Short Answer Questions: - Assignment Example

Assignment: Short Answer Questions Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which directly decide on policy initiatives by voting or forming consensus. This is for example used in Switzerland.2. Representative democracy is a form in which people elect representatives who are then allowed to decide on policy initiatives (Harris and Tichenor 45).3. The core disagreement behind the three –fifth compromise was on how slaves would be counted in determining the total population of a state. It was resolved that the population of the slaves will be determined as three-fifth of their actual population.4. The antifedaralist are the people who opposed the ratification of the American constitution.

Their stand was that the proposed constitution gave too much power to the federal government and this would lead to political corruption (Bond and Smith 22).5. The social conditions conducive for democracy include the respect of and access to education, large developed middle class, active civil societies, social pluralism and nonexistence of extremes of wealth and poverty.6. Checks and balances are provisions in the constitution that are put in place to ensure that power is evenly dispersed within the federal government.

An example is Article 1 section 8 which defines the powers of the US Congress.7. One way through which the constitution has expanded voting right is by ensuring that citizens are not denied voting rights on the basis of color or race. This was done by the 15th Amendment of the US Constitution.8. The commerce clause refers to article 1, section 8, clause 3 of the US Constitution that gives the congress power to regulate commerce among states. The significance of Gibbons v. Ogden is that it limited the regulatory power of state governments over interstate navigation (Bardes, Shelley and Schmidt 103)9.

Federal mandate refers to any provision in the statutes that imposes enforceable duty upon state and local governments.10. Express power is a power that is explicitly stated in the US Constitution. An example is Article 1 which explicitly lists the 27 powers of the Congress.11. The three values of America political parties are liberty, equality and self government12. Families are a significant source of political learning because they have a primary influence on one’s political orientation due to a constant relationship between family members.13. According to Karl Marx, socialism was just a stage that would facilitate movement from capitalist practices that were denying citizens ability to enjoy the wealth to communism.14. The functions of political parties are: contest in elections, make laws and form and run governments (Bond and Smith 79).15. Open primaries allow voters to vote for any candidate in any party, whereas closed primaries restricts one to vote for a contestant in the party where they are registered.16. The US has a winner takes all system.

A distinguishing factor between this system and the Proportional representation system is that in the first system, the candidate with the majority votes represents 100% of the votes.17. Term limit refers to legal restriction of the number of years in which elected government officials are in office. This helps in evaluating their performance and giving the citizens chance to choose a new system (Bardes, Shelley and Schmidt 83)18. Lame ducks refer to government officials who are nearing end of their political term.

Term limit makes them unable to continue implementing their policies as they can be changed by the next elected official19. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act limited the solicitation and use of soft money during federal campaign activities (Bardes, Shelley and Schmidt 113).20. Battlegrounds are states where no particular candidate can claim full support during an election. The importance of such states is that they can tilt the elections in either direction.Works citedBardes, Barbra, Shelley, Mack and Schmidt, Steffen.

American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012.Print.Bond, Jon and Smith, Kevin. Analyzing the American Democracy: Politics and Political Science. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2013.Print.Harris, Richard and Tichenor, Daniel. A history of the US Political System: Ideas, Interests & Institutions. California ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2010.Print