Voting, Voter ID, and REAL ID Resources: Civics

Unit 1  Students and the SystemChapter 1  American Government and Civic EngagementChapter 2  The Constitution and Its OriginsChapter 3  American Federalism

• • Introduction
  • 1.1 What is Government?
  • 1.2 Who Governs? Elitism, Pluralism, and Tradeoffs
  • 1.3 Engagement in a Democracy
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 2.1 The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition
  • 2.2 The Articles of Confederation
  • 2.3 The Development of the Constitution
  • 2.4 The Ratification of the Constitution
  • 2.5 Constitutional Change
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 3.1 The Division of Powers
  • 3.2 The Evolution of American Federalism
  • 3.3 Intergovernmental Relationships
  • 3.4 Competitive Federalism Today
  • 3.5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Federalism
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study

Unit 2  Individual Agency and ActionChapter 4  Civil LibertiesChapter 5  Civil RightsChapter 6  The Politics of Public OpinionChapter 7  Voting and Elections

• • Introduction
  • 4.1 What Are Civil Liberties?
  • 4.2 Securing Basic Freedoms
  • 4.3 The Rights of Suspects
  • 4.4 Interpreting the Bill of Rights
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 5.1 What Are Civil Rights and How Do We Identify Them?
  • 5.2 The African American Struggle for Equality
  • 5.3 The Fight for Women’s Rights
  • 5.4 Civil Rights for Indigenous Groups: Native Americans, Alaskans, and Hawaiians
  • 5.5 Equal Protection for Other Groups
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 6.1 The Nature of Public Opinion
  • 6.2 How Is Public Opinion Measured?
  • 6.3 What Does the Public Think?
  • 6.4 The Effects of Public Opinion
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Voter Registration
  • 7.2 Voter Turnout
  • 7.3 Elections
  • 7.4 Campaigns and Voting
  • 7.5 Direct Democracy
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study

Unit 3  Toward Collective Action: Mediating InstitutionsChapter 8  The MediaChapter 9  Political PartiesChapter 10  Interest Groups and Lobbying

• • Introduction
  • 8.1 What Is the Media?
  • 8.2 The Evolution of the Media
  • 8.3 Regulating the Media
  • 8.4 The Impact of the Media
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 9.1 What Are Parties and How Did They Form?
  • 9.2 The Two-Party System
  • 9.3 The Shape of Modern Political Parties
  • 9.4 Divided Government and Partisan Polarization
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 10.1 Interest Groups Defined
  • 10.2 Collective Action and Interest Group Formation
  • 10.3 Interest Groups as Political Participation
  • 10.4 Pathways of Interest Group Influence
  • 10.5 Free Speech and the Regulation of Interest Groups
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study

Unit 4  Delivering Collective Action: Formal InstitutionsChapter 11  CongressChapter 12  The PresidencyChapter 13  The CourtsChapter 14  State and Local Government

• • Introduction
  • 11.1 The Institutional Design of Congress
  • 11.2 Congressional Elections
  • 11.3 Congressional Representation
  • 11.4 House and Senate Organizations
  • 11.5 The Legislative Process
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 12.1 The Design and Evolution of the Presidency
  • 12.2 The Presidential Election Process
  • 12.3 Organizing to Govern
  • 12.4 The Public Presidency
  • 12.5 Presidential Governance: Direct Presidential Action
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 13.1 Guardians of the Constitution and Individual Rights
  • 13.2 The Dual Court System
  • 13.3 The Federal Court System
  • 13.4 The Supreme Court
  • 13.5 Judicial Decision-Making and Implementation by the Supreme Court
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 14.1 State Power and Delegation
  • 14.2 State Political Culture
  • 14.3 Governors and State Legislatures
  • 14.4 State Legislative Term Limits
  • 14.5 County and City Government
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study

Unit 5  The Outputs of GovernmentChapter 15  The BureaucracyChapter 16  Domestic PolicyChapter 17  Foreign Policy

• • Introduction
  • 15.1 Bureaucracy and the Evolution of Public Administration
  • 15.2 Toward a Merit-Based Civil Service
  • 15.3 Understanding Bureaucracies and their Types
  • 15.4 Controlling the Bureaucracy
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 16.1 What Is Public Policy?
  • 16.2 Categorizing Public Policy
  • 16.3 Policy Arenas
  • 16.4 Policymakers
  • 16.5 Budgeting and Tax Policy
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study
  • Introduction
  • 17.1 Defining Foreign Policy
  • 17.2 Foreign Policy Instruments
  • 17.3 Institutional Relations in Foreign Policy
  • 17.4 Approaches to Foreign Policy
  • Key Terms
  • Summary
  • Review Questions
  • Critical Thinking Questions
  • Suggestions for Further Study

Unit 1  Introduction to Political ScienceChapter 1  What Is Politics and What Is Political Science?

• • Introduction
  • 1.1 Defining Politics: Who Gets What, When, Where, How, and Why?
  • 1.2 Public Policy, Public Interest, and Power
  • 1.3 Political Science: The Systematic Study of Politics
  • 1.4 Normative Political Science
  • 1.5 Empirical Political Science
  • 1.6 Individuals, Groups, Institutions, and International Relations
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings

Unit 2  IndividualsChapter 2  Political Behavior Is Human BehaviorChapter 3  Political IdeologyChapter 4  Civil LibertiesChapter 5  Political Participation and Public Opinion

• • Introduction
  • 2.1 What Goals Should We Seek in Politics?
  • 2.2 Why Do Humans Make the Political Choices That They Do?
  • 2.3 Human Behavior Is Partially Predictable
  • 2.4 The Importance of Context for Political Decisions
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 3.1 The Classical Origins of Western Political Ideologies
  • 3.2 The Laws of Nature and the Social Contract
  • 3.3 The Development of Varieties of Liberalism
  • 3.4 Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism
  • 3.5 Contemporary Democratic Liberalism
  • 3.6 Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Left
  • 3.7 Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Right
  • 3.8 Political Ideologies That Reject Political Ideology: Scientific Socialism, Burkeanism, and Religious Extremism
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 4.1 The Freedom of the Individual
  • 4.2 Constitutions and Individual Liberties
  • 4.3 The Right to Privacy, Self-Determination, and the Freedom of Ideas
  • 4.4 Freedom of Movement
  • 4.5 The Rights of the Accused
  • 4.6 The Right to a Healthy Environment
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 5.1 What Is Political Participation?
  • 5.2 What Limits Voter Participation in the United States?
  • 5.3 How Do Individuals Participate Other Than Voting?
  • 5.4 What Is Public Opinion and Where Does It Come From?
  • 5.5 How Do We Measure Public Opinion?
  • 5.6 Why Is Public Opinion Important?
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings

Unit 3  GroupsChapter 6  The Fundamentals of Group Political ActivityChapter 7  Civil RightsChapter 8  Interest Groups, Political Parties, and Elections

• • Introduction
  • 6.1 Political Socialization: The Ways People Become Political
  • 6.2 Political Culture: How People Express Their Political Identity
  • 6.3 Collective Dilemmas: Making Group Decisions
  • 6.4 Collective Action Problems: The Problem of Incentives
  • 6.5 Resolving Collective Action Problems
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Civil Rights and Constitutionalism
  • 7.2 Political Culture and Majority-Minority Relations
  • 7.3 Civil Rights Abuses
  • 7.4 Civil Rights Movements
  • 7.5 How Do Governments Bring About Civil Rights Change?
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 8.1 What Is an Interest Group?
  • 8.2 What Are the Pros and Cons of Interest Groups?
  • 8.3 Political Parties
  • 8.4 What Are the Limits of Parties?
  • 8.5 What Are Elections and Who Participates?
  • 8.6 How Do People Participate in Elections?
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings

Unit 4  InstitutionsChapter 9  LegislaturesChapter 10  Executives, Cabinets, and BureaucraciesChapter 11  Courts and LawChapter 12  The Media

• • Introduction
  • 9.1 What Do Legislatures Do?
  • 9.2 What Is the Difference between Parliamentary and Presidential Systems?
  • 9.3 What Is the Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral Systems?
  • 9.4 The Decline of Legislative Influence
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 10.1 Democracies: Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Regimes
  • 10.2 The Executive in Presidential Regimes
  • 10.3 The Executive in Parliamentary Regimes
  • 10.4 Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges of Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes
  • 10.5 Semi-Presidential Regimes
  • 10.6 How Do Cabinets Function in Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes?
  • 10.7 What Are the Purpose and Function of Bureaucracies?
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 11.1 What Is the Judiciary?
  • 11.2 How Does the Judiciary Take Action?
  • 11.3 Types of Legal Systems around the World
  • 11.4 Criminal versus Civil Laws
  • 11.5 Due Process and Judicial Fairness
  • 11.6 Judicial Review versus Executive Sovereignty
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 12.1 The Media as a Political Institution: Why Does It Matter?
  • 12.2 Types of Media and the Changing Media Landscape
  • 12.3 How Do Media and Elections Interact?
  • 12.4 The Internet and Social Media
  • 12.5 Declining Global Trust in the Media
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings

Unit 5  States and International RelationsChapter 13  Governing RegimesChapter 14  International RelationsChapter 15  International Law and International OrganizationsChapter 16  International Political Economy

• • Introduction
  • 13.1 Contemporary Government Regimes: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority
  • 13.2 Categorizing Contemporary Regimes
  • 13.3 Recent Trends: Illiberal Representative Regimes
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  • Introduction
  • 14.1 What Is Power, and How Do We Measure It?
  • 14.2 Understanding the Different Types of Actors in the International System
  • 14.3 Sovereignty and Anarchy
  • 14.4 Using Levels of Analysis to Understand Conflict
  • 14.5 The Realist Worldview
  • 14.6 The Liberal and Social Worldview
  • 14.7 Critical Worldviews
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings
  //
  • 16.5 From the 1990s to the 2020s: Current Issues in IPE
  • 16.6 Considering Poverty, Inequality, and the Environmental Crisis
  • Summary
  • Key Terms
  • Review Questions
  • Suggested Readings

References

Index

--- Terminology or Vocabulary ---

Autocratization: Democratic backsliding is a process of regime change towards autocracy that makes the exercise of political power by the public more arbitrary and repressive. This process typically restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection. Democratic decline involves the weakening of democratic institutions, such as the peaceful transition of power or free and fair  elections, or the violation of individual rights that underpin democracies, especially freedom of expression. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

Types of Governmental Democracies: Democracy has taken a number of forms, both in theory and practice. Some varieties of democracy provide better representation and more freedom for their citizens than others.However, if any democracy is not structured to prohibit the government from excluding the people from the legislative process, or any branch of government from altering the separation of powers in its favour, then a branch of the system can accumulate too much power and destroy the democracy. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

Representative Democracy: Representative democracy places power in the hands of representatives who are elected by the people.^[3] Political parties often become central to this form of democracy if electoral systems require or encourage voters to vote for political parties or for candidates associated with political parties (as opposed to voting for individual representatives).^[4] Some political theorists (including Robert Dahl, Gregory Houston, and Ian Liebenberg) have described representative democracy as polyarchy.^[5][6]  (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

Republic: The term republic has many different meanings, but today often refers to a representative democracy with an elected head of state, such as a president, serving for a limited term, in contrast to states with a hereditary monarch as a head of state, even if these states also are representative democracies with an elected or appointed head of government such as a prime minister.

The Founding Fathers of the United States often criticised direct democracy, which in their view often came without the protection of a constitution enshrining inalienable rights; James Madison argued, especially in The Federalist No. 10, that what distinguished a direct democracy from a republic was that the former became weaker as it got larger and suffered more violently from the effects of faction, whereas a republic could get stronger as it got larger and combats faction by its very structure.

"The principles of republican government embedded in the Constitution represent an effort by the framers to ensure that the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would not be trampled by majorities." What was critical to American values, John Adams insisted, was that the government be "bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend."

As Benjamin Franklin was exiting after writing the U.S. constitution, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him "Well, Doctor, what have we got—a republic or a monarchy?". He replied "A republic—if you can keep it." (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

--- The Organization of U. S. Government ---

Branches of the U.S. Government - Learn about the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. (USA.gov)

---Points of View ---

• ALEC: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States. ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combating illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter identification rules, weakening labor unions, and opposing gun control.^{[9][10][11][12]} Some of these bills dominate legislative agendas in states such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine.^[13] Approximately 200 model bills become law each year.^[9][14] ALEC also serves as a networking tool among certain state legislators, allowing them to research conservative policies implemented in other states.^[11] Many ALEC legislators say the organization converts campaign rhetoric and nascent policy ideas into legislative language.^[6] (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

• Corporate personhood or juridical personality is the legal notion that a juridical person such as a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers, or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons.[1] In most countries, a corporation has the same rights as a natural person to hold property, enter into contracts, and to sue or be sued. Granting non-human entities personhood is a Western concept applied to corporations. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

• PAC: In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.  (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

• The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular state (with or without legally explicit church-state separation) and to disestablishment, the changing of an existing, formal relationship between the church and the state.[1] Although the concept is older, the exact phrase "separation of church and state" is derived from "wall of separation between church and state", a term coined by Thomas Jefferson. The concept was promoted by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke.  (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

---- Individual Civil Rights ---

• Civil rights in the United States include noted legislation and organized efforts to abolish public and private acts of racial discrimination against Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, Latin Americans, women, the homeless, minority religions, and other groups since the independence of the country. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)
• Slavery in the United States (1776–1866) When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, seven slave states seceded to form the Confederacy. Shortly afterward, on April 12, 1861, the Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked the U.S. Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Four additional slave states then joined the Confederacy after Lincoln, on April 15, called forth in response called up the militia to suppress the rebellion.[10] During the war some jurisdictions abolished slavery and, due to Union measures such as the Confiscation Acts and the Emancipation Proclamation, the war effectively ended slavery in most places. After the Union victory, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865, prohibiting "slavery [and] involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime." (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)
   

• After 50 years of lobbying and protesting....Women's legal right to vote was established in the United States, first in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis, and then nationally in the Nineteenth Amendment of 1920. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

• De jure (legal) segregation was outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.^[21] In specific areas, however, segregation was barred earlier by the Warren Court in decisions such as the Brown v. Board of Education decision that overturned school segregation in the United States. De facto segregation continues today in areas such as residential segregation and school segregation because of both contemporary behavior and the historical legacy of de jure segregation. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

• Homelessness in the United States -  the number of homeless people on a given night in January 2022 was 582,462 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.^[3] Annual federal HUD reports contradict private state and local reports. In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticized the United States for the criminalization of homelessness, noting that such "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" is in violation of international human rights treaty obligations. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

• Poverty in the United States - In the United States, poverty has both social and political implications. In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty.^[1] Some of the many causes include income inequality,^{[needs update][2]} inflation, unemployment, debt traps and poor education.^{[needs update][3]} The majority of adults living in poverty are employed and have at least a high school education. (Wikipedia excerpt 2023)

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• Naming

• History

• Legislative branch

  • Makeup of Congress

    • House of Representatives

    • Senate

    • Separate powers

    • Impeachment of federal officers

    • Congressional procedures

  • Powers of Congress

    • Congressional oversight

• Executive branch

  • President

    • Executive powers and duties

    • Election, succession, and term limits

    • Veto power, impeachment, and other issues

  • Vice president

  • Cabinet, executive departments, and agencies

• Judicial branch

  • Overview of the federal judiciary

  • Relationships between state and federal courts

    • District courts
    • Federal courts
    • Federal judicial circuit

• Budget

• Employees

• Elections and voting

• State, tribal, and local governments

• See also

  • President

  • Courts

  • Law

  • Agencies

  • States and territories

  • Works and websites

• Notes

• References

• Further reading