior citizens, are more likely to vote. 

• Hispanic Americans and African Americans are less likely to vote, but those with higher levels of education vote in greater percentages than educated Caucasians. 

• More women than men have voted in recent elections. 

• Union members are more likely to vote. 

• Politicians who rely on these voters to be elected are more likely to address their concerns in the policy arena. 

• Studies show that if turnout increased among groups with low turnout rates, Democrats would probably receive more votes. 

• Reforms are unlikely because Republicans do not want to lose this advantage. 

Essential Question: Discuss the impact of party identification, candidate evaluations, and policy opinions on voting behavior. 

How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens’ Decisions  

• The idea that the winning candidate has a mandate from the people to carry out his or her platforms and politics is the mandate theory of elections. 

• Some people vote according to their party identification. 

• A candidate of their chosen party probably shares their political beliefs and they do not have to decide on or become informed about every issue. 

• This trend is declining as parties have lost some significance in the political process. 

• Some voters evaluate what they know and see of the candidate’s personalities to make a decision.  

• A candidate’s appearance may play an unconscious role in voter decision making. 

• People tend to value integrity, competence, and reliability in a candidate. 

• Voters with a college education are more likely to base their decision on a candidate’s personality, using it to make assumptions about the candidate’s performance. 

• Some people vote for candidates who share their policy preferences; this assumes that voters have firm policy convictions, they are familiar with each candidate’s policy preferences, and that they are able to discern differences among candidates’ stands on issues. 

• A person may also vote retrospectively by choosing a candidate who vows to continue policies helpful to him or her, or by choosing the opposition candidate who promises to change the policy.  “What have you done for me lately?” 

• Candidates may avoid taking a clear stand on a controversial issue, making policy voting (prospective) difficult.  This method requires a lot of effort on the part of voters. 

Chapter 9 – Political Parties

Democracy.

The Meaning of Party

• A political party is a team of men and women seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in an election.

• Political parties carry out several tasks, including choosing candidates, running campaigns, giving cues to voters, articulating policies, and coordinating policymaking.

• Political parties serve as linkage institutions, which are channels through which concerns become political issues on the government’s policy agenda

• Rational Choice theory explains the actions of voters, politicians, and parties.

• It assumes that individuals act in their best interest and weigh the costs and benefits of possible alternatives.

• In order to win office, candidates select policies that are widely favored.

• The majority of voters are in the middle ideologically, so centrist parties win elections

• This has led to criticisms of the two major parties for being too similar.

Essential Question: Discuss the significance of party identification in America today.

The Party in the Electorate

• Many voters cast their ballots on the basis of party identification.

• For instance, people who consider themselves Democrats usually vote for Democratic candidates.

• Party identification is declining, however, as of 2000, the more voters considered themselves Independent than either Democrats or Republican.

• Party image is the voter’s perception of what the Republicans and Democrats stand for, such as conservatism and liberalism.

• Ticket splitting, or voting for members of different parties for different offices in an election, is also on the rise.

• This practice leads to a divided party government- the president may be of a different party from the majority party in Congress, for example.

Essential question: Describe how political parties are organized in the United States

• Unlike the more formal parties of other countries, American political parties are fairly decentralized, with city, state, and national administrative bodies.

• State parties are becoming more formally organized, but most presidential campaigning is still conducted through the candidate’s personal campaign organization.

• Holding elections is one important task performed by the states, each of which has its own unique party organization.

• Each state’s parties go about the election process differently, such as by choosing which type of primary to hold.  There are three main types of primaries: closed, open, and blanket.

• Until the 1930’s, local parties had tremendous influence over the city governments.

• These often-corrupt party machines maintained their power by using the patronage system to reward loyal members with important positions in the government.

• Today local parties have declined, while county-level organizations have increased their election initiatives.

• The national party organization, or national committee, writes the official party platform and holds the national convention through which a presidential and vice presidential candidate are nominated.

• The national committee maintains the party organization during nonelection years.

Essential Question: Discuss how well political parties generally do in carrying out their promises.

The Party in Government: Promises and Policy

• Parties help members of Congress form Coalitions that support a particular policy objective; however, presidents do not need to rely on party support as much as they used to because they can gain the favor of the public directly through television (going public/”Bully Pulpit”).

Essential Question: Discuss the various party eras in American history.

Party Eras in American History

• Most democratic nations have multiparty systems that allow many interests to be represented.

• The United States, however, has always had a two-party system.  Political scientists divide American history into party eras in which one party dominated politics for a significant period of time.

• Party eras change when a critical election reveals new issues and a failure of the traditional coalitions and this usually causes party realignment, when the party redefines itself and attracts a new coalition of voters.

• The First Party System (1796-1824) started with Alexander Hamilton’s short-lived Federalist Party, the first American political party.

• For most of the period, though, Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans maintained control of the White House.

• During the period of the Democrats and the Whigs (1828-1856), Andrew Jackson appealed to the masses rather than to the elite.

• He formed a new coalition and, ultimately, the Democratic Party.

• The opposition party was the Whig Party, though it had little political success.

• The Two Republican Eras (1860-1928) were dominated by the Republican Party, but these eras saw a major realignment of party coalitions under the same name.

• The Republican Party formed out of a coalition of antislavery groups and nominated Abraham Lincoln as its first presidential candidate.

• The election of 1896 began another strongly Republican era during which industrialization and capitalism were advanced.

• The New Deal Coalition (1932-1964) formed when Franklin Roosevelt brought the Democratic Party back into favor by starting scores of federal programs to combat the Great Depression.

• The new Democratic coalition brought together the poor, Southerners, African Americans, city dwellers, Catholics, and Jews.  Kennedy’s New Frontier and Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty continued the Democratic New Deal tradition.

• Since 1868, we have seen Southern realignment and divided party government.

• The states in the South have realigned and are now strongholds of the Republican Party.

• President Nixon was able to capture the South, which had previously been solidly Democratic.

• When Nixon became president, there was divided government for the first time in the 20^th century, with one party controlling Congress and another the White House.

• This became a frequent election pattern for most presidents that followed him.

• The trend in divided government has led many political scientists to believe that the party system has dealigned rather than realigned.

• Party dealignment means that people are gradually moving away from both parties.

Essential Question: Discuss both the impact of third parties on American politics and their limitations.

• Third parties occasionally arise to challenge the two major parties, but they rarely gain enough support to put a candidate in office.

• Some parties form around a specific cause; some are splinter parties, formed from smaller factions of the two major parties, and some form around a specific individual.

• Though they rarely win, third-party candidates do force particular issues onto the political agenda and allow Americans to express their discontent with the two major parties.

• They may also shift the votes of the electorate; for example, many political scientists think George W. Bush won the 2000 election because Green Party candidate Ralph Nader took votes away from Democrat Al Gore (“spoiler” effect).  The American winner-take-all system is an electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded to candidates who come in first.

• In presidential elections, the candidate who comes in first gets all of the state’s electoral votes.  This makes only two parties likely.

• Proportional representation is an electoral system in which seats in a legislative branch are awarded in proportion to the percentage of the vote received, making it likely that many parties will win seats.

• This often makes a coalition government necessary, in which two or major parties join together to form a majority in a national legislature.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of responsible party government.

Understanding Political Parties

Democracy and Responsible Party Government

• Political parties today are considered to be essential to a democratic system and the prevention of totalitarian rule, although the framers of the Constitution were wary of political parties.

• Critics of the two-party system allege that there is little choice for voters because the two parties keep to the middle of the road, that there is less opportunity for political change, and that the party system is so decentralized that it fails to translate campaign promises into policy because politicians do not have to vote with the party line.

• Critics of the two-party system have proposed the responsible party model, which describes how parties should offer choices to voters, follow through with campaign promises, and accept responsibility as a party for the performance of the government.

• American officeholders do not always follow the platform planks of their party; for example, the Blue Dog Democrats are fiscally conservative Democrats who oppose the more liberal tendencies of the Democratic Party.

American Political Parties and the Scope of Government

• American political parties do not require party discipline the way many European party systems do.

• The weak party structure of the United States makes it harder to pass legislation

• Political parties have declined in strength.

• The political party is no longer the major source of information for citizens.

Chapter 10 – Campaigns and Elections

• A nomination is a party’s official endorsement of a candidate for office.

• Politicians begin their bid for a presidential nomination more than a year in advance of the election.  In most other countries, campaigns are limited to only a few months.

• Most candidates have previously held a government post (not Trump of course!), such as representative, senator, governor, or military general.

• The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign is the campaign strategy.

Competing for Delegates

• Each state selects delegates to send to the Democratic and Republic national conventions, which have the supreme power to select the presidential nominee for the party.

• A few states still use traditional caucuses to choose delegates, which are closed meetings of party regulars who participate in party building activities and select nominees.

• Most states now use primaries where voters can nominate a presidential candidate directly, or else they can choose delegates who have pledged to vote for that candidate.

• State parties may have open primaries, where any registered voter can fill out a party nomination ballot, or closed primaries, where advanced party registration is required.

• The political parties in each state decide how to divide its delegates’ votes.

• Delegates are apportioned to each candidate based on their proportion of the vote in each state congressional district.

• The Republican Party gives all votes to the candidate with the majority vote in each district.

• The Democratic Party divides delegates proportionally by district and statewide.  The rise of primaries has allowed the electorate to take control of the election process away from political parties.

• The primary system has raised numerous criticisms:

  • The early caucuses and primaries (Iowa and New Hampshire) receive far too much media attention, which can distort campaigns and candidates who do not score early victories are likely to be dismissed by the media and the public and to be unable to raise funds to continue campaigning.

  • The lengthy campaign and rigors of the primary season discourage some capable politicians from running.

  • It requires and encourages an exorbitant amount of spending in campaigns.

  • Primaries are unrepresentative of the electorate because few people vote in them, and those who do are more likely to be older and wealthier than the majority of Americans.

  • It allows the media, which focuses on winners and dismisses losers early in the running, tremendous influence in shaping campaigns.

• One proposal by critics of the current system is a national primary, which would replace the extended primary calendar with a nationwide primary held on one day.

• Another proposal calls for regional primaries, which would allow regions to have primaries, with rotation of the older of regional primaries every four years.

The Convention Send-Off

• The delegates selected in each state’s primary attend the national convention, where they cast their votes for their presidential candidate. 

• The parties, especially the Democrats, have made efforts to reform delegate selection to ensure representation of youth, minorities, women, and organized labor at the convention.

• The Democratic Party makes greater use of superdelegates than the Republican Party.

• The outcome of conventions today is usually predetermined by previous primary results, so conventions today are media events.

• At a national convention, delegates support their candidate, the party presents its official party platform for the next four years, the winning candidate formally accepts the party’s nomination, and the party’s vice-presidential nominee is chosen, usually based on the presidential nominee’s preference for a running mate.

Essential Question: Identify and explain key objectives of any political campaign.

The Campaign Game

• The two presidential candidates then embark on a national campaign to win the votes of different groups in different regions of the country.

• Modern campaign techniques include television advertising, televised public appearances, direct mail campaigns, and an official website to advance the candidate’s platform and collect campaign contributions.

• The media closely follow campaigns and coverage focuses on the candidates’ daily activities, campaign strategies, and poll results.

• Studies show that voters learn more about the candidates’ positions on important issues from their advertisements than from the news.

• Critics fear that campaigns have become centered on candidates’ positions on important issues from their advertisements than from the news.

• To coordinate a campaign, a candidate must hire a campaign team that serves to organize his or her daily activities and also conducts public relations, and this adds significantly to the enormous cost of a campaign.

Essential Question: Describe how the financing of federal campaigns is regulated by campaign finance laws.

Money and Campaigning

• Candidates rely on television to communicate directly with the electorate, and airtime often translates into votes, and therefore, the necessity of television has made American campaigns extremely expensive.

• Politicians spend as much time fundraising as doing their jobs.

• In 1974, Congress passed Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) to attempt to control campaign costs and donations, which established the Federal Election Commission to enforce campaign laws, and initiated public financing of elections.

• Taxpayers can choose to donate $3 to a federal campaign fund that is divided among all candidates by checking a box on their income tax form (Presidential Election Campaign Fund)

• FECA also set limits for spending in each election by those who accept public funds.

• Under FECA, candidates are required to report all campaign contributions and how money was spent, and individual campaign contributions are limited to $2,000.

• Soft money is one loophole through which businesses and wealthy individuals can make unlimited contributions.

• Soft money is intended for a party’s general use; since it is therefore not a donation to a specific candidate, it can be channeled into presidential campaigns.

• The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BRCA or McCain-Feingold) attempted to ban soft money, as a candidate often rewards contributors once he or she is in office.

•  The Supreme Court upheld the act against a constitutional challenge in 2003.

• A loophole in the BCRA allowed 527 organizations to form and raise unlimited amounts of money to spend on advertising and voter mobilization efforts.

• Political Action Committees (PACs), established in 1974 by the FECA, are another method through which interest groups try to influence policy through campaign contributions.

• To contribute to a campaign, an interest group must channel money through a PAC, which must be registered with the FEC so that it can be monitored.

• There is no limit to the amount PACs can spend.  Super PACs may accept donations of any size and can endorse candidates.  Citizens United v. FEC (2010).

  • PACs can act independently of the candidate and his or her campaign team by running an advertisement without the candidate’s approval.

  • Created to provide unions and other groups the opportunity to contribute, PACs have been organized and used by businesses to affect elections.

• Candidates rely on PACs to help finance costly campaigns.

• PACs play a greater role in congressional elections than presidential elections, which are primarily funded by the public.

• Despite the massive amount of money spent on campaigns and the media’s constant focus on them, campaigns rarely convert voters away from their predisposed party identification.

Essential Question: Discuss why campaigns have an important yet limited impact on election outcomes.

The Impact of Campaigns

• In general, politicians tend to overestimate the impact of campaigns; political scientists have found that campaigning primarily reinforces citizens’ views rather than changing views.

• Factors such as selective perception, party identification, and the incumbency advantage tend to weaken the ability of campaigns to influence voters’ decisions.

Essential Question: Identify and explain the factors that influence whether people vote.

Whether to Vote: A Citizen’s First Choice

• Suffrage has been expanded several times throughout American history and, although the Constitution left the issue up to the states, generally only white, male, property owners had the right to vote.

• Today, almost all Americans over the age of 18 can vote in elections.

  • 15^th Amendment- granted suffrage to African American males

  • 19^th Amendment- extended voting privileges to women.

  • 26^th Amendment- set the minimum voting age at 18.

• Although more people are able to vote, fewer people are exercising this right

  • Some people do not vote because they believe that one vote in more than 1000 million makes no difference

  • Some people do not vote because they are unable to take time off of work to vote on a Tuesday; reformers have suggested moving Election Day to a Saturday.

  • Some people do not vote because voter registration is difficult or inconvenient in most states.

  • Procedures have been made easier, especially with the Motor Voter Act, but turnout has still decreased.

  • Some people do not vote because there is little ideological difference between the two parties’ candidates.

  • Some people are more likely to vote because they perceive a significant ideological difference between the two parties’ candidates.

  • Some people are more likely to vote because they have a sense of political efficacy- they believe their vote will make a difference.

  • Some people are more likely to vote because they want to perform their civic duty in a democracy

Who Votes?

• People with a college education are more likely to vote.

• Older people, especially senior citizens, are more likely to vote.

• Hispanic Americans and African Americans are less likely to vote, but those with higher levels of education vote in greater percentages than educated Caucasians.

• More women than men have voted in recent elections.

• Union members are more likely to vote.

• Politicians who rely on these voters to be elected are more likely to address their concerns in the policy arena.

• Studies show that if turnout increased among groups with low turnout rates, Democrats would probably receive more votes.

• Reforms are unlikely because Republicans do not want to lose this advantage.

Essential Question: Discuss the impact of party identification, candidate evaluations, and policy opinions on voting behavior.

How Americans Vote: Explaining Citizens’ Decisions

• The idea that the winning candidate has a mandate from the people to carry out his or her platforms and politics is the mandate theory of elections.

• Some people vote according to their party identification.

• A candidate of their chosen party probably shares their political beliefs and they do not have to decide on or become informed about every issue.

• This trend is declining as parties have lost some significance in the political process.

• Some voters evaluate what they know and see of the candidate’s personalities to make a decision.

• A candidate’s appearance may play an unconscious role in voter decision making.

• People tend to value integrity, competence, and reliability in a candidate.

• Voters with a college education are more likely to base their decision on a candidate’s personality, using it to make assumptions about the candidate’s performance.

• Some people vote for candidates who share their policy preferences; this assumes that voters have firm policy convictions, they are familiar with each candidate’s policy preferences, and that they are able to discern differences among candidates’ stands on issues.

• A person may also vote retrospectively by choosing a candidate who vows to continue policies helpful to him or her, or by choosing the opposition candidate who promises to change the policy.  “What have you done for me lately?”

• Candidates may avoid taking a clear stand on a controversial issue, making policy voting (prospective) difficult.  This method requires a lot of effort on the part of voters.

Essential Question Discuss the fairness of the Electoral College system for choosing the president.

• In the United States, the president is not chosen directly by the people in a popular election; the Electoral College casts the final vote.

• The writers of the Constitution created this institution to keep the presidency at a distance from the masses; it was intended to allow only the elite to choose the president.

• Each state’s number of electors is equal to its total number of representatives and senators.  Electors are chosen by the state party organizations.

• Almost all states are winner-take-all: The candidate who receives the highest popular vote in the state gets all of that state’s electoral votes.

• The key states that the presidential campaigns focus on because they are most likely to decide the outcome of the Electoral College are known as battleground states.

• Electors convene in December and deliver their votes to the president of the Senate (the Vice President), who officially announces the majority winner at the opening of the congressional session in January.

• If no candidate receives a majority of the electoral vote (at least 270), the members of the House of Representatives vote, with each state delegation having one vote.

• This system has received an enormous amount of criticism.

  • It gives an unfair advantage to states with larger populations, because they have a greater number of electoral votes at stake; large states and their policy concerns receive more attention from presidential candidates.

  • A candidate may need to win in only a few large states to win the election.

    • This neglects the less populous states (although George W. Bush used a small-state strategy to win the presidency in 2000 and 2004.

    • Because most large states also have large cities, the system is biased in favor of urban voters.

• It is possible to win the popular vote but lose the election because of the electoral votes.  This happened to Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by over 3 million in 2016.

Essential Question: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the U.S. system of campaigns and elections.

• American election campaigns are easily the most open and democratic in the world.

• They are extraordinarily long, perhaps excessively burdening politicians and leading politicians to make many promises that increase the scope of government.

• Long campaigns do give little-known candidates (dark horse) a chance to emerge and provide a strenuous test for all the candidates.

• Politicians spend so much time campaigning that they neglect their constituents and governmental obligations.

Chapter 11 – Interest Groups

Essential Question: Describe the role of interest groups in American Politics

The Role of Interest Groups:

• Interest groups may pursue any kind of policy, in all levels and branches of government.

• They differ from political parties in several ways

• They pursue their agenda through the political process, whereas parties advance their agendas through elections.

• Interest groups specialize in one or two policy areas, whereas parties focus on general policies to win a majority.

Essential Question: Compare and Contrast the theories of pluralism, elitism, and hyper-pluralism.

• Pluralist theory: Interest groups are important to democracy because they allow people to organize themselves to change policies

• Because hundreds of interest groups must compete for influence, no one group will dominate the others.

• Groups put up a fair fight; they do not engage in illegal activities to surpass other groups.  Groups are equal in power because they have different resources at their disposal.

•  Elite Theory: There may be hundreds of interest groups, but only a select few have any real power.

  • The interests of only a handful of elites, usually business people, are almost always favored over other interests

  • The policy battles that smaller interests do win are usually minor

  • Power rests mostly with large multinational corporations.

  • The system of elite control is maintained by well-established structure of interlocking policy players.

• Hyper-pluralist theory or interest group liberalism: Subgovernments, or iron triangles, form around specific policy areas.

• These are composed of an interest group, a federal agency, and any legislative committees or subcommittees that handle the policy area.

• By avoiding having to choose between policy initiatives, the government creates conflicting policies that waste time and money.

• Groups have too much political influence because they usually get what they want

• Competing subgovernments only add to the confusion.

Essential Question: Analyze and interpret factors that make some interest groups more successful than others in the political arena.

What Makes an Interest Group Successful?

• Smaller groups are more effective than large groups because they can organize more easily

• A member of a small group is more likely to experience the group’s success and, therefore, is more likely to work harder than a member of a large group.

• However, groups do experience the free-rider problem, where individuals can benefit from the work of the group without actually joining the group.

• According to Olsen’s law of large groups, this problem is greater with larger groups.

• Intensity is another important factor.

• Single-issue groups form around a specific policy and tend to pursue it uncompromisingly

• Single-issue groups often deal with moral issues that people feel strongly about and members of a single-issue groups often vote according to a candidate’s stand on the groups’ issue.

• Politicians are most likely to serve the needs of people or groups with money.

• Money allows groups to mobilize, conduct research, and maintain an administration.

Essential Question: Assess the four basic strategies that interest groups use to try to shape policy.

• Lobbying: Professional lobbyists attempt to persuade lawmakers to act on behalf of their group.

• The more helpful a lobbyist is, the more power he or she has with politician

• Lobbyists serve as policy experts in their interest area, act as consultants who advise legislators on how to approach policy issues and debates, mobilize support for politicians during reelection, and suggest innovative policy ideas.

• Electioneering: Interest Groups endorse a candidate who supports their interests and work to get that candidate elected.

• The groups encourage people to vote for the candidate and help finance the candidate’s campaign through PACs.

• Congressional candidates have become largely dependent on PAC money, and most PAC money goes to incumbents rather than challengers.

• Litigation: Interest groups use lawsuits to change policies that have already gone through the legislative process.

• Even the treat of a lawsuit may be enough to influence policymaking

• Groups can file amicus curiae briefs to state their side in a court case and to assess the consequences of the decisions the court might make.

• Groups can also file class action lawsuits- suits on behalf of a larger group in the electorate.

• Mobilizing public opinion: Interest groups try to influence the public because they know that politicians’ careers depend on public opinion

• Groups cultivate a positive image of themselves in the eyes of the public and they encourage public participation to advance interests from the point of view of the constituency.

Essential Question: Identify and explain the various types of interest groups and their policy concerns.

Types of Interest Groups:

• Economic interest groups such as business, labor, and farmers are often against regulations and tax increases, and want tax advantages, subsidies, and contracts for work.

• Organized labor is the second largest group (e.g., the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association.)

• The interest group with the largest membership is the American Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons (AARP), which represents the interests of older Americans.

• Businesses are the most widely represented interests in Washington.

• Environmental interests are the fastest growing type of interest group, favoring wilderness protection, pollution control, and energy alternatives, while opposing policies that damage the environment; examples include the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy.

• Equality interests such as civil rights, women’s rights, and social welfare groups’ concerns center on fair treatment in jobs, housing, and education.

  • Examples include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Southern Poverty Law Center.

• Consumers’ interests and public interests address issues in which the whole public benefits from certain policy actions, such as product safety, which was introduced Ralph Nader, and also represent groups that cannot assert their interests themselves: children, the mentally ill, or animals, for example.

• Some groups advocate for fair and open government or government reform.  Examples include Consumer Alert and the Children’s Defense Fund.

Essential Question: Evaluate how well Madison’s ideas (Federalist Paper #10) for controlling the influence of interest groups have worked in practice.

• The issue of controlling interest groups remains as crucial to democracy today as it was in James Madison’s time.  Some scholars believe that growth of interest groups has helped to divide political influence, while others see the PAC system as the new way in which special interests corrupt American Democracy. 

Chapter 13 – Congress

Essential Question: Discuss the backgrounds of members of Congress and assess their impact on the ability of members of Congress to represent average Americans.

The Representatives and Senators

• Congress is composed of 435 representatives and 100 senators, for a total of 535 members.

• Congress is not a very diverse place

• Most members of both houses have always been largely Caucasian

•  The House is more diverse than Senate, which is almost exclusively white.

• The ratio of men to women in both the House and the Senate is about five to one.

• Most election years leave both houses about evenly split between Democrats and Republicans

Essential Question: Identify the principal factors influencing the outcomes in congressional elections.

• Congressional elections are held every two years in November.

• The most important factor that determines which candidate wins an election is incumbency.

• Incumbents are elected officials who already hold office and are running for reelection.  Incumbents win reelection more than 90 percent of the time.

• Incumbency allows senators and representatives to gain valuable experience and bring some stability to Congress; however, this may also work to insulate members of Congress from change, making it more difficult for constituents to effect change.

• Senatorial races are usually intense because incumbents, who tend to have higher profiles, are more likely to be held accountable for public policy successes or failures.

• Their challengers are also more likely to be known already in the political arena because senatorial races often draw former representatives or governors.

• Still, incumbents usually win, though by a narrower margin.  In fact, turnover in Congress usually occurs only when members retire.

The Advantage of Incumbents

• Incumbents engage in activities that increase the probability of being reelected:

  • The number of votes a candidate receives is fairly proportional to his or her airtime on television and the frequency of his or her public appearances.

  • Advertising requires a great deal of campaign funds, particularly for senators, which explain in part why Congress is composed mostly of wealthy men.

• Credit claiming: Incumbents have the benefit of being able to present their congressional record to their constituents to demonstrate their hard work in service of the district or state.

  • They may have helped specific people or groups sidestep bureaucratic "red tape" (casework), or they have helped with federal programs and institutions (pork barrel)

  • From this record of service to their constituency, incumbents can build a more clearly defined public image, whereas challengers new to politics are less likely to be able to convey their position on issues to the public.

• Position taking: Incumbents’ public image is strengthened because they have already taken a stand on issues relevant to their constituency; and at election time, this can work in their favor to identify them in the minds of the public.

The Role of Party Identification

Party Identification: Voters for the most part cast their ballots along party lines; therefore, a predominantly Democratic district, for example, is most likely to elect and then reelect a Democratic candidate.

Defeating Incumbents

• While defeating an incumbent is very difficult, it does happen occasionally.

• Sometimes redistricting can occur, forcing incumbents to attempt to win over an unfamiliar constituency, or even making them compete against another incumbents.

• Sometimes incumbents are involved in scandals that are visible in the media, which tarnishes their name.

• Occasionally, the unpopularity of the president of the same party as the incumbent can have a negative impact on the incumbent’s chances of success.

Open Seats/Stability and Change

• When an incumbent leaves a seat open, there is more likely to be competition; however, the competition usually occurs within the primary, as most seats are safe for one party or the other.

• Because real competition for seats is unusual, Congress does not change very much or very often.

Essential Question: Compare and Contrast the House and Senate, and describe the roles of congressional leaders, committees, caucuses, and staff.

How Congress is organized to Make Policy

• A Bicameral Legislature is divided into two houses.

• Legislation must pass both houses of Congress to become law.

• The Senate is designed to represent states and the House is designed to represent the population.

The House

• A state’s population determines how many representatives it has.

• A state is divided into Congressional districts, each with an equal population.

• Every ten years, district lines must be redrawn according to the population data supplied by the national census.

• The political party in power in each state will try and draw district lines to their advantage, a process called gerrymandering.

• States therefore can lose or gain a seat in the House, but total membership remains at 435.

• Other characteristics of the House:

  • Members tend to vote along party lines.

  • Power is usually hierarchical

  • Special responsibilities include introducing revenue bills and articles of impeachment.

• Key to agenda setting in the House is the House Rules Committee.

• The House Rules Committee gives each bill a rule for debate, schedules the bill on a calendar, allows time for debate, and may specify what types of Amendments can be offered.

• The Speaker of the House chairs the Rules Committee.

THE SENATE

• Power is more evenly distributed among senators.

• Senators act more independently of their parties.

• Special responsibilities include approving presidential nominations, ratifying treaties, and the trial of impeached federal officials.

• Senators can filibuster and this power of unlimited debate means that they can talk so long that they delay or even prevent voting on a piece of legislation.

• Senators can stop a filibuster by voting for cloture, which halts debate.

• This rarely happens because it requires 60 votes; the majority party usually holds fewer than 60 seats, making cloture nearly impossible.

Congressional Leadership

• There are several elected positions in the House of Representatives.  At the beginning of each Congressional term, the parties will meet to elect these leaders.

• The leader of the House is the Speaker of the House, who is chosen by the majority party, and who presides over each session and is largely responsible for assigning representatives to committees or party positions.

• The vice president of the United States is president of the Senate, however, this role is more formal than active because most authority rests with party leaders in the Senate.  The President Pro Tempore assumes this role since the VP is usually absent.

• In the House, the majority leader assists the Speaker of the House in assigning majority party members to committees and scheduling legislation.

• The minority leader leads the minority party in opposing the agenda of the majority, and in choosing minority party members for committees.

• The majority leader in the Senate is usually the most active or seasoned member of the majority party.

• The majority leader manages the schedule of debate and rallies party votes for party legislation or against proposals of the minority party.

• The minority leader rallies the support of the minority party around legislation and act as its spokesperson.

• The majority and minority whips are responsible for "counting votes" for proposed legislation, working with members of their party to get enough votes to pass or defeat a piece of legislation.  They serve as a liaison between the leadership and rank-and-file members of the party.

The Committees and Subcommittees

• Committees are the nuts and bolts of Congress

• Most members serve on at least five committees and subcommittees; senators usually serve on more committees than representatives do.

• There are 4 basic types of committees...

  • Standing committees handle a specific policy area, such as agriculture, finance, energy, and commerce; both House and Senate have standing committees and each committee is often divided into subcommittees.

  • Joint committees are composed of both senators and representatives and are responsible for legislation that overlaps policy areas.

  • Select committees are appointed to handle a specific issue, such as an investigation or impeachment trial.

  • Conference committees are composed of members of both houses and they iron out the differences between the House and Senate version of a bill.

• Committees are responsible for researching, assessing, and revising the thousands of bills that are introduced by members of Congress each year.

• Committees also conduct legislative oversight, which is the monitoring of federal agencies and their execution of the law.

• Oversight usually takes the form of investigation- often committees hold hearings to question agency officials about the activities of their departments.

• As the federal bureaucracy has grown over the last few decades, so has the process of legislative oversight.

• One key to a new member of Congress's success is getting on a high-profile committee.

• Members seek committees that will help them to assist their constituency, or provide publicity to help them get reelected.

• Committee placement is decided by the chamber leadership

  • Committee chairs influence the agenda of the committee.

  • The chair is always a member of the majority party, and usually is the most senior member of the majority party on the committee.

  • The minority party member of the committee with the longest tenure is called the ranking member.

  • The seniority system was a formal rule to select chairs, but is no longer a requirement.

Caucuses: The Informal Organization of Congress

• A caucus is a group of members of Congress who share a similar interest.

• Each party has a caucus, and there are hundreds of caucuses, some more active than others.

• The Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues are two examples.

• Caucuses may hold hearings and put pressure on committees to try and influence legislation.

Congressional Staff (Personal Staff, Committee staff, Staff Agencies

• Senators and members of the House of Representatives each have a number of staff who assist them in serving their constituencies, researching legislation, and communicating with those who contact the office (casework).

• The Committees also employ staff to organize hearings, draft reports, and perform other duties.

• Finally, Congress has staff agencies such as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to track the progress of bills and perform research for members of Congress.

Essential Question: Discuss the path of bills through Congress and explain the influences on congressional decision making.

The Congressional Process and Decision Making

• Policy making is a slow and laborious process, and often a final bill has changed significantly from the original.

• The authors of the Constitution intentionally devised a complicated legislative system as a means to prevent hasty decisions and to encourage compromise in policymaking. The following shows the typical path of legislation through Congress.

•  Some important committees to know:

  • The House Rules Committee reviews all bills submitted by committees before they go to the House floor, assigns them a slot on the calendar, allocates time for debate, and even decides whether the bill may be amended or not.  This committee is unique to the House and has a significant degree of power.

  • The House Ways Committee writes bills concerning tax and other public revenue, which are subject to the approval of both houses.

  • The Senate Finance Committee works in conjunction with House Ways and Means Committee to write tax and revenue bills.

  • The Appropriations Committee in each house decides how government money will be apportioned to federal agencies.  This is the largest committee on each side, and divides into many subcommittees that attach to each of the standing committee.

Party Constituency, and Ideology

• Members of Congress do not always vote with their party

• Partisanship tends to be strongest on economic and welfare issues, however, on other issues, members of Congress may act more independently, especially to fulfill the needs of their constituents.

• When representatives or senators do act independently, what influences their vote?

  • If the issue is of significance to their constituency, or is likely to be highly publicized, members of Congress tend to vote as the constituency would want them to (delegate).

  • On the many other issues about which the public is less informed, representatives and senators are more likely to vote according to their own personal views and convictions (trustee).

• Over the past three decades, Republicans in Congress have become consistently more conservative, Democrats have become consistently more liberal, and the distance from the center of each party has increased.

• As a result of these ideological differences between the parties in Congress, it has been more difficult to reach any compromises.

• Increasingly divergent electoral coalitions and districts, which are more one-sided, have played an important role in this.

Lobbyists and Interest Groups

With lobbyists dominating Washington, how effective is Congress in representing the people?  You should be familiar both sides of this debate.

Congress Represents the Interests of the Electorate

• Interest groups are organized by groups of "the people" to make their views known so that policymakers will act on their behalf.

• As pluralists contend, the competition among groups for the support of members of Congress ensures that compromise will play a part in policymaking.

• The issues on which Congress focuses are as diverse as the interests pushing them to the forefront, thereby decentralizing the political agenda and power in each house.

Congress Serves the Interest Groups, Not the Public

• Critics argue that those interests groups with enough money to buy influence dominate the policy agenda and distract policymakers from the needs of the public.

• So many competing interests prevent the formation of cohesive policy.  In fact, different committees may handle the same policy issue in drastically different ways.

• Ultimately the government wastes a significant amount of money by attempting to appease so many interests.

Chapter 14 – The President

Essential Question: Discuss the backgrounds of presidents and identify paths to the White House and how presidents may be removed.

The Presidents

• 22nd Amendment: President cannot serve more than two terms. *FDR was elected for four terms

• First 100 days of the presidency (the "honeymoon" period) - President can enforce legistlation that supports their policy agenda. They also have critics and the public watching them to see if they implement the policy that they promised to enforce.

• Presidents can reach the Oval Office in different ways:

  • Most are former governors or members of Congress who, after being nominated by their party, campaigned and won the election.

  • Some presidents were vice presidents who took over after the death or resignation of a president.

  • Vice presidents can also become president in the event the president is convicted in an impeachment trial (by Senate)

  • The Twenty-Fifth Amendment establishes the procedures for filling vacancies in both the offices of president and vice president, and it also makes provisions for presidential disability.

• The Constitution sets forth the process of impeachment of a president who has abused his powers or committed a “high crime or misdemeanor” worthy of removal from office.

• The House may vote for the impeachment of the president by a simple majority.

• The Senate conducts the impeachment trial and the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial.

• It takes 2/3 vote in the Senate to remove the president from office.

• Only two presidents have been impeached, though neither was removed from office.

• Andrew Johnson was tried but not convicted in 1868, and Bill Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999.

Essential Question: Identify and explain the president’s constitutional powers and discuss the expansion of presidential power.

Presidential Powers

• The Constitution grants the president fairly limited powers that were designed to prevent him or her from gaining too much authority, thus maintaining the balance of power among government institutions.

• The power to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” as specified in the Constitution, is one of the more overlooked responsibilities of the president.

• As the bureaucracy has grown, it has become nearly impossible for the president alone to execute and enforce all laws; instead, the president now appoints numerous administrative officials, including cabinet members and department heads.

• Some have argued that during the 1950s and 1960s the presidency became “imperial” in nature, taking nearly full control over American politics.

• Since then, the power waned considerably but grew again with concerns about national security after the 9/11 attacks.

Essential Question: Describe the roles of the vice president, cabinet, Executive Office of the President, White House Staff, and First Lady.

Running the Government: The Chief Executive

• Vice presidents traditionally have few responsibilities and little political prominence.

• Vice presidents are second in line to assume the presidency if the president is unable to fulfill the duties of office.

• The vice president is the president (presiding officer) of the Senate and casts a vote whenever there is a tie.

• Today, vice presidents assume more responsibilities, depending on how the president they are serving entrusts functions to them.

• Vice presidents may serve as diplomats representing the president, take part in important policy meetings, or help raise funds for their party.

• The cabinet is a group of officials who act as advisors to the president.

• The cabinet is NOT mentioned in the Constitution, but it quickly became an institution that has accompanied every presidency. 

• The modern cabinet is composed of the attorney general and the heads, or secretaries, of the 15 executive departments.

• The president has the power to appoint all of these officials, but each appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

• Each cabinet member heads a department that deals with a different policy area.

• The Departments, created by Congress, carry out all the administrative work necessary to enforce laws or assist the president in his executive duties.

• The Executive Office of the President (E.O.P.) is a collection of administrative and advisory bodies that assist the president in overseeing policy.

• The E.O.P. includes the National Security Council, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the Office of Management and Budget.

• The White House Staff includes important personal and political advisors to the president, such as the legal counsel to the president, the president’s personal secretary, and the chief of staff.

• This office takes care of the president’s political needs and manages the press.

Essential Question: Assess the impact of various sources of presidential influence on the president’s ability to win congressional support.

Presidential Leadership of Congress: The Politics of Shared Powers

• Though not a member of the legislative branch, presidents do have a role to play in the legislative process.

Chief Legislator

• The power to veto legislation can be an effective tool of intimidation.

• Because a veto rejects a bill in its entirety, the president can have a good deal of influence over the shaping of each specific provision.

• If the president does veto a bill, it goes back to Congress, which by a 2/3 vote, can override the veto; however, this rarely happens.

• The president also has the power to reject any legislation submitted at the end of the congressional session without the possibility of his veto being overruled.

• If he does not sign a bill submitted by Congress within 10 days of its adjourning, the bill is automatically rejected, which is a pocket veto.

Party Leadership

• To influence policy, presidents must work closely with Congress.

• Specifically, they rely on close ties with members of Congress who are members of their political party.

• Political parties help bridge the gap between the legislative and executive branches.

• A president and a representative of the same party were most likely elected by the same body of people, or by voters who have similar political views, so they probably share political priorities.

• Members of Congress who support the president’s legislative agenda are likely to receive support for some of their projects and initiatives in return.

• A close relationship with a popular president can also be beneficial to members of Congress during reelection (presidential coattails)

• The president must rely on members of Congress to introduce legislation for him or her and to win support for it during the legislative process; therefore, the president must work closely with party leaders to convince representatives to vote the party line.

• Even if a president’s party is the majority party in either or both houses, he may not necessarily have the full support of representatives, who might not vote with the party line.

Public Support

• Public support for the president factors heavily in his congressional support.

• Representatives are much more likely to vote in favor of the initiatives of a president who is popular with the electorate, and presidents are well aware that public opinion is an incredibly powerful tool of persuasion.

• Public approval gives a president more leeway in pursuing policy goals, because representatives are more likely to support his objectives in the hope of being reelected by an electorate that has confidence in their president.

• Public support lends a president a greater degree of legitimacy.  Congress is more likely to respond to the will of a president who was elected by a large margin, especially on legislation proposed early in his term (“honeymoon period”).

• The policies of a president who is perceived as weak are more likely to be cast into doubt by Congress, making it harder for the president to garner legislative support.

Legislative Skills

• Presidents may also exert their influence over the political agenda by employing specific strategies at key times in the legislative process.

• To strengthen a presidential coalition, presidents often bargain with representatives by offering support on one piece of legislation in exchange for receiving it on another.

• Members of Congress may also receive presidential favors, such as joint public appearances (photo ops) during campaigns.

• Presidents present many proposals to Congress soon after their election during what is called the “honeymoon period”, when there is a fresh sense of community in Washington.

• Presidents work hard to focus the attention of Congress on their own specific agendas.

• By setting priorities, they are able to concentrate their resources to push through a few key policy objectives.

Essential Question: Discuss the president’s powers in making national security policy and the relationship between the president and Congress in this arena.

The President and National Security Policy

• The president is both the commander in chief of the armed forces and the chief U.S. diplomat.

• The diplomat powers of the president include establishing formal recognition of other governments, negotiating treaties, formulating executive agreements with other foreign leaders (which, unlike treaties, do not require congressional approval; most executive agreements are administrative in nature), and using U.S. influence to arbitrate conflicts between other nations.

• Military powers include the decision to use weapons of mass destruction, authorizing military actions during war, and sending troops into specific areas of conflict.

• The War Powers Resolution, passed in 1973, was intended to limit this power by requiring that these troops be withdrawn within 60 days unless Congress declares war or issues an extension.

• Many believe that it is unconstitutional (legislative veto), and all presidents have treated it as such.

Essential Question: Identify and explain the factors that affect the president’s ability to obtain public support.

• Because presidents know that public approval works enormously in their favor, they work hard to sell their agenda to the public.  Voters’ approval of the president is influenced by the following…

  • A voter’s approval of the president is determined by whether the voter identifies with the political party of the president.

  • A voter’s approval of the president is determined by how the president responds to economic shifts or handles other current issues.

  • A voter’s approval of the president is determined by how effective a public speaker the president is, and his appearance in front of the cameras.

  • A voter’s approval of the president is determined by whether the president appeals to the public directly, in which case the public usually responds positively.

  • A voter’s approval of the president is determined by how the media interprets the actions of the president.

• The efforts of the White House to influence public opinion are not always successful, however.  The public tends to be fickle in its approval, and the media often mislead the public by oversimplifying political and economic issues.

Essential Question: Discuss the president’s relations with the press and news coverage of the presidency

• The press is the principal intermediary between the president and public.

• Presidents and the press are frequently in conflict (adversarial) over the amount, nature, and tone of the coverage of the presidency.

• There has been an increase in the negative of coverage and there an increasing number of ideologically biased sources of news.

Chapter 15 – Bureaucracy

Essential Question: Describe the federal bureaucrats and the ways in which they obtain their jobs.

Bureaucrats are hired in one of two ways:

• Bureaucrats are hired through the civil service system.  The system relies on entrance exams, and civil servants are promoted by merit rather than patronage (Pendleton Civil Service Act)

• Civil Servants must be politically impartial and treated as such (Hatch Act).

• The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which recruits and recommends individuals and oversees promotions and other employee issues.

• Bureaucrats are hired through presidential recruitment.  Each new administration fills about 3,000 of the top posts; the president chooses people who will support the administrations’ policies.

• Cabinet department heads are presidential nominees who must be approved by the Senate.

• The Department of Defense has the largest number of civil employees, followed by the U.S. Postal Service.

• Overall, federal civilian employment has not increased in decades, indicating that the federal bureaucracy is not actually growing.

Essential Question: Discuss the four types of agencies into which the federal bureaucracy is organized.

• Fifteen cabinet departments oversee and administer various policy areas, and each is supervised by a secretary (with the exception of the Justice Department, which is headed by the attorney General).

• Regulatory agencies oversee a particular aspect of the economy, creating regulations that protect people.

  • They can enforce regulations by judging disputes, and are usually headed by a commission (confirmed by Congress) rather than a secretary and they are often closely involved with interest groups that want to influence regulations.

  • Examples include: SEC, FDIC, FCC, FEC

• Government corporations perform services for a fee, like a private business; the U.S. Postal Service is the largest; other examples include Amtrak and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

• Independent executive agencies include all other executive bodies and most are created for specific purposes, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

  • Heads are appointed by the president, so these usually have some partisan motivation.

Essential Question: Identify and explain the factors that influence the effectiveness of bureaucratic implementation of public policy.

Bureaucracies as Implementers:

• Bureaucracies enact and enforce rules and procedures for putting Congress’ policy decisions into practice.

• Bureaucracies work out details and guidelines, assign responsibilities among bureaucrats, and oversee the day-to-day operation of the federal government.

• Policy implementation is not always successful for various reasons:

  • Program design is sometimes flawed or Congress may not be clear enough about policy goals.

  • A department may lack staff or resources to carry out implementation.

  • An agency is sometimes so mired in its standard operating procedures that it fails to see what else needs to be done.

  • Administrators use their discretion differently when standard operating procedures do not sufficiently address a particular situation.

  • There can be confusion when several departments are involved in the implementation of a particular policy.

• Reorganization of bureaucracy for the sake of efficiency is unlikely, because this would disrupt well-established iron triangles of congressional committees, the agencies they oversee, and the affiliated interest groups.

Essential Question: Describe how bureaucracies regulate and assess deregulation and alternative approaches to regulation.

• Bureaucracies oversee policies once they are in place through regulation.

• They establish guidelines for a program or project, and enforce guidelines through a combination of complaints registered by the public, inspections, and by issuing permits and licenses to people who meet the guidelines.

• Bureaucratic institutions have the authority to change rules of a policy and apprehend violators.

• All products, and even many daily activities, are shaped by regulation.

Essential Question: Identify the means of controlling the bureaucracy and assess the role of iron triangles. 

Controlling the Bureaucracy:

• The governmental bureaucracy hires the most civilians but is not elected by the public.

• Ultimately answering to the president, who appoints agency heads that will support his or her policies, the governmental bureaucracy issues executive orders to change or implement statutes, manage the budget of each agency (at least in his budget proposal), and can reorganize an agency.

• The governmental bureaucracy is partially controlled by Congress.

• Congress ultimately determines each agency’s budget, can refuse to confirm a presidential appointment, performs legislative oversight through hearings, and can change the legislation behind a program.

• In 1996, Congress introduced special procedures in the Congressional Review Act, allowing them to express disapproval of the actions of agencies.

• The governmental bureaucracy is full of iron triangles, which may produce conflicting guidelines or regulations.

• The president and Congress can control the bureaucracy, including appointments, budgets, reorganization, investigations, and direct orders and specific legislation.

Essential Question: Assess the role of unelected bureaucrats in American democracy and the impact of the bureaucracy on the scope government.

Bureaucracy and Democracy

• Although bureaucrats are not elected, bureaucracies may be controlled by elected decision makers.

• Bureaucrats are competent and reasonably representative of Americans.

• The role of government and the size of the bureaucracy ultimately depends more on voters than bureaucracies.

Chapter 16 – Judicial Branch

Essential Question: Identify the basic elements of the American judicial system and the major participants in it.

The Nature of the Judicial System

• Criminal law is used when a person has violated a law

• Civil law is used to settle disputes between private parties

• Only about 3 percent of all cases actually go to trial; most are settled out of court.

• Litigants are parties involved in a case

• The plaintiff brings the charges (the plaintiff’s name is listed first in the name of the case), and in matters of criminal law, the government is the plaintiff.

• The defendant is the party who has been charged (the name is listed second).

• Plaintiffs must have standing to sue, or sufficient legal reason to bring charges.

• Plaintiffs in a class action suit sue on behalf of all citizens who are in the same situation.

• Interest groups become involved with court cases to influence decisions about the law, and they may have their lawyers take up an appropriate litigant’s case.

• They often submit amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs to influence a judge’s decision in cases where the group is not itself a litigant, which often explain the possible effects of the judge’s decision, bring new points of view to the case, or provide additional information not presented in the case (lobbying the court).

• Attorneys present a case in court, and every citizen is guaranteed a lawyer in a criminal case.

• Public interest lawyers and legal aid groups may represent poor people in some civil and criminal cases.

• State and local governments hire public defenders to represent poor defendants in criminal cases.

Essential Question: Discuss the structure of the federal court system and the major responsibilities of each component

The Structure of the Federal Judicial System

• Courts of original jurisdiction are the first courts to hear a case, usually when it goes to trial

• The court assesses and decides a case based on the facts of the case, and most cases do not continue after their first ruling.

• There are 94 federal district courts, which have original jurisdiction and hold trials in which the litigants appear before the court.

•  Federal district courts primarily handle cases violating federal law or involving federal civil law, civil suits in which the litigants are of different states, bankruptcy proceedings, and the process of naturalization.

• The U.S. attorney in each district serves as the government’s lawyer.

• The federal government is a plaintiff when prosecuting violators of federal laws; the government can be a plaintiff or defendant in a civil suit.

• Courts of appellate jurisdiction hear cases that have been appealed.

• The court interprets the case as it relates to the law; it does not review the facts and the litigants do not appear before the court (only their lawyers appear), and there is no jury.

• 13 circuit courts of appeal review cases appealed from the district courts; they have appellate jurisdiction.

• They do not focus on the facts of the case, but evaluate the treatment of the case in the district court in terms of errors of procedure or the law.

• Usually three judges hear a case, and there ruling sets a precedent for the district courts within their geographic circuit.

• The Supreme Court is the ultimate authority on the law.

• It has original jurisdiction in cases between two states, the federal government and a state, or a state and a foreign country, but most cases fall under its appellate jurisdiction.

• It can choose which cases to hear (docket) and it consists of nine justices who rule on cases together.

Essential Question: Identify and explain the process by which judges and justices are nominated and confirmed.

The Politics of Judicial Selection

• All federal judges and justices are appointed by the president.  Nominations must be confirmed by the Senate.

• Confirmation of district and circuit court judges is influenced by senatorial courtesy, by which senators of the president’s party from the state where the district is located, or in which a circuit court nominee resides, can stop confirmation.

• Justices are carefully selected by the president when there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

• If the president’s choice is confirmed by the Senate, the court will be more closely aligned with the president’s ideology for a longer period of time.

• Nomination was routine for most of the 20^th century, but since the 1960’s nominations have become much more contentious, especially with regard to issues like abortion, affirmative action, and other socially divisive issues.

Essential Question: Describe the backgrounds of judges and justices and assess the impact of background on their decisions.

• Judges and Justices are not a representative sample of the American people; they are lawyers and disproportionately white males.

• They usually share the partisan and ideological views of the president who nominated them, and these views are often reflected in their decisions.

• Other characteristics, such as gender and race, are also seen to influence decisions

Essential Question: Discuss the judicial process at the Supreme Court level and assess the major factors influencing decisions and their implementation

• The Supreme Court shapes policy by selecting which cases to hear.

  • If four justices vote to hear a case, that case must be heard (rule of four)

  • Overwhelming majority of appeals are rejected by the court

• It is most likely to choose cases involving civil rights and civil liberties, a discrepancy in the lower courts’ (circuit courts) interpretation of the law, or disagreements between justices and the lower courts.

• The Supreme Court follows a regular process for making decisions.

• Justices read briefs pertaining to the case, hear oral arguments, meet to discuss cases, vote on the decisions, and write and announce opinions.

• Opinions that have the support of the majority, called “opinions of the court”, establish law that is binding on lower courts.

• Justices that vote in the minority will often write a dissenting opinion explaining the rationale for their vote.  These can become important resources for future cases seeking to overturn the established precedent

• If time is a factor, the court may release a brief unsigned opinion (per curium).

• Decisions are based heavily on precedent; lower courts must follow precedents set by higher courts.  Justices usually rule stare decisis (let the decision stand”)

• Decisions must be translated into policy, which is accomplished by policymakers, the president, lower courts, lawyers, and administrators.

• The public must become aware of its rights under the new decision

• Often implementers disagree with the decision and try to hinder implementation.

Essential Question: Discuss the Supreme Court’s use of judicial review in major policy battles in various eras of American history

The Courts and Public Policy: A Historical View

• Some Courts (usually referred to by name of the chief justice at the time) have had a significant impact on the shaping of policy

• John Marshall initiated the practice of judicial review in the case Marbury v. Madison and expanded the power of the Supreme Court significantly

• The Warren Court became actively involved in expanding civil rights and civil liberties

• The Burger Court became somewhat more conservative than the Warren court, though it still allowed abortion in Rose v. Wade.

• The Rehnquist and Roberts courts became even more conservative, with mainly Republican Presidents’ appointments, and began to limit (though not reverse) previous rulings

• Power of the courts is checked by the president’s appointments, and also by Congress’s ability to amend the Constitution, despite-or in order to overrule-a Supreme Court decision.

Essential Question: Assess the role of unelected courts and the scope of judicial power in American democracy

• Judges and justices are not elected and are difficult to remove

• They are not completely insulated from politics and often have acted to promote openness in the political system

• They have a number of tools to avoid making controversial decisions

• There are a number of means more democratically elected officials can use to overturn Court decisions

• Some critics think the Supreme Court is too powerful, and favor judicial restraint

• Others favor judicial activism to allow justices the freedom to forge new policies, especially concerning people largely underrepresented in the political process.

• The federal courts have developed the doctrine of political questions as a means to avoid deciding some cases, mainly those involving conflicts between the president and Congress

• Statutory construction is the judicial interpretation of an act of Congress, and in some cases, results in Congress passing a new law to clarify existing laws