CH. 13 READ pp 313-325 NAME Period 1. Explain the fundamental differences between the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament in terms of parties, power and political freedom. 2. What trend concerning powers in Congress has developed in the last century? 3. Summarize the six phases of House history (318-319). 4. Explain why size of the House and power of the House are at odds. 5. Why did the Senate finally allow the Seventeenth Amendment to be proposed? 6. Compare the changes in membership of the House and Senate since 1951 in terms of race and gender.
7. What change in Congress membership make up happened gradually, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century? 8. Explain the difference between safe and marginal districts. 9. What factors (four minimum) are listed in the text for the success of incumbent reelection? READ 325-339 CH.13 NAME PERIOD 1. Identify and describe the three theories of how members of Congress vote. 2. What has happened to the make-up of Congress in terms of ideology? What impact has that had on civility in Congress?
3. Identify the leadership positions in the Senate and briefly describe the duties of each. 4. How are committee assignments for individual Senate and House members determined? (Read completely.) 5. Cite at least two examples of extreme partisan (bimodal) voting in recent years. Give three explanations of why this happens. 6. What type of groups in Congress has emerged as a sort of alternative way of organizing power? 7. How is party allocation of seats on committees determined? 8. In the 1970 s the House made an effort to decentralize and democratize House Committee operations. What impact did this effort have on the House s ability to pass legislation? What tools did House committee chairs use to reclaim their powers?
READ 339-350 NAME PERIOD 1. List four ways that increased staff assigned to members of Congress has changed the institution. 2. Explain how increased personal staff has contributed to incumbent reelection success. 3. In one sentence each; state the functions of the following congressional staff agencies. Congressional Research Service: General Accounting Office: (What is unusual about the Comptroller General position?) Office of Technology Assessment: Congressional Budget Office: 4. Briefly define the following. Public bill: Private bill: Simple resolution: Concurrent resolution: Joint resolution: Joint committee Conference committee
Revenue bill Standing committee: Multiple referral: Sequential referral: Pigeonhole: Discharge: Closed rule: Open rule: Restrictive rule: Quorum: Committee of the Whole: Filibuster: Cloture: Double-tracking: Voice vote: Division vote: Teller vote: Roll-call vote: READ 350-354 CH 13 NAME PERIOD 1. What is pork barrel and franking? 2. How does the text defend port?
3. How is it argued that a prime minister would be less corrupt than politicians in our presidential system? 4. What ethics rules apply to the House and to the Senate? 5. What did things Congress invent in order to raise their income without having to vote for a pay raise? READ 359-370 CH. 14 NAME PERIOD 1. Distinguish between presidents and prime ministers in the following areas. A. Being an insider or outsider: B. Source of cabinet members: C. Party control of the legislative branch: D. Success at getting legislation passed.
2. Why does unified government in a bi-party system not guarantee success for a president s legislative program? Under what circumstance with a unified government will the president have the most success? 3. How does American voting behavior contribute to gridlock? 4. Why did the framers of the Constitution not allow the president to be selected by the legislative branch? 5. What expectations by the framers of the Constitution concerning the process of choosing a president never developed? 6. What imprints did George Washington leave on the presidency? 7. How did Andrew Jackson change the presidency in the 1830 s? 8. After Andrew Jackson s presidency Congress reasserted its dominance with few exceptions for a century. List and briefly describe those exceptions.
READ 370-378 CH.14 NAME PERIOD 1. Explain the RULE of propinquity. Which of the three levels of presidential appointments has the closest proximity to the president? 2. List and describe the three methods of organizing White House staff. 3. What is it about the White House staff that has allowed presidents to concentrate power in the White House? 4. Who does the president have to share power with relative to the Executive Office of the President? Explain. 5. What are the primary duties of the Office of Management and Budget? 6. What are the other primary E.O.P. agencies other than the O.M.B.?
7. Why does your text suggest that the cabinet is a myth? 8. What is the difference between independent agencies and executive agencies? 9. What does the cabinet actually do? 10. What is probably the primary consideration that a president makes in selecting cabinet appointees? 11. What does in-and-outers refer to? READ 378-387 CH.14 NAME PERIOD 1. How did the following men s backgrounds impact their style and success as president? One or two sentences should do. A. Eisenhower B. Kennedy C. Johnson D. Nixon
E. Ford F. Carter G. Reagan H. Bush, sr. I. Clinton J. Bush, jr. 2. How is a president s success predicated on his reputation? With which of the three audiences is this most true? 3. How does presidential popularity relate to the success of an administration? 4. What options are available to a president when sent a bill from Congress? 5. What is commonly the response of Congress when a president vetoes or threatens to veto a law? 6. What percentage of vetoed bills have been overridden? 7. What arguments are the bases for executive privilege? How was executive privilege modified in 1973?
8. What is presidential impoundment? How was impoundment impacted by the Budget Reform Act of 1974? 9. List 3 purposes of signing statements. READ 387-396 CH. 14 NAME PERIOD 1. What two program development options are available to a new president? 2. Why do presidents and bureaucrats leak potential program issues to the press? 3. What are 3 constraints on a president s ability to plan a program? 4. Why are labels like New Freedom or Great Society misleading?
5. Which part of the executive branch can the president reorganize entirely on his own? 6. What is a legislative veto? 7. What opinion concerning presidential power and the bureaucracy seems to be shared by presidents from FDR on? 8. Why is the Vice Presidency such a coveted job? (THINK!) 9. Explain (one sentence each) sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. 10. What are the constitutional grounds for impeachment? Who can be impeached? 11. What is unusual about succession to the American presidency when considered with kings and dictators? 12. Summarize the 3 bits of advice for presidents at the end of this chapter.
READ 401-406 CH. 15 NAME PERIOD 1. Compare control of British bureaucratic agencies to control of American bureaucratic agencies. 2. How does federalism complicate the American bureaucracy? 3. How does adversary culture complicate our bureaucracy? 4. The president is sworn to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and can appoint and dismiss top bureaucrats to that end. What controls does Congress exercise over the bureaucracy? 5. What is the constitutional basis for Congress granting power to the bureaucracy? 6. What arguments can be put forth in favor to political patronage? 7. Most of the bureaucracy that grew in the late nineteenth century did not regulate the economy. What was the main function of these agencies?
8. How did the Supreme Court, the Great Depression, World War II and the IRS change the role of the bureaucracy? 9. What impact does wartime have on the bureaucracy? 10. Specifically, how did the 9-11 terrorist attacks impact our federal bureaucracy? READ 406-418 CH 15 NAME PERIOD 1. See Table 15.1 on page 407. What trend in number of federal employees is evident? Why did the Bureau of Prisons not conform to this trend? 2. What authority best determines the power of a bureaucratic entity? 3. What 1883 law began the steady transfer of federal patronage jobs to the Merit System? What prompted the passage of the above law? 4. Why is the statement, the number of bureaucratic employees hasn t gone up since 1970, misleading? 5. Briefly (one sentence) describe these bureaucratic appointments. Competitive Excepted 6. What portion of federal employees are fired annually?
7. How does the buddy system circumvent normal appointment procedures for middle and upper level bureaucrats? 8. Firing a bureaucrat (non-presidential appointment) is difficult, time consuming and rarely happens. How do agencies defend this situation? 9. How can entrenched bureaucrats subvert efforts to change the bureaucracy? 10. Compare attitudes of political appointees to attitudes of the public at large. 11. What is the difference between an Iron Triangle and an issue network? READ 418-425 CH. 15 NAME PERIOD 1. What was President Bush s argument in keeping Tom Ridge from testifying before Congress in early 2002? What other problem did the first attempt at an Office of Homeland Security face?
2. What is the difference between authorization and appropriation legislation? 3. How can Congress exercise informal control over a bureaucratic agency? 4. How can Congress continue to use legislative vetoes after the courts have ruled that they are unconstitutional? 5. In what ways do congressional investigations resemble court action? 6. What pathologies come with bureaucracy? 7. In what ways are some criticisms of the bureaucracy unfair? 8. How did the National Performance Review s approach differ from other reform approaches?
9. Why is it so difficult to reform the bureaucracy? READ 429-440 CH. 16 NAME period 1. Why does selection of Supreme Court Justices produce such bitter conflict? Which of the Federalist Papers is in conflict with this reality? 2. What court power sets the American court system apart from most other country s courts? 3. Identify and briefly explain the two approaches taken by judges in applying the above power. 4. Cite an example of a conservative activist decision. 5. The Federalist Paper #78 view of the judiciary was that: 6. List and briefly explain 5 examples of court cases that set precedents in expanding the courts powers.
READ 440-447 ch.16 NAME PERIOD 1. Distinguish between federal question cases and diversity cases. 2. Where are bankruptcy and maritime cases heard? 3. Under what circumstances can a person be legally convicted twice for the same criminal act? 4. Under what circumstances can a federal judge rule on a state law? 5. Distinguish between civil and criminal law. What is the extent of punishment for each? 6. Which federal court is the basic federal trial court? 7. In which court are suits between states tried? 8. Which appeals must be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court? What percent of filed appeals are actually heard by the Supreme Court? 9. What national problem is created by the fact that only a few percent of the cases appealed from federal circuit courts are actually heard by the Supreme Court? 10. How is the court system the great equalizer? 11. Under what circumstances might even a poor person be able to have their day in court? (Be sure to include civil suits.)
12. What is fee shifting? 13. What questions might a court ask in determining if an individual has standing in a case? 14. If the federal government can t be sued due to sovereign immunity, what can one do to correct a wrong committed by the federal government? (Chapter 13?) 15. Why would an attorney gladly take on a class action civil case? READ 448-455 CH. 16 NAME PERIOD 1. How does the rule of stare decisis encourage social stability? 2. The text suggests that courts may change their minds about what is a political question and what is a matter for the courts. Changes in society can influence these positions. In 1962 the courts made such a change in ruling that congressional districts must have the same number of people in them. What was happening in society that could have influenced this change in the court s opinion?
3. How are many modern court ordered remedies different from those several decades ago? 4. Why does America have so many lawyers per capita? (Note: There were even more in 1932.) 5. What characteristic of some laws make them more likely to be the subject of judicial activism than others? 6. How can Congress check the courts? (Be complete) 7. How does public opinion serve as a check on the federal courts? 8. How are presidents able to check courts? 9. Clearly, why are modern courts more activist than they were long ago?