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Chapter 1 Review

Chapter 10

Chapter 18 Review

Chapter 24 Section 3

Chapter 24 Review

Chapter 13 Review

Chapter 5 Review

75 Suffrages

Chapter 6 Review

Chapter 1 Review 1-12

  1. The characteristic that defines a state is population, territory, sovereignty and government.

  2. The four theories that try to explain government is the force theory, which says that people or group claimed control over an area; evolutionary, which developed naturally out of early families; divine right argues that God created the state and gave the power to certain people or royalty calling it "divine right". The final one is social contract, which says that states arose out of a voluntary act of free people.

  3. Social contract is the origin that founded the United States government.

  4. People form government to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provided common defense, promote general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty.

  5. The bases government can be classified are geographic distribution, relation between executive and legislature and the number of people who can participate in voting.

  6. The three forms of government that can result depending on how governmental power is distributed is unitary, which is described as a centralized government; federal government where the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments. Finally, confederate government is an alliance of independent states.

  7. Two forms of government created by relation of executive and legislature are presidential, which is separation of powers of executive and legislature and parliamentary where the executive is the prime minister and the cabinet is made up of parliament members.

  8. The forms of government created by number of people voting is dictatorship where the ruler is not responsible to the will of the people and democracy, which is the authority within the people. 

  9. The five basic concepts of democracy are fundamental worth of individuals, equality for all, majority and minority rule, necessity of compromise and individual freedom.

  10. The reason for compromise is letting the people get into the politics and give different opinions. This gives a two point perspective on issues.

  11. The relationship between the rights of the individual and the rights of the overall society is that one must be the same as the other. If you have rights as an individual, the same rights must be present in society so not to make yourself better than them.

  12. a). A democratic society must provide for the rights of the minority by letting the people hear there side of an argument. Gives them the same rights as the majority party. b). The obligations that is placed on the majority party is to allow the minority party to have there same in something and to listen to them. 

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Chapter 10 Section 4 Review Questions 1-4 pg. 253

  1. Constituents- all persons represented by a legislator or other elected officeholder. Oversight function- review by legislative committees of the policies and programs of the executive branch.
  2. Some common features found in the background of Congress members are white male about 50 years old. Most of them now are women congress ladies and are better than men. Most of them are well educated, some being lawyers and upper society Americans.
  3. The roles the Congress play are helping solve problems with the federal bureaucracy, take requests from people, a constituent servant, politician and many other positions to serve the people and its government.
  4. The Congress decides on the wages they get. There can be disputes in this because they can pay themselves more than they should be. The fact that they decide their salary is very controversial.

Chapter 18 Review  

  1. National courts were created because state courts would have thrown some cases, between people from different states, out.
  2. When the cases involve the interpretation and application of a provision in the constitution or in any federal statue or treaty, when a question of admiralty or a question in maritime law, if it involves the United States, one of its agencies, an ambassador, consul, or any other official representative, and if a state is suing another state.
  3. The selection of Supreme Court judges is selected by the president, paid by the congress, and holds the position for life.
  4. They deal with all the cases which the Supreme Court doesn’t.
  5. They hear the criminal and civil cases which are deemed unfit for hearing in the supreme court.
  6. The district courts are known as the courts which are the principle trial courts because most of the cases which citizens are in only go as high as the district courts.
  7. The constitution put the Supreme Court at the same level as the president and the congress as a final check for new or changing federal laws.
  8. The cases the most frequently are heard in the Supreme Court are those between two or more states, arguments with the Constitution, and those affecting ambassadors.
  9. There are three opinions: Majority opinion, officially it is the opinion of the court; concurring opinion, to make or emphasize a point that was not made in the majority opinion; and dissenting opinions are often written, too, by those justices who do not agree with the Court’s majority decision.
  10. They have oral arguments for thirty minutes for two weeks and then they recess for two weeks, then they have briefings, then they have a conference with the chief justice, they hear all of their opinions, then they vote.
  11. They hear to cases concerning certain subjects covering military and territory cases.
  12. They have very narrow jurisdiction because they only deal with cases concerning there subject matter.
  13. The United States court would hear cases concerning taxation.

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Chapter 24 Section 3  Review Questions 1-6 pg. 648 

1. County- a major unit of local government in most States; created by the State. Parish- the Louisiana term for counties.  Borough- a major unit of local government in Alaska, similar to counties in other States. Township- a term used for a subdivision of a county in many States. Special District- local unit of government, created to perform a single public function in a locale. 

2. The two major types of county boards are boards of commissioners and boards of supervisors.

 3. The factors to make county government generally inefficient is the sharing of executive powers with other elected boards and officials.

 4. Three elected officials commonly found in county government are sheriff, district attorney and superintendent.

 5. Town meetings are long praised as the ideal vehicle of direct democracy. Is an assembly open to all the town’s eligible voters.

 6. The history of school districts is the United States started in New York in 1812 for school purposes. By the 1950’s, there were more than 50,000 school districts.

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Chapter 24 Review Questions Main Ideas 1-13 pg. 660-661

  1. The State legislature is the State’s fundamental law. It sets out the way the State government is organized and its distribution of powers among the various branches of State government. They structure the government is bicameral. The upper house is called the Senate and the lower is the Assembly, General Assembly or the House of Delegates (which ever one you want to call it).

  2. The general characteristics of the job of State legislator are to make decisions for the State according to the Constitution and the political powers they have.

  3. In direct legislation, people are involved directly in the voting process.

  4. State governors are similar to the President in that they can only lose their job by impeachment, appoint and remove people and have military powers over militia and National Guard.

  5. Governorship is different from presidency in that they have less power in a whole. They don’t have to rule over a massive land like the president and the president doesn’t have to make a budget (his cabinet does) and the president is the commander-in-chief.

  6. It is significant that many executive departments officials are elected so the governor doesn’t have to do anything. The departments are designed to allow the governor to governor the state and not worry about other affairs like foreign and treasurer.

  7. The major forms of local government in the United States are counties, parishes and boroughs.

  8. The function of counties varies from region to region because of geography and the political status of the county. One country might be really rich because of tourism and other poor because of the lack of vegetation and tourism.

  9. The most common types of special districts are school districts, soil conservation, housing, slum clearance, public transportation and reforestation.

  10. The basic forms of city government in the United States are mayor-council, commission form and council-manager form.

  11. Most of the cities are developed by without planning. Industrial plants are placed anywhere they want to be and people build up around them because of job opportunities. Others are planned with business centers and build housing for the people with jobs in the business.

  12. The impact of “suburbanites” is that they have left behind a central city and gone outside the city. When a better-educated, high-income family leaves a part of town, they take everything with them including the social structure. The lower class moves in and makes the place look bad because of the social structure.

  13.  Issues that led to the creation of metropolitan districts are water supply, transportation, fire and police protection and sewage disposal.

Chapter 13 Review Questions #1-13

  1. The reason it is important that the President fulfills each presidential role is because if he doesn't, he will be letting one part of roles down. If he doesn't fulfill his role as commander-in-chief, the United States could be attacked without warning.

  2. The development of the guidelines for the length of a President's term was with George Washington refusing to seek a third term. It soon become an unwritten custom that a president would not go for a third term and step down from office.

  3. The Constitution ensures a smooth transition of power in the event of presidential disability by having a chain of command. If the president is killed, the vice president takes over and if he dies, the Speaker of the House become president and so on down the line.

  4. a). The Constitution says nothing about the Vice President except that he is the President of the Senate. b). This relates of the positions reputation by treating it of little importance and the "butt" of jokes.

  5. The Framer's original plan and intent of r the selection of the nation's President was by popular vote of presidential electors. They would vote for the candidates and the largest number of votes became President and second highest, Vice President.

  6. The 12th Amendment changed the way President's were elected by stating the President and Vice President in the same ballots. The rise of political parties put same parties together to make a President and Vice President.

  7. The role the political parties play in the nominating process is by creating conventions where party members gather to nominate candidates for the Presidency. 

  8. The major purposes of presidential primaries is to see which candidate is likely to win the Presidency and to see how each party candidate compares to the others.

  9. The major reason political parties hold national conventions is to unify the party behind their candidates, formally announce the candidates for president and adopt the party's platform.

  10. The factors that are most important to a party in the selection of candidates is the candidate wants to be elected, the most available for debates and they want a candidate that could win and has a great appeal to the people.

  11. The way elections are today and back then with the Framers is that everyone can vote. The people have a greater say in who is president and the president wins by the most electoral votes, not popular vote.

  12. People criticize the electoral college because the winning of the popular vote is not necessarily the president. Secondly, people don't have to vote for a majority party and it is possible that the House of Representatives will have to decide if there is not majority rule.  

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Chapter 5 Main Ideas Questions # 1-16 pg. 126-127

  1. The purpose of a political party is a group of person who seek to control government through the winning of elections and the holding of public office. In this way, the party can influence policies and programs.

  2. This means that the major parties are for being elected like the Republican and Democrat party. The issue-oriented parties focus on an issue instead of being elected to become president. 

  3. The roles the major parties play is linking the people to the government. They are the principals the people want to government to know about.

  4. Two political parties successfully compete in politics because there beliefs are the same as the people and because there has always been a two-party system.

  5. The kinds of voters each major party attracts are the ones in their party and the ones that are undecided like the minority party members.

  6. Voters vote for there own candidate because they both believe the same policies and way to run government. The undecided voters know that there candidate won’t win so they vote for a majority party.

  7. An alternative to the two-party system is a one-party system, which by definition is a no-party system because there is only one political party. Another is a multiparty system where there are several major and many minor political parties.

  8. The political parties first appeared when the Framers were fighting over the ratification of the Constitution.

  9. The pattern of American political parties was very Democratic for the first part of American government. This one-party system so became a two party system when the Republican Party started with the beginning of the Civil War.

  10. In the future, the Democrats will be elected when the economy is low so to boost the economy and the Republicans when war is about to begin.

  11. Minor parties fall into the category of ideological, single-issue, economic protest and splinter parties.

  12. Minor parties have been able to influence American politics by making the American people think about a certain issue and question what their particular party believes in.

  13. The fate of most minority parties is that people change their opinions. Economical protest parties won’t last because the economy could change.

  14. The factors that contribute to the lack of organization of major parties are highly decentralized, fragmented, disjointed and are “often beset by factions and internal squabbling.”

  15. The organization of parties at the national level has many committee members that organize campaigns to support their candidate in elections.

  16. The organization of parties at the State and local level is to follow electoral maps to elect city council members. They have many committees also.

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4 of the 75 Suffrages

Susan Brownell Anthony is one of the most influential women in Women’s Suffrage. She took petitions door-to-door in 1854 and thought women should be given the right to vote before black men. She started the National American Woman Suffrage Association and went across country to speak about rights and was even arrested and convicted but was released. She has became the international symbol for woman’s movement.

Julia Ward Howe was the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and called for a woman’s peace movement in 1870. She became the founder of Lucy Stone of American Woman Suffrage Association and wrote for The Women’s Journal. She also became the first woman elected to the American academy of Arts and Letters

Martha Coffin Pelham Wright became a suffragist and helped plan the Seneca Fall meeting in 1848. She was elected president of the women’s rights convention in Cincinnati, Saratoga and Albany.. She even consulted with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton help institute the Equal Rights Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Carolina Maria Seymour Severance was an abolitionist, president of pioneer New England Woman’s Club and founded the Women’s International Peace Association. With the help of Stanton, Anthony and Stone, she helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. She later became a reform leader in California and founded Friday Morning Club in Los Angeles and the LA County Woman Suffrage League in 1900.

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Chapter 6 Main Ideas Questions #1-15 pg. 154-155

  1. The two trends that explain the growth in the size of the American electorate is woman.

  2. The major events or eras contributed to those trends are religious qualifications, Civil War, Prohibition, African American voting and the 26th Amendment.

  3. a). The level of government that voter qualifications are set are by the States.
    b). The restrictions the Constitution place on the power to set voter qualifications are States can not deprive people of voting because of race, sex or servitude, they can not require the payment of any tax for nominating, can not deprive any person who is 18 years old and any person in the State can vote.

  4. a). The two factors that each State sets on qualifications to vote are citizenship and residence.
    b). Some additional restrictions are registration, literacy, tax payment and people who do not want to vote.

  5. Some of the suffrage qualifications that were used in the past are the 15th amendment, Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

  6. The purpose of a poll tax is to discourage voting by African Americans.

  7. The purpose of the 15th Amendment was so that African-American men could vote.

  8. The 15th Amendment did not work for awhile because white supremacists in the south tried subtle tactics to stop African-American men from voting.

  9. The Civil Right's Movement sought to solve the problem of disenfranchisement among African-Americans by peaceful protests.

  10. The United States has a nonvoter problem because many people do not vote, making the system not work.

  11. a). Cannot voters are people that are illegal aliens and are barred from polls, some are ill or physically disabled, and others are traveling or unavailable.
    b). Cannot voters are classified as nonvoters so it increases the amount of nonvoters that the government counts in every census.

  12. Some nonvoters do not vote because they do not go to the polls, they are convinced that it makes no real difference who wins a certain election, or they believe that the political world is fine as they see it.

  13. The sociological factors that affect voter decisions include income and occupation, gender and age, religious and ethnic backgrounds, geography, and also family and other group affiliations.

  14. The psychological factors that affect a voter decisions include party identification along with the candidates and issues.

  15. It is difficult to predict what people will vote because everyone is different and they could change their mind and political ideas depending on the issues at the time and if their psychological and sociological factors change.

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