2010 FRQ's

Class,

The 2010 FRQ's from Monday's test are posted in the links section of the webpage. Attached below are my answers. See if you came up with some of the same stuff I did to guage how you may have done.

2010 FRQ #1


(A) The Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights indeed protect individuals and groups of promoting interests related to politics. The First Amendment for example protects (1) free speech which most recently the US Supreme Court upheld in relation to private donations and campaign contributions. Certainly alternative political opinions are upheld in the (2) right to assemble provision in the Bill of Rights as well. Organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Commission demonstrated for African-American rights during the civil rights movement and their assembly and protest activity were protected by the Constitution.

(B) (1)Grassroots mobilization by interest groups can take many shapes and forms. For example, the National Rifle Association can initiate a phone calling campaign amongst its members to rally support against a particular initiative that might threaten the NRA’s main interests. Letter writing and even political protest (i.e. picketing in front of a Congressman’s office) are effective strategies that have been used.

(B)(2) Interest group lobbying can be used as well in an attempt to shape public opinion or a politician’s voting record. Paid lobbyists set up shop in Washington DC and regularly attend congressional sessions and contact staffers of the Congressman or woman in order to “bend their ear.” The most impactful way of lobbying a Congressman is to donate vast sums of money to their campaigns or that of their opponents. Millions of dollars are spent each year by lobbyists.

(B)(3) Litigation is also employed by interest groups in order to achieve their objectives. Perhaps one of the better known methods is the use of the amicus curiae brief. The NAACP invoked an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Linda Brown in the famous Brown v. Board case. As the result of the litigation brought forth by the NAACP a century’s long practice of “separate but equal” was overturned.

(C) The MacCain-Feingold (MF) Bill is one example of federal regulation on interest groups. It bans “soft money” donations to political campaigns and requires for financial disclosure for political donations. This is one check on the ability of interest groups to “buy off” a candidate although the recent Supreme Court decision has reversed some of the provisions of “MF.”


















2010 FRQ #2

The “merit system” was employed by federal government during the late 19th Century as a remedy to the “Spoils System.” The Spoils System was the exchange of government jobs for money by “party bosses.” One of the most famous icon of that era was Boss Tweed. (A) With the reforms of the Progressive Era now jobs were earned through merit such as through the passing of a Civil Service examination that was offered fairly and was designed to measure a prospective employee’s potential ability and competence as opposed to who they might be politically connected with.

(B)(1) While the federal bureaucracy has been criticized for its hierarchical structure and numbing rules and regulations, this organizational hierarchy does lead to a level of agency “expertise” and independence. Most career civil service employees are specialists at what they do and work independently within their sphere of duty. They rely on written regulations and laws that cannot be easily manipulated by uninformed “outsiders.”

(B)(2) As mentioned in the previous paragraph, agency personnel do develop a level of expertise associated with their work. The complexity of issues such as employment law or environmental regulation demands that agencies have the authority and the expertise to enforce the law. Congress oftentimes call upon agency personnel to testify on matters pertaining to the law. For example the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has its own cadre of attorneys who testify and convict violators of civil rights law as pertains to the workplace. Members of the environmental protection agency have their own law enforcement officers who can institute fines and litigation for violators of clean air standards, for example.

(C)(1) The main control that the Congress has over the bureaucracy is through the “power of the purse.” Each year federal agencies must go before Congress and have their funding reviewed. During this time agencies must justify the work they do and how efficient they are with the resources granted to them. The justification of an agencies’ existence in exchange for funding leads to a form of powerful oversight by Congress

(C)(2) The courts can get involved in influencing federal agencies through injunctions or writs of mandamus. If the courts sees that laws are not being enforced properly by the agencies tasked with carrying out the law, the court can reach in and stop or otherwise shut down an agencies operations citing legal arguments.

(C)(3) Interest groups can have a wide influence on federal agencies through their lobbying and other methods. “Iron Triangles” describe the relationship between Interest Group, federal agency and congressional entity. Oftentimes former experts having worked for a particular agency will become hired on as a lobbyist thus perpetuating the “revolving door” syndrome.











FRQ #3


(A) One interesting and specific trend noted in the figure is the spike in the percentage of southern state electoral votes for the Democratic presidential candidate (Jimmy Carter). This was a year of major political realignment for the country following the resignation of Richard Nixon and the short term and controversial presidential pardon by Gerald R. Ford.
(B) (1) Southerners tended to choose democratic congressional candidates at a higher frequency than democratic presidential candidates in part due to the fact that incumbency held many of these representatives in place much more effectively. There are a number of advantages related to incumbency to include franking privileges and a re-election rate that can be factored at about 70% nationally. Presidential candidates on the other hand, must appeal to the national as a whole and in a bipartisan manner. Southern Democratic presidential hopefuls had little chance attempting to appeal to narrow southern state interests that included segregation, states’ rights, and other matters of opinion not shared by the rest of the nation.
(B)(2) Gerrymandering is the drawing up of political districts for political benefit. Districts are measured through a population census held every ten years. When population increases, the number of representatives can be lost or gained depending upon the head count. Historically, many southern states excluded blacks from the census count. Many southern voting campaigns featured disanfranchizing tactics such as poll taxes and literacy tests for blacks. Only with the intervention of the US Supreme Court in ( ) which ruled gerrymandering based on race as illegal and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned such practices as poll taxes and literacy tests as illegal, did blacks begin to gain their voice and representation on the political field.
(C)(1) Catholic political support for both members of Congress and the president has changed over the past few decades. Generally, Catholics tend to be conservative on issues such as national defense, abortion, and capital punishment. However, like other voting blocs, Catholics have been known to swing their support between Republican and Democratic candidates depending upon prevailing public opinion and/or the overall state of the economy. Catholics have supported Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980 as well as Barack Obama in 2008.
(C)(2) Women have increasingly gone to the polls over the past few decades. In the wake of the 20th amendment granting woman the right to vote, woman have over time become more affiliated with the Democratic Party than in decades past. Each decade of America’s history has seen changes in the national mood between more conservative to more liberal inclinations. Women in the 1950’s like their male counterparts, where generally more conservative in part due to the mood of the country that was in the grip of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Women like the national as a whole voted more conservatively for the Republican Party in the early 1980’s. More recently, women have voted more consistently for the Democratic Party and showed up in great support for Barack Obama.
(C)(3) Southern states staged a major realignment politically beginning in the late 1960’s. Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” lured many traditional Southern “Dixiecrats” away from the Democratic Party who were disenchanted with the presidencies of both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson with their push towards Civil Rights. Social conservatism reached high points during both the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush. Groups such as the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family played major roles in wooing Southerners to vote conservative Republican.




FRQ #4


(A)(1) Federalism is the separation between national government and state government. In most cases federal law supersedes state law but there have been some exceptions. For example, in some states gay marriage has been sanctioned by local legislatures. In Massachusetts for example, a gay married couple has many rights including spousal support that are particular to the laws of that state. Regardless of how president Obama feels about gay marriage, he cannot impose his views to change the law that has been established in Massachusetts. Only the Congress through a Constitutional Amendment could possibly limit the Massachusetts law by passing and amendment defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman. The courts then might weigh in and strike down that law as unconstitutional in potential violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause against discrimination.
(A)(2) Checks and Balances as argued in the Federalist Papers is a characteristic of American democracy that controls one branch of government from overstepping its authority between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The national executive (presumably the President of the United States) is limited by Congress in one instance through his Supreme Court nominees. For example, the President is held to the “advice and consent” of the Congress who can reject the President’s choice for Supreme Court Justices through a vote. The Supreme Court or Judicial Branch can limit the President’s authority through the interpretation of the constitution and determine that the president has overstepped his authority. While the president enjoys broad authority during wartime, his powers are not unlimited. Recently the US Supreme Court ruled that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay had the right to counsel and could not be held indefinitely without charge. The Supreme Court overruled the Bush Administration’s desire to keep “enemy combatants” away from legal representation.
(B)(1) The Establishment Cause basically states that there is no official government religion in the United States and a “wall of separation” exists between church and state. In this, the government may not impose nor discriminate based upon religious belief. The Supreme Court over the years has ruled against such practices as school sponsored prayer during class time. It has also spelled out the need for accommodations for persons of differing faiths to practice their religion even during hours of employment as long as it did not burden the employer. The United States has a strong tradition related to the concept of separation between church and state.
(C)(2) The Guarantee to a Public Trial is part of our habeas corpus tradition. American citizens can expect that under the Bill of Rights individuals have the right to due process and a fair and impartial trial. The government from time to time has tried to limit these rights. Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. That was determined to be a violation of constitutional rights. Additionally, as mentioned above, the previous administration using war time authority has attempted to deny due process. Jose Padilla, an American citizen was accused of attempting to plant a dirty bomb in Chicago several years ago. He was held as a terrorist until the US Supreme Court ordered him to stand trial. This is a strong example of the Judicial Branch overturning the Executive Branches’ decision.
(C)(1) The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was added to the Constitution immediately following the emancipation of slaves. It was created in order to provide the right of citizenship to newly freed African-Americans. The Fourteenth Amendment over time has been interpreted even more broadly and has been used repeatedly throughout our history to protect the rights of all American citizens. For example, in Gideon v. Wainwright, the State of Florida attempted to block a man’s right to counsel given that he could not afford to provide for his own defense. Through interpretation of the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court compelled the state government to pay for and mount a line of defense for the indigent and otherwise incapable. This is a strong example of the national government imposing its will on the states.