Integrated Guide to the Text’s Resources (Instructor’s Resource Manual)
Chapter 1 - Constitutional Democracy
Table of Contents
I. Chapter Overview
A. Learning Objectives
B. Chapter Summary
II. Student Assignments – Pre-Lecture
III. Lecture Resources
A. Lecture Slides
B. Additional Lecture Suggestions
IV. Student Assignments – Post-Lecture
A. Class Discussion Questions
B. Class Activities
C. Research Assignments
V. Quantitative Assessment
VI. Resources for Further Study
A. Books
B. Articles
C. Media
D. Web Resources
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
,I. Chapter Overview
A. Learning Objectives
1.1 Use the concept of constitutional democracy to explain U.S. government and politics.
1.2 Differentiate democracy from other forms of government, and identify conditions, values,
political processes, and political structures conducive to a successful democracy.
1.3 Assess the important compromises reached by the delegates to the Constitutional
Convention of 1787.
1.4 Evaluate the arguments for and against the ratification of the Constitution.
1.5 Describe the basic structure of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
1.6 Analyze how the Constitution grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
1.7 Show how the use of judicial review strengthens the courts in a separation of powers
system.
1.8 Outline how the Constitution is changed through informal and formal methods.
Return to Chapter 1: Table of Contents
B. Chapter Summary
This chapter explores the resilience and adaptability of the Constitution, and how these
features allow for resolution of deep conflicts within its framework. Thomas Jefferson believed
that democracy required balance between faith in the processes of government and skepticism of
government officials. There also needs to be a balance between popular control and accountable
leadership. This chapter features the question of increasing democratic control of government
through exploration of the idea of a national initiative process. The importance of the interacting
democratic values of liberty, individual rights, equal opportunity, and popular consent within a
system of interrelated political processes and structures are also stressed.
The process of developing the Constitution is explored, with particular attention paid to
the nature of conflict and compromise within a larger consensus concerning the need for
republican government during and after the Constitutional Convention. In this chapter, however,
we see the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as developments from a long tradition of abiding
concern for individual liberty, tempered by equally pressing concerns for unity and order, and by
very practical needs to maneuver, bargain, and compromise in order to get anything approved. In
many respects, this perspective makes the framers’ achievements even more notable, for the
outcome was not the preordained product of saintly statesmen-philosophers, but rather a hard-
earned victory based on principle and practicality.
In covering this chapter, the instructor needs to stress what the framers were trying to do,
and in fact did, and the difficult choices they faced. Do not make the common mistake of taking
for granted everything in the Constitution. Why did the framers need a constitution at all? Why
choose a democracy instead of an aristocracy or a theocracy? Why insist on pursuing liberty,
equality, and order all at the same time? What was included in the Constitution in pursuit of
those values? How well does the Constitution stack up by current standards? Are there some
glaring omissions, or clauses that should never have been in the Constitution? By asking these
questions, the instructor can guide students to think about the framers not as saintly, somber
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
2
,philosophers, but rather as politicians who saw problems, tried to cope with them, and did a
good, but, by today’s standards, not a perfect job of achieving their objectives.
In this chapter, the authors stress the political theory of the U.S. Constitution. The authors
explain what the framers were trying to accomplish in their drafting of the Constitution. They
explain what motivated them. And they explain how the framers hoped to use the Constitution to
achieve their goals. It is important to stress exactly what a constitution is intended to do. As the
authors note, it is the supreme and binding law that expresses and protects basic liberties and
establishes instrumentalities of government. If it can also serve as a unifying symbol of
nationhood, then, of course, its ability to serve the above purposes is greatly increased.
This chapter concentrates on the unique features of the framers’ constitutional theory.
The numerous constraints on the national government’s powers are emphasized, especially
checks and balances and our amazing (compared to other countries) system of judicial review. It
is important to note the framers’ varying views on judicial review.
Return to Chapter 1: Table of Contents
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
3
, II. Student Assignments – Pre-Lecture
A. Student required reading: Chapter 1 – Constitutional Democracy
B. Administer Reading Comprehension Quiz (see Test Bank, Chapter 1)
Return to Chapter 1: Table of Contents
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
4
Chapter 1 - Constitutional Democracy
Table of Contents
I. Chapter Overview
A. Learning Objectives
B. Chapter Summary
II. Student Assignments – Pre-Lecture
III. Lecture Resources
A. Lecture Slides
B. Additional Lecture Suggestions
IV. Student Assignments – Post-Lecture
A. Class Discussion Questions
B. Class Activities
C. Research Assignments
V. Quantitative Assessment
VI. Resources for Further Study
A. Books
B. Articles
C. Media
D. Web Resources
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
,I. Chapter Overview
A. Learning Objectives
1.1 Use the concept of constitutional democracy to explain U.S. government and politics.
1.2 Differentiate democracy from other forms of government, and identify conditions, values,
political processes, and political structures conducive to a successful democracy.
1.3 Assess the important compromises reached by the delegates to the Constitutional
Convention of 1787.
1.4 Evaluate the arguments for and against the ratification of the Constitution.
1.5 Describe the basic structure of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
1.6 Analyze how the Constitution grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
1.7 Show how the use of judicial review strengthens the courts in a separation of powers
system.
1.8 Outline how the Constitution is changed through informal and formal methods.
Return to Chapter 1: Table of Contents
B. Chapter Summary
This chapter explores the resilience and adaptability of the Constitution, and how these
features allow for resolution of deep conflicts within its framework. Thomas Jefferson believed
that democracy required balance between faith in the processes of government and skepticism of
government officials. There also needs to be a balance between popular control and accountable
leadership. This chapter features the question of increasing democratic control of government
through exploration of the idea of a national initiative process. The importance of the interacting
democratic values of liberty, individual rights, equal opportunity, and popular consent within a
system of interrelated political processes and structures are also stressed.
The process of developing the Constitution is explored, with particular attention paid to
the nature of conflict and compromise within a larger consensus concerning the need for
republican government during and after the Constitutional Convention. In this chapter, however,
we see the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as developments from a long tradition of abiding
concern for individual liberty, tempered by equally pressing concerns for unity and order, and by
very practical needs to maneuver, bargain, and compromise in order to get anything approved. In
many respects, this perspective makes the framers’ achievements even more notable, for the
outcome was not the preordained product of saintly statesmen-philosophers, but rather a hard-
earned victory based on principle and practicality.
In covering this chapter, the instructor needs to stress what the framers were trying to do,
and in fact did, and the difficult choices they faced. Do not make the common mistake of taking
for granted everything in the Constitution. Why did the framers need a constitution at all? Why
choose a democracy instead of an aristocracy or a theocracy? Why insist on pursuing liberty,
equality, and order all at the same time? What was included in the Constitution in pursuit of
those values? How well does the Constitution stack up by current standards? Are there some
glaring omissions, or clauses that should never have been in the Constitution? By asking these
questions, the instructor can guide students to think about the framers not as saintly, somber
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
2
,philosophers, but rather as politicians who saw problems, tried to cope with them, and did a
good, but, by today’s standards, not a perfect job of achieving their objectives.
In this chapter, the authors stress the political theory of the U.S. Constitution. The authors
explain what the framers were trying to accomplish in their drafting of the Constitution. They
explain what motivated them. And they explain how the framers hoped to use the Constitution to
achieve their goals. It is important to stress exactly what a constitution is intended to do. As the
authors note, it is the supreme and binding law that expresses and protects basic liberties and
establishes instrumentalities of government. If it can also serve as a unifying symbol of
nationhood, then, of course, its ability to serve the above purposes is greatly increased.
This chapter concentrates on the unique features of the framers’ constitutional theory.
The numerous constraints on the national government’s powers are emphasized, especially
checks and balances and our amazing (compared to other countries) system of judicial review. It
is important to note the framers’ varying views on judicial review.
Return to Chapter 1: Table of Contents
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
3
, II. Student Assignments – Pre-Lecture
A. Student required reading: Chapter 1 – Constitutional Democracy
B. Administer Reading Comprehension Quiz (see Test Bank, Chapter 1)
Return to Chapter 1: Table of Contents
Copyright © 2011, 2009, 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
4
