Midterm Study Guide

State and Local Government / Andrews

Spring 2018

Midterm Review

You will do well on the Midterm if you can write good 10-minute answers to the following study guide questions:

1) Why is citizen participation essential in a democracy? Why is it essential to any human society according to the body of thought known as Catholic Social Teaching? Discuss several kinds of participation in addition to the act of voting. 

2) Discuss the relationships between local, state and federal levels of government. Why do we need all three in the United States? If you were forced to argue in favor of eliminating one of these three levels of government, which would it be? Why? What would be the impact of eliminating this level of government?

3) What is “devolution?” How is it related to the political principal of subsidiarity? 

4) Distinguish between “lobbyists,” “interest groups,” and “PACs.” Provide concrete examples of each using the experiences of either your community partner or one of our speakers. Is your CP/the speaker a lobbyist? An interest group? A PAC? Does your CP / the speaker hire such individuals or groups?

5) The authors of your textbook note that “the condition of contemporary American political parties has been described with words such as decline, decay, and demise” (93). Do you agree that this describes American political parties in 2018? Give examples to support your answer.

6) What is meant by the “capacity” of a government or an organization? Where does your community partner reach the limits of its capacity?

7) In what ways is your community partner an active or passive participant in the community in which it operates? Use the criteria outlined in Figure 4.1 on page 71 of your textbook to guide your answer.

8) In what ways does your community partner provide opportunities for citizen volunteerism? Do your CP’s volunteers become active or passive participants in the community? Use the criteria outlined in Figure 4.1 on page 71 of your textbook.

9) Our speakers so far have been people whose individual efforts made significant changes on a local, state and/or national level. Choose one of our speakers and describe what he/she did, what changes resulted from his/her efforts, what tools of state or local government did he/she use to make change? What other factors do you think were instrumental in his/her success?