USA

Question 1

Rational Theory

Answer 1

suggests that outcomes can be best explained by individuals acting selfishly

Question 2

Cultural Theory

Answer 2

suggests that outcomes can be explained by people acting on a shared belief or ideology

Question 3

Structural Theory

Answer 3

Suggests that outcomes can be explained by the institutions and systems of government

Question 4

Bill of Rights (1-10th amendment)

Answer 4

protects freedoms such as speech, religion and assembly, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and reserving all other powers not mentioned in the constitution to the states.

Question 5

Separation of Powers

Answer 5

Theoretical Name: Legislation Executive Judiciary

Theoretical Role: Create law Execute Law Interpret Law

US Name: Congress President Supreme Court

Question 6

Checks by Congress

Answer 6

• Override the Presidential veto by a 2/3s vote in both Houses of Congress
• “Power of the purse” - Congress, as the representatives of the taxpayers, controls the budget and therefore any money that the president is allocated.
• The Senate can ratify or reject treaties and appointments (to federal offices or courts) put to them by the President
• Congress can impeach the president for ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours’
  
  • _{Simple majority in the House; Super-majority in the Senate}
  • _{There are only two impeached presidents in United States history, meaning only two presidents have been charged by the House of Representatives with committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Neither of the two impeached presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were convicted by the Senate}

Question 7

Checks by the President:

Answer 7

• Veto any legislation from Congress
• Recommend legislation to Congress at the State of the Union address
• Nomination of federal offices and justices

Question 8

Checks by the Supreme Court

Answer 8

• Judicial Review

Question 9

Racial Equality in the 21st Century - The Perspectives Matter:

Answer 9

• On the right of US Politics it is believed that in the USA there is a genuine meritocracy that rewards individual effort (robust individualism). This view is espoused by A. and S. Thernstrom and they also argue that there is no significant barriers to opportunities remaining in the USA; citing the CRA 1964; and VRA of 1965.
• Moderate Conservatives: There is a meritocracy for some but not all; therefore, some government intervention is required to ensure that there is the true American meritocracy for all, as advocated by J. Lieberman.
• MAJORITY OF CONSERVATIVES: reject the idea of providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, as it would reward them for disregarding Uni
• Contrast with the left approach; gov’t’s moral and constitutional and moral responsibility to ensure that racial equality is achieved. This view was central to MLK’s moral crusade during the CRM.
  
  • _{The left wing perspective refutes very strongly any suggestion that those at the bottom of the metaphorical ladder are because of cultural norms and inherent problems that are historical  A. Ocasio-Cortez}

Question 10

Racial Equality in the 21st Century - Legal Equality

Answer 10

• Achieved before the 21st Century; CRM - work of MLK, SNCC, NAACP et al.
  
  • However, it is important to bear in mind that it should have been the 13th;14th and 15th Amendments during the Reconstruction Era that ensured that A-A had the right to vote.
    
    • Segue via the fact that 150 years on from A. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, legal racial equality still a very poignant topic in the USA; as Domestic equality but migrants…
      
      • 2006 Secure Fence Act and D. Trump’s electoral promise to build a wall.
        
        • _{essentially not just a Trump policy; the 2007 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act inc4reased border security with Mexico including increasing the number of border patrol agents by 20,000 and adding another 370 miles (600 km) of fencing, among others. It was hotly debated and defeated in both houses.}
      • DREAM Act 2009
      • DACA 2012 - nullified in 2017 by D. Trump (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)
• Supreme Court:
  
  • Momentous decisions in the 20th century such as Brown vs Topeka Board of Education; Browder vs Gayle; Boynton vs Virginia
    
    • 2016: Texas vs Fisher ruling was that civil rights cases should still go to the SC.
      
      • EV: Bakke case is a fine example of where the SC has not advanced the case of racial equality.
      • LEFT WING PERSPECTIVE HINDERED THE CASE OF RACIAL EQUALITY IN THE USA.

Question 11

Racial Equality in the 21st Century - Economic and Absolute Equality:

Answer 11

• Wealth Gap tripled from 1984 to 2009: $85,000 to $236,500.
  
  • LEFT WING DUE TO HISTORIC PROBLEM OF SLAVERY; campaign of Z. Burton and Uni of Georgia’s decision of compensation and greater subsidies for people who are descendants of slaves - the university was built by slaves and the benefactors at that time were slave owners.
    
    • Something that we simply do not have in the UK… the USA’s history with slavery is particularly divisive due to the Civil War for example; CRM movement and segregation that took place.
• Further highlighted by the fact that in 2009 the typical A-A household had $5, 677 and the typical Hispanic had $6,325 BUT// the typical white household had $113,149.
• 12% of A-A in southern states; where the majority of sub-prime mortgage bonds were sold. HENCE why there is such disparity in the USA… cf. the movement pro-A. Ocasio-Cortez; B. Sanders; E. Warren post the 2007-8 crash.

Question 12

Immigration:

Answer 12

• By 2018 there were estimated to be between 8 and 20 million illegal immigrants living within the US; key issue currently and historically too…
  
  • 1965: Immigration and Nationality Act
    
    • The Act abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants’ skills and family relationships with citizens or residents of the U.S.
  • 1982: Plyer vs Doe
    
    • A case in which the US SC struck down a state statute denying funding for education to illegal immigrant children and simultaneously struck down a municipal school district’s attempt to charge an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each illegal immigrant student to compensate for the lost state funding.
  • 1996: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
    
    • Has allowed some states to pass statues that deny undocumented students eligibility for in-state tuition; scholarships; or even bar them from enrolment at public colleges and universities.

Question 13

Affirmative Action:

Answer 13

• The ensuing problems of having de jure equality rather than de facto; AA was a high proportion of the debate in the 1960s and 1970s:
• 1961 Executive Order 10925: signed by JFK on 6 March 1961 recognised the need for Affirmative Action
• 1965 Executive Order 11246: required federal contractors to take “affirmative action” to hire without regard to race, religion and national origin  included use of quotas to increase the number of black employees.
• 1966: Department for Housing, Education and Welfare enforced the Brown vs Topeka board of Education fo 1952 and threatened to withhold funds from schools taht failed to desegregate
• Gender was added in 1968:
• 1968: Housing and Urban Development Act: provides funds to increased construction of public housing and provides subsidies for the private construction of homes for low income and middle income families in cities
• 1968 Fair Housing Act: prohibited racial discrimination in the sale or rental of housing and required the Dept of housing and urban development to further the purposes of fair housing.
• 1969: Philadelphia Plan: Nixon allowed the EEOC to force the construction industry (dominated by all white trade unions) to employ more A-A.

Question 14

Presidential Nomination Process:

Answer 14

• E. McCarthy won 6 out of 13 Democratic primaries, and the most nationwide votes, but, at the Democratic Convention, the party establishment instead election VP H. Humphrey, who had not run in a single primary
• ‘Faithless Delegates’  some in the 2016 Race voted against D. Trump at the Republican Convention even though the delegates had been told that they had to vote
• Democrats have 712 Super Delegates - around 15% of the overall total. In the 2016 race, many supported H. Clinton because of her links with the big names within the Democrat Party (partly because of the work of her husband B. Clinton.
• EV: a 2016 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of Americans would prefer to select their party’s nominee in a direct vote, cutting out the role of the delegates, so that voters, not delegates, have the final say.