We have three separate section to cover this week. Here are the study guid question for them on the wiki:
Section One: The Development of the Legislature:
- What is a legislature and what does it do?
- What is a "bicameral" legislature? What are its chief components and what are main features of those components?
- Be familar with basic terms used to describe various aspects of the legislature?
- What was the Magna Carta? What circumstances led to its drafting? Why did it have limited impact initially?
- What was the Petition of Right? Who presented it to whom? What was its purpose? What specific accusations were made in the Petition of Right?- Be familar with the conflict between the British Parliament and the Stuart Monarchs.
- What was the British Bill of Rights? What was its content? What was its principle accomplishment?
- Be familiar with the history of assemblies during the US colonial era. Why were asemblies formed? What were their priniple functions?
- What grievances against the British monarch focused on abuses of legislative power? What specific things did they claim about the king's actions and his intent?
- What type of legislative system was establihed under the Articles of Confederation? What were the advantages and disadvantages of that design? What deficiencies led the Federalists to call for a constitutional convention to discuss remedies to these defects?
Section Two: The Constitutional Legislature:
- What aspects of the legislature as designed in the Articles of Confederations were unaccesptable to the Federalists? What did they hope to achieve with a new design?
- What types of legislatures did James Madison and Alexander Hamilton (separately) introduce to the convention? How were the proposals received?
- Be able to identify the material covered in each of the ten sections of Article One.
- What are the principle differences between the House and the Senate? What - or whom - is each institution responsible to? How does the design of each make them distinct from each other? What controversies were involved in the design of each?
- Be familar with basic details of House and Senate Elections.
- How detailed is the design of Congress in the Constitution?
- What specific positions of power in the legislature are created in the Constitution?
- What does the Constitution say about the bill making process?
- What protections does the Constitution grant members of Congress from other branches?
- What parts of the Constitution have allowed Congress to expand its powers?
- What checks does the Constitution grant Congress over the other two branches?
- What impact has gerrymandering had on the House? on the Senate?
- What specific powers are granted to the national government in Section 8? Why those specific powers? What limitations are placed on the national government in Section 9?
Section Three: Parties and Committees in Congress:
- How have the structures of each chamber - the House and the Senate - changed over time?
- Does power in the Senate work the same as power in the House?
- What specific types of committee have been established over time in Congress? What is a standing committee and what role does it play in the bill making process?|
- Be familiar with the specific positions of power in Congress. What types exist and what powers do they have? What limits exist on their powers?
- What special powers do the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate have over their respective institutions?
- Parties in the US first developed in Congress.Why and how?
- What leverage do the parties in Congress have over their members?
- What accounts for the strength of political parties? What factors can weaken them?
- What special advantages do the majority parties in the House and Senate have over each chamber?
- What are the goals of members of Congress and how do these goals help us understand - and predict - their behavior?
- What is the current state of conflict between the parties in Congress?
- What is unified and divided government? What are the arguments in favor and against each?
- What are the different positions in each party and what do they do?
- How have the parties changed on recent decades? Has this change made the legislative process easier or more difficult?