AP American Government
Unit 7: The Bureaucracy (12) Economic Policy (15) Social Policy (16) Foreign
Policy (17)
Mr. Andrew Conneen aconneen@d125.org
Fall 2011
Unit 7 Syllabus:................................................................................................................................2
Potato wars: An eye for an eye ........................................................................................................2
Collins triumphs in spuds fight ........................................................................................................2
Class notes on the Bureaucracy and policy making: .... 2
No, Congress did not declare pizza a vegetable ..............................................................................2
TKO--To Know Objectives: ............................................................................................................2
Unit 7 Syllabus:
For Tuesday, Dec. 13: Read Potato Wars; Collins triumphs and Complete Tater Tales; Read No, Congress
did not declare pizza a vegetable
For Wednesday, Dec. 14: Directions:
1. Internet search: NYT budget puzzle.
Link to: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html
2. Follow the directions on this website to cut the federal budget deficit.
• Write a paragraph explaining the most common sense decision you made in balancing the federal
budget deficit.
• Write another paragraph explaining the most difficult decision you made in balancing the federal
budget deficit.
For Thursday, Dec. 15: Complete M.C. test
For Friday, Dec. 16: Voter registration drive
For Tuesday, Jan. 3: Read “This is just the start” Complete assessment; Complete 2 cartoon assessments;
Read “From Dictatorship to Democracy” Ch. 4+5
For Wednesday, Jan. 4: Complete assessments for “Weakness of Dictatorships” and “Political Defiance”
For Thursday, Jan. 5: Midterm #3 Review
2
For Friday, Jan. 6: Midterm #3
Potato wars: An eye for an eye
Politico
David Rogers
October 13, 2011
Sen. Susan Collins is a more gentle soul than
your typical Republican Steering Committee
regular, but there she was in the Capitol last
week: Ms. Maine Moderate lunching with the
“Sons of Jesse Helms” — all in the name of the
potato.
It was a jaw-dropping, don’t-spill-your-fries
moment and a sign of the newest civil rights
frontier of this dysfunctional Congress: the battle
over equity among vegetables.
The Irish potato folks — and Collins in particular
— are mad as hell and vowing not to take it any
more in the face of proposed Agriculture
Department rules to bar white potatoes from
school breakfast plans and limit consumption to
one to two servings per week at lunch. Proponents
argue the change is a science-based, overdue step
to promote diversity, encouraging children to eat
more dark green and orange vegetables such as
broccoli, spinach and carrots. But having been
already bounced from the chief nutrition program
for pregnant women, the blue-collar white potato
is feeling like, well, a second-class citizen.
With a combined 43 million school breakfasts and
lunches served daily, the National Potato Council,
the industry lobby, is up in arms at losing its
almost unchecked access to the biggest single
restaurant in town for many localities — and a big
influence on tastes to come. All this follows a
scathing June article in the New England Journal
of Medicine linking potatoes — even mashed —
to the nation’s obesity problem. And it doesn’t
help either that the first lady is growing only
greens and no spuds at the White House’s new
victory garden.
For Collins, a daughter of Maine’s famed
Aroostook County, who harvested potatoes as a
girl and prefers hers baked and plain — it’s a call
to arms.
“This is a big market and it is image also,” she
told POLITICO. “It’s telling people that potatoes
aren’t healthy and that’s not true.”
“This is what makes people angry about
Washington. It really is. It’s the kind of
nonsensical, excessive regulation that increases
costs enormously.”
The battle lines will bedrawn Monday when the
Senate is slated to take up an otherwise
noncontroversial $19.78 billion agriculture and
rural development bill, which includes funding for
the Food and Nutrition Service within the
department.
House Republicans had been content to attach
report language to the same bill in June
expressing concern about the new standards. But
Collins, herself a member of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, wants an
amendment to flatly deny funding for any rule
that would limit the options available to local
school districts or set “maximum limits on the
frequency of serving fruits and vegetables.”
In this cause, the hunted has become the huntress.
And the same woman whose swing vote has been
courted for hundreds of bipartisan causes in the
Senate is out now to build her own coalition.
That explains Collins’s surprising drop-in on the
fiercely anti-regulation, anti-government
Republican Steering Committee — famously
associated for years with the late North Carolina
conservative Jesse Helms.
“It was an audience that was likely to be
receptive,” said Collins, smiling demurely. And
on the left she’s cultivated a Democratic partner
in Sen. Mark Udall, whose home state of
Colorado is also a potato producer and who’s
worried about the costs to local schools already
coping with budget cuts.
3
“We need to make sure that kids have access to
all nutritious vegetables,” Udall said in a
statement to POLITICO. “And especially at a
time when schools are stretched financially, we
need to give them the flexibility to provide
nutritious meals, rather than impose unnecessarily
rigid limitations.”
To hear potato advocates tell it, almost the entire
$6.8 billion can be attributed to cutting out their
product — a wild exaggeration. And like so many
food fights, this one risks becoming just that: a
food fight.
Those costs are real but also reflect a much larger
public health initiative designed to reduce the fat,
starch and sodium content of school meals while
introducing more fruit, green vegetables and
whole grain foods.
A Harvard School of Public Health website
inflames the passions by pairing images of a
potato and Coke together, as if the nutritional
equivalent. At the same time Collins strains her
own credibility by pitching the potato as the new
“gateway” vegetable, capable of inducing
teenagers to add broccoli toppings.
The potato’s plight is it has been lumped in with
corn, lima beans and peas as starch vegetables,
which would be limited collectively to one cup
per week. That translates into two servings of
fries or typically one moderate-size baked potato
— a very narrow foothold for a proud industry
still smarting from a George W. Bush-era
initiative that drove white potatoes out of the food
basket for pregnant women under the WIC
program for women, infants and children.
“We care about all markets but for us it is about
the larger image,” said John Keeling, the Potato
Council’s CEO. But in this case the industry is
also fighting its own success given the potato’s
perceived dominance in America’s diet.
Indeed it was Congress itself that mandated the
updating of the school dietary rules — with a
greater weight on health than simply filling young
stomachs. The beleaguered Food and Nutrition
Service enlisted scientists at the Institute of
Medicine in drafting the plan, first published in
January. And altogether, it represents a substantial
public investment given the added produce and
labor costs for the meals.
In the first five years alone, it’s $6.8 billion,
which roughly translates into a 10 percent
increase in the school breakfast and lunch
programs as now estimated by the Congressional
Budget Office. Proponents argue that this must be
measured against the growing health care costs
associated with diabetes and obesity. But in
today’s fiscal climate, it’s a red flag for
conservatives.
“There’s not a shred of scientific evidence,” said
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the
Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It’s not
that potatoes aren’t healthful. It’s that schools
serve too much of them.”
To make this point, Wootan’s center, a
Washington-based nonprofit supportive of the
rules, distributes literature to lawmakers in mock
white cardboard French-fry containers “Do kids
really need French fries every day?” reads the
message outside. “Give other vegetables a
chance!”
“If the department had put out guidance: ‘Gee
school systems, you ought to consider baking not
frying’ that would be a legitimate
recommendation for them to make,” Collins
answers. “These school nutrition directors
recognize that they have to get away from the
fries. They totally recognize that.”
“I do come from potato country and I did pick
potatoes as a child,” she said, almost wistfully
recalling the potato diet of her youth: “fish with a
baked potato” on meatless Fridays.
“This is absurd. If you have a baked potato on
Monday you cannot have potatoes even in
anything for the rest of the week. If on Friday,
you are having fish chowder, you can’t have
potatoes in it.”
“Did you ever have rice?” a reporter asks.
4
“I don’t think I had rice until high school,” she
said.
Collins triumphs in spuds fight
Politico
David Rogers
October 18, 2011
This spud’s for you, Susan Collins.
In a Washington classic, the Maine Republican
and potato lobby emerged triumphant Tuesday
evening, winning Senate passage of her
amendment to preserve the white Irish potato’s
unchecked access to school lunch and breakfast
menus.
With the handwriting on the wall, even the
Democratic manager of the Agriculture
Department’s budget bill, Wisconsin Sen. Herb
Kohl, jumped on as a last-minute co-sponsor. And
the administration appeared ready to cut its losses
to save its broader initiative aimed at reducing the
fat and sodium content in school meals while
introducing more fruits, green vegetables and
whole-grain foods.
“I am delighted, and I have won,” Collins told
POLITICO before the vote. “I believe that we
have sent a very strong signal to the department,
and if the department were smart, it would revise
the proposed rule to reflect the consensus I
achieved on the amendment.”
In a formal statement, Agriculture Undersecretary
Kevin Concannon, who hails from Maine himself
and oversees the Food and Nutrition Service, was
outwardly defiant.
“Our proposed rule will improve the health and
nutrition of our children based on sound science
recommended by the Institute of Medicine,” he
said. “We will work with Congress to ensure that
the intent of this rule is not undermined and that
these historic improvements are allowed to move
forward so that millions of kids across the nation
will receive healthier meals.”
But as a practical matter, Collins holds most of
the cards at this stage, and the Republicancontrolled House will almost certainly accept her
language in any negotiations on the final
agriculture appropriations bill.
“To improve the quality of school lunches and
breakfasts is something that I have always
supported,” Collins said in an interview. “But
either my amendment will become law, or the
department will decide it needs to cut its losses
and rewrite the rule without waiting for it
becoming law,” Collins said. “ At the end of the
day, the result is going to be the same.”
The potato’s plight stems from being lumped in
with corn, lima beans and peas — starchy
vegetables that the IOM recommended should
enjoy less of a place in healthful school meals.
Taking this advice, the FNS proposed to ban all
such starchy vegetables from school breakfasts
beginning in the 2012 school year and to cap
lunch servings at one cup per week.
That translates into two servings of fries or
typically one moderate-sized baked potato — at
least a one-third cut from the amount typically
consumed now in many high schools. Among
younger children, the department’s data suggest
that many of the school lunch programs average
less than one cup per week, but the restrictions
quickly touched a nerve in the potato lobby,
which is still smarting over having been dropped
from the food packages under the FNS Women,
Infants and Children Program.
Indeed, with a combined 43 million school
breakfasts and lunches served daily, the National
Potato Council saw its image and market at risk
and found a natural ally in Collins, a Maine
moderate respected in both parties and a child of
the state’s famed potato county, Aroostook.
5
“To keep french fries, tater tots and the like on the
daily school lunch menu, the potato and french fry
industry aggressively lobbied Congress to kill a
sensible proposal to limit french fries and other
starchy vegetables to two servings a week with
school lunches,” said Margo Wootan, director of
nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the
Public Interest. “Today, some members of
Congress showed that they are more interested in
protecting business lobbyists than children’s
health.”
In response, both the potato council and Collins
have countered that the costs of the upgraded
menus must be considered — and the USDA
estimates that in the first five years alone, these
could amount to a $6.8 billion or 10 percent
increase in current expenditures for the school
lunch and breakfast programs.
Collins insists that a “big chunk” of this could be
reduced by restoring more vegetables like the
potato. “It’s the biggest part of it,” she told
POLITICO. “It’s clear to me that it’s this category
of vegetables that created most of the cost and
also created just a lot of practical burdens.”
And John Keeling, executive vice president for
the potato council, sounded the same theme in his
statement after the Senate vote. “Since publishing
its proposed school meal changes in January,
USDA has heard from tens of thousands of school
districts, parents and taxpayers who are concerned
about limiting healthy vegetable options for
students and the $6.8 billion price tag of the
regulation.”
But critics argue that potatoes — in or out — are
not a big enough part of the equation to explain
the cost swing. And the department’s analysis
attributes about half of the increase to the added
labor costs of preparing fresher vegetables or less
processed food for the meals.
With the votes stacked against it, the department
won agreement with Collins to narrow her
language to just vegetables — dropping any
reference to rules related to fruit juices. And the
path ahead was clear.
“Potatoes became a distraction,” said one official.
“And no one wanted to fight it anymore.”
After reading the preceding articles by David Rogers, you'll see all of the major components of
policy making merge together as one U.S. Senator challenged how a law would affect the use of
potatoes in school lunches.
Reflect on your reading and think about how the different parts of Mr. Potato Head
can be used to analyze policy making.
Eyes--U.S. Senators looking out for the best interests of their constituents.
Mouth--Interest groups speaking out for their causes.
Hands-- The role of the federal bureaucracy in handling public laws to make sure
these laws are followed.
Wallet / Purse-- The role of Congress to fund the federal bureaucracy to carry out
the laws.
Directions: Label the following Mr. Potato Heads for each of the articles that you read with the
appropriate names and short descriptions of their role in the policy making change.
6
Class notes on the Bureaucracy and policy making:
7
• How Congress can control (oversee) bureaucracies in the Executive Branch:
• How the President (Chief Executive) can control bureaucracies:
• Obstacles to controlling bureaucracies:
No, Congress did not declare pizza a vegetable
Washington Post
Sarah Kliff
November 21, 2011
There are many ways for Congress to frustrate the
American people. A high-profile failure to cut
$1.2 trillion from the deficit, for example. But
declaring pizza sauce a vegetable? That, it turns
out, might work even better.
Congress passed a revised agriculture
appropriations bill last week, essentially making it
easier to count pizza sauce as a serving of
vegetables. The move has drawn widespread
outrage from consumer advocates and pundits,
who see “pizza is a vegetable.” as outlandish.
There’s just one little misperception: Congress
didn’t declare pizza to be a vegetable. And, from
a strictly nutritional standpoint, there’s decent
evidence that lawmakers didn’t exactly bungle
this decision.
Let’s revisit the facts: Despite what one might
expect from the headlines, if you scour the
agriculture appropriations bill, referenced in
numerous stories, you won’t find a single mention
of the word “pizza,” or even “vegetable,” for that
matter.
This is not a fight over pizza. It is, instead, a fight
about tomato paste. Specifically, it’s a fight about
how much of the product counts as one serving of
vegetables.
8
Right now, tomato paste gets a sort of special
treatment under school lunch regulations. Just “an
eighth of a cup of tomato paste is credited with as
much nutritional value as half a cup of
vegetables,” my colleague Dina ElBoghdady
explained last week.
The Obama administration guidelines, outlined in
January, would have nixed tomato paste’s extra
credit, counting a half cup as a half cup. “Under
this proposal, schools would credit tomato paste
and puree based on actual volume as served,” the
regulation, published in the Federal Register on
Jan. 13, 2011, explains. “Schools would not be
allowed to credit a volume of fruits or vegetables
that is more than the actual serving size.”
What happened this week was that Congress
blocked that change: Tomato paste will continue
to get outsized credit, with one-eighth of a cup
essentially counted as something four times
larger.
This makes it easier, and cheaper, for pizza
manufacturers to produce a product that includes
a serving of vegetables. But, as my colleagues
over at The Checkup emphasize, it by no means
declares the pizza itself a vegetable. Schools
lunches are still measured by federal regulations
for calories (no more than one-third of daily
recommended value) and fat content (less than 30
percent of the meal), which limits how much
pizza students can be served. A cafeteria worker
can’t just pile a slice of pizza on a plate and say
she’s serving salad.
Back to the tomato paste controversy: Should a
smaller serving of tomato paste have equal
footing with a half-cup of other fruits and
vegetables?
If you stack one-eighth of a cup of tomato paste
up against a half-cup of some pretty common
fruits and vegetables, the paste actually doesn’t do
so badly. Here are nutrition facts for one-eighth of
a cup of tomato paste (left) versus a half a cup of
apples (right):
All told, the nutrition facts look really similar.
Tomato paste does do a lot worse on sodium, but
it also does much better in terms of calcium and
potassium content. It also slightly edges out
apples on dietary fiber, with a lower amount of
sugar.
I tested out a few other comparisons, and they
came out relatively close. You can see the results
below.
Measuring fruit and vegetable servings by volume
is a bit of an odd convention in the first place.
When it comes to calories and nutrients, they’re
really all over the map. A half-cup of avocado is
quite nutritionally different from a half-cup of
zucchini.
As for the half-cup of tomato paste at the center
of this debate, it would no doubt have had more
nutrients than an eighth-cup. Advocacy groups
were disappointed to see the regulatory change
blocked. More tomato paste would mean more
pizza sauce, would mean more potassium and
fiber. But the smaller serving, in strictly
nutritional terms, looks a whole lot like the larger
serving of some of the most common fruits and
vegetables we consume.
Moreover, it’s far from clear how much this
decision matters for what students actually eat.
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture writes
guidelines for what school meals should look like,
few schools actually follow them. Just 20 percent
of schools served meals that met federal
guidelines for fat content, according to a 2007
USDA audit.
© The Washington Post Company
The Iron Triangle (Issue Networks)
9
Budget Basics
Deficit-- annual shortage of money (expected to be $2 trilion in 2009)
Debt-- total shortage of money ($12 trillion)
Surplus-- total extra revenue
Monetary policy: the process by which the government, central bank, (i.e. U.S. Federal Reserve appointed govt.
officials) controls (i) the supply of money, (ii) availability of money, and (iii) cost of money or rate of interest, in order
to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy.
Fiscal policy: government attempts to influence the direction of the economy through changes in government
taxes, or through some spending (i.e. budget making ...recommended by the President, made by Congress then approved by the
President)
Social Security
Payroll (FICA) tax rate:
• 1/5 widows live alone
• 1 retiree per 16 workers
1937 = 2%
1950s-60s = 6%
1970s = 9%
• originally for just
widows and retirees
• avg age = 62
• expanded to disabled
• mandated COLAs
Cost of Living hikes
3/5 of widows live alone
• 1 retiree per 3 workers
1990s = 15.3%
10
Possible changes:
1. Bring more workers into system (i.e. teachers)
3. Raise taxes
2. Invest S.S. funds into stock market
4. Cut benefits
Define Entitlement Spending: mandatory spending made permanent by law. Does not change from year to year unless
the law changes. (S.S. / Medicare)
Define Discrentionary Spending: non-permanent spending that can change from year to year.
• Federal Revenues
Individual income tax (49%)
Payroll (FICA) tax (33%)
Corporate income tax (10%)
Excise tax (3.3%)
Estate and gift tax (1%)
Custom duties (1%)
BUREAUCRACY
CANON Chapters 12, 15, 16 and 17 Test
1.
a.
According to your text, what is the paradox of the federal bureaucracy?
It continues to grow faster than any part of the government even though most
Americans express discontent with bureaucratic procedures.
11
b.
c.
d.
The same organization that does many important things can also be inefficient and
wasteful.
Legislators often “run against” the Washington bureaucracy, but are frequently
responsible for its exponential growth.
The bureaucracy frequently makes very bad decisions even though the president
and Congress monitor it closely.
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
are appointed to their positions by elected officials
serve at the pleasure of the president
are hired on the basis of qualifications
cannot be fired because of their years of service
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Civil servants are employees of the federal government who:
Which of the following is the BEST definition of the bureaucracy?
the group of employees who are responsible for implementing government policy
the part of the federal government responsible for making government policy
the group of civil servants who are permanent government employees
the political appointees who help the president administer the day-to-day
operation of government
4.
Although some presidential and congressional decisions are specific, many leave room for
interpretation by bureaucrats. This explains why bureaucracies:
a.
b.
c.
d.
are often inefficient
can have significant influence on policy
are difficult for politicians to control
are not representative of the public’s demands on government
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
red tape
procurements
standard operating procedures
regulations
6.
a.
Government rules that influence the behavior of individuals and groups are known as:
Any unnecessarily complex set of procedures in the bureaucracy is called:
a regulation
12
b.
c.
d.
rule-making
a standard operating procedure
red tape
7.
a.
b.
c.
d.
the officials’ lack of expertise relative to the bureaucrats
the conflict that arises between the president and Congress in trying to control the
bureaucracy
the emphasis on neutral competence among civil servants
the weak tools for controlling the bureaucracy that are available to Congress and
the president
8.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Elected officials are faced with the problem of controlling the bureaucracy because of:
While the spoils system ________, its principal drawback was that ________.
strengthened political parties; it made government responsible to the mass public
strengthened political parties; appointees often lacked experience
helped make government responsible to the mass public; appointees often lacked
experience
helped make government responsible to the mass public; it strengthened political
parties
9.
What was the principal bureaucratic change that occurred during the New Deal?
a.
The range of policy areas in which the government intervened expanded.
b.
An independent bureaucracy was created.
A foundation for expanding state capacity was created.
Limits on the growth of government were established.
c.
d.
10.
a.
The Office of Management and Budget is primarily responsible for:
c.
overseeing procurement of services for the federal government
monitoring the flow of money throughout the economy
helping the president monitor federal budget expenditures and proposals
d.
investigating the bureaucracy on behalf of Congress
b.
11.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of an independent agency?
It is not subordinate to one of the executive departments.
It is below the executive departments in the federal hierarchy.
It has a clear, specialized function.
It’s leader must be from the opposition party
12.
Why is it that some tasks are handled by independent agencies even when
they might conceivably fall under the scope of an executive department?
13
a.
b.
c.
d.
Congress may create an independent agency because presidents have less control
over them than executive agencies.
Congress prefers independent agencies to executive departments because they have
more control over the people who run them.
Independent agencies usually have more policy experts than executive departments.
Congress doesn’t recognize the potential policy overlap between the independent
agency and the executive department until after they have established it.
13.
Why does the president have limited control over the Federal Reserve when compared to
executive departments like the Department of Treasury?
a.
b.
Appointees serve for fourteen years, longer than the president.
It is a body that is controlled exclusively by Congress.
c.
There is no process for removing appointees to that body.
d.
None of the above; the president has significant control over the Federal Reserve.
14. Although ______ are exempt from restrictions on political activity in the Hatch Act, they still cannot ______.
a.
b.
c.
d.
political appointees; run for office unless they resign from their position.
political appointees; use government resources for political purposes.
civil servants; use government resources for political purposes.
elected officials; donate money to other officials.
15.
When members of Congress gather information about the bureaucracy by holding hearings and questioning
bureaucrats, they are engaged in:
a.
b.
c.
d.
oversight
stacking the deck
bureaucratic drift
policing
16.
a.
b.
c.
d.
17.
a.
b.
c.
d.
When do agencies have the most discretion in implementing policy?
when Congress and the president disagree on what an agency should be doing
when it has a large budget
when it has more experts
when it is an executive department
Which government institution generally has the least amount of influence on economic policy?
Congress
president
judiciary
bureaucracy
18.
The gross domestic product (GDP) is:
14
a.
b.
c.
d.
the annual difference between a country’s imports and exports
a measure of a country’s yearly budget surplus
a measure of a country’s economic output and activity
a measure of a country’s annual collection of taxes
19.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Decisions made by the Federal Reserve System are:
politically influenced by the president
politically influenced by the Congress
politically influenced by the National Economic Council
not politically influenced because the agency is independent
20.
Which of the following is NOT a responsibility of the Treasury Department?
a.
produce currency and coinage
b.
supervise national banks
make changes to the U.S. tax code
collect taxes, duties, and money paid to and due to the United States
c.
d.
21.
The theory that lowering taxes will stimulate the economy because of increased investment and
spending among the public is called:
a.
Keynesian economics
b.
discretionary spending
a stimulus package
supply-side economics
c.
d.
22.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) are examples of what kind of government power?
a.
b.
c.
d.
the federal government’s power to tax income
the federal government’s power to draft citizens into the military
the federal government’s regulatory power
the federal government’s ability to maintain a federal bank
23.
Regarding trade policy, Democrats generally represent ________, while Republicans generally
represent ________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
capital; government regulation
labor; capital
free trade; labor
tariffs; quotas
24.
An increase in consumer good prices over time is called:
15
a.
b.
c.
d.
increments
price gouging
inflation
price ceiling
25.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What is it called when government spending is equal to its revenue?
budget deficit
balanced budget
budget surplus
“Clinton” budget
26.
What is it called when government spending exceeds its revenue?
a.
budget deficit
b.
balanced budget
budget surplus
“Clinton” budget
c.
d.
27.
Which of the following agencies is housed in the Executive Branch and advises the president on
economic policy making?
a.
Federal Reserve Board
b.
National Economic Council
Federal National Mortgage Association
American International Group
c.
d.
28.
The agency previously called the Bureau of the Budget that is housed in the Executive Branch and
works with the president to compose the nation’s annual budget is now called:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Federal Reserve Bank
National Budget Office
Federal Council on Budget Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
29.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Congressional Reserve Board
Congressional Budget Office
Congressional Office of Management and Budget
Congressional Budget Bureau
30
a.
While debating the budget, Congress often seeks advice from an independent agency called the:
The economic system in the United States is:
capitalist
16
b.
c.
d.
socialist
fascist
democratic
31.
The U.S. economic system is regulated by the ________, which seeks to maintain safe and
transparent capital markets.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Federal Reserve Board
National Economic Council
National Banking Association
32.
a.
b.
c.
d.
budget deficit
federal debt
trade deficit
budget surplus
33.
a.
b.
c.
d.
b.
c.
d.
veteran
environmental
b.
c.
d.
b.
What kind of negative tradeoff do Democrats usually associate with free trade?
higher interest rates
stock market decline
reduction in American jobs
increased prices on consumer goods
36.
a.
What type of budget spending allows for expenditures to be cut?
mandatory spending
Social Security benefits
Keynesian spending
discretionary spending
35.
a.
Which type of congressional committees yield the most power on economic policies?
foreign relations
commerce
34.
a.
A ________ is the total accumulation of money borrowed by the government.
What kind of positive tradeoff do Republicans usually associate with free trade?
lower interest rates
stock market increase
17
c.
d.
increase in American jobs
lower prices on consumer goods
37.
a.
b.
c.
d.
38.
governments?
a.
b.
c.
d.
In pursuing social policy, Republicans tend to favor market-based approaches such as:
school vouchers
Medicaid payments
welfare
universal health care
Which of the following is NOT a social policy administered in some degree by state and local
education
Social Security
Medicaid
Welfare
39.
It is widely believed that politicians seem to be less interested in social policies concerning the
poor and disadvantaged because:
a.
b.
c.
d.
the Great Society plan solved most of their problems
they are not politically active
the media does not report such political efforts
it costs too much money to implement such policies
40.
a.
b.
c.
d.
it is a program spending more than it is taking in
it is a program taking in more than it is spending
politicians propose frequent changes to it in order to appease their constituents
politicians do not like to propose changes because they would likely be unpopular
with their constituents
41.
a.
b.
c.
d.
b.
Although there is some variation, Medicare is a government-sponsored health care program for:
people living below the poverty line
citizens 65 and older
minorities living below the poverty line
all children under the age of 18
42.
a.
Social Security has been called the “third rail” of politics, which means:
Although there is some variation, Medicaid is a government-sponsored health care program for:
people living below the poverty line
citizens 65 and older
18
c.
d.
minorities living below the poverty line
all children under the age of 18
43.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) put a ________ year lifetime limit on
welfare benefits.
a.
b.
c.
d.
two
three
four
five
44.
a.
b.
c.
d.
social policy
Medicare
45.
a.
Government assistance, usually financial, to individuals in need is called:
block grants
welfare
In the post-World War II era, the disparity between poor people and wealthy people:
c.
has gotten larger
has gotten smaller
has stayed about the same
d.
is no longer measured due to privacy concerns
b.
46.
a.
b.
c.
d.
No Child Left Behind is an example of education policy:
becoming more controlled by state and local governments
becoming more controlled by the federal government
increasingly being funded by the federal government
passed during the Great Society
47.
Medicare and Medicaid are administered by state governments as well as by:
a.
Congress
b.
the Department of Health and Human Services
the Federal Health Commission
The Treasury Department
c.
d.
48.
a.
b.
c.
Low income individuals have a difficult time fighting for more liberal welfare policies because:
Congress has been under Republican control
they are generally not politically active and not represented by interest groups
such policies are too expensive
19
d.
Republicans in the Senate filibuster all bills proposing such changes
49.
a.
b.
c.
d.
reform options, such as tax credits and free market investments, that substitute
government-sponsored social programs
reforms applied to societal issues by creating a reliance on government sponsored
social programs
reform options for economic issues that solve problems by passing social programs,
such as those passed in the New Deal
another name for a number of social programs passed in the Great Society
50.
a.
b.
c.
d.
To combat income inequality, the Republican Party generally seeks to:
increase funding for social and welfare programs and tax wealthier individuals
print more money and privatize Social Security
create jobs and lower taxes for everyone
restrict free trade and raise taxes on everyone
51.
a.
What are market-based solutions?
To combat income inequality, the Democratic Party generally seeks to:
c.
increase funding for social and welfare programs and tax wealthier individuals
print more money and privatize Social Security
create jobs and lower taxes for everyone
d.
restrict free trade and raise taxes on everyone
b.
52.
a.
b.
c.
d.
No Child Left Behind is a piece of legislation that:
increased federal funding for education
expanded Head Start to every school district
placed national accountability and testing requirements in every school district
required every school district to offer special education classes
53.
“Corporate welfare” is a term used to describe:
a.
wealthier individuals who receive welfare
b.
individuals who become wealthy from welfare
government assistance programs for businesses and corporations
corporate tax cuts by state and local governments to attract business development
c.
d.
54.
The ________ is an interest group that represents the interest of senior citizens, the elderly and
other older individuals.
a.
b.
c.
National Rifle Association (NRA)
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
National Association for the Advancement of Older People (NAAOP)
20
d.
Senior Citizen Alliance (SCA)
55.
United States?
a.
b.
c.
d.
What policy involves government action toward other nations, groups, or entities outside the
domestic policy
foreign policy
social policy
economic policy
56.
called a(n):
When a foreign policy action is done without any coordination or support from other nations it is
a.
unilateral action
b.
multilateral action
individual action
isolationist action
c.
d.
57.
When a foreign policy action is done with coordination or support from other nations it is called
a(n):
a.
c.
unilateral action
multilateral action
individual action
d.
isolationist action
b.
58.
What foreign policy philosophy contends that America’s best interests are served by avoiding
formal agreements and activity with other nations?
a.
b.
c.
d.
internationalism
realism
idealism
isolationism
59.
What foreign policy philosophy contends that it is not only in America’s best interest to pursue
foreign relations with other nations, it is also America’s moral obligation to intervene during international crises?
a.
b.
c.
d.
internationalism
realism
idealism
isolationism
60.
a.
b.
Who of the following has the MOST power in creating foreign policy?
the president
Congress
21
c.
d.
the Supreme Court
the World Trade Organization
61.
Sanctions are often used to:
a. pressure a country to change their
behavior
b. facilitate a war
c. increase the value of domestic goods
d. create jobs in America
62.
________ assists countries in managing budget deficits and currency values.
a.
The World Bank
b.
c.
Amnesty International
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
d.
The International Monetary Fund
63.
a.
b.
c.
d.
When the United States imposes a fee on imported goods it is called a:
trade agreement
trading tax
shipping tax
tariff
64.
Which of the following is NOT an example of diplomacy?
a. establishing a most-favored trade status
agreement with another country
b. a nuclear arms reduction treaty
c. roundtable discussions to end a nation’s
nuclear weapon development program
d. a preemptive strike against another
country
65.When a nation gives money, products, or provides services to another country it is called:
a.
b.
c.
d.
foreign aid
shuttle diplomacy
a trade agreement
foreign welfare
66.
The “clash of civilizations” is a hypothesis suggesting:
22
a. war is inevitable between nations that
have nuclear capabilities
b. democracies do not go to war with each
other
c. terrorism is motivated by a hatred of the
Western World
d. communism is a time-bound governmental
system that will inevitably fall
Unit 7--Canon Ch. 12 The Bureaucracy, Ch. 15 Economic Policy, Ch. 16 Social Policy, Ch. 17 Foreign Policy
TKO--To Know Objectives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Define bureaucracy.
Explain how the bureaucracy makes public policy.
Discuss how iron triangles affect policymaking.
Explain the complex and often contentious relationship between the President and the
Executive Branch.
5. Identify and state the significance of the Federal Reserve and its Chairman.
6. Compare and contrast fiscal versus monetary policy. What is the significance of both?
7. Explain the significance of the Office and Management and Budget.
8. Compare and contrast OMB and CBO.
9. Explain the significance of independent regulatory commisssions/agencies.
10. Evaluate the effectiveness of Congressional oversight of the bureaucracy.
11. Explain how Congress, President, bureaucracy, states and interest groups affect welfare
policy.
12. Define entitlements.
13. Be able to explain how entitlement spending affects the budget making process.
14. Identify and state the significance of Social Security.
15. Explain the current problems facing Social Security and assess possible solutions.
16. Identify and state the significance of Medicare.
17. Explain the current problems facing Medicare and assess possible solutions.
18. Identify and state the significance of No Child Left Behind. What are the greatest hurdles
facing educational policy?
19. Identify and state the significance of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
How have attitudes toward welfare programs changed over time?
23
20. Be able to discuss current healthcare policy disputes. Who are the main players and what
makes completing public policy so difficult?
The following Illinois SEL goals will govern our classroom:
1. Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success.
2. Use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships.
3. Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community
contexts.
Additionally the following values will be nurtured in all citizens entering this academic arena:
Self Discipline; Compassion; Responsibility; Friendship; Work; Courage; Perseverance; Honesty; Loyalty; Faith AP
Government Questions - 3rd Midterm
Media, Executive Branch, Interest Groups and Legislative Branch
1. Explain the complex and often contentious relationship between the President and
cabinet members.
2. Explain the process for choosing the president if there is no majority in the electoral
college.
3. Explain the plurality, winner take all system for the electoral college.
4. Explain the significance of “horse-race” journalism.
5. Explain the agenda setting function of the media.
6. Discuss the constitutional/formal/institutional powers of the President. (be sure to
include which require advice and consent of the Senate and which do not.)
7. Explain the significance of the presidential executive order.
8. Discuss the president’s ability to use the media to set the policy agenda.
9. Explain the significance of presidential executive agreement.
10. Define line item veto.
11. Explain the significance of an iron triangle.
12. Explain the significance of the White House Office/White House Staff.
24
13. Define fiscal policy.
14. Discuss the main role of the Federal Reserve Board.
15. Explain the significance of entitlement spending.
16. Explain the significance of the Office of Management and Budget.
17. Explain the significance of independent regulatory commissions/agencies.
18. Explain the significance of Us v. Nixon.
19. Explain the significance of the Freedom of Information Act.
20. Discuss what characteristics a president considers when selecting a running mate or vice
president.
21. Explain the significance of the War Powers Act.
22. Explain the significance of the Rules Committee in the House.
23. Discuss the process of gerrymandering.
24. Define the franking privilege.
25. Explain the significance of the incumbency advantage.
26. Explain the significance of pork barrel legislation/ ear marks.
27. Explain the significance of lobbying.
28. Discuss the major similarities and differences between the House of Reps and the Senate.
29. Explain the significance of the committee system in the House.
30. Explain the significance of the subcommittee system.
31. Explain the significance of the committee chair in the House of Reps.
32. Define conference committee.
33. Explain the significance of cloture rule/motion.
34. Define pocket veto.
25
35. Discuss the formal/expressed/constitutional/institutional tools used by Congress for
oversight of the bureaucracy.
36. Explain the significance of linkage institutions.
37. Explain the significance of the President’s power in foreign policy.
38. Explain the significance of interstate commerce.
Twitter
Revolutions
Explain the significance of divided government
Classroom Assessments
26
by Andrew Conneen and William Tinkler
27
Column: This is Just the Start .................................................................................. 28
Assessments: “This is Just the Start” ....................................................................... 28
Cartoon Assessment 1 .............................................................................................. 28
Cartoon Assessment 2 .............................................................................................. 28
Cartoon Assessment 3 .............................................................................................. 28
Cartoon Assessment 4 .............................................................................................. 28
Excerpts from FDTD: ....................................................................................................................28
Ch. 4--Dictatorships Have Weaknesses ................................................................... 28
Ch. 5--Exercising Power .......................................................................................... 28
Appendix One--The Methods of Nonviolent Action ............................................... 28
Appendix Two--Acknowledgements and Notes on the History of From
Dictatorships to Democracy ..................................................................................... 28
Column: This is Just the Start
March 1, 2011
The New York Times
By Thomas Friedman
Future historians will long puzzle over how the self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed
Bouazizi, in protest over the confiscation of his fruit stand, managed to trigger popular uprisings across
the Arab/Muslim world. We know the big causes — tyranny, rising food prices, youth unemployment and
social media. But since being in Egypt, I’ve been putting together my own back-of-the-envelope guess list
of what I’d call the “not-so-obvious forces” that fed this mass revolt. Here it is:
THE OBAMA FACTOR Americans have never fully appreciated what a radical thing we did — in the
eyes of the rest of the world — in electing an African-American with the middle name Hussein as
president. I’m convinced that listening to Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech — not the words, but the man —
were more than a few young Arabs who were saying to themselves: “Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m
young. He’s dark-skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His
grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an
unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.” I’d put that in my mix of forces fueling
these revolts.
GOOGLE EARTH While Facebook has gotten all the face time in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, don’t
forget Google Earth, which began roiling Bahraini politics in 2006. A big issue in Bahrain, particularly
among Shiite men who want to get married and build homes, is the unequal distribution of land. On Nov.
27, 2006, on the eve of parliamentary elections in Bahrain, The Washington Post ran this report from
there: “Mahmood, who lives in a house with his parents, four siblings and their children, said he became
even more frustrated when he looked up Bahrain
29
on Google Earth and saw vast tracts of empty land, while tens of thousands of mainly poor Shiites were
squashed together in small, dense areas. ‘We are 17 people crowded in one small house, like many people
in the southern district,’ he said. ‘And you see on Google how many palaces there are and how the alKhalifas [the Sunni ruling family] have the rest of the country to themselves.’ Bahraini activists have
encouraged people to take a look at the country on Google Earth, and they have set up a special user
group whose members have access to more than 40 images of royal palaces.”
ISRAEL The Arab TV network Al Jazeera has a big team covering Israel today. Here are some of the
stories they have been beaming into the Arab world: Israel’s previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert, had
to resign because he was accused of illicitly taking envelopes stuffed with money from a JewishAmerican backer. An Israeli court recently convicted Israel’s former president Moshe Katsav on two
counts of rape, based on accusations by former employees. And just a few weeks ago, Israel, at the last
second, rescinded the appointment of Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant as the army’s new chief of staff after Israeli
environmentalists spurred a government investigation that concluded General Galant had seized public
land near his home. (You can see his house on Google Maps!) This surely got a few laughs in Egypt
where land sales to fat cats and cronies of the regime that have resulted in huge overnight profits have
been the talk of Cairo this past year. When you live right next to a country that is bringing to justice its
top leaders for corruption and you live in a country where many of the top leaders are corrupt, well, you
notice.
THE BEIJING OLYMPICS China and Egypt were both great civilizations subjected to imperialism and
were both dirt poor back in the 1950s, with China even poorer than Egypt, Edward Goldberg, who teaches
business strategy, wrote in The Globalist. But, today, China has built the world’s second-largest economy,
and Egypt is still living on foreign aid. What do you think young Egyptians thought when they watched
the dazzling opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics? China’s Olympics were another wake-up
call — “in a way that America or the West could never be” — telling young Egyptians that something
was very wrong with their country, argued Goldberg.
THE FAYYAD FACTOR Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad introduced a new form of
government in the Arab world in the last three years, something I’ve dubbed “Fayyadism.” It said: judge
me on my performance, on how I deliver government services and collect the garbage and create jobs —
not simply on how I “resist” the West or Israel. Every Arab could relate to this. Chinese had to give up
freedom but got economic growth and decent government in return. Arabs had to give up freedom and got
the Arab-Israeli conflict and unemployment in return.
Add it all up and what does it say? It says you have a very powerful convergence of forces driving a
broad movement for change. It says we’re just at the start of something huge. And it says that if we don’t
have a more serious energy policy, the difference between a good day and bad day for America from here
on will hinge on how the 86-year-old king of Saudi Arabia manages all this change.
Assessments: “This is Just the Start”
Thomas Friedman
a. Describe 3 of the factors that Friedman attributes to the mass revolt in Egypt.
b. Explain how Friedman’s factors connect the concepts of globalization and
democratization.
c. Explain how Friedman redefines the social network and its influence on the
“Arab Spring” movements?
Cartoon Assessment 1
Directions: a. Identify the object that the person is shooting from the slingshot in this
cartoon.
b. Explain the message that the artist is trying to communicate in this cartoon.
Cartoon Assessment 2
Directions:
a. Explain the cartoonist’s perspective about the contrast between
democratization in Egypt and Iran.
b. Describe two methods used by the Iranian government that fit the artist’s depiction of
Iran’s response to the 2011 democratization movement in the Middle East.
Cartoon Assessment 3
Directions: a. Explain the cartoonist’s perspective about the role of social networking in the
Arab Spring of 2011 as contrasted with the Syrian response to democratization efforts.
b. Describe two methods used by authoritarian governments looking to minimize the impact
of social networking on democratization movements.
Cartoon Assessment 4
Directions: a. Explain the cartoonist’s perspective about the difference between deposing an
authoritarian leader as contrasted with establishing a true democracy.
b. Describe two changes that former authoritarian governments can make to establish a true
democracy.
Assessments:
From Dictatorship to Democracy
Weakness of Dictatorships
a. Use historical examples to describe how three of Gene Sharp’s “Weakness of
Dictatorships” have been evident in any of the AP Comparative Government and Politics core
countries.
b. Use contemporary examples to describe how three of Gene Sharp’s “Weakness of
Dictatorships” have been evident in any of the AP Comparative Government and Politics core
countries.
c. Describe three acts of political defiance that have been used to try to weaken authoritarian
rule in an AP Comparative Government and Politics core country.
d. Explain how each of these acts of political defiance could contribute to democratization in
that AP Comparative Government and Politics core country.
Political Defiance
a. Brainstorm 10 examples of political defiance. Identify how many of these appear on Sharp’s
list of “Methods of nonviolent action.”
b. Categorize your list of 10 acts of political defiance according to Sharp’s 4 categories of:
protest, persuasion, noncooperation, and intervention.
c. Explain which of these acts of political defiance you think would be most effective at
weakening an example of authoritarian rule in an AP Comparative Government and
Politics core country.
Arab Spring (update 2012)
a. Find an article that analyzes a country in which widespread political violence was used to try
to weaken authoritarian rule during the “Arab Spring—2011.”
b. Find an article that analyzes a country in which nonviolent political defiance was the primary
method used to try to weaken authoritarian rule during the “Arab Spring—2011.”
c. Compare and contrast efforts to weaken authoritarian rule in the two countries that each
article addresses.
d. Compare and contrast democratization efforts in the two countries that each article addresses.
e. Explain how your findings might compare or contrast with Gene Sharp’s thesis about the role
of political defiance in weakening authoritarian rule.
Excerpts from FDTD:
Ch. 4--Dictatorships Have Weaknesses
Dictatorships often appear invulnerable. Intelligence agencies, police, military forces, prisons,
concentration camps, and execution squads are controlled by a powerful few. A country’s finances,
natural resources, and production capacities are often arbitrarily plundered by dictators and used to
support the dictators’ will.
In comparison, democratic opposition forces often appear extremely weak, ineffective, and
powerless. That perception of invulnerability against powerlessness makes effective opposition unlikely.
That is not the whole story, however.
Identifying the Achilles’ heel
A myth from Classical Greece illustrates well the vulnerability of the supposedly invulnerable. Against
the warrior Achilles, no blow would injure and no sword would penetrate his skin. When still a baby,
Achilles’ mother had supposedly dipped him into the waters of the magical river Styx, resulting in the
protection of his body from all dangers. There was, however, a problem. Since the baby was held by his
heel so that he would not be washed away, the magical water had not covered that small part of his body.
When Achilles was a grown man he appeared to all to be invulnerable to the enemies’ weapons.
However, in the battle against Troy, instructed by one who knew the weakness, an enemy soldier aimed
his arrow at Achilles’ unprotected heel, the one spot where he could be injured. The strike proved fatal.
Still today, the phrase “Achilles’ heel” refers to the vulnerable part of a person, a plan, or an institution at
which if attacked there is no protection.
The same principle applies to ruthless dictatorships. They, too, can be conquered, but most
quickly and with least cost if their weaknesses can be identified and the attack concentrated on them.
Weaknesses of dictatorships
Among the weaknesses of dictatorships are the following:
1. The cooperation of a multitude of people, groups, and institutions needed to operate the system may be
restricted or withdrawn.
2. The requirements and effects of the regime’s past policies will somewhat limit its present ability to
adopt and implement conflicting policies.
3. The system may become routine in its operation, less able to adjust quickly to new situations.
4. Personnel and resources already allocated for existing tasks will not be easily available for new needs.
5. Subordinates fearful of displeasing their superiors may not report accurate or complete information
needed by the dictators to make decisions.
6. The ideology may erode, and myths and symbols of the system may become unstable.
7. If a strong ideology is present that influences one’s view of reality, firm adherence to it may cause
inattention to actual conditions and needs.
8. Deteriorating efficiency and competency of the bureaucracy, or excessive controls and regulations, may
make the system’s policies and operation ineffective.
9. Internal institutional conflicts and personal rivalries and hostilities may harm, and even disrupt, the
operation of the dictatorship.
10. Intellectuals and students may become restless in response to conditions, restrictions, doctrinalism,
and repression.
11. The general public may over time become apathetic, skeptical, and even hostile to the regime.
12. Regional, class, cultural, or national differences may become acute.
13. The power hierarchy of the dictatorship is always unstable to some degree, and at times extremely so.
Individuals do not only remain in the same position in the ranking, but may rise or fall to other ranks or
be removed entirely and replaced by new persons.
14. Sections of the police or military forces may act to achieve their own objectives, even against the will
of established dictators, including by coup d’état.
15. If the dictatorship is new, time is required for it to become well established.
16. With so many decisions made by so few people in the dictatorship, mistakes of judgment, policy, and
action are likely to occur.
17. If the regime seeks to avoid these dangers and decentralizes controls and decision making, its control
over the central levers of power may be further eroded.
Attacking weaknesses of dictatorships
With knowledge of such inherent weaknesses, the democratic opposition can seek to aggravate these
“Achilles’ heels” deliberately in order to alter the system drastically or to disintegrate it.
The conclusion is then clear: despite the appearances of strength, all dictatorships have
weaknesses, internal inefficiencies, personal rivalries, institutional inefficiencies, and conflicts between
organizations and departments. These weaknesses, over time, tend to make the regime less effective and
more vulnerable to changing conditions and deliberate resistance. Not everything the regime sets out to
accomplish will get completed. At times, for example, even Hitler’s direct orders were never
implemented because those beneath him in the hierarchy refused to carry them out. The dictatorial regime
may at times even fall apart quickly, as we have already observed.
This does not mean dictatorships can be destroyed without risks and casualties. Every possible
course of action for liberation will involve risks and potential suffering, and will take time to operate.
And, of course, no means of action can ensure rapid success in every situation. However, types of
struggle that target the dictatorship’s identifiable weaknesses have greater chance of success than those
that seek to fight the dictatorship where it is clearly strongest. The question is how this struggle is to be
waged.
Ch. 5--Exercising Power
In Chapter One we noted that military resistance against dictatorships does not strike them where they are
weakest, but rather where they are strongest. By choosing to compete in the areas of military forces,
supplies of ammunition, weapons technology, and the like, resistance movements tend to put themselves
at a distinct disadvantage. Dictatorships will almost always be able to muster superior
resources in these areas. The dangers of relying on foreign powers for salvation were also outlined. In
Chapter Two we examined the problems of relying on negotiations as a means to remove dictatorships.
What means are then available that will offer the democratic resistance distinct advantages and
will tend to aggravate the identified weaknesses of dictatorships? What technique of action will capitalize
on the theory of political power discussed in Chapter Three? The alternative of choice is political
defiance.
Political defiance has the following characteristics:
• It does not accept that the outcome will be decided by the means of fighting chosen by the dictatorship.
• It is difficult for the regime to combat.
• It can uniquely aggravate weaknesses of the dictatorship and can sever its sources of power.
• It can in action be widely dispersed but can also be concentrated on a specific objective.
• It leads to errors of judgment and action by the dictators.
• It can effectively utilize the population as a whole and the society’s groups and institutions in the
struggle to end the brutal domination of the few.
• It helps to spread the distribution of effective power in the society, making the establishment and
maintenance of a democratic society more possible.
The workings of nonviolent struggle
Like military capabilities, political defiance can be employed for a variety of purposes, ranging from
efforts to influence the opponents to take different actions, to create conditions for a peaceful resolution
of conflict, or to disintegrate the opponents’ regime. However, political defiance operates in quite
different ways from violence. Although both techniques are means to wage struggle, they do so with very
different means and with different consequences. The ways and results of violent conflict are well known.
Physical weapons are used to intimidate, injure, kill, and destroy.
Nonviolent struggle is a much more complex and varied means of struggle than is violence.
Instead, the struggle is fought by psychological, social, economic, and political weapons applied by the
population and the institutions of the society. These have been known under various names of protests,
strikes, noncooperation, boycotts, disaffection, and people power. As noted earlier, all governments can
rule only as long as they receive replenishment of the needed sources of their power from the cooperation,
submission, and obedience of the population and the institutions of the society. Political defiance, unlike
violence, is uniquely suited to severing those sources of power.
Nonviolent weapons and discipline
The common error of past improvised political defiance campaigns is the reliance on only one or two
methods, such as strikes and mass demonstrations. In fact, a multitude of methods exist that allow
resistance strategists to concentrate and disperse resistance as required.
About two hundred specific methods of nonviolent action have been identified, and there are
certainly scores more. These methods are classified under three broad categories: protest and persuasion,
noncooperation, and intervention. Methods of nonviolent protest and persuasion are largely symbolic
demonstrations, including parades, marches, and vigils (54 methods). Noncooperation is divided into
three sub-categories: (a) social noncooperation (16 methods), (b) economic noncooperation, including
boycotts (26 methods) and strikes (23 methods), and (c) political noncooperation (38 methods).
Nonviolent intervention, by psychological, physical, social, economic, or political means, such as the fast,
nonviolent occupation, and parallel government (41 methods), is the final group. A list of 198 of these
methods is included as the Appendix to this publication.
The use of a considerable number of these methods — carefully chosen, applied persistently and
on a large scale, wielded in the context of a wise strategy and appropriate tactics, by trained civilians— is
likely to cause any illegitimate regime severe problems. This applies to all dictatorships.
In contrast to military means, the methods of nonviolent struggle can be focused directly on the
issues at stake. For example, since the issue of dictatorship is primarily political, then political forms of
nonviolent struggle would be crucial. These would include denial of legitimacy to the dictators and
noncooperation with their regime. Noncooperation would also be applied against specific policies. At
times stalling and procrastination may be quietly and even secretly practiced, while at other times open
disobedience and defiant public demonstrations and strikes may be visible to all.
On the other hand, if the dictatorship is vulnerable to economic pressures or if many of the
popular grievances against it are economic, then economic action, such as boycotts or strikes, may be
appropriate resistance methods. The dictators’ efforts to exploit the economic system might be met with
limited general strikes, slowdowns, and refusal of assistance by (or disappearance of) indispensable
experts. Selective use of various types of strikes may be conducted at key points in manufacturing, in
transport, in the supply of raw materials, and in the distribution of products.
Some methods of nonviolent struggle require people to perform acts unrelated to their normal
lives, such as distributing leaflets, operating an underground press, going on hunger strike, or sitting down
in the streets. These methods may be difficult for some people to undertake except in very extreme
situations.
Other methods of nonviolent struggle instead require people to continue approximately their
normal lives, though in somewhat different ways. For example, people may report for work, instead of
striking, but then deliberately work more slowly or inefficiently than usual. “Mistakes” may be
consciously made more frequently. One may become “sick” and “unable” to work at certain times. Or,
one may simply refuse to work. One might go to religious services when the act expresses not only
religious but also political convictions. One may act to protect children from the attackers’ propaganda
by education at home or in illegal classes. One might refuse to join certain “recommended” or required
organizations that one would not have joined freely in earlier times. The similarity of such types of action
to people’s usual activities and the limited degree of departure from their normal lives may make
participation in the national liberation struggle much easier for many people.
Since nonviolent struggle and violence operate in fundamentally different ways, even limited
resistance violence during a political defiance campaign will be counterproductive, for it will shift the
struggle to one in which the dictators have an overwhelming advantage (military warfare). Nonviolent
discipline is a key to success and must be maintained despite provocations and brutalities by the dictators
and their agents.
The maintenance of nonviolent discipline against violent opponents facilitates the workings of the
four mechanisms of change in nonviolent struggle (discussed below). Nonviolent discipline is also
extremely important in the process of political jiu-jitsu. In this process the stark brutality of the regime
against the clearly nonviolent actionists politically rebounds against the dictators’ position, causing
dissention in their own ranks as well as fomenting support for the resisters among the general population,
the regime’s usual supporters, and third parties.
In some cases, however, limited violence against the dictatorship may be inevitable. Frustration
and hatred of the regime may explode into violence. Or, certain groups may be unwilling to abandon
violent means even though they recognize the important role of nonviolent struggle. In these cases,
political defiance does not need to be abandoned. However, it will be necessary to separate the violent
action as far as possible from the nonviolent action. This should be done in terms of geography,
population groups, timing, and issues. Otherwise the violence could have a disastrous effect on the
potentially much more powerful and successful use of political defiance.
The historical record indicates that while casualties in dead and wounded must be expected in
political defiance, they will be far fewer than the casualties in military warfare. Furthermore, this type of
struggle does not contribute to the endless cycle of killing and brutality.
Nonviolent struggle both requires and tends to produce a loss (or greater control) of fear of the
government and its violent repression. That abandonment or control of fear is a key element in destroying
the power of the dictators over the general population.
Openness, secrecy, and high standards
Secrecy, deception, and underground conspiracy pose very difficult problems for a movement using
nonviolent action. It is often impossible to keep the political police and intelligence agents from learning
about intentions and plans. From the perspective of the movement, secrecy is not only rooted in fear but
contributes to fear, which dampens the spirit of resistance and reduces the number of people who can
participate in a given action. It also can contribute to suspicions and accusations, often unjustified, within
the movement, concerning who is an informer or agent for the opponents. Secrecy may also affect the
ability of a movement to remain nonviolent. In contrast, openness regarding intentions and plans will not
only have the opposite effects, but will contribute to an image that the resistance movement is in fact
extremely powerful. The problem is of course more complex than this suggests, and there are significant
aspects of resistance activities that may require secrecy. A well-informed assessment will be required by
those knowledgeable about both the dynamics of nonviolent struggle and also the dictatorship’s means of
surveillance in the specific situation.
The editing, printing, and distribution of underground publications, the use of illegal radio
broadcasts from within the country, and the gathering of intelligence about the operations of the
dictatorship are among the special limited types of activities where a high degree of secrecy will be
required.
The maintenance of high standards of behavior in nonviolent action is necessary at all stages of
the conflict. Such factors as fearlessness and maintaining nonviolent discipline are always required. It is
important to remember that large numbers of people may frequently be necessary to effect particular
changes. However, such numbers can be obtained as reliable participants only by maintaining the high
standards of the movement.
Shifting power relationships
Strategists need to remember that the conflict in which political defiance is applied is a constantly
changing field of struggle with continuing interplay of moves and countermoves. Nothing is static. Power
relationships, both absolute and relative, are subject to constant and rapid changes. This is made possible
by the resisters continuing their nonviolent persistence despite repression.
The variations in the respective power of the contending sides in this type of conflict situation are
likely to be more extreme than in violent conflicts, to take place more quickly, and to have more diverse
and politically significant consequences. Due to these variations, specific actions by the resisters are
likely to have consequences far beyond the particular time and place in which they occur. These effects
will rebound to strengthen or weaken one group or another.
In addition, the nonviolent group may, by its actions exert influence over the increase or decrease
in the relative strength of the opponent group to a great extent. For example, disciplined courageous
nonviolent resistance in face of the dictators’ brutalities may induce unease, disaffection, unreliability,
and in extreme situations even mutiny among the dictators’ own soldiers and population. This resistance
may also result in increased international condemnation of the dictatorship. In addition, skillful,
disciplined, and persistent use of political defiance may result in more and more participation in the
resistance by people who normally would give their tacit support to the dictators or generally remain
neutral in the conflict.
Four mechanisms of change
Nonviolent struggle produces change in four ways. The first mechanism is the least likely, though it has
occurred. When members of the opponent group are emotionally moved by the suffering of repression
imposed on courageous nonviolent resisters or are rationally persuaded that the resisters’ cause is just,
they may come to accept the resisters’ aims. This mechanism is called conversion.
Though cases of conversion in nonviolent action do sometimes happen,
they are rare, and in most conflicts this does not occur at all or
at least not on a significant scale.
Far more often, nonviolent struggle operates by changing the conflict situation and the society so
that the opponents simply cannot do as they like. It is this change that produces the other three
mechanisms: accommodation, nonviolent coercion, and disintegration. Which of these occurs depends on
the degree to which the relative and absolute power relations are shifted in favor of the democrats.
If the issues are not fundamental ones, the demands of the opposition
in a limited campaign are not considered threatening, and the contest of forces has altered the power
relationships to some degree, the immediate conflict may be ended by reaching an agreement, a splitting
of differences or compromise. This mechanism is called accommodation. Many strikes are settled in this
manner, for example, with both sides attaining some of their objectives but neither achieving all it
wanted. A government may perceive such a settlement to have some positive benefits, such as defusing
tension, creating an impression of “fairness,” or polishing the international image of the regime. It is
important, therefore, that great care be exercised in selecting the issues on which a settlement by
accommodation is acceptable. A struggle to bring down a dictatorship is not one of these.
Nonviolent struggle can be much more powerful than indicated by the mechanisms of conversion
or accommodation. Mass noncooperation and defiance can so change social and political situations,
especially power relationships, that the dictators’ ability to control the economic, social, and political
processes of government and the society is in fact taken away. The opponents’ military forces may
become so unreliable that they no longer simply obey orders to repress
resisters. Although the opponents’ leaders remain in their positions, and adhere to their original goals,
their ability to act effectively has been taken away from them. That is called nonviolent coercion.
In some extreme situations, the conditions producing nonviolent coercion are carried still further.
The opponents’ leadership in fact loses all ability to act and their own structure of power collapses. The
resisters’ self-direction, noncooperation, and defiance become so complete that the opponents now lack
even a semblance of control over them. The opponents’ bureaucracy refuses to obey its own leadership.
The opponents’ troops and police mutiny. The opponents’
usual supporters or population repudiate their former leadership, denying that they have any right to rule
at all. Hence, their former assistance and obedience falls away. The fourth mechanism of change,
disintegration of the opponents’ system, is so complete that they do not even have sufficient power to
surrender. The regime
simply falls to pieces.
In planning liberation strategies, these four mechanisms should be kept in mind. They sometimes
operate essentially by chance. However, the selection of one or more of these as the intended mechanism
of change in a conflict will make it possible to formulate specific and mutually reinforcing strategies.
Which mechanism (or mechanisms) to select will depend on numerous factors, including the absolute and
relative power of the contending groups and the attitudes and objectives of the nonviolent struggle group.
Democratizing effects of political defiance
In contrast to the centralizing effects of violent sanctions, use of the technique of nonviolent struggle
contributes to democratizing the political society in several ways.
One part of the democratizing effect is negative. That is, in contrast to military means, this
technique does not provide a means of repression under command of a ruling elite which can be turned
against the population to establish or maintain a dictatorship. Leaders of a political defiance movement
can exert influence and apply pressures on their followers, but they cannot imprison or execute them
when they dissent or choose other leaders.
Another part of the democratizing effect is positive. That is, nonviolent struggle provides the
population with means of resistance that can be used to achieve and defend their liberties against existing
or would-be dictators. Below are several of the positive democratizing effects nonviolent struggle may
have:
• Experience in applying nonviolent struggle may result in the population being more self-confident in
challenging the regime’s threats and capacity for violent repression.
• Nonviolent struggle provides the means of noncooperation and defiance by which the population can
resist undemocratic controls over them by any dictatorial group.
• Nonviolent struggle can be used to assert the practice of democratic freedoms, such as free speech, free
press, independent organizations, and free assembly, in face of repressive controls.
• Nonviolent struggle contributes strongly to the survival, rebirth, and strengthening of the independent
groups and institutions of the society, as previously discussed. These are important for democracy
because of their capacity to mobilize the power capacity of the population and to impose limits on the
effective power of any would-be dictators.
• Nonviolent struggle provides means by which the population can wield power against repressive police
and military action by a dictatorial government.
• Nonviolent struggle provides methods by which the population and the independent institutions can in
the interests of democracy restrict or sever the sources of power for the ruling elite, thereby threatening its
capacity to continue its
domination.
Complexity of nonviolent struggle
As we have seen from this discussion, nonviolent struggle is a complex technique of social action,
involving a multitude of methods, a range of mechanisms of change, and specific behavioral
requirements. To be effective, especially against a dictatorship, political defiance requires careful
planning and preparation. Prospective participants will need to understand what is required of them.
Resources will need to have been made available. And strategists will need to have analyzed how
nonviolent struggle can be most effectively applied. We now turn our attention to this latter crucial
element: the need for strategic planning.
Appendix One--The Methods of Nonviolent
Action
The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion
Formal statements
1. Public speeches; 2. Letters of opposition or support; 3. Declarations by organizations and institutions;
4. Signed public statements; 5. Declarations of indictment and intention; 6. Group or mass petitions
Communications with a wider audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols; 8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications; 9. Leaflets,
pamphlets, and books; 10. Newspapers and journals; 11. Records, radio, and television; 12. Skywriting
and earthwriting
Group representations
13. Deputations; 14. Mock awards; 15. Group lobbying; 16. Picketing; 17. Mock elections
Symbolic public acts
18. Display of flags and symbolic colors; 19. Wearing of symbols; 20. Prayer and worship; 21. Delivering
symbolic objects; 22. Protest disrobings; 23. Destruction of own property; 24. Symbolic lights; 25.
Displays of portraits; 26. Paint as protest; 27. New signs and names; 28. Symbolic sounds; 29. Symbolic
reclamations;
30. Rude gestures
Pressures on individuals
31. “Haunting” officials; 32. Taunting officials; 33. Fraternization; 34. Vigils
Drama and music
35. Humorous skits and pranks; 36. Performance of plays and music; 37. Singing
Processions
38. Marches; 39. Parades; 40. Religious processions; 41. Pilgrimages;
Honoring the dead
43. Political mourning; 44. Mock funerals; 45. Demonstrative funerals;
places
42. Motorcades
46. Homage at burial
Public assemblies
47. Assemblies of protest or support; 48. Protest meetings; 49. Camouflaged meetings of protest; 50.
Teach-ins
Withdrawal and renunciation
51. Walk-outs; 52. Silence; 53. Renouncing honors; 54. Turning one’s back
THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION
Ostracism of persons
55. Social boycott; 56. Selective social boycott; 57. Lysistratic nonaction;
59. Interdict
58. Excommunication;
Noncooperation with social events, customs, and institutions
60. Suspension of social and sports activities; 61. Boycott of social affairs; 62. Student strike; 63. Social
disobedience; 64. Withdrawal from social institutions
Withdrawal from the social system
65. Stay-at-home; 66. Total personal noncooperation; 67. Flight of workers;
Collective disappearance; 70. Protest emigration (hijrat)
68. Sanctuary; 69.
THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION : (1) ECONOMIC
BOYCOTTS
Action by consumers
71. Consumers’ boycott; 72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods; 73. Policy of austerity; 74. Rent
withholding; 75. Refusal to rent; 76. National consumers’ boycott; 77. International consumers’ boycott
Action by workers and producers
78. Workmen’s boycott; 79. Producers’ boycott
Action by middlemen
80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott
Action by owners and management
81. Traders’ boycott; 82. Refusal to let or sell property; 83. Lockout; 84. Refusal of industrial assistance;
85. Merchants’ “general strike”
Action by holders of financial resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits; 87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments; 88. Refusal to pay
debts or interest; 89. Severance of funds and credit; 90. Revenue refusal; 91. Refusal of a government’s
money
Action by governments
92. Domestic embargo; 93. Blacklisting of traders; 94. International sellers’ embargo; 95. International
buyers’ embargo; 96. International trade embargo
THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION : (2) THE
STRIKE
Symbolic strikes
97. Protest strike; 98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
Agricultural strikes
99. Peasant strike; 100. Farm workers’ strike
Strikes by special groups
101. Refusal of impressed labor; 102. Prisoners’ strike; 103. Craft strike;
104. Professional strike
Ordinary industrial strikes
105. Establishment strike; 106. Industry strike; 107. Sympathetic strike
Restricted strikes
108. Detailed strike; 109. Bumper strike; 110. Slowdown strike; 111. Working-to-rule strike; 112.
Reporting “sick” (sick-in); 113. Strike by resignation; 114. Limited strike; 115. Selective strike
Multi-industry strikes
116. Generalized strike; 117. General strike
Combinations of strikes and economic closures
118. Hartal; 119. Economic shutdown
THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION
Rejection of authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance; 121. Refusal of public support; 122. Literature and
speeches advocating resistance
Citizens’ noncooperation with government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies; 124. Boycott of elections; 125. Boycott of government employment
and positions; 126. Boycott of government departments, agencies and other bodies; 127. Withdrawal from
government educational institutions; 128. Boycott of government-supported organizations; 129. Refusal
of assistance to enforcement agents; 130. Removal of own signs and placemarks; 131. Refusal to accept
appointed officials; 132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
Citizens’ alternatives to obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance; 134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision; 135. Popular
nonobedience; 136. Disguised disobedience; 137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse; 138.
Sitdown; 139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation; 140. Hiding, escape and false identities;
141. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws
Action by government personnel
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides; 143. Blocking of lines of command and
information; 144. Stalling and obstruction; 145. General administrative noncooperation; 146. Judicial
noncooperation; 147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents; 148.
Mutiny
Domestic governmental action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays; 150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
International governmental action
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representation; 152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events;
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition; 154. Severance of diplomatic relations; 155. Withdrawal
from international organizations;
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies; 157. Expulsion
from international organizations
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION
Psychological intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements; 159. The fast (a) Fast of moral pressure
Satyagrahic fast; 160. Reverse trial; 161. Nonviolent harassment
(b) Hunger strike (c)
Physical intervention
162. Sit-in; 163. Stand-in; 164. Ride-in; 165. Wade-in; 166. Mill-in; 167. Pray-in; 168. Nonviolent raids;
169. Nonviolent air raids; 170. Nonviolent invasion;
171. Nonviolent interjection; 172. Nonviolent
obstruction; 173. Nonviolent occupation
Social intervention
174. Establishing new social patterns; 175. Overloading of facilities; 176. Stall-in; 177. Speak-in; 178.
Guerrilla theater; 179. Alternative social institutions; 180. Alternative communication system
Economic intervention
181. Reverse strike; 182. Stay-in strike; 183. Nonviolent land seizure; 184. Defiance of blockades; 185.
Politically motivated counterfeiting; 186. Preclusive purchasing; 187. Seizure of assets; 188. Dumping;
189. Selective patronage; 190. Alternative markets; 191. Alternative transportation systems; 192.
Alternative economic institutions
Political intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems; 194. Disclosing identities of secret agents; 195. Seeking
imprisonment; 196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws; 197. Work-on without collaboration; 198. Dual
sovereignty and parallel government
** This list, with definitions and historical examples, is taken from Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two,
The Methods of Nonviolent Action.
Appendix Two--Acknowledgements and Notes
on the History of From Dictatorships to
Democracy
I have incurred several debts of gratitude while writing the original edition of this essay. Bruce Jenkins,
my Special Assistant in 1993, made an inestimable contribution by his identification of problems in
content and presentation. He also made incisive recommendations for more rigorous and clearer
presentations of difficult ideas (especially concerning strategy), structural reorganization, and editorial
improvements.
I am also grateful for the editorial assistance of Stephen Coady. Dr. Christopher Kruegler and
Robert Helvey offered very important criticisms and advice. Dr. Hazel McFerson and Dr. Patricia
Parkman provided information on struggles in Africa and Latin America, respectively. However, the
analysis and conclusions contained therein are solely my responsibility.
In recent years special guidelines for translations have been developed, primarily due to Jamila
Raqib’s guidance and to the lessons learned from earlier years. This has been necessary in order to ensure
accuracy in languages in which there has earlier been no established clear terminology for this field.
“From Dictatorship to Democracy” was written at the request of the late U Tin Maung Win, a
prominent exile Burmese democrat who was then editor of Khit Pyaing (The New Era Journal).
The preparation of this text was based over forty years of research
and writing on nonviolent struggle, dictatorships, totalitarian
systems, resistance movements, political theory, sociological analysis,
and other fields.
I could not write an analysis that had a focus only on Burma, as I did not know Burma well.
Therefore, I had to write a generic analysis.
The essay was originally published in installments in Khit Pyaing
in Burmese and English
in Bangkok, Thailand in 1993. Afterwards it was issued as a booklet in both languages (1994) and in
Burmese again (1996 and 1997). The original booklet editions from Bangkok were issued with the
assistance of the Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Burma.
It was circulated both surreptitiously inside Burma and among exiles and sympathizers elsewhere.
This analysis was intended only for use by Burmese democrats and various ethnic groups in Burma that
wanted independence from the Burman-dominated central government in Rangoon. (Burmans are the
dominant ethnic group in Burma.)
I did not then envisage that the generic focus would make the analysis potentially relevant in any
country with an authoritarian or dictatorial government. However, that appears to have been the
perception by people who in recent years have sought to translate and distribute it in their languages for
their countries. Several persons have reported that it reads as though it was written for their country.
The SLORC military dictatorship in Rangoon wasted no time in denouncing this publication.
Heavy attacks were made in 1995 and 1996, and reportedly continued in later years in newspapers, radio,
and television. As late as 2005, persons were sentenced to seven-year prison terms merely for being in
possession of the banned publication.
Although no efforts were made to promote the publication for use in other countries, translations
and distribution of the publication began to spread on their own. A copy of the English language edition
was seen on display in the window of a bookstore in Bangkok by a student from Indonesia, was
purchased, and taken back home. There, it was translated into Indonesian, and published in 1997 by a
major Indonesian publisher with an introduction by Abdurrahman Wahid. He was then head of Nadhlatul
Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in the world with thirty-five million members, and later President
of Indonesia.
During this time, at my office at the Albert Einstein Institution we only had a handful of
photocopies from the Bangkok English language booklet. For a few years we had to make copies of it
when we had enquiries for which it was relevant. Later, Marek Zelaskiewz, from California, took one of
those copies to Belgrade during Milosovic’s time and gave it to the organization Civic Initiatives. They
translated it into Serbian and published it. When we visited Serbia after the collapse of the Milosevic
regime we were told that the booklet had been quite influential in the opposition movement.
Also important had been the workshop on nonviolent struggle that Robert Helvey, a retired US
Army colonel, had given in Budapest, Hungary, for about twenty Serbian young people on the nature and
potential of nonviolent struggle. Helvey also gave them copies of the complete The Politics of Nonviolent
Action. These were the people who became the Otpor organization that led the nonviolent struggle that
brought down Milosevic.
We usually do not know how awareness of this publication has spread from country to country.
Its availability on our web site in recent years has been important, but clearly that is not the only factor.
Tracing these connections would be a major research project. “From Dictatorship to Democracy” is a
heavy analysis and is not easy reading. Yet it has been deemed to be important enough for at least twentyeight translations (as of January 2008) to be prepared, although they required major work and expense.
Translations of this publication in print or on a web site include the following languages:
Amharic (Ethiopia), Arabic, Azeri (Azerbaijan), Bahasa Indonesia, Belarusian, Burmese, Chin (Burma),
Chinese (simplified and traditional Mandarin), Dhivehi (Maldives), Farsi (Iran), French, Georgian,
German, Jing Paw (Burma), Karen (Burma), Khmer (Cambodia), Kurdish, Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan), Nepali,
Pashto (Afghanistan and Pakistan), Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tibetan, Tigrinya (Eritrea), Ukrainian,
Uzbek (Uzbekistan), and Vietnamese. Several others are in preparation.
Between 1993 and 2002 there were six translations. Between 2003 and 2008 there have been
twenty-two.
The great diversity of the societies and languages into which translations have spread support the
provisional conclusion that the persons who initially encounter this document have seen its analysis to be
relevant to their society.
Gene Sharp
January 2008
Albert Einstein Institution
Boston, Massachusetts
Law opens gate to return of U.S. horse slaughter
The South County Spotlight
Stover E. Harger III
December 7, 2011
A Congressional bill signed into law last
month allows federal money to be used to inspect
horse slaughterhouses, a slight adjustment in a
spending bill that many believe creates a
supportive environment for such facilities to once
again start popping up across the country.
The federal government cut funding for the
USDA to inspect horsemeat plants in 2006. That
was after years of unsuccessful lobbying from
animal interest groups calling for a complete ban
on the industry. If there are no government
inspections at horse slaughterhouses then the meat
cannot be legally sold. The last horse
slaughterhouse in America, located in Illinois,
closed in 2007.
President Obama signed the Agriculture
Appropriations bill into law Nov. 18.
Since then, animal welfare advocates, horse
owners and others have weighed in on the topic.
Some believe U.S.-based slaughterhouses could
help cut back on the number of neglected and
abandoned horses — a growing concern as the
economy remains stagnant. Others say having
nearby horsemeat plants could provide an easy
out for irresponsible horse breeders and owners
who want a simple way to ditch their animals
when they become sick, old or merely unwanted.
“I think if you love horses there is no way that
feels right,” said Sharon Harmon, Columbia
County resident and executive director of the
Oregon Humane Society.
Over time, our country has moved towards
seeing horses more as companions rather than
commodities, Harmon said. Allowing the
inspections will turn back that progress, she said.
“At this point I would love to see us focus our
attention on creating a safety net for unwanted
horses. We can do better,” Harmon said.
An estimated 140,000 horses a year are
transported — in sometimes cramped and
stressful conditions — to be slaughtered in
Canada and Mexico, according to a government
report prior to reauthorizing the funding for
inspections. Statistics show that banning
inspections at horsemeat plants did little to limit
the number of horses being sent to slaughter.
Almost the same number of horses were killed for
meat in the U.S. before the 2006 inspection
funding ban.
In hindering the once-multi-million dollar
horsemeat industry in this country, animal welfare
advocates say horse owners struggling in the
economy have limited recourse to get rid of their
expensive animals. It costs at least $200 a month
to maintain a healthy horse.
At the industry’s height, only a few facilities
were operating in this country. Those, including
two in Texas, mostly exported the meat to
countries who do not have the same beliefs as the
United States when it comes to eating the animal
— seen by many as iconic symbols of the
American West.
When active, horsemeat plants had cost as
much as $5 million a year to inspect, said
Roseburg horse rescuer Darla Clark. That figure
is supported by other horse slaughter opponents.
The slaughter debate should steer away from
emotions and into fiscal responsibility, said Clark,
who runs the nonprofit Strawberry Mountain
Mustangs and founded the Oregon Hay Bank.
“I don’t think it should be an option, because I
do not want my money being paid to clean up an
irresponsible industry,” she said.
The Humane Society of the United States is
calling for a renewed push to pass the American
Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which would
prohibit horse slaughter plants as well as end the
ongoing practice of exporting American horses
for slaughter in other countries.
That would be great news for horse owners
like Kassi Sande Euwer who runs Sande School
of Horsemanship in Warren. Living around horses
her whole life, she said she can’t imagine ever
biting into the flesh of one her beautiful animals.
In Mexico, France and Canada, for example,
horsemeat is accepted, just like eating cattle is a
regular practice in our country, while beef is
entirely unacceptable in other cultures.
Even when the slaughterhouses were active in
the United States, Oregon horses were sent to
Canada where horsemeat is a large industry, said
Julie Fritz, program administrator for the Oregon
Hay Bank, a charitable group started in 2008 that
aids struggling horse owners across the state with
hay feed and medical care.
That’s assuming a facility does not open in
Oregon or Washington, however.
The nonprofit United Horseman group is one
of the leading voices in support of opening new
American-owned horse slaughterhouses.
President Dave Duquette, who lives in Hermiston,
said a number of investors are looking to open
facilities. Rumors are popping up about where
those would be located. Oregon has been
mentioned as a possible location.
Horse roast
While not a regular food in the U.S., horsemeat is a
delicacy in many other countries, including Canada
where this recipe was published by grocery chain
Metro.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2-1/4 lbs. horsemeat roast
Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
• Preheat oven to 425°F
Blue cheese-horseradish sauce
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
3 Tbsp. blue cheese crumbles
• Sear roast all sides. Rub with mustard and season.
3 Tbsp. sour cream
• Roast 10 minutes.
5 tsp. minced chives
Reduce temperature to 350°F and cook to desired
degree of doneness.
5 tsp. horseradish or wasabi
• In a bowl, mix sauce ingredients together.
5 tsp. light mayonnaise
• In a skillet, bring sauce to a boil.
Directions:
• Lay meat on the sauce.
AP American Government
Name:
Legislative Process Quiz
1. Define the Rules Committee:
a. Place where the House negotiates amendments and debate procedures
b. Place where Senators and Representatives negotiate about differences between legislation.
2. Define the Conference Committee:
a. Place where the House negotiates amendments and debate procedures
b. Place where Senators and Representatives negotiate about differences between legislation.
3. Which of the following can start the legislative process by introducing a bill?
a.
b.
c.
d.
presidents
members of the Congress only
interest group members
all of the above
4. Which of the following lists is correctly ordered?
a.
b.
c.
d.
member introduces a bill; one chamber takes floor action; conference committee
version is approved
conference committee approves a bill; member introduces bill; one chamber takes
floor action
member introduces a bill; conference committee version is approved; one chamber
takes floor action
member introduces a bill; president signs/vetos bill; conference committee version is
approved
5. The process by which bills are rewritten and amended in a committee is known as:
a.
b.
multiple referral
markup
c.
d.
6.
a.
b.
c.
d.
a conference committee vote
a floor action
What is the difference between a veto and a pocket veto?
One can be overturned by Congress and the other cannot.
One requires the president to send it back to Congress and the other requires him to
wait until Congress goes out of session.
One can be overturned by a majority vote and the other requires a two-thirds vote.
There is no difference between them.
Which comes first in the legislative process?
7. a. Bill is sent to a standing committee
b. Bill is sent to conference committee
8. a. Bill is sent to rules committee
b. Bill is debated on House floor
9. When an interest group contacts a public official and tries to influence public policy, it is engaged in:
a.
b.
c.
d.
electioneering
lobbying
pluralism
external strategy
10. One view of American government is that Americans participate in politics primarily through interest groups. This is known
as:
a.
b.
c.
d.
representation
elitism
pluralism
the interest group state