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Reading Study Questions -  Chapters 12, 13 and 15

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Chapter 12: Congress
1.	What is a constituency? What relationship should constituents have with their representative? 
2.	What is a bicameral legislature?  What are the Houses of Congress? How many members are there in each? 
3.	Why does the House tend to represent local interest groups more than the Senate? 
4.	What is the length of a Senator’s term of office?  Of a Representative’s term of office?  How does that affect their behavior while in office?
5.	What is the difference between the delegate style of representation and the trustee style of representation? 
6.	What is the difference between sociological and agency representation? 
7.	What are the three main occupational backgrounds of members of Congress? 
8.	How many people does each US Representative represent? 
9.	What is constituency service?  Is it important? 
10.	What three factors related to the electoral system affect who gets elected and what they do once in office?  
11.	What advantages does incumbency provide?
12.	 Why do people support term limits? Who would benefit the most from them? 
13.	What is apportionment?  What is redistricting?
14.	What is gerrymandering?
15.	What did the Court do in 1995 in the case of Miller v Johnson? 
16.	What is patronage? What is pork barreling? 
17.	What is an “earmark?”  
18.	What is a private bill? What is the subject matter of the majority of private bills? 
19.	How are minority and majority leaders and the Speaker of the House selected? 
20.	Who has the most real power in the Senate?
21.	What is a standing committee?  Give an example.
22.	What is a select committee? 
23.	What is joint committee?  List the four major joint committees in Congress.
24.	What is a conference committee? What can happen if one party controls both houses? 
25.	List some of the responsibilities of Congressional staff members. 
26.	What is a staff agency? What are the three staff agencies that help Congress do its job? 
27.	In Congress, what is a caucus?
28.	What is a bill?  What is a “money” bill and where can it be introduced? 
29.	What is the closed and open rule? Who decides which applies?
30.	What is a filibuster? What is cloture specifically, and how does it work? 
31.	What is the purpose of a conference committee? 
32.	How does a veto and pocket veto work? What does it take to override a veto? 
33.	What is a party unity vote? What is a roll-call vote? 
34.	According to your text, what are six ways that party leaders can reward loyal party members?
35.	What is a party whip? What is the main task of the whip system? 
36.	What is logrolling? 
37.	What are the two reasons that members of Congress don’t try to compromise on legislation?
38.	What is meant by congressional oversight?
39.	What is an executive agreement?
40.	How do you impeach a president?  What role does the Senate play in the process? What role does the House play 

Chapter 13: The Presidency
1.	What established the office of the Presidency?
2.	What was the “King Caucus”? 
3.	How are presidential candidates selected now? Who controls that process?
4.	List the five expressed Presidential powers identified in the text. 
5.	What are implied powers? Give an example.
6.	What is  an executive agreement?  What is the difference between an executive agreement and a treaty?  
7.	What is executive privilege and what happened in U.S. v Nixon?
8.	How do the veto and pocket veto work? Can Congress override each one?  How?
9.	Who does Congress expect to set its agenda and what is legislative initiative?
10.	What is an executive order? 
11.	In the context of the presidency and the executive branch, what are delegated powers? What is the source of those powers? 
12.	What does a federal agency in the executive branch do – make the law or enforce the law?
13.	Does the IRS have broad powers? Why or why not?
14.	According to your text, why are delegated powers broader in scope now than they were prior to 1930?
15.	What are inherent powers?  What are the sources of those powers?
16.	 What is the War Powers Resolution? How does the War Powers Resolution limit a president’s actions?  How  have presidents responded to that limitation?  
17.	What is the Cabinet? 
18.	What is the NSC and what officials sit on the NSC?
19.	What group do “Special Assistants to the President” belong to?  What do they do? 
20.	What is the presidents’ kitchen cabinet?
21.	What is the EOP? What is the OMB and what does it do?
22.	What political value does a vice-presidential candidate provide for a presidential candidate?
23.	In the event of the incapacity of a president, who takes over the presidential responsibilities? Who is next in line?
24.	What role does the vice-president play in the Senate?
25.	According to your text, what are the three ways that a president can expand his or her power?
26.	What does “going public” mean? What are the ways that a president can “go public”?
27.	What is the typical pattern for presidential approval ratings?  
28.	According to your text, what are the three parts of a president’s “Administrative Strategy”?
29.	What is regulatory review?
30.	Why are executive orders important to an “administrative strategy”?
31.	What is a “signing statement”? 
32.	Does the Congress still have the “power of the purse”?  Why? 

Chapter 15: The Federal Courts--Judiciary
1.	Who or what is a defendant?  Who or what is a plaintiff? 
2.	What types of cases are case of criminal law? Who is always the plaintiff?
3.	What types of cases are cases of civil law?  
4.	What is a precedent?  What does stare decisis mean? 
5.	What is a plea bargain? 
6.	What is a court’s jurisdiction?  What is original jurisdiction? What is appellate jurisdiction?
7.	What kinds of cases are heard in federal court? Who decided this court’s jurisdiction?
8.	What article in the Constitution deals with the judiciary and jurisdiction? 
9.	For justices, what is “life tenure”?  Do all judges in the federal system have it?
10.	What is due process of law? What is a writ of habeas corpus? 
11.	Why are federal cases so important?  What kinds of cases are heard by the Supreme Court?
12.	What is the primary difference between a trial court and an appellate court? 
13.	What does the chief justice of the Supreme Court do?
14.	How many justices are on the United States Supreme Court?  Can that number be changed?
15.	What is senatorial courtesy? Does this practice apply to justices of the Supreme Court? 
16.	Has the process of judicial appointments gone smoothly in the past twenty-five years? Why or why not? 
17.	What is judicial review?  How or what established judicial review as a power of the Supreme Court? 
18.	What is the supremacy clause?  How does it impact state laws?
19.	How are appellate decisions like common law and statutory law? 
20.	How does the doctrine of “cases and controversies” limit judicial power?
21.	What does standing mean? 
22.	What does mootness mean? 
23.	What is a writ of certiorari? 
24.	Aside from the formal criteria, what 3 types of cases is the Supreme Court most likely to accept?
25.	What does ‘certworthy’ mean, and what is the certiorari pool? 
26.	What percent of petitions filed are granted cert?
27.	Who is the solicitor general and what does he/she do? 
28.	What does amicus curiae mean and when/why would the solicitor general be one?
29.	What is included in a brief?
30.	In terms of court cases, what is an opinion?
31.	What is a majority opinion?  Who writes it and why does that matter? 
32.	Why would a justice write a concurring opinion? 
33.	What is a dissenting opinion? Why is it important?  
34.	What is the difference between judicial activism and judicial restraint?
35.	What were the traditional limitations on judicial power?
36.	 According to the text, what are the three changes in judicial procedures that courts created in the 1960s and 1970s to expand the power of the courts?