Second Examination
Instructions: This exam will be given in your discussion section during the week of November 17th. At the time of the exam, you will be given two questions from the following list. You will then choose one of these two for your essay. Note that the grading criteria and all other rules for the first exam continue to apply. You will have about one hour for this exam, so plan your time.
1. The Uneven Development of Civil Liberties. Two contentious liberties in the United States are free expression and privacy. Trace how the Supreme Court has treated each one over time in the face of government (state and/or national) and popular pressure to curtail it and evaluate how effectively the Supreme Court has upheld each. Be sure to refer to appropriate decisions in detail, including those that limit civil liberties as well as those that protect them.
2.Partisan regimes in American politics. Explain the rise, impact, and decline of partisan regimes (using examples as appropriate) and apply the regime framework to the 2008 election to assess whether the conditions associated with the advent of a new regime are present this year.
3. Evolution of the Party System. Trace in detail the development of political parties in the United States from the early “elite” parties through the “mass party” period to the modern “post-alignment” system, identifying the most significant features of each of the three stages and explaining why parties have moved from one stage to the next.
4. Declining Political Participation. Scholars suggest that many forms of political participation are in decline in the United States, but some see reverse trends. Identify the explanations for participation decline and evaluate the evidence used to support each explanation. Then identify factors that may encourage increased participation and assess whether evidence indicates such factors are promoting participation in the current era.