The Air Midterm

Relax. This “air midterm” does not count toward your grade; do not even turn it in. Instead, use it to appraise your own progress in the course. Try out this test, either in your head or on paper.If you flounder, then you should take more care with class sessions and assigned readings.

I. Identifications. Explain the meaning and significance of the following items. What is fair game for an identification?

• Items that we have discussed in class or on the blog;
• Items that appear in bold or italics in the readings;
• Items that cover several pages in the readings.

1. “Energy in the executive”
2. Popular sovereignty
3. “Selective incorporation”
4. Proportional representation
5. Self-evident truths
6. Spaghetti chart
7. Moeurs
8. Ninth Amendment
9. Federal Register
10. The Three-Fifths Clause
11. Redistricting commissions
12. The Supremacy Clause

II. Quotations. For each of the following passages, note the source and explain its meaning within the context of the course.

1. “Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, having due regard for its existence among us and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any practical way, and to all the Constitutional obligations which have been thrown about it...”
2. “[A]nd to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit.”
3. “The President of the United States possesses almost royal prerogatives which he has no occasion to use, and the rights of which he has been able to make use so far are very circumscribed; the laws allow him to be strong, but circumstances have made him weak.”

III. General Essays

1. According to Tocqueville, what are the main causes that maintain a democratic republic in the United States? Explain.
2. Is federalism beneficial? Explain.
3. Should we amend Article V to make it easier to amend the Constitution and call a constitutional convention?

IV. Bonus questions (one point each) Very briefly identify the following:

Mark Block
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Debbie Pepper Allen
Donna Brazile
David Plouffe