U.S. Political Thought

PS308
Fall, 1995

Sample Midterm Exam from a Prior Class


Part I.

Answer 3 of the following five point questions.

1. The threat of the “tyranny of the majority” was a lynchpin of Federalist arguments for the Constitution. Explain the nature of this threat according to Madison and other Federalists. Explain three mechanisms in the Constitution designed to minimize it as far as possible. What, by contrast, did the Anti-Federalists consider the main danger stemming from the establishment of government?

2. Contrast Federalist and Anti-Federalist models of a republic. Explain four distinct differences.

3. Grinde draws numerous parallels between Iroquois governance and American political terms. Explain four of these parallels. What is one outstanding difference between Iroquois and American models of governance of that period according to Grinde?

4. What is the nature of the democratic despotism that Tocqueville fears? How might it come about? How would it be different from previous despotisms? Briefly explain two means by which Tocqueville thinks it can be prevented or forestalled.

5. Explain Calhoun’s concept of “concurrent majority.” How does it rectify what he considers the chief flaw or deficiency of government based on “numerical majority”? Discuss one problem you see with his model of government.

6. Summarize the positions of the three abolitionist currents, or “phases,” according to Frederick Douglass. With which current was Douglass allied? Why did he prefer it?

Part II.

Answer 3 of the following three point questions.

1. Describe the main elements of Smith’s “multiple traditions” thesis.

2. Liberal values include political liberty and respect for civil and human rights. How does Rogin think that Americans justified the denial of these to Native Americans?

3. What are two arguments for women’s rights that Abigail Adams makes in her letters to her husband and to Mercy Warren? Give two examples of how John Adams responded in defense of “Masculine systems” and “the right of the men to govern the women, without their consent” in his reply to his wife and in his letter to James Sullivan.

4. Tocqueville sees in the development of industry the possibility of a new aristocracy arising. How does Tocqueville describe the social classes emerging from industrial production? Why is he not unduly concerned about this, given his opposition to aristocratic rule?

5. What is the significance of duty and conscience in Martineau? How is it related to women’s rights and to the life choices of women?

6. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton speaks of “woman”, who does she mean? How does the notion of “educated suffrage” fit into her conception of woman and the political role she is entitled to?

7. In Resistance to Civil Government Thoreau draws a series of contrasts between the behavior of the State (both its own actions and the those it expects or demands of individuals) and the requirements of an ethical life. Explain three of these contrasts.

Part III.

Answer 1 of the following one point questions.

What is the “basic fact” about American life that preoccupies Tocqueville in Democracy in America?

What term does Du Bois use to describe the divided consciousness of African-Americans?