American Government

Field Examination

Day One

August 2000

Part I-Required
From one perspective the debate over the ratification of the Constitution was resolved in favor of the Federalists. From another, however, the dispute between the Federalists and the Anti-federalists was not settled by the adoption of the Constitution, but continued throughout American history. Did the Federalists and Anti-federalist quarrel over fundamental principles? Did the debate between the proponents and opponents of the Constitution foreshadow later conflicts in history? Substantiate your question with careful attention to the founding and historical development of the Constitution.

Part II - Answer two

1.The United States has been called a "semi-party regime;" one that has adopted and relies in some measure on political parties but that does not use them fully either to organize the government or to define the function and nature of political representation. How is a semi-party regime distinguished from a full party regime as one might find, for example, in Great Britain? How much "party" is needed to perpetuate a working semi-party regime? Have we fallen today below the amount of party that is needed, or are we in excess?

2. Franklin Roosevelt sought to introduce a new concept of rights and freedom into American politics. What is this concept, and what distinguishes it from previous understandings of rights and freedom? How has this new understanding worked to alter the division of balance of power in the American political system (a) between national government and the states (b) among the presidency, Congress, courts, and bureaucracy?

3. For much of the past fifty years, the United States has had "divided government," in which one party controls the White House while the other controls the Congress. What me the major consequences of separate partisan realms for governing? Is divided government a routine feature of the American constitutional system? Or has it transformed in important ways how constitutional government works?

4. Political organizations called "interest groups" are said to play a significant role in American politics. What are these "interests," what are "interest groups," how are interest groups mobilized or activated, and how are their roles in American politics

5. Many scholars discern a more aggressive Congress since the late 1960s. Has there been a resurgence of Congressional power in the formulation and administration of public policy during the past three decades? Should this development merely be viewed as a renewal of the constitutional system of separated powers, after several years of expanded presidential influence? Or has Congressional power grown so much as to make executive leadership impractical?

6. There are three perspectives that treat the question of change of the presidency in time. One says that there has been a development from a nineteenth to a twentieth century, or "modern" presidency. Another says that the functions of the office have remained pretty much the same-that most elements of the modern presidency were already present in the Founders' concept and the presidencies of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. A third view says that the presidency changes according to, certain cycles that have repeated themselves over the course of American history and the Important variable, therefore, is not whether a presidency is found in thenineteenth or twentieth century but where it falls inside a cycle. Discuss these views, concentrating if you wish on any two of them. What in your view are the strengths and the weaknesses of the different views? Is there one best way to view this issue, or do you see merit in combining these perspectives?

7. "If I were asked where I place the American aristocracy," Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America, "I should reply without hesitation that it is not among the rich, who are united by no common tie, but that it occupies the judicial bench and bar." Has the Judiciary been the functional equivalent of an aristocracy in die I lined States, checking innovation in American democracy? Or does such a characterization misrepresent the American legal tradition, particularly of the past fifty years, and the way it has been a critical agent of reform?

8. The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness an, into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern by episodes, incidents, and interruptions.

Walter Lippmann

Does Lippmann anticipate a critical failing of modem democracies? Doc, '.I failing stem from mass media displacing institutions? (Discuss one or two, , institutions) Could what Lippmann says here about the press (or media) also Ile said about public opinion? What happens when media and public opinion intrude on the domain of institutions?