Unit 1
This is the foundational document of the United States. It formally declared the thirteen American colonies independent from British rule, outlining the reasons for separation and articulating core principles of self-governance and individual rights.
What is the Declaration of Independence?
This is a procedural tactic used in the U.S. Senate to delay or block a vote on a bill or other measure. It typically involves a senator holding the floor and speaking at length to prevent a vote from taking place. A supermajority (currently 60 out of 100 senators) is usually needed to end a filibuster through a cloture vote, according to the U.S. Senate.
What is a filibuster?
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution. These amendments were ratified in 1791 and are crucial for guaranteeing individual liberties and limiting the power of the federal government.
What is the Bill of Rights?
A method of gauging public opinion by surveying a representative sample of a population to make inferences about the views of the larger group.
What is scientific polling?
An organized group of individuals who share similar political beliefs and aim to influence government policy by getting their candidates elected to office. These parties play a crucial role in shaping the political landscape, facilitating voter engagement, and acting as a bridge between the public and the government.
What is a political party?
This was a series of armed protests by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Occurring in Massachusetts between 1786 and 1787, the rebellion highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and contributed to the push for a stronger national government.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
This amendment limits the number of times a person can be elected president to two terms. It also clarifies that if someone serves as president for more than two years of another president's term, they are limited to one additional elected term. Essentially, it prevents anyone from holding the office of president for more than a total of ten years.
What is the 22nd Amendment?
The legal doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that allowed for racial segregation as long as the separate facilities provided to each race were supposedly equal. This doctrine was later overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that "separate but equal" in public education was inherently unequal.
What is "Separate but Equal?"
A political party's platform is a formal set of principles and goals that outlines the party's stance on various issues, serving as a guiding framework for its policies and strategies.
What is party platform?
An organization or individual that critically monitors the actions of government, businesses, or other powerful entities, and publicly exposes potential wrongdoing or abuse of power. Essentially, they serve as a check on the powerful, alerting the public to potential corruption, negligence, or other harmful activities.
What is a watchdog?
The main difference in the number of bureaucrats employed by the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security.
What does it mean that the Department of Education primarily addresses state issues, whereas the Department of Homeland Security primarily addresses national issues?
The president can do this to limit the Supreme Court’s power.
What is refuse to enforce a ruling by the Court?
Supporters of Hamilton’s view that a bill of rights could be dangerous to liberty and point to this 1919 Supreme Court case.
What is Schenck v. United States (1919)?
A recent poll indicates that 60 percent of all people in the United States support a flat tax system. This would support the credibility of the poll result.
What is the poll reporting a sampling error?
This is an important function of democracy that would most likely be more difficult without political parties.
What is educating the public about upcoming elections?
The speed of the legislative process at the national level of government that reflects the intent of the framers of the Constitution to create a legislature.
What is slow and deliberate in the law-making process?
Members of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Veterans Affairs are concerned about the quality of services at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is an action that the committee can take.
What is hold a hearing and subpoena high-level officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs to testify?
The application of the death penalty has been limited in recent decades and cannot be applied to minors and people who are found to be mentally incompetent for this reason.
What does it mean that the Supreme Court changed its interpretation of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment?
This can cause tension between the competing values of individualism and equality of opportunity. This program can be related to the college admissions process.
What is implementing affirmative action programs?
This is a consequence of candidate-centered campaigns.
What is the candidates’ ability to appeal to voters that can outweigh the importance of experience and policy positions?
This would be considered an unconstitutional use of state power because it would do this on furniture made overseas.
What does it mean that a state places a tax on furniture made overseas?
Bureaucratic rule-making is best defined as this.
What are guidelines issued by government agencies, which provide specific details about how a policy will be implemented?
Based on previous rulings, the Supreme Court is most likely to view a case concerning which of the following as a right-to-privacy case. This case relates to Roe v. Wade.
What is a woman who is prevented from an abortion?
This is the minimum age requirements for a member of Congress set forth in the Constitution.
What is one must be at least 30 to serve in the Senate?
A nonprofit advocacy group seeks to block an expensive subsidy to what it believes is an environmentally destructive project. This depicts the free-rider problem in this scenario.
What is the public expecting to reap the benefits of blocking the subsidy without making any contribution to the nonprofit group?