POLS 207 Exam 1 TAMU Smith Questions With Correct Answers

What is economic development? - Answer Population growth and the income and educational levels of a state's population How has the ethnic composition of the United States changed in the last twenty years? - Answer Hispanics became the largest minority in the US. The Asian population is growing faster than any other minority. African Americans comprise about 13% of the total population of the US. Native Americans are about 1% of the population today. State and local governments are responsible for which policies? - Answer Disagreement and conflicts Taxes and spending Infrastructure Education Crime Poverty Federal Government is responsible for which policies? - Answer Civil Rights Equal Employment Opportunities Care for the Poor and the Aged Adequate Medial Care Elimination of Urban Poverty and Blight Immigration policy What is the national government responsible for? - Answer - Foreign policy - Coin money - Declare war What is policy conservatism? - Answer Referring to a state's tendency to limit welfare benefits, deregulate business, keep taxes low, and generally place less reliance on government and more reliance or individuals and the marketplace to achieve social goals. What is policy liberalism? - Answer Referring to a state's tendency to expand welfare benefits, regulate business, adopt progressive state income taxes and general use the resources of government to achieve social change. From where do state and local governments derive their revenue? - Answer Property taxes make up the largest category of state and local government revenue at 35%, with sales and gross receipts close behind at 34%, according to a new analysis by the Tax Foundation. The corporate income tax brings in the smallest amount of any major tax, providing only about 3% of the money taken in by state and local tax collectors. Charters also help derive revenue. Federalism - Answer A constitutional arrangement whereby power is divided between national and subnational governments, each of which enforces its own laws directly on its citizens and neither of which can alter the arrangement without the consent of the other. Unitary - Answer A constitutional arrangement whereby authority rests with the national government; subnational governments have only those powers given to them by the national government. Confederation - Answer A constitutional arrangement whereby the national government is created by and relies on the subnational governments for its authority. Why are states called "laboratories of democracy?" - Answer This is generally attributed to the great progressive jurist, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who used it in defense of state experimentation with new solutions to social and economic problems. Decentralized government also creates this by encouraging policy innovation. It is also a benefit of a decentralized government. What is nullification? - Answer An early doctrine of "nullification" was set forth by Thomas Jefferson in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolution of 1798, asserting states' right to nul-lify unconstitutional laws of Congress. Although the original use of this doctrine was to counter congressional attacks on a free press in the Alien and Sedition Acts, the doctrine was later revived to defend slavery. What are enumerated powers? - Answer Powers specifically mentioned in the Constitution as belonging to the national government. What are implied powers? - Answer Pars nor mentioned specifically in the Constitution as belonging to Congress but inferred as necessary and proper for carrying out the enumerated powers. Know the 10th Amendment - Answer People and states get all power not delegated the the US Government. Marbury v. Madison (1803) - Answer Judicial Review McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) - Answer Established the principle that the Necessary and Proper Clause fives Congress the right to choose its means for carrying out the enumerated powers of the government. Today, Congress can devise programs, create agencies, and establish national laws on the basis of long chains of reasoning from the most meager phrases of the constitutional text because of the broad interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause. Why are federal grants-in-aid important? - Answer They have been the principal instrument in the expansion of national power. More than one-third of all state and local government expenditures are currently from monies derived from federal grants.