APGAP Midterm Review Guide Chapter 1: Introducing Government in America * Describe the contemporary theories of democracy: * Elitism-A government and politics theory that states that societies are divided by classes and the upper-class elite rules by influencing government, regardless of a government organization created to prevent this. * Hyper-pluralism-A government and politics theory that states that groups are so strong that they weaken the government and cripple its ability to make policies. This is an extreme version of pluralism. * Pluralism-A government and politics theory that states that politics is influenced by competing groups who press for their preferred public policies through organized efforts. * Define
M4 analyse how government policies are developed What is a policy? A policy is a statement of what the government is trying to achieve and why. Government policy is the sum of all the individual policies – as a whole they help to define where the government stands on broad political issues. Reference https://www.gov.uk/government/how-government-works Policies come from a number of sources such as: • The public • The media • Public services • Politicians • Subject experts • Civil servants The first process of developing a policy is actually deciding what is going to be contained in that policy in many instances the details of a policies are left to experts within a civil service department who are there to work for the government. Government lawyers are responsible for actually
They were influenced by the writings of the french political philosopher Montesquieu. In his book ‘The Spirit Of The Laws’ Montesquieu argued for a separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial branches of government in order to avoid tyranny. ‘When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person…there can be no liberty’ wrote Montesquieu. The Founding Fathers implemented this, through the president, Congress and the US Court System with a Supreme Court which holds ultimate judicial power. The separation of powers was designed to limit government, as each branch would carry out different functions of government this meant no single branch has total control in order to form a dictatorship.
Chapter 1 Outline Objectives 1. Describe what government is and what governments do. 2. Understand that politics is the struggle over “who gets what, when, and how.” 3. Identify the important features of the policymaking system and explain how pubic policies are the choices that government makes – and declines to make-in response to political issues.
In addition to that, Parliament also has the function of scrutinising and challenging the government on its legislative proposals as well as on a broader, more general level. It has been argued that this is Parliament’s most important function, rather than maintaining it in office. With regards to this point of view, an analysis of the present mechanisms of scrutiny and challenge used by Parliament and their effectiveness offers an insight into its validity. To begin with, Parliament, as the state legislature, plays a role in scrutinising government legislative proposals. Each bill has to go through First reading, Second reading, Committee stage, Report stage and Third reading in both the Commons and Lords.
GOD BLESS AMERICA By, STEFAN RADUNOVIC Unit 1 Unit 1 was all about the Consistitutional Underpinnings. We first learned what political power was and why we need politics in the first place. We then went on to the idea of Democracy and John Locke’s social contract theory, that “The view that the consent of the people is the only true basis of any sovereign’s right to rule”. Unit 1 taught us that there are two types of democracies, direct and indirect representation democracy also know as a republic, and the pros and cons for both types. One of the main questions reguarding democracy was, who really has control in a democracy?
To study how we got our constitution and learn more about the government • identify weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation What was the Articles of Confederation? First constitution of the United States of America and specified how the national government was to operate Why did it fail? The national government had no power And the states could do whatever they wanted B. Students will analyze the United States Constitution in order to determine the basic principles of democracy • analyze the Preamble of the Constitution What is the Preamble? The intro to the constitution Identify the goals listed in the Preamble of the Constitution.
Popular Sovereignty is the principle that states that the source of government power lies with the people. This was with the belief and idea that government should be a benefit to its citizens. Limited government is another principle that states that since the people give government its power, government itself is limited to the power given to it by them i.e. The People. Thus meaning congress may not create power but must follow its own laws given to it by its people.
Assemblies which are also known as parliaments or legislatures provide a key role in government. They act as national debating chambers and public forums in which government polices and major issues can be discussed and analysed. In most cases they are invested with formal law-making power giving them some capacity to shape and influence public policy. However, assemblies have been criticised by Heywood (2002, p. 311) as being no more than “talking shops” that do little more than rubber stamp decisions that have effectively been made elsewhere. This essay will firstly discuss how parliamentary and presidential systems differ, the different types of legislature and their main functions.
In his commentary,(Gawthrop 2005) states that “as a government systems become more commonplace, the responsibility for promoting the ethical moral values of democracy rests most directly on the public managers and policymakers of democratic systems”. Scanlan believes that to uphold ethical principles in public administration is the concern of the political leaders, who make the laws and policies of the state, but these principles need to be morally implemented by the public service. Public officials must accept their role to distinguish the difference interested not of their own interest, but of the general public. One must also be able to