Critical Thinking & American Government Book

	Preface	ix
	Introduction	xi
Chapter 1	Governing Principles and Ideologies	1
Exercise 1.1	Reading the Constitution	1
Exercise 1.2	The Amendment Process	8
Exercise 1.3	The Framers of the Constitution and Republicanism	13
Exercise 1.4	Contemporary Political Ideologies	15
Exercise 1.5	Direct Democracy: Electronically	19
Chapter 2	Federalism	21
Exercise 2.1	Balancing the Responsibilities of National and State Governments	21
Exercise 2.2	The Evolution of Federalism	26
Exercise 2.3	Government Accountability	29
Exercise 2.4	Who's in Charge? The Ongoing Dispute over Policymaking Between National and State Governments	34
Exercise 2.5	Reconfiguring State Boundaries	39
Chapter 3	Political Socialization and Public Opinion	43
Exercise 3.1	What We Watch on Television: The Images We See	43
Exercise 3.2	Gender-Based Differences of Opinion	46
Exercise 3.3	Public Confidence in American Institutions	49
Exercise 3.4	Public Opinion and Elian Gonzalez	52
Exercise 3.5	Political Socialization and University Students	56
Chapter 4	The Mass Media	59
Exercise 4.1	The Importance of Different Sources of Information	59
Exercise 4.2	What's News?	63
Exercise 4.3	Bias, Accuracy, and the Media	67
Exercise 4.4	How Do You Want Your News: Hard or Soft?	71
Exercise 4.5	Television's Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy	75
Chapter 5	Political Parties and Elections	80
Exercise 5.1	Retrospective Voting in the Presidential Election of 2000: Why Wasn't It the Economy?	80
Exercise 5.2	Gerrymandering	86
Exercise 5.3	Alternative Voting Systems	90
Exercise 5.4	Three Perspectives on Political Parties within the Constitutional System	96
Exercise 5.5	Soft Money and Campaign Finance Reform	100
Chapter 6	Interest Groups	112
Exercise 6.1	The American Sheep Industry Association and Wool Subsidies: Why It's So Difficult to Eliminate Pork-Barrel Spending	112
Exercise 6.2	Interest Groups and Litigation	116
Exercise 6.3	The Civil Rights Movement and Civil Disobedience	119
Exercise 6.4	Does Money Buy Influence? Senator Alan Cranston and the Keating Five	123
Exercise 6.5	Political Action Committees in Federal Elections	127
Chapter 7	Congress	136
Exercise 7.1	Defining the Extent of Congressional Power	136
Exercise 7.2	What Is the Proper Role of the Representative?	141
Exercise 7.3	Why We Hate Congress but Love Our Member of Congress	144
Exercise 7.4	Blacks in Congress	159
Exercise 7.5	Legislative Apportionment	167
Chapter 8	The Presidency	174
Exercise 8.1	The Electoral College	174
Exercise 8.2	Presidential Pardons	186
Exercise 8.3	Evaluating Presidential Performance	191
Exercise 8.4	Fires in Texas, Crowded Classrooms in Florida, and Lies in Debates: Distinguishing Fact from Opinion in an American Presidential Campaign	197
Exercise 8.5	The Vice Presidency	204
Chapter 9	Bureaucracy and the Regulatory Process	207
Exercise 9.1	Exploring the Federal Bureaucracy on the Internet	207
Exercise 9.2	The Real World of Regulation	211
Exercise 9.3	How Much Regulation Is Enough? How Much Is Too Much?	215
Exercise 9.4	The Fourth Branch	221
Exercise 9.5	The National Security State	226
Chapter 10	The Judiciary	237
Exercise 10.1	Judicial Activism versus Judicial Restraint: The Supreme Court and the Death Penalty	237
Exercise 10.2	Do the Characteristics of Judges Tell Us Anything about Judicial Decision Making?	243
Exercise 10.3	Sentencing Behavior in Criminal Courts	247
Exercise 10.4	Civil Jury Awards	250
Exercise 10.5	Changing Product-Liability Laws	255
Chapter 11	Civil Rights	259
Exercise 11.1	Mandating Racial Segregation by State Law	259
Exercise 11.2	Race Relations: How Persistent a Problem?	266
Exercise 11.3	Assessing Minority Economic Gains	270
Exercise 11.4	The Gender Wage Gap	272
Exercise 11.5	The End of Affirmative Action?	279
Chapter 12	Civil Liberties	282
Exercise 12.1	Drug Testing and the Right to Privacy	282
Exercise 12.2	Defining Obscenity: Is There an Answer?	285
Exercise 12.3	Homosexuals, Privacy, and the Supreme Court	288
Exercise 12.4	Libel	292
Exercise 12.5	Regulating Hate Speech on University Campuses	295
Chapter 13	Public Policies	299
Exercise 13.1	Promoting Public Safety	299
Exercise 13.2	The War on Terrorism	303
Exercise 13.3	What To Do about Castro?	307
Exercise 13.4	Developing a Counterterrorism Policy	310
Exercise 13.5	To Drill or Not to Drill? The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge	317
	Appendix 1	319
	Appendix 2	323