LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE
Political Science I - Chapter Two
Study Questions
1. What do the authors mean by the observation that “our political system is a hyrid system?
2. The founding fathers derived their ideas of __________ from Greeks philosophers such as___________ and ______________?
3. What was the importance of the Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights, and the English Bill of Rights?
4. Thomas Jefferson drew ideas from which English thinkers in his drafting of the Declaration of Independence?
5. What were the “truths that Jefferson wrote were self evident?
6. Per Jefferson - from whom are the powers of just government derived and when are people justified to abolish a government?
7. What was the importance of the ideas expressed by Montesqui in his work “Spirit of Laws”?
8. How did the framers avoid a tyranny of the majority, elites or a tyrant?
9. Why weren’t eighteenth-century republicans sympathetic to popular democracy?
10. The idea of a good society is one in which “_______________.”
11. “A central purpose of a legitimate government is to_____________individual _______and________.
12. What are the roots of democracy and what do they mean?
13. Why isn’t direct democracy practical in governing large communities?
14. A representative democracy is a system_______________________.
15. What are three additional that identify a democracy?
16. What are the six conditions that especially important are especially important to popular sovereignty?
17. What is the second fundamental principle of democracy and what does it mean?
18. What was the importance of the 1965 Voting Rights Act?
19. Why do some political thinkers argue that “great inequalities in economic circumstances almost always translate into political inequality?
20. Political liberty refers to basic political freedoms such as_________________.
21. Why are self-government and liberty inseparable to Americans?
22. Why is the Electoral College and why was established?
23. Why can it be argued that democracy recognizes the intrinsic worth and equality of everyone?
24. Why do the authors argue that democratic values and republican institutions are often compatible, the are also contradictory?
Key Terms
Democratic
Republican
Tyranny
Direct democracy
Representative democracy
Popular sovereignty
Majority rule
Political equality
Political liberty