Sem 1 Review (1.1-1.5, 4, & 5)

The Declaration of Independence states “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This was a revolutionary change from the system of British monarchy, which was based on the divine right of kings. For which of the ideals of democracy does this quote provide a foundation?

• Popular sovereignty

• Federalism

• Separation of power

• Limited government

Answer explanation

“Consent of the governed” sets the foundation for popular sovereignty.

“[A] pure democracy... can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. . . . [S]uch democracies have ever been

spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of

property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. . . .

The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the

latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of

country, over which the latter may be extended.

. . . [I]t may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to

the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose. On the other hand, the effect may

be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by

other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.”

James Madison, The Federalist 10

Which of the following sections of the United States Constitution most concerns Madison according to the passage?

• Article I, Section 10—“No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection Laws . . .”

• Article II, Section 1—“No Person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

• Article III, Section 1—“The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.”

• Article I, Section 2—“The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.”

Answer explanation

Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution establishes that system of representation. Madison generally supports this idea but also expresses concern that it could lead political leaders taking office who betray the public trust.

Which of the following features of the United States Constitution would most concern the author of Brutus 1?

• The Bill of Rights, which protects individual liberties and states’ rights

• The reservation of any power not given to the federal government to the states

• The two-year term for members of the House of Representatives

• The supremacy clause, which gives the federal government supremacy over states

Answer explanation

In Brutus 1, the author argues that these two clauses, in particular, gave the national government nearly unlimited power

In The Federalist 10, James Madison argued that the new constitution would help control faction by doing which of the following?

• By creating a large republic, the new constitution made it less likely that a faction could gain enough power to completely dominate.

• The new constitution had significant limits on the freedom of expression, thereby limiting the ability of factions to organize.

• The new constitution gave political parties specific powers in the government which limited their influence.

• The use of the electoral college and the indirect election of senators would limit the influence that factions could wield.

Answer explanation

Madison argued that a large republic would prevent factions from coordinating and gaining

undue influence.

Brutus was an example of an Anti-Federalist because he

• believed a centralized government posed a major threat to individual rights

• argued that a national military force was needed to deal with insurrections

• argued that the laws passed by the national government were supreme over state laws

• believed that compromise between the branches of government would ensure a limited government.

Answer explanation

Anti-Federalists believed that a centralized government would harm individual rights, a view which was espoused by Brutus.

Throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most African Americans were prevented from voting in many Southern states despite the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended the right to vote to African American males. Southern states were able to take this action because

• the Fifteenth Amendment did not apply to all states

• Congress passed legislation that restricted the application of the Fifteenth Amendment to placate Southerners

• the framers allowed the individual states to create voting processes and voter qualifications

• the Supreme Court had declared the Fifteenth Amendment unconstitutional

Answer explanation

The framers left the issue of voter qualifications and process up to the individual states. This allowed the Southern states to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment.

In 2005, the Utah legislature passed a law that allowed school districts to ignore parts of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a law passed by Congress in 2001 that supported standards-based education reform. Utah did this despite the fact that it endangered losing $76 million in federal aid to Utah public schools. Which of the following statements best explains why Utah took this action?

• Utah argued that because the majority of its citizens are Mormon, the No Child Left Behind Act

  infringed upon their free exercise rights.

• The Supreme Court ruled several parts of the No Child Left Behind Act unconstitutional, so Utah had to

  create policy to address those areas.

• Since education is a policy clearly delegated to the states, the No Child Left Behind Act was a clear

  violation of the Constitution.

• Educational policy is not mentioned in the Constitution, which has created debate about the proper role

  for the national government in educational policy.

Answer explanation

Educational policy is not mentioned in the Constitution, which has created debate about the proper role for the national government in educational policy.

Which of the following is the best example of the democratic ideal of limited government?

• Interest groups lobbying the government to influence legislation on a particular issue

• The media covering a confirmation hearing for a potential Supreme Court justice

• Citizens voting to elect a new member of the United States Congress

• The United States Constitution enumerating specific powers to Congress

Which of the following is true about church attendance based on the line graph?

• About 30% of people surveyed in 2010 rarely or never attend church.

• About 26% of people surveyed in 2010 attended church once a month or less.

• About 16% of people surveyed in 2010 attend church about once a year.

• About 54% of people surveyed in 2010 attended church once a year or less.

Answer explanation

The data indicate that 10.3% of people surveyed attend church once a year or less and 43.5% attend church rarely or never, which adds up to about 54%.

One of the principal effects of 9/11 was instilling in Americans a fear that their personal security was at greater risk than

ever before. Many aspects of the post-9/11 world are indeed new, but the fear it evokes echoes that felt by prior

generations. At times the country has met those fears while still holding fast to its core democratic principles. Other times,

fear has overruled American principles, especially the protection of individual freedoms. The most important legacy of the

American experience following 9/11 will not be the novelty of fear, but rather how well the country copes with that fear

while adhering to its constitutional framework.

Given how searing the 9/11 experience was, it is sometimes hard to remember that prior generations of Americans didn’t

always sleep soundly either. Pearl Harbor is an often-cited example, but it joins many other moments of intense fear in

U.S. history. During the 40-plus years of the Cold War, American school children practiced “duck and cover” drills the

way today’s kids might practice school lock-downs. As a teenage in the 1980s, I joined Sting in hoping we could avert a

nuclear holocaust if “the Russians love their children, too.”

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, other threats in the United States soon appeared: the 1993 World Trade Center

bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, to name just a few. During the

1990s, some in the military liked to refer to the United States as a “homeland sanctuary;” after 9/11, many talk about the

end of that sanctuary.

True, the country has experienced fewer external threats to its population than have most other nations. But it’s a

misconception to think that the American sense of external threat is new.

Kathleen Hicks, “What Will Americans Do About Their Fear of Terrorism?” The Atlantic Monthly, 2016.

The passage is most related to which of the following concepts?

• Political partisanship

• Political socialization

• Political ideology

• Political polling

Answer explanation

The passage is most related to the concept of political socialization, the process by which people develop their individual political beliefs. In this case the agent of this process is major political events.