American Government and Politics Today - Brief Edition

Chapter 1 - The Democratic Republic

Chapter 2 - Forging a New Government: The Constitution

Chapter 3 - Federalism

Directions - Write your response to each of the questions below - Cut and paste into a word document answer the questions and paste into Etudes. Watch your spelling and grammar. Make sure you cite your work if you use outside sources. Do not start a new thread

1. Write a short biography and introduce yourself to your peers [250 to 300 words]

2. Define the following words from the text book

Liberty

Politics

Popular Sovereignty

Democratic Republic

Government

Judicial Review

Separation of Powers

Checks and Balances

Supremacy Doctrine

Federalist

Enumerated Powers

Police Powers

Elastic Clause or Necessary and Proper Clause

Supremacy Clause

Concurrent Powers

Chapter 1

3. Direct Democracy as a Model - Political decisions made by the people directly, rather than by elected representatives - Which state uses the direct democracy model? [hint Chapter 1 slide 6]

The purest forms of direct democracy include [define from the book]:

Initiative

Referendum

Recall

4. Can you give three examples where the people of California used the above direct democracy system to change the legal landscape of the state? [hint - recall of a California governor, and what did proposition 64 accomplish?]

Chapter 2

5. Define the Madison Model and list its three components [hint Chapter 2 slide 40]

6. The Final Document Contained These Fundamental Principles [hint Chapter 2 slide 42]

Chapter 3

7. Define [from the text book] the following terms and give an example of a past or present nation state [see diagrams chapter 3 slides 3, 4 and 5]

Unitary System [hint list a dictatorship]

Confederal System [hint the name of our first form of government]

Federal System [hint the name of our country]

8. Define [from the text book] the Enumerated Powers and give 5 powers of the [national government] Federal government

9. A special category of national powers that is not implied by the necessary and proper clause consists of what are labeled inherent powers. These powers are derived that the United States is a sovereign power among nations and must deal with these and other nations. Each nation must act in its own interest. List all four of the inherent powers

10. Define [from the text book] concurrent powers and list 4 examples