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Descriptive Statements:
- Apply knowledge of the ways in which political parties, interest groups, and social and civic groups provide opportunities for civic involvement.
- Apply knowledge of how communication technology affects the ability of governments, interest groups, individuals, and the media to share information and how communication technology and media influence public opinion and civic participation.
- Apply knowledge of the civic skills that contribute to the democratic process (e.g., persuasion, compromise, consensus building, collaboration, negotiation).
- Differentiate between democracies, dictatorships, monarchies, and theocracies and analyze the ways in which governmental authority in different systems affects the extent of citizens' liberties and responsibilities.
- Apply knowledge of the ways in which Greek democracy and the Roman Republic were a radical departure from monarchy and theocracy and how they influenced the structure and function of modern democratic governments.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in the United States.
Sample Item:
Writers in ancient Greece and Rome and political philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries most often shared which of the following reservations or concerns about democratic systems of government?
- Democracies are highly prone to subversion by unfriendly outside powers.
- Democracies tend to descend into mob rule that threatens individual liberties.
- Democracies are ineffective in translating notions of human rights into public policy.
- Democracies undermine the theological basis for legitimate government.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. Ancient Greek and Roman writers held a range of views. In broad terms, the ones who had the most enduring influence on political thought, such as Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero, tended to prefer a governmental system that combined elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, where the will of the majority could override the interests of others. Many modern political thinkers before the twentieth century also tended to prefer a limited style of democracy, or a republican system of government, in which aristocratic or oligarchic elements balanced the possible excesses of a more pure democracy.
Descriptive Statements:
- Apply knowledge of the general purpose of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights in establishing a federal republic that incorporates the civic ideals of the American democratic system (e.g., elected representatives, separation of powers, checks and balances).
- Analyze the constitutional protections for individual liberties and limits on governmental power embodied in the Bill of Rights.
- Examine ways in which constitutional government in the United States has changed as a result of legislation and informal practices.
- Analyze the effects of the Reconstruction Amendments (i.e., Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth) on African Americans and on constitutional government in the United States.
- Apply knowledge of the effects of twentieth-century constitutional amendments that have extended suffrage and other civil rights.
- Examine ways in which Supreme Court decisions have changed constitutional government in the United States.
- Demonstrate knowledge of constitutional amendments that have altered provisions for the structure and functions of the federal government.
- Apply knowledge of the distinct powers and responsibilities of the three branches of government.
- Apply knowledge of the principles of federalism and how federal, state, and local levels of government divide and share powers and responsibilities.
- Apply knowledge of how the three branches of government, at all levels, enact policy.
Sample Item:
Which of the following developments motivated the ratification of the Twenty-Second Amendment?
- the growing power of the office of the president
- the increasing number of seats in the House of Representatives
- the use of the military draft during the Vietnam War
- the corruption of state legislatures in the election of senators
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
A. The ratification of the Twenty-Second Amendment was meant to address concerns that the presidency had grown too powerful while the office was occupied by Franklin D. Roosevelt for more than three terms. The Twenty-Second Amendment limits the number of terms a person can serve as president to two terms.
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