Faith Walker Dr. Syzmonik January 4, 2012 AP Government 2009 Free-Response Questions 1.

(a) The House of Representatives is originally more closely tied to citizens because members of the House are more directly elected than the president and were originally more directly elected than members of the Senate. (b) One way the Constitution limits majority rule is through the separation of powers. The federal government is broken up into three branches; the legislative, the judicial, and the executive branch. For example, even if Congress and the President approve of a bill, the Supreme Court can overrule it, declaring it unconstitutional. Even though two of the three branches like the new law, it can still overturned. Another way the Constitution limits majority rule is through the Electoral College. A prime example is during the Bush/Gore election. Even though Gore won the majority of the peoples votes, Bush won the majority of the electorate votes, and therefore the election, because the Electoral College doesnt always have to decide based what the majority of the people want. (c) Primary elections induce a more democratic system because voters gain more control over the nomination process that used to be taken away by political parties. The expansion of suffrage led to a more democratic system because it led to a more representative set of voters, rather than white males who own land. 2. (a) Age effects voter turnout because older people are more likely to vote, while turnout is the lowest for young people. Education also affects voter turnout because people with more education are more likely to vote, while people with less education are less likely to vote. (b) One requirement that decreases voter turnout is citizenship because this naturally makes people ineligible to vote. (c) Media connects its citizens to the government by conveying the views of the people to the government and conveying information about the government to the people. They can convey these messages through reporting on government activities, interviewing citizens, presenting poll results, interviewing public officials, covering protests, or providing an outlet for citizen opinion. 3. (a) One advantage the majority party in the House has is that the Speaker of the House comes from the majority party. The Speaker is the most important member of Congress. They control the agenda, decides who gets to speak, and make the assignments to the committee that determines what committee every representatives serves on. All these powers effect legislation and can increase the chances of getting

the majority partys legislation passed. Another advantage is the holding of committee chairs. Since most of the work are done in the committees, the chairs are extremely important in determining the agenda for the meeting and conducting business. Again, the ability to pass the majority partys legislation easier, with the majority holding the most chairs. (b) Two differences between the House and the Senate is that the House has a Rules Committee, while the Senate doesnt and the Senate has unanimous consent agreements while the House doesnt. (c) Unanimous consent agreements allow the Senate to ease the passage of a bill with unanimous consent agreements, while the House has no such mechanism and even though the Senate may pass a bill, the House rules committee can hinder passage of that bill in the House, by using this committee. 4. (a) A policy agenda is a set of issues, problems, or subjects that gets the attention of or is viewed as important by the people involved in policymaking. (b)The national news media engage in agenda setting by raising awareness, providing information, drawing attention, demonstrate the importance or consequences of the problem or get the publics attention, along with the attention of government/policymakers. (c)The president has an advantage over Congress in gaining media attention because the president in one person while Congress is composed of many members therefore the president speaks with a single voice, while Congress has many voices. In addition he is the national leader of the country and representative of the national as a whole. (d) It can be determined that young people view less TV news than older people and that people in all age categories view less TV news in 2002 than they did in 1974. (e) This means that the president must rely on alternative media to gain the attention of the public rather than TV news unless they purposely target older viewers through the use of nightly news programs.