American Constitutional Development
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Course Introduction
American Constitutional Development explores the historical evolution, interpretation, and practical application of the U.S. Constitution from its framing in the late eighteenth century to contemporary times. The course examines the philosophical foundations of constitutional government, key constitutional debates, and landmark Supreme Court decisions that have shaped American political and legal systems. Students will analyze significant constitutional amendments, transformations in federal and state power, and ongoing tensions regarding civil rights, liberties, and governmental authority. Through case studies and primary documents, the course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of how constitutional principles have guided, and continue to influence, the structure and values of American democracy.
Recommended Textbook
We the People 10th Edition by Benjamin Ginsberg
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Political Culture
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Q1) According to the authors of the text, what is the main benefit of a constitutional government?
A) The government is limited by the rule of law.
B) The government must lower taxes for the citizens.
C) The government will distribute social goods equally.
D) The government is stable.
E) The government will produce high levels of economic growth.
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following is an example of the process of direct democracy?
A) citizens in a state approving the use of medical marijuana
B) a citizen calling her representative to complain about potholes on local roads
C) a citizen who was never active in politics choosing to run for Congress
D) a group of citizens coming together to debate the pros and cons of higher taxes
E) a citizen deciding to contribute money to his preferred presidential candidate
Answer: A
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3
Chapter 2: The Founding and the Constitution
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Q1) Procedures outlining how to amend the Constitution are found in Article ________.
A) I
B) II
C) III
D) V
E) X
Answer: D
Q2) Under the Articles of Confederation, it was left to the ________ to execute the laws passed by Congress.
A) states
B) council of presidents
C) courts
D) bureaucracy
E) president
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) During most of the nineteenth century, Congress used it powers to ________ commerce.
A) regulate
B) facilitate
C) limit
D) corrupt
E) prohibit
Answer: B
Q2) Many Americans blamed ________ for their plight during the Great Depression.
A) Woodrow Wilson
B) Warren Harding
C) Calvin Coolidge
D) Herbert Hoover
E) Harry Truman
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Q1) Why did the Supreme Court justices rule the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional?
A) The Act attempted to impose prior restraint on newspapers.
B) The Act violated the First Amendment's right to freedom of assembly.
C) The Act granted too much authority to the executive branch and therefore violated the separation of powers.
D) The Act attempted to protect children by suppressing speech that adults have a constitutional right to receive.
E) The Act imposed penalties that were too severe for certain forms of hate speech.
Q2) What is the right to privacy? How and under what circumstances have the Supreme Court justices articulated this right? Describe some of the forms that the right to privacy has taken.
Q3) ________ is a law that declares a person guilty of a crime without a trial.
A) Habeas corpus
B) Ex post facto
C) A bill of attainder
D) An executive order
E) A writ of judicial error
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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Q1) The ________ forbade workplace discrimination based on race.
A) Fourteenth Amendment
B) Civil Rights Act of 1875
C) Civil Rights Act of 1964
D) Nineteenth Amendment
E) Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education
Q2) Which of the following statements about the abolitionist movement is FALSE?
A) The movement spread primarily through local organizations in the North.
B) The movement spawned two political parties: the Liberty Party and the Free Soil Party.
C) The movement grew in the 1830s.
D) Some members of the movement aided in the escape of runaway slaves through the Underground Railroad.
E) The movement focused most of its energies on eliminating slavery in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Q3) Explain the rise of the civil rights movement in the United States. What role did the NAACP play, and what kind of political strategy did it adopt? What actions of the Supreme Court and the executive branch signaled a willingness to challenge Jim Crow laws? Why was Brown v. Board of Education such an important case?
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Chapter 6: Public Opinion
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Q1) David Hume said that government rests on public opinion alone. Explain the relationship between government and opinion. How do governmental actors try to shape opinion? What is the proper relationship between public opinion and policy? Explain.
Q2) Which of the following statements best describes perceptions of racism among African Americans and whites?
A) African Americans are more likely than whites to believe that racism is very common in the United States today.
B) Whites are more likely than African Americans to believe that racism is very common in the United States today.
C) Large majorities of both African Americans and whites believe there is no racism in the United States today.
D) Large majorities of both African Americans and whites believe racism is very common in the United States today.
E) Large majorities of both African Americans and whites have no opinion on whether racism is common in the United States today.
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8
Chapter 7: The Media
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Q1) Brief quotes and short characterizations of the day's events in news coverage are called ________.
A) précis
B) spin
C) sound bites
D) news nuggets
E) catchphrases
Q2) Which of the following is NOT a national newspaper?
A) Wall Street Journal
B) Christian Science Monitor
C) Time
D) USA Today
E) New York Times
Q3) A website devoted entirely to reporting on climate change and other environmental issues is an example of ________ journalism.
A) protest
B) adversarial
C) niche
D) nonprofit
E) public
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Chapter 8: Political Participation and Voting
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Q1) Which of the following statements about the digital divide is NOT true?
A) Inequality in access to political information online is an important public policy issue.
B) A lack of interest is a primary reason elderly Americans are offline.
C) Cost is a primary reason the poor are offline.
D) All racial and ethnic groups in the United States are equally likely to have online access.
E) Racial minorities and younger Americans are likely to access the Internet through mobile devices such as cell phones, even if they lack home access.
Q2) Evangelical Protestants are more likely to be associated with ________.
A) the Republican Party
B) the Democratic Party
C) the Moral Majority Party
D) the Green Party
E) no party; they are typically nonpartisan
Q3) What are some of the ways in which Americans have been mobilized into political participation? What are some of the groups that have been mobilizing? What are some of the conditions under which citizens are more likely to participate in political life?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) Incumbents in Congress
A) typically are outspent in campaigns by their challengers.
B) rarely get re-elected due to the dismal approval rating of Congress as an institution. C) typically raise three times the money for their political campaigns than challengers. D) are typically challenged by strong opponents in their own party in the primary and by the opposition party in the general election.
E) are highly likely to be challenged by women.
Q2) Which of the following statements about partisan identification in the United States is most accurate?
A) Party identification does not vary significantly by ideology.
B) Party identification varies significantly by gender but not by race.
C) Party identification varies significantly by income but not by ideology.
D) Party identification varies significantly by income, race, and gender.
E) Party identification does not vary by income, race, and gender.
Q3) Describe the organizational structure of political parties. How do both the electoral system and federalism affect the shape of parties? What are some of the functions of parties in the electoral arena?
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections
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Q1) In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, election campaigns tended to be
A) capital intensive
B) labor intensive
C) media driven
D) guided by campaign consultants
E) short and peaceful
Q2) What is a referendum?
A) It is the congressional election held between presidential elections.
B) It is the right and power to vote.
C) It is the practice of voting directly for proposed laws.
D) It is the process by which a party selects its candidates for the general election.
E) It is the process by which voters are allowed to remove state officials from office before their terms expire.
Q3) Describe the steps involved in running a campaign for political office. How is support for a candidate organized? What roles are played by campaign managers, media consultants, and pollsters? How does a candidate win a party's nomination?
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Chapter 11: Groups and Interests
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Q1) Which of the following groups has had the greatest success with a strategy of litigation?
A) the National Chamber of Commerce
B) the National Rifle Association
C) the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
D) the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
E) the AARP
Q2) The increased number and importance of interest groups
A) causes a subsequent expansion in government.
B) is a response to an increase in the size and activity of government.
C) is a response to a decrease in the size and activity of government.
D) is a direct result of a more broadly defined First Amendment freedom of association.
E) is due to the decline in the United States' multiparty system.
Q3) Why has there been a proliferation of interest groups in the United States? What have been the effects on the political process? What are some of the historical reasons for the proliferation of interest groups during the 1930s and the 1960s?
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Chapter 12: Congress
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Q1) According to ________ representation, a legislator should be viewed as a person who is hired to represent the interests of his or her constituents.
A) agency
B) sociological
C) mirroring
D) trustee
E) contract
Q2) A filibuster allows members of the Senate to
A) refer a bill to multiple committees.
B) avoid a conference committee.
C) prevent a vote on a bill by speaking continuously on the floor.
D) call into question any action of the executive branch.
E) add amendments to any bill at any time.
Q3) In recent years, about ________ percent of U.S. House incumbents win re-election.
A) 33
B) 50
C) 66
D) 80
E) 95
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Page 14
Chapter 13: The Presidency
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Q1) The National Security Council is composed of all of the following EXCEPT the ________.
A) vice president
B) Speaker of the House
C) secretary of defense
D) president
E) secretary of state
Q2) Which statement concerning executive agreements between the president and foreign nations is INCORRECT?
A) During the 1960s, Congress discovered that several presidents had made agreements with foreign nations without informing Congress.
B) The courts have held that executive agreements have the force of law.
C) Congress passed a law requiring the White House to provide a list of every executive agreement signed by the president.
D) Presidents have always fully complied with Congress's reporting requirement.
E) One way for presidents to avoid complying with Congress's reporting requirement is to call executive agreements alternative names, such as "national security memorandum."
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Bureaucracy in a Democracy
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Q1) Describe the organizational structure of the federal bureaucracy. What are the differences between departments, agencies, and bureaus? Explain the lines of authority within the executive branch. How is the federal bureaucracy staffed, and how has this changed since the nineteenth century?
Q2) Executive privilege refers to the
A) fact that the Senate never votes against presidential appointments to the executive branch.
B) increasing power of the executive branch in determining fiscal policy.
C) claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without the consent of the president.
D) right of presidents to eliminate government agencies without the approval of Congress.
E) authority of members of the executive branch to formulate specific rules when implementing vague legislation.
Q3) Describe some ways in which the federal bureaucracy can be rendered more democratically accountable. Discuss the challenge of bureaucratic accountability. What is oversight? What are some possible ways in which the president can gain more control of the bureaucracy?
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Chapter 15: The Federal Courts
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Q1) Analyze the exercise of judicial review. What is judicial review, what are its origins, and why is it often so controversial? What is the significance of Marbury v. Madison (1803)? Provide some examples of notable uses of judicial review in Supreme Court history.
Q2) A writ of habeas corpus declares that
A) the government must show a legal cause for holding someone in detention.
B) the government cannot send a defendant to stand trial in a geographically distant jurisdiction.
C) a defendant in a felony trial must receive assistance from legal counsel.
D) capital punishment can be neither cruel nor unusual.
E) the government cannot search premises without a warrant issued by a judge.
Q3) Aside from the justices themselves, who or what has the greatest power in shaping the flow of cases to the Supreme Court?
A) the attorney general
B) the solicitor general
C) the Senate Judiciary Committee
D) the state supreme courts
E) Congress
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Chapter 16: Government and the Economy
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Q1) During the 1960s, Ralph Nader was influential as a(n) ________.
A) environmental activist
B) consumer advocate
C) presidential candidate
D) corporate spokesman
E) member of Congress
Q2) The best way for Federal Reserve Board officials to help boost a stagnant economy is to
A) raise interest rates so that banks can earn more money on the loans they provide to individuals and businesses.
B) lower interest rates so that banks can provide more loans at cheaper rates to individuals and businesses.
C) take money out of circulation so that the dollar becomes more valuable.
D) raise the reserve requirement, restricting the amount of cash and negotiable securities banks must have on hand.
E) lower tariffs so that corporations can trade more freely with foreign countries.
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Chapter 17: Social Policy
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Q1) How does an entitlement differ from a right?
A) Unlike an entitlement, a right cannot be taken away by an act of Congress.
B) Unlike a right, an entitlement can be revoked without the due process of law.
C) Entitlements and rights are the same thing.
D) Entitlements are only for older Americans and rights apply to all citizens.
E) Unlike a right, only children receive entitlements.
Q2) What is the shadow welfare state?
A) the welfare that is distributed by local governments and special districts
B) social benefits that are distributed by private employers who are being subsidized by the government
C) the welfare payments that the government is committed to paying in the future
D) private charities that have filled the gap left by reductions in government spending
E) the welfare distributed by private charities and religious organizations
Q3) Social Security was established in ________.
A) 1897
B) 1929
C) 1930
D) 1935
E) 1965
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Page 19
Chapter 18: Foreign Policy and Democracy
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Q1) The three main goals of American foreign policy are ________.
A) democracy, individualism, and isolationism
B) liberty, fraternity, and equality
C) freedom, order, and justice for all
D) security, prosperity, and the creation of a better world
E) deterrence, appeasement, and peace
Q2) The foreign policy ideals that Americans have historically espoused assert that our foreign policies should
A) focus on the interests of the United States at the expense of all other nations.
B) focus on the interests of other nations at the expense of our own personal interests.
C) have a higher purpose than the pursuit of our own interests and use force only as a last resort.
D) promote the use of force to advance democracy around the world.
E) focus on working with the United Nations to promote democracy around the world.
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