What is political accountability and what factors have contributed to its decline in recent years?
What will be an ideal response?
Political accountability is the belief that public leaders must be accountable to the public for their actions. As the media and politicians have transformed politics into public relations, more time and energy are spent on image considerations that in no way serve the public good, thus leading to the election of the wrong people for the wrong reasons while discouraging those who should run from doing so. This transformation impacts political accountability in the sense that if politics is reduced to image and we don’t know what our leaders are doing then that accountability, which the authors posit is the very hallmark of democracy, is weakened as is democracy itself.
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The most precise way to describe attempts by state legislatures to address racial imbalance in the House of Representatives is
A. through the creation of minority-majority districts. B. by reapportionment. C. through the creation of majority-minority districts. D. through gerrymandering. E. by redistricting.
What method was used to create the Department of Homeland Security?
a. An entirely new agency was created. b. An independent agency was elevated to department-level status. c. An existing department was broken up. d. Already-existing agencies were merged into a new organization.
To ensure that majority rule does not become oppressive, modern democracies
a) limit political participation to individuals who are properly educated b) guarantee the rights of minorities c) both a and b d) apply term limits to elected official e) require two-thirds support of the legislature before a law can be enacted
One impact of the Internet on political campaigns is that __________
a. fewer people are using the Internet as a source of campaign information b. fewer people are receiving direct mail from candidates c. more people are making political donations d. more people are becoming highly informed about the candidates