Reference no: EM133697728

Please write response of at least a page to each of the following exam questions and submit your exam by the due date indicated. Follow the directions below for submitting your exam. Remember that this is the Second of Three exams to be given during the semester. The Third Exam will be given when we've completed our discussion of Campaigns, Elections and Voters.

1. Describe the legislative process from beginning to ending: How are bills enacted into law? How do the rules of procedure compare between the House and Senate? What is the President's role? What, if anything would you change about the process?

2. In both Federalist #49 and #51, James Madison argues that it is paramount to maintain the "equilibrium" or balance between the different departments and levels of the federal government. That "balance," he believed, was the key factor in preserving liberty. What is the state of that "balance" today? Where in particular would you set boundaries between the President and Congress? What role would you assign to the Judiciary?

3. If the framers of the Constitution were able to view the state of the government they established in 1789 as it stands today, what do you think their reactions might be? What do you think would surprise them the most or the least? How, for example, do think they would view the many federal programs which we now have, such as federally mandated health care or the immensely significant role that federal courts now play in our national political process? What advice do you believe they would offer about the present state of Constitutional government?

4. From time to time, the question of terms limits arises in our national political conversation. Some commentators have argued that limiting the President to two terms diminishes the options of voters, who ought to be able to return a good president to office for as many terms as they like. More often, we hear that strict limits should be imposed on the number terms that members of the House of Representatives and the Senate ought to be able to serve: three for the House, and two for the Senate. What do you think? Many members of Congress, despite the need to stand for re-election regularly, seem to be re-elected easily and for the long term by the voters. What's wrong with that? Or do you believe that term limits should be mandatory and make it necessary to "clean house" whether the voters wish it or not? Finally, why do you believe that the same people tend to stay in office for such lengthy periods of time?