Week 8 – Gov.

Objectives:  Discuss the origins of our system of state governments.  Describe the roles and responsibilities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state governments.  Analyze how local governments in the U.S. lost their liberties and what would be required to restore those liberties.

• Read chapters 7-11 of Government and Politics in the United States.
• Chapter 7 (q. 1,4,8-9), Chapter 9 (q. 1-6, 10-11,16), Chapter 10 (q. 1-3, 5, 9), Chapter 11 (q. 1,2,6,11)
• County Rights:  how freedom was lost
• Local Sovereignty:  how to get it back
• Questions for the week:
• In one paragraph, explain how the state governments evolved.
• Make a chart listing the 5-10 most important responsibilities of each branch of state governments.
• List six most important arguments of the Anti-federalist writers.  Why do you suppose they are not studied today?
• In a couple of paragraphs, how did the national government slowly take power away from the states?
• What obstacles are in the way of restoring local authority and what can be done to begin that restoration (at least a couple of paragraphs)?