[POLI SCI 220] - Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam (23 pages long!)
29 Nov 2016
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Lecture 2 creating a constitutional democracy 09/22/2016. Identified problems in the government: there is a declining trust in government. Politicians are perceived to be solely focused on their campaigns/constituents rather than on beneficial policies; this is problematic since public opinion is not always well- informed so politicians end up following the ill-advised policies of their base constituents. Checks and balances make it hard to change policy and get things done (as designed by founders) because: The founders had a deep skepticism of the masses. The founders wanted to protect their own economic interests (such as slavery) Although the office of the president (executive branch) is elected, it is the weakest branch since the founders did not want to replicate the problems of a tyrannical dictator. If inequality is any marker for how uninformed the citizens are, then there are a lot of uninformed people in the us.
