Gov/Econ Semester Review

Use all of the assignments we’ve done so far this year,

along with all of the resources I’ve shared with you, to
complete this review assignment.

This is your final, so do a good job!

 Freedom v. Order
In the graphic organizer below, place the types of governments and economic systems listed at the
bottom of this slide in the appropriate place on the spectrum of freedom v. order:
Most Freedom Most Order
Government

Pure Democracy, Representative Democracy, Oligarchy, Monarchy, Dictatorship

Market, Traditional, Mixed, Planned

Economy

In terms of freedom and order, what would be the benefits of a dictatorship with a market economy?
- Dictatorship has the most order and market economy has the most freedom. People would be able to make their
own choices when it came to the economy but would be controlled by the government for almost everything else
in their lives.

Forms of Government: Dictatorship, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Pure Democracy, Representative Democracy

Economic Systems: Traditional, Planned (Communism), Mixed (Socialism), Market
The Six Basic Principles (okay, four of them…)

Tell me how the Framers included these concepts in Articles I, II and III of the Constitution (be specific!):

Separation of The government is separated into three branches, the legislative, executive, and
judicial. The framers included this concept in the Constitution split up the power and
Powers to avoid conflict between the government as a whole.

Checks and The three branches of the government are connected through the system of checks
and balance, where each branch has certain powers so it can check the operations
Balances of the other two. The Framers included this concept to prevent “an unjust
combination of the majority”.

Popular The popular sovereignty concept was included in the Constitution to ensure that the
citizens had a say in their country and that their opinions were valued and
Sovereignty considered. The government can only govern with the consent of the governed.

Federalism The division of power between a central government and regional governments. The
Framers included this concept to more closely tie together all the states without
taking away all of the regional government power.
 How Congress Represents Us
In the space below, use a combination of images and text to show me (1) how we are represented
in Congress (the titles and numbers of elected officials for each state), (2) what they do and how
they do it, and (3) how their number in each state relates to the Electoral College:

● Each state has two electoral votes for the ● The number of representatives in each state
two senators and then one for each is at least one but can not succeed more
member in the House of Representatives than one for every thirty thousand people
of the state’s population

● There are a total number of 538 electoral ● 435 representatives plus 100 senators,
votes, a candidate needs at least 270 to plus 3 for D.C.
win.
The Powers of the President
List those powers here:

- The power to sign or veto bills

- Appoint Supreme Court Justices
- The power to pardon
- The power to sign and negotiate treaties

One of those powers is appointing Supreme Court Justices (wink). Explain to me why this is such an important power. Be sure
to include some discussion of a Justice’s liberal or conservative leanings as well as the impact of Supreme Court decisions:

The president has the power to nominate a candidate to fill any vacancies in the Supreme Court. There are a total of 9 Supreme
Court Justices at a time and serve for their lifetime, which means that there aren’t many times when the president has the
opportunity to fill a vacancy. The president who is nominating someone usually picks a person who has very similar political
views as themselves. Although it seems that presidents should choose candidates based on their knowledge, that doesn’t
always happen. Presidents want to have as many Supreme Court Justices that have similar political views as themselves as
possible so that when the Supreme Court has to make decisions, it leans more in favor of their side and opinions.
 Scarcity & Opportunity Cost
In the space below, tell me why champagne is expensive and water is not, using the word “scarce” in
your explanation. Then tell me about the opportunity cost of buying a bottle of champagne:

Champagne is more expensive because the amount supplied is less than the amount of water supplied.
Water is easier and cheaper to produce than champagne which is why it costs less. In other words,
champagne is scarce compared to water because there is way less champagne produced compared to the
amount of water produced. This is also influenced by the fact that not every place can produce
champagne, and it has to be shipped to many places. Opportunity cost is is the loss of potential gain when
one alternative is chosen over the others. There are many different types and brands of champagne so
brands of champagne are constantly losing potential gain when someone chooses one brand over
another.
Putting it all together….
● On the next two slides, I want you to explain how a law passed by Congress could impact
the economy. On the first slide, post a video in which you explain the following:
1. How a bill becomes a law.
2. How that law could impact the demand or supply of a good or service (anything you want!).
3. What would likely happen to the price of the good/service if the demand/supply changed.
Would a surplus or shortage result, or not?
● On the second slide, show on the graphs provided two possible economic results of the new
law. Be sure to label everything and use arrows to indicate shifts in demand/supply and
changes in price.
Post your video here:

Import the video, don’t just paste a link-

Graph it!
S2
D2
S1 D1
D1 S1

S2 D2

P P

Q Q