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American Politics Today Chapter Summaries

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The first seven chapters of the textbook, American Politics Today, are discussing topics ranging from civil liberties, federalism, and the media. It goes into great detail about how the United States political world really operates. It gives examples of past and present topics in American politics. The first seven chapters of the textbook all together give you a great introduction to American Politics. Chapter one is basically the introduction to American Politics and Government. The chapter dwells upon why we actually need government. Chapter one goes into detail about how separation of powers and checks and balances keeps the government in check. It’s a very good introduction chapter. Chapter one also discusses how Liberals and Conservatives …show more content…

It describes how the Articles of Confederation’s downfall helped spark new ideas for the current constitution. The most interesting thing about the constitution was the fight between the antifederalists and the federalists. Both of the groups felt like their ideals should’ve been represented within the constitution. Gilderlehrman.org states “Federalists’ beliefs could be better described as nationalist. The Federalists were instrumental in 1787 in shaping the new US Constitution, which strengthened the national government at the expense, according to the Antifederalists, of the states and the people. The Antifederalists opposed the ratification of the US Constitution, but they never organized efficiently across all thirteen states…” The Federalists ultimately won and helped strengthen the national government after the Articles of Confederation …show more content…

The textbook discusses how there is a primary in each election and then a general election. The primaries are between parties to see who will represent each party in the general election. The textbooks also talk about how campaigns try to get funded and how they’re set up. Presidential elections are all about winning the electoral vote. So presidential candidates mainly only campaign really hard in a certain few key states. Pewresearch.org wrote “Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227, with five Democratic and two Republican “faithless electors” voting for other people. That result was despite the fact that Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more popular votes than Trump in November’s election, according to Pew Research Center’s tabulation of state election results.” This just goes to show that the Electoral College is the main thing that matters when it comes to Presidential elections. Donald Trump did not even win the popular vote, but because of the states he did win, he is president. Some may say that we need to reform the Electoral College but at the current moment it is the best option we

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The ratification debate of 1788 pitted Federalists against Antifederalists over adoption of the proposed Constitution. Through the Eyes of John Patrick Coby "Raising the Eleventh Pillar: This essay will examine the key differences between the Federalist and Antifederalist positions in regard to the 1788 ratification debate and their positions on key issues debated. Federalists backed the proposed Constitution from Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. They envisioned a powerful central government which could correct the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation. Federalist arguments argued for a united nation capable of regulating commerce, maintaining national defense, and ensuring economic prosperity.

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In chapter four, the authors describe how different civil liberties were formed during the founding of the country, such as how the founders amended the Constitution

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It is very ignorant to pick a specific time period for this book as it covers such a broad spectrum of history. The Constitution was made and ratified between the years 1787 to 1788. States fighting for their own rights was a debate around 1820 to 1830. Wills starts with the time of the Klu Klux Klan is from 1866 to 1870. Abortion clinic bombings is 1980 to 1990.

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The federalist papers section one speaks on arguments for the constitution, which spoken on by Alexander Hamilton. He speaks about how the government is too large to a national government. In section two of the papers John Jay talks about how it is good the country stayed united. Also about

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Antifederalists were against the ratification of the Constitution because they believed in classical republicanism. Monroe and Kersh (2016) define classical republicanism as, “ a democratic idea … that calls on citizens to participate in public affairs, seek the public interest, shun private gain, and defer to natural leaders,” (p. 69). The Antifederalists wanted citizens to take part in government so that public interests would be well represented so that the minority of the population would not have more power than the majority. The Antifederalists had four main reasons why they were against the ratification of the Constitution. Firstly, according to Monroe and Kersh (2016) “it stripped political control from citizens and placed it in a

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By reading chapter four I have learned about the official actors involved in our government. This is key knowledge if we are going to learn about how to influence Public Policy in this country. We read about the Legislative branch of our government in the text. This branch is responsible for writing the laws that are to govern our land. They are also responsible for the oversight of these laws to see how they are affecting the people in this country.

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After reading both the chapter 1 of the AM GOV and the handout, I understood that politics constantly surrounds our daily life. We as citizens are encouraged to adapt to the current politic situations that affect our decision making in life. (1) According to the handout “The Basics of American Politics,” by Gary Wasserman quoted, “Our live are webs of politics… The college you attend, the tuition you pay, and the student loans you may or may not receive, are all the results of someone’s choices in the political game” (Wasserman, 11).

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Presidential campaigns are more high-profile and complex in comparison to Congressional Campaigns. Most presidential campaigns tend to start years before the actual election takes place, and they have primary elections within political parties before the General election. Candidates of Presidential campaigns need to gain support across the country, raise funds to support the campaign, and develop a platform where they are able to address various political issues and concerns. On the other hand, Congressional campaigns are typically much more localized and focused on specific states and districts, in comparison to the large scale of Presidential campaigns. While congressional campaigns still require substantial fundraising and campaigning, they are usually shorter in duration compared to Presidential campaigns.

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They shape the way of life, and families, churches, and schools adapt to it. We learn that in today’s society, middle and lower classes do not even dream about the wealth and power available to the power elite. Chapter 15 talks about politics and its impact on society. We learn about the different kinds of government in power

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I will then discuss what I’ve learn throughout the course while identifying with the inner workings of our American democracy. The first section I’ll be talking about it the U.S. Constitution and go over a strength and a weakness that I have identified and also a way to address the issue. One of the strengths of the U.S. Constitution would be in my opinion

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I have learned many useful and historical topics during government class this Semester. These topics have helped me to better understand how our government came to be, how our Government is run today, and everything in between. One major section we went over as a class was the purpose of our U.S. Government. Secondly, there is what it means to be an American. Then the third subject I am going to be discussing is the importance of being a part of the American Government Process.

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I split the standard, “Identify the basic principles of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, such as popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, majority rule with minority rights, and federalism” (Idaho State Department of Education, 2009), into two parts. Week five dealt with the type of government that was being formed, and its scope of power; week six will deal with the principles of the Bill of Rights. At this point, students will be familiar with why and how the Constitution was formed to protect and unify the nation. Now we will explore how the Bill of Rights protect the citizens. This field trip demonstrates the principles of the Bill or Rights in a creative way by exploring life without it.

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He brings up how the founding fathers knew that too much power to a group or person would ruin what they had established so many years

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Politics is the decision making part of government that decides how it will rule over the people. Politics are exceptionally interesting because people disagree. They disagree on how resources should be distributed, what freedoms people should have, and what issues are most important. One of the main disagreements is what government spendings should be spent on such as education, welfare, or defense. Although people do not always agree and have different wants, they recognize that they need to work together to influence the laws.

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The American government has various components, one of those components is politics. Politics is inexorable, politics is what manages conflict when there is disagreements of who shall have the power to rule and what policies should be made. The government without politics would affect everyone. In addition, another component of our government is democracy, our government is a government by the people, there are two types of democracy’s, direct democracy and representative democracy. A direct democracy which includes mostly all of the citizens most of the time joining one another in meetings to discuss and debate various topics and issues.

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