American Government and Politics

Welcome to American Government 2010-2011

This class is not a civics course, nor is it an “introduction to” course. Nor is this a traditional survey course, the intended audience is college students. It is important to realize that the lectures and discussions will not summarize the readings nor describe the nuts and bolts of governmental bodies.

Instead, it offers an opportunity to explore in depth and systematically some rather sophisticated arguments, interpretations and controversies about the institutions (Congress, the Presidency, and the Judiciary) and the processes (Elections, Media, Public Opinion, etc.) of American government. Politics and the American political system are badly misunderstood by most citizens, and I will offer interpretations and analyses that may clarify some important events and practices.

I will present lectures and lead discussions that deal with specific aspects of American government and politics. We will critically interpret and evaluate significant parts of the political system. In the process I will try to debunk numerous deeply held but misleading beliefs people have about how politics work in this country. My mission is to challenge your basic beliefs, arouse your intellectual curiosity, and encourage you to think for yourselves. It is my hope that this hands-on experience of "doing" will both enliven your interest in political analysis and help you develop practical skills that you can use in other contexts as well.

Dr. Michael Thompson

Matt Stevens
The American System
The American system was a plan to help unify the nation. It was to help economically and to keep the nation stable. Some of the political leaders that constructed the system include Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams. This system helped shape many parts of the government today.
From the nation's earliest days, Congress has struggled with the fundamental issue of the national government's proper role in fostering economic development. Henry Clay's American System, devised in the burst of nationalism that remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry. This system consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other internal improvements to develop profitable markets for agriculture. Funds for these subsidies would be obtained from tariffs and sales of public lands. Clay argued that a vigorously maintained system of sectional economic interdependence would eliminate the chance of renewed subservience to the free-trade, British System. In the years from 1816 to 1828, Congress enacted programs supporting each of the American System's major elements. After the 1829 inauguration of President Andrew Jackson's administration, with its emphasis on a limited role for the federal government and sectional autonomy, the American System became the focus of anti-Jackson opposition that coalesced into the new Whig party under the leadership of Henry Clay

Portions of the American System were enacted by the United States Congress. The Second Bank of the United States was re chartered in 1816 for 20 years. High tariffs were maintained from the days of Alexander Hamilton until 1832. However, the national system of internal improvements was never adequately funded. The establishment of a national bank would promote a single currency, making trade easier, and issue what was called sovereign credit, credit issued by the national government, rather than borrowed from the private banking system. In 1816, Congress created the Second Bank of the United States.
The American system helped shape the way of life today. The system made it easy for industry and trade to boost. It was great to get away from the traditional British ways and make our own system that can jump start the nation.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=87&nm=Henry-Clay
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h278.html

The American System

The American system is based on government; even in its founding days before it America was even a country. Government is the preeminent institution in society that essentially makes decisions that resolve conflicts or allocates benefits and privileges. It, in itself, is the ultimate authority for making decisions and establishing political values.

Types of Government:
Totalitarian Regime – A political system, a small group of leaders or a single individual makes all political decisions for the society. Every aspect of political, social, and economic life is controlled by the government. The power of the ruler is total.
Authoritarianism – The government itself is fully controlled by the ruler. Social and economic institutions exist that are not under the government’s control.
Aristocracy – Its literal translation is “rule by the best”. This meant to be ruled by leading members of wealthy families.
Theocracy – Its literal translation is “rule by God” (or gods). This means to be ruled by self-appointed religious leaders.
Oligarchy – Its literal translation is “rule by few”
Democracy – A system of government in which political authority is vested in the people.
America has a Democratic government, but which Democracy do we have?
Majoritarianism – A political theory holding that in a democracy, the government ought to do what the majority of the people want.
Elite Theory – A perspective holding that society is ruled by a small number of people who exercise power to further their self-interest.
Pluralism – A theory that views politics as a conflict among interest groups. Political decision making is characterized by compromise and accommodation.
The experts, political scientists, say that none of these theories actually grasp the workings of the American System. The experts think that each theory captures just a mere portion of the actual system, and we need all three to fully gain an understanding of the true American System.
At the core of the system is the Constitution. Constructed, ratified and signed by the founding fathers of our country. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land; no law can surpass the Constitution. In this document are many rules and guild lines that are laid out for the American System to follow, in order to work efficiently. Even though it was only intended to be a “frame work” for future generations to interpret as needed, this document is flexible enough to uphold laws 200 years after its creation.

But for all its flexibility it still relatively short, around 7,000 words, which means it’s hardly been changed in the 200 years of its existence. The founders feared that if there was an easy amending process, there would be widespread corruption, leading to tyranny. There are 27 amendments to the Constitution. The first ten are known as the Bill of Rights. These ten are the rights and liberties for every man, woman and child in this country. These are thought to be the most important of the amendments.

Amendments:
First Amendment – Freedom of Religion, Speech, Right to Assembly and Petition
Second Amendment – Militia and the Right to Bear Arms
Third Amendment – The Quartering of Soldiers
Fourth Amendment – Searches and Seizures
Fifth Amendment – Grand Juries, Self-Incrimination, Double Jeopardy, Due Process and Eminent Domain
Sixth Amendment – Criminal Court Procedures
Seventh Amendment – Trial by Jury in Civil Cases
Eight Amendment – Bail, Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Ninth Amendment – The Rights Retained by the People
Tenth Amendment – Reserved Powers of the States
Without the Constitution and the Government in place, there could very well be widespread anarchy or a different form of government, shown above, ruling in the place of Democracy. I hope this gave you an understanding of our American System.
By Matthew Espinoza

http://www.morningconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Constitution.png
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Constitution+of+the+United+States
http://www.easybib.com/cite/view
Bardes, Barbara A., Mack C. Shelley II, and Steffen W. Schmidt. American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials. 2009-2010 ed. Suzanne Jeans. Print.

American System
By David Bauer

The American System by Henry Clay was monumental in the advancement of the United States. Without the system we would not have National Banks now days. This allowed for the American economy to develop into what it is today, an advanced economic system.

Definition: The American System was a program for economic development championed by Henry Clay, an influential member of Congress in the early decades of the 19th century. Clay's idea was that the federal government should implement protective tariffs and internal improvements and a national bank should help develop the nation's economy.

Examples of the ideas put into practice would be the building of the National Road, the chartering of the Second Bank of the United States in 1816, and the first protective tariff, which was passed in 1816. Clay's American System was essentially in practice during the "Era of Good Feelings," which corresponded with the presidency of James Monroe from 1817 to 1825.

Clay, who had served as a Congressman and a Senator from Kentucky, ran for president in 1824 and 1832 and advocated extending the American System. But by that time sectional and partisan disputes made aspects of his plans controversial. Indeed, in the late 1820s tensions over the role the federal government should play in economic development escalated to the point that South Carolina threatened to withdraw from the Union over a tariff in what became known as the "Nullification Crisis."
If Henry Clay had not introduced the American System the United States could have a very different National Banking System today. The introduction of the American System has had major effects on the US today, and for the most part have all been positive effects.
http://thecollaboratory.wikidot.com/american-government-2010-2011

http://www.bientech.net/seaporte/american_systems.jpg

American Systems
by Daniel Bolte

The American System in our government, Henry Clay wanted to put a federal bank to make Americas economy. A tariff was put into effect to “protect and promote the American industry.” The American system also had federal subsidies put in for the economic growth such as roads, canals, ect. The American System was put in to better the United States of America, and while Clay was in office that is exactly what he did.
Henry Clay

In Defense of the American System
February 2, 3, and 6, 1832
From the nation's earliest days, Congress has struggled with the fundamental issue of the national government's proper role in fostering economic development. Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812, remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry. This "System" consisted of three mutually reenforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture. Funds for these subsidies would be obtained from tariffs and sales of public lands. Clay argued that a vigorously maintained system of sectional economic interdependence would eliminate the chance of renewed subservience to the free-trade, laissez-faire "British System." In the years from 1816 to 1828, Congress enacted programs supporting each of the American System's major elements. After the 1829 inauguration of President Andrew Jackson's administration, with its emphasis on a limited role for the federal government and sectional autonomy, the American System became the focus of anti-Jackson opposition that coalesced into the new Whig party under the leadership of Henry Clay.

Henry Clay has been aptly labeled "the most influential member"' of the Senate during its golden age of the 1830's and 1840's. His personal 'Magnetismhis passionate, charming, and ingratiating mannermade Clay one of America's best-loved politicians; but his consuming ambition for the presidency led him to compromise his principles in a series of major blunders that frustrated those public figures and private citizens who sought his forceful leadership. One biographer concluded that "there was a serious statesman in him along with the gamester-politician; behind his never-ending series of plausible expedients there was a consistency of purpose. Clay has been overrated as a politician and underrated as a statesman."

The Kentuckian took his first Senate oath of office in 1806 at age twenty-nine, despite being three months under the constitutionally required age for membership. Filling out an unexpired term, he served less than three months, and in January 1810 he returned for another brief period. Moving to the House of Representatives in 1811, Clay was chosen Speaker on his first day in that body, a post he held intermittently for a decade. He served as Secretary of State in John Quincy Adams' administration, and following Andrew Jackson's 1828 defeat of Adams, Clay returned to the Senate in November 1831. Within months, the National Republican party nominated Clay to oppose Jackson in the 1832 election.

Clay's move to the Senate in 1831 symbolized the increasing prestige of the upper chamber, which was rapidly becoming the principal theater for the nation's intensifying legislative battles.

Early in 1832, as the Jackson administration moved closer to paying off its national debt, Clay recommended abolishing tariffs on foreign goods that did not compete with American products. This would have obvious political appeal to the purchasers of those goods and would reduce the flow of revenue into the treasury, preventing Jackson from extinguishing the debt in time to take credit for it in the 1832 election campaign. Southerners who hated protective tariffs argued that Clay's reductions were inadequate.

By 1831, the Kentucky senator enjoyed a national reputation as an outstanding orator. A book entitled The Speeches of Henry Clay had appeared four year ' s earlier, "the first such volume to be published in the United States and [an indication of] the importance parliamentary eloquence had attained in the nation's life. Clay's oratorical power, unlike that of Webster, lay not in his choice of words or extent of his knowledge, but in his style of delivery. Raised in a western tradition that valued oratory for its entertainment rather than educational value, Clay tailored his remarks for a wide audience, filling them with popular allusions while omitting the learned quotations that other classical orators favored. Unlike Calhoun, who delivered scholarly addresses with a maximum of speed and a minimum of ornamentation, Clay adopted a deliberative style that made effective use of calculated pauses, well-timed body gestures, and simple direct arguments. Carl Schurz, who served in the Senate in the 1870's with those who had known Clay, believed the Kentuckian possessed "the true oratorical temperament, that force of nervous exaltation that makes the orator feel himself, and appear to others, a superior being, and almost irresistibly transfuses his thoughts, his passions, and his will into the mind and heart of the listener."

On February 2, 1832, Clay used the first speech of his Senate career to launch a major attack on the Jackson administration. This three-day speech, entitled "In Defense of the American System," (pdf) focused principally on the importance of maintaining protective tariffs, despite complaints of such southern spokesmen as Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina and Vice President John C. Calhoun that they would ruin the region's economy.

Historian Merrill Peterson reconstructed the image Clay conveyed to his audience during delivery of this address. "The chamber was packed to hear the man whose powers of persuasionnow charming, now badgering; now beseeching, now deprecating; now subdued, now vehementwere legendary, and who, if he did not command assent by the strength of his views, won it with his captivating manner and seductive voice." Friends and foes alike admired the sound of Clay"s voice. Another scholar concludes,

"His voice was a magnificent instrument to express his emotions and ideas, remarkable clear, at times 'soft as a lute' and other times 'full as a trumpet,' beautifully modulated." Clay's modern biographer, Robert Remini, offers this cogent evaluation of the American System address:

Despite its frequent histrionic outbursts, its penchant for overkill, its wrongheadedness about southern interests and concerns, its statistical errors, its irrelevancies, and its overtly insincere courtesies it was a masterful speech, one of Clay's more triumphant efforts at influencing the minds and votes of his colleagues. It buttressed logical arguments with statistical data, all compellingly presented with humor, grace, passion, a touch of sarcasm here and there, and the force of personality and language.

Reprinted from Robert C. Byrd, The Senate, 1789-1989: Classic Speeches, 1830-1993. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1994.

The American System was important because it made America better while gaining power in the banking system. It also helped the U.S.A. because it had three main parts so all politicians could follow. Even though everyone did not agree America was a golden age while this was happening. The Banking systems did put America in debt but the ideas were on the right track.
Website
http://history1800s.about.com/od/1800sglossary/g/americansysdef.htm
Picture
http://www.henryclay.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/fotashenry-clay.jpg

[[tab Civil Rights and Liberties]]
Civil Rights: Abraham Lincoln
Chris McIntosh

Civil War:
On November 19, 1863, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, which dedicated the battlefield at Gettysburg to the Union Soldiers who had died there. He called the living to finish the war that the dead soldiers had begun.

Lincoln’s support for the Homestead Act allowed poor people in the East to obtain land in the West so new settlements could be set up. This act decreased crowding in the East. The act also made it easier for people to come to the U.S. from foreign countries.

Lincoln also signed legislation entitled the National Banking Act, which established a national currency for the whole country, not a different kind of money for each state like there used to be. It also provided for the creation of a network of national banks. Before this act, each state had its own currency and banks. This act is still in effect to this day. In addition to the National Banking Act, Lincoln signed tariff legislation that offered protection to large industries in the U.S. and signed a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad. This railroad helped the North to bring supplies to the areas where they were needed and it gave the Northern army another type of transportation. Lincoln’s foreign policy was geared toward preventing foreign intervention in the Civil War, which made it difficult for any foreign country to help either side during the Civil War.

Lincoln stuck with his pro-union policy for four long years of the Civil War. Although some generals knew how to handle their armies in a war, many generals did not. Many generals were unprepared for full-fledged war. General Ulysses S. Grant was one of the few generals who knew what he was doing.

Assassination:
In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was named General-in-Chief of the Northern army. The South was slowly being worn down and Lincoln was re-elected president. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant. Two days later Lincoln addressed a crowd outside the White House. Among other things, he suggested he would vote for rights for certain Blacks. This infuriated a racist and Southern sympathizer who was in the audience: the actor John Wilkes Booth who hated everything the President stood for.

On April 4, 1865 the Lincolns attended a play called "Our American Cousin" at Ford’s Theater. During the performance, Booth arrived at the Theatre, entered the State Box (a box for special people such as the president) from the rear, and shot the President in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he passed away the next day at 7:22 A.M. This was the first presidential assassination in United States history. Lincoln was born in 1809 on the date of February 12 and led a short life. He was 56 when he died.

Lincoln helped win freedom for Blacks after defeating the South in the Civil War. His Emancipation Proclamation helped Blacks gain their freedom after the U.S. regained control of the Confederacy. Lincoln had some of the most difficult problems any president ever had to face, and he died a hero.

Civil Rights Movement:
Abe was famous for freeing the slaves and eliminating the South. If it wasn’t for Lincoln we might still have slaves today and the civil rights movement In the 1960’s might have never been. Great political leaders and rights activists may have been washed away by terrible slavery. People such as: Martin Luther King jr. Rosa Parks, Colon Powell, President Obama. The list goes on and on.
People don’t give Lincoln enough credit for what he did so many years ago. He was a great president and it is a shame that he got assassinated.
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/civil_rights_leaders.htm

The Bill of Rights
By: Brandon Wilson

Background:
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The goal behind the Bill of Rights was to protect civil liberties by limiting the power of the government. These are very vague and depend on the justice system to interpret the amendments and apply them to society. Because the Supreme Court Justices change from time to time, these interpretations have changed with time.

When these first 10 amendments were first ratified, they were only limits on the national government, and did not limit the state government. Most states had their own Bill of Rights that varied slightly from that of the national government. In addition, they had their own judicial system that was interpreting them and so civil liberties varied from state to state. This meant that some of the civil liberties guaranteed by the national government could be denied on the state level. In 1868, with the passing of the fourteenth amendment, states were not allowed to deny any right guaranteed by the national government.

The Amendments:
Amendment 1 : “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Amendment 2: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Amendment 3: “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

Amendment 4: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Amendment 5: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Amendment 6: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

Amendment 7: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

Amendment 8: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Amendment 9: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Amendment 10: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Application:
There have been many cases over the years that have been either overturned or upheld based on the interpretations of these amendments by the Supreme Court. One such case was in Rove v. Wade in 1973. This Supreme Court decided that a woman constitutional right to privacy includes the right to have an abortion. Another decision overturned a law that had been in effect for more than 30 years in Washington DC. The law restricted the ownership of handguns in DC. The Supreme Court ruled that citizens have the right to own guns for self defense in their homes.

While the Bill of Rights limits the government, it is left open to interpretation and so therefore, the limits it imposes, and the rights it insures can and do vary over time based upon decisions by the justice system.

Sources
Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
Sherman, Mark. "Supreme Court says Americans have right to guns." Breitbart.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=d91hs2eo0&show_article=1>.
"United States Bill of Rights Part 1 of 2." Chicago Skyline, Photographs, New York Posters and Pictures, T-shirts, Chicago Events, e postcards. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.damchicago.com/bill-of-rights-01.html>.

American System Bill of Rights
The American system is used in the United States of America to unify the Nation. The American system is a form of government that was formed in the early days of our nation. Why do we need the American System we the it to solve conflicts and also it is a form of structure that has laws within it so not everyone is running around doing bad things. Because it is an ultimate authority that enforces the laws that are set for us. We have a lot of things in our government for example we have the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights witch by definition by Google is (bill of rights is a list of the most important rights of the citizens of a country. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement by the government. The term "bill of rights" originates from England, where it referred to the Bill of Rights 1689). There are amendments in the bill of rights which are as follows.

The first amendment gives you the freedom of speech press and religion. This may be the most important amendment in the ten which gives you the right to say what you want to who you want and no one can silence you. The freedom of press which gives you the right that the media is not controlled so people can right what they want to and do not have to worry about getting into trouble for writing what they did. And maybe the biggest one of all of them freedom of religion witch lest you belive in what you you think is the right faith for you or If you coose not to belive in anything you have the right to you can decide what is best for yourself. And you do not have to follow anyone else is religion.

The Second amendment is a well regulated militia and the right to bear arms. The right to bear arms is the right to have guns that are in your home or place of residents.
The Third amendment is No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

The Fourth amendment is The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. This amendment just ensures that no on e could check your property without probably because that you were doing something.
The Fifth amendment is No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The Sixth amendment In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
The Seventh In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

The Eight Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The Ninth the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
And the Tenth The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Then amendments are the most important thing in our government these are rights that cannot be taken away from us and is was our founding fathers of our nations worked so hard to get so these amendments are a very big part of American government and also the American system. by Fabian Guerrero
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights

http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/BillOfRights.html

Cory Ridenour

The American system consists of three branches, Judicial, Executive, and Legislative. They work in a process of checks and balances, and these checks and balances allow the American government aka the American system to work with a minimum amount of problems and the fairest it can be. The Judicial branch can check the executive and legislative branch. The executive branch checks the judicial and legislative, and finally the legislative can check the executive and judicial. No one branch has more power than any of the others and this allows them to work without problems.

The definition and duties of each branch are as follows: The executive branch is the branch of federal and state government that is broadly responsible for implementing, supporting, and enforcing the laws made by the legislative branch and interpreted by the judicial branch. At the state level, the executive includes governors and their staffs. At the federal level, the executive includes the president, the vice president, staffs of appointed advisers (including the cabinet), and a variety of departments and agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Postal Service ( see postmaster general).

The executive branch also proposes a great deal of legislation to Congress and appoints federal judges, including justices of the Supreme Court. Although the executive branch guides the nation's domestic and foreign policies, the system of checks and balances works to limit its power. The judicial branch is the court systems of local, state, and federal governments, responsible for interpreting the laws passed by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch. These courts try criminal cases (in which a law may have been violated) or civil cases (disputes between parties over rights or responsibilities). The courts attempt to resolve conflicts impartially in order to protect the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution, within the bounds of justice, as defined by the entire body of U.S. law. Some courts try only original cases, whereas others act as courts of appeals.

The ultimate court of appeals is the Supreme Court. On the federal level, the system of checks and balances empowers Congress to create federal courts, and all federal judges must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The courts may exercise the powers of judicial review and injunction. And finally the legislative branch is the branch of the federal and state government empowered to make the laws that are then enforced by the executive branch and interpreted by the judicial branch. The legislative branch consists of Congress and the fifty state legislatures. At both state and federal levels, legislatures are made up of popularly elected representatives, who propose laws that are sensitive to the needs and interests of their local constituents. After a law is proposed as a bill, it is sent to appropriate committees for several stages of discussion, research, and modification.

It is then debated in both legislative houses — except in Nebraska, which has a single-house legislature — and put to a vote. If the law is passed, it is still subject to further modification and final vote by both houses. Under the system of checks and balances, the president can refuse to sign the bill into law (through the veto power). The legislature can then vote to override the veto. Other checks and balances include legislative powers to impeach public officials (see impeachment), confirm appointments to the executive and judicial branches, and vote on appropriations. So in all these checks and balances and government branches it keeps the government equal and fair which in turn makes it a smoother rolling government for our country.

Matt Edwards
Six Foundational Principles

There are 6 Foundational Principals in our government today. These are part of everyday government and the people of the government have these ingrained into their mind.

• Popular Sovereignty -Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of every political power.
• Limited Government - Limited government is a government where any more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is not usually allowed by law, usually in a written Constitution.
• Separation of Powers - The separation of powers, also known as trias politica, is a model for the governance of democratic states. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the uncodified Constitution of the Roman Republic.
• Checks and Balances - A system for multiple parties wherein each has some control over the actions of each of the others. This helps so that one certain part of the government doesn’t have more power than the other.
• Judicial Review - review by a court of law of actions of a government official or entity or of some other legally appointed person or body or the review by an appellate court of the decision of a trial court.
• Federalism - Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant
Political Process

While the Constitution sets up the system of government, the actual way in which the offices of Congress and the Presidency are filled are based upon the American political system. but the US exists under a two-party system. The two major parties in America are the Democratic and Republican parties. They act as coalitions and attempt to win elections. We currently have a two-party system because of not only historical precedent and tradition but also the electoral system itself.

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/jfhms/constconven.jpg

Josh Jurado
American Government
Wiki
Checks & Balances

The Separation of Powers is part of the American constitutional system, and in this system, there are a lot of other different branches of government that are made and powered to shared among each other. But also each branch has the power to challenged other branches, and that’s how checks and balances come into the picture.
The Constitution established three branches in the United States government which consists of Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branch. Each one of them has their own different functions. The Legislative branch makes up the law, then the Executive branch executes the law and after that the Judicial branch and that interprets the law. All three branches has a big effect on one each other.

• Checks on the Executive
o Impeachment power (House)
o Trial of impeachments (Senate)
o Selection of the President (House) and Vice President (Senate) in the case of no majority of electoral votes
o May override Presidential vetoes
o Senate approves departmental appointments
o Senate approves treaties and ambassadors
o Approval of replacement Vice President
o Power to declare war
o Power to enact taxes and allocate funds
o President must, from time-to-time, deliver a State of the Union address

• Checks on the Judiciary
o Senate approves federal judges
o Impeachment power (House)
o Trial of impeachments (Senate)
o Power to initiate constitutional amendments
o Power to set courts inferior to the Supreme Court
o Power to set jurisdiction of courts
o Power to alter the size of the Supreme Court

• Checks on the Legislature - because it is bicameral, the Legislative branch has a degree of self-checking.
o Bills must be passed by both houses of Congress
o House must originate revenue bills
o Neither house may adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other house
o All journals are to be published

Executive Branch
• Checks on the Legislature
o Veto power
o Vice President is President of the Senate
o Commander in chief of the military
o Recess appointments
o Emergency calling into session of one or both houses of Congress
o May force adjournment when both houses cannot agree on adjournment
o Compensation cannot be diminished

• Checks on the Judiciary
o Power to appoint judges
o Pardon power
• Checks on the Executive
o Vice President and Cabinet can vote that the President is unable to discharge his duties

Judicial Branch
• Checks on the Legislature
o Judicial review
o Seats are held on good behavior
o Compensation cannot be diminished

• Checks on the Executive
o Judicial review
• Chief Justice sits as President of the Senate during presidential impeachment
(Mount, Steve. "Constitutional Topic: Martial Law." USConstitution.net. 30 Nov 2001. http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_mlaw.html (3 Dec 2001)

According the book American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials by Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley, and Steffen W. Schmidt, says the major checks and balances among the three branches are illustrated that the U.S. Constitution does not mention some of these checks, such as judicial review-the power of the courts to declare federal or state acts unconstituional-and the president’s ability to refuse to enforce judicial decisions or congressional legislation. Checks and balances can be thought of as a confrontation of powers or responsibilities. Each branch checks the action of another; two branches in conflict have powers that can result in balances or statements, requiring one brach to give in or both to reach a compromise.

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

——

Chris McIntosh
American Government
11/4/10

The colonial background
In 1607 the English government sent a group of farmers to Jamestown to produce a trading post. It was called the Virginia Company of London and it was the first establishment in an English colony in America. The English king gave the farmers full power and authority to make laws for the good of the people. The people of Virginia created a “representative assembly” which is a legislature representing the people. The colony in Jamestown was not a success in the beginning within the first 16 years (1607-1623) the English sent 6,000 people to Virginia and of those 4,800 died. Researchers say it was because of a huge drought Virginia had at the time.
The first “New England” colony was established in 1620 with a group of people that left the Church of England, and came over on the Mayflower. Before reaching the shore forty-one of the forty-four men signed the Mayflower Compact which was made up to ensure they would lead a life of civil obedience even though leaving England. The fear was that once the ship hit shore the people would not obey laws and “use their owne libertie” and no one would have power to command them. The compact was like a constitution but still under the English law making sure the signers agreed to create and enforce authority of government in the new colony. This was huge in American history because it was the first document where the people wrote/created laws “by the people, for the people” a huge point on what our nation stands for even today.
Americans developed a concept of limited government which followed the first colonies under Crown Charters. The colonies were for the most part self governed while London being in charge. The colonists were able to make their own laws as long as it was in the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut which was created in 1639. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641 supported individual rights and was made part of the law in 1682. The Pennsylvania of Privileges of 1701 was a foreshadow of our constitution and bill of rights enabling the colonists realize the importance of the power of the people and a political experience.

British Restrictions and Colonial Grievances
The fall of the English government started in the 1760’s when the British chose to raise their profits and raise our taxes here in America. King George the II thought it was necessary to raise taxes so the American colonies would help support the English defense system in the Indian war from (1756-1763) which the American colonies had nothing to do with. Which then lead to the colonies coming together to try to oppose the tax. When the English government denied the Americans request it lead to the revolutionary war; and we all know how that turns out.

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Kenneth Morales
Wiki page
11/5/2010

The topic that I want to talk about is how the United States democracy system works better than other countries systems. Political scientists like to describe our democracy on how it works or how they believe it should work. They say there are three theories on how the American democracy works. The first is the majoritarian theory the second is the elite theory and the last is theories of pluralism. But none of these three theories fully describe how the system works.

The people who believe in the majoritarian system believe that the government ought to do what the majority of people want and decide on things that way. While the elite theory suggests that elites really should govern the United States. This is because citizens may not be making policy decisions with their votes. People who subscribe to the pluralism system see politics as a struggle among groups to gain benefits for their members.
“A democracy works well because theoretically, a democracy is a government in which the people rule and the government cannot deprive the fundamental rights of the people and a democracy insures that the government does not abuse its power like a autocracy form of government would. A democracy would not necessarily work because in a nation with a large population(usa) the voice of the minority might not be considered and also in the Usa, due to the multitude of diversity and freedom endowed, there is high levels of organized crime, violence, and some much disagreement in this nation,

Important concepts of Democracy includes a constitution, as a guideline to ensure that stability is achieved(potential problems include misinterpretations of the constitution, like U.S.A , embrace the concept of popular soverngity (the concept that people rule: Negative is that minority is ignored) and a voting system in which the people select the president( In USA, popular vote which is the people do not decide the vote, instead it is the electoral college)”

source]]

The bottom line is that democracy works. Some people may not like it and think that it works at a slower pace than they would like. But look at it this way; look at how well our country has done in the past in comparison to a country like China our Iraq. The people of this country actually have a say in what they want to happen instead of having choices made for them.

“Yahoo“Answers.com”http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090926201413AAmT9nS
Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Two Major Parties in the United States
by Tyler Hayes

In the American government system there are two main parties, The Democratic Party and the Republicans. In the United States we work with a free Democratic system, so there are many other parties who try and compete but these are the main two competitors year to year.

According to Ron Gunzburger’s website Politics1.com, Tax breaks are given to middle class so they can pay off their debts. They get some sort of financial aid to bring somewhat equality to the nation. The upper classes will not get the breaks and they will pay higher taxes to pay for the government funding.
He defines the democratic party as follows:

DEMOCRATIC PARTY (DNC) - The Democrats regained control of the US House and US Senate in the 2006 elections, and of the White House in the 2008 elections. Democrats also control several key governorships (including PA, NY, MI, IL, VA, OH, NJ, NC, MO, CO, VA and WA) and many state legislatures. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean tried a new "50-states strategy" approach to rebuilding the party since becoming DNC Chair in 2005, abandoning the old "targeted states" approach in favor of building a 50-state party organization (which proved largely successful, and was generally adopted by the Barack Obama campaign in 2008). While prominent Democrats run the wide gamut from the near Euro-style democratic-socialist left (Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich and the Congressional Progressive Caucus) and traditional liberals (Barack Obama, Russ Feingold, Nancy Pelosi) to the Dem center-right (Evan Bayh, Harry Reid and the NDN) to the GOP-style conservative right (Ben Nelson, Gene Taylor, and the Blue Dog Coalition) to the pragmatic Democratic Leadership Council's "centrist" moderate-to-liberal style (Mark Warner, Harold Ford Jr, Rahm Emanuel). The Democrats swept into office in '06 and '08 include a combination of some vocal progressives on the left, some centrists, and a some conservatives on the party's right. An inability to cure the inherited stagnant national economy and voter discontent over health care and other Obama agenda items caused a significant erosion of support, threatening Democratic control of Congress and governorships in 2010.

The conservative group that believes in economics, if you allow businesses to prosper then they will make money. If you give tax breaks to the wealthy they will spend money and it will come back through the system, there for creating jobs for the unemployed population. This process is also known as the trickledown theory. Ron Gunzburger defined the Republican Party as followed:

REPUBLICAN PARTY (RNC) - Republicans lost control of the big job in 2008: the Presidency. The party was swept out of office in response to the public's high disapproval rating of President George W. Bush. The GOP also held control of the US House from the Gingrich "Contract with America" anti-Clinton election sweep of 1994 until they were ousted from power in 2006 in a backlash to the Iraq War and corruption concerns. Despite these setbacks, the GOP still holds several key Governorships (including TX, CA, GA, MN and FL), and narrowly held majority status in the US Senate in 1995-2001 and 2003-07. Following the back-to-back 2006 and 2008 defeats, the party is largely split into two warring ideological camps within the Republican Party, battling for control in preparation for the 2012 White House race. The conservative purists say the GOP lost the 2006 and 2008 elections because their Republican leaders "went Washington" with when they won control of Congress and "lost sight of true conservative Republican values." They argue the party needs to become uncompromisingly conservative, seeking ideological purity over pragmatism. US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) said he would "would rather have 30 Republicans in the US Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs." The GOP pragmatists embrace the "Big Tent" view that the party is big enough to embrace people of widely varying beliefs — moderates and conservatives alike — so long as all agree on a few key core values. US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) explained he wants "to build an open party that could win in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, as well as South Carolina … Winning matters to me. I'm not giving this party over to people who can't win."

http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm
Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

American system
By RJay Joe

According to us history.com it says that, “A plan to strengthen and unify the nation, the American System was advanced by the Whig Party and a number of leading politicians including Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams. The System was a new form of federalism that included:

 Support for a high tariff to protect American industries and generate revenue for the federal government
 Maintenance of high public land prices to generate federal revenue
 Preservation of the Bank of the United States to stabilize the currency and rein in risky state and local banks
 Development of a system of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) which would knit the nation together and be financed by the tariff and land sales revenues.

 Clay argued that the West, which opposed the tariff, should support it since urban factory workers would be consumers of western foods. In Clay’s view, the South (which also opposed high tariffs) should support them because of the ready market for cotton in northern mills. This last argument was the weak link. The South was never really on board with the American System and had access to plenty of markets for its cotton exports.

 Clay first used the term “American System” in 1824, although he had been working for its specifics for many years previously.
 Portions of the American System were enacted by Congress. The Second Bank of the United States was rechartered in 1816 for 20 years. High tariffs were maintained from the days of Hamilton until 1832. However, the national system of internal improvements was never adequately funded; the failure to do so was due in part to sectional jealousies and constitutional scruples about such expenditures.”
 The Supreme Court takes its powers from Article III of the Constitution. Article III, §1 provides that "the judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." In accordance with this provision, the Suprem Court of the United States was created by the authority of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Court met for the first time on February 2, 1790. “The Court currently consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices, each with equal voting power to the chief's. (The number of justices has varied, beginning with six, then increasing to seven in 1801, and finally to nine in 1869.) Each justice is nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serves for life. The Senate confirmation process begins with hearings before the Judiciary Committee and ends with a vote of the full Senate. A simple majority is required for confirmation. Justices who commit "high crimes or misdemeanors" are subject to impeachment and removal from office.

The Term of the Court begins, by law, on the first Monday and October. In a typical year, decisions are announced in all the argued cases by the end of June. An average of about 7,000 to 8,000 petitions are filed with the Court over the course of a single Term; of those only about 100 or so are set for full briefing and oral argument. In addition to the petitions, another 1,200 or so applications (e.g., a request for an immediate stay of a decision below) are filed each year. These applications can be acted upon by a single justice.”

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/conlaw/supremecourtintro.html
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h278.html

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0857363.html

The American System
Michelle Glaze

The American System was originally called "The American Way". It was a mercantilist economic plan based on the "American School" ideas of Alexander Hamilton. The System was a new form of federalism that included:

-Support for a high tariff to protect American industries and generate revenue for the federal government
-Maintenance of high public land prices to generate federal revenue
-Preservation of the Bank of the United States to stabilize the currency and rein in risky state and local banks
-Development of a system of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) which would knit the nation together and be financed by the tariff and land sales revenues.

Clay argued that the West, which opposed the tariff, should support it since urban factory workers would be consumers of western foods. In Clay’s view, the South (which also opposed high tariffs) should support them because of the ready market for cotton in northern mills. This last argument was the weak link. The South was never really on board with the American System and had access to plenty of markets for its cotton exports. Clay first used the term “American System” in 1824, although he had been working for its specifics for many years previously. Portions of the American System were enacted by Congress. The Second Bank of the United States was rechartered in 1816 for 20 years. High tariffs were maintained from the days of Hamilton until 1832. However, the national system of internal improvements was never adequately funded; the failure to do so was due in part to sectional jealousies and constitutional scruples about such expenditures. From the nation's earliest days, Congress has struggled with the fundamental issue of the national government's proper role in fostering economic development. Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812, remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry. This "System" consisted of three mutually reenforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture. Funds for these subsidies would be obtained from tariffs and sales of public lands. Clay argued that a vigorously maintained system of sectional economic interdependence would eliminate the chance of renewed subservience to the free-trade, laissez-faire "British System." In the years from 1816 to 1828, Congress enacted programs supporting each of the American System's major elements. After the 1829 inauguration of President Andrew Jackson's administration, with its emphasis on a limited role for the federal government and sectional autonomy, the American System became the focus of anti-Jackson opposition that coalesced into the new Whig party under the leadership of Henry Clay. Henry Clay has been aptly labeled "the most influential member"' of the Senate during its golden age of the 1830's and 1840's. His personal 'Magnetismhis passionate, charming, and ingratiating mannermade Clay one of America's best-loved politicians; but his consuming ambition for the presidency led him to compromise his principles in a series of major blunders that frustrated those public figures and private citizens who sought his forceful leadership. One biographer concluded that "there was a serious statesman in him along with the gamester-politician; behind his never-ending series of plausible expedients there was a consistency of purpose. Clay has been overrated as a politician and underrated as a statesman." The American System is very important to our society.

The New Federalism
Allison Haffner

When President Nixon was in Office (1969-1974), The Republican party spoke up and changed the policy of national governing transferring it over to local and state governing- It was called the New Federalism.

I believe that this change has made a great impact on America. Sometimes the officials who are in office at the national level have no idea what is going on back in the states, and just pass laws that sound good to them. Whereas the local and state officials are going out and asking their state ‘citizens’ what they would like to see change or what they would like to keep.

The new federalism proposal would sort of take the power away from the national level and take it down the state level, where the system would be able to respond quickly and be more efficient when the people needed help. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/37_nixon/nixon_domestic.html

For example, with all of these fires going on back home in Colorado, it is getting the legislation thinking and wondering if they should be allowing farmers to burn CRP so it doesn’t break out into a big wildfire… I bet you that the national legislators have not even thought about the wildfires in Colorado or how to maybe control them later on when the situation gets worse.
I think our government should be looking and asking for answers from its citizens. We may have elected them to be our ‘spokespeople’ but I really do not see a lot of them doing a good job. But if we could only just find the perfect balance in government we could all truly be happy and not complain!

[http://www.old-picture.com/american-history-1900-1930s/Balancing-Act.htm]

Independence
by William Vasbinder

A need for Independence

Disagreements among Americans about the political relationship of the colonies to the mother country (England) produced bad blood between them. King George III and his ministers along with a majority of Parliament regarded the colonies as subordinate to England. Americans believed each colony had equal rights as the Crown’s dominions did. They believed that they were too entitled to self-government and exempt from parliamentary taxation, legislation, and administrative regulations. They sought to address their grievances by protests, petitions, nonimportation agreements, and finally, by arms.
Revolution and Independence

Though a few radical leaders advocated independence from the beginning most Americans hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain. On July 6, 1775, the Congress issued the lengthy “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms”, which detailed American grievances while denying any intention to separate from Great Britain and establish independent states. King George III replied by proclaiming a state of rebellion in the colonies, and Parliament passed an act that cut off trade with the colonies. Independence was the only alternative to submission. Thomas Panes pamphlet “Common Sense” was widely circulated throughout the colonies and drew thousands toward fighting for their independence.

Drafting the Declaration
On June 10th the Congress selected five of its ablest members: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, to draft the Declaration of Independence. The declaration angered the King and Parliament and it would eventually lead to a war where Americans would fight for and gain their independence.

The Great Compromise
Large states delegates insisted that representation be based on population; but the small stat es feared to enter a union dominated by large states. After an initial rejection and three weeks of consideration, the delegates agreed to The Great Compromise: a lower house chosen according to population and with the sole authority to originate revenue bills, and an upper house where each state would have an equal vote.

The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments of the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights.

Amendments and Ratifications
Amending and ratifying the Constitution was also thought out methodically to prevent the Constitution from dying. There were many meetings about the ratification and amendment process that was thoroughly thought out and drafted into the Constitution.

Milestones in Early U.S. Political History:
• 1607 Jamestown established, Virginia Company leads settlers
• 1620 Mayflower Compact signed
• 1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony set up
• 1639 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted
• 1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties adopted
• 1682 Pennsylvania Frame of Government passed
• 1701 Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges written
• 1732 Last of the thirteen colonies (Georgia) established
• 1756 French and Indian War declared
• 1765 Stamp Act; Stamp Act Congress meets
• 1774 First Continental Congress
• 1775 Second Continental Congress; Revolutionary War begins
• 1776 Declaration of Independence signed
• 1777 Articles of Confederation drafted
• 1781 Last state (Maryland) signs Articles of Confederation
• 1783 “Critical period” in the U.S. history begins, weak national government until 1789
• 1786 Shays Rebellion
• 1787 Constitutional Convention
• 1788 Ratification of Constitution
• 1791 Ratification of Bill of Rights
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb Gale Document # A16692521
American Government and Politics Today (The Essentials) 2009-2010 edition Bardes Shelley Schmidt

[[tab Civil Rights and Liberties]]

African American Civil Rights
By David Bauer

May 17th, 1954- Supreme Court rules on the monumental case of Brown vs. Board of Education.
- Supreme Court Unanimously rules that segregation in public school is unconstitutional

August 1955- Emmett Till
- 14 year old Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman

Dec. 1st, 1955- NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat.
- Rosa Parks refuses give up seat in front of “Colored Section” to a white passenger, which was custom in the times.

Jan.-Feb. 1957- Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- First non violence protesting group set up.

September 1957- Central High School integrates in Little Rock, Arkansas.
- Little Rock Nine blocked by angry protesters from entering newly integrated Central High School

Feb. 1st 1960- four black students begin first non violence sit in at a diner in Greensboro, NC
- Students sat at the counter and were refused service, but they continued to sit in to protest.

August 28th, 1963- Martin Luther King Jr. gives “I Have a Dream” speech
- 200,000 followers crowd the Washington DC streets to hear Martin Luther King

Oct. 1966- Black Panthers founded
- Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found militant group Black Panthers

April 4th, 1968- MLK Jr. assassinated
- Shot as he stands on the balcony of his hotel room. John Earl Ray is known racist and was convicted of the crime

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

http://library.uncc.edu/files/11/civilrights.gif

Matt Edwards
Civil Rights Timeline from 1948 to 1965

Easier - Civil rights means that people have the right to be treated the same regardless of their race, gender, or religion. These rights are law in the United States and many other nations.

Harder - Civil rights are guaranteed by law but took many years to achieve. For example even after the Civil War, African Americans were treated badly. They got the worst jobs and were paid poorly. Blacks and white were segregated. In other words, they were kept separate in public places including at theaters, restrooms, schools and in transportation. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1909 to push for civil rights. In a case called Brown vs. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled that segregation of public schools by race violates the Constitution. In the 1950's and 1960's Martin Luther King Jr. became known as the leader for the nonviolent civil rights movement.

Although often associated with the plight of African Americans, other groups have also fought for their civil rights including women, immigrant groups (Irish, Chinese, Japanese), and religious groups. In Borgna Brunner and Elissa Haney’s article titled, “Civil Rights Timeline
Milestones in the modern civil rights movement” covers the moments in time that had an impact in changing policy. The more violent times occurred from 1948 to 1965.

1948 - Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."

1954 - The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice.

1955 - Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. Montgomery, Ala.) NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott.

1957 - Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline," he urges.
Little Rock, Ark.) Formerly all-white Central High School learns that integration is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine."

1960 - Greensboro, N.C.) Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities.
(Raleigh, N.C.) The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael (1966–1967).

1961 - Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white.

1962 -James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.

1963 - Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws.
During civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world.
(Jackson, Miss.) Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, is murdered outside his home. Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later he is convicted for murdering Evers.
Washington, D.C.) About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
(Birmingham, Ala.) Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths.

1964 - The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote.

The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a network of civil rights groups that includes CORE and SNCC, launches a massive effort to register black voters during what becomes known as the Freedom Summer. It also sends delegates to the Democratic National Convention to protest—and attempt to unseat—the official all-white Mississippi contingent.
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.
Country, Miss.) The bodies of three civil-rights workers—two white, one black—are found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson. James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them.

1965 - Harlem, N.Y.) Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.

(Selma, Ala.) Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later.
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal.
(Watts, Calif.) Race riots erupt in a black section of Los Angeles.
Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough to remedy discrimination, President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment.

Even though, The Civil Rights Movement has a lot of history behind it, it’s still developing today. The timeline shows the history of the movement and how far it has come since the beginning. It’s remarkable to see how far we have come and so fast. The drastic changes we experienced were unbelievable in how quick they happened.

Read more: Civil Rights Movement Timeline (14th Amendment, 1964 Act, Human Rights Law) — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#ixzz15etZVkC9

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

African American Civil Rights
Cory Ridenour

Throughout history there has been all kinds of different movements and disputes over civil rights and the different effects of these civil rights. I could probably go on this entire paper and write about the different major people in the United States history that have affected our nations’ history and the way we run things in this country. In this paper I am only going to go over a few of the people that played a major role in different civil rights acts in our country, mainly concerning African American civil rights that happened during or around the civil war, mostly because that was a time concerning some of the most important civil rights cases of this country.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are the two people I am most familiar with that were highly involved in different civil rights movements and I feel had some of the biggest impacts of civil rights on our country, especially during the time of the civil war.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a major speaker during this time and he took up some major roles while he was involved in the civil rights movements. He fought for civil rights all the way up until the day he was assassinated. He had a bunch of speeches that he gave and had some very famous quotes and here are some of them:
“A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.”
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
Rosa Parks was also another big role in the civil rights movement, but her role didn’t take a whole lot of time. She wasn’t a big speaker, she wasn’t an activist that was always raising hell with the community and different places involved in the civil rights movements, hell she didn’t even really mean to be as big of a part to the civil rights movements in the United States as she ended up being. Either way, if she meant to or not, Rosa Parks was a huge role for one big reason, she was tired and didn’t want to walk all the way to the back of the bus so she sat in the white section. She was told to leave and decided she was too tired and wasn’t going to get up from the white seats and in turn got arrested. Well her getting arrested played a huge role because it got the wheels turning even faster on this movement and made her famous when she didn’t even realize it would.
All of these things put together I believe African Americans during and around the civil war played the biggest part of our countries civil rights movements. They made a huge impact whether they wanted to or not and it helped abolish slavery and make all people in this country free no matter what race.
Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/political/martin_luther_king_talks/

By: Jose Pena-Benjamin

Civil Rights& Liberties

The extension of civil rights does have an effect on individual civil liberties. People feel freer to express there own preferences and beliefs when they believe that they believe they have a protected right to do so. When the civil rights of citizens are broadened in a way that citizens feel that they truly live in a country where freedom is cherished, they may be more likely to behave in a way that expresses this freedom on a personal level. Additionally, I will discuss cases which illustrate how the extension of civil rights enhances civil liberties.

Civil rights, Also called civil liberties. Governmentally recognized and legally protected rights and liberties of people in areas of personal autonomy, personal welfare, and participation in the political, business, and social life of the nation. In the United States, these include political and personal liberties protected by the Constitution and freedom from private governmental discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as race, sex, religion, and disability.

Unfortunately, discrimination is something that is deep-rooted in our country's history. We've had many struggles by different groups such as: women suffragists, and the civil rights movements in the 60's. Affirmative action, or preferential treatment to minorities, is a way to avenge the effects of past discrimination. Affirmative action was a vital step towards equality during historical struggles like after the abolition of slavery and during civil rights movement in the 60's. In today's society however all people are equal and affirmative action only upsets that balance. Affirmative action essentially discriminates and "punishes" people for their race, something they cannot control. The equality of races is the idea being advocated here however; affirmative action does just the opposite. It indirectly discriminates against people that are not minorities.

Therefore, Webster's Dictionary of the Law illustrates that there is a great deal of overlap in the areas of civil liberties and civil rights. However, this dictionary emphasizes that civil rights are the right to be free from certain unfair treatment by others, while civil liberties are the right to be free to exercise one's beliefs.
The aforementioned civil rights statutes and laws helped to ensure that all citizens would be treated equally under that law and have equal access to gainful employment and public facilities. These rights served to enhance civil liberties in that when people are treated equally and can work where they want to work and go where they want to go, they feel more personal autonomy. When people are not prevented from making a certain choice based on classifications such as race, sex, or religion, they now have the freedom to exercise that right to make that choice to suit their personal wants and desires. An example of this is antidiscrimination in housing law.

The most important expansion of civil rights in the United States was the enactment of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States. In response to the 13th Amendment, various states enacted 'black codes" which were intended to limit the civil rights of the newly freed slaves. In 1968 the 14th amendment was passed to counter the 'black codes" and ensure that no state "shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of immunities of the citizens of the United States…[or] deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" (Civil Rights).

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://library.uncc.edu/files/11/civilrights.gif&imgrefurl=http://library.uncc.edu/display/%3Fdept%3Dreference%26format%3Dopen%26page%3D860&usg=__TtZ2zqLJOhEun0DZNuA_bzNHWdk=&h=300&w=400&sz=68&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=x2jU2hxqCboHYM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=185&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcivil%2Bright%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1272%26bih%3D607%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=311&vpy=116&dur=370&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=159&ty=109&ei=OHDoTIj6LYrFnAfj6YyTBA&oei=OHDoTIj6LYrFnAfj6YyTBA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

SOURCES: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT& POLITICS “THE BOOK”

Civil Rights in the United States
by RJay Joe
The Civil rights means for people to be treated equally regardless of their sex, religion, or race. According to infoplease Since the Civil War, much of the concern over civil rights in the United States has focused on efforts to extend these rights fully to African Americans. The first legislative attempts to assure African Americans an equal political and legal status were the Civil Rights Acts of 1866, 1870, 1871, and 1875. Those acts bestowed upon African Americans such freedoms as the right to sue and be sued, to give evidence, and to hold real and personal property. The 1866 act was of dubious constitutionality and was reenacted in 1870 only after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. The fourth Civil Rights Act attempted to guarantee to the African Americans those social rights that were still withheld. It penalized innkeepers, proprietors of public establishments, and owners of public conveyances for discriminating against African Americans in accommodations, but was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883 on the ground that these were not properly civil rights and hence not a field for federal legislation.
After the Civil Rights Act of 1875 there was no more federal legislation in this field until the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, although several states passed their own civil-rights laws. The 20th-century struggle to expand civil rights for African Americans involved the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others. The civil-rights movement, led especially by Martin Luther King, Jr., in the late 1950s and 60s, and the executive leadership provided by President Lyndon B. Johnson, encouraged the passage of the most comprehensive civil-rights legislation to date, the Civil Rights Act of 1964; it prohibited discrimination for reason of color, race, religion, or national origin in places of public accommodation covered by interstate commerce, i.e., restaurants, hotels, motels, and theaters. Besides dealing with the desegregation of public schools, the act, in Title VII, forbade discrimination in employment. Title VII also prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.

In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed, which placed federal observers at polls to ensure equal voting rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 dealt with housing and real estate discrimination. In addition to congressional action on civil rights, there was action by other branches of the government. The most notable of these were the Supreme Court decisions in 1954 and 1955 declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional and the court's rulings in 1955 banning segregation in publicly financed parks, playgrounds, and golf courses.
In the 1960s women began to organize around the issue of their civil rights (see feminism). The federal Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, and by the early 1970s over 40 states had passed equal pay laws. In 1972 the Senate passed an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) intended to prohibit all discrimination based on sex, but after failing to win ratification in a sufficient number of states, the ERA was abandoned. Since the 1970s a number of gay-rights groups have worked, mainly on the local and state levels, for legislation that prevents discrimination in housing and employment (see gay-rights movement). In a further extension of civil-rights protection, the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) barred discrimination against disabled persons in employment and provided for improved access to public facilities.

Kenneth Morales
Government
11/19/2010
There was a time when women did not have many rights. This was early in the 20th century when women did not have the right to vote. It’s funny that I would be writing about this because some women do not understand the meaning of women’s suffrage. This means to give women the right to vote. I wanted to write about this because it is a good example of our countries civil rights and how these rights came to be. For a long time people thought that women did not need the right to vote and that they had other priorities to do instead of deciding on politics and rights. But on august 26th 1920 it was put into the 19th amendment. The amendment states “

Amendment XIX
(The proposed amendment was sent to the states June 4, 1919, by the Sixty-sixth Congress. It was ratified Aug. 18, 1920.)
[The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied because of sex.]
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
[Congress given power to enforce this article.]
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
This grew into women having equal rights to men as well.
Section 1681. Sex (a) Prohibition against discrimination; exceptions. No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,
This just shows how the civil rights work. Civil rights have become about because it gives the group not in power an equal voice. Meaning that everyone now has the same rights and are equally treated. There should be no differences because of different genders.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0749825.html

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Civil Rights
by Daniel Bolte
Civil Rights are ways for the American people to have rights, and freedom so the government can not convict them for certain laws. With civil rights it is impossible for discrimination against anyone. The American people are truly free with civil rights behind our backs.
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.

A SHORT HISTORY OF
AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS
1776 — Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
13th Amendment in 1865 — abolished slavery, but did not give blacks equality.
Civil Rights Act of 1866 — "all persons shall have the same rights…to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws…"
14th Amendment of 1868 — "All persons born or naturalized in the US…are citizens…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person…the equal protection of the laws."
19th Amendment in 1920 — "The rights of citizens…to vote shall not be denied or abridged…on account of sex."
Equal Pay Act of 1963 — prohibits sex-based pay differentials on jobs.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 — Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, or religion. Title VI prohibits public access discrimination, leading to school desegregation. Title VIII is the original "federal fair housing law," later amended in 1988.
1965 Executive Order 11246 — affirmative action requirements of government contractors and subcontractors.
1967 ADEA prohibits age discrimination for 40-65 year olds, amended in 1986 to remove the 65 year old age cap.
Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 — requires accessibility for disabled in buildings and facilities financed with federal funds.
§504 of the Rehab Act of 1973 — bars federal contractors or subcontractors from employment discrimination on the basis of disability.
Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 — disabled access required for multi-family housing intended for first occupancy after March 13, 1991.
Air Carriers Access Act of 1989 — disabled access required in construction of terminal facilities owned or operated by an air carrier.
1990 Americans with Disabilities Act — Title I prohibits disability discrimination by employers. Titles II and III require disability access in all places of public accommodation and business for first occupancy after January 26, 1993 or for occupancy for new alterations, and all state and local government facilities, after January 26, 1992.
Civil Rights Act of 1991 — adds provisions to Title VII protections, including right to jury trial.

With Civil Rights the United States of America is really a wonderful place to be. People of America are free, with our government it really does seem fair with the Civil Rights. We have earned our privacy and our personal belongings, it seems fair to only allow someone in your home if the law has a warrant. Also with Civil Rights it makes the American people equal, no matter or race or religion everyone will be treated the same.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civilrights/images/civilrights-homeimage-previ.jpg
Website
http://www.withylaw.com/history.htm

Josh Jurado
American Government
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties are two different types of freedom that we have. It is important to note the difference between "civil rights" and "civil liberties." The legal area known as "civil rights" has traditionally revolved around the basic right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristics (race, gender, disability, etc.) in settings such as employment and housing. "Civil liberties" concern basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed — either explicitly identified in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, or interpreted through the years by courts and lawmakers. Civil liberties include:
Freedom of speech
The right to privacy
The right to be free from unreasonable searches of your home
The right to a fair court trial
The right to marry
The right to vote
One way to consider the difference between "civil rights" and "civil liberties" is to look at 1) what right is affected, and 2) whose right is affected. For example, as an employee, you do not have the legal right to a promotion, mainly because getting a promotion is not a guaranteed "civil liberty." But, as a female employee you do have the legal right to be free from discrimination in being considered for that promotion — you cannot legally be denied the promotion based on your gender (or race, or disability, etc.). By choosing not to promote a female worker solely because of the employee's gender, the employer has committed a civil rights violation and has engaged in unlawful employment discrimination based on sex or gender.

Civil Rights are the rights of individuals to receive equal treatment (and to be free from unfair treatment or "discrimination") in a number of settings — including education, employment, housing, and more — and based on certain legally-protected characteristics.
Historically, the "Civil Rights Movement" referred to efforts toward achieving true equality for African-Americans in all facets of society, but today the term "civil rights" is also used to describe the advancement of equality for all people regardless of race, sex, age, disability, national origin, religion, or certain other characteristics. And they come from guaranteeing and regulating civil rights originate at the federal level, either through federal legislation, or through federal court decisions (such as those handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court). States also pass their own civil rights laws (usually very similar to those at the federal level), and even municipalities like cities and counties can enact ordinances and laws related to civil rights. For an example Federal legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1992. Other federal acts (supplemented by court decisions) prohibit discrimination in voting rights, housing, extension of credit, public education, and access to public facilities.
OR
Federal court decisions, such as the U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which was the impetus for nationwide racial desegregation of public schools. Other Supreme Court cases have shaped the definition of civil rights violations like sexual harassment, and the legality of anti-discrimination remedies such as affirmative action programs.
Today, most states have civil rights laws of their own which mirror those at the federal level. For example, in the state of Texas, Title 2 Chapter 21 of the Labor Code prohibits employment discrimination. Many of the mandates in this Texas law are based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law making employment discrimination unlawful.
Municipalities within states (such as cities, counties, and towns) can create their own civil rights laws or ordinances, which may or may not resemble the laws of the state itself. For example, a city may pass legislation requiring domestic partner benefits for city employees and their same-sex partners, even though no such law exists at the state level.

Citation
www.public.findlaw.com
American Government & politics Today: The Essentials by Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley II, Steffen W. Schmidt
www.teresaherrin.com 1st%20amend%20flag%20v2.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1272748309968

Matt Stevens
Civil Rights and Liberties

The civil rights movement in the late 1950’s, early 60’s was to stop the discrimination of African Americans. Many groups formed and the African Americans started to stand up and stop the suffrage. They used protest, such as boycotts, sit ins and peaceful demonstrations. The movement
The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, announced its decision in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas on May 17, 1954. The decision declared that the system of segregated public schools in the United States was unconstitutional. A unanimous Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. The majority opinion cited sociological evidence to argue that the separation itself, regardless of whether facilities were equal, cultivated a sense of inferiority in black children. In handing down this ruling, the Court overturned the 1896 precedent in Plessy vs. Ferguson, the case which established the separate but equal doctrine. It was replaced with a legal apparatus whereby separate school systems could be challenged by obtaining a federal court order directing school districts to desegregate.
The Rosa Parks story has become legendary in the civil rights history. On December 1, 1955, she boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During her ride, she was told to move out of her seat and to the colored section in the back. She refused and was arrested. Her arrest triggered a systematic response among the civil rights community in Montgomery a boycott of public transportation. Leading the boycott effort was a young Reverend Martin Luther King, pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. The boycott lasted over a year and ended on November 13, 1956 when the U.S. Supreme court ruled that the Montgomery segregation law was unconstitutional.

Liberties
The Civil Liberties are the rights that individuals have for life, like freedom from torture, freedom from slavery and forced labor. The right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to privacy, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, and the right to marry and have a family. These liberties are what gives us the freedoms we have in our nation.
The civil rights movement and civil liberties are a great part of today’s life. Without these things we wouldn’t have the chances and opportunities we receive today. It took great amount of courage to stand up in that time, but they changed the world as we know it and should be respected till the end of time.
Works cited: http://www.humanrightsnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Civil-Rights.jpg
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

Civil Rights
Civil Right
American Government
Fabian Guerrero

Civil Rights are the rights that everyone one in the United States of America has today. The right to be treated fairly no matter what skin color you are or if you are Male or Female or what social class you are in the right to equal protection and not to be decimated against by anyone or by any form.
The early Civil Rights actions were aimed towards the southern states in the late 1800 had made laws so that many of the southern states could not go around the amendments specifically the 14 amendment. The first major case for Civil Rights was Plessy v. Ferguson witch had made it way all the way to the Supreme Court. Homer Plessy boarder a car on a railroad for whites only under Louisiana state law even though Mr. Plessy was only one eight black and seven eights with he was still considered black under Louisiana state law and was not allowed to sit in the whites only section. When Mr.Plessy refused to move he was arrested then had been taken to jail because he had refused to move from his train car.
What came from this historic case was Separate but Equal Doctrine Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities were to remain equal. But this was not the case for many people these facilities were separate but they were not equal.

Another historic case that helped shape the outcome of Civil right was Brown v. The Board Of Education Topeka. In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka Kansas in the United States district court. The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their twenty children. The suit called for the reverse of separate but equal because they were separate but not equal. From this case the Supreme Court of the United States of America came to determine that separate schools were unconstitutional.
The Civil rights act of 1964 was a major act in the Civil Right movement. What this act did was outlaw major forms of discrimination against minorities and also women and also racial in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. The bill was passed in 1964. This was a big step in the Civil rights movement that everyone was equal.
Another act that was passed in 1965 what happened when this act passed is that literacy test had been outlawed literacy test were test that were unfair to African American that had to take the test. So this let more people that were able to vote and chose who they wanted to vote for.
One of the most influential people and leaders in the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King Jr with his philosophy of non violence. Martin Luther also known as the father of modern civil rights movement led a lot of marches for civil rights one of the most memorable marches that Martin Luther King helped to lead was the march on Washington in 1963. The march was for jobs and freedom…Another influential leader in the modern civil right movement was Malcolm X who took a more forceful approach then Dr. Martin Luther King but was also a great leader in the civil rights movement.
These were only some cases and people that had a great impact on the Civil Rights movement that changed the United States of America forever with their actions so that nobody no matter what race if you were male or female or what social class you were could not be treated unfairly.

http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_b.php
http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/political/martin_luther_king_talks/
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=163&invol=537

Civil Rights
Marco Tamayo
Women are rising in society; they have come a long ways from their daily duties at the home front. More women have begin to focus on their education and rising in the work field. Women have become Doctors, lawyers, and working in the white house; but none of this would have happened without the help of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This title, Title VII of the Civil Rights prohibits discrimination on race, gender, or religion. Along with women working in the work place came with its own problems; pregnancy, harassment, and/ or pay wage, which the Title VII covered as well. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is also with Title VII of the civil rights act of 1964, it allows workers i.e. women to not lose their job from being pregnant, giving birth, or other medical conditions. This act means that the employer has to treat a pregnant women the same as any other worker and cannot refuse to work her or deny her from a job. This act has become more important for single women who are the only one bringing money home to provide for her family or soon to be family. If it is not followed in a work place that women whom is pregnant can press charges on their boss. Harassment is taken very serious in the work field; men can harass women and women can harassed a man in the place, however the victim does not have to be from the opposite sex. Some workers may use harassment to make their way up in the work field. The person does not have to be any one harassed it can also be someone who is effected by the harassment. If any one that is effected in harassment in any way can file a complaint on that person.
source]]

Constitution of the United States - The bill of rights
by Tyler Hayes

In Canada we have the common law system which is based off the United kingdom’s legislature. The Bill of rights are guidelines for the citizens of the United States of America to follow.

1) Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2) Right to keep and bear arms

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

3) Conditions for quarters of soldiers

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

4) Right of search and seizure regulated

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

5) Provisions concerning prosecution

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

6)Right to a speedy trial, witnesses, etc.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

7) Right to a trial by jury

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

8) Excessive bail, cruel punishment

9)Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Rule of construction of Constitution

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

10) Rights of the States under Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Unfortunately laws need to be written down so they can be recalled and checked. This allows the law to keep individuals in check and if they choose to break it; there will be consequences to be served.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rights1.htm
http://www.4jal.org/bill%20of%20rights%20scroll.JPG

The Death Penalty

By Bev Johnson

Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is defined as the death sentence awarded for capital offenses such as crimes involving planned murder, multiple murders, repeated crimes, rape and murder, where in the criminal provisions consider such persons as a gross danger to the existence of the society and provide death punishment. There are a few limitations on the death penalty. Persons found to have an IQ below 70 cannot be put to death for their crimes. Another limitation is that if the defendant was under the age of 18 when the crime was committed, thereby making them a juvenile. The use of capital punishment extends back to the beginning of recorded history with penalties including:
• Boiling to death
• Flaying
• Slow slicing
• Burning
• Dismemberment
• Decapitation.

More commonly used methods of execution today are electrocution, some sorts of shooting, hanging, lethal injection, the gas chamber, and even being stoned to death in certain countries. The death penalty has been a common punishment all around the world, but it is becoming less and less common. Many countries are abolishing capital punishment completely. The United States is pretty much divided on this issue. There are some states that still have the death penalty and others that don’t. The listing of the states in the United States of America that have abolished the death penalty and the year in which they did so follows:
1. Alaska (1957)
2. Hawaii (1948)
3. Iowa (1965)
4. Maine (1887)
5. Massachusetts (1984)
6. Michigan (1846)
7. Minnesota (1911)
8. New Jersey (2007)
9. New Mexico (2009)
10. New York (2007)
11. North Dakota (1973)
12. Rhode Island (1984)
13. Vermont (1964)
14. West Virginia (1965)
15. Wisconsin (1853)
All of the remaining states still practice the death penalty as well as the United States Government and the United States Military. The reports show that so far in the year 2010 the following U.S. states have performed the following number of executions:
• Alabama- 2
• Florida- 1
• Georgia- 1
• Mississippi- 2
• Ohio- 5
• Oklahoma- 1
• Texas- 13
• Utah- 1
• Virginia- 2
The death penalty is a much debated, and fought over, issue. Advocates for the death penalty have several reasons they believe the death penalty should be allowed.
• The death penalty deters crime and prevents repeat offenders
• Provides closure for those victimized
• Can be a good bargaining tool for prosecutors as well as the police
Opponents of the death penalty also list several reasons for why the death penalty should be abolished.
• The first reason is about fairness. Many believe that since the state does not rape the rapist, or burn the arsonist, than it cannot kill the killer.
• The second reason is that we are telling people not to kill and the example we are setting for them is killing them. A little contradictory, most would say.
• Another reason is the expense of the death penalty. The millions which are spent keeping a person on death row for long years could be spent to help the families that are victimized. Advocates for the death penalty state that the execution of the criminals gives closure to the victimized families and friends, but most of these families and friends state that they know full well that killing the killer, it will not heal the emotional scars that the act caused.
• The one reason that opponents of the death penalty stress for abolishing the death penalty is the presence of wrongful executions. This basically means that a person is put to death and later found innocent. There have been claims that as many as 39 executions have been carried out in the United States when there was at least reasonable doubts about the person’s guilt. Newly used DNA evidence has already exonerated more than 15 death row inmates.
I believe that Bill Clinton said it best, “Supporters of capital punishment bear a special responsibility to ensure the fairness of this irreversible punishment. “

References:
Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Death Penalty Statistics: http://www.buzzle.com/death-penalty-statistics.html

Civil Liberties by William Vasbinder

Civil Liberties are those fundamental freedoms that together guarantee the rights of free people, and are the protections of the people from improper government action against them. The specific rights that together make up the civil liberties of the people of the United States are written in the Bill of Rights the 1st ten amendments of the Constitution. Examples of civil liberties include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the guarantee of a fair, unbiased trial.
Some restraints put on the government limit what the government can and cannot do, including establishing religion, quarter troops in private homes without consent, or seize private property without just reason.

How Civil Rights and Liberties Differ
Although these terms are often used interchangeably, scholars generally agree that civil liberties are those liberties that protect people from the government, that is, those that guarantee the safety of the people, their opinions, and their property from the government, as listed in the Constitution. The term civil rights, generally refers to the acts of the government that make constitutional guarantees for all people, ensuring that they receive equal treatment under the law, as outlined by the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A Landmark civil right is found in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race or sex. The people of America had all their rights and liberties before they wrote the Constitution. The Constitution was formed, among other purposes, to secure the peoples liberties, not only against foreign attack, but also by oppression by their own government.
Since the late 1700’s, the United States has witnessed actions by Congress or the president that have either restricted civil liberties or led to controversy about those rights. In 1861, President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in several states before extending the suspension to all states in 1863, thus denying those accused of crimes the right to be brought before a judge to consider whether the charges are valid. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order that resulted in the interment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans at “war relocation” camps in America during WWII.
Historians agree that many threats to civil liberties arise in times of war and during threats of terrorism. Recently, many criticized the Patriot Act, which eases search warrant requirements to allow the FBI to monitor certain internet activity and allows the agency to search any phone line a suspect uses, despite the Fourth Amendment. The Patriot Act has been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) because it significantly increases the government’s law enforcement powers while continuing a trend to decrease the checks and balances that Americans have traditionally relied on to protect individual liberty.
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb The Handy Politics Answer book
2003 Visible Ink press
American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials 2009-2010 edition
Bardes Shelley Schmidt

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

By: Cherish Manning

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, telecommunications, and it also applies to the United States Congress.

The ADA defines persons with disabilities under federal law include blindness, alcoholism, heart disease, cancer, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, paraplegia, diabetes, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and infection with the human immunodefiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such impairment.

ADA Title I – Employment – The ADA states that a covered entity shall not discriminate against an individual with a disability. This applies to job application procedures, hiring, advancement and discharge of employees, workers, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. The employer is required to follow accommodations such as installing ramps for a wheelchair, establishing more flexible working hours, creating or modifying job assignments, and creating or improving training materials and procedures.

ADA Title II – Public Services including public transportation – Title II has tow sections. One covers access to all programs office of entity. Access includes physical access describe in the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards or the Standards for Accessible Design and access that might be obstructed by discriminatory policies or procedures entity. The other section of Title II is specific to public transportation provided by public entities. It includes National Railroad Passenger Corporation, along with all other commuter authorities. This section requires provision of paratransit services by public entities. Car rental companies must provide cars with hand controls for disabled drivers.

ADA Title III – Public Accommodations – No individual may be discriminated on the basis of disability with regards to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases, of any places of public accommodation. “Public accommodations” include most places of lodging, recreation, transportation, education, and dining, along with stores and care providers. The ADA requires that all public buildings and public services be accessible to persons with disabilities.

ADA Title IV – Telecommunications – This section requires that all of the 1,600 some-odd telecommunication companies in the U.S. take steps to ensure functionally equivalent services for consumers with disabilities those who are dear or hard of hearing and those with speech impairments. Telephone companies are required to have operators to pass on messages from speech-impaired persons who use telephones with keyboards.

ADA Title V – Miscellaneous Provisions

Bardes, Shelley, Schmidt, . American Governments and Polotics Today: THE ESSENTIALS. 2008. Print.

http://www.disabled-world.com/categoryprint/disability/ada-printer.php

http://truelives.org/pressroom/ificantdoit/images/01_ificantdoit.jpg

People and Politics
Kenneth Morales
Wiki page
12/6/2010
Political people
Abraham Lincoln was not a very popular president though he may be a very famous one now. He was the 16th president of the United States during one of the hardest times of our nations. He had to deal with the civil war where the south fought against the north. I wouldn’t say that he was the greatest political president but I wanted to mention that he had it tough dealing with war against his own nation. He may be known for freeing the slaves but this is not entirely true he may have made the emancipation proclamation document but this didn’t insure that the slaves were free. It actually didn’t do much for them at all. All presidents have to go through something politically hard; Abraham Lincoln actually didn’t win his election by more than 5% of the votes people didn’t like him because they thought that he was politically wrong.
Mr. Lincoln faced many hardships in his life. His mother died when he was just nine years old. Lincoln’s family moved to Illinois in March, 1831. Macon County was the place where the family settled. Few months later, Abraham Lincoln moved out of Macon County and came to New Salem at the age of 22. In New Salem he started working as a clerk. In the month of April (1832) Lincoln got enlisted in the local militia. The breakout of Blackhawk war had lead the governor of Illinois calling for troops. Lincoln got enlisted in the ‘Thirty-First Regiment of Illinois’. Although, Lincoln served for 51 days, he didn’t get any chance to take part in the war. He also worked as a postmaster and surveyor. In the month of August, Lincoln contested elections for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly Elections; although he was not successful in winning the elections, this experience fueled his political aspirations. On 4th August, 1934 however, Abraham Lincoln won the Sangamon County seat in the Illinois General Assembly Elections. President Lincoln stayed with the Republican Party from 1854 to 1865. Earlier, i.e from 1832 to 1854, he was a member of the Whig Party. He served the term as President from 1861 to 1865. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln took place on 15th April 1865, due to which he could not complete the second term. He was the first President who got assassinated. John Wilkes Booth was the person who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. During his presidency tenure, Abraham lost all children except one.
I wanted to write about how a president goes through difficult political times and I thought that since a lot of people didn’t like President Abraham Lincoln then it would be something that I could a lot of facts about because now he is considered to be great.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/abraham-lincoln-facts.html

Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

Public Opinion and Political Socialization
Public opinion may be a difficult thing to define, due to the fact that everyone has his or her own opinion on politics. But the book, American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials, defines the term as; the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of the adult population.
The way a person acquires his or her own opinion on politics comes from many different sources, such as:
Family
Social Environment
School
Media (of all kinds)
Political Events
Religion
Occupation
Race
Economic Status
Geographic Region
People will take their opinions to the polls to vote or take surveys to show interest or answer questions. The polls will show the definite opinion of the majority of the voters in the region or country of which the polls were taken. Polls do have their flaws; however, public opinion polls measure the opinion of the people at that moment in time and to a specific question. Thus leading to possible undecided voters, which may tip the scales in the favor for the other politician instead of the person initially thought to win. Then there is false precision and fraudulent polls, not to mention the very questions in the poll itself, leading to confusion among the voters.

Interest Groups
An interest group, defined in this book, is an organized group of individuals sharing common objectives who actively attempt to influence policymakers. Interest groups are usually always made by some type of social movements in ones society. Social movements are movements that represent the demands of a large segment of the public for political, economic, or social change. Through latent interests, public-policy interests that are not recognized or addressed by a group at a particular time, and incentives, such as solidary, material and purposive, Americans choose their own interest groups.

Solidary incentive is a reason or motive that follows from the desire to associate with others and share with others a particular interest or hobby.

Material incentive is a reason or motive based on the desire to enjoy certain economic benefits or opportunities.

Purposive incentive is a reason for supporting or participating in the activities of a group that is based on agreement with the goals of the group.

The types of interest groups can be economic, business, agricultural and labor groups. The top 10 interest groups from Fortune Magazine “Power 25 Survey for 2001” The Top 25 Interest Groups are as follows:
1. National Rifle Association
2. American Association of Retired People (AARP)
3. National Federation of Independent Business
4. American Israel Foreign Affairs Committee
5. Association of Trial Lawyers of America
6. AFL-CIO
7. Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America
8. National Beer Wholesalers of America
9. National Association of Realtors
10. National Association of Manufacturers

Political Parties
In the United States, there are many political parties, the two main parties are the Republicans and the Democrats. Other political parties, otherwise known as ‘Third Parties” in the U.S. include:
The Constitution Party
The Green Party of the United States
The Libertarian Party
Each party has its own view on politics, the conservatives believe in the “trickle down” theory, small government, giving tax breaks for the upper class to spend their money to create jobs by stimulating the economy. While the democrats believe in big government, tax breaks for the middle and taxing the upper class of society.
In the last presidential election, the two candidates were Obama and McCain. Both ran an intense campaign to win the presidency, but after many speeches, debates, public appearances and much anticipation, Barrack Obama, a democrat, won the election for the President of the United States of America.
I hope this has given you some insight to People and Politics.
By Matthew Espinoza
References:
Bardes, Barbara A., Mack C. Shelley II, and Steffen W. Schmidt. American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials. 2009-2010 ed. Suzanne Jeans. Print.
http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/interest_groups1.htm
http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm
http://changeonesmind.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/us_politics.png

Democrat vs. Republican
Brandon Wilson

While there are many different smaller political parties these days, there are two main parties that the majority of Americans A person’s party doesn’t shape their ideals, but rather their ideals determine which party they associate themselves with. These ideals include differences on economic policy making, amount of a role the government plays, and differences on the legalization of gay marriage. Here are some facts on each party and a list of party beliefs.

Democrats
-Founded in 1824
-Symbol - Donkey
-Considered to be liberal or have liberal beliefs
-Most do not want a ban on gay marriage
-Most do not believe in the death penalty
-Most believe that abortion should not be illegal and it is a mothers right to choose
-Generally believe in a bigger role of the government
-Generally want higher taxes on the wealthier
-Bigger role for federal government and a smaller role for the state government
-Generally want to limit military and defense spending
-Believe that increased government spending is the way to pull out of a recession and an increase in taxes on the wealthy should be used to fund this.

Republicans
-Founded in 1854
-Symbol - Elephant
-Considered to be conservative or have conservative beliefs
-Most agree with a ban on gay marriage
-Most believe in the death penalty
-Most believe that abortion should be illegal and consider conception to be the beginning of life
-Generally want a smaller role for the federal government and a larger role of the state government
-Generally want lower taxes on everyone
-Generally want increased spending on military and defense
-Believe that lower taxes and less government spending is the way to pull out of a recession

There are certain demographics that tend to follow each of these political parties. One of the determinants is education. It used to be that those with higher education would vote Republican. Recently, there have been more and more voters with higher education voting Democrat. Business people tend to vote republican, but those with a post-graduate degree are tending to vote Democrat. Another determinant is economic status. This portion differs on economic policy and cultural issues. For economic policy, those with lower income tend to be Democrats and agree with liberal policy, while those with higher income tend to be more Republican and have conservative views. This stems from the Democratic views on higher taxes on the wealthy and bigger government with more programs for those with lower income. On cultural issues, they switch. Those with a higher income tend to be more liberal, and those with a lower income tend to be more conservative. Another determinant is race. Minority groups tend to vote Democrat. One exception, however, is Cuban-Americans who vote Republican for the most part. Men and women do not go fully one way or the other, however, slightly more women vote Democrat, and slightly more men vote Republican. One last determinant is the voters geographic location. Voters from the south, plains and Rocky Mountain regions tend to vote Republican, while those in the Northeast and West Coast tend to vote Democrat.

Sources
-Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes. American government and politics today, 2009-2010 edition . Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
-http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democrat_vs_Republican

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

By Bev Johnson

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition was started by the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. and is a merger of two different organizations which began in 1996.
1. Operation PUSH(People United to Serve Humanity)-founded in 1971
2. Rainbow Coalition- founded in 1984
The goal of Operation PUSH was to gain power so they could better the living conditions of all African Americans. They did this through economic boycotts of major corporate companies such as:
• Coca-Cola
• Burger King
• Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Adolph Coors
• Montgomery Ward
• Nike
They were also interested in social issues including:
• Welfare
• Housing
• Politics
• Education
• Youth affairs

At his address during the 1984 Democratic National Convention Reverend Jackson said, [“red, yellow, brown, black, and white…The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt.”], thus the Rainbow Coalition was formed. The Rainbow Coalition worked diligently towards political empowerment, education, and also changing public policy. The coalition was credited with allowing third-party views in a two-party political system. The Rainbow Coalition also lobbied for more of the national budget to be used for domestic programs.
The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is the product that grew out of Operation Breadbasket which was founded by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was said to have a falling out with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s predecessor and so branched off on his own to carry out the late doctor’s good work. A timeline for the creating of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition:
• 1966 – Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. is appointed the first director of Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, IL by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• 1971 – Rev. Jackson founds Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) three years after the assassination of Dr. King.
• 1984 – Following Rev. Jackson’s first presidential campaign the National Rainbow Coalition is formed in Washington D.C.
• 1996 – Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition are merged to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
The mission of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition was to defend, protect, and also gain civil rights by making the economic and educational playing fields more even, and also to be promoters of peace and equal justice for all around the world. The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has a very broad range of issues they deal with:
• Voter registration
• Civic education
• Assisting with the elections of local officials, state officials, and federal officials
• The reform of election laws
• Fairness in the media
• Fairness in sports
• Equal treatment for all in the criminal justice system
• Good educational access for all
• Fair and decent housing
• Gender equality
• Having a voice in foreign policy and trade
• 1% student loans
• Employee rights and livable wages
• Affirmative action
• Environmental justice
Working through the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Rev. Jackson has been an advocate of such things as: universal health care and fighting a major war on drugs. He was involved directly in peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis and also the advance of democracy in Haiti.

References:
Rainbow/Push Coalition (http://www.rainbowpush.org/)
http://rainbowpush.org/pages/brief_history

Political People: JFK
By Chris McIntosh

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29th 1917 in Massachusetts.
Growing Up:
The second of nine children, Kennedy was reared in a family that demanded intense physical and intellectual competition among the siblings. He was schooled in the religious teachings of the Roman Catholic church and the Democratic Party. His father, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, had acquired a multimillion-dollar fortune in banking, bootlegging, shipbuilding, and the film industry, and as a skilled player of the stock market. His mother, Rose, was the daughter of John F. Fitzgerald, onetime mayor of Boston. They established trust funds for their children that guaranteed lifelong financial independence.
In the fall of 1941 Kennedy joined the U.S. Navy and two years later was sent to the South Pacific. By the time he was discharged in 1945, his older brother, Joe, who their father had expected would be the first Kennedy to run for office, had been killed in the war, and the family's political standard passed to John, who had planned to pursue an academic or journalistic career.
John Kennedy himself had barely escaped death in battle. Commanding a patrol torpedo (PT) boat, he was gravely injured when a Japanese destroyer sank it in the Solomon Islands. Marooned far behind enemy lines, he led his men back to safety and was awarded the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. He also returned to active command at his own request.
Presidential runnings/ Presidency:
Kennedy had nearly become Stevenson's vice presidential running mate in 1956. The charismatic young New Englander's near victory and his televised speech of concession (Estes Kefauver won the vice presidential nomination) brought him into some 40 million American homes. Overnight he had become one of the best-known political figures in the country. Already his campaign for the 1960 nomination had begun.
In January 1960 John F. Kennedy formally announced his presidential candidacy. His chief rivals were the senators Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Kennedy knocked Humphrey out of the campaign and dealt the religious taboo against Roman Catholics a blow by winning the primary in Protestant West Virginia. He tackled the Catholic issue again, by avowing his belief in the separation of church and state in a televised speech before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston, Texas. Nominated on the first ballot, he balanced the Democratic ticket by choosing Johnson as his running mate. In his acceptance speech Kennedy declared, “We stand on the edge of a New Frontier.” Thereafter the phrase “New Frontier” was associated with his presidential programs.
He was the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to the presidency of the United States. His administration lasted 1,037 days. From the onset he was concerned with foreign affairs. In his memorable inaugural address, he called upon Americans “to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle…against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.”
He was an immensely popular president, at home and abroad. At times he seemed to be everywhere at once, encouraging better physical fitness, improving the morale of government workers, bringing brilliant advisers to the White House, and beautifying Washington, D.C. His wife joined him as an advocate for American culture. Their two young children, Caroline Bouvier and John F., Jr., were familiar throughout the country. The charm and optimism of the Kennedy family seemed contagious, sparking the idealism of a generation for whom the Kennedy White House became, in journalist Theodore White's famous analogy, Camelot—the magical court of Arthurian legend, which was celebrated in a popular Broadway musical of the early 1960s.

Assasination:
President Kennedy believed that his Republican opponent in 1964 would be Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. He was convinced that he could bury Goldwater under an avalanche of votes, thus receiving a mandate for major legislative reforms. One obstacle to his plan was a feud in Vice President Johnson's home state of Texas between Governor John B. Connally, Jr., and Senator Ralph Yarborough, both Democrats. To present a show of unity, the president decided to tour the state with both men. On Friday, November 22, 1963, he and Jacqueline Kennedy were in an open limousine riding slowly in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. At 12:30 the president was struck by two rifle bullets, one at the base of his neck and one in the head. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Governor Connally, though also gravely wounded, recovered. Vice President Johnson took the oath as president at 2:38 . Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old Dallas citizen, was accused of the slaying. Two days later Oswald was shot to death by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with connections to the criminal underworld, in the basement of a Dallas police station. A presidential commission headed by the chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren, later found that neither the sniper nor his killer “was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy,” but that Oswald had acted alone. The Warren Commission, however, was not able to convincingly explain all the particular circumstances of Kennedy's murder. In 1979 a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives declared that although the president had undoubtedly been slain by Oswald, acoustic analysis suggested the presence of a second gunman who had missed. But this declaration did little to squelch the theories that Oswald was part of a conspiracy involving either CIA agents angered over Kennedy's handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco or members of organized crime seeking revenge for Attorney General Bobby Kennedy's relentless criminal investigations. Kennedy's assassination, the most notorious political murder of the 20th century, remains a source of bafflement, controversy, and speculation.
www.biography.com

Matt Stevens
People and Politics

It all started in 1989 when the United States of America received their first president, George Washington. He took the oath on the balcony of federal hall in New York City. Washington was born in 1732 to a Virginia planter family. Washington was very interested in the military arts. In years to fallow Washington was chosen to be the commander in chief of the continental army.
Another important president to come was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln became the 16th president in 1861. Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you…. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it." Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had begun. Lincoln was a major influence in American history. He stood up for what he believed in and was an honest hard working man.
Politics have many people involved in it. There are many different branches and parties. There are governors and senators. There’s supreme judges, political advisors, secret service, C.I.A. the federal bureau of investigation and much more.
http://awesomeamerica.com/usa/WashingtonLincoln2.jpg
http://www.presidentsusa.net/

Political Institutions

I will give a brief overview of a couple political institutions in this wiki assignment, to give a complete overview in 600 words would be extremely difficult. The first political institution discussed will be Congress. Congress is the leading power exercised by the government of the United States. It is broken up into the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both are elected by the people, the House of Representatives are re-elected every two years, while the Senate is re-elected every six years. This bicameral Congress has many functions it’s supposed to perform for the American people. They include:
Lawmaking—the process of establishing the legal rules that governs society.
Representation—the function of members of Congress as elected officials representing the views of their constituents.
Service Constituents—“Individual members of Congress are expected by their constituents to act as brokers between private citizens and the imposing, often faceless federal government.”
Oversight—The process by which Congress follows up on laws it has enacted to ensure that they are being enforced and administered in the way Congress intended.
Public Education—“Congress holds public hearings. Exercises oversight over the bureaucracy, or engages in committee and floor debate on such major issues and topics an immigration, global warming, aging, illegal drugs, and the concerns of small businesses.”
Conflict Resolution—“By passing laws to accommodate as many interested parties as possible.”
The powers of Congress are spelled out in the first seventeen clauses of article 1, section 8. Otherwise known as the enumerated powers. The enumerated powers are specifically granted to the national government by the constitution. There are a number of these powers granted to government, a few are to establish procedures of naturalizing citizens; coin and print money and regulate its value; punish counterfeiters; call up and regulate the state militias to enforce laws, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions and many more.
President
The next institution, from the book, American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials, is the Presidency. The requirements for becoming president of the United States of America as written in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution are as follows: “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
A quick overview of the process to become the president starts with both major political parties along with minor parties, selecting a candidate to run for election. The people do not directly vote for the winner of the election, the vote they cast is for the presidential electors in the Electoral College to vote for the president and vice president of the country. At times the Electoral College has not been able to decide on a president by majority vote. If such a thing happens it falls to the House of Representatives to decide on who should become president, by choosing which candidate has the most Electoral College votes. The president of the United States has many duties, or roles, to account for when elected. They are to be the Head of State, the Chief Executive, The Commander in Chief of the armed forces, Chief Diplomat and Chief Legislator of the United States.
Head of State—the role of the president as ceremonial head of the government.
Chief Executive—the role of the president as head of the executive branch of the government.
Commander in Chief of the armed forces—the role of the president as supreme commander of the military forces of the United States and of the state National Guard units when they are called into federal service.
Chief Diplomat—the role of the president in recognizing foreign governments, making treaties, and effecting executive agreements.
Chief Legislator—the role of the president in influencing the making of laws.
The President has certain powers given to him; they are the Emergency Powers, the Executive Orders and the Executive Privilege.
Emergency Powers—an inherent power exercised by the president during a period of national crisis.
Executive Orders—A rule or regulation issued by the president that has the effect of law.
Executive Privilege—the right of executive officials to withhold information from or to refuse to appear before a legislative committee.
I hope this brief overview of two political institutions has given you incite to our government.

By Matt Espinoza
Bardes, Barbara A., Mack C. Shelley II, and Steffen W. Schmidt. American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials. 2009-2010 ed. Suzanne Jeans. Print.

http://www.nedgallagher.com/journal/images/capitol.jpg

Political Institution

by Rjay Joe

Legislature and Interpretive Centre
In a website I found this is what it says about Political Institutions, “A.M. Jeffers, the architect who designed Alberta's Legislative Assembly Building, was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1875. He studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Edmonton in 1907 and replacing Edward Hopkins as Provincial Architect. Jeffers supervised work on the Legislative Assembly Building from 1907 to 1912. He is also credited with designing a number of Alberta's best known public buildings, including courthouses in Calgary, Fort Saskatchewan, Cardston and Wetaskiwin, and McDougall School (now McDougall Centre) in Calgary.

When Jeffers resigned as Provincial Architect in 1912, Richard Blakey took over the project and completed the building. Blakey made a number of changes in Jeffers' design, particularly in the rotunda and grand staircase.
Jeffers served as the City of Edmonton's architect until 1915, before going into private practice. In 1923 he moved to California where he died in 1926Edward Hopkins of Calgary submitted the first design for Alberta's Legislature in 1906. Based too closely on plans for the British Columbia Legislature, it was rejected, and in 1907 A.M. Jeffers replaced Hopkins as Provincial Architect. Jeffers' plans also caused controversy because of their similarity to capitol buildings in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Rhode Island. Architectural historians have also noted a strong resemblance between the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba legislatures: all built at about the same time in the Beaux-Arts style.
Beaux-Arts buildings are characterized by a large central dome, a symmetrical plan, and door and window openings decorated with arches or lintels. The style was originally associated with the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but it was also fashionable in North America between about 1895 and 1920. Its use of Greek, Roman and Egyptian elements was considered particularly appropriate for public buildings as they suggested power, permanence, and tradition.
By the time the building opened, Jeffers' design was no longer controversial but a source of pride. As the Edmonton Journal remarked:
There is no difference of opinion as to the wisdom of the expenditure which has provided the government of the province with quarters in keeping with the pretensions of Alberta. Fifty years from now they should have historical associations that are well worthwhile.
. Excavations for the Legislature Building began in August 1907, and by November 1911 the work was complete enough for the Legislature to hold sessions there. By the summer of 1913 all the finishing touches were complete.
The building is supported on concrete piles and constructed around a steel skeleton. The floor is faced with Vancouver Island granite, while upper floors feature sandstone from the Glenbow Quarry in Calgary. The interior fittings are meant to impress: imported marble, mahogany, oak, and lots of brass.
Hundreds of labourers and skilled craftsmen worked on the project. Building materials were shipped to a railway siding on the riverbank and hauled by wagon up to the site, where stone masons carved the coats of arms, wreathes, and columns that decorate the exterior of the building.
The size and complexity of the project can be seen in its costs. Initially expected to cost about $1,250,000, a vast sum for the time, the final cost was closer to $4,000,000, or about 20% of the province's 1913 budget of $21,000,000. If we were to spend 20% of today's budget on a building the cost would be over two billion dollars!”

Bardes, Barbara A., Mack C. Shelley II, and Steffen W. Schmidt. American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials. 2009-2010 ed. Suzanne Jeans. Print

http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/process/leg_construction.html

Supreme Court
by Tyler Hayes

One of checks and balances are the Supreme Court. According to the wiki answers site, the supreme court is defined as the following:

The supreme court's decisions ultimately reform laws, for better or for worse. The supreme court can be viewed as its own government, just as the legislative and executive branch are. The executive branch, alone, is a despotism government. The legislative branch, alone, is a democratic government, and the supreme court, or judicial branch, is a republic government. Using checks and balances, no branch may have real power over the other.
The supreme court's decision in a case may be opened again, if the defendant or the plaintiff is unsatisfied with the result, and doing so is expensive but may change America's fate with the new verdict.
What is said during the case will also affect the way laws work. If someone committed major fraud, but fraud against an enemy of the country, such as a spy, the supreme court may say that habeas corpus may be suspended by a civilian if believed to be an enemy of the country.

The supreme court keeps the two other branches in balance.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/In_what_respects_is_the_US_Supreme_Court_a_political_institution

http://blog.american.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/supreme-court-294x300.jpg

Presidential Campaigns

By Bev Johnson

There are many steps a person takes before they can become the President of the United States of America.
1. They have to meet certain eligibility guidelines which are set forth in Article II of the United States Constitution.
a. “…no person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.” (United States Constitution)
2. This step is called “testing the water.” The individual has to decide if they are ready to take on the position of President as well as set up some committees whose job it is to:
a. Consider whether or not the candidate has a serious chance at winning
b. Explore different campaign themes
c. Prepare speeches
d. Seek out endorsements from powerful individuals as well as groups
e. Set up a staff and also find volunteers
f. Start organizing the state campaigns
g. Develop a good relationship with the media
3. The individual has to publicly declare their candidacy and file an application with the Federal Election Commission.
i. “If you are running for the U.S. House, Senate or the Presidency, you must register with the FEC once you, (or persons acting on your behalf) receive contributions or make expenditures in excess of $5,000. Within 15 days of reaching that $5,000 threshold, you must file a Statement of Candidacy authorizing a principal campaign committee to raise and spend funds on your behalf. Within 10 days of that filing, your principal campaign committee must submit a Statement of Organization.”
b. Once the person has filed with the FEC their campaign contributions are monitored.
4. This step is made up of fundraising and campaigning. This involved many things:
a. Much traveling
b. Making speeches
c. Shaking many hands and even kissing many babies
d. Posing for photographs at every opportunity
5. Party primaries, delegates and caucuses: The two types of primaries are open and closed and they serve as a measure of public opinion. Caucuses are gatherings of the same party voters at the precinct level.
6. Party Conventions
a. These take place every four years and they determine the major parties Presidential candidates.
7. This step is comprised of the final candidates and includes two different levels.
a. The grassroots campaign consists of the campaign staff reaching out to communities for votes
b. The ground level campaign is made up of all of the appearances and speeches made by people from the candidate themselves and their running mate down to their wives and children.
8. Election day is the final step in which the candidate must win the popular vote as well as the electoral college vote.
a. The electoral college is made up of electors from each state that equal the combined number of senators and representatives that each state has. When the common voters go in and mark their ballot for the candidate of their choice they are actually not choosing that candidate, but the elector that has been pledged to that ticket. Thus the elector than makes their vote. In order to become president the candidate must receive a majority of the electoral college vote, which is two hundred and seventy votes out of five hundred and thirty five votes.
References: The Federal Election Commission, www.fec.gov / http://2008election.procon.org/

The Federal Reserve (the Fed)
By Brandon Wilson
The Federal Reserve act was passed in 1913 in order to form a central bank for the purpose of regulating the commercial banks and issuing legal tender. The central bank of the United States is actually twelve separate banks across the country. Each covers an area, or district, and all of the banks in that area are under the authority of that Reserve Bank. These Reserve Banks are privately owned, but publicly ran. They are controlled by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and the Board of Governors. The Board of Governors is a group of 7 Governors appointed by the President that make up the main portion of the FOMC. Each appointee serves a maximum of one 14 year term. From these 7, two are chosen by the president and confirmed by senate as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman for 4 year terms. The remaining five seats on the FOMC are filled by presidents of the twelve Reserve Banks. They serve a one year term on a rotating basis, but one of the five is always the president of the Reserve Bank in New York. Traditionally, the Chairman of the Board of Governors will also serve as the Chairman of the FOMC, and the president of the New York Reserve Bank serves as the Vice-Chairman. These twelve members meet several times per week to discuss policy. The two main responsibilities of the committee are to set the reserve requirements or reserve ratio, and share the responsibility of the discount rate with the Reserve Bank.
In addition to issuing legal tender and regulating commercial banks, the Federal Reserve is also where the commercial banks do their banking. In much the same way that a person or business can deposit money or take out loans from the commercial banks, the commercial banks can deposit reserves and take out loans from the Reserve Banks. As was mentioned earlier, the commercial banks are required to keep a certain amount of their checkable deposits as reserves. These reserves can either be stored in their vault, or in an account at the Reserve Bank in their district. In times of need, a commercial bank can take out a loan from the Reserve Bank, and for this service they pay the discount rate, which is essentially the interest rate they pay to borrow the money. The Fed is also a “Lender of Last Resort” to the commercial banks which means that in times of emergency, the Fed can loan the banks as much money as is needed to avoid bank failures or other financial crisis.
Another responsibility of the Fed is to control the supply of money. One way of accomplishing this is through the required reserve or reserve ratio. As we saw earlier, the excess reserves in a bank system lead to the creation of money. The ratio determines how much money can be created. In the example above, the reserve ratio was ten percent. If the Board of Governors determines that there is too much money in the economy, and it could benefit from a reduction in the supply of money, one way to reduce the total supply is to raise the reserve ratio. If the Fed raises the reserve ratio from ten percent to fifteen percent, for example, the multiplier would go down from 10 to 6.7. The excess reserves would be $85 million instead of $90 million, and the new money created would drop from $900 million to $569.5 million. If the Board of Governors decides that there needs to be an increase in the money supply, they can lower the required reserves.

Understanding the banking system can be a very difficult task. An even more difficult task can be trying to control the economy, supply of money and inflation rates. With an understanding of the fractional reserve system, the Federal Reserve, and such ideas as the reserve ratio, money multiplier, and fiat money, the United States voters can make an educated decision on who they want in office to best control the economy. There is a lot more that goes into managing the economy, but these ideas are the basis of monetary policy in the United States.

McConnell, C. R., Brue, S. L., & Flynn, S. M. (2009). Economics: principles, problems, and policies (18th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

The Structure of the Federal Reserve System. (2003, July 8). Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/frseries/frseri.htm

Cory Ridenour
Public Policy
Public Policy is an attempt by the government to address a public issue. In a public policy there are three active parts, problems, players, and policy. There is a ton of different education you can receive if you are interested in public policy and this includes many different degrees. You can receive your bachelor’s degree in public policy. You can also receive your master’s degree and you PhD if you are involved in school for public policy long enough. There are also many different schools that teach public policy or are all about public policy.
The Public Policy Institute of California or PPIC is one of these schools that teach all about public policy. A public policy degree is another form of law degree. All you deal with during this is easy, all types of public policies that are involved in so many different things. In any society, governmental entities enact laws, make policies, and allocate resources.
This happens will all different levels of public policy. Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives. Like I said earlier one of the major aspects of public policy is law and all of the different laws needed to make a public policy. Analyzing public policy takes a little bit of skill.
You can’t analyze public policy without a good grasp of numbers and how to use them. Public policy refers to all of the laws, regulations, and other programs developed by governments to solve problems. And if you major in public policy analysis, you’ll make problem solving your specialty. Along the way, you’ll grapple with some of society’s most urgent issues, such as crime, health care, and the quality of the air we breathe. All in all public policy is mainly just laws and regulations set up by different people that studied that field.

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Smoking in bars, should it be legal or illegal? Well this is a public policy.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-public-policy.htm
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/policy/definition.shtml

Public Policy
By Daniel Bolte
Public Policy is a way for the government to categorize laws for concerning problems. For example violent acts upon women have been a problem in the United States, so the government then performs ways to give the women civil rights back. The government creates policy’s for the criminals who go against these acts as well as what they have as civil rights when they are being convicted.

Definitions of Public Policy and the Law

Contributed by

Dean G. Kilpatrick, Ph.D.
National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center
Medical University of South Carolina

Definitions

Individuals and groups often attempt to shape public policy through education, advocacy, or mobilization of interest groups. Shaping public policy is obviously different in Western-style democracies than in other forms of government. But it is reasonable to assume that the process always involves efforts by competing interest groups to influence policy makers in their favor.

A major aspect of public policy is law. In a general sense, the law includes specific legislation and more broadly defined provisions of constitutional or international law. There are many ways that the law can influence how survivors of violence against women are treated and the types of services they receive. Likewise, legislation identifies areas in which research grants can be funded and often determines the amount of funding allocated. Thus, it is not surprising that public policy debates occur over proposed legislation and funding.

In this context, advocacy can be defined as attempting to influence public policy through education, lobbying, or political pressure. Advocacy groups often attempt to educate the general public as well as public policy makers about the nature of problems, what legislation is needed to address problems, and the funding required to provide services or conduct research. Although advocacy is viewed as unseemly by some in the professional and research community, it is clear that public policy priorities are influenced by advocacy. Sound research data can be used to educate the public as well as policy makers, thereby improving the public policy process.

How the Law Influences Treatment of Violence Against Women Survivors

There are at least six ways the law directly or indirectly influences the lives of victims of violence against women:
State, national, and international law provides a framework for identifying basic human rights and for defining violations of these rights.
The law defines behaviors proscribed by criminal and civil statutes and provides criminal and civil penalties for violations.
The law establishes eligibility criteria for legal immigration, asylum, and citizenship - all of which are relevant for many victims who leave their native lands and seek refugee status in another nation.
The law establishes eligibility criteria for a host of services including veteran benefits, crime victim compensation, and welfare.
The law has a major impact on the level of funding for mental health and other services provided to victims. Public policy makers allocate funding for services through the appropriations process and by enacting laws that establish special service programs for trauma victims. For example, the Victim of Crime Act of 1984 established funding for crime victim services and compensation.
Laws and the governmental appropriations process control and provide funding for research.
This section contains public policy information relevant to researchers and advocates working with victims and survivors. In it, we provide information about important legislation, federal agencies that address VAW issues, national VAW advocacy groups, pending VAW legislation, where to find out about legislation in your state, and public policy research summaries.

Public Policy is very important, in this case for the victims in women in abuse. The reason public policy is important is because it can categorize laws instead of making one by one. It also has civil rights for the victims and also the criminals. Criminals also have civil rights.
Website
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/policy/definition.shtml
Picture
http://www.publicconversations.org/images/publicpolicy1.jpg

Michelle Glaze
American Government
Public Policy

Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action (or inaction) taken by the state with regard to a particular issue. Other scholars define it as a system of "courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives." Public policy is commonly embodied "in constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial decisions." In the United States, this concept refers not only to the end result of policies, but more broadly to the decision-making and analysis of governmental decisions. As an academic discipline, public policy is studied by professors and students at public policy schools of major universities throughout the country. The American (United States of America) professional association of public policy practitioners, researchers, scholars, and students is the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Shaping public policy is a complex and multifaceted process that involves the interplay of numerous individuals and interest groups competing and collaborating to influence policymakers to act in a particular way. These individuals and groups use a variety of tactics and tools to advance their aims, including advocating their positions publicly, attempting to educate supporters and opponents, and mobilizing allies on a particular issue. In this context, advocacy can be defined as attempting to influence public policy through education, lobbying, or political pressure. Advocacy groups "often attempt to educate the general public as well as public policy makers about the nature of problems, what legislation is needed to address problems, and the funding required to provide services or conduct research. Although advocacy is viewed as unseemly by some in the professional and research community, it is clear that public policy priorities are influenced by advocacy. Sound research data can be used to educate the public as well as policy makers, thereby improving the public policy process." Public policy is an attempt by the government to address a public issue. The government, whether it is city, state, or federal, develops public policy in terms of laws, regulations, decisions, and actions. There are three parts to public policy-making: problems, players, and the policy. The problem is the issue that needs to be addressed. The player is the individual or group that is influential in forming a plan to address the problem in question. Policy is the finalized course of action decided upon by the government. In most cases, policies are widely open to interpretation by non-governmental players, including those in the private sector. Public policy is also made by leaders of religious and cultural institutions.-
Josh Jurado
American Government
Public Policy
In any society, governmental entities enact laws, make policies, and allocate resources. This is true at all levels. Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives.

How the Law Influences Treatment of Violence Against Women Survivors

http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/policy/definition.shtml

Public Policy
By David Bauer

Public policy for smoking in public is that it is not allowed in most places. These places include restaurants, bars, outdoor sports arenas and others. Reasons that smoking in public is outlawed are as follows. Inhaling smoke coming from other people’s cigarettes can lead to irritation of the eye, headache, cough, sore throat, dizziness and nausea. These effects are just from second hand smoke (smoke from cigarettes not inhaled by you). People who do not smoke but are subjected to second hand smoke, have a twenty five percent enhanced possibility of heart disease and lung cancer. Studies indicate that the threat of coronary heart disease is increased by 50 to 60% in people exposed to second hand smoke in their workplaces together with public places as well. People who wish to smoke in public usually do not care about the non smokers around them. The second hand smoke can have harmful effects on a person who does not smoke. Public policy to keep smoking illegal in public places is to protect the non smokers around the smokers. Therefore this public policy is a good policy and will not change anytime soon.

http://smoking.ygoy.com/what-passive-smoking-does-to-you/

http://www.yorkblog.com/biz/img/No%20Smoking%20Sign1.jpg

—By: Jose Pena-Benjamin

Public Policy

In any society, governmental entities enact laws, make policies, and allocate resources. This is true at all levels. Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives. A major aspect of public policy is law. In a general sense, the law includes specific legislation and more broadly defined provisions of constitutional or international law. There are many ways that the law can influence how survivors of violence against women are treated and the types of services they receive. Likewise, legislation identifies areas in which research grants can be funded and often determines the amount of funding allocated. Thus, it is not surprising that public policy debates occur over proposed legislation and funding. n this context, advocacy can be defined as attempting to influence public policy through education, lobbying, or political pressure. Advocacy groups often attempt to educate the general public as well as public policy makers about the nature of problems, what legislation is needed to address problems, and the funding required to provide services or conduct research. Although advocacy is viewed as unseemly by some in the professional and research community, it is clear that public policy priorities are influenced by advocacy. Sound research data can be used to educate the public as well as policy makers, thereby improving the public policy process. This is a general course on women in politics. We will examine the role of women as politicians, activists, and voters. The course will examine a wide range of issue areas, including: female attitudes on war and conflict, the reactions of women to different kinds of campaign tactics and policy positions, the differing barriers women face to attaining elected office in different countries, and how the challenges thought to be faced by female political leaders compare with those faced by female business leaders. One key question we will explore concerns whether female politicians are treated differently than male politicians, and how that might affect their strategies for reelection and governance. This course will introduce students to the study of elections and voting behavior. Topics to be covered include partisanship in the electorate, voter turnout, nomination rules and procedures, campaign organization and strategy, and the effects of campaigns on voters. Although we will focus on the United States, throughout the course comparisons will be made with other industrialized democracies in order to better understand the peculiar features of elections in the U.S. The course will also provide a non-technical introduction to some of the methods used by political scientists to study public opinion, elections and voting behavior.

— By:Marco Tamayo

Public Policy/Education Policy

Public policy is a purposive and consistent course of action produced as a response to a perceived problem of a constituency, formulated by a specific political process, and adopted, implemented, and enforced by a public agency.The course meaning and discussion will pull apart this definition, piece by piece, to elucidate not simply the proposed definition, but the nature of public policy itself. We will plant the seeds for the public policy cycle as a method of analysis. Along the way, some related terms will be used and also defined."Public policy is a purposive and consistent course of action" suggests goals and the absence of logical contradictions.
• The phrase "produced as a response to a perceived problem of a constituency" implies that government is responsive to its legitimate stakeholders, particularly citizens and voters. Do these groups, the constituents, have real grievances or are they mistaken perceptions or have they badly defined the purported problem? Does public policy respond to every complaint of every group? Do some get attention and not others? Yet, agency is invoked: government must decide, largely through political representatives, and citizens and groups need to be effective at pressing their grievances. Problems abound here.
• Then we need to identify a specific action: "formulated by a specific political process." The action that might bring about a public policy must go somewhere — and we need to identify which organization has jurisdiction and might feasibly respond. Here, we must think in concrete and specific language. There must be agency, which means that we are dealing with established authority. Notice how the long definition raises doubts and introduced complexities.
• Finally, the policy must be "adopted, implemented, and enforced by a public agency." That is, some actions must be administered and implemented. Actions must ensue. Something must happen. Try to connect the original issue to the resulting administration. Could be a large gap. This reveals the simplistic and naive presumptions that often underlie public policy.
- http://profwork.org/pp/study/define.html#top
The education policy occurs in many forms for many purposes through many institutions. Examples include early childhood education, kindergarten through to 12th grade, two and four year colleges or universities, graduate and professional education. Therefore, education policy can directly affect the education people engage in at all ages. Examples of areas subject to debate in education policy, specifically from the field of schools, include school size, class size, school choice, school privatization, tracking, teacher education and certification, teacher pay, teaching methods, curricular content, graduation requirements, school infrastructure investment, and the values that schools are expected to uphold and model.

Public Policy by William Vasbinder

Public policy refers to the way in which governments deal with public problems and issues, such as health, morals, and citizens’ well-being. Public policy also deals with the allocating and spending of money on programs that affect the public. How a government chooses to spend its money will greatly affect its public policy.
The implementation of public policy follows a process. The first step in the process is identifying a problem. Government officials, lobbyists, and even citizens can identify public problems.
After identifying a problem, the second step is to search for a possible solution. To help solve the problem, officials may work with lawmakers to draft a bill that puts strict regulations a particular industry.
The third step in public policy is implementing a solution. The officials can implement their solutions by getting the proposed bill into law. The final step in the process is evaluating the implemented solution. After the law is passed, the lawmakers will determine whether their solution was effective by monitoring the issue.
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Public policy decisions are made by the government, but many ideas are shaped by the citizens. Lobbyists play a big role, working for specific companies, unions, or organizations and petition government officials regarding various public policies. These lobbyists try to convince government officials to create policies that benefit the organizations that employ them. Lobbyists work for special interest groups that exist solely to shape and change public policy.
Public policy is also shaped by public opinion. When American citizens believe that policies need changed, government officials will often work to implement the changes the people desire. Political polling is one way government officials can determine which issues are important to the public. Public polls are ways of identifying how the public feels about particular issues. Some polls focus on specific citizens, while others target the entire population. These polls not only help government officials determine public opinions, but also allow special interest groups and lobbyists to determine if their causes are supported by the public.
Public policy is shaped by lobbyists and public opinion, but policy decisions are made by the government. The U.S. Congress can pass laws and allocate funding for different purposes, so it has great influence over public policy. Since public policy deals with funding from the government, much of a country’s public policy is decided in how the government spends its money. Spending money on one issue will prevent the funds for another issue. Not everyone agrees on which policies will be fixed first. It’s likely that people will disagree on how the government spends its money. While some Americans like for government money to be spent on defense and military action, other Americans prefer when the money is spent on public works projects or entitlement programs (Medicare).
Public policy affects countless issues in modern society. When the government funds a particular policy it’s indicating that those projects are more important for the country that other projects. Historically, public policy has focused on many different issues, including education, social reforms, and environment.
Public policy helps balance equality and democracy because it provides for those who would not have any means of living a healthy, balanced life. By providing assistance at various levels (economically and socially) the government ensures that the national standard of living as a whole is raised and that health, education, and employment standards are elevated to more equitable standards overall. If there were no such program as Social Security, more than 50 percent of all senior citizens would be living below the poverty line; this social policy guarantees a level of equality for the elderly who rely on Social Security as their only source of income. In addition, tax cuts that favor the working and middle classes help those groups gain a foothold on the American Dream, and help to close the gap between various socioeconomic groups.
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb Handy Politics Answer Book (Annual 2003)
American Government & Politics Today: The Essentials 2009-2010 Edition Bardes Shelley Schmidt