UCSD Presidential Impact on Supreme Court Decision Making in US Responses

Please respond to each of the four short response questions posted below. Your answers should be short, focused, and complete, ranging from one to three paragraphs. Please make sure to answer each specific part of every question. Successful answers will provide details and context that support your arguments and explain your position to the readers. You may also want to provide real world examplestaken from the readings, lectures, group discussions, or your own independent thinking. These illustrations can be from the course materials or your own ideas. Providing this context and being able to apply the material to YOUR OWN understanding of politics really shows us that you have mastered the material.

You should aim to keep each response to around 300 words. You are welcome to write your answers in traditional paragraph form. However, you are also welcome to start each response with a topic sentence and then provide bullet points with the key details and information if you find that more efficient. Regardless of what strategy you should take, your work should show your own thinking on the topic.

To help you organize your responses, I have broken the key parts of each question into sections below:

1. a) What are the varying goals that shape the behavior of members of Congress? b) How does the incentive for reelection shape their behavior? c) How can it lead them to be both individually responsive but collectively irresponsible?
2. a) What are the benefits of the Congressional committee system? b) What are the possible downsides? c) How do the parties use this structure to their advantage?
3. In your view, what are the most important factors that contributed to the rise of presidential power in modern American Government? (for this question, please choose two or three factors from the readings and lectures that you personally found most interesting/persuasive).
4. Neustadt & Kernell both describe ways in which a President can deal with Congress & others outside of the executive branch. a) What are their central arguments? b) How does Kernell’s theory update Neustadt’s idea? c) Are they compatible?

Here are some materials you could use

https://openstax.org/books/american-government-2e/pages/11-introductio

https://canvas.eee.uci.edu/courses/30808/files/11048771/download?verifier=uhWvaVtZIAfiSeBnvJ0XGgCgRcZYqqZtQfLEn1l7&wrap=1

https://openstax.org/books/american-government-2e/pages/12-introduction

https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2016/12/1/13794680/trump-presidency-reagan-era-end

https://canvas.eee.uci.edu/courses/30808/files/11048796/download?verifier=6lBitzdiylaRFDsMDSoBQ27pHaKXUVOXzaRgUbTR&wrap=1

https://canvas.eee.uci.edu/courses/30808/files/11048797/download?verifier=dypcEou0o8zjy7pwKZWcXffeNjXDOp87RoFCIazl&wrap=1

First, we wanted to clarify that your answers are not meant to be essay length. You should aim to keep each of your responses in the question set to around 300 words.

You are welcome to write your answers in traditional paragraph form.

However, you are also welcome to start each response with a topic sentence and then provide bullet points with the key details and information if you find that to be a more efficient approach.

For example, if you were writing an answer about the differences between the Constitution of the United States and the Articles of Confederation you could write:

The Constitution of the United States was specifically designed to address several weaknesses of government that had been revealed under the Articles of Confederation.

• The Constitution created a much stronger national government– increasing powers of Congress and a newly created office of the president. For example…
• The Constitution empowered Congress to raise tax revenue, giving the new national government the ability to overcome collective action problems by raising revenues and provide for public goods like national defense. For example…
• The Constitution created the executive branch and the presidency to allow for quick action in times of crises. For example…

Note that the “For example…” sections are places where you would fill in your own perspective of details for each answer.

Regardless of whether you write in paragraphs or bullet points, your work should show your own thinking on the topic. Please do not copy and paste from resources you find online or elsewhere!