introduction to government assignment quizlet

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AP®︎/College US Government and Politics

Unit 1: foundations of american democracy, unit 2: interactions among branches of government, unit 3: civil liberties and civil rights, unit 4: american political ideologies and beliefs, unit 5: political participation, unit 6: about this ap us government and politics course, unit 7: resources and exam preparation.

Organizing to Govern

Lumen Learning and OpenStax

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain how incoming and outgoing presidents peacefully transfer power
• Describe how new presidents fill positions in the executive branch
• Discuss how incoming presidents use their early popularity to advance larger policy solutions

It is one thing to win an election; it is quite another to govern, as many frustrated presidents have discovered. Critical to a president’s success in office is the ability to make a deft transition from the previous administration, including naming a cabinet and filling other offices. The new chief executive must also fashion an agenda, which they will often preview in general terms in an inaugural address. Presidents usually embark upon their presidency benefitting from their own and the nation’s renewed hope and optimism, although often unrealistic expectations set the stage for subsequent disappointment.

TRANSITION AND APPOINTMENTS

In the immediate aftermath of the election, the incoming and outgoing administrations work together to help facilitate the transfer of power. While the General Services Administration oversees the logistics of the process, such as office assignments, information technology, and the assignment of keys, prudent candidates typically prepare for a possible victory by appointing members of a transition team during the lead-up to the general election. The success of the team’s actions becomes apparent on inauguration day, when the transition of power takes place in what is often a seamless fashion, with people evacuating their offices (and the White House) for their successors.

LINK TO LEARNING

Read about presidential transitions as well as explore other topics related to the transfer of power at the White House Transition Project website.

Among the president-elect’s more important tasks is the selection of a cabinet. George Washington’s cabinet was made up of only four people, the attorney general and the secretaries of the Departments of War, State, and the Treasury. Currently, however, there are fifteen members of the cabinet, including the Secretaries of Labor, Agriculture, Education, and others. The most important members—the heads of the Departments of Defense, Justice, State, and the Treasury (echoing Washington’s original cabinet)—receive the most attention from the president, the Congress, and the media. These four departments have been referred to as the inner cabinet, while the others are called the outer cabinet. When selecting a cabinet, presidents consider ability, expertise, influence, and reputation. More recently, presidents have also tried to balance political and demographic representation (gender, race, religion, and other considerations) to produce a cabinet that is capable as well as descriptively representative, meaning that those in the cabinet look like the U.S. population (see the chapter on bureaucracy and the term “representative bureaucracy”). A recent president who explicitly stated this as his goal was Bill Clinton, who talked about an “E.G.G. strategy” for senior-level appointments, where the E stands for ethnicity, G for gender, and the second G for geography.

Once the new president has been inaugurated and can officially nominate people to fill cabinet positions, the Senate confirms or rejects these nominations. At times, though rarely, cabinet nominations have failed to be confirmed or have even been withdrawn because of questions raised about the past behavior of the nominee. [1] Prominent examples of such withdrawals were Senator John Tower for defense secretary (George H. W. Bush) and Zoe Baird for attorney general (Bill Clinton): Senator Tower’s indiscretions involving alcohol and womanizing led to concerns about his fitness to head the military and his rejection by the Senate, [2] whereas Zoe Baird faced controversy and withdrew her nomination when it was revealed, through what the press dubbed “Nannygate,” that house staff of hers were undocumented workers. These two cases are emblematic of a change in how presidential nominations fail in the Senate. Failures used to involve outright rejections in committee votes or floor votes, like the Tower case. More recently, failures typically die of inattention. However, these cases are rare exceptions to the rule, which is to give approval to the nominees that the president wishes to have in the cabinet. Other possible candidates for cabinet posts may decline to be considered for a number of reasons, from the reduction in pay that can accompany entrance into public life to unwillingness to be subjected to the vetting process that accompanies a nomination.

Also subject to Senate approval are a number of non-cabinet subordinate administrators in the various departments of the executive branch, as well as the administrative heads of several agencies and commissions. These include the heads of the Internal Revenue Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, the Federal Reserve, the Social Security Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the president’s own budget department. In addition to preparing the executive budget proposal and overseeing budgetary implementation during the federal fiscal year, the OMB oversees the actions of the executive bureaucracy.

Not all the non-cabinet positions are open at the beginning of an administration, but presidents move quickly to install their preferred choices in most roles when given the opportunity. Finally, new presidents usually take the opportunity to nominate new ambassadors, whose appointments are subject to Senate confirmation. New presidents make thousands of new appointments in their first two years in office. All the senior cabinet agency positions and nominees for all positions in the Executive Office of the President are made as presidents enter office or when positions become vacant during their presidency. Federal judges serve for life. Therefore, vacancies for the federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court occur gradually as judges retire.

Throughout much of the history of the republic, the Senate has closely guarded its constitutional duty to consent to the president’s nominees, although in the end it nearly always confirms them. Still, the Senate does occasionally hold up a nominee. Benjamin Fishbourn, President George Washington’s nomination for a minor naval post, was rejected largely because he had insulted a particular senator. [3] Other rejected nominees included Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court by President Nixon; Theodore Sorensen, nominated by President Carter for director of the Central Intelligence Agency; and John Tower, discussed earlier. At other times, the Senate has used its power to rigorously scrutinize the president’s nominees. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who faced numerous sexual harassment charges from former employees, was forced to sit through repeated questioning of his character and past behavior during Senate hearings, something he referred to as “a high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks.” [4]

More recently, the Senate has attempted a new strategy, refusing to hold hearings at all, a strategy of defeat that scholars have referred to as “malign neglect.” [5] Despite the fact that one-third of U.S. presidents have appointed a Supreme Court justice in an election year, when Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly in early 2016, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell declared that the Senate would not hold hearings on a nominee until after the upcoming presidential election. [6] McConnell remained adamant even after President Barack Obama, saying he was acting in fulfillment of his constitutional duty, nominated Merrick Garland, longtime chief judge of the federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Garland was highly respected by senators from both parties and won confirmation to his DC circuit position by a 76–23 vote in the Senate. When Republican Donald Trump was elected president in the fall, this strategy appeared to pay off. The Republican Senate and Judiciary Committee confirmed Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, in April 2017, exercising the so-called “nuclear option,” which allowed Republicans to break the Democrats’ filibuster of the nomination by a simple majority vote. Ultimately, Senator McConnell reversed his “proximity to the next election” explanation for waiting to fill a Supreme Court vacancy when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away just prior to the 2020 election and McConnell and the Republicans quickly processed and confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Other presidential selections are not subject to Senate approval, including the president’s personal staff (whose most important member is the White House chief of staff) and various advisers (most notably the national security adviser). The Executive Office of the President , created by Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), contains a number of advisory bodies, including the Council of Economic Advisers, the National Security Council, the OMB, and the Office of the Vice President. Presidents also choose political advisers, speechwriters, and a press secretary to manage the politics and the message of the administration. In recent years, the president’s staff has become identified by the name of the place where many of its members work: the West Wing of the White House. These people serve at the pleasure of the president, and often the president reshuffles or reforms the staff during his or her term. Just as government bureaucracy has expanded over the centuries, so has the White House staff, which under Abraham Lincoln numbered a handful of private secretaries and a few minor functionaries. A recent report pegged the number of employees working within the White House at over 450. [7] When the staff in nearby executive buildings of the Executive Office of the President are added in, that number increases four-fold.

FINDING A MIDDLE GROUND

No Fun at Recess: Dueling Loopholes and the Limits of Presidential Appointments

When Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly in early 2016, many in Washington braced for a political sandstorm of obstruction and accusations. Such was the record of Supreme Court nominations during the Obama administration and, indeed, for the last few decades. Nor is this phenomenon restricted to nominations for the highest court in the land. The Senate has been known to occasionally block or slow appointments not because the quality of the nominee was in question but rather as a general protest against the policies of the president and/or as part of the increasing partisan bickering that occurs when the presidency is controlled by one political party and the Senate by the other. This occurred, for example, when the Senate initially refused to nominate anyone to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, established in 2011, because Republicans disliked the existence of the bureau itself.

Such political holdups, however, tend to be the exception rather than the rule. For example, historically, nominees to the presidential cabinet are rarely rejected. And each Congress oversees the approval of around four thousand civilian and sixty-five thousand military appointments from the executive branch. [8] The overwhelming majority of these are confirmed in a routine and systematic fashion, and only rarely do holdups occur. But when they do, the Constitution allows for a small presidential loophole called the recess appointment. The relevant part of Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution reads:

“The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

The purpose of the provision was to give the president the power to temporarily fill vacancies during times when the Senate was not in session and could not act. But presidents have typically used this loophole to get around a Senate that’s inclined to obstruct. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush made 139 and 171 recess appointments, respectively. President Obama made far fewer recess appointments, with a total of only thirty-two during his presidency. [9] One reason this number is so low is another loophole the Senate began using at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency, the pro forma session.

A pro forma session is a short meeting held with the understanding that no work will be done. These sessions have the effect of keeping the Senate officially in session while functionally in recess. In 2012, President Obama decided to ignore the pro forma session and make four recess appointments anyway. The Republicans in the Senate were furious and contested the appointments. Eventually, the Supreme Court had the final say in a 2014 decision that declared unequivocally that “the Senate is in session when it says it is.” [10] For now at least, the court’s ruling means that the president’s loophole and the Senate’s loophole cancel each other out. It seems they’ve found the middle ground whether they like it or not.

What might have been the legitimate original purpose of the recess appointment loophole? Do you believe the Senate is unfairly obstructing by effectively ending recesses altogether so as to prevent the president from making appointments without its approval?

The most visible, though arguably the least powerful, member of a president’s cabinet is the vice president. Throughout most of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, the vast majority of vice presidents took very little action in the office unless fate intervened. Few presidents consulted with their running mates. Indeed, until the twentieth century, many presidents had little to do with the naming of their running mate at the nominating convention. The office was seen as a form of political exile, and that motivated Republicans to name Theodore Roosevelt as William McKinley’s running mate in 1900. The strategy was to get the ambitious politician out of the way while still taking advantage of his popularity. This scheme backfired, however, when McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became president.

Vice presidents were often sent on minor missions or used as mouthpieces for the administration, often with a sharp edge. Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew is an example. But in the 1970s, starting with Jimmy Carter, presidents made a far more conscious effort to make their vice presidents part of the governing team, placing them in charge of increasingly important issues. Sometimes, as in the case of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the partnership appeared to be smooth if not always harmonious. In the case of George W. Bush and his very experienced vice president Dick Cheney, observers speculated whether the vice president might have exercised too much influence. Barack Obama’s choice for a running mate and subsequent two-term vice president, former Senator Joseph Biden, was picked for his experience, especially in foreign policy. President Obama relied on Vice President Biden for advice throughout his tenure. President Trump relied on Vice President Mike Pence to lead initiatives on health care reform and COVID-19, and Pence would gather West Wing officials and Cabinet members together, when Trump was occupied with other matters, in a manner atypical for a vice president. President Joe Biden involves Vice President Kamala Harris in every important policy discussion and has charged her with leading discussion of border control matters. In any case, the vice presidency is no longer quite as weak as it once was, and a capable vice president can do much to augment the president’s capacity to govern across issues if the president so desires. [11]

FORGING AN AGENDA

Having secured election, the incoming president must soon decide how to deliver upon what was promised during the campaign. The chief executive must set priorities, choose what to emphasize, and formulate strategies to get the job done. He or she labors under the shadow of a measure of presidential effectiveness known as the first hundred days in office, a concept popularized during Franklin Roosevelt’s first term in the 1930s. While one hundred days is possibly too short a time for any president to boast of any real accomplishments, most presidents do recognize that they must address their major initiatives during their first two years in office. This is the time when the president is most powerful and is given the benefit of the doubt by the public and the media (aptly called the honeymoon period), especially if entering the White House with a politically aligned Congress, as Barack Obama did. However, recent history suggests that even one-party control of Congress and the presidency does not ensure efficient policymaking. This difficulty is due as much to divisions within the governing party as to obstructionist tactics skillfully practiced by the minority party in Congress. Democratic president Jimmy Carter’s battles with a Congress controlled by Democratic majorities provide a good case in point.

The incoming president must deal to some extent with the outgoing president’s last budget proposal. While some modifications can be made, it is more difficult to pursue new initiatives immediately. Most presidents are well advised to prioritize what they want to achieve during the first year in office and not lose control of their agenda. At times, however, unanticipated events can determine policy, as happened in 2001 when nineteen hijackers perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history and transformed U.S. foreign and domestic policy in dramatic ways.

Moreover, a president must be sensitive to what some scholars have termed “political time,” meaning the circumstances under which they assume power. Sometimes, the nation is prepared for drastic proposals to solve deep and pressing problems that cry out for immediate solutions, as was the case following the 1932 election of FDR at the height of the Great Depression. Most times, however, the country is far less inclined to accept revolutionary change. Being an effective president means recognizing the difference. [12]

The first act undertaken by the new president—the delivery of an inaugural address—can do much to set the tone for what is intended to follow. While such an address may be an exercise in rhetorical inspiration, it also allows the president to set forth priorities within the overarching vision of what they intend to do. Abraham Lincoln used his inaugural addresses to calm rising concerns in the South that he would act to overturn slavery. Unfortunately, this attempt at appeasement fell on deaf ears, and the country descended into civil war. Franklin Roosevelt used his first inaugural address to boldly proclaim that the country need not fear the change that would deliver it from the grip of the Great Depression, and he set to work immediately enlarging the federal government to that end. John F. Kennedy, who entered the White House at the height of the Cold War, made an appeal to talented young people around the country to help him make the world a better place. He followed up with new institutions like the Peace Corps, which sends young citizens around the world to work as secular missionaries for American values like democracy and free enterprise.

Listen to clips of the most famous inaugural address in presidential history at the Washington Post w ebsite.

CHAPTER REVIEW

See the Chapter 12.3 Review for a summary of this section, the key vocabulary , and some review questions to check your knowledge.

• Glen S. Krutz, Richard Fleisher, and Jon R. Bond. 1998. "From Abe Fortas to Zoe Baird." American Political Science Review 92, No. 4: 871–882. ↵
• Michael Oreskes. 1989. "Senate Rejects Tower, 53–47; First Cabinet Veto since ‘59; Bush Confers on New Choice," New York Times, 10 March 1989, http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/10/us/senate-rejects-tower-53-47-first-cabinet-veto-since-59-bush-confers-new-choice.html . ↵
• Mark J. Rozell, William D. Pederson, Frank J. Williams. 2000. George Washington and the Origins of the American Presidency. Portsmouth, NH: Greenwood Publishing Group, 17. ↵
• "Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court," Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library, 11 October 1991. ↵
• Jon R. Bond, Richard Fleisher, and Glen S. Krutz. 2009. "Malign Neglect: Evidence That Delay Has Become the Primary Method of Defeating Presidential Appointments" Congress & the Presidency 36, No. 3: 226–243. ↵
• Barbara Perry, "One-third of all U.S. presidents appointed a Supreme Court justice in an election year," Washington Post, 29 February 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/02/29/one-third-of-all-u-s-presidents-appointed-a-supreme-court-justice-in-an-election-year/ . ↵
• Jennifer Liberto, "It pays to work for the White House," CNN Money, 2 July 2014, http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/02/news/economy/white-house-salaries/ (May 1, 2016). ↵
• Gary P. Gershman. 2008. The Legislative Branch of Federal Government: People, Process, and Politics. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ↵
• Bruce Drake, "Obama lags his predecessors in recess appointments," 13 January 2014, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/13/obama-lags-his-predecessors-in-recess-appointments/ (May 1, 2016). ↵
• National Labor Relations Board v. Canning, 573 U.S. ___ (2014). ↵
• Amy C. Gaudion and Douglas Stuart, "More Than Just a Running Mate," The New York Times, 19 July 2012, http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/more-than-just-a-running-mate/ . ↵
• Stephen Skowronek. 2011. Presidential Leadership in Political Time: Reprise and Reappraisal. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ↵

an office within the Executive Office of the President charged with producing the president’s budget, overseeing its implementation, and overseeing the executive bureaucracy

the administrative organization that reports directly to the president and made up of important offices, units, and staff of the current president and headed by the White House chief of staff

Organizing to Govern Copyright © 2022 by Lumen Learning and OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Lesson Plans
• Teacher's Guides
• Media Resources

Lesson 1: Starting a Government from Scratch

Statue of John Hanson by Richard E. Brooks in the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

Architect of the Capitol

At the time the Founders were shaping the future of a new country, John Adams suggested the President should be addressed as “His Excellency.” Happily, others recognized that such a title was inappropriate. Though the proper form of address represents only a small detail, defining everything about the Presidency was central to the idea of America that was a work-in-progress when the nation was young.

Guiding Questions

What actions are necessary in order to start a new government?

What would one of the major concerns be in preserving the new government and country?

What should be the role of the leader or president of the country?

Learning Objectives

Describe the role of the government and the president in establishing a new country.

Describe some of the actions the government bodies would probably take to ensure order and security.

List some of the challenges and problems, as well as accomplishments that might occur in forming a new government.

Lesson Plan Details

NCSS.D2.His.1.6-8. Analyze connections among events and developments in broader historical contexts.

NCSS.D2.His.2.6-8. Classify series of historical events and developments as examples of change and/or continuity.

NCSS.D2.His.3.6-8. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.

NCSS.D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.

NCSS.D2.His.12.6-8. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to identify further areas of inquiry and additional sources.

NCSS.D2.His.15.6-8. Evaluate the relative influence of various causes of events and developments in the past. 

NCSS. D2.His.16.6-8. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.

Activity 1. Starting a Government From Scratch

Begin the discussion by asking students if anyone in their families ever makes a “to do list.” Talk about such lists.

Ask students to think carefully about what the Founders had to do to start a brand new country, which officially began with the ratification of the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781. Imagine you've just formed a new country. Brainstorm a list of actions the Continental Congress would probably take in starting a new country. Consider the many kinds of things a government does.

"The exceeding narrow limits to which the possessions of the enemy (the British) are confined by a series of the most judicious and fortunate operations, must be the source of infinite discontent and an inconceivable mortification to their unbounded ambition and intolerable pride; at the same time that it affords every Friend to his Country singular Joy and satisfaction. Nothing can be a more convincing proof of their weakness and hopeless situation, than the base unworthy acts they are practicing and the infamous means they have recourse to, in order to support themselves in their diminishing Conquests and distress us. But I hope every practicable measure will be adopted to defeat their wicked designs. The partial failure of their attempt to embody (enlist) the Tories I consider as a favorable Omen; and as to the Negroes, (the British are trying to convert them to) inhuman purposes. ... But with respect to the savages (Native Americans), every precaution within our power should be used to render the plans of our enemy ineffectual."

"… the Battle of Blue Licks, in the Appalachian west, the British and their Indian allies, the Wyandot, Ottawa, Ojibwa, Shawnee, Mingo, and Delaware inflict heavy casualties and force the retreat of Daniel Boone and the Kentucky militia. In response, George Rogers Clark leads Kentucky militia on an expedition against the British into Ohio country. These are often considered the last formal engagements of the Revolutionary War."

• The class should also consider the ways the government helps out with activities Americans do every day, such as going to schools supported and regulated by the government, spending money coined by the government, riding on roads maintained by the government, paying taxes for the government's use, sending and receiving mail, and so on.

"The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority … to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction -- to appoint one of their members to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years."

Guiding Discussion Questions

• What “rules” applied to the President under the Articles of Confederation? ( The responsibility to preside over Congress's meetings, a one-year term, only one term in any three-year period, and nothing else specific in the way of powers or responsibilities .)
• What does it mean to preside over a meeting?
• What responsibilities does that task entail?
• What power could that give the person who presides?
• If the term of the President was set at one year, and a candidate could only be elected for that one-year term once every three years, how would those requirements most likely affect the power of the President?

More information on the Articles of Confederation, intended specifically for students in grades 6-8, is available on Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids: The Articles of Confederation , a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library.

Write down and save all of students' ideas about what was on the minds of the Founders as they started the new nation. We know what was on some of their "to do lists" because records were kept of what happened in the Continental Congress. In Lesson Two , students will review the Journals of the Continental Congress to find out what was really on the Founders' “to do lists.”

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• John Hanson to Nathanael Greene, January 29, 1782
• Last engagements of the Revolutionary War
• The Articles of Confederation

Related on EDSITEment

Lesson 2: the "to do list" of the continental congress, lesson 3: lost hero: was john hanson actually the first president, before and beyond the constitution: what should a president do.

Web Assignments: Introduction to American Government Government 101

Required Web Assignment #1, Constitutional Scavenger Hunt

This exercise is intended to encourage you to read the Constitution very closely. Answer all the questions, print out your answers, and bring them to class.Make sure you cite the article and section of the Constitution where you found the answer.

• Where must bills for raising revenue originate?
• Of the enumerated powers granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8, how many would you classify as economic/commercial (think designed to promote or faciliate trade or business), political, military, or other?
• The original Constitution explicitly mentions only 1 “Right”. What is it?
• What is the constitutional criteria for removing a president from office?
• Does the Constitution give the Supreme Court the power of judicial review?
• What do Article I, Section 10, Article VI and Amendment X state about the relationship of the federal government and the states?
• How is the president chosen? How are electors chosen?
• The original Constitution addresses slavery in three specific sections, how they count for purpose of representation, the importation of slaves, and the return of escaped slaves. What did the Constitution say about each of these issues? What are the exact words the Constitution uses to identify slaves in each of these sections (This is trickier than it sounds since the words “slaves” and “slavery” are not mentioned in the constitution.)
• What does the Constitution or any of its amendments say about income taxes?
• Can a person who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States be elected as a Senator or Representative in Congress or hold any office in the federal or state government? How is such a disability removed? Any ideas why Congress passed this amendment?
• Which groups or individuals have gained the right to vote via an amendment to the Constitution? Cite the specific group, amendment, and year it passed.
• The Constitution establishes three supermajority requirements when a vote of more than a simple majority of Congress is required for a particular action to happen. What are they? Where in the Constitution is the Filibuster rule?
• What section of the Constitution states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness?
• In reading the Constitution, was there anything you came across that you did not know about before?

Web Assignment #2, What Makes Us Americans?

Unlike many other countries, being American is a state of mind than of genetic origins. Is it our common political beliefs or common political awareness of our history? This assignment is designed to see if you can become an American citizen. Here is the official process by which individuals can become American citizens. Individuals who wish to become American citizens have pass an oral test to demonstrate their knowledge of United States History and the structure of our government and an understanding of the English language.

Can you read the sentences aloud ?

Go to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and take a couple versions of their Sample Tests. You can either take the old test here or the new test as of Oct 1, 2008 here . Try to answer the questions without “cheating”- i.e. looking at the answers below the questions.

Web Assignment #3 Congress as a Representative Institution

In “The Electoral Connection”, David Mayhew offers a pretty specific set of guidelines to incumbent members of Congress on how to ensure their reelection (advertising, credit claiming, and position taking).The question is, do representatives actually do these things?

To find out, I want you to go to the House of Representatives web site http://www.house.gov/ and click on members’ office.This will list all the representatives by name.  Clicking on a name takes you to the representatives’ web page.Different representatives will have very different web pages, but look around for instances of advertising, credit claiming, and position taking. Good places to look are the press gallery or press release section, constituents pages, photo gallery, constituent services.  I think you will find it pretty fun and interesting.

In your response paper, 1.  Choose two representatives from different parties and different parts of the country and compare their web pages. 2.  Does each representative engage in advertising, credit claiming, and position taking?  Provide examples of each. 3.  Can you tell what party the representative is from based on their web page? 4.  What is your impression of each representative from the web page?  What comes first, their district or public policy?

Web Assignment #4, The President in Action

How do Presidents Govern?  To answer this question, go to the White House web site ( http://www.whitehouse.gov/ ) and look at the web site, White House news ( http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/ )

• How does the president’s presentation of self compare with the individual members’ of Congress on their web pages.  What would Greenstein say about W’s presentation of self?
• Next go to the press releases and briefings in the briefing room, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/  What issues is the president or his assistants talking about? What does this page suggest about the importance of the media to the modern day presidency?
• Statements of Administration Policy (on lower right part of web page)
• Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Regulatory Matters .

–what do these two pages suggestion about the imperial presidency? 4.  Email the Administration.

White House Web Mail

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Introduction to Political Science

(3 reviews)

Mark Carl Rom, Georgetown University

Masaki Hidaka, American University

Rachel Bzostek Walker, Collin College

Copyright Year: 2022

Publisher: OpenStax

Language: English

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Reviewed by Michelle Payne, Associate Professor, Political Science, Texas Wesleyan University on 2/29/24

Selected key terms are both relevant and clearly defined read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Selected key terms are both relevant and clearly defined

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book is packed with both cumulative, foundational knowledge and associated current event references, and as far as I have read, both reflect superior accuracy

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book is packed with both cumulative, foundational knowledge and associated current event references, which tie together theory, concept, and relevancy is an easy to understand format.

Clarity rating: 5

Form an Instructor viewpoint, very clearly written- particularly the review questions. The text to video connections are also concisely and clearly stated.

Consistency rating: 5

This is one of the reasons I would like to use the text- the terminology, structure and general outlay of the material are logically connected and lend to a smooth integration and adaptation.

Modularity rating: 5

I set out a tentative outline for moving context around, and had no transitional issues- I also tentatively integrated my material into the mix and it reads well, with no loss of integrity to the material.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Very straightforward- easy to adapt if need to.

Interface rating: 5

Didn't see any issues- I will say that the links to government websites were placed discreetly yet noticeably in the text and I see that ease of accessibility as an added bonus for students

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I haven't found any

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The diverse pictures, stories, illustrations and video links cover this aspect well.

I am excited to find a text that is so packed with info, yet approachable for students, even in a dual enrollment course.

Reviewed by Larry Carter, Distinguished Senior Lecturere, University of Texas at Arlington on 4/4/23

Covers all areas needed for American intro course. read more

Covers all areas needed for American intro course.

Content is accurate and unbiased.

Should hold up well.

Good clarity.

Layout and content consistent

Easily and readily divisible.

Good flow. Layout good.

Free of interface questions.

No grammatical errors

Not culturally insensitive

Good layout and content.

Reviewed by Katrina Heimark, Lecturer, Century College on 3/7/23

Introduction to Political Science covers all the major topics and has a global focus, using examples from around the world. My only observation on content that was not covered in-depth was regarding regime change and the factors that cause... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Introduction to Political Science covers all the major topics and has a global focus, using examples from around the world. My only observation on content that was not covered in-depth was regarding regime change and the factors that cause democracies to fail or authoritarian regimes to rise. This is an important part of the comparative political science literature that could have been focused on in more detail.

I have found the content to be accurate, unbiased, and with citation of sources.

Students are so impressed with the real-world examples of this text book, and the fact that it was published in 2022 makes it a great resources for them. The content is relevant today, but should also be relevant for the next 5-10 years. Updates/more relevant examples should be easy to find once this text is a bit older.

This is a great intro text for any student who has no experience or exposure to political science. It is straightforward and complex terms are explained in such a way that it is easy for all audiences to understand.

I have found this text to be consistent in terms of its organization, terminology, and framework.

The online version of this text is fantastic in terms of the layout and accessibility of the different content modules. The modules are broken up in a way that makes sense, is logical, and also can stand alone.

The book has a great mix of video, text, and images and is clearly organized both within chapters, sub-chapters, and as a textbook as a whole.

The interface is easy to use, particularly the online textbook. Allows for highlighting in different colors and also creation of notes.

No grammatical errors.

This book has excellent examples from across different country and cultural contexts. While designed for a US audience, the textbook does a fantastic job of using examples from different regions, cultures, and countries to illustrate the different political examples. One region is not overly represented, nor is one region used exclusively for negative examples. I found this book to be incredibly fair, accurate, and presenting an amazing culturally diverse content across subject areas.

This book has been great for an introductory political science course that I have taught to first year college students. I find it to be at the perfect level for these students--clear, relevant, and also challenges them to see the world through multiple perspectives.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1.1  Defining Politics: Who Gets What, When, Where, How, and Why?
• 1.2  Public Policy, Public Interest, and Power
• 1.3  Political Science: The Systematic Study of Politics
• 1.4  Normative Political Science
• 1.5  Empirical Political Science
• 1.6  Individuals, Groups, Institutions, and International Relations
• Review Questions
• Suggested Readings
• 2.1  What Goals Should We Seek in Politics?
• 2.2  Why Do Humans Make the Political Choices That They Do?
• 2.3  Human Behavior Is Partially Predictable
• 2.4  The Importance of Context for Political Decisions
• 3.1  The Classical Origins of Western Political Ideologies
• 3.2  The Laws of Nature and the Social Contract
• 3.3  The Development of Varieties of Liberalism
• 3.4  Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism
• 3.5  Contemporary Democratic Liberalism
• 3.6  Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Left
• 3.7  Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Right
• 3.8  Political Ideologies That Reject Political Ideology: Scientific Socialism, Burkeanism, and Religious Extremism
• 4.1  The Freedom of the Individual
• 4.2  Constitutions and Individual Liberties
• 4.3  The Right to Privacy, Self-Determination, and the Freedom of Ideas
• 4.4  Freedom of Movement
• 4.5  The Rights of the Accused
• 4.6  The Right to a Healthy Environment
• 5.1  What Is Political Participation?
• 5.2  What Limits Voter Participation in the United States?
• 5.3  How Do Individuals Participate Other Than Voting?
• 5.4  What Is Public Opinion and Where Does It Come From?
• 5.5  How Do We Measure Public Opinion?
• 5.6  Why Is Public Opinion Important?
• 6.1  Political Socialization: The Ways People Become Political
• 6.2  Political Culture: How People Express Their Political Identity
• 6.3  Collective Dilemmas: Making Group Decisions
• 6.4  Collective Action Problems: The Problem of Incentives
• 6.5  Resolving Collective Action Problems
• 7.1  Civil Rights and Constitutionalism
• 7.2  Political Culture and Majority-Minority Relations
• 7.3  Civil Rights Abuses
• 7.4  Civil Rights Movements
• 7.5  How Do Governments Bring About Civil Rights Change?
• 8.1  What Is an Interest Group?
• 8.2  What Are the Pros and Cons of Interest Groups?
• 8.3  Political Parties
• 8.4  What Are the Limits of Parties?
• 8.5  What Are Elections and Who Participates?
• 8.6  How Do People Participate in Elections?
• 9.1  What Do Legislatures Do?
• 9.2  What Is the Difference between Parliamentary and Presidential Systems?
• 9.3  What Is the Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral Systems?
• 9.4  The Decline of Legislative Influence
• 10.1  Democracies: Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Regimes
• 10.2  The Executive in Presidential Regimes
• 10.3  The Executive in Parliamentary Regimes
• 10.4  Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges of Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes
• 10.5  Semi-Presidential Regimes
• 10.6  How Do Cabinets Function in Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes?
• 10.7  What Are the Purpose and Function of Bureaucracies?
• 11.1  What Is the Judiciary?
• 11.2  How Does the Judiciary Take Action?
• 11.3  Types of Legal Systems around the World
• 11.4  Criminal versus Civil Laws
• 11.5  Due Process and Judicial Fairness
• 11.6  Judicial Review versus Executive Sovereignty
• 12.1  The Media as a Political Institution: Why Does It Matter?
• 12.2  Types of Media and the Changing Media Landscape
• 12.3  How Do Media and Elections Interact?
• 12.4  The Internet and Social Media
• 12.5  Declining Global Trust in the Media
• 13.1  Contemporary Government Regimes: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority
• 13.2  Categorizing Contemporary Regimes
• 13.3  Recent Trends: Illiberal Representative Regimes
• 14.1  What Is Power, and How Do We Measure It?
• 14.2  Understanding the Different Types of Actors in the International System
• 14.3  Sovereignty and Anarchy
• 14.4  Using Levels of Analysis to Understand Conflict
• 14.5  The Realist Worldview
• 14.6  The Liberal and Social Worldview
• 14.7  Critical Worldviews
• 15.1  The Problem of Global Governance
• 15.2  International Law
• 15.3  The United Nations and Global Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
• 15.4  How Do Regional IGOs Contribute to Global Governance?
• 15.5  Non-state Actors: Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
• 15.6  Non-state Actors beyond NGOs
• 16.1  The Origins of International Political Economy
• 16.2  The Advent of the Liberal Economy
• 16.3  The Bretton Woods Institutions
• 16.4  The Post–Cold War Period and Modernization Theory
• 16.5  From the 1990s to the 2020s: Current Issues in IPE
• 16.6  Considering Poverty, Inequality, and the Environmental Crisis

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Designed to meet the scope and sequence of your course, OpenStax  Introduction to Political Science  provides a strong foundation in global political systems, exploring  how  and  why  political realities unfold. Rich with examples of individual and national social action, this text emphasizes students’ role in the political sphere and equips them to be active and informed participants in civil society. Learn more about what this free, openly-licensed textbook has to offer you and your students.

About the Contributors

Dr. Mark Carl Rom is an associate professor of government and public policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Department of Government. His recent research has focused on assessing student participation, improving grading accuracy, reducing grading bias, and improving data visualizations. Previously, Rom has explored critiques and conversations within the realm of political science through symposia on academic conferences, ideology in the classroom, and ideology within the discipline. He continues to fuel his commitment to educational equity by serving on the AP Higher Education Advisory Committee, the executive board of the Political Science Education section (ASPA), and the editorial board of the Journal of Political Science Education. Prior to joining McCourt, Rom served as a legislative assistant to the Honorable John Paul Hammerschmidt of the US House of Representatives, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, a senior evaluator at the US General Accounting Office, and a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation, “The Thrift Tragedy: Are Politicians and Bureaucrats to Blame?,” was the cowinner of the 1993 Harold Lasswell Award from the American Political Science Association for best dissertation in the public policy field. Rom received his BA from the University of Arkansas and his MA and PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.

Masaki Hidaka has a master of public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she wrote her thesis on media coverage of gaming ventures on Native American tribal lands. She completed her PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where her dissertation examined the relationship between issue publics and the Internet. She is currently a professorial lecturer at the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Washington, DC, but has taught in numerous institutions, including the National University of Singapore, University College London, and Syracuse University in London. She also worked as a press aide for former San Francisco mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. (and she definitely left her heart in San Francisco).

A native of Fort Worth, Rachel Bzostek Walker is the associate dean of academic affairs at Collin College Technical Campus in Allen, Texas. She earned her PhD in political science from Louisiana State University and has a master’s in Israeli politics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation focused on the preemptive or preventive use of force, and she continues to research in this area as well as exploring the use of active learning in the classroom. She taught full-time for over 15 years at colleges and universities in Missouri, California, and Texas, teaching a wide variety of classes on subjects including international relations, American foreign policy, and Middle Eastern politics, as well as introductory classes in American and Texas government.

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Resources: Discussions and Assignments

Module 15 discussion: government and politics.

STEP 1: For this discussion assignment, pick ONE of the following questions and respond to it in a post of at least 200 words. Your response should be supported by details and facts from this module as well as evidences you’ve seen from your own life, news articles, or other research. Include all relevant links in your discussion.

• Do you feel the United States has become an oligarchy? Why, or why not?
• Explain how a voter’s social class can affect his or her voting practices.
• Besides voting, how can U.S. citizens influence political processes and outcomes? Which of these strategies have you personally used or seen?

STEP 2: Post on at least TWO other posts in responses of at least 75 words or more.

• Discussion: Government and Politics. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Introduction to Sociology 2e discussion questions. Provided by : OpenStax CNX. Located at : https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:TrIRM88K@7/Introduction-to-Sociology . License : CC BY: Attribution . License Terms : Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected].

In a representative democracy, people elect representatives to make political decisions and pass laws for them. In a direct democracy, people make all political decisions and pass laws themselves.

People can pay attention to the news in order to be aware of the most important issues of the day. They can contribute money to a campaign or attend a rally in support of a political candidate whose views they favor. They can write letters to members of Congress and to state and local politicians. They can vote.

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• Authors: Glen Krutz, Sylvie Waskiewicz, PhD
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: American Government 3e
• Publication date: Jul 28, 2021
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/american-government-3e/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/american-government-3e/pages/chapter-1

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