The Handy American Government Answer Book

Gina Misiroglu

Description

A practical, accessible, engaging, and comprehensive guide to how American democracy works (and how it sometimes doesn't work).

The stakes have never been higher: national security, civil liberties, the economy, the future of the republic. Yet few outside Washington actually understand how our government and political system should work, much less how it actually operates. On one level, it's a complex, interlocking world veiled in power brokering, bureaucracy, and big money. On another, it's the biggest, richest, most influential organization in the world, for better or worse.

Understanding how modern America is managed and governed is more vital than ever, but television, radio, newspapers, and social media frequently aim to spin, seduce, and sell product rather than serve anything resembling the truth. Filling the breach and answering basic questions about how our very complex government operates and what it promises, The Handy American Government Answer Book: How Washington, Politics, and Elections Work takes a comprehensive look at the systems, people, and policies that comprise American democracy, providing much-needed clarity to the current political drama.

This informative book traces the historic development of the government, the functions of each branch of government, and how they work together. It provides clear and concise definitions of who does what and why. Written in an entertaining, reader-friendly, question-and-answer format, The Handy American Government Answer Book deciphers the news behind the headlines through well-researched answers to nearly 800 common questions. You will also read about such fascinating tidbits as

Why is America's democratic system considered so precious?

How are shifting demographics related to the electorate?

What can Americans do to influence their government?

Did the framers of the Constitution place equal weight on the concepts of liberty, equality, and democracy?

What does "checks and balances" mean?

What generally happens when members of Congress act inappropriately?

How many presidents have been impeached?

How does a case reach the U.S. Supreme Court?

Which president appointed the most justices?

How do civil liberties differ from civil rights?

How does the Bill of Rights protect individual liberties?

Is measuring public opinion a new phenomenon in politics?

What does the concept ?majority rule with minority rights? mean?

Why has trust in the government declined?

What does it mean to lobby?

How are PAC donations and political decisions linked?

Where do the party symbols of the donkey and the elephant come from?

What is electoral realignment?

Who pays for the campaigns of candidates?

Did the electoral college ever vote unanimously for a president?

This handy primer also includes numerous illustrations, graphs, tables, a helpful bibliography, and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. In the midst of the overheated rhetoric of the moment and the fast-changing, crisis-dominated world, a well-informed citizenry armed with The Handy American Government Answer Book is the best defense against political and corporate chicanery!
How does government differ from politics?

Generally, government is the word used to describe the formal institutions through which a land and its people are ruled. (To govern means “to rule.” ) The term politics, however, refers to conflicts over the character, leadership, membership, and policies of a government. The goal of politics is to have a voice or representation in the government’s leadership, organization, and policy-making, because this representation leads to political power or influence. Political activities include things like raising funds for candidates, lobbying, or attempting to influence public opinion. Americans are given access to their government through political participation, whereby they can debate and remedy the issues of leadership, structure, and policy of the government that arise.

What is the difference between politics and political science?

Politics refers to the conduct of government, especially the making of government policies and government organization. Political science is the academic study of political systems and theories.

How is the government involved in my daily life?

Although you can ignore politics, it is impossible to ignore government. Step outside your home, for example, and you almost immediately walk down a government-owned street or drive on a government-owned highway. The water you drink and the air you breathe are beholden to government pollution standards. The government records your birth. Your public school is a government-funded and -regulated educational institution; home schools and private schools must meet government educational standards, all the way through college. Later in life, your driver’s license will be issued by the government, and if you start earning money at any job, you will becgin paying payroll and income taxes to the government. And when you spend money—currancy issued by the federal government—you will pay sales tax on those goods. And if you need assistance from the government, there are government programs to help, including the federal health-care program, Medicare. When you die, the county government will record your death and a government judge oversees of the distribution of your estate to your heirs.

What does government do?

Since the government is the institution through which a land or a society is ruled, the government is the institution that enforces the land’s public policies. In it simplest sense, public policies are all the things that the government decides to do, such as impose an income tax, service its armed forces, protect the environment, and hold businesses to certain standards. In a democratic United States, the people elect representatives to the government to enact the popular will. The people who exercise the powers of the government include: legislators, who make the law; executives and administrators, who administer and enforce those laws; and judges, who interpret the law.

Why do we need government?

People need government for many reasons. A thread that is common to all governments is the desire to provide a sense of order to the land. All governments tax, penalize, restrict, and regulate their people. A democracy exists to give voice to the people and to protect their inalienable rights, as English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) suggested it should. In contrast, a totalitarian government exists to benefit the state or those in charge, and this type of government empowers its leaders to rule in any way they see fit. In this type of government, the people’s personal freedom is not recognized.

What is the purpose of government in the United States?

In the United States, the purpose of the government is outlined in the preamble of the Constitution: to form a more perfect union; to establish justice; to insure domestic tranquility; to provide for the common defense; to promote the general welfare; and to secure the blessings of liberty. In sum, our government provides us with an organized system by which we can live as a nation in peace.

Democracy & Other Forms of Government

What role do authority and legitimacy plan in different forms of government?

In order for a government to function, it must have authority—the right and power to enforce its decisions. A government’s authority ultimately rests on its control of the armed forces and police. In a healthy society, the government’s authority has broad popular support; that is, people accept the government’s riht to establish laws. When this is the case, a government has legitimacy. Authority without legitimacy is often a trait of oppresive regimes, such as dictatorships in Egypt, libya and Tunisia in the early 2010s.

How are various governments classified?

There are several basic features that are used to classify governments. They include: the geographic distribution of power, which divides the definitions of government between unitary, federal, or confederate; the relationship between the legislative and executive branches, which defines government as presidential or parliamentary; and the number of people who take part in the governing process, which yields the definitions of autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy.

What are the different forms a government can take?

The three general forms of government, based upon who rules, are divided between (1) those in which the authority is vested in one single person; (2) those dominated by several people; and (3) those controlled by many. In some nations, governing is done by a single individual, such as a king, queen, or dictator. This form of government is known as an autocracy. A government is called an oligarchy if a small group, such as landowners, military officers, or wealthy merchants, make up the government. If the country’s people make up the government and contribute to its decision-making process, that nation’s government is known as a democracy.
Introduction
Historical Timeline

Part I. The American System
1. The Basics of Democracy
2. The Constitution
3. Federalism

Part II. The Political Institutions
4. The Congress
5. The Presidency
6. The Courts

Part III. People and Politics
7. Civil Liberties and Rights
8. Political Opinion
9. Interest Groups
10. Political Parties
11. Campaigns and Elections
12. The Media

Appendices
The U.S. Constitution
Further Reading
Index

Sujets

• Legislative Branch
• Judicial Branch
• Executive Branch
• American Government
• Political Science
• Federal government of the United States
• General officer
• Judiciary
• Legislature
• Politics of the United States
• Supreme Court of the United States
• Executive (government)
• General
• National
• Bill of Rights

Informations

• Publié par: Visible Ink Press
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781578596744
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 17 Mo

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About the Author

Gina Misiroglu is the author or editor of more than three dozen books in the popular culture, biography, American history, folklore, and women studies genres. She holds two degrees from UCLA and has worked in various editorial capacities for publishers such as Price Stern Sloan, New World Library, Visible Ink Press, Cengage, Penguin Books, Facts On File, and Routledge. Her most notable works include the three-volume American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History , which won the 2010 RUSA Award for Outstanding Reference Source; The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes (2012); and the trade anthology Girls Like Us: 40 Extraordinary Women Celebrate Girlhood in Story, Poetry, and Song (1999), winner of the New York Public Library s Best Book for Teens Award. Misiroglu has contributed to or authored many Handy Answer Book titles, including The Handy Answer Book for Kids (and Parents) , The Handy Politics Answer Book, and The Handy Presidents Answer Book. She is proud to say she votes in every national and local election.

THE HANDY AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ANSWER BOOK
How Washington, Politics, and Elections Work
Copyright 2018 by Visible Ink Press
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Managing Editor: Kevin S. Hile Art Director: Mary Claire Krzewinski Typesetting: Marco DiVita Proofreaders: Carleton Copeland and Shoshana Hurwitz Indexer: Larry Baker Cover images: Shutterstock.
Front cover photos: Vote button and U.S. Capitol images from Shutterstock; President Obama before joint session of Congress from the White House archive.
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Table of Contents
P HOTO S OURCES
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
T IMELINE
I NTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
Politics and Government
Democracy and Other Forms of Government
Fundamental Values
Political Ideologies
Shifting Demographics and Political Implications
THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
The Colonial Background
Early Colonial Government
The Road to Revolution
The First State Governments
The Constitutional Convention
Principles of the Constitution
Amending the Constitution
FEDERALISM
Federalism and Its Constitutional Basis
State Rights and Budgets
State and Local Government
THE U.S. CONGRESS
The Nature and Functions of Congress
House-Senate Differences and Congressional Privileges
Congressional Elections and Apportionment
How Congress Is Organized
Lawmaking and Budgeting
THE PRESIDENT
Who Can Become President?
The President s Roles and Responsibilities
Presidential Powers
The Executive Organization
The Role of the Vice Presidency
THE COURTS
The Federal Court System
The Selection of Federal Judges
The Supreme Court at Work
Policymaking and the Courts
State Versus Federal Courts
CIVIL LIBERTIES AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Differences between Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
The Bill of Rights
The First Amendment: Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition
The Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments: From the Right to Bear Arms to the Rights of the Criminally Accused
Civil Liberties vs. Security Issues
The Right to Privacy
Experiences of Ethnic Groups, Women, Gays and Lesbians, and Juveniles
POLITICAL OPINION
What Is Political Opinion and How Is It Measured?
Political Preferences and Voting Behavior
Political Opinion and the Political Process
PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS
The Role of Public Interest Groups
Types of Interest Groups
Strategies That Make Interest Groups Successful
Regulating Lobbyists
POLITICAL PARTIES
Functions of Political Parties in the U.S.
The Two-Party System
A History of Political Parties in the U.S.
Mechanisms of Political Party Change: Realignment, Dealignment, Tipping
CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS
How Are Elections Conducted?
The National Convention
The Election Campaign
Campaign Finance
The Popular Vote and the Role of the Electoral College
THE MEDIA MACHINE
The Media and Public Opinion
The Power of the Press: The Media and Political Campaigns
Political Campaigns and the Internet
Freedom of the Press
The Media under Various Administrations

F URTHER R EADING
T HE D ECLARATION OF I NDEPENDENCE
T HE A RTICLES OF C ONFEDERATION
T HE U.S. C ONSTITUTION
T HE B ILL OF R IGHTS
I NDEX
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to all the scholars, political scientists, Washington think tanks, and government agencies that have made their work and ideas available. Although they are too numerous to mention here, a list of resources in the back of the book provides those names and organizations that offer myriad perspectives on government and politics today. My deepest appreciation goes to the wonde