IF You Want To Purchase A+ Work Then Click The Link Below , Instant Download
http://www.acehomework.net/?download=devry-poli-330-week-5-quiz-new-2017
If You Face Any Problem E- Mail Us At whisperhills@gmail.com
IF YOU FACE ANY PROBLEM CONTACT US AT
WHISPERHILLS@GMAIL.COM
Chapter 13- Legislatures
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- According to theorists, what happens to political institutions as they become more modern?
- A) Their infrastructures crumble under labyrinthine bureaucracy.
- B) They become more specialized, complex, and differentiated.
- C) They grow broader in scope and focus.
- D) They establish a militaristic presence and harsh economic policies.
- Often at war, ambitious European monarchs desperately needed revenues. Some of them started calling assemblies of notables to levy taxes. In return for their “power of the purse,” these assemblies received a modest input into royal policies. Such were the beginnings of the __________.
- A) American Congress
- B) French Estates General
- C) British Parliament
- D) Swedish Riksdag
- Which British monarch famously broke the nation’s ties with the Roman Catholic Church?
- A) George IV
- B) James I
- C) Charles II
- D) Henry VIII
- Which of the following terms is defined as the post-feudal concentration of power in a monarch?
- A) Absolutism
- B) Totalitarianism
- C) Teetotalism
- D) Monarchy
- Which of the following statements best defines feudalism?
- A) A political structure in which power is dispersed evenly.
- B) A system of political power dispersed among layers.
- C) A political structure in which power rests with church leaders.
- D) A system of political power distributed to the working class.
- By the seventeenth century, Parliament considered itself coequal with the monarch and even supreme in what area of rule?
- A) Taxes
- B) War
- C) Law
- D) Welfare
- The English Civil War erupted between which two political forces?
- A) Monarchists and democrats
- B) Democrats and parliamentarians
- C) Parliamentarians and royalists
- D) Loyalists and separatists
- English philosopher John Locke extolled the power of which governing branch as the most basic and important?
- A) Executive
- B) Judicial
- C) Legislative
- D) Parliamentary
- Countries with limits on government have usually had feudal pasts, which suggests what about the dispersion of power?
- A) Equal distribution of power is the only effective political structure.
- B) Power must be distributed by the working class.
- C) Power should be concentrated among the lower classes.
- D) Dispersion of power is good and concentration of power is bad.
- Why do the responsibilities of legislative and executive powers often overlap?
- A) Separation of powers is rarely clear-cut.
- B) Separation of powers is rare among industrialized nations.
- C) Separation of powers is absolute.
- D) Separation of powers grants obtuse levels of power to the executive branch.
- Which systems demonstrate the clearest separation of power between the executive and legislative branches?
- A) Parliamentary
- B) Presidential
- C) Monarchies
- D) Ministerial
- How often does the cabinet change in a parliamentary system?
- A) Every four years
- B) Every six years
- C) Every eight years
- D) When the cabinet is voted out or resigns
- In Europe, a cabinet is equivalent to a U.S. __________.
- A) administration
- B) congress
- C) president
- D) legislature
- In a parliamentary system, voters directly elect __________.
- A) members of parliament and the prime minister
- B) members of parliament and the ministerial cabinet
- C) members of parliament only
- D) the prime minister only
- Voters receive the most direct representation in which system?
- A) Parliamentary
- B) Presidential
- C) Electoral
- D) Coalition
- Because of the separation of powers inherent in a presidential system, some scholars think that executive-legislative __________is common in systems like that used in the United States.
- A) cooperation
- B) stagnation
- C) deadlock
- D) insolvency
- What is the effect of “divided” government, such as that used in the United States, on spending and policy formation?
- A) It encourages unhealthy spending and foolish policies.
- B) It holds down spending and foolish policies.
- C) It encourages irresponsible spending because representatives are held accountable for only a short amount of time.
- D) It encourages responsible spending, but is slow to implement policy.
- Which of the following terms identifies a primary danger to multiparty systems?
- A) Ombudsman
- B) Gridlock
- C) Stalemate
- D) Immobilism
- Which of the following is a possible advantage of parliamentary systems as compared to presidential systems?
- A) Parliamentary cabinets are held directly accountable to voters, and thus work closely with the legislature.
- B) Because the prime minister is held directly accountable to voters via approval ratings, parliamentary systems are more likely to pass legislature quickly and effectively.
- C) Presidents often become involved in scandals, trapping their administrations in bureaucratic quagmire and slowing legislature.
- D) Parliamentary cabinets can be quickly overturned, and thus, such systems can avoid the paralysis experienced in many presidential systems.
- Interpret the reason behind the swift passage of laws between Britain’s cabinet and the House of Commons.
- A) New laws move between the House of Commons and the House of Lords without electoral delay.
- B) The House of Commons consists only of the cabinet’s party, which is always loyal to the prime minister.
- C) The cabinet passes new laws to the House of Commons, where the prime minister’s party holds a majority.
- D) The prime minister uses “whip” tactics to maintain party coherence in the House of Commons.
- The United States parliament consists of two chambers, the __________ and the __________.
- A) executive; legislative
- B) Senate; House of Representatives
- C) president; Supreme Court
- D) president; Congress
- China’s National People’s Congress uses a __________ parliament.
- A) unicameral
- B) bicameral
- C) tricameral
- D) multicameral
- Germany’s __________ represents the 16 Länder and is coequal to the lower house on constitutional questions.
- A) Riksdag
- B) Reichstag
- C) Bundesrat
- D) Bildungsroman
- New Zealanders, Danes, and Swedes—all with __________ systems—concluded that their upper houses served no purpose and abolished them in recent decades.
- A) two-party
- B) unitary
- C) bicameral
- D) supervisory
- South Africa once had a three-chambered parliament, including __________.
- A) aristocrats, commoners and working-class people
- B) indigenous people, whites and immigrants
- C) West Africans, sub-Saharan people, and Arabs
- D) whites, mixed-race peoples, and East Indians
- Within a unitary system, how useful is an upper house?
- A) The upper house is absolutely necessary.
- B) Its utility waxes and wanes according to power distribution.
- C) It is less necessary than the lower house.
- D) Its usefulness is unclear.
- Assess the role of Britain’s House of Lords.
- A) The primary house in Britain’s parliament, they are the architects of most new laws in the United Kingdom.
- B) Holding similar weight as the House of Commons, they pass legislature in coordination with one another.
- C) A revisionary body, they rewrite laws vetoed by the prime minister.
- D) Mostly an elderly debating society, they sometimes catch errors in laws that are passed too quickly.
- Under the Unites States Constitution, the Senate represents __________ while the House represents __________.
- A) the states; the people
- B) federal interests; local ones
- C) foreign issues; domestic ones
- D) the president abroad; his interests at home
- Compare the parliamentary systems of China and Great Britain.
- A) Great Britain’s parliament is bicameral while China’s is unicameral.
- B) Great Britain’s parliament is unitary while China’s is solitary.
- C) China’s parliament is bicameral while Britain’s is unicameral.
- D) China’s parliament is three-chambered while Britain’s is bicameral.
- Examine the power relationship between Britain’s House of Commons and the House of Lords.
- A) The House of Lords is the upper house and thus determines most of the country’s foreign policy. The House of Commons deal with domestic affairs.
- B) The House of Commons overrides any objection from the House of Lords with a simple majority vote.
- C) The House of Lords is the more powerful branch drafting the majority of legislature and overriding weak legislating by the House of Commons.
- D) The House of Commons works with the prime minister, who uses a “whip” system to maintain coherence in the House of Lords.
- What sorts of bills do individual legislators create?
- A) Individual legislators draft most important legislation, including immigration reform.
- B) Most individual legislators focus on major legislation benefiting their party’s interests.
- C) Individual legislators draft minor legislation, such as tax breaks for constituents.
- D) Few individual legislators deal with minor legislation, such as smoking bans.
- Virtually every legislature has a number of standing or permanent committees and may from time to time create special __________ committees to study urgent matters.
- A) emergency
- B) crisis
- C) disaster
- D) ad hoc
- In the United States, the two houses have a total of about __________ subcommittees.
- A) 150
- B) 250
- C) 550
- D) 1,050
- Changes in the 1970s weakened the nearly tyrannical powers of American committee chairpersons by __________.
- A) making it easier to establish subcommittees
- B) restricting the chairpersons’ authority
- C) establishing specialized “field” committees
- D) altering their responsibilities to include international affairs
- The main purpose of legislative bodies, in theory, is to formulate laws. This, however, varies among political systems and is generally __________.
- A) increasing
- B) stagnating
- C) declining
- D) inflating
- Often lawmakers are so busy with __________ casework that they pay little attention to making laws.
- A) constituency
- B) environmental
- C) congressional
- D) commercial
- Assess the role of most modern legislators.
- A) Due to strict changes in the process, modern legislators focus solely on lawmaking.
- B) Because of increased advertising costs, many legislators spend most of their time raising funds for upcoming elections.
- C) Modern legislators function as ombudsmen, intervening with government on behalf of constituent complaints.
- D) Legislators work on contract, accepting campaign donations on behalf of legal causes.
- Identify three major criticisms both parties have leveled against the Obama administration.
- A) Over-spending, bailing out financial institutions, and complex healthcare reform
- B) Lax immigration policies, weak drug control, and failed national security policies
- C) Strict gun control laws, feeble immigration policies, and harsh healthcare mandates
- D) Frail drug policies, a weak handle on the terrorism threat, and ignorance of LGBTQ rights
- How did Democratic control of Congress allow the United States legislature to deal with the Iraq War?
- A) Congress set a timetable for the war’s end.
- B) Congress cut funding for foreign activities outlined by the executive branch.
- C) Congress was able to hold critical hearings.
- D) Congress blocked legislation extending executive privilege.
- Examine the psychological effect of apartheid legislature on South Africa’s racial majority.
- A) Black South Africans felt underrepresented, as the drafting legislature included less than 10 black African representatives.
- B) Created by a whites-only majority, black South Africans did not feel represented.
- C) Black South Africans accepted the laws, feeling powerless to affect change.
- D) Because the legislature passed in South Africa’s lower house, most black people begrudgingly accepted it.
- The U.S. Senate rules allow a member to declare a __________ to block legislation, which can be ended only with a vote of “cloture” (closure) by three-fifths of the Senate.
- A) debate
- B) filibuster
- C) bind
- D) tie-up
- The average annual number of filibusters in the U.S. Senate has __________ since 1981.
- A) greatly increased
- B) slightly increased
- C) greatly decreased
- D) fluctuated widely
- Projects that bring improvements to or spend money in a representative’s district are called __________.
- A) pork barrel
- B) log rolling
- C) whip projects
- D) flood control
- Which of the following is an effect of Congress’s fragmentation into committees and subcommittees?
- A) It hastens argumentation.
- B) It creates interparty splits.
- C) It allows representatives to ignore constituents.
- D) It delays agreement.
- In U.S. House contests, more than __________ of incumbents win.
- A) 30%
- B) 50%
- C) 70%
- D) 90%
- The U.S. pork barrel takes second place to the __________, whose legislators are famous for delivering massive (and often unneeded) public-works projects to their districts and shielding farmers from competition.
- A) French
- B) Australians
- C) Japanese
- D) Vietnamese
- Contrary to Locke’s expectations, nineteenth-century legislatures __________.
- A) lost power to the executive
- B) gained power over the executive
- C) stripped power from the executive
- D) maintained a cooperative relationship with the executive
- Due to its near-feudal dispersion of power with weaker party discipline and its tendency to deadlock, the U.S. legislature is considered highly __________.
- A) utilitarian
- B) domineering
- C) efficacious
- D) inefficient
- Assess Vladimir Putin’s handling of the deadlock between the Russian Duma and the executive branch under Boris Yeltsin.
- A) Under the auspices of the Unity Party, Putin seized power and now rules Russia under a one-party system.
- B) Putin spearheaded reforms under the National Party of the Left, which allowed parties in the Duma to more swiftly compromise.
- C) Putin founded his own party, which controls two-thirds of the Duma, but Russia is no longer a democracy.
- D) Putin led the ouster of Yeltsin’s administration, making way for faster legislation and a more democratic Russia.
- Evaluate the impact of absentee voting in the legislature.
- A) It may indicate that the system has grown overly labyrinthine and is in need of change.
- B) Absentee voting has little effect on legislative outcomes, as members who miss have no stake in the legislation being voted on.
- C) It almost certainly indicates that the legislator is misrepresenting his constituents and misusing taxpayer funds.
- D) It may indicate that the legislator is busy doing other important things, but may also indicate just plain laziness.
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
- During the Age of Enlightenment, French philosopher René DesCartes declared that liberty could be secured only if government were divided into four distinct branches, with the ability to check and balance each other.
- The French Estates General, with three houses (for nobles, clerics, and commoners), was the first successful example of parliamentary checks and balances.
- Cabinet and government, terms used interchangeably, are what Americans call an “administration.”
- The United States takes great pride in its fusion of powers.
- Britain’s House of Lords was reformed in 1999 to keep “life peers” and exclude most hereditary peers.
- Most parliaments use a unicameral system, with fewer parliaments worldwide implementing bicameral systems.
- Since African Americans vote in considerable numbers, representatives in the U.S. South take care not to offend them.
- Assignment to the more prestigious of Congressional committees, such as the House Ways and Means Committee or Armed Services Committee, is frequently damaging to representatives’ careers, and thus, they tend to avoid these assignments.
- In parliamentary systems, particularly those in Europe, party discipline is strong and legislators obey party whips.
- The European parliaments really are more rational and efficient than the U.S. Congress, but they are also less powerful and less interesting. Efficiency has led to atrophy.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
- In Britain, Sweden, and some other European countries, legislatures slowly grew in power and were able to resist monarchs’ __________ demands.
- __________ systems most clearly show the separation of power between the executive and legislative branches.
- Within parliamentary systems, if no one party has a majority of seats, two or more parties must form a __________.
- The United States Founding Fathers insisted on “checks and balances,” otherwise known as ___________.
- Members of Parliament with no executive responsibilities sit behind the cabinets and are called __________.
- Like some two-thirds of parliaments around the world, the French __________ maintains a bicameral legislature.
- One good way to study something is to see how it changes over time, or a __________ study.
- In Britain, the __________ allows members of Parliament to grill ministers, sometimes with devastating results.
- In Democratic parliaments, once a bill reports favorably out of committee it goes to __________, where it needs a majority vote to pass.
- For better or worse, a __________ age has shifted power away from legislatures.
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
- Explain the development of feudalism and the “balance of powers.”
- Differentiate between presidential and parliamentary systems.
- Describe the benefits and pitfalls of bicameral and unicameral legislatures.
- Evaluate the work of today’s legislators. To what extent are they responsible for creating laws?
- Analyze the decline of parliamentary power.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
- Examine the origins of parliaments by comparing feudalism and absolutism. How did one develop into the other and what effect has that system had on today’s separation of powers?
- Compare and contrast presidential and parliamentary systems. How are they similar? In what ways are they disparate? Evaluate each system using specific examples.
- Differentiate between bicameral and unicameral systems, evaluating the benefits and detriments to each. Overall, which seems like the most effective legislative system? Provide examples from your text.
- Examine the committee system. How do committees function to create laws? What other roles do committees play in the process of legislative representation? Assess the advantages and disadvantages of these roles.
- Investigate the decline of legislatures from the late nineteenth century to the present. How has legislative power declined and where is that power currently centralized? What changes, social or otherwise, influenced that shift? Does this shift enforce or disrupt the balance of powers?
Chapter 14- Executives and Bureaucracies
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- The head of ministry is equivalent to the __________ in the United States.
- A) chief of government
- B) head of state
- C) departmental secretary
- D) premier
- Which country refers to its prime minister as a chancellor?
- A) Italy
- B) Germany
- C) Britain
- D) France
- How many years does a president serve in France’s semipresidential system?
- A) eight
- B) seven
- C) four
- D) five
- Who directly calls forth the leader of the largest party to take office with a cabinet and become the prime minister?
- A) The voters
- B) Parliament
- C) The monarch
- D) The House of Commons
- Explain the process by which the Chancellor of Germany can be ousted.
- A) The chancellor is tried by the Bundestag, resulting in an impeachment.
- B) The chancellor can be ousted by using “constructive no confidence,” in which the Bundestag votes in a replacement cabinet.
- C) The Bundestag holds a majority vote to oust the chancellor.
- D) The chancellor can be ousted with “constructive no confidence,” in which a replacement cabinet overthrows the current chancellor.
- Describe how the election process in a parliamentary system slightly resembles presidential elections in the United States.
- A) Party chiefs run as candidates for prime minister.
- B) Citizens vote directly for the each new prime minister.
- C) Citizens vote for a party member with the knowledge that the next prime minister will be the head of the largest party.
- D) The prime minister is appointed for a four-year term and can be reappointed one time.
- The only political system that could guarantee the cooperation between the legislative and executive branches is __________.
- A) a monarchy
- B) a dictatorship
- C) a democracy
- D) an oligarchy
- When it comes to electing officials, which factor matters the most to voters in both presidential and parliamentary elections?
- A) Party affiliation
- B) Political ideologies
- C) Money invested in campaign
- D) Personality
- How did Israel’s practice of directly electing prime ministers prove that combining parliamentary and presidentialism does not create a stable government?
- A) Israelis voted for smaller parties to make up the legislature, resulting in a fractionated Knesset that could easily vote out the prime minister via a motion of confidence.
- B) Israeli voters elected a prime minister from a minority party and chose only majority party members for the legislature.
- C) The hybrid system was met with a lower voter turnout than in previous years.
- D) After voting for a prime minister, many Israeli voters did not participate in the election of the legislature.
- Distinguish the process that a parliamentary system uses to oust a chief executive from the one available in the United States presidential system.
- A) Parliamentary systems rely on impeachment, presidential ones rely on constructive no confidence.
- B) Parliamentary systems use constructive no confidence while presidential systems have the option of impeachment.
- C) The prime minister can dissolve parliament and the president can resign from office.
- D) Parliamentary systems can hold a vote of no confidence and presidential ones have the option of impeachment.
- Greenstein referred to Eisenhower’s presidency as the __________ presidency.
- A) “hands-off”
- B) “hands-on”
- C) “hidden-hand”
- D) “open-hand”
- What is considered the “trump card” for a democracy?
- A) Electoral punishment
- B) Impeachment
- C) Electoral college
- D) Checks and balances
- Who receives the most attention in both parliamentary and presidential systems?
- A) Head of state
- B) Chief executive
- C) The legislature
- D) Voting citizens
- Labeled as “hands-off” by critics, President Reagan notably took __________.
- A) brisk walks and laborious hikes
- B) afternoon naps and frequent vacations
- C) road trips and long showers
- D) afternoon tea and second desserts
- Indicate which graph you would use if you wanted each data point to lead up to the following data point.
- A) Bar graph
- B) Scatter plot
- C) Flow chart
- D) Line graph
- You should use a bar graph to __________.
- A) demonstrate and plot change over time
- B) compare the differences between several items at the same time
- C) use more than one color for each item presented
- D) only for data that trends upwards, never downwards
- As the executive sees increased power, the __________ suffer a decrease.
- A) cabinet
- B) voters
- C) legislatures
- D) military
- Provide an example of what happens when a President takes on a more “hands-off” approach.
- A) The president grows stressed and tired after devoting a great deal of time to their administration.
- B) Senators must decide whether or not soldiers are sent into war if the president cannot make the decision on his own.
- C) After receiving only general directions from the president, subordinates commit an illegal transaction of goods and transfer money overseas.
- D) Subordinates of the administration receive both blame and praise for decisions made by the president.
- Choose a graph to best compare the age of voters and voter activity within the Unites States.
- A) Bar graph
- B) Line graph
- C) Scatter plot
- D) Pie chart
- How did President Reagan earn a second term in spite of his “hands-off” approach?
- A) He promised to take on a more “hands-on” approach during his second term.
- B) Citizens saw little to no flaws with his “hands-off” approach.
- C) He switched to a more “hands-on” approach in the months leading up to the election.
- D) He focused on his personality and ability to project a calm mood amongst citizens.
- In the case of both parliamentary and presidential systems, examine the reason democracies will not vanish, even though the executive seems to be receiving more and more power.
- A) Checks and balances keep the chief executive from gaining too much power.
- B) Chief executives will eventually have to face reelection, which depends greatly on the approval of voting citizens.
- C) Both systems have methods by which to oust chief executives.
- D) Subordinates carry out some of the workload of the chief executive.
- Cabinets in the United States are comprised of __________ members.
- A) 20 or more
- B) 10 or less
- C) a total of 15
- D) a total of 20
- Each division of government in a parliamentary system is headed by a __________.
- A) secretary
- B) president
- C) prime minister
- D) minister
- Describe how the United States expands its cabinet.
- A) The president can create a new department at his or her will.
- B) Congress must agree on the new department and provisions for its funds must be made.
- C) In order for a new department to be developed, a former one must be deleted.
- D) New departments are no longer developed.
- Explain which type of candidate parliamentary systems seek out to become ministers.
- A) Those who have experience winning elections and serving on a parliamentary committee
- B) Newcomers who can bring in a fresh perspective to the ministry
- C) Individuals who possess a great knowledge of the specific ministry’s area
- D) Those who have political experience regardless of whether or not they have been elected in the past
- What is the role of cabinet members?
- A) Cabinet members assist chief executives by designing and heading their own divisions of government.
- B) Cabinet members work independently from chief executives by heading a major executive division of government.
- C) Cabinets members assist chief executives by heading a major executive division of government.
- D) Cabinet members work independently from chief executives by designing and heading their own divisions of government.
- Which department emerged as a response to unemployed workers?
- A) Department of Health and Human Services
- B) Department of Homeland Security
- C) Department of Labor
- D) Department of Housing and Urban Development
- How does the addition of the Department of Energy exemplify the United States’ tendency to rely on the marketplace to make its decisions?
- A) The department was created when the United States became a leading industry of energy supply.
- B) The department was created in response to the 1970s energy crisis, in which many nations had reached a shortage of energy supply.
- C) The department was created in order to keep up with parliamentary systems that created their own ministries devoted to issues related to energy.
- D) The department was created in response to the 1970’s energy crisis, in which many nations had an abundance of energy supply.
- Why is it that few Americans can name three or more cabinet members?
- A) Cabinet members are primarily responsible for asking Congress for money to fund their departments, meaning they aren’t in the public eye as much.
- B) Given the amount of departments within the United States, Americans only learn about those in which they are interested.
- C) Because Americans do not directly elect cabinet members, they are unaware of who hold the positions.
- D) Few cabinet members are actually well-known politicians.
- A __________ is any large organization of appointed officials who implement laws and policies.
- A) government
- B) bureaucracy
- C) democracy
- D) cabinet
- If you have no bureaucracy, you have no __________.
- A) democracy
- B) chief executive
- C) presidential system
- D) government
- Describe a career civil servant.
- A) A civil servant who is elected based on their knowledge of a specialized area
- B) A professional civil servant who is not a political appointee, but answers to elected officials
- C) A civil servant who provides consultation to elected officials and does not have to abide by certain laws as other civil servants do
- D) A civil servant who works under an elected official with the intent of running for election one day
- What are the differences between a “temporary government” and a “permanent government?”
- A) Elected officials make up the “temporary government” while civil service make up the “permanent government.”
- B) Civil service makes up the “temporary government” while elected officials make up the “permanent government.”
- C) The “temporary government” is another name for bureaucracy while “permanent government” refers to civil service.
- D) The “temporary government” refers to civil service while the “permanent government” is another name for bureaucracy.
- How is the Roman Catholic Church bureaucratic in an ideal sense?
- A) The Pope, in most cases, must carry out his term until death.
- B) People donate large amounts of money to the Roman Catholic Church on an annual basis.
- C) It was established during the Middle Ages, and therefore has a long history of tradition.
- D) There is a chain of command in which the power starts with the Pope and moves down to the priest of the church.
- Would the United States government be classified as a bureaucracy if we eliminated the chain of command for the president?
- A) No, because a bureaucracy cannot exist without some sort of hierarchy of authority.
- B) Yes, because a bureaucracy naturally exists within any large organization.
- C) Yes, because the chain of command cannot be eliminated.
- D) Yes, because we would still have democracy, a key component to bureaucracy.
- Examine how a chain of command betters a bureaucracy.
- A) A chain of command creates a sense of uniformity and predictability within a government system.
- B) A chain of command establishes tradition, which is very important to bureaucracy.
- C) A chain of command is the only way for a government to operate and function properly.
- D) A chain of command does not better a bureaucracy.
- The current U.S. cabinets employ between __________ and __________ percent of all federal civil servants.
- A) 80; 90
- B) 75; 80
- C) 85; 90
- D) 70; 80
- One who is not interested in or participating in politics is __________.
- A) anti-political
- B) anarchical
- C) anti-establishment
- D) apolitical
- Which country referred to its state nobility as the Junkers?
- A) Germany
- B) Prussia
- C) France
- D) Britain
- Explain what happened to Japan’s economic state after World War II?
- A) The economy crumbled and remained in disarray until the 1990s.
- B) World War II did not affect Japan’s economic state, which had been prosperous before the war.
- C) The economy experienced an intense growth that lasted until the 1990s.
- D) World War II boosted Japan’s economy, which has been consistently growing ever since.
- Explain how corruption still occurs within China, even though party members are supposed to combat such occurrences.
- A) China’s authoritarian government depends on the cadres, who engage in corruptive practices such as accepting bribes and fake “taxes,” to run the country.
- B) The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection expels party members who do not agree with the cadres’ corruptive practices, thereby eliminating the opposition.
- C) China’s Communist system prevents any of its officials from losing power.
- D) Any corruption done by the cadres does not hurt the regime in anyway.
- Discuss the differences between Germany’s bureaucrats and those of the U.S. and Britain.
- A) German bureaucrats believe that the law is flexible, whereas those in the U.S. and Britain see it as a set system of codes.
- B) German bureaucrats do not have a background in law, while those in the U.S. and Britain are often educated in law.
- C) German bureaucrats have a background in law that allows them to see the law as a set system of codes, whereas those in the U.S. and Britain manage to see law in a similar way without the required background.
- D) German bureaucrats believe the law is a set system of codes, while those in the U.S. and Britain see common law as more flexible.
- How are health warnings on cigarettes an example of bureaucracies having more power than Congress in some cases?
- A) Congress needed the approval of both the Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health and the surgeon general before requiring cigarette manufacturers to print health warnings.
- B) The Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health worked in tandem with the surgeon general to petition for cigarette manufacturers to print health warning, eventually forcing manufacturers to comply.
- C) The Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health and the surgeon general used data indicating that cigarettes increased lung cancer to put pressure on Congress, which eventually forced manufacturers to print warnings.
- D) Congress did not have the power to require cigarette manufacturers to print health warning on their label, but the Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health and the surgeon general did.
- Demonstrate how the majority of civil servants in the United States are employed by the local government.
- A) Local government provides many government services including schools and police, resulting in a greater number of civil servants at the local level.
- B) The majority of people are employed by local government because there are more of them in the nation than state or federal governments.
- C) Local government creates jobs that are easier to obtain than state or federal.
- D) Most people start out at the local government level before advancing to the state and federal levels.
- In what ways are French and Japanese bureaucracies similar?
- A) Japan’s vice ministers carry out much of the same tasks as France’s permanent secretaries.
- B) Both countries are heavily bureaucratized, with Japan having been modeled after France’s civil servants.
- C) Bureaucrats in Japan and France work in complete tandem with elected officials.
- D) Japanese and French bureaucrats focus primarily on finances and the economy.
- What evidence can you present in support of the reformation of Japan’s bureaucracy?
- A) Some believe that “no one is in charge” in Japan.
- B) The vice minister has more power than the minister of a ministry.
- C) Japanese civil servants retire at younger ages.
- D) Bureaucratic supervision has led to a flat economy after decades of economic prosperity.
- Which country became the least corrupt Latin American country by cutting back on its number of bureaucrats?
- A) Argentina
- B) Chile
- C) Mexico
- D) Peru
- The efficiency with which goods or services are produced is __________.
- A) Parkinson’s Law
- B) profitability
- C) productivity
- D) economic growth
- Explain the effects of having more regulations within a bureaucracy.
- A) More bureaucrats emerge when more regulations are instilled, resulting in more corruption.
- B) More regulations lead to more organization within bureaucracy, resulting in less corruption.
- C) More regulations eliminate the need for as many bureaucrats, resulting in less corruption.
- D) More corruption occurs when more regulations are instilled due to less bureaucrats being needed.
- How do Americans typically view bureaucrats?
- A) As overpaid workers who stir up trouble
- B) As necessary components within the government
- C) As individuals who hold no real power
- D) As liaisons between the voting citizens and the elected officials
- How do countries like Finland and Singapore avoid corruption within their public administration when corruption seems to plague nearly all bureaucracies?
- A) They have scaled back on the number of bureaucrats, allowing for fewer officials to commit heinous acts.
- B) Both countries have a lower number of regulations compared to other countries around the world.
- C) Their professional bureaucrats do not make public policy, they only carry out laws established by elected officials.
- D) The cultures of these countries place a great emphasis on public service, allowing them to keep corruption out of their administration.
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
- In a presidential system, a deadlock refers to the executive and legislative branches blocking each other.
- As the primus inter pares, the prime minister cannot dismiss any ministers in his cabinet unless he or she appointed them.
- In the American presidential system, Congress possesses the ability to increase the powers of the executive branch in extreme cases where the nation’s safety is at risk.
- If the pattern moves upward, it shows growth in a line graph, but demonstrates a decline in a bar graph.
- If your thesis and graph results do not match it means the data you collected is incorrect and you should start over until you find results that match your thesis.
- In the United States, cabinet members are elected officials.
- The military is considered a bureaucratic system.
- The Five-Year Plans refers to Hitler’s plans for rapid, centrally administered industrial growth in Germany during the Third Reich.
- In 1870 Britain established a merit civil service that focused on competitive exams over patronage to combat issues of nepotism and corruption within the bureaucracy.
- Parkinson’s Law refers to the concept that work is completed ahead of schedule as to accomplish as much as possible in any given amount of time.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
- The “deadlock of democracy” in the United States is analogous to __________ in the parliamentary system.
- When a minister disagrees with government policy, they are expected to resign and return to their seats in __________.
- Out of the __________ presidents who were impeached by the House, __________ was the only one to resign.
- The __________ fiasco occurred under Reagan’s presidency.
- Covariance compares how two or more items __________.
- Many Western European governments added __________ to their cabinets in the 1980s.
- Based on qualifications pertaining to their educational background and examinations, civil servants are __________ officials.
- Due to their apolitical nature, British bureaucrats __________ the ministry’s policies regardless of who has the most power.
- Hitler gained supporters with the rise of the Third Reich, which brought about the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933, because the civil servant class loathed __________.
- Financiers gutted the regulatory role of the __________, leading to its part in the 2008 financial crisis.
SHORT ANSWER
- What powers do prime ministers possess that could possibly benefit the United States president if he or she also had them?
- Discuss the ways in which a president can find the middle ground between being hands-on and hands-off.
- How does the United States cabinet system sometimes resemble the European cabinet system?
- Interpret what Max Weber means when he claims that bureaucracy is unavoidable.
- How does the United States bureaucratic system compare with more communist ones, like China and the Soviet Union?
ESSAY QUESTIONS
- How long can a prime minister remain in office compared to a president? Why are executive terms established for presidents but not prime ministers? How do fixed terms place a check on presidents? Are there any downfalls to the fixed term? Does either method seem more efficient?
- Compare and contrast cabinet ministers with departmental secretaries. Provide examples in your discussion of their similarities and differences. How might cabinet ministers be better equipped for their role? What problems do department secretaries typically have?
- Describe what it means to be a bureaucracy. Would bureaucracy function without the career civil service? Explain. Given what we know, does Britain have a tighter bureaucracy than the United States? Why or why not? Indicate what this reveals about the United States?
- How is Japan an example of a more extreme bureaucratic system? Are there any benefits to a bureaucratic system run like this? What are the consequences? If a bureaucratic system such as this fumbles, what can be done to repair the damages?
- Why does bureaucracy receive so much hate? How are the actions of bureaucrats perceived by the public? Describe attempts by public administration to solve the problem of bureaucrats. Does the issue ever get solved? Why or why not? Is this evidence that even a corrupt bureaucracy is better than no bureaucracy?
Chapter 15- Judiciaries
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- Unlike natural law, positive law uses __________.
- A) the spirit of the law to make determinations
- B) books to reach conclusions
- C) judicial sentencing to determine case outcomes
- D) jury selection to manipulate judgment
- Which of the following issues is a civil concern?
- A) Extortion
- B) Theft
- C) Divorce
- D) Trafficking
- International law consists of __________ and established customs recognized by most nations.
- A) treaties
- B) ratification
- C) amendments
- D) cease-fires
- Which of the following is an important role of U.S. courts and their greatest contribution to governance?
- A) Assure statutory laws do not violate the constitution
- B) Protect individual rights and liberties
- C) Guarantee administrative usages do not get out of hand
- D) Judicial review
- Developed by medieval Catholic theologians, what type of law argues that observing nature reveals God’s will?
- A) Natural law
- B) Divine law
- C) God’s law
- D) Higher law
- What are the key mechanisms of international law?
- A) Reciprocity and coalition
- B) Consistency and reciprocity
- C) Consistency and coherence
- D) Coalition and coherence
- What is the U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding state obligation to international treaties?
- A) States maintain the right to select which treaties they will observe.
- B) States have no obligation to observe international treaties.
- C) States must observe international treaties ratified by the United States.
- D) States must observe international treaties ratified by state legislatures.
- Which of the following U.S. Supreme Court rulings reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson decision?
- A) Roe v. Wade
- B) Brown v. Board of Education
- C) Miranda v. Arizona
- D) Lawrence v. Texas
- Distinguish between primitive and modern judicial systems.
- A) Primitive legal systems rely largely on labyrinthine written and codified laws, while modern systems rely on oral rhetoric.
- B) Modern legal systems utilize recent advances in technology, while primitive legal systems must do without such amenities.
- C) Modern legal systems better ensure the rights of citizens, while primitive systems function on superstition and disbelief.
- D) Primitive legal systems are oral and consist of customs and beliefs, while modern systems are written and largely codified.
- Under which of the following circumstances might a case be pursued as both a criminal and a civil case?
- A) The federal government accuses investment houses of wrongdoing and investors who lost money sue them.
- B) Drug traffickers violate property and federal law by moving drugs across state borders.
- C) Burglars violate federal property and the state sues them for damages.
- D) A state accuses banks of mortgage fraud, sold to investors elsewhere in the nation.
- How many judicial structures comprise the U.S. court system?
- A) 23
- B) 47
- C) 51
- D) 75
- To what judicial authority can federal court decisions be appealed?
- A) Department of Citizen Security
- B) Secretary of Judicial Revisions
- C) Federal Oversight Commission
- D) U.S. Court of Appeals
- State court systems handle about __________ of the nation’s legal business.
- A) 30%
- B) 50%
- C) 70%
- D) 90%
- The English common law stressed the rights of free and equal men and was developed on the basis of precedent set by earlier judges, known today as __________.
- A) judge-made law
- B) judicial precedent
- C) example by trial
- D) court-generated
- Who nominates and approves federal judges in the U.S. court system?
- A) The President and the Senate
- B) The Senate and the House
- C) The President and Speaker of the House
- D) The Senate and the Secretary of State
- What legal agency in the United States generates reputation-based ratings of prospective federal judges?
- A) Judicial Ratings Bureau
- B) Federal Bureau of Judicial Review
- C) American Bar Association
- D) Office of Legal Assessment
- What did President Obama do to counterbalance the U.S. Supreme Court’s Conservative tilt?
- A) He appointed one African American justice and one Hispanic justice.
- B) He appointed two liberal women justices.
- C) He reinforced executive privilege.
- D) He appointed one conservative and one moderate justice.
- Describe the primary jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court.
- A) It makes initial rulings on all federal cases, civil and criminal.
- B) It rules on high penalty cases, including those with life sentences and the death penalty.
- C) Its jurisdiction is almost entirely appellate, from lower federal or state supreme courts.
- D) Its jurisdiction is broad, ranging from appellate rulings to original rulings in federal crimes.
- Compare the election cycles of federal and state judges.
- A) State judges are elected directly, while federal judges go through an electoral college.
- B) State judges are elected based on population, while federal judges are elected per state.
- C) State judges are elected, while federal judges are appointed.
- D) The election process is nearly identical.
- Evaluate the political lean of President Eisenhower’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees.
- A) He exclusively nominated members of his own party, tipping the balance in his favor.
- B) He nominated candidates from both parties, seeking a balanced court.
- C) He nominated two Republicans and one independent, the first to be nominated to the Supreme Court.
- D) He nominated ethnic minorities, including one African American and the first Jewish justice.
- Anglo-American courts function on a(n) __________ and __________ process.
- A) adversarial; authoritarian
- B) accusatorial; ambivalent
- C) authoritarian; removed
- D) accusatorial; adversarial
- In the European court system, the prosecutor is an official who forwards evidence to the __________.
- A) investigating judge
- B) judicial panel
- C) case review board
- D) district attorney
- “The only lawyer around here is a Kalashnikov,” despaired one Russian, referring to the __________.
- A) district attorney
- B) prosecutor
- C) assault rifle
- D) Putin administration
- Describe the significance of Marbury v. Madison.
- A) The ruling laid precedent for judicial review.
- B) The ruling stated that the president is subject to the court’s decisions.
- C) The ruling decreed that current administrations must honor the appointments of previous administrations.
- D) The ruling claimed that federal taxes could not be levied on the states.
- Identify the role of French lawyers.
- A) They listen to the opposing argument and attempt to demonstrate logical or factual mistakes, hoping to sway the lay jury in the summation argument.
- B) They question witnesses to bring evidence to light, laying the groundwork for a closing argument.
- C) They listen passively as the opposing side questions the witness, interjecting only on grounds of mistaken procedure.
- D) They procure evidence for indictment but allow the judge to question witnesses, playing no active role in the trial process.
- How long is the tenure of British judges?
- A) Six years
- B) Eight years
- C) Twelve years
- D) Life
- Examine the ideal role of American judges.
- A) Judges should intervene frequently, interpreting the law according to their expertise and ensuring a fair trial.
- B) Judges should act as umpires, passively watching the legal drama and ruling only on disputed points of procedure.
- C) Judges should not intervene unless attorneys object, at which point they may either overrule or sustain the objection.
- D) Judges should take an active role, questioning witnesses, eliciting evidence, and commenting on procedure.
- Describe the role of theft on the post-Stalin Russian legal system.
- A) Theft was punished severely: a mere indictment almost certainly assured a 10-year prison sentence.
- B) With strict punishments set in place, theft greatly declined in the years after Stalin’s rule.
- C) Theft became the norm for Soviet economic life and helped bring down the system.
- D) Because all government property “belong[ed] to the people,” private citizens could legally steal from the government.
- Compare Anglo-American courts to those in Russia.
- A) Anglo-American courts include bourgeois concepts, such as property law and civil rights, whereas the Soviet-developed Russian system excludes these concepts.
- B) The Russian court is a passive institution that does not seek to correct lawbreakers or to apprehend criminals, whereas the Anglo-American system is an active institution.
- C) Courts in Russia frequently indict politicians disloyal to the president’s agenda, whereas Anglo-American courts remain separate from politics.
- D) Russian courts represent the upper class, while American courts protect the interests of common laborers.
- Distinguish the roles of Russia’s Committee on State Security (KGB) and the current Federal Security Service (FSB).
- A) The KGB was a corrupt organization, devoted to protecting Russia’s elite; the FSB protects the people’s interests.
- B) Unlike the KGB which focused primarily on counter-cultural activities, the FSB functions more as a Secret Service to protect the president from possible threats.
- C) The FSB aims to expose government corruptions, while the KGB protected it.
- D) The FSB continues the KGB’s aim, to make sure those in power stay in power.
- Which United States Federalist is famous for noting that the courts could limit legislative authority?
- A) George Washington
- B) John Adams
- C) Alexander Hamilton
- D) James Madison
- Which of the following actions comprise roles of the German Constitutional Court?
- A) It maintains liberty, defends civil rights, and protects the people against autocratic rule.
- B) It decides cases between states, protects civil liberties, and outlaws dangerous political parties.
- C) It reviews new laws against the constitution (Basic Law), assesses criminal cases, and checks political campaign funds.
- D) It preserves checks and balances, maintains separation of powers, and occasionally reverses decisions of lower courts.
- Strong-willed U.S. presidents have resisted the authority of the Court. Which of the following presidents notably disagreed with the Court’s decisions?
- A) Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln
- B) Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan
- C) John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter
- D) Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Calvin Coolidge
- The concept of judicial review falls under which article of the U.S. Constitution?
- A) Article I: The Legislative Branch
- B) Article III: The Judicial Branch
- C) Article VI: Debts, Supremacy, Oaths
- D) Judicial review is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
- Which of the following was an argument against granting the U.S. Supreme Court the power of judicial review?
- A) Many feared that such a power would give the Court a double check and compromise its neutrality.
- B) Some thought that such power would create untrustworthy judges.
- C) The founding fathers argued that judicial review would lead to undue indictments by the Court.
- D) Drafters of the Constitution feared that few laws would ever be set in stone.
- Which Swiss agency determines whether a cantonal law violates the Swiss constitution?
- A) National Judicial Branch
- B) Swiss Supreme Court
- C) Federal Tribunal
- D) Constitutional Review Board
- Compared to other countries, what is the perceived corruption in the United States, relative to income?
- A) Somewhat low
- B) Somewhat high
- C) Extremely low
- D) Extremely high
- Which of the following best articulates the stance of judicial restraint advocates?
- A) Judicial review is the best and only true method of checking legislative power.
- B) The court should practice restraint in cases in which legislative acts are presented for interpretation.
- C) Only the executive branch can restrain the Court, keeping the power of judicial review in balance with the other governing branches.
- D) Only Congress should make public policy and, unless a legislative act clearly violates the Constitution, the law should stand.
- How does the American concept of judicial review compare to the role of courts in foreign systems?
- A) Most countries maintain a similar process of judicial review, which evaluates federal laws against the nation’s constitution.
- B) Judicial review is more highly developed in the United States than in any other country, and Americans expect more of their courts than do other peoples.
- C) The United States is the only developed nation to maintain the process of judicial review.
- D) Most foreign constitutions are exempt from judicial review, stripping the courts of any power they might have in shaping legislation.
- Analyze the U.S. Supreme Court within context of Germany’s Constitutional Court.
- A) Because Germany’s Constitutional Court operates within a more rigid code of law, its decisions do not have the impact of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
- B) Due to executive restraints, Germany’s Constitutional Court is less powerful than the U.S. Supreme Court.
- C) Germany’s Constitutional Court is more codified than the U.S. Supreme Court, making it rival and sometimes overrule the executive branch.
- D) The U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings function as the “law of the land,” while the Constitutional Court may still be overruled.
- Historically, Supreme Court justices used to be exclusively __________ upper- or upper-middle-class males.
- A) powerful
- B) WASP
- C) New England
- D) Christian
- Some justices, like __________ (one of six Jewish justices) and __________ (the first black justice), were active in reform and civil rights causes and brought their liberalism to the bench.
- A) Ruth Ginsberg; Earl Warren
- B) Owen Roberts; Hugo Black
- C) Arthur Goldberg; Clarence Thomas
- D) Louis Brandeis; Thurgood Marshall
- The Supreme Court’s decision in __________ (1954) triggered a revolution in American race relations, an area Congress had been unwilling to touch.
- A) Miranda v. Arizona
- B) Dred Scott v. Sandford
- C) Brown v. Board of Education
- D) Gibbons v. Ogden
- In Lombard v. Louisiana (1963), the Warren Court supported __________, ruling that blacks who had refused to leave a segregated lunch counter could not be prosecuted.
- A) boycotts
- B) sit-ins
- C) picket lines
- D) protests
- Among the most famous rulings in a criminal procedure, Mapp v. Ohio (1961) ruled that __________.
- A) evidence seized without a warrant was inadmissible in a state court
- B) police could seize any item deemed “evidence” in the absence of a warrant
- C) officers may lawfully search any person under the guise of “probable cause”
- D) law enforcement officers may search private residences without a warrant
- This 1966 case ruled that arrested persons must immediately be told of their right to remain silent and to have a lawyer present during police questioning.
- A) Escobedo v. Illinois
- B) Gideon v. Wainwright
- C) Miranda v. Arizona
- D) Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
- What have been the implications of the 2010 Citizens United case?
- A) Corporations were deemed as non-persons, and thus cannot contribute directly to political campaigns.
- B) Individuals, corporations, and unions may now contribute unlimited campaign funds through so-called “super-PACs.”
- C) Despite being considered collections of people by the Court, corporations may not donate to political campaigns.
- D) Individuals may donate unlimited campaign funds, but corporations face a stiff $100,000 cap.
- What was perhaps the most conservative shift of the Roberts Court?
- A) The Court took on notably fewer cases than before, reversing the tendency to use the Court at a back-up legislature.
- B) The Court ruled conservatively on abortion cases, whereas the previous Court tended to rule on the pro-choice side.
- C) Roberts and colleagues seemed more heavily influenced by outside opinion, lessening the Court’s ostensible objectivity.
- D) Despite its liberal rulings on gun control, the Court ruled conservatively on gay rights and immigration issues.
- Analyze the series of court decisions in 1962 and 1964 finding that unequal representation denied citizens their Fourteenth Amendment rights.
- A) The Court ordered that state legislatures apply the principle of “one person, one vote” in redrawing electoral lines.
- B) State legislatures were ordered to redraw district lines to better represent African Americans.
- C) The Republican party was censured for excluding the black vote using voter ID laws.
- D) States were forced to add one representative per 100,000 people to better serve impoverished areas.
- Compare the Warren Court to those immediately succeeding it.
- A) The Warren Court was generally considered conservative, but subsequent courts were seen as more liberal.
- B) Subsequent courts were conservative, but not nearly as conservative as the Warren Court.
- C) Succeeding Courts failed to represent the conservative agenda of the Warren Court.
- D) While the Warren Court was rather progressive, subsequent courts were viewed as conservative.
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
- With only 2.3 million people in U.S. jails, we rarely hear about the criminal law system.
- Because in the United States the ultimate responsibility of interpreting the Constitution rests with the U.S. Supreme Court, laws cannot change once they’ve been ruled on.
- The federal courts hear many diversity jurisdiction cases, in which the issue deals with state law but residents are from different states.
- The pinnacle of the federal court system is the U.S. Supreme Court, consisting of one chief justice and six associate justices.
- In British and American criminal cases, the police investigate and report to a public prosecutor, often a county’s district attorney. The case is then passed to a judge who must decide whether to prosecute.
- British judges are nominally appointed by the prime minister, but the choice is really the monarch’s, based on recommendations of the lord chancellor.
- Court structures in other Western democracies largely parallel the U.S. system, but tend not to do as much in terms of governing.
- The U.S. Supreme Court’s power to review the constitutionality of federal legislative enactments is not mentioned specifically in the Constitution and has been vehemently challenged.
- Richard Nixon in the 1968 campaign championed the Warren Court, claiming that its decisions had cracked down on crime and better secured the nation’s streets.
- Under the Roberts Court, Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade received some limits, marking the Court as generally conservative, but federal authority to curb greenhouse gases was affirmed, and liberals celebrated.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
- Criminal offences are divided into three categories, petty offences, misdemeanors, and __________.
- In the United States, we focus on __________ law, that which is written and compiled by humans over the centuries.
- As French kings overturned feudalism in favor of absolutism, legal scholars revived __________ to bolster central government and encourage commerce.
- Appellate courts base their majority-vote verdict primarily on __________ submitted by the attorneys for both parties; oral arguments are limited.
- Russia’s post-Soviet legal system has continued much of its former legal structure because most personnel were trained under the __________.
- Unlike British courts, European ones are influenced by the French __________, and thus do not maintain separate criminal and civil divisions.
- In the 1950s, Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled against both the Communist and __________ parties, finding that they wanted to overthrow the constitutional order.
- Scandals are standard in Italy, Japan, and France, rendering those countries more corrupt than their wealth suggests. They are therefore __________ on the Corruption Perception Index.
- 1963’s Gideon v. Wainwright held that __________ defendants must be provided with legal counsel.
- In 1978’s __________ case, the Burger Court ruled that reserving quotas for black medical school applicants violated equal protection for whites.
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
- What is positive law and how is it different from natural law?
- How does the opposition party oppose and sometimes block the president’s Supreme Court nominations?
- How does the Russian court’s theoretical role differ from its practiced role?
- Discriminate between countries with low-perceived corruption and high-perceived corruption. How do these perceptions correlate with wealth?
- Analyze and evaluate presidential methods of dealing with undesirable Supreme Court rulings.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
- Identify the influence of natural law on the American legal system. To what extent do we base our laws on objective rationale? To what extent is it influenced by religious or spiritual thought? Be sure to evaluate the latter using specific examples from your text.
- Examine the process by which U.S. judges are nominated and confirmed. Does this seem like a fair process? What extent does it have on the political lean of the Court, and therefore, on United States law? Cite specific examples.
- Compare the role of Anglo-American courts to the role of the courts in Europe. In what ways are the similar? How do they differ? Which system exerts stronger influence on legislation, and which system better serves the welfare of its people?
- Consider the process by which the U.S. Supreme Court gained the power of judicial review. Does this power, as some founding fathers argued, upset the balance of powers? Cite specific examples to determine whether or not today’s Court reveals any bias, and whether or not that bias negatively affects citizens’ rights.
- Analyze the political impact of the Warren Court (1953-1969). What were some of the major reforms instigated by Chief Justice Warren? How did successive courts revise Warren’s precedent concerning the Supreme Court’s political role in governance?
Chapter 13- Legislatures
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- According to theorists, what happens to political institutions as they become more modern?
- A) Their infrastructures crumble under labyrinthine bureaucracy.
- B) They become more specialized, complex, and differentiated.
- C) They grow broader in scope and focus.
- D) They establish a militaristic presence and harsh economic policies.
- Often at war, ambitious European monarchs desperately needed revenues. Some of them started calling assemblies of notables to levy taxes. In return for their “power of the purse,” these assemblies received a modest input into royal policies. Such were the beginnings of the __________.
- A) American Congress
- B) French Estates General
- C) British Parliament
- D) Swedish Riksdag
- Which British monarch famously broke the nation’s ties with the Roman Catholic Church?
- A) George IV
- B) James I
- C) Charles II
- D) Henry VIII
- Which of the following terms is defined as the post-feudal concentration of power in a monarch?
- A) Absolutism
- B) Totalitarianism
- C) Teetotalism
- D) Monarchy
- Which of the following statements best defines feudalism?
- A) A political structure in which power is dispersed evenly.
- B) A system of political power dispersed among layers.
- C) A political structure in which power rests with church leaders.
- D) A system of political power distributed to the working class.
- By the seventeenth century, Parliament considered itself coequal with the monarch and even supreme in what area of rule?
- A) Taxes
- B) War
- C) Law
- D) Welfare
- The English Civil War erupted between which two political forces?
- A) Monarchists and democrats
- B) Democrats and parliamentarians
- C) Parliamentarians and royalists
- D) Loyalists and separatists
- English philosopher John Locke extolled the power of which governing branch as the most basic and important?
- A) Executive
- B) Judicial
- C) Legislative
- D) Parliamentary
- Countries with limits on government have usually had feudal pasts, which suggests what about the dispersion of power?
- A) Equal distribution of power is the only effective political structure.
- B) Power must be distributed by the working class.
- C) Power should be concentrated among the lower classes.
- D) Dispersion of power is good and concentration of power is bad.
- Why do the responsibilities of legislative and executive powers often overlap?
- A) Separation of powers is rarely clear-cut.
- B) Separation of powers is rare among industrialized nations.
- C) Separation of powers is absolute.
- D) Separation of powers grants obtuse levels of power to the executive branch.
- Which systems demonstrate the clearest separation of power between the executive and legislative branches?
- A) Parliamentary
- B) Presidential
- C) Monarchies
- D) Ministerial
- How often does the cabinet change in a parliamentary system?
- A) Every four years
- B) Every six years
- C) Every eight years
- D) When the cabinet is voted out or resigns
- In Europe, a cabinet is equivalent to a U.S. __________.
- A) administration
- B) congress
- C) president
- D) legislature
- In a parliamentary system, voters directly elect __________.
- A) members of parliament and the prime minister
- B) members of parliament and the ministerial cabinet
- C) members of parliament only
- D) the prime minister only
- Voters receive the most direct representation in which system?
- A) Parliamentary
- B) Presidential
- C) Electoral
- D) Coalition
- Because of the separation of powers inherent in a presidential system, some scholars think that executive-legislative __________is common in systems like that used in the United States.
- A) cooperation
- B) stagnation
- C) deadlock
- D) insolvency
- What is the effect of “divided” government, such as that used in the United States, on spending and policy formation?
- A) It encourages unhealthy spending and foolish policies.
- B) It holds down spending and foolish policies.
- C) It encourages irresponsible spending because representatives are held accountable for only a short amount of time.
- D) It encourages responsible spending, but is slow to implement policy.
- Which of the following terms identifies a primary danger to multiparty systems?
- A) Ombudsman
- B) Gridlock
- C) Stalemate
- D) Immobilism
- Which of the following is a possible advantage of parliamentary systems as compared to presidential systems?
- A) Parliamentary cabinets are held directly accountable to voters, and thus work closely with the legislature.
- B) Because the prime minister is held directly accountable to voters via approval ratings, parliamentary systems are more likely to pass legislature quickly and effectively.
- C) Presidents often become involved in scandals, trapping their administrations in bureaucratic quagmire and slowing legislature.
- D) Parliamentary cabinets can be quickly overturned, and thus, such systems can avoid the paralysis experienced in many presidential systems.
- Interpret the reason behind the swift passage of laws between Britain’s cabinet and the House of Commons.
- A) New laws move between the House of Commons and the House of Lords without electoral delay.
- B) The House of Commons consists only of the cabinet’s party, which is always loyal to the prime minister.
- C) The cabinet passes new laws to the House of Commons, where the prime minister’s party holds a majority.
- D) The prime minister uses “whip” tactics to maintain party coherence in the House of Commons.
- The United States parliament consists of two chambers, the __________ and the __________.
- A) executive; legislative
- B) Senate; House of Representatives
- C) president; Supreme Court
- D) president; Congress
- China’s National People’s Congress uses a __________ parliament.
- A) unicameral
- B) bicameral
- C) tricameral
- D) multicameral
- Germany’s __________ represents the 16 Länder and is coequal to the lower house on constitutional questions.
- A) Riksdag
- B) Reichstag
- C) Bundesrat
- D) Bildungsroman
- New Zealanders, Danes, and Swedes—all with __________ systems—concluded that their upper houses served no purpose and abolished them in recent decades.
- A) two-party
- B) unitary
- C) bicameral
- D) supervisory
- South Africa once had a three-chambered parliament, including __________.
- A) aristocrats, commoners and working-class people
- B) indigenous people, whites and immigrants
- C) West Africans, sub-Saharan people, and Arabs
- D) whites, mixed-race peoples, and East Indians
- Within a unitary system, how useful is an upper house?
- A) The upper house is absolutely necessary.
- B) Its utility waxes and wanes according to power distribution.
- C) It is less necessary than the lower house.
- D) Its usefulness is unclear.
- Assess the role of Britain’s House of Lords.
- A) The primary house in Britain’s parliament, they are the architects of most new laws in the United Kingdom.
- B) Holding similar weight as the House of Commons, they pass legislature in coordination with one another.
- C) A revisionary body, they rewrite laws vetoed by the prime minister.
- D) Mostly an elderly debating society, they sometimes catch errors in laws that are passed too quickly.
- Under the Unites States Constitution, the Senate represents __________ while the House represents __________.
- A) the states; the people
- B) federal interests; local ones
- C) foreign issues; domestic ones
- D) the president abroad; his interests at home
- Compare the parliamentary systems of China and Great Britain.
- A) Great Britain’s parliament is bicameral while China’s is unicameral.
- B) Great Britain’s parliament is unitary while China’s is solitary.
- C) China’s parliament is bicameral while Britain’s is unicameral.
- D) China’s parliament is three-chambered while Britain’s is bicameral.
- Examine the power relationship between Britain’s House of Commons and the House of Lords.
- A) The House of Lords is the upper house and thus determines most of the country’s foreign policy. The House of Commons deal with domestic affairs.
- B) The House of Commons overrides any objection from the House of Lords with a simple majority vote.
- C) The House of Lords is the more powerful branch drafting the majority of legislature and overriding weak legislating by the House of Commons.
- D) The House of Commons works with the prime minister, who uses a “whip” system to maintain coherence in the House of Lords.
- What sorts of bills do individual legislators create?
- A) Individual legislators draft most important legislation, including immigration reform.
- B) Most individual legislators focus on major legislation benefiting their party’s interests.
- C) Individual legislators draft minor legislation, such as tax breaks for constituents.
- D) Few individual legislators deal with minor legislation, such as smoking bans.
- Virtually every legislature has a number of standing or permanent committees and may from time to time create special __________ committees to study urgent matters.
- A) emergency
- B) crisis
- C) disaster
- D) ad hoc
- In the United States, the two houses have a total of about __________ subcommittees.
- A) 150
- B) 250
- C) 550
- D) 1,050
- Changes in the 1970s weakened the nearly tyrannical powers of American committee chairpersons by __________.
- A) making it easier to establish subcommittees
- B) restricting the chairpersons’ authority
- C) establishing specialized “field” committees
- D) altering their responsibilities to include international affairs
- The main purpose of legislative bodies, in theory, is to formulate laws. This, however, varies among political systems and is generally __________.
- A) increasing
- B) stagnating
- C) declining
- D) inflating
- Often lawmakers are so busy with __________ casework that they pay little attention to making laws.
- A) constituency
- B) environmental
- C) congressional
- D) commercial
- Assess the role of most modern legislators.
- A) Due to strict changes in the process, modern legislators focus solely on lawmaking.
- B) Because of increased advertising costs, many legislators spend most of their time raising funds for upcoming elections.
- C) Modern legislators function as ombudsmen, intervening with government on behalf of constituent complaints.
- D) Legislators work on contract, accepting campaign donations on behalf of legal causes.
- Identify three major criticisms both parties have leveled against the Obama administration.
- A) Over-spending, bailing out financial institutions, and complex healthcare reform
- B) Lax immigration policies, weak drug control, and failed national security policies
- C) Strict gun control laws, feeble immigration policies, and harsh healthcare mandates
- D) Frail drug policies, a weak handle on the terrorism threat, and ignorance of LGBTQ rights
- How did Democratic control of Congress allow the United States legislature to deal with the Iraq War?
- A) Congress set a timetable for the war’s end.
- B) Congress cut funding for foreign activities outlined by the executive branch.
- C) Congress was able to hold critical hearings.
- D) Congress blocked legislation extending executive privilege.
- Examine the psychological effect of apartheid legislature on South Africa’s racial majority.
- A) Black South Africans felt underrepresented, as the drafting legislature included less than 10 black African representatives.
- B) Created by a whites-only majority, black South Africans did not feel represented.
- C) Black South Africans accepted the laws, feeling powerless to affect change.
- D) Because the legislature passed in South Africa’s lower house, most black people begrudgingly accepted it.
- The U.S. Senate rules allow a member to declare a __________ to block legislation, which can be ended only with a vote of “cloture” (closure) by three-fifths of the Senate.
- A) debate
- B) filibuster
- C) bind
- D) tie-up
- The average annual number of filibusters in the U.S. Senate has __________ since 1981.
- A) greatly increased
- B) slightly increased
- C) greatly decreased
- D) fluctuated widely
- Projects that bring improvements to or spend money in a representative’s district are called __________.
- A) pork barrel
- B) log rolling
- C) whip projects
- D) flood control
- Which of the following is an effect of Congress’s fragmentation into committees and subcommittees?
- A) It hastens argumentation.
- B) It creates interparty splits.
- C) It allows representatives to ignore constituents.
- D) It delays agreement.
- In U.S. House contests, more than __________ of incumbents win.
- A) 30%
- B) 50%
- C) 70%
- D) 90%
- The U.S. pork barrel takes second place to the __________, whose legislators are famous for delivering massive (and often unneeded) public-works projects to their districts and shielding farmers from competition.
- A) French
- B) Australians
- C) Japanese
- D) Vietnamese
- Contrary to Locke’s expectations, nineteenth-century legislatures __________.
- A) lost power to the executive
- B) gained power over the executive
- C) stripped power from the executive
- D) maintained a cooperative relationship with the executive
- Due to its near-feudal dispersion of power with weaker party discipline and its tendency to deadlock, the U.S. legislature is considered highly __________.
- A) utilitarian
- B) domineering
- C) efficacious
- D) inefficient
- Assess Vladimir Putin’s handling of the deadlock between the Russian Duma and the executive branch under Boris Yeltsin.
- A) Under the auspices of the Unity Party, Putin seized power and now rules Russia under a one-party system.
- B) Putin spearheaded reforms under the National Party of the Left, which allowed parties in the Duma to more swiftly compromise.
- C) Putin founded his own party, which controls two-thirds of the Duma, but Russia is no longer a democracy.
- D) Putin led the ouster of Yeltsin’s administration, making way for faster legislation and a more democratic Russia.
- Evaluate the impact of absentee voting in the legislature.
- A) It may indicate that the system has grown overly labyrinthine and is in need of change.
- B) Absentee voting has little effect on legislative outcomes, as members who miss have no stake in the legislation being voted on.
- C) It almost certainly indicates that the legislator is misrepresenting his constituents and misusing taxpayer funds.
- D) It may indicate that the legislator is busy doing other important things, but may also indicate just plain laziness.
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
- During the Age of Enlightenment, French philosopher René DesCartes declared that liberty could be secured only if government were divided into four distinct branches, with the ability to check and balance each other.
- The French Estates General, with three houses (for nobles, clerics, and commoners), was the first successful example of parliamentary checks and balances.
- Cabinet and government, terms used interchangeably, are what Americans call an “administration.”
- The United States takes great pride in its fusion of powers.
- Britain’s House of Lords was reformed in 1999 to keep “life peers” and exclude most hereditary peers.
- Most parliaments use a unicameral system, with fewer parliaments worldwide implementing bicameral systems.
- Since African Americans vote in considerable numbers, representatives in the U.S. South take care not to offend them.
- Assignment to the more prestigious of Congressional committees, such as the House Ways and Means Committee or Armed Services Committee, is frequently damaging to representatives’ careers, and thus, they tend to avoid these assignments.
- In parliamentary systems, particularly those in Europe, party discipline is strong and legislators obey party whips.
- The European parliaments really are more rational and efficient than the U.S. Congress, but they are also less powerful and less interesting. Efficiency has led to atrophy.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
- In Britain, Sweden, and some other European countries, legislatures slowly grew in power and were able to resist monarchs’ __________ demands.
- __________ systems most clearly show the separation of power between the executive and legislative branches.
- Within parliamentary systems, if no one party has a majority of seats, two or more parties must form a __________.
- The United States Founding Fathers insisted on “checks and balances,” otherwise known as ___________.
- Members of Parliament with no executive responsibilities sit behind the cabinets and are called __________.
- Like some two-thirds of parliaments around the world, the French __________ maintains a bicameral legislature.
- One good way to study something is to see how it changes over time, or a __________ study.
- In Britain, the __________ allows members of Parliament to grill ministers, sometimes with devastating results.
- In Democratic parliaments, once a bill reports favorably out of committee it goes to __________, where it needs a majority vote to pass.
- For better or worse, a __________ age has shifted power away from legislatures.
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
- Explain the development of feudalism and the “balance of powers.”
- Differentiate between presidential and parliamentary systems.
- Describe the benefits and pitfalls of bicameral and unicameral legislatures.
- Evaluate the work of today’s legislators. To what extent are they responsible for creating laws?
- Analyze the decline of parliamentary power.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
- Examine the origins of parliaments by comparing feudalism and absolutism. How did one develop into the other and what effect has that system had on today’s separation of powers?
- Compare and contrast presidential and parliamentary systems. How are they similar? In what ways are they disparate? Evaluate each system using specific examples.
- Differentiate between bicameral and unicameral systems, evaluating the benefits and detriments to each. Overall, which seems like the most effective legislative system? Provide examples from your text.
- Examine the committee system. How do committees function to create laws? What other roles do committees play in the process of legislative representation? Assess the advantages and disadvantages of these roles.
- Investigate the decline of legislatures from the late nineteenth century to the present. How has legislative power declined and where is that power currently centralized? What changes, social or otherwise, influenced that shift? Does this shift enforce or disrupt the balance of powers?
Chapter 14- Executives and Bureaucracies
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- The head of ministry is equivalent to the __________ in the United States.
- A) chief of government
- B) head of state
- C) departmental secretary
- D) premier
- Which country refers to its prime minister as a chancellor?
- A) Italy
- B) Germany
- C) Britain
- D) France
- How many years does a president serve in France’s semipresidential system?
- A) eight
- B) seven
- C) four
- D) five
- Who directly calls forth the leader of the largest party to take office with a cabinet and become the prime minister?
- A) The voters
- B) Parliament
- C) The monarch
- D) The House of Commons
- Explain the process by which the Chancellor of Germany can be ousted.
- A) The chancellor is tried by the Bundestag, resulting in an impeachment.
- B) The chancellor can be ousted by using “constructive no confidence,” in which the Bundestag votes in a replacement cabinet.
- C) The Bundestag holds a majority vote to oust the chancellor.
- D) The chancellor can be ousted with “constructive no confidence,” in which a replacement cabinet overthrows the current chancellor.
- Describe how the election process in a parliamentary system slightly resembles presidential elections in the United States.
- A) Party chiefs run as candidates for prime minister.
- B) Citizens vote directly for the each new prime minister.
- C) Citizens vote for a party member with the knowledge that the next prime minister will be the head of the largest party.
- D) The prime minister is appointed for a four-year term and can be reappointed one time.
- The only political system that could guarantee the cooperation between the legislative and executive branches is __________.
- A) a monarchy
- B) a dictatorship
- C) a democracy
- D) an oligarchy
- When it comes to electing officials, which factor matters the most to voters in both presidential and parliamentary elections?
- A) Party affiliation
- B) Political ideologies
- C) Money invested in campaign
- D) Personality
- How did Israel’s practice of directly electing prime ministers prove that combining parliamentary and presidentialism does not create a stable government?
- A) Israelis voted for smaller parties to make up the legislature, resulting in a fractionated Knesset that could easily vote out the prime minister via a motion of confidence.
- B) Israeli voters elected a prime minister from a minority party and chose only majority party members for the legislature.
- C) The hybrid system was met with a lower voter turnout than in previous years.
- D) After voting for a prime minister, many Israeli voters did not participate in the election of the legislature.
- Distinguish the process that a parliamentary system uses to oust a chief executive from the one available in the United States presidential system.
- A) Parliamentary systems rely on impeachment, presidential ones rely on constructive no confidence.
- B) Parliamentary systems use constructive no confidence while presidential systems have the option of impeachment.
- C) The prime minister can dissolve parliament and the president can resign from office.
- D) Parliamentary systems can hold a vote of no confidence and presidential ones have the option of impeachment.
- Greenstein referred to Eisenhower’s presidency as the __________ presidency.
- A) “hands-off”
- B) “hands-on”
- C) “hidden-hand”
- D) “open-hand”
- What is considered the “trump card” for a democracy?
- A) Electoral punishment
- B) Impeachment
- C) Electoral college
- D) Checks and balances
- Who receives the most attention in both parliamentary and presidential systems?
- A) Head of state
- B) Chief executive
- C) The legislature
- D) Voting citizens
- Labeled as “hands-off” by critics, President Reagan notably took __________.
- A) brisk walks and laborious hikes
- B) afternoon naps and frequent vacations
- C) road trips and long showers
- D) afternoon tea and second desserts
- Indicate which graph you would use if you wanted each data point to lead up to the following data point.
- A) Bar graph
- B) Scatter plot
- C) Flow chart
- D) Line graph
- You should use a bar graph to __________.
- A) demonstrate and plot change over time
- B) compare the differences between several items at the same time
- C) use more than one color for each item presented
- D) only for data that trends upwards, never downwards
- As the executive sees increased power, the __________ suffer a decrease.
- A) cabinet
- B) voters
- C) legislatures
- D) military
- Provide an example of what happens when a President takes on a more “hands-off” approach.
- A) The president grows stressed and tired after devoting a great deal of time to their administration.
- B) Senators must decide whether or not soldiers are sent into war if the president cannot make the decision on his own.
- C) After receiving only general directions from the president, subordinates commit an illegal transaction of goods and transfer money overseas.
- D) Subordinates of the administration receive both blame and praise for decisions made by the president.
- Choose a graph to best compare the age of voters and voter activity within the Unites States.
- A) Bar graph
- B) Line graph
- C) Scatter plot
- D) Pie chart
- How did President Reagan earn a second term in spite of his “hands-off” approach?
- A) He promised to take on a more “hands-on” approach during his second term.
- B) Citizens saw little to no flaws with his “hands-off” approach.
- C) He switched to a more “hands-on” approach in the months leading up to the election.
- D) He focused on his personality and ability to project a calm mood amongst citizens.
- In the case of both parliamentary and presidential systems, examine the reason democracies will not vanish, even though the executive seems to be receiving more and more power.
- A) Checks and balances keep the chief executive from gaining too much power.
- B) Chief executives will eventually have to face reelection, which depends greatly on the approval of voting citizens.
- C) Both systems have methods by which to oust chief executives.
- D) Subordinates carry out some of the workload of the chief executive.
- Cabinets in the United States are comprised of __________ members.
- A) 20 or more
- B) 10 or less
- C) a total of 15
- D) a total of 20
- Each division of government in a parliamentary system is headed by a __________.
- A) secretary
- B) president
- C) prime minister
- D) minister
- Describe how the United States expands its cabinet.
- A) The president can create a new department at his or her will.
- B) Congress must agree on the new department and provisions for its funds must be made.
- C) In order for a new department to be developed, a former one must be deleted.
- D) New departments are no longer developed.
- Explain which type of candidate parliamentary systems seek out to become ministers.
- A) Those who have experience winning elections and serving on a parliamentary committee
- B) Newcomers who can bring in a fresh perspective to the ministry
- C) Individuals who possess a great knowledge of the specific ministry’s area
- D) Those who have political experience regardless of whether or not they have been elected in the past
- What is the role of cabinet members?
- A) Cabinet members assist chief executives by designing and heading their own divisions of government.
- B) Cabinet members work independently from chief executives by heading a major executive division of government.
- C) Cabinets members assist chief executives by heading a major executive division of government.
- D) Cabinet members work independently from chief executives by designing and heading their own divisions of government.
- Which department emerged as a response to unemployed workers?
- A) Department of Health and Human Services
- B) Department of Homeland Security
- C) Department of Labor
- D) Department of Housing and Urban Development
- How does the addition of the Department of Energy exemplify the United States’ tendency to rely on the marketplace to make its decisions?
- A) The department was created when the United States became a leading industry of energy supply.
- B) The department was created in response to the 1970s energy crisis, in which many nations had reached a shortage of energy supply.
- C) The department was created in order to keep up with parliamentary systems that created their own ministries devoted to issues related to energy.
- D) The department was created in response to the 1970’s energy crisis, in which many nations had an abundance of energy supply.
- Why is it that few Americans can name three or more cabinet members?
- A) Cabinet members are primarily responsible for asking Congress for money to fund their departments, meaning they aren’t in the public eye as much.
- B) Given the amount of departments within the United States, Americans only learn about those in which they are interested.
- C) Because Americans do not directly elect cabinet members, they are unaware of who hold the positions.
- D) Few cabinet members are actually well-known politicians.
- A __________ is any large organization of appointed officials who implement laws and policies.
- A) government
- B) bureaucracy
- C) democracy
- D) cabinet
- If you have no bureaucracy, you have no __________.
- A) democracy
- B) chief executive
- C) presidential system
- D) government
- Describe a career civil servant.
- A) A civil servant who is elected based on their knowledge of a specialized area
- B) A professional civil servant who is not a political appointee, but answers to elected officials
- C) A civil servant who provides consultation to elected officials and does not have to abide by certain laws as other civil servants do
- D) A civil servant who works under an elected official with the intent of running for election one day
- What are the differences between a “temporary government” and a “permanent government?”
- A) Elected officials make up the “temporary government” while civil service make up the “permanent government.”
- B) Civil service makes up the “temporary government” while elected officials make up the “permanent government.”
- C) The “temporary government” is another name for bureaucracy while “permanent government” refers to civil service.
- D) The “temporary government” refers to civil service while the “permanent government” is another name for bureaucracy.
- How is the Roman Catholic Church bureaucratic in an ideal sense?
- A) The Pope, in most cases, must carry out his term until death.
- B) People donate large amounts of money to the Roman Catholic Church on an annual basis.
- C) It was established during the Middle Ages, and therefore has a long history of tradition.
- D) There is a chain of command in which the power starts with the Pope and moves down to the priest of the church.
- Would the United States government be classified as a bureaucracy if we eliminated the chain of command for the president?
- A) No, because a bureaucracy cannot exist without some sort of hierarchy of authority.
- B) Yes, because a bureaucracy naturally exists within any large organization.
- C) Yes, because the chain of command cannot be eliminated.
- D) Yes, because we would still have democracy, a key component to bureaucracy.
- Examine how a chain of command betters a bureaucracy.
- A) A chain of command creates a sense of uniformity and predictability within a government system.
- B) A chain of command establishes tradition, which is very important to bureaucracy.
- C) A chain of command is the only way for a government to operate and function properly.
- D) A chain of command does not better a bureaucracy.
- The current U.S. cabinets employ between __________ and __________ percent of all federal civil servants.
- A) 80; 90
- B) 75; 80
- C) 85; 90
- D) 70; 80
- One who is not interested in or participating in politics is __________.
- A) anti-political
- B) anarchical
- C) anti-establishment
- D) apolitical
- Which country referred to its state nobility as the Junkers?
- A) Germany
- B) Prussia
- C) France
- D) Britain
- Explain what happened to Japan’s economic state after World War II?
- A) The economy crumbled and remained in disarray until the 1990s.
- B) World War II did not affect Japan’s economic state, which had been prosperous before the war.
- C) The economy experienced an intense growth that lasted until the 1990s.
- D) World War II boosted Japan’s economy, which has been consistently growing ever since.
- Explain how corruption still occurs within China, even though party members are supposed to combat such occurrences.
- A) China’s authoritarian government depends on the cadres, who engage in corruptive practices such as accepting bribes and fake “taxes,” to run the country.
- B) The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection expels party members who do not agree with the cadres’ corruptive practices, thereby eliminating the opposition.
- C) China’s Communist system prevents any of its officials from losing power.
- D) Any corruption done by the cadres does not hurt the regime in anyway.
- Discuss the differences between Germany’s bureaucrats and those of the U.S. and Britain.
- A) German bureaucrats believe that the law is flexible, whereas those in the U.S. and Britain see it as a set system of codes.
- B) German bureaucrats do not have a background in law, while those in the U.S. and Britain are often educated in law.
- C) German bureaucrats have a background in law that allows them to see the law as a set system of codes, whereas those in the U.S. and Britain manage to see law in a similar way without the required background.
- D) German bureaucrats believe the law is a set system of codes, while those in the U.S. and Britain see common law as more flexible.
- How are health warnings on cigarettes an example of bureaucracies having more power than Congress in some cases?
- A) Congress needed the approval of both the Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health and the surgeon general before requiring cigarette manufacturers to print health warnings.
- B) The Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health worked in tandem with the surgeon general to petition for cigarette manufacturers to print health warning, eventually forcing manufacturers to comply.
- C) The Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health and the surgeon general used data indicating that cigarettes increased lung cancer to put pressure on Congress, which eventually forced manufacturers to print warnings.
- D) Congress did not have the power to require cigarette manufacturers to print health warning on their label, but the Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health and the surgeon general did.
- Demonstrate how the majority of civil servants in the United States are employed by the local government.
- A) Local government provides many government services including schools and police, resulting in a greater number of civil servants at the local level.
- B) The majority of people are employed by local government because there are more of them in the nation than state or federal governments.
- C) Local government creates jobs that are easier to obtain than state or federal.
- D) Most people start out at the local government level before advancing to the state and federal levels.
- In what ways are French and Japanese bureaucracies similar?
- A) Japan’s vice ministers carry out much of the same tasks as France’s permanent secretaries.
- B) Both countries are heavily bureaucratized, with Japan having been modeled after France’s civil servants.
- C) Bureaucrats in Japan and France work in complete tandem with elected officials.
- D) Japanese and French bureaucrats focus primarily on finances and the economy.
- What evidence can you present in support of the reformation of Japan’s bureaucracy?
- A) Some believe that “no one is in charge” in Japan.
- B) The vice minister has more power than the minister of a ministry.
- C) Japanese civil servants retire at younger ages.
- D) Bureaucratic supervision has led to a flat economy after decades of economic prosperity.
- Which country became the least corrupt Latin American country by cutting back on its number of bureaucrats?
- A) Argentina
- B) Chile
- C) Mexico
- D) Peru
- The efficiency with which goods or services are produced is __________.
- A) Parkinson’s Law
- B) profitability
- C) productivity
- D) economic growth
- Explain the effects of having more regulations within a bureaucracy.
- A) More bureaucrats emerge when more regulations are instilled, resulting in more corruption.
- B) More regulations lead to more organization within bureaucracy, resulting in less corruption.
- C) More regulations eliminate the need for as many bureaucrats, resulting in less corruption.
- D) More corruption occurs when more regulations are instilled due to less bureaucrats being needed.
- How do Americans typically view bureaucrats?
- A) As overpaid workers who stir up trouble
- B) As necessary components within the government
- C) As individuals who hold no real power
- D) As liaisons between the voting citizens and the elected officials
- How do countries like Finland and Singapore avoid corruption within their public administration when corruption seems to plague nearly all bureaucracies?
- A) They have scaled back on the number of bureaucrats, allowing for fewer officials to commit heinous acts.
- B) Both countries have a lower number of regulations compared to other countries around the world.
- C) Their professional bureaucrats do not make public policy, they only carry out laws established by elected officials.
- D) The cultures of these countries place a great emphasis on public service, allowing them to keep corruption out of their administration.
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
- In a presidential system, a deadlock refers to the executive and legislative branches blocking each other.
- As the primus inter pares, the prime minister cannot dismiss any ministers in his cabinet unless he or she appointed them.
- In the American presidential system, Congress possesses the ability to increase the powers of the executive branch in extreme cases where the nation’s safety is at risk.
- If the pattern moves upward, it shows growth in a line graph, but demonstrates a decline in a bar graph.
- If your thesis and graph results do not match it means the data you collected is incorrect and you should start over until you find results that match your thesis.
- In the United States, cabinet members are elected officials.
- The military is considered a bureaucratic system.
- The Five-Year Plans refers to Hitler’s plans for rapid, centrally administered industrial growth in Germany during the Third Reich.
- In 1870 Britain established a merit civil service that focused on competitive exams over patronage to combat issues of nepotism and corruption within the bureaucracy.
- Parkinson’s Law refers to the concept that work is completed ahead of schedule as to accomplish as much as possible in any given amount of time.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
- The “deadlock of democracy” in the United States is analogous to __________ in the parliamentary system.
- When a minister disagrees with government policy, they are expected to resign and return to their seats in __________.
- Out of the __________ presidents who were impeached by the House, __________ was the only one to resign.
- The __________ fiasco occurred under Reagan’s presidency.
- Covariance compares how two or more items __________.
- Many Western European governments added __________ to their cabinets in the 1980s.
- Based on qualifications pertaining to their educational background and examinations, civil servants are __________ officials.
- Due to their apolitical nature, British bureaucrats __________ the ministry’s policies regardless of who has the most power.
- Hitler gained supporters with the rise of the Third Reich, which brought about the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933, because the civil servant class loathed __________.
- Financiers gutted the regulatory role of the __________, leading to its part in the 2008 financial crisis.
SHORT ANSWER
- What powers do prime ministers possess that could possibly benefit the United States president if he or she also had them?
- Discuss the ways in which a president can find the middle ground between being hands-on and hands-off.
- How does the United States cabinet system sometimes resemble the European cabinet system?
- Interpret what Max Weber means when he claims that bureaucracy is unavoidable.
- How does the United States bureaucratic system compare with more communist ones, like China and the Soviet Union?
ESSAY QUESTIONS
- How long can a prime minister remain in office compared to a president? Why are executive terms established for presidents but not prime ministers? How do fixed terms place a check on presidents? Are there any downfalls to the fixed term? Does either method seem more efficient?
- Compare and contrast cabinet ministers with departmental secretaries. Provide examples in your discussion of their similarities and differences. How might cabinet ministers be better equipped for their role? What problems do department secretaries typically have?
- Describe what it means to be a bureaucracy. Would bureaucracy function without the career civil service? Explain. Given what we know, does Britain have a tighter bureaucracy than the United States? Why or why not? Indicate what this reveals about the United States?
- How is Japan an example of a more extreme bureaucratic system? Are there any benefits to a bureaucratic system run like this? What are the consequences? If a bureaucratic system such as this fumbles, what can be done to repair the damages?
- Why does bureaucracy receive so much hate? How are the actions of bureaucrats perceived by the public? Describe attempts by public administration to solve the problem of bureaucrats. Does the issue ever get solved? Why or why not? Is this evidence that even a corrupt bureaucracy is better than no bureaucracy?
Chapter 15- Judiciaries
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
- Unlike natural law, positive law uses __________.
- A) the spirit of the law to make determinations
- B) books to reach conclusions
- C) judicial sentencing to determine case outcomes
- D) jury selection to manipulate judgment
- Which of the following issues is a civil concern?
- A) Extortion
- B) Theft
- C) Divorce
- D) Trafficking
- International law consists of __________ and established customs recognized by most nations.
- A) treaties
- B) ratification
- C) amendments
- D) cease-fires
- Which of the following is an important role of U.S. courts and their greatest contribution to governance?
- A) Assure statutory laws do not violate the constitution
- B) Protect individual rights and liberties
- C) Guarantee administrative usages do not get out of hand
- D) Judicial review
- Developed by medieval Catholic theologians, what type of law argues that observing nature reveals God’s will?
- A) Natural law
- B) Divine law
- C) God’s law
- D) Higher law
- What are the key mechanisms of international law?
- A) Reciprocity and coalition
- B) Consistency and reciprocity
- C) Consistency and coherence
- D) Coalition and coherence
- What is the U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding state obligation to international treaties?
- A) States maintain the right to select which treaties they will observe.
- B) States have no obligation to observe international treaties.
- C) States must observe international treaties ratified by the United States.
- D) States must observe international treaties ratified by state legislatures.
- Which of the following U.S. Supreme Court rulings reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson decision?
- A) Roe v. Wade
- B) Brown v. Board of Education
- C) Miranda v. Arizona
- D) Lawrence v. Texas
- Distinguish between primitive and modern judicial systems.
- A) Primitive legal systems rely largely on labyrinthine written and codified laws, while modern systems rely on oral rhetoric.
- B) Modern legal systems utilize recent advances in technology, while primitive legal systems must do without such amenities.
- C) Modern legal systems better ensure the rights of citizens, while primitive systems function on superstition and disbelief.
- D) Primitive legal systems are oral and consist of customs and beliefs, while modern systems are written and largely codified.
- Under which of the following circumstances might a case be pursued as both a criminal and a civil case?
- A) The federal government accuses investment houses of wrongdoing and investors who lost money sue them.
- B) Drug traffickers violate property and federal law by moving drugs across state borders.
- C) Burglars violate federal property and the state sues them for damages.
- D) A state accuses banks of mortgage fraud, sold to investors elsewhere in the nation.
- How many judicial structures comprise the U.S. court system?
- A) 23
- B) 47
- C) 51
- D) 75
- To what judicial authority can federal court decisions be appealed?
- A) Department of Citizen Security
- B) Secretary of Judicial Revisions
- C) Federal Oversight Commission
- D) U.S. Court of Appeals
- State court systems handle about __________ of the nation’s legal business.
- A) 30%
- B) 50%
- C) 70%
- D) 90%
- The English common law stressed the rights of free and equal men and was developed on the basis of precedent set by earlier judges, known today as __________.
- A) judge-made law
- B) judicial precedent
- C) example by trial
- D) court-generated
- Who nominates and approves federal judges in the U.S. court system?
- A) The President and the Senate
- B) The Senate and the House
- C) The President and Speaker of the House
- D) The Senate and the Secretary of State
- What legal agency in the United States generates reputation-based ratings of prospective federal judges?
- A) Judicial Ratings Bureau
- B) Federal Bureau of Judicial Review
- C) American Bar Association
- D) Office of Legal Assessment
- What did President Obama do to counterbalance the U.S. Supreme Court’s Conservative tilt?
- A) He appointed one African American justice and one Hispanic justice.
- B) He appointed two liberal women justices.
- C) He reinforced executive privilege.
- D) He appointed one conservative and one moderate justice.
- Describe the primary jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court.
- A) It makes initial rulings on all federal cases, civil and criminal.
- B) It rules on high penalty cases, including those with life sentences and the death penalty.
- C) Its jurisdiction is almost entirely appellate, from lower federal or state supreme courts.
- D) Its jurisdiction is broad, ranging from appellate rulings to original rulings in federal crimes.
- Compare the election cycles of federal and state judges.
- A) State judges are elected directly, while federal judges go through an electoral college.
- B) State judges are elected based on population, while federal judges are elected per state.
- C) State judges are elected, while federal judges are appointed.
- D) The election process is nearly identical.
- Evaluate the political lean of President Eisenhower’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees.
- A) He exclusively nominated members of his own party, tipping the balance in his favor.
- B) He nominated candidates from both parties, seeking a balanced court.
- C) He nominated two Republicans and one independent, the first to be nominated to the Supreme Court.
- D) He nominated ethnic minorities, including one African American and the first Jewish justice.
- Anglo-American courts function on a(n) __________ and __________ process.
- A) adversarial; authoritarian
- B) accusatorial; ambivalent
- C) authoritarian; removed
- D) accusatorial; adversarial
- In the European court system, the prosecutor is an official who forwards evidence to the __________.
- A) investigating judge
- B) judicial panel
- C) case review board
- D) district attorney
- “The only lawyer around here is a Kalashnikov,” despaired one Russian, referring to the __________.
- A) district attorney
- B) prosecutor
- C) assault rifle
- D) Putin administration
- Describe the significance of Marbury v. Madison.
- A) The ruling laid precedent for judicial review.
- B) The ruling stated that the president is subject to the court’s decisions.
- C) The ruling decreed that current administrations must honor the appointments of previous administrations.
- D) The ruling claimed that federal taxes could not be levied on the states.
- Identify the role of French lawyers.
- A) They listen to the opposing argument and attempt to demonstrate logical or factual mistakes, hoping to sway the lay jury in the summation argument.
- B) They question witnesses to bring evidence to light, laying the groundwork for a closing argument.
- C) They listen passively as the opposing side questions the witness, interjecting only on grounds of mistaken procedure.
- D) They procure evidence for indictment but allow the judge to question witnesses, playing no active role in the trial process.
- How long is the tenure of British judges?
- A) Six years
- B) Eight years
- C) Twelve years
- D) Life
- Examine the ideal role of American judges.
- A) Judges should intervene frequently, interpreting the law according to their expertise and ensuring a fair trial.
- B) Judges should act as umpires, passively watching the legal drama and ruling only on disputed points of procedure.
- C) Judges should not intervene unless attorneys object, at which point they may either overrule or sustain the objection.
- D) Judges should take an active role, questioning witnesses, eliciting evidence, and commenting on procedure.
- Describe the role of theft on the post-Stalin Russian legal system.
- A) Theft was punished severely: a mere indictment almost certainly assured a 10-year prison sentence.
- B) With strict punishments set in place, theft greatly declined in the years after Stalin’s rule.
- C) Theft became the norm for Soviet economic life and helped bring down the system.
- D) Because all government property “belong[ed] to the people,” private citizens could legally steal from the government.
- Compare Anglo-American courts to those in Russia.
- A) Anglo-American courts include bourgeois concepts, such as property law and civil rights, whereas the Soviet-developed Russian system excludes these concepts.
- B) The Russian court is a passive institution that does not seek to correct lawbreakers or to apprehend criminals, whereas the Anglo-American system is an active institution.
- C) Courts in Russia frequently indict politicians disloyal to the president’s agenda, whereas Anglo-American courts remain separate from politics.
- D) Russian courts represent the upper class, while American courts protect the interests of common laborers.
- Distinguish the roles of Russia’s Committee on State Security (KGB) and the current Federal Security Service (FSB).
- A) The KGB was a corrupt organization, devoted to protecting Russia’s elite; the FSB protects the people’s interests.
- B) Unlike the KGB which focused primarily on counter-cultural activities, the FSB functions more as a Secret Service to protect the president from possible threats.
- C) The FSB aims to expose government corruptions, while the KGB protected it.
- D) The FSB continues the KGB’s aim, to make sure those in power stay in power.
- Which United States Federalist is famous for noting that the courts could limit legislative authority?
- A) George Washington
- B) John Adams
- C) Alexander Hamilton
- D) James Madison
- Which of the following actions comprise roles of the German Constitutional Court?
- A) It maintains liberty, defends civil rights, and protects the people against autocratic rule.
- B) It decides cases between states, protects civil liberties, and outlaws dangerous political parties.
- C) It reviews new laws against the constitution (Basic Law), assesses criminal cases, and checks political campaign funds.
- D) It preserves checks and balances, maintains separation of powers, and occasionally reverses decisions of lower courts.
- Strong-willed U.S. presidents have resisted the authority of the Court. Which of the following presidents notably disagreed with the Court’s decisions?
- A) Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln
- B) Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan
- C) John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter
- D) Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Calvin Coolidge
- The concept of judicial review falls under which article of the U.S. Constitution?
- A) Article I: The Legislative Branch
- B) Article III: The Judicial Branch
- C) Article VI: Debts, Supremacy, Oaths
- D) Judicial review is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
- Which of the following was an argument against granting the U.S. Supreme Court the power of judicial review?
- A) Many feared that such a power would give the Court a double check and compromise its neutrality.
- B) Some thought that such power would create untrustworthy judges.
- C) The founding fathers argued that judicial review would lead to undue indictments by the Court.
- D) Drafters of the Constitution feared that few laws would ever be set in stone.
- Which Swiss agency determines whether a cantonal law violates the Swiss constitution?
- A) National Judicial Branch
- B) Swiss Supreme Court
- C) Federal Tribunal
- D) Constitutional Review Board
- Compared to other countries, what is the perceived corruption in the United States, relative to income?
- A) Somewhat low
- B) Somewhat high
- C) Extremely low
- D) Extremely high
- Which of the following best articulates the stance of judicial restraint advocates?
- A) Judicial review is the best and only true method of checking legislative power.
- B) The court should practice restraint in cases in which legislative acts are presented for interpretation.
- C) Only the executive branch can restrain the Court, keeping the power of judicial review in balance with the other governing branches.
- D) Only Congress should make public policy and, unless a legislative act clearly violates the Constitution, the law should stand.
- How does the American concept of judicial review compare to the role of courts in foreign systems?
- A) Most countries maintain a similar process of judicial review, which evaluates federal laws against the nation’s constitution.
- B) Judicial review is more highly developed in the United States than in any other country, and Americans expect more of their courts than do other peoples.
- C) The United States is the only developed nation to maintain the process of judicial review.
- D) Most foreign constitutions are exempt from judicial review, stripping the courts of any power they might have in shaping legislation.
- Analyze the U.S. Supreme Court within context of Germany’s Constitutional Court.
- A) Because Germany’s Constitutional Court operates within a more rigid code of law, its decisions do not have the impact of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
- B) Due to executive restraints, Germany’s Constitutional Court is less powerful than the U.S. Supreme Court.
- C) Germany’s Constitutional Court is more codified than the U.S. Supreme Court, making it rival and sometimes overrule the executive branch.
- D) The U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings function as the “law of the land,” while the Constitutional Court may still be overruled.
- Historically, Supreme Court justices used to be exclusively __________ upper- or upper-middle-class males.
- A) powerful
- B) WASP
- C) New England
- D) Christian
- Some justices, like __________ (one of six Jewish justices) and __________ (the first black justice), were active in reform and civil rights causes and brought their liberalism to the bench.
- A) Ruth Ginsberg; Earl Warren
- B) Owen Roberts; Hugo Black
- C) Arthur Goldberg; Clarence Thomas
- D) Louis Brandeis; Thurgood Marshall
- The Supreme Court’s decision in __________ (1954) triggered a revolution in American race relations, an area Congress had been unwilling to touch.
- A) Miranda v. Arizona
- B) Dred Scott v. Sandford
- C) Brown v. Board of Education
- D) Gibbons v. Ogden
- In Lombard v. Louisiana (1963), the Warren Court supported __________, ruling that blacks who had refused to leave a segregated lunch counter could not be prosecuted.
- A) boycotts
- B) sit-ins
- C) picket lines
- D) protests
- Among the most famous rulings in a criminal procedure, Mapp v. Ohio (1961) ruled that __________.
- A) evidence seized without a warrant was inadmissible in a state court
- B) police could seize any item deemed “evidence” in the absence of a warrant
- C) officers may lawfully search any person under the guise of “probable cause”
- D) law enforcement officers may search private residences without a warrant
- This 1966 case ruled that arrested persons must immediately be told of their right to remain silent and to have a lawyer present during police questioning.
- A) Escobedo v. Illinois
- B) Gideon v. Wainwright
- C) Miranda v. Arizona
- D) Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
- What have been the implications of the 2010 Citizens United case?
- A) Corporations were deemed as non-persons, and thus cannot contribute directly to political campaigns.
- B) Individuals, corporations, and unions may now contribute unlimited campaign funds through so-called “super-PACs.”
- C) Despite being considered collections of people by the Court, corporations may not donate to political campaigns.
- D) Individuals may donate unlimited campaign funds, but corporations face a stiff $100,000 cap.
- What was perhaps the most conservative shift of the Roberts Court?
- A) The Court took on notably fewer cases than before, reversing the tendency to use the Court at a back-up legislature.
- B) The Court ruled conservatively on abortion cases, whereas the previous Court tended to rule on the pro-choice side.
- C) Roberts and colleagues seemed more heavily influenced by outside opinion, lessening the Court’s ostensible objectivity.
- D) Despite its liberal rulings on gun control, the Court ruled conservatively on gay rights and immigration issues.
- Analyze the series of court decisions in 1962 and 1964 finding that unequal representation denied citizens their Fourteenth Amendment rights.
- A) The Court ordered that state legislatures apply the principle of “one person, one vote” in redrawing electoral lines.
- B) State legislatures were ordered to redraw district lines to better represent African Americans.
- C) The Republican party was censured for excluding the black vote using voter ID laws.
- D) States were forced to add one representative per 100,000 people to better serve impoverished areas.
- Compare the Warren Court to those immediately succeeding it.
- A) The Warren Court was generally considered conservative, but subsequent courts were seen as more liberal.
- B) Subsequent courts were conservative, but not nearly as conservative as the Warren Court.
- C) Succeeding Courts failed to represent the conservative agenda of the Warren Court.
- D) While the Warren Court was rather progressive, subsequent courts were viewed as conservative.
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
- With only 2.3 million people in U.S. jails, we rarely hear about the criminal law system.
- Because in the United States the ultimate responsibility of interpreting the Constitution rests with the U.S. Supreme Court, laws cannot change once they’ve been ruled on.
- The federal courts hear many diversity jurisdiction cases, in which the issue deals with state law but residents are from different states.
- The pinnacle of the federal court system is the U.S. Supreme Court, consisting of one chief justice and six associate justices.
- In British and American criminal cases, the police investigate and report to a public prosecutor, often a county’s district attorney. The case is then passed to a judge who must decide whether to prosecute.
- British judges are nominally appointed by the prime minister, but the choice is really the monarch’s, based on recommendations of the lord chancellor.
- Court structures in other Western democracies largely parallel the U.S. system, but tend not to do as much in terms of governing.
- The U.S. Supreme Court’s power to review the constitutionality of federal legislative enactments is not mentioned specifically in the Constitution and has been vehemently challenged.
- Richard Nixon in the 1968 campaign championed the Warren Court, claiming that its decisions had cracked down on crime and better secured the nation’s streets.
- Under the Roberts Court, Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade received some limits, marking the Court as generally conservative, but federal authority to curb greenhouse gases was affirmed, and liberals celebrated.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
- Criminal offences are divided into three categories, petty offences, misdemeanors, and __________.
- In the United States, we focus on __________ law, that which is written and compiled by humans over the centuries.
- As French kings overturned feudalism in favor of absolutism, legal scholars revived __________ to bolster central government and encourage commerce.
- Appellate courts base their majority-vote verdict primarily on __________ submitted by the attorneys for both parties; oral arguments are limited.
- Russia’s post-Soviet legal system has continued much of its former legal structure because most personnel were trained under the __________.
- Unlike British courts, European ones are influenced by the French __________, and thus do not maintain separate criminal and civil divisions.
- In the 1950s, Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled against both the Communist and __________ parties, finding that they wanted to overthrow the constitutional order.
- Scandals are standard in Italy, Japan, and France, rendering those countries more corrupt than their wealth suggests. They are therefore __________ on the Corruption Perception Index.
- 1963’s Gideon v. Wainwright held that __________ defendants must be provided with legal counsel.
- In 1978’s __________ case, the Burger Court ruled that reserving quotas for black medical school applicants violated equal protection for whites.
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
- What is positive law and how is it different from natural law?
- How does the opposition party oppose and sometimes block the president’s Supreme Court nominations?
- How does the Russian court’s theoretical role differ from its practiced role?
- Discriminate between countries with low-perceived corruption and high-perceived corruption. How do these perceptions correlate with wealth?
- Analyze and evaluate presidential methods of dealing with undesirable Supreme Court rulings.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
- Identify the influence of natural law on the American legal system. To what extent do we base our laws on objective rationale? To what extent is it influenced by religious or spiritual thought? Be sure to evaluate the latter using specific examples from your text.
- Examine the process by which U.S. judges are nominated and confirmed. Does this seem like a fair process? What extent does it have on the political lean of the Court, and therefore, on United States law? Cite specific examples.
- Compare the role of Anglo-American courts to the role of the courts in Europe. In what ways are the similar? How do they differ? Which system exerts stronger influence on legislation, and which system better serves the welfare of its people?
- Consider the process by which the U.S. Supreme Court gained the power of judicial review. Does this power, as some founding fathers argued, upset the balance of powers? Cite specific examples to determine whether or not today’s Court reveals any bias, and whether or not that bias negatively affects citizens’ rights.
- Analyze the political impact of the Warren Court (1953-1969). What were some of the major reforms instigated by Chief Justice Warren? How did successive courts revise Warren’s precedent concerning the Supreme Court’s political role in governance?
No comments:
Post a Comment