Essays

Outline today.  Work with classmate. Post on blog tonight.

 1) In The Federalist paper number 10, James Madison expressed concern over the possibility that both majority and minority factions would have too much power over government, and he presented ways of minimizing that danger. The United States Constitution established a democratic government but also contained several provisions that limited majority rule. Throughout the next two centuries, the role of majority rule in the United States government and politics continued to change.

a. Identify the part of the national government that was originally most closely tied to citizens and explain how it was tied to citizens.

b. Explain two ways the United States constitution limited majority rule.

c. Choose two of the following twentieth-century developments and explain how each moved the United States from a less democratic system to a more democratic system. (you will have to research either 17th amendment or expansion of suffrage)

•       Primary elections

•       The Seventeenth Amendment

•       Expansion of suffrage

2) Citizens often choose to participate in the political process in ways other than voting.

(a)  Identify two forms of participation in the political process other than voting.

(b)  Explain two advantages of each form of participation you identified in (a).