Pol Sci 1 - Midterm Fall 2014

Due Date: October 31, 2:00 pm. Online submissions through Canvas or in hardcopy to the
Behavioral, Social Sciences Dept. - Aspen Hall TE-516.
Short Essays (60 points total)
Write in complete sentences and paragraphs. 1 margins, 12 point type, single
spaced.
Make sure that you support your answers.
Cite your sources (Bibme.org.)
Exception: To cite your textbook as the source of information use a
parenthetical reference. The citationisplacedinparenthesesafterthe
sentenceorpartthereofthatthecitationsupports,andincludesthe
author'sname,yearofpublication,andpagenumber(s).
Example: (Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt, 2014, 134) - The only part to change
is the date if you are using an older text and the page number(s) of what you
are citing.
Please spell-check your document.
Have someone, (this someone is not yourself sitting in front of a mirror,) read your
answers out-loud to you. Simple tool, but very effective.
Questions
1. Describe the government established by the Articles of Confederation. (10 points)
a. What were the weaknesses of this government?
b. How did the Constitution address these issues/problems? Be very specific.

2. Political parties play an important role in American politics. (15 points)
a. What roles/functions do political parties play in the U.S. political system
today?
b. We havent seen a major 3rd party emerge in the U.S.
i. Why is that? How does our electoral process prevent major third
parties from emerging?

3. The U.S. has a two-party system that has been around since about 1800. Political
parties did not exist when the Constitution was drafted and are not mentioned
anywhere in the Constitution. Yet, the debate on the ratification of the Constitution
helped to give rise to the first political parties. (25 points)
1 of 4

Pol Sci 1 - Midterm Fall 2014
a. Describe the evolution of the U.S. political party system from their initial
formation as Federalists and Democratic-Republicans to the present-day
Democrats and Republicans.
i. Make sure you describe the major events that caused parties to
appear, dissolve, split, or change their platforms/values.

4. There are three different models for organizing relations between a central
government and local or subdivisional governments. (10 points)
a. Define all three models and list advantages of each model.

Political Ideology Section
Uncovering and Exploring Your Political Ideology (15 points total)
I would like you to take 2 short surveys that will give you insight about where you fall on the
political ideology spectrum. Follow the instructions carefully so that you can get credit for
your work as well as providing information and data for us a class.
Read everything first, before you begin.

Part 1 - Political Typology (2.5 points)

Go to the Political Typology Quiz web page (http://bit.ly/polspectrumf14) which is part of
Pew Rearch's Center for the People & the Press. You should arrive at a page that looks
like the image below.




2 of 4

Pol Sci 1 - Midterm Fall 2014
Scroll down and click on the giant Begin Survey button to begin the quiz.

Upon completing the quiz, you will be taken to your results. Before anything else, save your
results. The easiest way is to save it as a webpage. In Chromes menu click on File, then
Save Page as, then you will get a dialogue box like the one below.

Make sure that for Format, Webpage, Complete is selected. Chose where you want to
save it and then press Save.

Now that you have it saved, you can explore your political typology and what that means in
regards to the issues and elections listed on your results. You can go to the group summary
page (http://bit.ly/polspecgrpf14) to see where the class as a whole is on the spectrum (5
people have to have taken the poll for results to show up.)

Please report your typology as reported by the results and if possible a copy your
placement on the scale like the one to the below.



3 of 4

Pol Sci 1 - Midterm Fall 2014

Part 2 - Political Compass (2.5 points)

Go to the Political Compass (http://www.politicalcompass.org) and click on Take the
test as pictured below.

Answer the question given to you and then save your results as a webpage like you did in
part 1, or copy/save the graph.
It should look like the one to the right.
The information you need is your results
for Economic Left/Right and Social
Libertarian/Authoritarian.

Please report those results and if
possible a copy of the chart like the
one to the right. (This is what Im
looking for to give you full credit for this
section)

Part 3 - Analysis (10 points)

Answer the following questions
regarding your results.

What information did you find out about yourself from the results of the two
instruments?
Do you agree with these results? Why/Why not?
Which instrument did you find the most helpful in understanding your current
position in the political spectrum? Give specific support to your answer.



4 of 4