Civics EOY Review

The U.S. Capitol Police and the D.C. Metro Police departments are responsible for keeping people safe during protests.

Which purposes of government are involved?

• Maintaining order and protecting citizens' rights

• Promoting economic decisions and public service

• Protecting rights and economic decisions

• Providing national security and social order

A ruler seizes control of a country and demands total obedience. He allows some ownership of private property and participation in political activities as long as there is no threat to his power.

Which type of government is MOST likely being established in this country?

• Authoritarian

• Limited government

• Constitutional monarchy

• Oligarchy 

Which constitutional amendment defines citizenship in the United States?

• 13th Amendment

• 14th Amendment

• 15th Amendment

• 17th Amendment

“Like so many others, these men and women met their responsibilities. They played by the rules. They have earned their citizenship.”

--President Barack Obama, 2010

How did the group, referred to by the President, earn their citizenship?

• By paying income taxes in the United States

• By learning a trade needed in the United States

• By voting in the last election

• By completing the naturalization process

Which action is BEST defined as a civic duty?

• Attending a university

• Serving on a jury

• Volunteering at a charity

• Supporting community meetings

Use the political cartoon to answer the question

Which statement would the cartoonist most likely make about what could happen to American democracy without citizens?

• Popular sovereignty is the basis for our American democracy. Without the voice of eligible voters, governments would be easily corrupted by special interest groups and individual rights may be violated.

• It is the responsibility for all eligible citizens to vote. If citizens fail to fulfill their responsibilities as adults, children will not understand the importance of voting and the U.S. Constitution would no longer be effective.

• The U.S. Constitution guarantees representative democracy.  If minority and elderly citizens choose not to vote, elected representatives will make decisions based on the needs of businesses and lobbyists.

• In the absence of voter input, government bureaucracy would decrease and legislative action would be more efficient because legislatures could act without regard for the general welfare.

Use the image to answer the question that follows

Which passage from the Declaration of Independence would support the author of the advertisement?

• “...a decent respect to the opinions of mankind…”

• “We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity…”

• “...all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer…”

• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

“Our Debts being unfunded and unprovided for, the Interest cannot be paid . . .. The United States have call’d for eight Million of Dollars early in November last, of which the first quarterly Payment was to have been made on the first Day of April. But I cannot find a single State has laid the Taxes . . . . [L]et the several States be ever so negligent, the Confederation has given no Power to compel [force]. While it confers on Congress the Privilege of asking everything, it has secured to each State the Prerogative of granting nothing.”

—Robert Morris, Secretary of the Treasury, to John Hanson, president of the Continental Congress, February 11, 1782

The author of this excerpt is expressing concern about what weakness in the Articles of Confederation?

• The national government had no army

• The national government had no power to tax

• The national government had no system of courts

• The national government had no executive branch

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

The Three-Fifths Compromise settled the argument about...

• How many representatives could be allowed in the Senate

• How amendments can be added to the U.S. Constitution.

• How the enslaved would be counted for representation in Congress

• How the president of the nation would be determined

The entire legislature can perform no judiciary act, though by the joint act of two of its branches the judges may be removed from their offices...The entire legislature, again, can exercise no executive prerogative, though one of its branches...can try and condemn all the subordinate officers in the executive department. --James Madison, Federalist No. 47, 1788

Which principle underlying the United States Constitution does James Madison explain in this passage?

• Government powers are separated and balanced.

• Legitimate political authority comes from the people.

• The Bill of Rights protects individuals’ due process rights

• Representatives to Congress are determined through elections.