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Homework answers / question archive / Question 1: Must be 300 words or more Prepare: Prior to writing your initial post, read Chapters 1 and 2 of American Government and review the Week 1 Instructor Guidance
Question 1: Must be 300 words or more Prepare: Prior to writing your initial post, read Chapters 1 and 2 of American Government and review the Week 1 Instructor Guidance. Reflect: The U.S. Constitution is the cornerstone of our federal government. The Constitution establishes a basic operational framework that enables the three branches of government— executive, legislative, and judicial—to interact and function as a unit. Embedded in this operational framework are two key principles: separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. Think about how these branches interact and the importance of these checks and balances and the separation of powers. Write: In your initial post, please fully and directly respond to the following: • • • • Explain the difference between checks and balances and the separation of powers, and explain why they are important to our democracy. Discuss one recent real-world example of checks and balances, and explain the impact of it. Discuss one recent real-world example of balance of power, and explain the impact of it. Discuss one recent real-world example of how the Constitution directly protects individual and group rights. Your initial post must be at least 300 words. If you are citing statistics or outside sources for your examples, please list the website or the reference entry. Question 2: Must be 100 words or more This discussion forum allows you the opportunity to explore topics that interest you and relate to United States government and the political processes we are discussing. Within this forum, you will share critical insights and discuss questions and issues that we are studying, share your personal challenges and successes, and discuss any concepts that you do not completely understand in our materials this week. Your initial post should focus on your personal experience within the course over the past week and should prompt further discussion from your classmates. Please be sure to address the following questions first: • Begin thinking about the policy you would like to write about in your Final Paper. What are you considering? Why is this policy important to you? In addition to the questions above, also address at least one of the following questions as you reflect on the learning week: • • • • • • • What was the most interesting and/or intriguing concept you learned about during this week? Are there any current events that you can recall that relate to the course concepts we are studying this week? What insights have you had? What concepts are causing you to struggle? What questions have arisen for you at this point? Do you have any helpful tips or ideas to help students better understand the material and course concepts? What questions do you have regarding any of the discussions or assignments that your classmates might be able to provide insight? (Please note, if you have a question for the instructor, be sure to contact them through email or in the Ask Your Instructor forum, as they may not see the question here.) You are required to post at least 100 total words in the forum this week. You can post one time or ten times; the only requirement is that you post at least 100 words total and that you engage in conversation related to the course materials. Ask questions, answer questions, provide extra resources you found interesting, or engage in a debate (respectfully, of course) about something you learned this week. The only requirement is that your posts must relate to the course content.
Separation of Powers, Balances and Checks Differences, Their Significance to Democracy Together with Recent Real-World Examples
Separation of powers is important for our democracy to limit the power of one branch over another. In other words, it does not allow one of the three branches, executive, legislative or judicial, to become more in control than either of the other two. According to Fine, & LevinWaldman (2016), “If each branch could act on its own without the agreement of the others, each might have sufficient power to limit individual liberties.” By distributing the control over all three branches, it does not allow one branch to act alone, without the consent of another branch. A recent example of checks and balances is President Trump's ban on Muslims. The president signed an executive order to temporarily ban Muslims from certain countries into the United States. The judicial system stated that this order was unconstitutional and put a stop to the implementation of the ban (Rubenstein & Gulasekaram, 2017). A recent example of balance of powers is the threat that President Trump has made that the United States will withdraw from NAFTA. According to Johnson (2017) “Congress must concur if the government of the United States is to formally withdraw from NAFTA.” President Trump could, with six months’ notice, withdraw the United States from NAFTA. However, he would have to have the approval of congress to do so. Checks and balances mean that each branch (executive, legislative, and judicial) is accountable to the other two branches. The president (executive) cannot have complete control over anything in the government because it must be approved by one of the other two branches, and vice versa.
Constitutional Protection of Groups and Individual Rights.
The Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution that protects individuals and groups with certain laws such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. A recent example of one of the Bill of Rights protections is under the First Amendment right of free speech and right to free assembly. In September 2016, in Charlotte, NC, a seemingly unarmed, African American man was shot and killed by police. This sparked unrest in the city for several days and many wondered why law enforcement did not stop these protests in the streets. One of the phrases that was repeated many times was that people were entitled to protest and speak their minds, as long as they were orderly, and not breaking any laws
In my final paper, the policy I have decided to research is the 2010 Affordable Care Act. My research is reliable and credible as my sources are scholarly and come from the Ashford Library. I feel as though they are unbiased. One item of research that I have found to support my ideas is that “the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that would have stripped states of 90 percent of their existing Medicaid funding had they decided to forego participation in ACA health care exchanges” (Baer, 2017). This was interesting to me and I had no previous knowledge of how funding or any of the states’ involvement worked.
Something interesting that I have learned this week was learning about federalism and how it relates to my topic. I previously have never really understood federalism but I like the marble cake reference in the text and I have gained a better understanding because of it. With this said, in my research I have found how the 2010 Affordable Care Act is considered to be an "experiment in federalism" (Dropp et al…, 2013). The 50 states could not agree in the decision making where health insurance enrollment is involved so it has been handed over to the federal government for 34 of the 50 states. This creates too many hands in the decision making process nationwide where our healthcare is concerned.