Under “instruction” has the information and direction my instructor gave for the assignment.

The final exam is worth a total of 90 points. Each question is worth up to 15 points each. Your responses should be in the form of an argument, with relevant supporting evidence. You should be able to offer an adequate response to each question using examples drawn from the textbook, your research paper, and the discussion readings, but you are not restricted to these sources. You are free to use the following types of outside sources as well: articles obtained through Proquest or Academic Search Premier (two of the TCC library databases); other peer-reviewed journal articles, and books devoted to a topic of political science. I will not accept responses that appear to be the result of a Google search that more or less just uses the wording of the assigned question, such as "what are some bureaucratic reform strategies?," or which otherwise seems to come from a website with canned answers to some of your most common political science essay topics. Please provide a citation for all outside sources, using any standard bibliographic format.In general, you should plan on writing at least three paragraphs in response to each topic. Do not copy the textbook, and be sure to cite any sources. Plagiarism is a bad idea and you will probably get caught. 1) The U.S. Congress is supposed to function in a representative capacity. Given the historic unpopularity of Congress at the present time, it seems evident that Congress is not fulfilling this function in a way that is satisfactory to the vast majority of the American people. What accounts for this unpopularity? Why does Congress seem to be unable to fulfill both its representative and legislative functions? Identify and discuss at least three significant factors that have contributed to the legislative gridlock and lack of political compromise characteristic of most congressional sessions over the past decade. 2) In Chapter 12 of your textbook, the authors claim: "More than any other of the three branches of government in the Constitution created by the framers, the presidency has been democratized, with the changes so dramatic that the office would be hardly recognizable to them." Identify at least three factors responsible for the democratization of the modern presidency. Your book goes on to state that "the American people are prone, for their part, to see the president as the center of governance and the locus for their hopes and aspirations for the nation." Discuss the roles that the modern president is expected to play to meet these public expectations, and the resources the president has at his command to serve as the center of governance. What factors determine how the American public judges presidential performance? 3) Complaining about the federal bureaucracy (or any other bureaucracy for that matter) appears to be second nature for many Americans. Our political media is filled with cries that the federal government has grown too large and that it needs to be “cut down to size,” which translates into cuts in government programs. Most often, the argument is that government is inefficient and wastes our hard-earned tax dollars. In response to these claims, recent presidents have promoted bureaucratic reforms to “streamline the bureaucracy.” Identify and discuss at least three of these reform strategies. How successful have they been? Is efficiency the only or best criterion for evaluating bureaucratic performance, or are there other standards by which we should consider the role of government in our lives? 4) We want to think of “law” as something separate from “politics” and the various trappings of our judicial process encourage us to think of law as something more akin to religion (e.g. judges wear robes, we call them “your honor” and rise when they enter the room, they sit on high and pass judgment, and the U.S Supreme Court building resembles a Greek temple). Yet there is clear evidence that courts in the United States are distinctly political institutions, and their workings cannot be separated from the political process. Discuss one example of each of the following: a) the role of politics in the selection of judges (at either the federal or state level), b) the impact of political factors on judicial decision-making, and c) the impact of a specific judicial decision on our political process. What do these examples suggest to you about the relationship between law and politics? 5) The US Supreme Court didn't really address questions of civil liberties in any systematic fashion until the time of World War One, about one hundred years ago. Over the past century, we have seen the Court attempt to balance concerns for public safety and order with concerns for civil liberties. Discuss at least two instances over this time period in which the U.S government has restricted the civil liberties of American citizens in response to perceived threats to national security. What has been the rationale for these decisions, and to what degree has this reasoning changed over time? Be sure to refer to specific Supreme Court cases where appropriate. 6) Some critics of the American political process argue that we no longer live in a representative democracy, but instead are governed by a plutocracy. What evidence have you encountered during this course that could be employed to support this perspective, and what evidence suggests that the critics may have overstated their case? Do you think that our political system is representative of the concerns of the vast majority of Americans, or is it skewed significantly in favor of the wealthy?