7. James Madison once said that the concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial powers in the same hands would be “the very definition of tyranny”. What did he mean? Was he right? Does the same danger exist today?
8. Arrange the mandatory functions of government in what you believe to be their order of importance and give reasons for your arrangement.
9. Can you name any characteristics of American government other than those given in the text? Do the following things distinguish American government from other governments: woman suffrage, an elective president, the absence of an hereditary nobility, two-chambered legislatures, a supreme court?
10. In what ways may direct government be better than representative government and in what respects not so good? (Consider such general problems as ensuring responsiveness to the will of the people, deliberation, the absence of corruption, educational value, and expense.)
11. What did President Wilson mean when he said that the world must be made “safe for democracy”? Can the world be safe for democracy while great and powerful monarchies remain? What changes in addition to the dethronement of the Kaiser did Americans consider essential in order to make Germany a democracy?
12. Argue against the proposition that the study of government is the study of a science.
Topics for Debate
1. Written constitutions have been a hindrance rather than a help to the development of American democracy.
2. Andrew Jackson was more of a democrat than Thomas Jefferson.
3. It is not right under any circumstances to subject a people to government without their own consent. #/