IIE337 - Introduction to American Politics

1. What are the major Constitutional limits on the powers of the president?
2. Why have presidential powers expanded since the 19^th century?
3. What are some strategies for winning the pre-primary?  Primary?  General election?
4. Why have recent presidential candidates REFUSED to accept public financing of their campaigns?
5. What is the Buckley v. Valeo decision?  How has it affected campaigns?
6. How have presidents attempted to influence public opinion? Do they succeed?
7. Why does presidential popularity usually decline over the course of his administration?
8. Explain the “wheel” and “pyramid” models of presidential staffing. What are their major advantages and disadvantages?
9. What is the “prerogative” model of presidential power?  Which presidents have made use of it?
10. What is the presidential veto power?  Why did Pres. Bush veto recent stem-cell legislation, even though the public favored it?
11. Why are there usually fewer political constraints on a president during wartime?
12. How does the President attempt to influence Congress and the Congressional agenda?
13. How is the vice president selected?
14. What are the vice-president’s major responsibilities?
15. What are the major functions of a bureaucracy?
16. What are some alternatives to bureaucracy? Are they better or worse?
17. What were the major Civil Service reforms?  Why were they enacted?
18. What are the major types of federal government agencies?  Over which ones does the president have the most control?  The least control?
19. How do bureaucracies compete for scarce resources?
20. How does Congress control the bureaucracy – or try to?
21. How does the president control the bureaucracy – or try to?
22. What are some of the management problems facing the Department of Homeland Security?
23. Why are the FBI and the CIA not part of the Department of Homeland Security?

1. What are the major bureaucratic organizations in the foreign policy process?
2. Who sits on the National Security Council?
3. What are the major reasons for the failure of Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs policy?
4. What are the major reasons for policy success during the Cuban missile crisis?
5. Why does Tom Clancy (video) fear that nuclear war could happen by accident?
6. What is the role of Congress in making foreign policy?
7. Why does Congress usually defer to the president on foreign policy?
8. What is the War Powers Act? Why do presidents oppose it?
9. What is preemptive war?  What are the arguments for/against it?
10. What are the constraints (if any) on the president’s role in foreign policy?
11. What are the arguments for and against multilateralism?
12. Why are presidents relying more on executive agreements rather than treaties with other countries?
13. What are the major criticisms of Bush’s handling of the current war in Iraq?
14. What problems does Hudson say that the national security state poses for democracy?
15. Why does Hudson argue that open or transparent policies are better than secrecy, even in foreign policy?
16. What is the military-industrial complex?  How does it influence US policy?
17. Why does the Supreme Court make use of judicial review, even though it is NOT in the Constitution?
18. Why does the Supreme Court usually defer to the executive branch on foreign policy questions?  Have there been any exceptions?
19. Why does Hudson argue that the “imperial” Supreme Court is undemocratic and has too much power?
20. What was the Roe v. Wade decision?  What are some of the criticisms of it by Hudson and others?
21. What are “enemy combatants?”  Why do they have a different legal status than prisoners of war or US citizens?  Can they be tortured?
22. Why are “enemy combatants” kept at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba rather than in US prisons?
23. What is the evidence that the American system of justice is harsher on African-Americans?

Week 6 (StudyWeek6.doc)

1. What is the difference between de facto and de jure segregation?
2. What are the major provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act?
3. What are the major provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act?
4. How did the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments affect African-Americans?
5. Why do so many American schools remain segregated, even after the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954?
6. What are the major arguments for and against affirmative action? 
7. Why do major business groups and the military support affirmative action? Why do many Asian-Americans oppose it?
8. What are some of the stereotypes whites hold about blacks in the US? 
9. What is the role of the media in creating racial stereotypes? How did this change after Hurricane Katrina?
10. What was the impact of Hurricane Katrina on race policy and politics in the US?
11. What are the major social welfare policies in the US?
12. What are the differences among regressive, progressive, and proportional taxes?
13. Why is inequality increasing in the US? 
14. Why does poverty persist in the US, despite many social welfare programs?
15. What are some political reasons for trends in poverty and inequality?
16. Why does the APSA Task Force report conclude that inequality is bad for American democracy?
17. What reforms does the APSA Task Force advocate?