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https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77548/overview	Group Formation "Leadership and effective collaboration." by JOSE DIEZ is licensed under CC BY leadership-and-group-group-dynamics "Leadership Styles (Full Version)" by Organizational Communication Channel is licensed under CC BY Management Principles Organizational Behavior, an OpenStax resource Small Group Communication Small Group Communication- College of the Canyons Sustainability for Leaders - Level 1 Calgary by The Natural Step Canada is licensed under CC BY 2.0 "What is the Best Kind of Leadership Style ? \| Sadhguru" by Sadhguru is licensed under CC BY What make leader hand out. Group Leadership and Power Negotiation Overview First Draft of Group Leadership and Power Negotiation project for Small Group Communications Intro This series of modules will explore the behaviors and attributes that make for effective leadership and discuss the role of power negotiation and conflict in the context of leadership. Leadership skills have profound impacts on our work, school, and day-to-day life. Before we can go into what makes a good leader, we need to define what a leader is. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries define a Leader one way as "a person who leads a group of people, especially the head of a country, an organization, etc." Given that premise, one must ask several questions to find what constitutes "good" leadership. What are the traits and behaviors that a good leader exhibits? Are these traits constant and never changing, or are they situational, where a good leader in one circumstance would not be a good leader in another? What styles of leadership have been identified, and what utility do they provide to a group? These questions are complicated and intersectional and thus must be approached from many different standpoints. For this series, we will focus on those aspects of leadership that pertain to small groups. This module will go over the different leadership styles and dissect them to figure out which leadership styles would fit the situation best and how to make a good leader for those situations. What Makes a Good Leader? What makes a good leader is the question I will be presenting today, and we will be going over how we might be able to apply the answer in our work, school, day to day life, etc. But before we can go into what makes a good leader, we need to define what a leader is. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries define Leader one way as "a person who leads a group of people, especially the head of a country, an organization, etc." Now that we understand and agree on the premise of a leader, we can continue with this discussion about what makes a good leader in an educational and cohesive manner. Our goal is to find what makes a good leader but let us break that down a bit. Are we trying to find what makes a good leader in any and all situations, or are we trying to identify what makes a good leader for different situations? If the case is the former than we would be hard pressed to come up with or even find an answer. Because different people react and prosper or fail to different leadership styles depending on the current situation they find themselves in. Let us now go over the different leadership styles and dissect them to figure out which leadership styles would fit the situation best, how what would make a good leader for those situations. I am going to break down the different styles here in a little bit, but before I do I want you all to take a look at this video before we continue. "Leadership Styles (Full Version)" by Organizational Communication Channel is licensed under CC BY Welcome back, so the three main styles of leaders are as follows, Autocratic or Authoritarian, Democratic, and lastly Laissez-faire also known as the Hands-Off approach. Now let’s do the break down. - Autocratic: The Autocratic style is best used in short term situations or with follows who need a more hands-on approach with lots of micromanaging. Now while I said it is best used in the short term, you’ll probable recognize this style in long term situations, like a job. And you would probably also know if you were in this situation that you don’t like your boss. The Autocratic is best used for quick decisions in the short term and some jobs require a lot of quick short-term decisions, like a general in the army or a manager in a fast-food restaurant. - So, what would make a good Autocratic leader is someone who can recognize the fasted paced and necessary decisions for short term situations and act accordingly. - Democratic: The Democratic style is best used for long term and some short-term situations with followers you trust. Now the biggest point to note is this works with people you trust when dealing with some short-term situations. It can work in long term with people you don’t trust, but this will delay and poses a greater risk of failure or disharmony when working with people you don’t trust, whether that be the leader or the follower. Democratic leadership is often used in government to keep a more harmonic following but gets slowed down and de-harmonized when mistrust is in play, as we saw in the 2020 election which saw both sides not trusting the other and thinking the other side cheated. - So, what would make a good Democratic leader is someone who can listen and socialize with their following to make decision that harmonize the whole team. - Laissez-faire: The Laissez-faire style is best used in high trust situations with highly skilled followers that are highly motivated. Another case where this is useful is in schooling, it’s typically used in home schooling or unschooling as they like to call it. But this is best used in High skill situations with more of a team of people. In this situation the leader provides more guidance and insight to their team and gives feedback based on the team’s progression. - So, what would make a good Laissez-faire leader is someone who can listen to their team to understand their situations and provide feedback and guidance as needed. They are also someone who can recognize skill in other to create a highly skilled team. Now let’s move onto the interaction section where will go over how you can use this in your daily life and some activities to try on your own or with others. Also take a look at the videos in this section for more information on a general leading which Sadhguru talks about in this "What is the Best Kind of Leadership Style ? \| Sadhguru" by Sadhguru is licensed under CC BY or for a fun little animation examples of leadership watch this "Leadership and effective collaboration." by JOSE DIEZ is licensed under CC BY. What Makes a Good Leader? -Interactive Alright, you made it, now let us get into the activities. We'll start by having you answer some questions, but I want to go over why we're asking these questions before we do that. Answering these questions gives you a greater insight into your leadership style and makes you aware of your strengths and weaknesses when leading others and how you can learn from leaders to improve yourself. - Reflect on your leadership style and how it relates to the other leadership qualities Your answer here: - Describe when you had a 'bad' and 'good' leader and what made them so. Your answer here: - Describe the power dynamics of different groups you have interacted with in the past Your answer here: - Share your experience with all students the group Your answer here: - Using examples from the module, point out where other students used ideas correctly in either leadership and group dynamics. Your answer here: “Train the Trainer 101 Discussion Forum” by Cindy Zhou is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial. Leadership "Connecting Young Leaders - Career Development: Networking, relationships, leadership and career planning - October 2" by US Embassy New Zealand is marked with CC PDM 1.0 Leadership is the ability to motivate people and mobilize resources to accomplish a common goal. " BUS401: Management Leadership" by Saylor Academy is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Leaders hold both status and power within a group through either their selection or the group's development. They may be formally or informally recognized inside and outside a group, and these be separated into two roles: - Designated leaders are those that are recognized for their leadership ability and are officially appointed or elected. - Emergent leaders gain status and respect through interactions with group members and their tasks. They are turned to by others when leadership is needed. Leaders are sometimes selected by a group based upon their characteristics, such as physical appearance, communication ability, intelligence, and personality. Leaders also emerge based on their communication skills, as specific message actions create leadership conditions. In this way, leadership can be seen as a set of communication behaviors that are learnable and adaptable rather than traits or situational factors, which are often beyond our control. The context of the situation a group finds themselves in also affects how leaders emerge. Differencing styles and abilities are needed based on a group's structure, how interactions play out, whether a leadership struggle occurs, and its goals. "Small Group Structures" by Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan, Saylor Academy is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 While only one or two official leaders may lie within a group, all group members can perform leadership functions. Leaders can adopt different styles to fulfill their needs and the group's task or goals. Some leadership styles are a better fit for a leadership style than others. - Directive leaders provide structure to their group members by clearly communicating expectations, keeping a schedule and a plan, providing precise guidance in tasking, and taking the lead on setting up and communicating group rules and procedures. - Participative leaders include group members within the decision-making process by soliciting and considering their opinions, suggestions, and recommendations. - Supportive leaders have concern for their followers' wants and feelings. - Achievement-oriented leaders demand excellence, set challenging goals, seek continuous improvement, and believe that group members can meet high expectations. The Leadership Process (Attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC-BY 4.0 license) "Organizational Behavior" by OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Power is how leaders move their groups toward success and complete their assigned tasks and goals, and they do so by tapping into various types of powers inherent within themselves and the group. Effective leaders do not need to possess all the power types. Instead, they know how to draw on other group members who may be better able to exercise a type of power in a given situation. Basis of Power \| Guidelines for Use \| \| Referent power \| \| \| Expert power \| \| \| Legitimate power \| \| \| Reward power \| \| \| Coercive power \| \| \| Source: Adapted from Gary A. Yukl, Leadership in Organizations, 8th edition 2013 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Pearson), pp. 44–58 "Organizational Behavior" by OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Small Group Communication" by Kerry Osborne , College of the Canyons, is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work unless otherwise attributed or noted. Group Dynamics In 1965 Bruce Tuckman presented a model for group formation that is still widely used today. His group behavior observations in various settings allowed him to propose a four-stage map of group evolution, known as the Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing Model(Tuckman, B.,1965 Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin,63, 384–399). Later he expanded the model to include a fifth and final stage, Adjourning. "Stages of the Group Development Model" by Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 - Forming In the forming stage, the group comes together for the first time. The members may already know each other or total strangers. There is a level of formality, anxiety, and a degree of guardedness as group members are unsure what will happen next. Because of the large amount of uncertainty, members tend to be polite, conflict-avoidant, and observant. Group members are trying to achieve goals at this stage, although this may not consciously. They are trying to get to know one another by finding common ground. Boundaries are determined to what is considered acceptable behavior with the group. Members are discovering how the group will work: what needs to be done and who will be responsible for each task. This stage often has discussions about issues to be addressed by the group. This phase is usually short, perhaps a meeting or two. - Storming Once group members feel sufficiently safe and included, they enter the storming phase. Participants focus less on keeping their guard up and becoming more authentic and more argumentative. Members begin to explore their power and influence, stake out their territory, differentiating themselves from other members. Discussions can become heated as conflicting views and values are expressed or disagreements over how goals should be accomplished and assigned what tasks. It is not unusual for group members to become defensive, competitive, or jealous. Members may take sides or form cliques. Questioning or resisting the leader quite common. Although little seems to get accomplished at this stage, it serves an essential purpose: group members become more authentic. It takes skill to move the group from Storming to Norming. Many groups get stuck in the Storming phase. Once the group can be genuine with each other that the group is capable of handling differences without dissolving, they are ready to enter the next stage, - Norming Group members are much more committed to each other and the group's goal. Finding themselves more cohesive and cooperative, participants find it easy to establish their own rules (or norms) and define their operating procedures and plans. The group tends to make big decisions, while subgroups or individuals handle the smaller decisions. At this point, members are more open and respectful toward each other and willing to ask one another for help and feedback. They may even form friendships and share personal information.At this point, the leaders become more of a facilitator. Stepping back and letting the group assume more responsibility for its goal. This is an ideal time to host a social or team-building event. - Performing At this stage, participants are not only getting work done but how they are doing it. Members are more interdependent, individuality and differences respected. They ask such questions about policies, procedures, and efficiencies. By now, the group has become more competent, autonomous, and insightful. Leaders move into coaching roles and help members grow in skill and leadership. These leadership shifts are essential. A leader who heads multiple teams may find they need to shift leadership styles not only over time but between groups at different stages. - Adjourning Just as groups form, so do, they end. For example, many groups or teams formed are project-oriented and are temporary. Alternatively, a working group may dissolve because of restructuring. As with graduating from school or leaving home for the first time, these endings can be bittersweet. Members feel a combination of victory, grief, and insecurity about what is coming next. This transition can be particularly challenging for those who bond closely with fellow group members. Leaders and members should be sensitive to handling endings respectfully and empathetically. An ideal way to close a group is to set aside time to debrief, acknowledge one another's efforts, and celebrate a job well done. These stages all feed into the concept of cohesion. Cohesion is the degree of commitment a group member has towards its purpose, activities, and tasking. Cohesion refers to the degree of trust, and ability members have towards other members and their leaders. Group cohesion comes in two forms task and social and must be balanced for the group to be successful. The fundamental factors affecting group cohesion include the following: ·Similarity. The more similar group members are in terms of age, sex, education, skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs, the more likely the group will bond. ·Stability. The longer a group stays together, the more cohesive it becomes. ·Size. Smaller groups tend to have higher levels of cohesion. ·Support. When group members receive coaching and are encouraged to support their fellow team members, group identity strengthens. ·Satisfaction. Cohesion is correlated with how pleased group members are with one another's performance, behavior, and conformity to group norms. Groups can get along and be close socially but not perform well if they do not have an appropriate unity level to approach a task. Groups that are too focused upon a task experience more interpersonal conflict or a lack of motivation if the feeling of interrelationship is missing. Climate refers to the relative tone and quality of the interactions experienced by group members within the group. Socialization of a group refers to the process of how a group indoctrinates new members and themselves by teaching group norms, rules, and expectations associated with a group through interactions, demonstrations, and reinforcement with technical and social information. Groups with high levels of task and social cohesion are more likely to buy into the group's norms. Socialization continues after a member has joined, as members are officially or unofficially rewarded or punished for adhering to or deviating from the group's standards. Conformity is a vital force to group socialization. Internal pressures of the group, such as the inner drive to be seen and felt to be part of the group or avoid feelings of shame or guilt for deviating from the group. Equally, external pressures such as the potential for reward or punishment also play into group dynamics. However, the pressures towards conformity can manifest themselves in the dangerous phenomenon of groupthink. Groupthink lacks critical evaluation of proposed ideas, a high level of agreement, and fear of an argument both within the group itself and with the group leader. " Group Formation" by Ryan Guy, Saylor Academy is licensed under CC BY 3.0 "Small Group Communication" by Kerry Osborne , College of the Canyons, is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work unless otherwise attributed or noted. Leadership and Group Group Dynamics Crossword Puzzle- Interactive Leadership and Group Group Dynamics \| \| "Crossword Labs" by Matt Johnson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Using the concepts presented in Leadership and Group Dynamics section complete the crossword puzzle, perferably as a group. Hint: Pay attention to the indents and high lights. Leadership and Group Group Dynamics \| \| \|---\| "Crossword Labs" by Matt Johnson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Conflict If we are to try to understand the roots of conflict, we need to know what type of conflict is present. Openstax identifies 4 distinct types of conflicts: - Goal conflict. Goal conflict can occur when one person or group desires a different outcome than others do. This is simply a clash over whose goals are going to be pursued. - Cognitive conflict. Cognitive conflict can result when one person or group holds ideas or opinions that are inconsistent with those of others. This type of conflict is evident in political debates. - Affective conflict. This type of conflict emerges when one person’s or group’s feelings or emotions (attitudes) are incompatible with those of others. Affective conflict is seen in situations where two individuals simply don’t get along with each other. - Behavioral conflict. Behavioral conflict exists when one person or group does something (i.e., behaves in a certain way) that is unacceptable to others. Dressing for work in a way that “offends” others and using profane language are examples of behavioral conflict. It's crucial for a leader to be able to identify the types of conflict when giving direction and making decisions. Without understanding where the conflict originates, a leader will be unable to identify effective approaches to resolving it. Levels of Conflict In addition to different types of conflict, there exist several different levels of conflict. The level of the conflict refers to the number of people involved in it. Openstax identifies and discusses four key levels of conflict. - Intrapersonal conflict. - Interpersonal conflict. - Intergroup conflict. - Interorganizational conflict. Of these identified levels of conflict, only the first two are of particular relevance to small group communication: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal. Intrapersonal conflict is conflict within one person. We often hear about someone who has an approach-avoidance conflict; that is, she is both attracted to and repelled by the same object. Similarly, a person can be attracted to two equally appealing alternatives, such as two good job offers (approach-approach conflict) or repelled by two equally unpleasant alternatives, such as the threat of being fired if one fails to identify a coworker guilty of breaking plant rules (avoidance-avoidance conflict). In any case, the conflict is within the individual. Conflict can also take form in an interpersonal conflict, where two individuals disagree on some matter. For example, you can have an argument with a coworker over an issue of mutual concern. Such conflicts often tend to get highly personal because only two parties are involved and each person embodies the opposing position in the conflict. Hence, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the opponent’s position and her person. People often assume that all conflict is necessarily bad and should be eliminated. On the contrary, there are some circumstances in which a moderate amount of conflict can be helpful. For instance, conflict can lead to the search for new ideas and new mechanisms as solutions to organizational problems. Conflict can stimulate innovation and change. It can also facilitate employee motivation in cases where employees feel a need to excel and, as a result, push themselves in order to meet performance objectives. Conflict, which aims at a resolution of tension between antagonists, is likely to have stabilizing and integrative functions for the relationship. Conflict can, on the other hand, have negative consequences for both individuals and organizations when people divert energies away from performance and goal attainment and direct them toward resolving the conflict. Thus, conflict can be either functional or dysfunctional in work situations depending upon the nature of the conflict, its intensity, and its duration. Indeed, both too much and too little conflict can lead to a variety of negative outcomes, as discussed above. Just as the root types of conflict very, so do the root causes. While some causes of conflict may well be rooted in only one type of conflict, others can have multiple types of conflict in play depending on the personalities of the individuals in question or the situation at hand. Kerry Osborne identifies several common examples of causes of conflict: · Competing interests: Conflict can arise when people have mutually incompatible desires or needs. For example, two team members with similar skills may both want a certain assignment, leaving the one who doesn’t receive it resentful. · Different behavioral styles or preferences: Individuals may clash over their respective work habits, attention to detail, communication practices, or tone of expression. While these can affect coordination of interdependent tasks, they can especially inhibit direct collaboration. · Competition over resources: Members may fight over the limited resources available to accomplish the team’s tasks. For example, if two people both rely on the action of a third person to meet identical deadlines, disagreements might arise over whose work should receive that person’s attention first. · Failure to follow team norms: A team member creates conflict when she displays attitudes or behaviors that go against the team’s agreement about how it will function. If a group norm calls for prompt arrival at meetings and prohibits the use of mobile devices during discussions, ignoring these practices can engender conflict. · Performance deficiencies: When some team members are either not contributing their share of effort or not performing at the expected level of quality, the impositions that result can create friction, which may be heightened when critical or highly visible tasks are involved. · Poor communication: When team members do not share relevant information with each other, people may make decisions or take actions that others consider inappropriate or even harmful. Blame and questions about motives can result, creating discord among the team. · Ambiguity about means and ends: Lack of clarity about tasks, strategies, and/or goals can lead people to make assumptions that others do not share or agree with, which can result in conflict Learning objectives: - Identify the four types of conflict - Identify the levels of conflict, and discuss in detail the nature of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict - Distinguish between types of conflict and causes of conflict, and identify in a conflict its ultimate cause [The remaining learning objectives for this module are Work-In-Progress at time of drafting] Glossary: Conflict Goal conflict Cognitive conflict Affective conflict Behavioral conflict Intrapersonal conflict Interpersonal conflict [Remaining glossary terms WIP for this module at time of drafting] [Conflict Interactives WIP as they involve a section that remains under development] References: "Small Group Communication" by Kerry Osborne, College of the Canyons is licensed under CC BY 4.0 . "Organizational Behavior" by OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work unless otherwise noted Summary So you’ve made it through; that wasn’t so hard. Some key takeaways are to identify and recognize different leadership styles in your day-to-day life and how they affect you, what you can do to improve them possibly, and what is already working with those leaders. You also want to remember the three different leadership types going forward as you join and form new teams, especially when leading your team. You want to make sure you can identify your team when leading and which leadership style approach is best suited for that team's needs in the short term and needs in the long term. Learning objectives: Conflict - Identify the four types of conflict. - Identify the levels of conflict, and discuss in detail the nature of the intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict. - Distinguish between types of conflict and causes of conflict, and identify in a conflict its ultimate cause [The remaining learning objectives for this module are Work-In-Progress at time of drafting] Glossary: Conflict Goal conflict Cognitive conflict Affective conflict Behavioral conflict Intrapersonal conflict Interpersonal conflict [Remaining glossary terms WIP for this module at the time of drafting] [Conflict Interactives WIP as they involve a section that remains under development] Before we go, go back and make sure you finished all of the activities and answered all the questions before turning this in. Once you finished reading all the sections, make sure you submitted all your answers to the same file's questions and activities. References: Leader noun - DEFINITION, PICTURES, pronunciation and usage notes: Oxford ADVANCED American dictionary at oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/leader “Train the Trainer 101 Discussion Forum” by Cindy Zhou is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial. "Leadership and effective collaboration." by JOSE DIEZ is licensed under CC BY "Leadership Styles (Full Version)" by Organizational Communication Channel is licensed under CC BY "What is the Best Kind of Leadership Style? \| Sadhguru" by Sadhguru is licensed under CC BY "Small Group Communication" by Kerry Osborne, College of the Canyons is licensed under CC BY 4.0 . "Organizational Behavior" by OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Organizational Behavior" by OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work unless otherwise noted "Connecting Young Leaders - Career Development: Networking, relationships, leadership and career planning - October 2" by US Embassy New Zealand is marked with CC PDM 1.0 " BUS401: Management Leadership" by Saylor Academy is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 "Small Group Structures" by Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan, Saylor Academy is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 "Small Group Communication" by Kerry Osborne , College of the Canyons, is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work unless otherwise attributed or noted. "Stages of the Group Development Model" by Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, Berrin Erdogan is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 " Group Formation" by Ryan Guy, Saylor Academy is licensed under CC BY 3.0	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:49.872192	Samuel Velthuis	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77548/overview", "title": "Group Leadership and Power Negotiation", "author": "Bryce Pankau" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104038/overview	Race and Ethnicity Definitions Overview This is an assignment on race and ethnicity definitions. Race and Ethnicity Definitions The National Center for Biotechnology Information provides clear definitions of the six major racial groups, which are the standards used by the U.S. Federal Government. Please read the definitions thoroughly and for the assignment share the race/racial and ethnic group(s) you identify with based on your family’s cultural origin. Racial and Ethnic Groups Racial and ethnic groups are defined according to Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, issued by the Office of Management and Budget (available at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/FR-1997-10-30/97-28653). The basic racial and ethnic categories for federal statistics and program administrative reporting are defined as follows: - American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN). A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. - Asian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. - Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as “Haitian” can be used in addition to “Black or African American.” - Hispanic or Latino. A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term “Spanish origin” can be used in addition to “Hispanic or Latino.” - Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NHPI). A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. - White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. "Appendix B, Definitions and Abbreviations Used In 2019 Report" by National Center for Biotechnology Information is in the Public Domain	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:49.894127	05/20/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104038/overview", "title": "Race and Ethnicity Definitions", "author": "Beth Au" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95437/overview	Education Standards WL Self Assessment Checklist - Intermediate Mid Overview Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Mid world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns. Description Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Mid world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:49.923193	Danielle Fulcher	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95437/overview", "title": "WL Self Assessment Checklist - Intermediate Mid", "author": "Stephanie Call" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107983/overview	Education Standards WL Self Assessment Checklist - Advanced Low Overview Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2023. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Advanced Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that world language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions or concerns. Description Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2023. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Advanced Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions or concerns.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:49.951950	Dorann Avey	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107983/overview", "title": "WL Self Assessment Checklist - Advanced Low", "author": "Chrystal Liu" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73986/overview	The Future of Learning Lab \| Online course Overview The Future of Learning Lab is an online free course developed in the LearningShift project (co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme) which provides the context, process and tools for educators to work together and build innovative solutions to educational challenges. The Future of Learning Lab LearningShift is an Erasmus + co-funded project that aimed to design and facilitate new learnign spaces and agents: https://www.learningshift.eu/ In this learning journey you will: - be introduced to our Manifesto, - get familiar with the role of the educator of the 21st century - the different roles one can assume and where you stand as an educator, - be inspired by educators across Europe and the impact they have on society, - explore six thematic areas - STEAM, 4Cs, Learning environments, Technology, Project-based learning and Playful learning - to assist you on your teaching competences development towards a Learning Shift. The course combines useful contents with an open community for worldwide educators to learn & share knowledge on innovative learning experiences and act as catalysts to develop new agents for change. Are you ready for this challenge? Become a change maker and embrace the LearningShift! Together we will set the foundations for a new learning Era and co-create the future of learning. You can access it @ https://www.learningshift.eu/learning-lab.html The Future of Learning Lab Journey	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:49.966966	Isabel Gomes	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73986/overview", "title": "The Future of Learning Lab \| Online course", "author": "Full Course" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73046/overview	Habit of Mind - Thinking Flexibly Overview The following is a lesson on the Arthur Costa's Habits of Mind, which I typically use in my one-year below transfer composition course, but this is also applicable in college prep courses. This lesson is one of a series that introduces a habit of mind (Thinking Flexibly, in this case) in order to help build students' awareness of their own habits and how to modify them through observation (examining the cartoon and description of the habit), application (applying this habit in their own lives via reflection), and creation (creating a comic) that pushes students to use humor, another habit of mind, in order to further reflect on this habit. All in all, these multiple lessons culminate into a larger assignment, The Habits of Mind Portfolio, where students analyze and reflect on how the habits they've learned throughout the semester is seen in their classroom interactions, study habits, home life, and the processes of creating their compositional works done throughout the semester. English 85 (One year below transfer), College Prep As an anticipatory set, I have students view the cartoon before telling them the habit in order to assess how well they already understand this concept. Also, I typically engage in class discussion as we do the first two aspects of the chart. https://www.oercommons.org/editor/documents/12182 Part 1: Watch the following cartoon:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0kSYH-L-YQ On the left hand side of the chart, write an 8-10-sentence response to the following questions: After watching the cartoon, what are your impressions about the behavior and personality types of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny? Next, we will read the description of the habit of mind below this chart and you will answer the following questions: How does this description match the characters in the cartoon? Considering the habit, which character do you most identify with and why? What should Daffy have done differently in order to practice the habit? Let’s discuss your answers. On the right hand side of the chart, write 5 key ideas from the description of the habit that most resonate with you. Provide a reason in one sentence for each of your chosen ideas. On the bottom section of the chart, write an 8-10 sentence response to the assigned prompt. \| Response to Cartoon \| Description of Habit \| 1. Key idea: a. Reason: 2. Key idea: a. Reason: 3. Key idea: a. Reason: 4. Key idea: a. Reason: 5. Key idea: a. Reason: \| Prompt: Prompt response: Comic link: \| Habit of Mind Thinking Flexibly Of all forms of mental activity, the most difficult to induce even in the minds of the young, who may be presumed not to have lost their flexibility, is the art of handling the same bundle of data as before, but placing them in a new system of relations with one another by giving them a different framework, all of which virtually means putting on a different kind of thinking-cap for the moment. It is easy to teach anybody a new fact. … but it needs light from heaven above to enable a teacher to break the old framework in which the student is accustomed to seeing. —Arthur Koestler An amazing discovery about the human brain is its plasticity—its ability to "rewire," change, and even repair itself to become smarter. Flexible people have the most control. They have the capacity to change their minds as they receive additional data. They engage in multiple and simultaneous outcomes and activities, and they draw upon a repertoire of problem-solving strategies. They also practice style flexibility, knowing when thinking broadly and globally is appropriate and when a situation requires detailed precision. They create and seek novel approaches, and they have a well-developed sense of humor. They envision a range of consequences. Flexible people can address a problem from a new angle using a novel approach, which de Bono (1991) refers to as "lateral thinking." They consider alternative points of view or deal with several sources of information simultaneously. Their minds are open to change based on additional information, new data, or even reasoning that contradicts their beliefs. Flexible people know that they have and can develop options and alternatives. They understand means-ends relationships. They can work within rules, criteria, and regulations, and they can predict the consequences of flouting them. They understand immediate reactions, but they also are able to perceive the bigger purposes that such constraints serve. Thus, flexibility of mind is essential for working with social diversity, enabling an individual to recognize the wholeness and distinctness of other people's ways of experiencing and making meaning. Flexible thinkers are able to shift through multiple perceptual positions at will. One perceptual orientation is what Jean Piaget called egocentrism, or perceiving from our own point of view. By contrast, allocentrism is the position in which we perceive through another person's orientation. We operate from this second position when we empathize with another's feelings, predict how others are thinking, and anticipate potential misunderstandings. Another perceptual position is macrocentric. It is similar to looking down from a balcony to observe ourselves and our interactions with others. This bird's-eye view is useful for discerning themes and patterns from assortments of information. It is intuitive, holistic, and conceptual. Because we often need to solve problems with incomplete information, we need the capacity to perceive general patterns and jump across gaps of incomplete knowledge. Yet another perceptual orientation is microcentric, examining the individual and sometimes minute parts that make up the whole. This worm's eye view involves logical, analytical computation, searching for causality in methodical steps. It requires attention to detail, precision, and orderly progressions. Flexible thinkers display confidence in their intuition. They tolerate confusion and ambiguity up to a point, and they are willing to let go of a problem, trusting their subconscious to continue creative and productive work on it. Flexibility is the cradle of humor, creativity, and repertoire. Although many perceptual positions are possible—past, present, future, egocentric, allocentric, macrocentric, microcentric, visual, auditory, kinesthetic—the flexible mind knows when to shift between and among these positions. Some students have difficulty considering alternative points of view or dealing with more than one classification system simultaneously. Their way to solve a problem seems to be the only way. They perceive situations from an egocentric point of view: "My way or the highway!" Their minds are made up: "Don't confuse me with facts. That's it!" Part 2: Use the table feature, clip art, and dialogue boxes to create your own comic about thinking flexibly versus being stubborn. Your comic needs to meet the following requirements. Open a new google slides document and insert a table in the first slide. Adjust the thickness of the table’s border weight so that they are at least 2 points thick and a darker color than the standard grey. Make sure your table contains at least 4 panels. You may use more panels and more than one slide if you choose to. Use clip art cartoons for the characters, setting, props, etc. and have a minimum of 2 characters Go to https://pixabay.com/images/search/student/ or another website for fee clip art Alternatively, you may use Powerpoint to copy and paste clip art into your panels Change the background color of each panel in your table. Through the dialogue and illustrations show a clear understanding of the “thinking flexible” definition in contrast to being stubborn/close-minded. Have an original story involving the characters Have an original punch line at the end of the comic. You may want to include some kind of reference to puns, cultural observation, or some other form of humor. Use callouts for the characters’ speech, which can be found in the “insert” then “shapes” option Copy and paste the “share link” in the “reflections question and comic” portion of the table. Here are two examples of comics that comment on the habit of thinking flexibly:	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:49.991981	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73046/overview", "title": "Habit of Mind - Thinking Flexibly", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100329/overview	Unit 2 Template Unit 3 Template Excel Templates as a Statistical Tool Overview As mentioned in the syllabus, we are using MS Excel for statistical analysis in our OER stats course. We have, therefore, created three templates, one for each of the three units that the course is divided into, in order to help students make necessary calculations. Creating templates was a necessary steps since students are not expected to know how to use Excel functions for statistics and these templates are to guide students into getting relevant stats for their data, such as average, median, histograms, etc. Each template is divided into separate spreadsheets according to the topics. These templates help cut down the tedious work of evaluating statics and help students focus more on the concepts and analyse the results. Excel Templates As mentioned in the syllabus, we are using MS Excel for statistical analysis in our OER stats course. We have, therefore, created three templates, one for each of the three units that the course is divided into, in order to help students make necessary calculations. Creating templates was a necessary steps since students are not expected to know how to use Excel functions for statistics and these templates are to guide students into getting relevant stats for their data, such as average, median, histograms, etc. Each template is divided into separate spreadsheets according to the topics. These templates help cut down the tedious work of evaluating statics and help students focus more on the concepts and analyse the results. Following is the description of the three templates. Unit 1 Template - Frequency Distribution - this spreadsheet evaluates frequencies for variable values, provided the data and the values. - Class Frequency Distribution - this spreadsheet evaluates frequencies for a range of variable values, provided the data and the ranges. - Measures of Center and Spread - this spreadsheet is for evaluating statistics such as the average, median, standard deviation, variance, etc. - Measures of Position - this spreadsheet is for evaluating statistics such as percentiles, quartiles, and z-scores, provided the data. - 5-Number Summary - this spreadsheet if for evaliating the five-number summary, i.e. the minimum data value, the three quartiles, and the maximum data value. - Linear Regression - to obtain scatter plots, correlation coefficient, and regression equation for bivariate data. Unit 2 Template - Probability Table - to evaluate probabilities from given information in tabular format. - Contingency Table - to evaluate conditional probabilities from given contingency tables. - Counting - to evaluate factorials, permutations, and combinations. - Expected Value - to evaluate the expected value and standard deviation of a discrete random variable. - Binomial Probability - to evaluate the binomial probability for exact, at least, or at most value of a given random variable. - Normal - to evaluate the probabilities of a random variable using a normal distribution, given the mean and standard deviation. - CLT - to evaluate the probabilities of a random variable using a normal distribution and the Central Limit Theorem, given the sample size (or data), mean and standard deviation. Unit 3 Template - CI for Proportion - evaluates the confidence interval for a population proportion with the given information. - CI for Mean - evaluates the confidence interval for a population with the given information (or data). - HT for Proportion - evaluates the critical value, test-statistic, and P-value for testing hypotheses for population proportion. - HT for Mean - evaluates the critical value, test-statistic, and P-value for testing hypotheses for population mean.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.013167	01/30/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100329/overview", "title": "Excel Templates as a Statistical Tool", "author": "Hersh Patel" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/78998/overview	Using the GVM Light Kit Overview Review of how to light a subject for video shoots using a three light set-up. Unpacking the light kits Welcome to the Great Video Maker light kit training. Let's take a look at what's included in the light kit. Each kit includes three of almost everything. There are three lights with barn doors, three light stands, three power cables, three soft diffusers, three enhanced soft diffusers, three sets of diffuser mounting brackets, and a remote control. First, we will set up a light stand. Make sure the feet are spread out far apart. Raise the light stand and tighten the knots. Next we will put the light on the top of the stand. There are two ways to configure the light on the light stand. You can put it on the stand vertically. You can also configure the light horizontally. This makes it easier to adjust if you are raising the light above the subject to light down on them, like you would with a backlight. Light Kits - using the diffusers Next, we will add the soft diffuser. It slides in from the top of the light. Make sure the plastic bracket is pulled out to keep the diffuser in place. Most lights will come with the barn doors already mounted. The barn doors help to focus the light or block it depending on what is needed. If you feel the light is too hard or it's creating too many shadows, you can install the enhanced soft diffuser. First, you need to install the barn doors. You will need a 2.5mm Allen wrench to remove them. Once removed, you can return all of the screws back into place, so they do not get lost. Next you will need the two provided mounts and the enhanced soft diffuser. These are easily screwed into the top and bottom of the light. Then the diffuser is mounted using the four provided silver screws. This will provide a much softer light on the subject. Light Kits - setting up and using the lights Now you're ready to plug in the power adapter and turn on the light. You will notice on the power switch that you can turn it to battery power or adapter power. No batteries are provided. So use the adapter power. Once you turn on the light, you will see a display screen power on and lots of buttons and knobs on the back. On the bottom right you will see a knob that says intensity. This is where you will control how bright you will like the light. Even with the diffuser on minimum light intensity, it's still plenty of light. On the bottom left. You will see a know that says CCT, which stands for correlated color temperature. This is where you can light for indoor or outdoor color temperatures. If you are shooting inside without any outside light for windows, turn the knob to 3,200, which will make the LEDs look orange. If you are shooting with outdoor light, turn the knob to 5,600, which will look more blue. Try to place the light at least six feet away from the subject on either side of the camera. If you are using these for a computer camera, make sure they are not casting a shadow from the computer monitor. If you have a space behind you for a third backlight, place it just outside the camera shot six to 10 feet behind you. Your back light brightness should be low. Make sure it is pointed at the back of your head and shoulders. Not the side of your face. Light Kits - Using the remote control These lights have a wireless function. You can control all three lights from one light panel. First using the mode button, set every light to rotate. Then set one light to master and the other to slave. You can now control all three lights from the master light. Another wireless option is to use the remote control, set all of the lights to rotate then to slave. Using the directional buttons on each light panel, name each light with a different G R value, then power on the remote, select the number of the lights you want to adjust. Then control the color, temperature and intensity on the remote. Set up video	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.029320	Lesson	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/78998/overview", "title": "Using the GVM Light Kit", "author": "Diagram/Illustration" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107958/overview	Open Stax Textbook Algebra & Trigonometry 2e Overview Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona participants are invited to remix this template to share their courses, textbooks, and other OER material on our Hub. Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona participants are invited to remix this template to share their courses, textbooks, and other OER material on our Hub.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.047230	Trigonometry	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107958/overview", "title": "Open Stax Textbook Algebra & Trigonometry 2e", "author": "Mathematics" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92918/overview	Greetings Around the World Overview Summary How different cultures greet people Visiting an interesting place Week 1 Greetings Around the World This week we will learn about greetings around the world. Watch the following video and be prepared to tell your classmate about how you greet people in your country. Week 2 My Visit to an Interesting Place Talk about a place you have visited. Make sure to answer the following questions in your presentation: - Where did you go? - Who did you travel with? - What did you see there? - What kind of food did you try? - Did you like the place? Why? Use the following vocabulary words from the unit or your own ideas. - sightseeing - tried - climbed - took a picture of - went to the top of - took a tour - thrilling/thrilled - fascinating/fascinated - frightening/frightened - disgusting/disgusted You can make slides with pictures of the place you have visited or bring pictures, maps, and artifacts to show us in the class.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.069133	05/21/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92918/overview", "title": "Greetings Around the World", "author": "Gilda Ekhtiar" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96386/overview	Preparations and Reactions of Alkenes Overview Preparations and Reactions of Alkenes Preparations and Reactions of Alkenes	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.089972	08/14/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96386/overview", "title": "Preparations and Reactions of Alkenes", "author": "Yeshashvi Marolikar" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/109529/overview	Google Classroom Exploring Yoga for Beginners Overview My OER resource for yoga is designed to provide a holistic learning experience, catering to both beginners and experienced practitioners. It encompasses instructional goals, quizzes, and a convenient link to Google Classroom for seamless integration into your learning environment. Instructional Goals - Students understand and can describe the six different branches of yoga: Raja, Jnana, Tantra, Hatha, Bhakti, and Karma - Students are able to describe a brief history of yoga, as well as a history and purpose of the four poses that we will focus on: Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), Cat-Cow (Marjayasana and Bitilasana), Mountain (Tadasana), and Child’s Pose (Balasana) - Students recognize the various benefits and value of yoga through their understanding of the history and purpose of each pose and implements a recurring practice of their preferred style at least once each week - Students can perform the four yoga poses: Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), Cat-Cow (Marjayasana and Bitilasana), Mountain (Tadasana), and Child’s Pose (Balasana), as well as understand which positions allow them to reach their desired intention. Resources This is a link to google classroom which has resources and module information! Assessments Here are other assessments.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.111813	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/109529/overview", "title": "Exploring Yoga for Beginners", "author": "Assessment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76885/overview	French Level 4, Activity 02: L'environnement de travail / The Work Environment (Online) Overview In this activity students will practice discussing their ideal work environment, including preferred types of colleagues and work preferences. They will also practice explaining past and future work experiences. Activity Information Did you know that you can access the complete collection of Pathways Project French activities in our new Let’s Chat! French pressbook? View the book here: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/pathwaysfrench Please Note: Many of our activities were created by upper-division students at Boise State University and serve as a foundation that our community of practice can build upon and refine. While they are polished, we welcome and encourage collaboration from language instructors to help modify grammar, syntax, and content where needed. Kindly contact pathwaysproject@boisestate.edu with any suggestions and we will update the content in a timely manner. The Work Environment / L'environnement de travail Description In this activity students will practice discussing their ideal work environment, including preferred types of colleagues and work preferences. They will also practice explaining past and future work experiences. Semantic Topics Work, workplace, job, situations, travail, métier, l'environnement du travail, jeu télévisé, Jeopardy, les préférences, preferences, le passé, the past tense, le conditionnel, the conditional tense Products The workplace, jobs, co-workers Practices Interacting with co-workers, interacting in a work environment Perspectives There tends to be more formality in the French workplace! In general, co-workers are more likely to keep their personal lives more private than in American offices, and they tend to place a high level of importance on work and personal life separation. NCSSFL-ACTFL World-Readiness Standards - Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. - Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret spoken and written French on a variety of topics. - Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas in French to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics. Idaho State Content Standards - COMM 1.1: Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions. - COMM 2.1: Understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics. - COMP 1.1: Observe formal and informal forms of language. NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements - I can describe what my ideal work environment looks like. - I can discuss my past work experiences. - I can describe the qualities I look for in a coworker. Materials Needed Warm-Up Warm-Up 1. Begin the activity by opening the Google presentation and introducing the Can-Do statements. Main Activity Main Activity Jeu télévisé : Jeopardy Aujourd'hui, on va jouer à un jeu de Jeopardy. À tour de rôle, vous allez choisir une catégorie et un nombre. Vous devez répondre à la question en phrase complète pour obtenir les points. La personne qui a le plus de points va gagner. (Today, we are going to play Jeopardy. Taking turns, you are going to choose a category and a number. You must respond to the question in a complete sentence to receive points. The person who has the most points wins.) 1. Have each student pick a category and a point value. - Clicking the number will take you to the slide with the corresponding question. - To return to the game board, click on the house in the bottom right corner. 2. Play until all questions are answered. - If there isn’t enough time, play until each student has at least 100 pts. - If there’s time left over, have students ask each other questions. - They can ask the questions from the game (found below) OR they can come up with original questions that would fall under one of the Jeopardy categories.. - Copy-paste the Jeopardy questions into the chat. - They can ask the questions from the game (found below) OR they can come up with original questions that would fall under one of the Jeopardy categories.. Les questions Vos collègues de travail - Avec quel type de personne préférez-vous travailler ? (10 pts.) - Nommez une qualité importante que tout le monde devrait avoir dans un milieu de travail. (20 pts.) - Parlez-nous de votre pire collègue de travail. (30 pts.) - Voudriez-vous que vos collègues soient vos amis en dehors du travail ? Pourquoi ? (40 pts.) Votre job de rêve - Aimeriez-vous avoir un emploi où vous devriez déménager chaque année ? (10 pts.) - Aimeriez-vous voyager souvent, parfois ou jamais pour votre travail ? (20 pts.) - Souhaitez-vous travailler dans un pays étranger ? Quel(s) pays ? (30 pts.) - Quelles qualifications et/ou expériences devriez-vous avoir pour votre job de rêve ? (40 pts.) Votre premier travail - Quel a été votre premier travail ? (10 pts.) - Décrivez votre premier patron. (20 pts.) - Quel était la longueur de votre pire journée de travail ? (30 pts.) - Parlez-nous de votre pire/meilleure expérience d’emploi passée. (40 pts.) Vos préférences - Quelles sont les choses qui vous aident à être le plus productif ? (10 pts.) - Aimez-vous mieux travailler avec un ordinateur ou du papier ? Pourquoi ? (20 pts.) - Quelle période de la journée êtes-vous le plus productif ? (30 pts.) - Préférez-vous le travail d’équipe ou le travail individuel ? Pourquoi ? (40 pts.) L'environnement de travail - Préféreriez-vous travailler au bureau ou à la maison ? (10 pts.) - Aimeriez-vous travailler dans un environnement formel ou informel ? Pourquoi ? (20 pts.) - Préféreriez-vous travailler pour une entreprise où les règles sont strictes et définies ou pour une entreprise où vous pourriez avoir une totale liberté créative ? (30 pts.) - Décrivez votre environnement de travail idéal. ( 40 pts.) Wrap-Up Wrap-Up Ask the following questions to finish the activity: - Est-ce que vous trouvez que nous avons assez de congés payés aux États-Unis ? (Do you think we have enough paid days off in the United States?) - Quel moyen de transport préférez-vous pour aller au travail ? (Which mode of transportation do you prefer to take to work?) Cultural Resources Comparison between the US and France's work cultures Newbie's guide to French work culture End of Activity - Can-Do statement check-in… “Where are we?” - Read can-do statements and have students evaluate their confidence. - Encourage students to be honest in their self evaluation - Pay attention, and try to use feedback for future activities! NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements - I can describe what my ideal work environment looks like. - I can discuss my past work experiences. - I can describe the qualities I look for in a coworker.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.152777	Camille Daw	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76885/overview", "title": "French Level 4, Activity 02: L'environnement de travail / The Work Environment (Online)", "author": "Mimi Fahnstrom" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/102557/overview	Reading Practice Quiz (Scanning and Skimming) Overview This is a reading passage created for practicing some reading skills, like scanning and skimming. Reading Practice Quiz This is a reading passage practice to exercise some reading skills, like scanning and skimming.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.169294	04/03/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/102557/overview", "title": "Reading Practice Quiz (Scanning and Skimming)", "author": "Husam Al-Balushi" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97867/overview	Community College: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Toolkit Overview This fifteen-item collection of CRP resources is my attempt to provide my fellow community college teachers with both the tenets of CRP academic research and also some teaching tools they can use right away in their classrooms. Why does CRP matter? Enrollments are declining. Tuition costs are rising. COVID and online learning have changed our campus culture. The students we have in our classrooms are struggling due to myriad socioeconomic factors beyond our control as teachers. It is because of this grim forecast, therefore, that we teachers need to be sure that our students, those determined people who have overcome so much just to be in our courses on the first day, receive a pedagogy that allows them to learn, a pedagogy with rigor that also acknowledges their unique backgrounds and skill sets rather than overlooking them. Why is culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) important? There are, of course, pragmatic reasons centering on enrollment and retention. We need students to keep our jobs, after all. There are also personal reasons. After the years-long COVID winter and its aftermath, I think it’s safe to assume we all could use some resources to rejuvenate our teaching and face what’s next. Most of all, though, CRP is the right thing to do. It’s a way we can each do our part to help our students in this new future we face. If you have any questions, or just would like to talk, feel free to email me at <mike.mutschelknaus@rctc.edu> or call/text me at 608-385-5443. Dr. Mike Mutschelknaus RCTC English Instructor October 10th, 2022 Toolkit items Community College Equity Assessment Lab Based in California, this research group conducts quantitative and qualitative institutional equity research, for a price. Even so, under their resources tab is quite a bit of scholarly research that practitioners might find useful. Implicit Bias, Blind Grading, and Rubrics There is a groundswell of research out there, too much for me to choose any one particular representative source, that suggests we teachers can reduce our implicit grading bias through blind grading practices and evaluative rubrics. A simple search on Google or Google Scholar using any combination of these terms will provide you with many strong results. Kimberly Crenshaw on Intersectionality Kimberly Crenshaw, the originator of the intersectionality concept, discusses how it’s not just one factor (race, class, gender, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, etc.) that affects people’s interactions, but rather the complex intertwining of these factors. Carol Dweck TED Talk: The Power of Believing that You Can Improve You should do a search on Google, Google Scholar, and Youtube for “Carol Dweck Growth Mindset”. This TED Talk, though, is a good introduction to her core principles. Basically, if we teachers believe that our students can improve, then we will be motivated to develop curricula and strategies that help students improve. Similarly, students who know that intelligence is like a muscle, that can be strengthened with the right practice also experience faster rates of improvement. Empathic Joy in Positive Intergroup Relations This research study from Harvard focused specifically on teachers who used micro-affirmations in their classrooms to improve student outcomes. They did this as a deliberate strategy and had strong results. This builds on the wide body of research on micro-aggressions. It’s not enough to stop micro-aggressing. It’s also important to start micro-affirming. EDX: Cornell University. Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom. This self-paced course is based on the principle that we, as teachers, bring our complex sets of identities and privileges into the classroom with us. The course is designed to make us reflect on the ways that our consequent assumptions about student learning shape our classroom practices. Bobbie Harro’s “Cycle of Socialization” This article, widely available online, has an excellent one-page figure that shows how our identities are shaped, reinforced, or–indeed–diminished by those around us. It provides a useful teaching exercise. Students identify their social identities and then track their history, their milestones, for each of those identities. Inclusive Teaching \| Sheridan Center \| Brown University Inclusive teaching, as a pedagogy, is defined as the explicit, deliberate inclusion of all students into our courses, assessment, and pedagogy. This web site provides broad scope of inclusive strategies that we teachers can apply in our classrooms. Racelighting This set of academic videos and research defines racelighting, the psychological manipulation of BIPOC people that causes them to second-guess themselves and provides tools to combat it. Responding to Racial Bias and Microagressions in the online environment The best part of this hour-long Youtube video webinar is its specificity. I think our default mind-image about microagressions is that they occur basically in face-to-face situations. For the specific teaching tips, I suggest fast forwarding to the framework part of the video. Stereotype Threat: A Conversation with Claude Steele You should do a Google, Google Scholar, and Youtube search on Steele and Aronson’s definition of “stereotype threat”, a situation in which a person can be worried that their performance will confirm a negative group stereotype. This brief Youtube conversation with Claude Steele, though, is a good place to start. Stereotype threat has signicant implications for our pedagogy. Beverly Daniel Tatum. The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?” This reflective pedagogical essay, readily available on the web encourages teachers, and students, to reflect more deeply on the process of identity-building. She points out that privileged people often do not realize just how much their privileges shape them, but that people who are less privileged are very away of how their statuses shape them. Universal Design for Learning in Postsecondary Education (Rose et al.) Back in the days before online learning really went mainstream, I used to have blind students, deaf students, and students with muscular dystrophy in my community college courses. We all did. That doesn’t happen as much anymore. UDL, of course, is about providing access to all learners in our courses. It’s not about tweaking one aspect or another of our courses to provide a quick fix. My former students would be quick to let you know that. University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation As always, the CEI web site has very specific resources we can use in our courses. In addition to more materials on inclusive teaching, there are also resources on anti-racist teaching and trauma-informed teaching. University of Michigan Inclusive Teaching This well-curated web site provides a wealth of resources on inclusive teaching, anti-racist pedagogy, lesson-planning, and class activity ideas. It is organized so that if you are teaching a STEM course, an online course, or a large course, there are resources for you. All too often, inclusive teaching pedagogy erroneously assumes, it seems to me, that there is one teacher, in a physical classroom, with about 20 eager students. Those are not the realities we teach in, and this web site acknowledges this fact.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.187094	10/11/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97867/overview", "title": "Community College: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Toolkit", "author": "Mike Mutschelknaus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/71132/overview	Economics and Macroeconomics Macroeconomics Syllabus Rhodes-Tourism and Economics Economics-Visuals, Syllabus, Discussion, Student Value-Added Overview Employing visuals in conveying economics information, Economics-Visuals, Syllabus, Discussion, Student Value-Added Conveying information, traditionally, has been through text. The theory of different learning styles has provoked complementary vehicles for conveying information such as video (YouTube), audio, experimentation, games and more. Images can be used to convey teaching points and this is accessible to anyone with a phone that is willing to snap a few photos during the course of their day. The subject of the photo may be just about anything as so much of the way society is organized has an economic content. The three samples are: Rhodes-Tourism and Economics - This Word document highlights the connections between tourism, history and economics. Culture and Economics - This PPT highlights the connections between culture and economics. Economics and Macroeconomics - This Word document is an introduction to macroeconomics. The syllabus is our guide through the entire course and key areas include assessment, schedule and course description. See attached. Discussion carries the learning among students and the instructor. One historical can be to carry forward discussions from previous classes so that current students can build on the thoughts of their predecessors. Finally, student value-added may be demonstrated with student entries in, for example, economics topics in Wikipedia. Students may perceive for example that the typical example of a light house being a public good because there is no way to collect a fee for its use by passing ships, is incorrect. After all, in the modern era cars have transponders whereby highway toll fees are collected. Ships could have the same.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.207850	08/12/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/71132/overview", "title": "Economics-Visuals, Syllabus, Discussion, Student Value-Added", "author": "Mark Friedman" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96396/overview	Sign in to see your Hubs Sign in to see your Groups Create a standalone learning module, lesson, assignment, assessment or activity Submit OER from the web for review by our librarians Please log in to save materials. Log in Preparations of alkenes Preparations of Alkenes or	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.228489	08/14/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96396/overview", "title": "preparations of alkenes", "author": "Ayesha Sorathiya" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104055/overview	Elementary English for Life and Work Lesson Plan Overview This is a sample lesson plan for an Elementary English class. This is one of my lesson plans I prepared to use for my Elementary English Course for Life and Work. Modesto Junior College / Elementary English for Life and Work Instructor: Zohra Saeed Samadi Date: Number of Students: Classroom Building: Course Learning Outcomes Upon satisfactory completion of this course, you will be able to: - demonstrate accurate use of English grammar and vocabulary at a beginning level in a variety of common life-skill situations. - write sentences with effective support of ideas and utilizing accurate basic punctuation, capitalization, spelling and spatial conventions at a beginning level. Class Objectives By the end of today’s class, students will be able to: - identify rooms in a home. - learn how to talk about a home (describe rooms). - use the words; There is and There are to talk about rooms in a home. - ask about furniture and appliances in a home. - ask questions about furniture and appliances with Is there…..? and Are there…..? (length of task/ activity /exercise) \| Objective \| Task/Activity/Exercise \| Documents/ props/ equipment needed \| Assessment \| 10 minutes 25 minutes 25 minutes \| Review vocabulary By the end of class, Ss will able to learn how to identify rooms in a home. By the end of class, Ss will able to talk about a home (describe rooms) \| Warm-up \| Desktop, projector, hand-outs, white board and markers Future Intro Textbook Page 124 \| Teacher will look at students’ spelling and correct their errors. \| Unit 7 Lesson 1 Exercise 2A, page 125 Exercise 2C, page 125 Exercise 1, page 126 Exercise 2A, B, page 126 Exercise 2C, page 126 Break \| Desktop, projector, white board, textbook and markers Desktop, projector, white board, textbook and markers \| Teacher will observe Ss while answering the questions to see if they have met the objective. Teacher assesses students’ background knowledge and try to build on it. \| \|\| 25 minutes 25 minutes 25 minutes 25 minutes \| By the end of class, students will be able to use the words; There is and There are to talk about rooms in a home. By the end of class students will be able to learn how to ask about furniture and appliances in a home. By the end of class students will be able to ask questions about furniture and appliances with Is there…..? and Are there…..? To review students’ home work from Future Intro Workbook; Unit 6, pages 71-73. \| Exercises 3A & B, page 127 Unit 7 Lesson 3 Exercise 1A, page 128 Exercise 2A, page 129 Exercise 3A, page 129 Homework (Workbook) \| Desktop, projector, white board, textbook and markers Desktop, projector, textbook, white board and markers Desktop, projector, textbook, white board and markers Desktop, projector, workbook, white board and markers \| Teacher monitors students’ understanding of the target grammar when they try to complete the exercises. Teacher assesses students’ background knowledge and try to build on it. Teacher monitors students’ understanding of the target grammar when they try to complete the exercises. Teacher checks students’ homework to make sure that students have learned the skills and the concepts taught in the textbook. \| Reflection: \| \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.296449	05/20/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104055/overview", "title": "Elementary English for Life and Work Lesson Plan", "author": "Zohra Saeed Samadi" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99746/overview	Financial Accounting Classify Accounts https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accounting/cash-vs-accrual-accounting-whats-best-small-business/ https://www.basis365.com/blog/cash-basis-accounting-and-accrual-accounting https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accounts-receivable-aging.asp https://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/businessstructure.shtml OER_ch01 Student Accounting For Business and Entrepreneurs, Concepts and Technology Overview The content will cover basic Accounting and Managerial concepts for Non-Accounting Majors. This textbook approaches Financial and Managerial Accounting from a business perspective. The topics covered are relevant for business owners and entrepreneurs; helping them to understand what information is needed to run a business, make decisions, and grow the business. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction to Accounting Chapter 2: Analyzing, Posting, and Adjusting Transactions Chapter 3: Receivables Chapter 4: Accounting for a Merchandising Company Chapter 5: Financial Statements Chapter 6: Internal Control and Cash Chapter 7: Long-term Assets Chapter 8: Liabilities Chapter 9: Other business entities: Partnerships and Corporations Chapter 10: The Role of Accounting in the Basic Management Process Chapter 11: Job Order Costing Chapter 12: Cost Behavior and CVP Analysis Chapter 13: Budgeting Chapter 14: Differential Analysis: Relevant Costs Chapter 1 Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: - LO1: Define the purpose of accounting - LO2: Describe the accounting process. - LO3: Describe the forms of businesses. - LO4: Define the different types of business entities. - LO5: Classify the different types of business activities. - LO6: Identify the four basic financial statements and their purposes - LO7: Define assets, liabilities, and Owner’s equity. What Is the Purpose of Accounting? The Purpose of Accounting The purpose of accounting is to provide financial information to users in order for those users to make decisions. Accounting is often called the “language of business.” Accounting is the means by which financial information is communicated to users. The focus of this text is on the role of accounting in business. Financial Accounting deals with preparing financial information for external users. Managerial accounting deals with preparing financial information for external users. Users Users of accounting information are separated into two groups, internal and external. Internal users are the people within a business organization who use accounting information. External users are people outside the business entity that use accounting information. Accounting information is valuable because decision makers, internal and external, can use it to evaluate the financial decisions of various alternatives. Accountants reduce uncertainty by using professional judgment to quantify the future financial impact of taking action or delaying action. Accounting information plays a significant role in reducing uncertainty within an organization. Nature and Objective of Business and Accounting A business is an organization that provides goods or services to customers. The objective of most business is to earn a profit. Profit is the difference between the amount received for selling your goods and services and the cost of providing those goods and services. Types of Businesses Three types of businesses operated for profit include service, merchandising (retailers), and manufacturing businesses. Examples of each type of business are below: Service businesses: - Federal Express (Delivery services) - American Airlines (Transportation services) - Marriott Hotels (Hotel services) - Universal Studios (Entertainment services) Merchandising businesses (Retailers): - Target (general merchandise) - Amazon (books) - Walmart (general merchandise) - Safeway Stores (groceries) Manufacturing businesses: - Ford Motor Company (vehicles) - Dell Inc. (Computers) Forms of Businesses A business is normally organized in one of the following four forms: - proprietorship - partnership - limit liability company - corporation A proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned and run by one individual with no distinction between the business and the owner. The owner is entitled to all profits and are responsible for ALL business's debts, losses, and liabilities. The primary disadvantage of proprietorships is that the owner has unlimited liability to creditors for the debts of the company. In the United States, more than 70% of all businesses are proprietorships. A partnership is a legal form of business operation between two or more individuals who share management and profits. The In the United States, about 10% of all business are partnerships. The partners of a partnership also have unlimited liability to creditors for the debts of the company. A corporation is a legal entity that is separate and distinct from its owners. Corporations enjoy most of the rights and responsibilities that an individual possesses; that is, a corporation has the right to enter into contracts, loan and borrow money, sue and be sued, hire employees, own assets and pay taxes. The ownership of a corporation is represented by shares of stock. A corporation issues the stock to individuals or other entities, who then become owners or stockholders of the corporation. A major advantage of a corporation is that stockholders' have limited liability to creditors for the debts of the company. It is limited to their investment. A limited liability company (LLC) combines attributes of a partnership and a corporation. The primary advantage of the limited liability company form is that it operates similar to a partnership, but its owners' (or members') liability for the debts of the company is limited to their investment. Many professional practices such as, lawyers, doctors, and accountants are organized as limited liability companies. A Limited Liability company is governed by the State you register the company; this means, it can still function like any of the other businesses entities. Use the attached resource to see what business structure will best suit your business. Business Activities All companies are engaged in the following three business activities: Operating activities involve the current assets, current liabilities, revenues, and expenses. Revenues are the assets received from selling the company’s goods or services. Revenues are normally identified according to their source. Investing activities involve buying and selling of company noncurrent assets to start and operate a business. These assets would include land, buildings, computers, office and store machines, office furnishings, trucks, and automobiles. Financing activities involve obtaining funds to begin and operate a business. Companies obtain funds by: - issuing shares of stock (Ownership in the business) - borrowing from the bank - Issuing bonds (borrowing from the public) Accounting Process Accounting is the systemic gathering of financial information about a business and reporting this information to users. The report can be in the form of financial statements, such as the Profit and Loss (Income Statement), or the Balance Sheet. Also, if the company is publicly traded, they must submit an annual report on the financial state of the company. There are six major steps in this process: - Recording: entering financial information about economic events into the accounting system. This system can be a program, such as QuickBooks, that can either be cloud based or downloaded to your desktop. - Classifying: we must ask ourselves what type of information is this? Is this an invoice or a bill? This will help to sort the financial information. - Summarizing: providing the information in an easy to understand method. - Reporting: this would be in the form of the financial statements. - Interpreting: users will use this information to make decisions. The Accounting Equation There is a delicate balancing of the financial information; we will use the Accounting Equation to stay in balance. The Accounting Equation is: The left side shows the assets or economic resources of the company, the right side of the equal shows the claims on the company assets. These claims can be from a creditor or the owner(s). Classifying Accounts Examples The table shown below lists some of the main account names we will use. As we move forward, the list of accounts will increase. Assets: - Current assets are cash and other assets that are expected to be converted to cash or sold or used up within one accounting period which is normally one year or less. This would normally include cash, accounts receivable, notes receivable, supplies, and prepaid expenses. - Long-term assets: Property, Plant, and Equipment are physical assets of a long-term nature. The fixed assets may also be reported on the balance sheet as property, plant, and equipment or plant assets. Fixed assets include equipment, machinery, buildings, and land. Except for land, these assets depreciate over a period of time. The cost less accumulated depreciation is called the book value and is normally reported on the classified balance sheet. - Intangible assets represent rights of a long-term nature, such as patent rights, copyrights, and goodwill. This will be discussed in different chapter. Liabilities: - Current liabilities are liabilities that are due within one accounting period, which is normally one year or less, and are to be paid out of current assets. Normally current liabilities include accounts payable, notes payable, wages payable, interest payable, taxes payable, and unearned revenue. - Long-term Liabilities are liabilities that are due after the first accounting period. Owner's Equity: Owner's equity will be the difference between your assets minus your liabilities (debt) that the owner of the business can claim. This can be derived from the investments, net income less the dividends, that is retained in the business. The owner can decide to withdraw some of the equity in the company. Taking It Further with Technology We have learned the basics of Accounting using the pen to paper method but, we know technology affects every aspect of your life. Even in the world of business, we have different devices or programs that help us to run our business. Let's explore them. Social Media Social media is a way for a business owner to connect with customers and find new customers. The benefits of using social media can save a company advertising cost by creating their own media. One of the other benefits of social media is you can gain loyal customers; all of the these options are advatanges to social media. One of the disadvantages is the time it takes to learn all the different platforms. Thankfully, there are tech companies that you can purchase already created content and post it own your social media page. Customer Relationship Management CRM's will help a company to streamline communication with customers as well as staff. These programs help to orgainize and automate your customer interactions. The scale of the program you select can depend on cost and needs of the company. Collecting Payments Paying for services or purchases has become easier with the use of these payment apps. As a customer, you can send money or pay for services from a business. As a business owner, you can use these apps to collect fees and increase your sales because you take different forms of payment. Virtual Office Assistants and Virtual Offices When the Pandemic hit, every company had to find a way for work to continue; those that could, started to work remote. This caused companies to address what "working from home" means and how to sufficiently get the work done; companies scrammbled to get equipment and laptops to employees. Businesses saw a huge benefit for some employees to work from home because employees were more productive and it was saving some operational costs. Some companies laid off employees. Even now that some employees are back at the physical office, this created a new administrative position called a Virtual Assistants; the employee can work from home, using their own equipment, and work for more than just one company at any location. This also caused a huge wave with virtual offices; now, you can complete work from a remote location, using technology to keep appointments and conduct virtual meetings. Keeping information in one place is easy with cloud storage. There are so many apps or programs you can use to run your business efficiently, it just takes some research to see what apps or programs works best for your business. Comprehensive Problem This Comprehensive Problem will span the entire textbook starting as a service company, then, a merchandising company, and lastly, a manufacturing company. This will also serve an an example of the graded comprehensive problem you will compelete as an exam grade. Foundation Theia Ellis worked in the field as a Physical Therapist until the Pandemic; she found herself out of a job, even though she loved her patients and her work. Her patients loved her as well, stating they would follow her to another facility. After going on serveral job interviews, she decided to open her own business. With the money from her servant's package and her savings, she invested $15,000, acquired some used equipment from Facebook Marketplace for $4,500, and went in search of an office location. She wanted some place her clients would feel safe and private to conduct sessions. She found a place with private suites and an open space for sessions; the rent and utilities would be $3,500 a month. The other monthly expenses were: - Business insurance $900 a year - Supplies - $375 - Uniforms - $175 - New laptop and printer - $2,500 - Advertising and signage - $425 - Internet - $100/month - A lawyer to complete the formation papers for the LLC - $550 - LLC fee - $300 - EMR system - $120/month After consulting with a lawyer, Proficient Therapy LLC was formed; the doors will open on Jan. 1. Theia signed the lease for the unit, paying the first month's rent and purchased all the necessary items for the business to start. Using the Accounting equation, it will look like this: As you can see, Theia has a starting net loss because no revenue has been earned. We will use this information when we check back in with Proficient Therapy. Chapter 1 Summary We have discused the basic foundation of Accounting using the Accounting Equation, Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity. We will start off by viewing the information from a the sole proprietorship's perspective. We will slowly add new concepts and materials each week. After each chapter, please return to Blackboard to complete your chapter assignments in OHM. Chapter 2: Analyzing Transactions using the Accounting Equation LO1: Describe the chart of accounts. LO2: Describe and illistrate the journalizing transactions using the expanded equation grid. LO3: Describe and illistrate the journalizing transactions using T accounts. LO4: Prepare an Unadjusted Trial Balance. The Chart of Accounts As we seen in chapter 1, the Chart of Accounts can be extensive depending on the industry or the company. Even so, the Chart of Accounts will have a basic format that most companies will use. A group of accounts for a business entity is called a ledger; the list of accounts in the ledger is called a Chart of Accounts. The accounts are listed in the order they appear in the Balance Sheet. Income Statement: Revenues. Some may ask, what does revenue mean? This means the way the business makes money. For example, if you sell product, you would have a Sales account in your chart of accounts or you can also have an inventory account because you purchase product. Expenses. You will use, consume, or expire the prepaid assets of the company to generate revenue, such as, Prepaid Rent or Prepaid Insurance. This means you have paid for this upfront and will use, consume, or expire a flat amount each month and it will be listed on your Income Statement in the "Expenses" area. Also, to generate revenue, you will use expenses; for example, you paid for some advertising to generate customers; this will be classified as Advertising expense. The expenses are listed in order from greatest to least and Miscellaneous Expense will always be last. Accrual Accounting and Cash Basis Accounting What Is Accrual Accounting? Accrual accounting is an accounting method that records revenue when earned and records expenses when incurred regardless of when cash is received or paid to the Income Statement. Companies often earn revenue before or after cash is received and incur expenses before or after cash is paid. Accrual basis accounting is designed to avoid misleading information arising from the timing of cash receipts and payments. What is Cash Accounting? Cash accounting is an accounting method that reports revenue when it is received and when expenses are paid to the Income Statement; this may not happen in the same period the services or expenses were made. Quickbooks offers a detailed breakdown of Accrual Basis Vs. Cash Basis. For this class, we will focus on Accrual Accounting. GAAP The four corporate financial statements described and illustrated in chapter 1 were prepared using accounting “rules,” called generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are necessary so that stakeholders can compare companies across time. If the management of a company could prepare financial statements as they saw fit, the comparability between companies and across time would be impossible. Accounting principles and concepts develop from research, accepted accounting practices, and pronouncements of regulators. Within the United States, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has the primary responsibility for developing accounting principles. The FASB publishes Statements of Financial Accounting Standards as well as interpretations of these Standards. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an agency of the U.S. government, also has authority over the accounting and financial disclosures for corporations whose stock is traded and sold to the public. The SEC normally accepts the accounting principles set forth by the FASB. However, the SEC may issue Staff Accounting Bulletins on accounting matters that may not have been addressed by the FASB. Many countries outside the United States use generally accepted accounting principles adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Accounting Principles and Concepts Business Entity Concept: The business entity concept limits the economic data recorded in an accounting system to data related to the activities of that company. In other words, the company is viewed as an entity separate from its owners, creditors, or other companies. For example, a company with one owner records the activities of only that company and does not record the personal activities, property, or debts of the owner. A business entity may take the form of a proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). Cost Concept: The cost concept initially records assets in the accounting records at their cost or purchase price. Going Concern Concept: The going concern concept assumes that a company will continue in business indefinitely. This assumption is made because the amount of time that a company will continue in business is not known. Matching Concept: The matching concept reports the revenues earned by a company for a period with the expenses incurred in generating the revenues. That is, expenses are matched against the revenues they generated. Revenue Recognition Principle: Revenues are normally recorded at the time a product is sold or a service is rendered, which is referred to as the revenue recognition principle. At the point of sale, the sale price has been agreed upon, the buyer acquires ownership of the product or acquires the service, and the seller has a legal claim against the buyer for payment. Unit of Measure Concept: In the United States, the unit of measure concept requires that all economic data be recorded in dollars. Other relevant, non-financial information may also be recorded, such as terms of contracts. However, it is only through using dollar amounts that the various transactions and activities of a business can be measured, summarized, reported, and compared. Money is common to all business transactions and thus is the unit of measurement for financial reporting. Adequate Disclosure Concept: The adequate disclosure concept requires that the financial statements, including related notes, contain all relevant data a stakeholder needs to understand the financial condition and performance of the company. Nonessential data are excluded to avoid clutter. Accounting Period Concept: The accounting period concept requires that accounting data be recorded and summarized in financial statements for periods of time. For example, transactions are recorded for a period of time such as a month or a year. Transaction Analysis We will use the extended version of the Accounting Equation to evaluate transactions using T accounts. As you can see, we implemented the Equation with an "Increase" or "Decrease"; once you go to the other side of the equal, the "Increase" and Decrease flip. Examples of Transactions To illustrate accrual accounting, the following transactions are used for Landry Medical Group: - Received $1,800 from ILS Company as rent for the parking lot. - Paid a premium of $2,400 for a two-year general business insurance policy that covers risks from fire and theft. - Purchased a new piece of equipment for $6,000 on account. - Dr. Landry invested an additional $5,000 in the business. - Purchased supplies for $240 on account. - Purchased $8,500 of office equipment. Paid $1,700 cash as a down payment, with the remaining $6,800 ($8,500 − $1,700) due in five monthly installments of $1,360 ($6,800 ÷ 5). - Provided services of $6,100 to patients on account. - Received $5,500 for services provided to patients who paid cash. - Received $4,200 from insurance companies on patients' accounts for services that were provided in transaction 7. - Paid $100 on account for supplies that were purchased in transaction 5. - Expenses paid during November were as follows: wages, $2,790; rent, $800; utilities, $580; interest, $100; and miscellaneous, $420. - Personally withdrew $1,200. Breaking It Down - Assets Here's the Assets listed in the T accounts: Breaking It Down - Liabilities and Equity Adjustments The Adjustment Process Accrual accounting requires the updating of the accounting records prior to preparing financial statements. This updating is called the adjustments. Adjustments are necessary because, at any point in time, some accounts of the accounting equation are not up to date. The income statement of a business reports all revenues earned and all expenses incurred to generate those revenues during a given period. An income statement that does not report all revenues and expenses is incomplete, inaccurate, and possibly misleading. Similarly, a balance sheet that does not report all of an entity’s assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity at a specific time may be misleading. Each adjustment has a dual purpose: (1) to make the income statement report the proper revenue or expense and (2) to make the balance sheet report the proper asset or liability. Thus, every adjustment affects at least one income statement account and one balance sheet account. The accounts that need adjusting are: - Deferrals are the result of cash being received or paid before the revenue is earned or the expense is incurred. - Accruals are normally the result of cash being received or paid after revenue has been earned or an expense has been incurred. - Prepaid or deferred expenses: Initially recorded assets but become expenses over time or through normal operations of business. Examples include prepaid insurance and prepaid advertising. - Unearned or deferred revenues: Initially recorded as liabilities but become revenues over time or through normal operations of the business. Examples include unearned rent and insurance premiums received in advance. - Accrued expenses or liabilities: Expenses that have been incurred but are not recorded in the accounts. Examples include unpaid wages and utility expenses. - Accrued revenues or assets: Revenues that have been earned but are not recorded in the accounts. Examples include revenue for patient services that have been earned but are not recorded in the accounts and accrued interest on notes receivable. Adjustment Example Let's make the end of the period adjustments for Landry Medical Group. - Service revenue accrued but unbilled - $19,750. - Used up all the supplies in the Supplies account. - Wages accrued but not paid - $4,900 - Paid $1,500 to creditors; this will pay the remaining balance in supplies and make the first installment payment. - Depreciation of equipment - $575 - Insurance expired - $100 Accounting Cycle The accounting cycle is the process that goes through the following steps: - Analyze the source documents (checks, contracts, invoices, etc.) - Determine what accounts are affected (Assets, Liabilities, and Owner’s Equity). - Determine if the accounts are increasing or decreasing and how each transaction affects the financial statements (Income Statement, Statement of Owner's Equity, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows). Record the economic transactions. - Assemble adjustment data and record those adjustment to the accounts. - Prepare the financial statements. Comprehensive Problem Let's check in with Theia Ellis, owner of Proficient Therapy LLC. Here is the information for Proficient Therapy LLC: Here are the transactions for the Month of January: Jan. 4. Provided services for clients on account, $9,400; we will use Gross Patient Service Revenue. 5. Purchased additional equipment for $7,000, paying a down payment of $1,000 and making monthly installments of $500 for one year. 7. Received $ 3,760 from the insurance companies for Jan. 4. 10. Created a Groupon advertisement giving patients 20% off services; this will be cash paying clients. 14. Paid wages to part-time workers, $ 1,825. 15. The Groupon was a success! Received $11,700 in advance payment for services; we will record this as unearned revenue. 16. Paid $375 to the Office Depot credit card. 18. Recorded services provided to clients on account, $ 3,625. 20. Purchases more supplies on account from Office Depot, $1,265. 24. Met with the manager of a nursing home to come by twice a week to provide services to the patients. The contract was for a flat rate of $2,000 per month for 3 months; received $6,000. 26. Paid for my professional membership dues of $380. 27. Paid wages to part-time workers, $1,825. 29. Paid utilities of $760. 30. Withdrew $1,750 for personal use. Using the information, enter the economic transactions into GNU cash program. Use the Accounts below: Adjusting entries for the month of January: - Insurance expired during January is $75. - Supplies on hand on January 31 are $759. - Made the first installment payment of $500. - Depreciation of equipment is $ 250. - Some Groupon clients came in for services, $3,510. - Groupon collected their fee from adjustment (e): $1,755 - Accrued wages of $1,095. - Earned $1,000 from transaction 24. Chapter 3: Receivables In this lesson you will be able to account for receivables and short term investments and you will be able to: - Distinguish between the direct write off and allowance methods. - Determine the financial statement effects accounting for uncollectible accounts using the direct write off and allowance methods. - Analyze the notes receivable transactions and effects on the financial statements Accounts Receivable Accounts Receivable All receivables expected to be realized in cash within a year are presented in the Current Assets section of the balance sheet. These assets are normally listed in the order of their liquidity, that is, the order in which they are expected to be converted to cash during normal operations. The usual transaction creating a receivable is selling merchandise or services on account (on credit). This is recorded as an increase to Accounts Receivable. These accounts are normally collected within 30 or 60 days. They are classified on the balance sheet as a current asset. Uncollectible Receivables Uncollectible Receivables A major concern about accounts receivable is that some customers will not pay their accounts and may become uncollectible. - Companies may shift the risk of uncollectible receivables to by accepting major credit cards like American Express, Discover, MasterCard or VISA. This shifts the risk to the credit card companies. - Companies may also sell their receivables to a buyer of receivables called a factor. The risk may shift to the factor. Many companies will grant credit to their customers. Regardless how well you check for customers, some credit sales will be uncollectible. When an account is uncollectible it is recorded as a bad debt expense. There are two methods of accounting for uncollectible receivables are as follows: Direct Write-off Method: General accepted accounting principles (GAAP) do not recognized the direct write-off method. Under the direct write-off method, bad debt expense is recorded when the customer's account is determine to be uncollectible. At that time, the customer's account receivable is written off. Uncollectible Receivables: the Allowance Method The two allowance methods used to estimate uncollectible accounts are as follow: Percentage of the Accounts Receivable Method The allowance method estimates the uncollectible accounts receivable at the end of the accounting period. Based on this estimate, Bad Debt Expense is recorded by an adjustment. Percentage of the Sales Method The percent of sales method assume that a percent of the credit sales is uncollectible. This percent can come from industry standards or historical trends from the company. The Importance The importance of keeping up with how much Accounts receivable is uncollected because there is cash on the line. The longer you wait to collect payment, the more you lose to collect. Please read the following article on Aging of Receivables. Notes Recievable Notes receivable are amounts that customers owe for which a legal, written document is issued. If notes receivable are expected to be collected within a year, they are classified on the balance sheet as a current asset. Parts of a promissory note are as follows: - The maker is the party making the promise to pay. - The payee is the party to whom the note is payable. - The face amount is the amount the note is written for on its face. - The issuance date is the date a note is issued. - The due date or maturity date is the date the note is to be paid. - The term of a note is the amount of time between the issuance and due dates. - The interest rate is that rate of interest that must be paid on the face amount for the term of the note. The interest rate is stated on an annual (yearly) basis, while the term is expressed in days. Thus, the interest and maturity value on the note in computed as follows: Principle X Rate X Time. To simplify, 360 days per year are used in this chapter. In practice, companies such as banks and mortgage lenders use the exact number of days in a year, 365. The maturity value is the amount that must be paid at the due date of the note, which is the sum of the face amount and the interest. You will hear the word for face to also mean principle. The maturity date will be counting the days left in the month it is issued and counting the days for each month until you have accumulated the total days. \| January- 31 \| July - 31 \| \| Feb- 28 \| August - 31 \| \| March - 31 \| September - 30 \| \| April - 30 \| October - 31 \| \| May - 31 \| November - 30 \| \| June - 30 \| December - 31 \| For example, Roberts Company issued a $40,000, 6%, 45 day note on Feb.1 to Peoples Inc. We will use the formula Principle X Rate X Time to calculate the amount of interest: $40,000 X 0.06 X (45/360) = 300 Now, to calculate the due date we will look at the table to count the 45 days; let's determin the due date of the note: \| Number of days in the Note \| 45 \| \| Days remaining in February \| 28 \| \| Days remaining in March \| 17 \| \| Due date of the Note \| March 17th \| Therefore, on March 17, Peoples Inc will pay the maturity value, face + interest, to Roberts Company. Notes may be used to settle a customer's account receivable. Notes and accounts receivable that result from sales transactions are sometimes called trade receivables. All notes and accounts receivable in this chapter are assumed to be from sales transactions. Chapter 4: Merchandise Inventory You will be able to describe the basis for inventory valuation and you will be able to: - Define merchandise inventory. - Calculate ending inventory and cost of goods sold under the periodic inventory system using FIFO, LIFO, Weighted Average methods. - Describe factors considered when selecting and inventory method and the effects of such a selection on the financial statements. Merchandising Business The revenue activities of a merchandising business involve the buying and selling of inventory (merchandise for resale). When the merchandise is purchased, it is shown on the balance sheet as a current asset. A retail business first purchases merchandise to sell to its customers. When this inventory is sold, the revenue is reported as sales revenue. The cost of the inventory sold is reported as cost of goods sold. The cost of goods sold is subtracted from sales revenue to arrive at gross profit. The operating expenses are subtracted from gross profit to arrive at operating income. Sales Transactions Cash Sales Transactions: Sales transactions may be a cash sale or credit sale. Cash sales are recorded in the accounts by increasing cash and sales. Under the perpetual inventory system, Cost of goods sold should be increased and merchandise inventory should be decrease in the same transaction. Credit card sales using VISA, MasterCard, or American Express are recorded as cash sales with a reduction of the credit card fees. Credit Sales: Credit sales are recorded in the accounts by increasing accounts receivable and sales. Increasing the cost of goods sold and decreasing inventory should also be made in the same transaction. Sales Discounts: A merchandiser may grant customers sales discounts as incentives to encourage them to pay their bills early. For example, a seller may offer credit terms of 2/10, n/30, which provides a 2% sales discount if the invoice is paid within 10 days. If not paid within 10 days, the total invoice amount is due within 30 days. A buyer refers to a sales discount as a purchases discount. The revenue recognition principle requires that revenue be recorded in the amount expected to be received from the sale. Therefore, sales revenue should be recorded net of the sales discount. Sales Returns and Allowances: Merchandising companies usually allow customers to return goods that are defective or unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons, such as wrong color, wrong size, wrong style, wrong amounts, or inferior quality. In fact, when their policy is satisfaction guaranteed, some companies allow customers to return goods simply because they do not like the merchandise. A sales return is merchandise returned by a buyer. Sellers and buyers regard a sales return as a cancellation of a sale. Alternatively, some customers keep unsatisfactory goods, and the seller gives them an allowance off the original price. A sales allowance is a deduction from the original invoiced sales price granted when the customer keeps the merchandise but is dissatisfied for any of a number of reasons, including inferior quality, damage, or deterioration in transit. When a seller agrees to the sales return or sales allowance, the seller sends the buyer a credit memorandum indicating a reduction (crediting) of the buyer's account receivable. Sales Tax Sales Taxes Almost all states levy a sales tax on sales of merchandise inventory. A sales tax is levied on the final user of a product. Buyers who purchase product to resale do not have to pay a sales tax. That is referred to as buying it wholesale. When a sale is made on account or for cash, the seller charges the buyer by increasing Accounts Receivable or cash to the total sales plus sales tax, increasing the sales revenue for the amount of the sales, and increasing sales tax payable for the sales taxes. Purchasing Inventory There are two systems for recording and accounting for merchandise inventory: perpetual and periodic. In either case, perpetual or period, an inventory physical count must be taken and compared to the records. This physical inventory is used to determine the cost of inventory on hand at the end of the period, which is the amount reported as Inventory on the balance sheet. Purchase Discounts Purchases Discounts: Normally, the purchaser of inventory will take the discounts taken with the discount period. Purchases discounts are given for early payment of a purchase invoice. The credit terms 2/10, n30 mean that the buyer is entitled to a 2% discount if paid within 10 days (2/10) from the invoice date. If the discount period is missed, the buyer must pay the full invoice within 30 days (n30). In a perpetual inventory system, the merchandise inventory is reduced for the purchase discount. Purchase Returns and Allowances: Purchases returns and allowances result when merchandise inventory received by a buyer is defective, damaged, or not what was ordered. In these cases, the buyer may return the merchandise for full credit or request a price adjustment (allowance). In a perpetual inventory system, the inventory is reduced for the return or allowance. Shipping Terms Freight Cost: Freight cost (shipping cost) must be paid by either the buyer or the seller. Who pays the freight cost is determined when title (ownership) of merchandise inventory passes. Title may pass to the buyer the seller either delivers to the inventory to the freight carrier or when the buyer received the inventory. Shipping Terms We have all purchased goods online, as a consumer, when the rights to the goods can happen in two ways: - The term FOB (free on board) shipping point means that the title for the goods pass to the buyer when the seller delivers the merchandise inventory to the transportation company. Such costs are part of the buyer's total cost of purchasing inventory and should be added to the cost of the inventory. - The term FOB destination means that the seller pays the freight costs from the shipping point (seller’s dock) to the final destination. Such cost would be included in the operating expenses as a shipping expense or freight out expense. Here's an example of how to calculate the different shipping terms. Below are two invoices received by Theia Ellis; she purchsed some merchandise for her company: The terms are expressed in 1/10, n/30; this means they get a 1% discount if they pay in 10 days and pay the remainder in 30 days. The shipping terms gives two benefits, first, to the seller because there will be some form of payment either in 10 days or 30 and second, the buyer gets a discount for paying early. Now, we will calculate how much Theia will pay each invoice: Invoice #8905654: $2,678.75 ( 2,500 - 375 - 21.25 + 575) Invoice #4599125: $4,189.50 ( 4,500 - 225 - 85.50) Inventory Shrinkage Inventory Shrinkage: Although under the perpetual inventory system, the inventory account is continually updated for purchase and sales transactions, a physical inventory count is necessary. The difference in the physical count and the records is normally caused by loss of inventory due to shoplifting, employee theft, or errors. Thus, the physical inventory on hand at the end of the accounting period is usually less than the balance of Inventory. This difference is called inventory shrinkage or inventory shortage. Under the perpetual inventory system, the inventory account is continually updated for purchase and sales transactions. As a result, the balance of the inventory account is the amount of merchandise available for sale at that point in time. Periodic Inventory Method As mentioned earlier, most company uses the perpetual inventory system; but, for merchandising companies with enormous variety of inventory and cost of a perpetual system is not cost benefit, they may use a periodic inventory system. In a periodic system, cost of goods sold is calculated as follows: In order to calculate Cost of merchandise purchase, you must replace the entries to Inventory with four (4) new accounts and they are: - Purchases - Purchase returns and allowances - Purchase Discount - Freight In To calculate Cost of merchandise purchased is as follows: Cost Flow Methods: When identical units of inventory are acquired at various unit costs, it is necessary to determine the cost of the unit sold using various cost flow methods. We will discuss three common cost flow methods using the periodic method in this chapter: Example Mama T's Treats purchased some custom mixers to sell online with the company's brand and logo. The information is show below: After conducting a physical count of the units, only 75 were left; each unit sold for $350. Determine the Cost of Goods Sold, Ending Inventory, and Gross Profit for each of the three methods. Remember, we're only asking one question, what happened to the inventory? Is it sitting in the warehouse or did we sell it? Here are the final calculations: Lower Cost of Market Generally, companies should use historical cost to value inventories and cost of goods sold. However, “Rule of Conservatism” states the for financial statement purposes, companies should us value inventory items at less than their cost when the market is lower. A decline in the selling price of the goods or their replacement cost may indicate such a loss of utility. This section explains how accountants handle some of these departures from the cost basis of inventory measurement. The lower-of-cost-or-market (LCM) method is an inventory costing method that values inventory at the lower of its historical cost or its current market (replacement) cost. The term cost refers to historical cost of inventory as determined under the specific identification, FIFO, LIFO, or weighted-average inventory method. Market generally refers to a merchandise item’s replacement cost in the quantity usually purchased. The basic assumption of the LCM method is that if the purchase price of an item has fallen, its selling price also has fallen or will fall. The LCM method has long been accepted in accounting. Chapter 5: Financial Statements By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Prepare a simple: Income Statement, Statement of Retained Earnings, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows - Prepare a Classified Balance Sheet Delivery of Information The accounting reports providing this information are called financial statements. The order of the financial statements and the explanation of each statement are listed below: \| Financial Statements \| Description \| Order of Preparation \| \| Income Statement or Profit and Loss \| Shows a detail of the revenues and expenses for a specific period of time. \| 1 \| \| Retained Earnings Statement \| Shows a detail of the changes that occurred in the Retained Earnings during a specific period of time. \| 2 \| \| Balance Sheet \| Shows the Accounting Equation ( Assets = Liabilities + Stockholders' Equity) on a specific date in time. \| 3 \| \| Statement of Cash Flows \| Shows the inflows and outflows of the Cash account for a specific period of time. \| 4 \| These reports are prepared at the end of an accounting period. Income Statement Financial statements present the results of operations and the financial position of the company. Four main statements are commonly prepared by publicly-traded companies and are prepared in the following order: Income Statement The income statement reports the results of the operation of the company. The time period covered by the income statement may vary; it can be monthly, quarterly, or yearly. The income statement formula is: revenues minus expenses. Expenses should be listed in the order of the greatest amount first, except for Miscellaneous and Income Tax Expenses should be last. The Multi-step Income This Income statement will breakdown the expenses to Selling and Administrative; we will use this type of statement to analyze any increases or decreases. First, we will take Sales and deduct the Sales Discounts and Sales Returns and Allowances to get Net Sales. Next, we deduct the Cost of Goods Sold from it to get the Gross Profit. The Gross Profit represents what we sold the product for minus what we purchased the product for; this will show us the gross amount before we deduct any expenses. We will break the expenses down as shown in the illistration: Selling expenses are expenses incurred in the process of selling the goods or product. As you see, this would be any department, such as the sales team, or any process of the product or goods, such as delivery, shipping, or the depreciation of the equipment that makes the good or product. Administrative expenses are general expenses incurred in a normal process of the business such as rent expense, office salaries, depreciation on the office equipment, etc. Other Revenue and Expenses are items not related to the primary function of the business. For example, If I sold a product but I owned a building and leased out offices, I would put my Rent Revenue in this field. Retained Earnings (Statement of Owner's Equity) Statement of Retained Earnings The statement of retained earnings reports the changes in retained earnings. A corporation may retain all of its net income for expanding operations, or it may pay a portion or all of its net income as dividends. Here's another way to complete the Equity Statement: Balance Sheet Balance Sheet The balance sheet reports the financial position of the company at a point in time. The financial condition of a business can be expressed as the accounting equation. The balance sheet, sometimes called the statement of financial condition. Assets on the Balance Sheet are listed in the order of liquidity or how quickly consumed. Classified Balance Sheet The classified balance sheet is prepared to assist the user in decision making through analysis. Let’s first address the classified balance sheet. The classified balance sheet is prepared with various sections and subsections as follows: Assets: - Current assets are cash and other assets that are expected to be converted to cash or sold or used up within one accounting period which is normally one year or less. This would normally include cash, accounts receivable, notes receivable, supplies, and prepaid expenses. - Long-term assets: Property, Plant, and Equipment are physical assets of a long-term nature. The fixed assets may also be reported on the balance sheet as property, plant, and equipment or plant assets. Fixed assets include equipment, machinery, buildings, and land. Except for land, these assets depreciate over a period of time. The cost less accumulated depreciation is called the book value and is normally reported on the classified balance sheet. - Intangible assets represent rights of a long-term nature, such as patent rights, copyrights, and goodwill. This will be discussed in chapter 6. Liabilities: - Current liabilities are liabilities that are due within one accounting period, which is normally one year or less, and are to be paid out of current assets. Normally current liabilities include accounts payable, notes payable, wages payable, interest payable, taxes payable, and unearned revenue. - Long-term Liabilities are liabilities that are due after the first accounting period. Analysis: At this time we will discuss a few liquidity measures. The ability to pay current debt is important. The Quick Ratio, Current Ratio, and Working Capital calculation let the users know if they have enough current assets to pay current liabilities. Working Capital The Working Capital is the excess of the current assets minus the current liabilities; it will show if a company has pay it's current obligations or liabilities. The Working Capital can be express in dollars; the formula to express Working Capital in dollars is: Current Assets - Current Liabilities. To express the Working Capital in a ratio is called Current Ratio; the formula to express Current ratio is: Current Assets/Current Liabilities. Quick Ratio The Quick Ratio looks at the "quick" assets, Cash, termorary investments, and receivables, and divide it by current liabilities. This can also be referred to as the acid-test ratio. Statement of Cash Flow Statement of Cash Flows The statement of cash flows reports the change in the balance sheet due to the changes in cash during a period. The statement of cash flows looks at the three business activities of operating, investing, and financing. Any changes in cash must be related to one or more of these activities. Operating Activities: The most important cash flow is from the operating activities. The net cash flows from operating activities is reported first. Operating activities are associated with cash flow from the company’s income statement. Bankers and creditors look at the cash flow from operating activities to see if the operating activities are generating enough cash In the short term, creditors use cash flows from operating activities to assess whether the company's operating activities are generating enough cash to repay them. In the long term, a company cannot survive unless it generates positive cash flows from operating activities. Thus, cash flows from operating activities is also a focus of employees, managers, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders who are interested in the long-term success of the company. Investing Activities: The net cash flows from investing activities is reported second. This is because investing activities directly impact the operations of the company. Cash receipts from selling property, plant, and equipment are reported in this section. Likewise, any purchases of property, plant, and equipment are reported as cash payments. Companies that are expanding rapidly, such as start-up companies, normally report negative net cash flows from investing activities. In contrast, companies that are downsizing or selling segments of the business may report positive net cash flows from investing activities. Financing Activities: The net cash flows from financing activities is reported third. Any cash receipts from issuing debt or stock are reported in this section as cash receipts. Likewise, cash payments of debt and dividends are reported in this section. The statement of cash flows is completed by adding the net cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities to determine the net increase or decrease in cash for the period. This net increase or decrease in cash is then added to the cash at the beginning of the period to arrive at the cash at the end of the period. Financial Statement Analysis Management’s analysis of financial statements primarily relates to parts of the company. Using this approach, management can plan, evaluate, and control operations within the company. Management obtains any information it wants about the company’s operations by requesting special-purpose reports. It uses this information to make difficult decisions, such as which employees to lay off and when to expand operations. Our primary focus in this chapter, however, is not on the special reports accountants prepare for management. Rather, it is on the information needs of persons outside the firm. Investors, creditors, and regulatory agencies generally focus their analysis of financial statements on the company as a whole. Since they cannot request special-purpose reports, external users must rely on the general-purpose financial statements that companies publish. These statements include a balance sheet, an income statement, a statement of stockholders’ equity, a statement of cash flows, and the explanatory notes that accompany the financial statements. Financial Statement Analysis: Horizontal Analysis Financial statement analysis consists of applying analytical tools and techniques to financial statements and other relevant data to obtain useful information. This information reveals significant relationships between data and trends in those data that assess the company’s past performance and current financial position. The information shows the results or consequences of prior management decisions. In addition, analysts use the information to make predictions that may have a direct effect on decisions made by users of financial statements. Comparative financial statements present the same company’s financial statements for one or two successive periods in side-by-side columns. The calculation of dollar changes or percentage changes in the statement items or totals is horizontal analysis. This analysis detects changes in a company’s performance and highlights trends. The good news is you have already been performing the first part of horizontal analysis without realizing it when you were preparing the statement of cash flows. Horizontal analysis consists of 2 things: - Dollar amount of change (calculated as Current Year amount – Previous Year amount) - Percentage of change (calculated as Dollar amount of change / previous year amount) Horizontal analysis is called horizontal because we look at one account at a time across time. We can perform this type of analysis on the balance sheet or the income statement. Financial Statement Analysis: Vertical Analysis Vertical analysis is a method that expresses each item on the financial statements as a percentage of a base. The base on the income statement is sales and the base on the balance sheet is total assets or total liabilities and stockholders’ equity. Other Financial Analyses Other analyses of the company's financial condition and performance are normally analyzed and interpreted by focusing upon the following characteristics: - Liquidity is the ability to convert assets to cash. Short-term creditors such as banks and suppliers focus on a company's liquidity as a means of evaluating the ability of the company to pay short-term debt. - Solvency is the ability of a company to pay its long-term debts. Investors in bonds and banks, focus on a company's solvency as a means to evaluate the ability of the company to pay both the interest and the principle on long-term debt. - Profitability is the ability of a company to generate net income. Chapter 6: Internal Control and Cash At the end of the chapter, you will be able to: - Understand Fraud - Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its impact on controls and financial reporting. - Internal controls procedures that provide a reasonable assurance that the financial statements can be relied on. - Bank reconciliation that determines if the general ledger balance for cash is correct. Fraud Fraud occurs when an employee gains something of value, usually money or property, at a cost to the employer by knowingly making a misrepresentation of a matter of fact. Fraud commonly occurs from the following examples: Federal Regulation Federal Regulation Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX): After the increase of corporate fraud in the early 2000's, the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to protect investors from the possibility of fraudulent accounting practices by corporations. Sarbanes-Oxley applies only publicly held companies; although all companies have been impacted by Sarbanes-Oxley. The law emphasizes the importance of effective internal control. Internal control is defined as the procedures and processes used by a company to: - Safeguard its assets. - Process information accurately. - Ensure compliance with laws and regulations. The Sarbanes Oxley Act requires all financial reports to include an Internal Controls Report. This shows that a company's financial data accurate and adequate controls are in place to safeguard financial data. Year-end financial disclosure reports are also a requirement. A SOX auditor is required to review controls, policies, and procedures during a Section 404 audit. Internal Regulations Internal Control Objectives of Internal Control The objectives of internal control are to provide reasonable assurance that: - Assets are safeguarded and used for business purposes. - Business information is accurate. - Employees and managers comply with laws and regulations. Internal control can safeguard assets by preventing theft, fraud, misuse, or misplacement of funds and inventory. A serious concern of internal control is preventing employee fraud. Employee fraud is the intentional act of deceiving an employer for personal gain. Such fraud may range from minor overstating of a travel expense report to stealing millions of dollars. Employees stealing from a business often adjust the accounting records in order to hide their fraud. Thus, employee fraud usually affects the accuracy of business information. Accurate information is necessary to successfully operate a business. Businesses must also comply with laws, regulations, and financial reporting standards. Examples of such standards include environmental regulations, safety regulations, and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Control Environment Control Environment The control environment is the overall attitude of management and employees about the importance of controls. Three factors influencing a company's control environment are as follows: - Management's philosophy and operating style - The company's organizational structure - The company's personnel policies Management's philosophy and operating style relates to whether management emphasizes the importance of internal controls. An emphasis on controls and adherence to control policies creates an effective control environment. In contrast, overemphasizing operating goals and tolerating deviations from control policies creates an ineffective control environment. All businesses face risks such as changes in customer requirements, competitive threats, regulatory changes, and changes in economic factors. Management should identify such risks, analyze their significance, assess their likelihood of occurring, and take any necessary actions to minimize them. Control Activities Control activities provide reasonable assurance that business goals will be achieved, including the prevention of fraud. Control procedures, which constitute one of the most important elements of internal control, include the following: - Competent personnel, rotating duties, and mandatory vacations - Separating responsibilities for related operations - Separating operations, custody of assets, and accounting Competent Personnel, Rotating Duties, and Mandatory Vacations A successful company needs competent employees who are able to perform the duties that they are assigned. Procedures should be established for properly training and supervising employees. It is also advisable to rotate duties of accounting personnel and mandate vacations for all employees. In this way, employees are encouraged to adhere to procedures. Cases of employee fraud are often discovered when a long-term employee, who never took vacations, missed work because of an illness or another unavoidable reason. Separating Responsibilities for Related Operations The responsibility for related operations should be divided among two or more persons. This decreases the possibility of errors and fraud. Separating Operations, Custody of Assets, and Accounting The responsibilities for operations, custody of assets, and accounting should be separated. In this way, the accounting records serve as an independent check on the operating managers and the employees who have custody of assets. For example, the person that handles cash should not be the same person that record cash transactions into the journals. Proofs and Security Measures Proofs and security measures are used to safeguard assets and ensure reliable accounting data. Proofs involve procedures such as authorization, approval, and reconciliation. For example, an employee planning to travel on company business may be required to complete a “travel request” form for a manager's authorization and approval. - Documents used for authorization and approval should be prenumbered, accounted for, and safeguarded. Prenumbering of documents helps prevent transactions from being recorded more than once or not at all. In addition, accounting for and safeguarding prenumbered documents helps prevent fraudulent transactions from being recorded. For example, blank checks are prenumbered and safeguarded. Once a payment has been properly authorized and approved, the checks are filled out and issued. - Reconciliations are also an important control. Later in this chapter, the use of bank reconciliations as an aid in controlling cash is described and illustrated. - Security measures involve measures to safeguard assets. For example, cash on hand should be kept in a cash register or safe. Inventory not on display should be stored in a locked storeroom or warehouse. Accounting records such as the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger should also be safeguarded to prevent their loss. For example, electronically maintained accounting records should be safeguarded with access codes and backed up so that any lost or damaged files could be recovered if necessary. Monitoring Monitoring the internal control system is used to locate weaknesses and improve controls. Monitoring often includes observing employees' behavior and the accounting system for indicators of control problems. Some such indicators are Warning Signs of Internal Control Problems. Other potential warning signs are: Fraud Tips Tips on Preventing Employee Fraud in Small Companies - Do not have the same employee write company checks and keep the books. Look for payments to vendors you don't know or payments to vendors whose names appear to be misspelled. - If your business has a computer system, restrict access to accounting files as much as possible. Also, keep a backup copy of your accounting files and store it at an off-site location. - Be wary of any employee working in finance that declines to take vacations. They may be afraid that a replacement will uncover fraud. - Require and monitor supporting documentation (such as vendor invoices) before signing checks. - Track the number of credit card bills you sign monthly. - Limit and monitor access to important documents and supplies, such as blank checks and signature stamps. - Check W-2 forms against your payroll annually to make sure you're not carrying any fictitious employees. - Rely on yourself, not on your accountant, to spot fraud. Source: Steve Kaufman, “Embezzlement Common at Small Companies,” Knight-Ridder Newspapers, reported in Athens Daily News/Athens Banner-Herald, March 10, 1996, p. 4D. Cash and Cash Equivalents Cash Most companies use checking accounts to handle their cash transactions. The company deposits its cash receipts in a bank checking account and writes checks to pay its bills. Keep in mind, a bank account is an asset to the company BUT to the bank your account is a liability because the bank owes the money in your bank account to you. For this reason, in your bank account, deposits are credits (remember, liabilities increase with a credit) and checks and other reductions are debits (liabilities decrease with a debit). The bank sends the company a statement each month. The company checks this statement against its records to determine if it must make any corrections or adjustments in either the company’s balance or the bank’s balance. A bank reconciliation is a schedule the company (depositor) prepares to reconcile, or explain, the difference between the cash balance on the bank statement and the cash balance on the company’s books. The company prepares a bank reconciliation to determine its actual cash balance and prepare any entries to correct the cash balance in the ledger. Certificates of Deposit A certificate of deposit (CD) is an interest-bearing deposit that can be withdrawn from a bank at will (demand CD) or at a fixed maturity date (time CD). Only demand CDs that may be withdrawn at any time without prior notice or penalty are included in cash. Cash does not include postage stamps, IOUs, time CDs, or notes receivable. Bank Statment Bank Statement A bank statement is a record of your bank account transactions, typically for one month, prepared by the bank. In the Deposit and credits section, you see the deposits made into the account and a CM which is a collection of a note (see note at bottom of statement) and interest the bank has paid to your account. In the Checks and debits section, you see the individual checks that have been processed by the bank and you also see SC for a bank service charge on your account as well as a NSF (stands for Non Sufficient Funds) and means we made a deposit from a customer but the customer did not have enough money to pay the check (bounced check). A bank statement looks like this: Company's Records Company’s Records The company’s records (or books) refers to the general ledger posting and can be in the form of cash disbursement journal, cash receipt journal, cash general ledger postings or lists of cash transactions. An example of a cash listing is: The bank balance on September 30 is $27,395 but according to our records, the ending cash balance is $24,457. We need to do a bank reconciliation to find out why there is a difference. Bank Reconciliation Bank Reconciliation A bank reconciliation compares the bank statement and our company’s records and reconciles or balances to two account balances. How does it do this? There are several items of information we can get by comparing the bank statement to our records — anything that doesn’t match or doesn’t exist on both places is called a reconciling item. A reconciling item will be added or subtracted to the bank or book side of the reconciliation. The following table will give you some examples of how these reconciling items apply in a bank reconciliation: Bank Reconciliation Information Deposits Compare the deposits listed on the bank statement with the deposits on the company’s books. To make this comparison, place check marks in the bank statement and in the company’s books by the deposits that agree. Then determine the deposits in transit. A deposit in transit is typically a day’s cash receipts recorded in the depositor’s books in one period but recorded as a deposit by the bank in the succeeding period. The most common deposit in transit is the cash receipts deposited on the last business day of the month. Normally, deposits in transit occur only near the end of the period covered by the bank statement. For example, a deposit made in a bank’s night depository on May 31 would be recorded by the company on May 31 and by the bank on June 1. Thus, the deposit does not appear on a bank statement for the month ended May 31. Also check the deposits in transit listed in last month’s bank reconciliation against the bank statement. Immediately investigate any deposit made during the month but missing from the bank statement (unless it involves a deposit made at the end of the period). Paid checks If canceled checks (a company’s checks processed and paid by the bank) are returned with the bank statement, compare them to the statement to be sure both amounts agree. Then, sort the checks in numerical order. Next, determine which checks are outstanding. Outstanding checks are those issued by a depositor but not paid by the bank on which they are drawn. The party receiving the check may not have deposited it immediately. Once deposited, checks may take several days to clear the banking system. Determine the outstanding checks by comparing the check numbers that have cleared the bank with the check numbers issued by the company. Use check marks in the company’s record of checks issued to identify those checks returned by the bank. Checks issued that have not yet been returned by the bank are the outstanding checks. If the bank does not return checks but only lists the cleared checks on the bank statement, determine the outstanding checks by comparing this list with the company’s record of checks issued. Sometimes checks written long ago are still outstanding. Checks outstanding as of the beginning of the month appear on the prior month’s bank reconciliation. Most of these have cleared during the current month; list those that have not cleared as still outstanding on the current month’s reconciliation. Bank debit and credit memos Verify all debit and credit memos on the bank statement. Debit memos reflect deductions for such items as service charges, NSF checks, safe-deposit box rent, and notes paid by the bank for the depositor. Credit memos reflect additions for such items as notes collected for the depositor by the bank and wire transfers of funds from another bank in which the company sends funds to the home office bank. Check the bank debit and credit memos with the depositor’s books to see if they have already been recorded. Make journal entries for any items not already recorded in the company’s books. Bank Errors Sometimes banks make errors by depositing or taking money out of your account in error. You will need to contact the bank to correct these errors but will not record any entries in your records because the bank error is unrelated to your records. Book Errors List any Book errors. A common error by depositors is recording a check in the accounting records at an amount that differs from the actual amount. For example, a $47 check may be recorded as $74. Although the check clears the bank at the amount written on the check ($47), the depositor frequently does not catch the error until reviewing the bank statement or canceled checks. Deposits in transit, outstanding checks, and bank service charges usually account for the difference between the company’s Cash account balance and the bank balance. Bank Reconciliation Expample After comparing the bank statement and records of My Company, you should have identified the following reconciling items: - Deposit in transit dated 9/30 for $6,700. - Outstanding checks #2004, 2008, 2009, 2012. - Interest paid by the bank $3. - Note collected by bank $3500 less $500 fee - Bank service charge $5 - Customer NSF $350 - Error in Check #2005 correctly processed by bank as $5,843 but recorded in our records as $5,483. This is a difference of $360 (5,843 – 5,483) and since we did not take enough cash we need to reduce cash by $360. Using the chart provided above and the reconciling items, the bank reconciliation would appear as follows: When the bank and book are in agreement, you are almost finished. On the bank side of the reconciliation, you do not need to do anything else except contact the bank if you notice any bank errors. On the book side, you will need to do journal entries for each of the reconciling items. Adjusting Entries for Book side Reconciling Items The ending cash balance on the general ledger is reconciled to the adjusted bank statement balance. When a company maintains more than one checking account, it must reconcile each account separately with the balance on the bank statement for that account. The depositor should also check carefully to see that the bank did not combine the transactions of the two accounts. Within the internal control structure, segregation of duties is an important way to prevent fraud. One place to segregate duties is between the cash disbursement cycle and bank reconciliations. To prevent collusion among employees, the person who reconciles the bank account should not be involved in the cash disbursement cycle. Also, the bank should mail the statement directly to the person who reconciles the bank account each month. Sending the statement directly limits the number of employees who would have an opportunity to tamper with the statement. Chapter 7: Long-term Assets In this section, we will look at the accounting treatment for plant assets, natural resources and intangible assets. Investments will be covered in other chapters. Property, plant, and equipment (fixed assets or operating assets) compose more than one-half of total assets in many corporations. These resources are necessary for the companies to operate and ultimately make a profit. It is the efficient use of these resources that in many cases determines the amount of profit corporations will earn. - Define, classify, and account for the cost of fixed assets. - Compute depreciation using the straight-line and double-declining-balance methods. - Describe the accounting for the disposal of fixed assets. - Describe the accounting for natural resources. - Describe the accounting for intangible assets. - Describe the reporting of fixed assets, natural resources, and intangible assets on the income statement and balance sheet. Long-term Assets Section of the Balance Sheet On a classified balance sheet, the asset section contains: (1) current assets; (2) property, plant, and equipment; and (3) other categories such as intangible assets and long-term investments. Previous chapters discussed current assets. Property, plant, and equipment are often called plant and equipment or simply plant assets. Plant assets are long-lived assets because they are expected to last for more than one year. Long-lived assets consist of tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets have physical characteristics that we can see and touch; they include plant assets such as buildings and furniture, and natural resources such as gas and oil. Intangible assets have no physical characteristics that we can see and touch but represent exclusive privileges and rights to their owners. Plant Assets Plant Assets To be classified as a plant asset, an asset must: - (1) be tangible, that is, capable of being seen and touched; - (2) have a useful service life of more than one year; - and (3) be used in business operations rather than held for resale. Common plant assets are buildings, machines, tools, and office equipment. On the balance sheet, these assets appear under the heading “Property, plant, and equipment”. Property, plant, and equipment (fixed assets or operating assets) compose more than one-half of total assets in many corporations. These resources are necessary for the companies to operate and ultimately make a profit. It is the efficient use of these resources that in many cases determines the amount of profit corporations will earn. Initial recording of plant assets When a company acquires a plant asset, accountants record the asset at the cost of acquisition (historical cost). When a plant asset is purchased for cash, its acquisition cost is simply the agreed on cash price. This cost is objective, verifiable, and the best measure of an asset’s fair market value at the time of purchase. Fair market value is the price received for an item sold in the normal course of business (not at a forced liquidation sale). Even if the market value of the asset changes over time, accountants continue to report the acquisition cost in the asset account in subsequent periods. The acquisition cost of a plant asset is the amount of cost incurred to acquire and place the asset in operating condition at its proper location. Cost includes all normal, reasonable, and necessary expenditures to obtain the asset and get it ready for use. Acquisition cost also includes the repair and reconditioning costs for used or damaged assets as longs as the item was not damaged after purchase. Unnecessary costs (such as traffic tickets or fines or repairs that occurred after purchase) that must be paid as a result of hauling machinery to a new plant are not part of the acquisition cost of the asset. Purchasing Land Land The cost of land includes its purchase price and other many other costs including: - real estate commissions, - title search and title transfer fees, - title insurance premiums, - existing mortgage note or unpaid taxes (back taxes) assumed by the purchaser, - costs of surveying, clearing, and grading; - and local assessments for sidewalks, streets, sewers, and water mains. - Sometimes land purchased as a building site contains an unusable building that must be removed. The accountant the entire costs to Land, including the cost of removing the building less any cash received from the sale of salvaged items while the land is being readied for use. Land is considered to have an unlimited life and is therefore not depreciable. However, land improvements, including driveways, temporary landscaping, parking lots, fences, lighting systems, and sprinkler systems, are attachments to the land. They have limited lives and therefore are depreciable. Owners record depreciable land improvements in a separate account called Land Improvements. They record the cost of permanent landscaping, including leveling and grading, in the Land account. Buildings Recording a purchase of a Building When a business buys a building, its cost includes: - the purchase price, - repair and remodeling costs, - unpaid taxes assumed by the purchaser, - legal costs, - and real estate commissions paid. Determining the cost of constructing a new building is often more difficult. Usually this cost includes architect’s fees; building permits; payments to contractors; and the cost of digging the foundation. Also included are labor and materials to build the building; salaries of officers supervising the construction; and insurance, taxes, and interest during the construction period. Any miscellaneous amounts earned from the building during construction reduce the cost of the building. For example, an owner who could rent out a small completed portion during construction of the remainder of the building, would credit the rental proceeds to the Buildings account rather than to a revenue account. Recording Equipment or Machinery Often companies purchase machinery or other equipment such as delivery or office equipment. Its cost includes: - the seller’s net invoice price (whether the discount is taken or not), - transportation charges incurred, - insurance in transit, - cost of installation, - costs of accessories, - and testing costs. - Also included are other costs needed to put the machine or equipment in operating condition in its intended location. The cost of machinery does not include removing and disposing of a replaced, old machine that has been used in operations. Such costs are part of the gain or loss on disposal of the old machine. Lum Sum Purchases Lump Sum Purchases Sometimes a company buys land and other assets for a lump sum. When land and buildings purchased together are to be used, the firm divides the total cost and establishes separate ledger accounts for land and for buildings. This division of cost establishes the proper balances in the appropriate accounts. This is especially important later because the depreciation recorded on the buildings affects reported income, while no depreciation is taken on the land. Disposal of Assets The definition of depreciation is the rational and systematic allocation of the cost of an asset over its useful life. Depreciation is the amount of plant asset cost allocated to each accounting period benefiting from the plant asset’s use. Depreciation is a process of allocation, not valuation. Eventually, all assets except land wear out or become so inadequate or outmoded that they are sold or discarded; therefore, firms must record depreciation on every plant asset except land. They record depreciation even when the market value of a plant asset temporarily rises above its original cost because eventually the asset is no longer useful to its current owner. To compute the amount of depreciation expense, accountants consider four major factors: - Cost of the asset. - Estimated salvage value of the asset. Salvage value (or residual value) is the amount of money the company expects to recover, less disposal costs, on the date a plant asset is scrapped, sold, or traded in. - Estimated useful life of the asset. Useful life refers to the time the business owning the asset intends to use it; useful life is not necessarily the same as either economic life or physical life. The economic life of a car may be 7 years and its physical life may be 10 years, but if a business has a policy of trading cars every 3 years, the useful life for depreciation purposes is 3 years. Useful life can be expressed in years, months, working hours, or units of production. Obsolescence also affects useful life. For example, a machine capable of producing units for 20 years, may be expected to be obsolete in 6 years. Thus, its estimated useful life is 6 years—not 20. Another example, you may have seen a demolition crew setting off explosives in a huge building and wonder why the owners decided to destroy what looked like a perfectly good building. The building was destroyed because it had reached the end of its economic life. The land on which the building stood could be put to better use, possibly by constructing a new building. - Depreciation method used in depreciating the asset. We describe the three common depreciation methods next. Methods of Depreciation Straight-line method: Straight-line depreciation has been the most widely used depreciation method in the United States for many years because, as you saw in Chapter 3, it is easily applied. To apply the straight-line method, a business expenses an equal amount of plant asset cost to each accounting period. - The formula for calculating depreciation under the straight-line method is: Depreciation Expense = ( Cost – Salvage value ) / Useful Life Using the straight-line method for assets is appropriate where (1) time rather than obsolescence is the major factor limiting the asset’s life and (2) the asset produces relatively constant amounts of periodic services. Assets that possess these features include items such as pipelines, fencing, and storage tanks. Units-of-production (output) Method: The units-of-production or units of activity depreciation method assigns an equal amount of depreciation to each unit of product manufactured or service rendered by an asset. Since this method of depreciation is based on physical output, it is applied in situations where usage rather than obsolescence leads to decreasing of the asset. Under this method, you would compute the depreciation rate per unit of output. Then, multiply this figure by the number of units of goods or services produced during the accounting period to find the period’s depreciation expense. The units of production method requires a 2-step process: - Step 1: Calculate Depreciation Rate per Unit: Depreciation Rate per unit = ( Cost – Salvage) / expected number of units - Step 2: Calculate Depreciation Expense: Depreciation Expense = Number of units produced for the period x Depreciation Rate per unit. Double-declining-balance method: to apply the double-declining-balance (DDB) method of computing periodic depreciation charges you begin by calculating the straight-line depreciation rate. To do this, divide 100 per cent by the number of years of useful life of the asset. Then, multiply this rate by 2. Next, apply the resulting double-declining rate to the declining book value of the asset. Ignore salvage value in making the calculations. At the point where book value is equal to the salvage value, no more depreciation is taken. The double declining balance method requires a 3-step process: - Step 1: Calculate the Straight line (S/L) rate S/L rate = 1 / useful life in years - Step 2: Calculate the double declining (DD) rate DD rate = 2 x S/L rate calculated in Step 1 - Step 3: Calculate Depreciation Expense Depreciation Expense = Beginning Book Value x DD rate Remember, book value is calculated as Asset Cost – Accumulated Depreciation. Sale of Assets Companies frequently dispose of plant assets by selling them. By comparing an asset’s book value (cost less accumulated depreciation) with its selling price (or net amount realized if there are selling expenses), the company may show either a gain or loss. If the sales price is greater than the asset’s book value, the company shows a gain. If the sales price is less than the asset’s book value, the company shows a loss. Of course, when the sales price equals the asset’s book value, no gain or loss occurs. Accounting for depreciation to date of disposal: When selling or otherwise disposing of a plant asset, a firm must record the depreciation up to the date of sale or disposal. For example, if it sold an asset on April 1 and last recorded depreciation on December 31, the company should record depreciation for three months (January 1-April 1). When depreciation is not recorded for the three months, operating expenses for that period are understated, and the gain on the sale of the asset is understated or the loss overstated. When retiring a plant asset from service, a company removes the asset’s cost and accumulated depreciation from its plant asset accounts. Occasionally, a company continues to use a plant asset after it has been fully depreciated. In such a case, the firm should not remove the asset’s cost and accumulated depreciation from the accounts until the asset is sold, traded, or retired from service. Of course, the company cannot record more depreciation on a fully depreciated asset because total depreciation expense taken on an asset may not exceed its cost. Sometimes a business retires or discards a plant asset before fully depreciating it. When selling the asset as scrap (even if not immediately), the firm removes its cost and accumulated depreciation from the asset and accumulated depreciation accounts. In addition, the accountant records its estimated salvage value in a Salvaged Materials account and recognizes a gain or loss on disposal. Other Losses Sometimes accidents, fires, floods, and storms wreck or destroy plant assets, causing companies to incur losses. We call these types of losses we call them "unusual" because we are estimating they will only occur once. Disposal of Assets All plant assets except land eventually wear out or become inadequate or obsolete and must be sold, retired, or traded for new assets. When disposing of a plant asset, a company must remove both the asset’s cost and accumulated depreciation from the accounts. Overall, then, all plant asset disposals have the following steps in common: - Bring the asset’s depreciation up to date. - Record the disposal by: - Writing off the asset’s cost. - Writing off the accumulated depreciation. - Recording any consideration (usually cash) received or paid or to be received or paid. - Recording the gain or loss, if any. As you study this section, remember these common procedures accountants use to record the disposal of plant assets. In the paragraphs that follow, we discuss accounting for the (1) sale of plant assets, (2) retirement of plant assets without sale (write it off) , and (3) trading plant assets. Natural Rescources Resources supplied by nature, such as ore deposits, mineral deposits, oil reserves, gas deposits, and timber stands, are natural resources or wasting assets. Natural resources represent inventories of raw materials that can be consumed (exhausted) through extraction or removal from their natural setting (e.g. removing oil from the ground). Intangible assets Although they have no physical characteristics, intangible assets have value because of the advantages or exclusive privileges and rights they provide to a business. Intangible assets generally arise from two sources: (1) exclusive privileges granted by governmental authority or by legal contract, such as patents, copyrights, franchises, trademarks and trade names, and leases; and (2) superior entrepreneurial capacity or management know-how and customer loyalty, which is called goodwill. All intangible assets are nonphysical, but not all nonphysical assets are intangibles. For example, accounts receivable and prepaid expenses are nonphysical, yet classified as current assets rather than intangible assets. Intangible assets are generally both nonphysical and noncurrent; they appear in a separate long-term section of the balance sheet entitled “Intangible assets”. Examples of intangible assets include: - Research and development (R&D) - Amortization - A patent - A copyright - A franchise - A trademark - A lease - A leasehold improvement - Goodwill Initially, firms record intangible assets at cost like most other assets. However, computing an intangible asset’s acquisition cost differs from computing a plant asset’s acquisition cost. Firms may include only outright purchase costs in the acquisition cost of an intangible asset; the acquisition cost does not include cost of internal development or self-creation of the asset. If an intangible asset is internally generated in its entirety, none of its costs are capitalized. Therefore, some companies have extremely valuable assets that may not even be recorded in their asset accounts. Amortization is the systematic write-off of the cost of an intangible asset to expense. A portion of an intangible asset’s cost is allocated to each accounting period in the economic (useful) life of the asset. All intangible assets are not subject to amortization. Only recognized intangible assets with finite useful lives are amortized. The finite useful life of such an asset is considered to be the length of time it is expected to contribute to the cash flows of the reporting entity. (Pertinent factors that should be considered in estimating useful life include legal, regulatory, or contractual provisions that may limit the useful life). The method of amortization should be based upon the pattern in which the economic benefits are used up or consumed. If no pattern is apparent, the straight-line method of amortization should be used by the reporting entity. Recognized intangible assets deemed to have indefinite useful lives are not to be amortized. Amortization will however begin when it is determined that the useful life is no longer indefinite. The method of amortization would follow the same rules as intangible assets with finite useful lives. Straight-line amortization is calculated the same was as straight-line depreciation for plant assets. Generally, we record amortization by debiting Amortization Expense and crediting the intangible asset account. An accumulated amortization account could be used to record amortization. However, the information gained from such accounting would not be significant because normally intangibles do not account for as many total asset dollars as do plant assets. A copyright is an exclusive right granted by the federal government giving protection against the illegal reproduction by others of the creator’s written works, designs, and literary productions. The finite useful life for a copyright extends to the life of the creator plus 50 years. Most publications have a limited (finite) life; a creator may amortize the cost of the copyright to expense on a straight-line basis or based upon the pattern in which the economic benefits are used up or consumed. A franchise is a contract between two parties granting the franchisee (the purchaser of the franchise) certain rights and privileges ranging from name identification to complete monopoly of service. In many instances, both parties are private businesses. For example, an individual who wishes to open a hamburger restaurant may purchase a McDonald’s franchise; the two parties involved are the individual business owner and McDonald’s Corporation. This franchise would allow the business owner to use the McDonald’s name and golden arch, and would provide the owner with advertising and many other benefits. The legal life of a franchise may be limited by contract. The parties involved in a franchise arrangement are not always private businesses. A government agency may grant a franchise to a private company. A city may give a franchise to a utility company, giving the utility company the exclusive right to provide service to a particular area. In addition to providing benefits, a franchise usually places certain restrictions on the franchisee. These restrictions generally are related to rates or prices charged; also they may be in regard to product quality or to the particular supplier from whom supplies and inventory items must be purchased. If periodic payments to the grantor of the franchise are required, the franchisee charges them to a Franchise Expense account. If a lump-sum payment is made to obtain the franchise, the franchisee records the cost in an asset account entitled Franchise and amortizes it over the finite useful life of the asset. The legal life (if limited by contract) and the economic life of the franchise may limit the finite useful life A trademark is a symbol, design, or logo used in conjunction with a particular product or company. A trade name is a brand name under which a product is sold or a company does business. Often trademarks and trade names are extremely valuable to a company, but if they have been internally developed, they have no recorded asset cost. However, when a business purchases such items from an external source, it records them at cost and amortizes them over their finite useful life. A lease is a contract to rent property. The property owner is the grantor of the lease and is the lessor. The person or company obtaining rights to possess and use the property is the lessee. The rights granted under the lease are a leasehold. The accounting for a lease depends on whether it is a capital lease or an operating lease. The proper accounting for capital leases for both lessees and lessors has been an extremely difficult problem. We leave further discussion of capital leases for an intermediate accounting text. In accounting, goodwill is an intangible value attached to a company resulting mainly from the company’s management skill or know-how and a favorable reputation with customers. A company’s value may be greater than the total of the fair market value of its tangible and identifiable intangible assets. This greater value means that the company generates an above-average income on each dollar invested in the business. Thus, proof of a company’s goodwill is its ability to generate superior earnings or income. A goodwill account appears in the accounting records only if goodwill has been purchased. A company cannot purchase goodwill by itself; it must buy an entire business or a part of a business to obtain the accompanying intangible asset, goodwill. Specific reasons for a company’s goodwill include a good reputation, customer loyalty, superior product design, unrecorded intangible assets (because they were developed internally), and superior human resources. Since these positive factors are not individually quantifiable, when grouped together they constitute goodwill. The intangible asset goodwill is not amortized. Goodwill is to be tested periodically for impairment. The amount of any goodwill impairment loss is to be recognized in the income statement as a separate line before the subtotal income from continuing operations (or similar caption). The goodwill account would be reduced by the same amount. Chapter 8: Liabilities By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the accounting for payrolls, short-term financing devices, and other current liabilities. - Describe the occurrence and accounting for typical current liabilities. - Record the effects on financial statements related to notes payable. - Define contingent liabilities and discern when these should be recorded in the accounts, and when footnote disclosure is appropriate. - Record transactions related to product warranties. - Record the effects on financial statement related to accrue salaries. Current Liabilites Liabilities result from some past transaction and are obligations to pay cash, provide services, or deliver goods at some future time. This definition includes each of the liabilities discussed in previous chapters and the new liabilities presented in this chapter. The balance sheet divides liabilities into current liabilities and long-term liabilities. Current liabilities are obligations that (1) are payable within one year or one operating cycle, whichever is longer, or (2) will be paid out of current assets or create other current liabilities. Long-term liabilities are obligations that do not qualify as current liabilities. In this section, we describe liabilities not previously discussed that are clearly determinable—sales tax payable, federal excise tax payable, and current portions of long-term debt. Warranties, notes payable and payroll liabilities will be examined later. Sales Tax Payable Many states have a state sales tax on items purchased by consumers. The company selling the product is responsible for collecting the sales tax from customers. When the company collects the taxes, Cash, Sales and Sales Tax Payable are all increased. Periodically, the company pays the sales taxes collected to the state. At that time, Sales Tax Payable and Cash is decreased. Current portions of long-term debt Accountants move any portion of long-term debt that becomes due within the next year to the current liability section of the balance sheet. Notes Payable Notes Payable Transactions Remember, with Notes Receivable we learned we need to know 3 things about a note: - Principal (the amount of money we borrowed) - Interest Rate (typically an annual interest rate) - Maturity term (or frequency of the year — how many days or months for the note) In Notes Receivable, we were the ones providing funds that we would receive at maturity. Now, we are going to borrow money that we must pay back later so we will have Notes Payable. Interest is still calculated as Principal x Interest x Time of the year (use 360 days as the base if note term is days or 12 months as the base if note term is in months). Interest-bearing notes: To receive short-term financing, a company may issue an interest-bearing note to a bank. An interest-bearing note specifies the interest rate charged on the principal borrowed. The company receives from the bank the principal borrowed; when the note matures, the company pays the bank the principal plus the interest which is called the maturity value. Payroll Accounting: Employee Deductions Payroll Accounting Defined If you haven’t already, at some point you will most likely receive a paycheck. The first time you do, you will be disappointed. You will want to know who took all your money! But not to worry, this section and the next will explain where it all goes. What is included in an employee’s paycheck? - Gross Pay: This is the amount of money you are promised either hourly, weekly or annually. - Federal Income Tax Withheld (also referred to as FIT): You will fill out a document called a W-4 when you are hired. This document allows you to claim allowances and a federal filing status for tax purposes. These options along with your gross pay are used to calculate your federal tax withheld. This will reduce your gross pay. - State Income Tax Withheld (also referred to as SIT): A different form than the W-4 but the same concept except it applies to the state. Not all states have a state income tax. This will reduce your gross pay. - FICA Social Security Tax (also referred to as OASDI): This tax helps fund social security and is calculated as gross pay x 6.2% unless you make OVER $118,500 in 2015 then you are only responsible to pay 6.2% of $118,500 and nothing more. This will reduce your gross pay. - FICA Medicare Tax (also referred to as HI): This tax helps fund medicare and is calculated as gross pay x 1.45%. Everyone must pay the 1.45% of gross pay without limit. This will reduce your gross pay. - Voluntary Deductions: Any deductions you authorize will also reduce your gross pay. This includes things like medical premiums, 401K and savings accounts, charity donations, etc. - Net Pay: Finally! This is the amount you will receive after all taxes and voluntary deductions have been taken out. Wait — this section is on current liabilities so how do they fit in? Your employer will take money out of your paycheck for the items listed above and combine them with other employee amounts to send one big check to the government or business (for voluntary deductions). When you are paid, the company records liabilities for the amounts taken out of your paycheck. Payroll Accounting: Employer Deductions Don’t think employers are getting off easy! There is a cost (more than gross pay) for having employees. The employer must pay the following on every dollar an employee earns: - FICA Social Security Tax: This tax helps fund social security and is calculated as gross pay x 6.2% unless an employee makes OVER $118,500 in 2015 then you are only responsible to pay 6.2% of $118,500 and nothing more for that employee. - FICA Medicare Tax: This tax helps fund medicare and is calculated as gross pay x 1.45%. Everyone must pay the 1.45% of gross pay without limit. - Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA): This tax is for unemployment claims and is typically calculated as 0.8% of the first $7,000 of an employee’s earnings. Once the employee has earned more than $7,000 in gross pay for the year, the company no longer has to pay FUTA tax. - State Unemployment Tax (SUTA): This tax is for the state unemployment and does not have a consistent rate. The rate is provided by the state annually and can change each year by business. - Voluntary Deductions Matching: Any matching funds the company provides for insurance or retirement plans. Contingent Liabilities Contingencies Some liabilities may arise from past transactions if certain events occur in the future. These potential liabilities are called contingent liabilities. The accounting for contingent liabilities depends on the following two factors: - Likelihood of occurring - The likelihood of occurring is classified as probable, reasonably possible, or remote. The ability to measure the potential liability is classified as estimable or not estimable. - Measurement—It is reasonable estimable or not. - Probable means that the future even is likely to occur. Reasonable possible means the chances of the future event occurring is more than remote but less than likely. Remote means the chance of the future event occurring is slight. Examples of Contingent Liabilities: - Income Tax Disputes - Pending or threats from litigation - Warranties Probable and Estimable If a contingent liability is probable and the amount of the liability can be reasonably estimated, it is recorded and disclosed. The liability is recorded by increasing an expense and a liability. Product Warranties Estimated product warranty payable: When companies sell products such as computers, often they must guarantee against defects by placing a warranty on their products. When defects occur, the company is obligated to reimburse the customer or repair the product. For many products, companies can predict the number of defects based on experience. To provide for a proper matching of revenues and expenses, the accountant estimates the warranty expense resulting from an accounting period’s sales which will be used as a reserve to pull actual warranty expenses from at a later date. The increase is to Warranty Expense and the increase to Estimated Warranty Payable (or Liability). Bonds Payable Bonds payable Corporations finance that operation by using the following sources: - Getting a loan from the bank with either short-term or long-term debt. - Selling common or preferred stock - Selling Bonds In this portion of the chapter we will discuss the topic of selling bonds. A bond is a long-term debt, or liability, owed by its issuer. Physical evidence of the debt lies in a negotiable bond certificate. In contrast to long-term notes, which usually mature in 10 years or less, bond maturities often run for 20 years or more. A bond is an interest bearing document and requires periodic interest payment with the face amount paid at the maturity date. The goal is to calculate the interest to be paid; the maturity date; and the maturity value. Generally, a bond issue consists of a large number of $1,000 bonds rather than one large bond. For example, a company seeking to borrow $100,000 would issue one hundred $1,000 bonds rather than one $100,000 bond. This practice enables investors with less cash to invest to purchase some of the bonds. Bonds derive their value primarily from two promises made by the borrower to the lender or bondholder. The borrower promises to pay (1) the face value or principal amount of the bond on a specific maturity date in the future and (2) periodic interest at a specified rate on face value at stated dates, usually semiannually, until the maturity date. Selling (issuing) bonds A company seeking to borrow millions of dollars generally is not able to borrow from a single lender. By selling (issuing) bonds to the public, the company secures the necessary funds. Usually companies sell their bond issues through an investment company or a banker called an underwriter. The underwriter performs many tasks for the bond issuer, such as advertising, selling, and delivering the bonds to the purchasers. Often the underwriter guarantees the issuer a fixed price for the bonds, expecting to earn a profit by selling the bonds for more than the fixed price. When a company sells bonds to the public, many purchasers buy the bonds. Rather than deal with each purchaser individually, the issuing company appoints a trustee to represent the bondholders. The trustee usually is a bank or trust company. The main duty of the trustee is to see that the borrower fulfills the provisions of the bond indenture. A bond indenture is the contract or loan agreement under which the bonds are issued. The indenture deals with matters such as the interest rate, maturity date and maturity amount, possible restrictions on dividends, repayment plans, and other provisions relating to the debt. An issuing company that does not adhere to the bond indenture provisions is in default. Then, the trustee takes action to force the issuer to comply with the indenture. Bonds may differ in some respects; they may be secured or unsecured bonds, registered or unregistered (bearer) bonds, and term or serial bonds. Next, we will discuss these different type of bonds. Certain bond features are matters of legal necessity, such as how a company pays interest and transfers ownership. Such features usually do not affect the issue price of the bonds. Other features, such as convertibility into common stock, are sweeteners designed to make the bonds more attractive to potential purchasers. These sweeteners may increase the issue price of a bond. - Secured bonds: A secured bond is a bond for which a company has pledged specific property to ensure its payment. Mortgage bonds are the most common secured bonds. A mortgage is a legal claim (lien) on specific property that gives the bondholder the right to possess the pledged property if the company fails to make required payments. - Unsecured bonds: An unsecured bond is a debenture bond, or simply a debenture. A debenture is an unsecured bond backed only by the general creditworthiness of the issuer, not by a lien on any specific property. A financially sound company can issue debentures more easily than a company experiencing financial difficulty. - Registered bonds: A registered bond is a bond with the owner’s name on the bond certificate and in the register of bond owners kept by the bond issuer or its agent, the registrar. Bonds may be registered as to principal (or face value of the bond) or as to both principal and interest. Most bonds in our economy are registered as to principal only. For a bond registered as to both principal and interest, the issuer pays the bond interest by check. To transfer ownership of registered bonds, the owner endorses the bond and registers it in the new owner’s name. Therefore, owners can easily replace lost or stolen registered bonds. - Unregistered (bearer) bonds: An unregistered (bearer) bond is the property of its holder or bearer because the owner’s name does not appear on the bond certificate or in a separate record. Physical delivery of the bond transfers ownership. - Coupon bonds: A coupon bond is a bond not registered as to interest. Coupon bonds carry detachable coupons for the interest they pay. At the end of each interest period, the owner clips the coupon for the period and presents it to a stated party, usually a bank, for collection. - Term bonds and serial bonds: A term bond matures on the same date as all other bonds in a given bond issue. Serial bonds in a given bond issue have maturities spread over several dates. For instance, one-fourth of the bonds may mature on 2011 December 31, another one-fourth on 2012 December 31, and so on. - Callable bonds: A callable bond contains a provision that gives the issuer the right to call (buy back) the bond before its maturity date. The provision is similar to the call provision of some preferred stocks. A company is likely to exercise this call right when its outstanding bonds bear interest at a much higher rate than the company would have to pay if it issued new but similar bonds. The exercise of the call provision normally requires the company to pay the bondholder a call premium of about $30 to $70 per $1,000 bond. A call premium is the price paid in excess of face value that the issuer of bonds must pay to redeem (call) bonds before their maturity date. - Convertible bonds: A convertible bond is a bond that may be exchanged for shares of stock of the issuing corporation at the bondholder’s option. A convertible bond has a stipulated conversion rate of some number of shares for each $1,000 bond. Although any type of bond may be convertible, issuers add this feature to make risky debenture bonds more attractive to investors. - Bonds with stock warrants: A stock warrant allows the bondholder to purchase shares of common stock at a fixed price for a stated period. Warrants issued with long-term debt may be nondetachable or detachable. A bond with nondetachable warrants is virtually the same as a convertible bond; the holder must surrender the bond to acquire the common stock. Detachable warrants allow bondholders to keep their bonds and still purchase shares of stock through exercise of the warrants. - Junk bonds Junk bonds are high-interest rate, high-risk bonds. Many junk bonds issued in the 1980s financed corporate restructurings. These restructurings took the form of management buyouts (called leveraged buyouts or LBOs), hostile takeovers of companies by outside parties, or friendly takeovers of companies by outside parties. In the early 1990s, junk bonds lost favor because many issuers defaulted on their interest payments. Some issuers declared bankruptcy or sought relief from the bondholders by negotiating new debt terms. Several advantages come from raising cash by issuing bonds rather than stock. First, the current stockholders do not have to dilute or surrender their control of the company when funds are obtained by borrowing rather than issuing more shares of stock. Second, it may be less expensive to issue debt rather than additional stock because the interest payments made to bondholders are tax deductible while dividends are not. Finally, probably the most important reason to issue bonds is that the use of debt may increase the earnings of stockholders through favorable financial leverage. Bond Price and Interest Rates The price of a bond issue often differs from its face value. The amount a bond sells for above face value is a premium. The amount a bond sells for below face value is a discount. A difference between face value and issue price exists whenever the market rate of interest for similar bonds differs from the contract rate of interest on the bonds. The effective interest rate (also called the yield) is the minimum rate of interest that investors accept on bonds of a particular risk category. The higher the risk category, the higher the minimum rate of interest that investors accept. The contract rate of interest is also called the stated, coupon, or nominal rate is the rate used to pay interest. Firms state this rate in the bond indenture, print it on the face of each bond, and use it to determine the amount of cash paid each interest period. The market rate fluctuates from day to day, responding to factors such as the interest rate the Federal Reserve Board charges banks to borrow from it; government actions to finance the national debt; and the supply of, and demand for, money. Market and contract rates of interest are likely to differ. Issuers must set the contract rate before the bonds are actually sold to allow time for such activities as printing the bonds. Assume, for instance, that the contract rate for a bond issue is set at 12%. If the market rate is equal to the contract rate, the bonds will sell at their face value. However, by the time the bonds are sold, the market rate could be higher or lower than the contract rate. As shown above, if the market rate is lower than the contract rate, the bonds will sell for more than their face value. Thus, if the market rate is 10% and the contract rate is 12%, the bonds will sell at a premium as the result of investors bidding up their price. However, if the market rate is higher than the contract rate, the bonds will sell for less than their face value. Thus, if the market rate is 14% and the contract rate is 12%, the bonds will sell at a discount. Investors are not interested in bonds bearing a contract rate less than the market rate unless the price is reduced. Selling bonds at a premium or a discount allows the purchasers of the bonds to earn the market rate of interest on their investment. Computing long-term bond prices involves finding present values using compound interest. Buyers and sellers negotiate a price that yields the going rate of interest for bonds of a particular risk class. The price investors pay for a given bond issue is equal to the present value of the bonds. Issuers usually quote bond prices as percentages of face value—100 means 100% of face value, 97 means a discounted price of 97% of face value, and 103 means a premium price of 103% of face value. For example, one hundred $1,000 face value bonds issued at 103 have a price of $103,000 (100 bonds x $1,000 each x 103%). Regardless of the issue price, at maturity the issuer of the bonds must pay the investor(s) the face value (or principal amount) of the bonds. Financial Statement Effects on Issuance of Bonds When a company issues bonds, it incurs a long-term liability on which periodic interest payments must be made, usually twice a year. If an interest date fall on other than balance sheet dates, the company must accrue interest in the proper periods. It would be nice if bonds were always issued at the par or face value of the bonds. But, certain circumstances prevent the bond from being issued at the face amount. We may be forced to issue the bond at a discount or premium. Chapter 9: Corporations, Partnerships, and LLCs By the end of this section, you will be able to: - The students should be able to develop the accounting for stockholders’ equity, earnings, and dividends. - Explain “retained earnings.” - Financial Statements effect from Cash and Stock Dividends. - Define dividends between preferred and common stockholders. - Explain the effect of stock dividends and stock splits on the stockholders’ equity section of the balance sheet. Partnerships Partnerships are another form of a business entity; it is an association of two or more Characteristics are: - Moderately complex to form. If you're wanting to form a Partnership, it is best to consult with a lawyer and a CPA. - ALL partners are personally responsible for any debt created by any of the partners. - Limited life; if a partner dies or retires, the relationship will cease to exist. This will be true is a new partner is added the the relaionship. - All invested property becomes joint property to all the partners. - Net profits and losses will be split up between the owners based on the partnership agreement. Limited Liability Company One of the most popular small business formations is a Limited Liability Company; the benefits are the limited liability to its owners. Corporations A corporation is an entity recognized by law as possessing an existence separate and distinct from its owners; that is, it is a separate legal entity. Endowed with many of the rights and obligations possessed by a person, a corporation can enter into contracts in its own name; buy, sell, or hold property; borrow money; hire and fire employees; and sue and be sued. Let’s look at a video to learn about the difference in partnerships and corporations. Corporations have a remarkable ability to obtain the huge amounts of capital necessary for large-scale business operations. Corporations acquire their capital by issuing shares of stock; these are the units into which corporations divide their ownership. Investors buy shares of stock in a corporation for two basic reasons. First, investors expect the value of their shares to increase over time so that the stock may be sold in the future at a profit. Second, while investors hold stock, they expect the corporation to pay them dividends (usually in cash) in return for using their money. Advantages and Disadvantages of a Corporation Corporations have many advantages over sole proprietorships and partnerships. The major advantages a corporation has over a sole proprietorship are the same advantages a partnership has over a sole proprietorship. Although corporations may have more owners than partnerships, both have a broader base for investment, risk, responsibilities, and talent than do sole proprietorships. Since corporations are more comparable to partnerships than to sole proprietorships, the following discussion of advantages contrasts the partnership with the corporation. Advantages - Easy transfer of ownership. In a partnership, a partner cannot transfer ownership in the business to another person if the other partners do not want the new person involved in the partnership. In a publicly held (owned by many stockholders) corporation, shares of stock are traded on a stock exchange between unknown parties; one owner usually cannot dictate to whom another owner can or cannot sell shares. - Limited liability. Each partner in a partnership is personally responsible for all the debts of the business. In a corporation, the stockholders are not personally responsible for its debts; the maximum amount a stockholder can lose is the amount of his or her investment. - Continuous existence of the entity. In a partnership, many circumstances, such as the death of a partner, can terminate the business entity. These same circumstances have no effect on a corporation because it is a legal entity, separate and distinct from its owners. - Easy capital generation. The easy transfer of ownership and the limited liability of stockholders are attractive features to potential investors. Thus, it is relatively easy for a corporation to raise capital by issuing shares of stock to many investors. Corporations with thousands of stockholders are not uncommon. - Professional management. Generally, the partners in a partnership are also the managers of that business, regardless of whether they have the necessary expertise to manage a business. In a publicly held corporation, most of the owners (stockholders) do not participate in the day-to-day operations and management of the entity. They hire professionals to run the business on a daily basis. - Separation of owners and entity (no mutual agency). Since the corporation is a separate legal entity, the owners do not have the power to bind the corporation to business contracts. This feature eliminates the potential problem of mutual agency that exists between partners in a partnership. In a corporation, one stockholder cannot jeopardize other stockholders through poor decision making. Disadvantages The corporate form of business has the following disadvantages: - Double taxation. Because a corporation is a separate legal entity, its net income is subject to double taxation. The corporation pays a tax on its income, and stockholders pay a tax on corporate income received as dividends. - Government regulation. Because corporations are created by law, they are subject to greater regulation and control than single proprietorships and partnerships. Forming a Corporation Corporations are chartered by the state. Each state has a corporation act that permits the formation of corporations by qualified persons. Incorporators are persons seeking to bring a corporation into existence. Most state corporation laws require a minimum of three incorporators, each of whom must be of legal age, and a majority of whom must be citizens of the United States. The laws of each state view a corporation organized in that state as a domestic corporation and a corporation organized in any other state as a foreign corporation. If a corporation intends to conduct business solely within one state, it normally seeks incorporation in that state because most state laws are not as severe for domestic corporations as for foreign corporations. Corporations conducting interstate business usually incorporate in the state that has laws most advantageous to the corporation being formed. Important considerations in choosing a state are the powers granted to the corporation, the taxes levied, the defenses permitted against hostile takeover attempts by others, and the reports required by the state. Once incorporators agree on the state in which to incorporate, they apply for a corporate charter. A corporate charter is a contract between the state and the incorporators, and their successors, granting the corporation its legal existence. The application for the corporation’s charter is called the articles of incorporation. After supplying the information requested in the incorporation application form, incorporators file the articles with the proper office in the state of incorporation. Each state requires different information in the articles of incorporation, but most states ask for the following: - Name of corporation. - Location of principal offices. - Purposes of business. - Number of shares of stock authorized, class or classes of shares, and voting and dividend rights of each class of shares. - Value of assets paid in by the incorporators (the stockholders who organize the corporation). - Limitations on authority of the management and owners of the corporation. On approving the articles, the state office (frequently the secretary of state’s office) grants the charter and creates the corporation. As soon as the corporation obtains the charter, it is authorized to operate its business. Stockholders: Stockholders are the owners of the corporation. You become an owner by receiving shares of stock in the company. Stockholders do not have the right to participate actively in the management of the business unless they serve as directors and/or officers. However, stockholders do have certain basic rights, including the right to (1) dispose of their shares, (2) buy additional newly issued shares in a proportion equal to the percentage of shares they already own (called the preemptive right), (3) share in dividends when declared, (4) share in assets in case of liquidation, and (5) participate in management indirectly by voting at the stockholders’ meeting (one vote for every share of stock). Normally, companies hold stockholders’ meetings annually. At the annual stockholders’ meeting, stockholders vote on such issues as changing the charter, increasing the number of authorized shares of stock to be issued, approving pension plans, selecting the independent auditor, and other related matters. Stockholders who do not personally attend the stockholders’ meeting may vote by proxy. A proxy is a legal document signed by a stockholder, giving a designated person the authority to vote the stockholder’s shares at a stockholders’ meeting. Board of directors Elected by the stockholders, the board of directors is primarily responsible for formulating policies for the corporation. The board appoints administrative officers and delegates to them the execution of the policies established by the board. The board’s more specific duties include: (1) authorizing contracts, (2) declaring dividends, (3) establishing executive salaries, and (4) granting authorization to borrow money. The decisions of the board are recorded in the minutes of its meetings. The minutes are an important source of information to an independent auditor, since they may serve as notice to record transactions (such as a dividend declaration) or to identify certain future transactions (such as a large loan). Corporate officers A corporation’s bylaws usually specify the titles and duties of the officers of a corporation. The number of officers and their exact titles vary from corporation to corporation, but most have a president, several vice presidents, a secretary, a treasurer, and a controller. The president is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the corporation. He or she is empowered by the bylaws to hire all necessary employees except those appointed by the board of directors. Most corporations have more than one vice president. Each vice president is responsible for one particular corporate operation, such as sales, engineering, or production. The corporate secretary maintains the official records of the company and records the proceedings of meetings of stockholders and directors. The treasurer is accountable for corporate funds and may supervise the accounting function within the company. A controller carries out the accounting function. The controller usually reports to the treasurer of the corporation. Stockholders' Equity Section The Stockholders' Equity section consist of: - Paid in Capital: includes common stock, preferred stock, and any Paid in Capital accounts including Paid in Capital for treasury stock. - Retained Earnings: comes from the Statement of Retained Earnings financial statement - Treasury Stock: reports the cost we paid for Treasury Stock and this reduces total equity Common Stock Common Stock All corporations have common stock. Common stock provides the following rights to shareholders: - sell or transfer any of their shares - buy additional newly issued shares in a proportion equal to the percentage of shares they already own (called the preemptive right), - receive a dividend when declared, - receive a portion of any money left over after paying all debts in a liquidation, and - one vote for every share of stock. It is important to note that shareholders cannot take money out of the business whenever they want like owners could in a sole proprietorship or partnership. Shareholders receive earnings of the company in the form of dividends which must be declared by the board of directors. There is some terminology we need to get familiar with for stock. These include: - Authorized shares: Authorized share are the total number of shares we are allowed to sell as specified in the corporate charter. - Issued shares: Issued shares are the total number of share we have given out to shareholders. - Outstanding shares: Outstanding shares are the total number of shares currently held by shareholders. Issues and outstanding shares will be different if the company has treasury stock, which we will discuss later. - Par value: Random value assigned to each share of stock in the corporate charter. - No par value: A par value was not assigned to each share of stock in the corporate charter. - Stated value: No par value stock (meaning no value was assigned to stock in the charter) but the board of directors voted and determined a value for each share of stock. - Market value: Current value of a share of stock as determined by the stock exchange. Preferred Stock Preferred Stock All corporations have common stock. Another type of stock some corporations may have is preferred stock. Preferred stock has the same rights and terminology associated with common stock with a few differences. Preferred stock is guaranteed a specific amount or rate of dividends each year when dividends are declared. Preferred stockholders may give up their right to vote. Types of preferred stock When a corporation issues both preferred and common stock, the preferred stock may be: - Noncumulative preferred stock is preferred stock on which the right to receive a dividend expires whenever the dividend is not declared. This means that if the company does not declare dividends this year they do not have to pay preferred shareholders the guaranteed dividend amount. - Cumulative preferred stock is preferred stock for which the right to receive a basic dividend accumulates if the dividend is not paid. Companies must pay unpaid cumulative preferred dividends before paying any dividends on the common stock. This means if the company does not declare dividends this year, the amount owed from this year will rollover to next year. Preferred shareholders must receive all dividends owed before common shareholders can get a dividend. - Convertible preferred stock is preferred stock that is convertible into common stock of the issuing corporation. Many preferred stocks do not carry this special feature; they are nonconvertible. Holders of convertible preferred stock shares may exchange them, at their option, for a certain number of shares of common stock of the same corporation. - Callable preferred stock means that the corporation can inform nonconvertible preferred stockholders that they must surrender their stock to the company. Also, convertible preferred stockholders must either surrender their stock or convert it to common shares. Most preferred stocks are callable at the option of the issuing corporation. Preferred shares are usually callable at par value plus a small premium of 3 or 4 % of the par value of the stock. This call premium is the difference between the amount at which a corporation calls its preferred stock for redemption and the par value of the preferred stock. Why would a corporation call in its preferred stock? Corporations call in preferred stock for many reasons: (1) the outstanding preferred stock may require a 12 per cent annual dividend at a time when the company can secure capital to retire the stock by issuing a new 8 per cent preferred stock; (2) the issuing company may have been sufficiently profitable to retire the preferred stock out of earnings; or (3) the company may wish to force conversion of its convertible preferred stock because the cash dividend on the equivalent common shares is less than the dividend on the preferred shares. Treasury Stock Treasury stock is the corporation’s own capital stock that it has issued and then reacquired; this stock has not been canceled and is legally available for reissuance. Because it has been issued, we cannot classify treasury stock as unissued stock. Instead, treasury stock reduces shares outstanding but does not change shares issued. A corporation may reacquire its own capital stock as treasury stock to: (1) cancel and retire the stock; (2) reissue the stock later at a higher price; (3) reduce the shares outstanding and thereby increase earnings per share; or (4) issue the stock to employees. If the intent of reacquisition is cancellation and retirement, the treasury shares exist only until they are retired and canceled by a formal reduction of corporate capital. For dividend or voting purposes, most state laws consider treasury stock as issued but not outstanding, since the shares are no longer in the possession of stockholders. Also, accountants do not consider treasury shares outstanding in calculating earnings per share. When firms reacquire treasury stock, they record the stock at cost as a decrease in a stockholders’ equity account called Treasury Stock. Any excess of the reissue price over cost represents additional paid-in capital and is credited to Paid-In Capital—Common (Preferred) Treasury Stock. Retained Earnings The retained earnings portion of stockholders’ equity typically results from accumulated earnings, reduced by net losses and dividends. Like paid-in capital, retained earnings is a source of assets received by a corporation. Paid-in capital is the actual investment by the stockholders; retained earnings is the investment by the stockholders through earnings not yet withdrawn. The balance in the corporation’s Retained Earnings account is the corporation’s net income, less net losses, from the date the corporation began to the present, less the sum of dividends paid during this period. Net income increases Retained Earnings, while net losses and dividends decrease Retained Earnings in any given year. Thus, the balance in Retained Earnings represents the corporation’s accumulated net income not distributed to stockholders. When the Retained Earnings account has a negative balance, a deficit exists. A company indicates a deficit by listing retained earnings with a negative amount in the stockholders’ equity section of the balance sheet. The firm need not change the title of the general ledger account even though it contains a negative balance. The most common increases and decreases made to Retained Earnings are for income (or losses) and dividends. Occasionally, accountants make other entries to the Retained Earnings account. Dividends Cash Dividends Dividends are distributions of earnings by a corporation to its stockholders. Usually the corporation pays dividends in cash, but it may distribute additional shares of the corporation’s own capital stock as dividends. Occasionally, a company pays dividends in merchandise or other assets. Since dividends are the means whereby the owners of a corporation share in its earnings, accountants charge them against retained earnings. Dividends are always based on shares outstanding! Before dividends can be paid, the board of directors must declare them so they can be recorded in the corporation’s minutes book. Three dividend dates are significant: - Date of declaration. The date of declaration indicates when the board of directors approved a motion declaring that dividends should be paid. The board action creates the liability for dividends payable (or stock dividends distributable for stock dividends). - Date of record. The board of directors establishes the date of record; it determines which stockholders receive dividends. The corporation’s records (the stockholders’ ledger) determine its stockholders as of the date of record. - Date of payment. The date of payment indicates when the corporation will pay dividends to the stockholders. Preferred Stock Dividends Preferred Stock Dividends Stock preferred as to dividends means that the preferred stockholders receive a specified dividend per share before common stockholders receive any dividends. A dividend on preferred stock is the amount paid to preferred stockholders as a return for the use of their money. Noncumulative preferred stock is preferred stock on which the right to receive a dividend expires whenever the dividend is not declared. When noncumulative preferred stock is outstanding, a dividend omitted or not paid in any one year need not be paid in any future year. Because omitted dividends are lost forever, noncumulative preferred stocks are not attractive to investors and are rarely issued. Cumulative preferred stock is preferred stock for which the right to receive a basic dividend accumulates if the dividend is not paid. Companies must pay unpaid cumulative preferred dividends before paying any dividends on the common stock. Dividends in arrears are cumulative unpaid dividends, including the dividends not declared for the current year. Dividends in arrears never appear as a liability of the corporation because they are not a legal liability until declared by the board of directors. However, since the amount of dividends in arrears may influence the decisions of users of a corporation’s financial statements, firms disclose such dividends in a footnote. The board of directors of a corporation possesses sole power to declare dividends. The legality of a dividend generally depends on the amount of retained earnings available for dividends—not on the net income of any one period. Firms can pay dividends in periods in which they incurred losses, provided retained earnings and the cash position justify the dividend. And in some states, companies can declare dividends from current earnings despite an accumulated deficit. The financial advisability of declaring a dividend depends on the cash position of the corporation. Stock Dividends A company that lacks sufficient cash for a cash dividend may declare a stock dividend to satisfy its shareholders. Note that in the long run it may be more beneficial to the company and the shareholders to reinvest the capital in the business rather than paying a cash dividend. If so, the company would be more profitable and the shareholders would be rewarded with a higher stock price in the future. Stock dividends are payable in additional shares of the declaring corporation’s capital stock. When declaring stock dividends, companies issue additional shares of the same class of stock as that held by the stockholders. Stock dividends have no effect on the total amount of stockholders’ equity or on net assets. They merely decrease retained earnings and increase paid-in capital by an equal amount. Immediately after the distribution of a stock dividend, each share of similar stock has a lower book value per share. This decrease occurs because more shares are outstanding with no increase in total stockholders’ equity. A corporation might declare a stock dividend for several reasons: - Retained earnings may have become large relative to total stockholders’ equity, so the corporation may desire a larger permanent capitalization. - The market price of the stock may have risen above a desirable trading range. A stock dividend generally reduces the per share market value of the company’s stock. - The board of directors of a corporation may wish to have more stockholders (who might then buy its products) and eventually increase their number by increasing the number of shares outstanding. Some of the stockholders receiving the stock dividend are likely to sell the shares to other persons. - Stock dividends may silence stockholders’ demands for cash dividends from a corporation that does not have sufficient cash to pay cash dividends. The percentage of shares issued determines whether a stock dividend is a small stock dividend or a large stock dividend. Firms use different accounting treatments for each category. Stock Split Stock Split A company can control their market price in some cases. When the market price is too high, people will not invest in the company. What can we do? We can split our stock! A stock splits does not cause an accounting entry as it does not change any monetary amounts listed on the financial statements. What does it do? - Shares increase by number of the stock split - Par value decreases by the number of the stock split Technology: Creating a Chatbot We will create a chatbot for your business. Please refer to Blackboard. Chapter 10: Accounting in the Management Process Managerial accounting helps managers make good decisions. Managerial accounting provides information about the cost of goods and services, whether a product is profitable, whether to invest in a new business venture, and how to budget. It compares actual performance to planned performance and facilitates many other important decisions critical to the success of organizations. The remaining chapters in this book focus on managerial accounting. This chapter provides an overview of managerial accounting and shows how to determine the cost of a particular type of product known as a job. After you complete the required assignments you will be able to: - Compare/Contrast Financial vs. Managerial Accounting. - Define product and period costs - Compute cost of goods sold for a manufacturer - Prepare a manufacturing statement Managerial Accounting VS Financial Accounting Compare Managerial Accounting with Financial Accounting Whereas financial accounting provides financial information primarily for external use, managerial accounting information is for internal use. By reporting on the financial activities of the organization, financial accounting provides information needed by investors and creditors. Most managerial decisions require more detailed information than that provided by external financial reports. For instance, in their external financial statements, large corporations such as General Electric Company show single amounts on their balance sheets for inventory. However, managers need more detailed information about the cost of each of several hundred products. Managerial Accounting Reports Financial reporting by manufacturing companies Many of you will work in manufacturing companies or provide services for them. Others will work in retail or service organizations that do business with manufacturers. This section will help you understand how manufacturing companies work and how to read both their internal and external financial statements. Assume you own a bicycle store and purchase bicycles and accessories to sell to customers. To determine your profitability, you would subtract the cost of bicycles and accessories from your gross sales as cost of goods sold. However, if you owned the manufacturing company that made the bicycles, you would base your cost of goods sold on the cost of manufacturing those bicycles. Accounting for manufacturing costs is more complex than accounting for costs of merchandise purchased that is ready for sale. Perhaps the most important accounting difference between merchandisers and manufacturers relates to the differences in the nature of their activities. A merchandiser purchases finished goods ready to be sold. On the other hand, a manufacturer must purchase raw materials and use production equipment and employee labor to transform the raw materials into finished products. Thus, while a merchandiser has only one type of inventory—merchandise available for sale—a manufacturer has three types—unprocessed materials, partially complete work in process, and ready-for-sale finished goods. Instead of one inventory account, three different inventory accounts are necessary to show the cost of inventory in various stages of production. We compare a manufacturer’s cost of goods sold section of the income statement to that same section of the merchandiser’s income statement in the chart below. There are two major differences in these cost of goods sold sections: (1) goods ready to be sold are referred to as merchandise inventory by a merchandiser and finished goods inventory by a manufacturer, and (2) the net cost of purchases for a merchandiser is equivalent to the cost of goods manufactured by a manufacturer. Product Cost Vs Period Expenses Product Costs vs Period Expenses Companies also classify costs as product costs and period costs. Product costs are the costs incurred in making products. These costs include the costs of direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. Period expenses are closely related to periods of time rather than units of products. For this reason, firms expense (deduct from revenues) period costs in the period in which they are incurred. Accountants treat all selling and administrative expenses (operating expenses) as period costs for external financial reporting. In manufacturing companies, a product’s cost is made up of three cost elements: direct material costs, direct labor costs, and manufacturing overhead costs. Period Cost Period costs are recorded as expenses of the current period as either selling or administrative expenses. Selling expenses are costs incurred to obtain customer orders and get the finished product in the customers’ possession. Advertising, market research, sales salaries and commissions, and delivery and storage of finished goods are selling costs. The costs of delivery and storage of finished goods are selling costs because they are incurred after production has been completed. Therefore, the costs of storing materials are part of manufacturing overhead, whereas the costs of storing finished goods are a part of selling costs. Remember that retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and service organizations all have selling costs. Administrative expenses are nonmanufacturing costs that include the costs of top administrative functions and various staff departments such as accounting, data processing, and personnel. Executive salaries, clerical salaries, office expenses, office rent, donations, research and development costs, and legal costs are administrative costs. As with selling costs, all organizations have administrative costs. To illustrate, assume a company pays its sales manager a fixed salary. Even though the manager may be working on projects to benefit the company in future accounting periods, it expenses the sales manager’s salary in the period incurred because the expense cannot be traced to the production of a specific product. In summary, product costs (direct materials, direct labor and overhead) are not expensed until the item is sold when the product costs are recorded as cost of goods sold. Period costs are selling and administrative expenses, not related to creating a product, that are shown in the income statement along with cost of goods sold. Cost Classification We will cover many cost classifications useful for planning and control. We will introduce the basic concepts behind these classifications but you will use them (and get in greater depth) in other chapters. - Fixed vs Variable Costs. A fixed cost remains the same in total but changes per unit. Fixed costs examples include your monthly rent, salaried employees, straight-line depreciation as these amounts do not change based on volume. A variable cost remains the same per unit but changes in total. Variable cost examples include sales commissions, hourly workers, units-of-production method depreciation as these amounts will change based on total volume but the amount charged per unit does not change. - Direct vs Indirect Costs. A direct cost is an amount that can be traced to a specific department, process or job. Direct costs can be product costs like direct materials or direct labor or they can be period costs like an accountant’s salary would be traced to the accounting department. Indirect costs is an amount that cannot be traced to a specific department, process or job. These costs are typically allocated (or estimated) to the departments, processes or jobs using those items. Indirect costs can be product costs like overhead or period costs like an IT employee’s salary to the sales department. The sales department needs the services provided by IT and the IT employee’s time would be an indirect expense to the sales department. - Controllable vs Non-controllable Costs. When evaluating the performance of an executive or manager under managerial accounting, it is helpful to recognize that some costs and expenses may be out of the control of that manager or executive. One example is the manager’s salary. The manager has no control over his own salary and has no power to change or stay within the budget for the salary. Controllable costs are things the executive, manager, or department even can control or change. If the executive, manager or department cannot change or control the cost, it is an uncontrollable cost. An example of an uncontrollable cost would be an allocation of administrative expenses to each job or department. - Differential Costs including Sunk and Opportunity Costs. Differential Costs represent the difference between two alternatives. We will analyze what is relevant to our decision making including any opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are what you give up by choosing one alternative over another (think about what you are giving up by taking this course — what else could you be doing?). Sunk costs are not relevant for decision making as the cost cannot be recovered at a later date. Statement of Cost of Goods Manufactured The statement of cost of goods manufactured supports the cost of goods sold figure on the income statement. The two most important numbers on this statement are the total manufacturing cost and the cost of goods manufactured. Be careful not to confuse the terms total manufacturing cost and cost of goods manufactured with each other or with the cost of goods sold. Total Manufacturing Cost includes the costs of all resources put into production during the period (meaning, the direct materials, direct labor and overhead applied). Cost of goods manufactured consists of the cost of all goods completed during the period. It includes total manufacturing costs plus the beginning work in process inventory minus the ending work in process inventory. Cost of goods sold are the costs of all goods SOLD during the period and includes the cost of goods manufactured plus the beginning finished goods inventory minus the ending finished goods inventory. Cost of goods sold is reported as an expense on the income statements and is the only time product costs are expensed. This chart will summarize the formulas you will need: Chapter 11: Job Order Costing After you complete the required assignments you will be able to: - Understand the difference between direct materials, direct labor, and overhead. - Calculate the cost of a job. - Apply overhead to jobs using a predetermined overhead rate. - Determine and record adjustments for over- or under-applied factory overhead Process Costing Vs Job Order Costing The two main types of cost accounting systems for manufacturing operations are process cost and job order cost systems. Many businesses produce large quantities of a single product or similar products. Pepsi-Cola makes soft drinks, Exxon Mobil produces oil, and Kellogg Company produces breakfast cereals on a continuous basis over long periods. For these kinds of products, companies do not have separate jobs. Instead, production is an ongoing process. Job costing and process costing have important similarities: - Both job and process cost systems have the same goal: to determine the cost of products. - Both job and process cost systems have the same cost flows. Accountants record production in separate accounts for materials inventory, labor, and overhead. Then, they transfer the costs to a Work in Process Inventory account. - Both job and process cost systems use predetermined overhead rates to apply overhead. Job costing and process costing systems also have their significant differences: - Types of products produced. Companies that use job costing work on many different jobs with different production requirements during each period. Companies that use process costing produce a single product, either on a continuous basis or for long periods. All the products that the company produces under process costing are the same. - Cost accumulation procedures. Job costing accumulates costs by individual jobs. Process costing accumulates costs by process or department. - Work in Process Inventory accounts. Job cost systems have one Work in Process Inventory account for each job. Process cost systems have a Work in Process Inventory account for each department or process. What kinds of companies would use job costing? The chart below shows how various companies choose different accounting systems, depending on their products. First, companies producing individual, unique products known as jobs use job costing (also called job order costing). Companies such as construction companies and consulting firms, produce jobs and use job costing. Characteristics of Job Order Costing The general cost accumulation model In general, companies match the flow of costs to the physical flow of products through the production process. They place materials received from suppliers in the materials storeroom and record the cost of those materials when purchasing them to raw materials inventory. As they are needed for production, the materials move from the materials storeroom (raw materials inventory) to the production departments with their cost. During production, the materials processed by workers and machines become partially manufactured products. At any time during production, these partially manufactured products are collectively known as work in process (or goods in process). Completed products are finished goods. When the products are completed and transferred to the finished goods storeroom, the company removes their costs from Work in Process Inventory and assigns them to Finished Goods Inventory. As the goods are sold, the company transfers related costs from Finished Goods Inventory to Cost of Goods Sold. Some companies, like furniture manufacturers, produce batches of products. They produce all of the components of a single product (e.g. coffee tables) in one batch. They would then produce the components of another product (e.g. dining room sets) in a new batch. (Some university food service companies prepare meals this way.) Companies such as these use job costing methods to accumulate the cost of each batch. Applied Factory Overhead Vs Actual Factory Overhead By definition, overhead cannot be traced directly to jobs. Most company use a predetermined overhead rate (or estimated rate) instead of actual overhead for the following reasons: - A company usually does not incur overhead costs uniformly throughout the year. For example, heating costs are greater during winter months. However, allocating more overhead costs to a job produced in the winter compared to one produced in the summer may serve no useful purpose. - Some overhead costs, like factory building depreciation, are fixed costs. If the volume of goods produced varies from month to month, the actual rate varies from month to month, even though the total cost is constant from month to month. The predetermined rate, on the other hand, is constant from month to month. - Predetermined rates make it possible for companies to estimate job costs sooner. Using a predetermined rate, companies can assign overhead costs to production when they assign direct materials and direct labor costs. Without a predetermined rate, companies do not know the costs of production until the end of the month or even later when bills arrive. For example, the electric bill for July will probably not arrive until August. If Creative Printers had used actual overhead, the company would not have determined the costs of its July work until August. It is better to have a good estimate of costs when doing the work instead of waiting a long time for only a slightly more accurate number. Predetermined overhead rates Predetermined overhead rates are used to apply overhead to jobs until we have all the actual costs available. To create the rate, we use cost drivers to assign overhead to jobs. A cost driver is a measure of activities, such as machine-hours, that is the cause of costs. To assign overhead to jobs, the cost driver should be the cause of the overhead costs, or at least be reasonably associated with the overhead costs. Just as automobile mileage is a good cost driver for measuring the cause of gasoline consumption, machine-hours is a measure of what causes energy costs. By assigning energy costs to jobs based on the number of machine-minutes or hours the job uses, we have a pretty good idea of the energy costs required to produce the job. Most manufacturing and service organizations use predetermined rates. To calculate a predetermined overhead rate, a company divides the estimated total overhead costs for a period by an estimated base (or expected level of activity). This activity could be total expected machine-hours, total expected direct labor-hours, or total expected direct labor cost for the period. Companies set predetermined overhead rates at the beginning of the year in which they will use them. This formula computes a predetermined rate: Predetermined Overhead Rate (POHR) = Estimated Overhead/Estimated Base (DLC, DLH, MH, Etc.) Notice how the predetermined rate is based on ESTIMATED overhead and the ESTIMATED base or level of activity. To apply overhead, we will use the actual amount of the base or level of activity x the predetermined overhead rate. Again, to apply overhead use this formula: Applied Overhead = Actual amount of base x POHR Actual Overhead Actual Overhead costs are the true costs incurred and typically include things like indirect materials, indirect labor, factory supplies used, factory insurance, factory depreciation, factory maintenance and repairs, factory taxes, etc. Actual overhead costs are any indirect costs related to completing the job or making a product. Next, we look at how we correct our records when the actual and our applied (or estimated) overhead do not match (which they almost never match!). We know overhead is applied using estimated or budgeted overhead and a base. Actual overhead costs may be different and we will not have all of those costs until late in the year. Estimated may be close but is rarely accurate with what really happens, so the result is Over-applied or Under-applied Overhead. At the end of the year, we will compare the applied overhead to the actual overhead and if applied overhead is GREATER than actual overhead, overhead is over-applied. Any adjustments to will be made to Cost of Goods Sold. Job Costing Process A job cost system (job costing) accumulates costs incurred according to the individual jobs. Companies generally use job cost systems when they can identify separate products or when they produce goods to meet a customer’s particular needs. Who uses job costing? Examples include home builders who design specific houses for each customer and accumulate the costs separately for each job, and caterers who accumulate the costs of each banquet separately. Consulting, law, and public accounting firms use job costing to measure the costs of serving each client. Motion pictures, printing, and other industries where unique jobs are produced use job costing. Hospitals also use job costing to determine the cost of each patient’s care. Chapter 12: Cost Behavior and CVP Hello, you should be able to understand these concepts: - Classify cost as fixed, variable, or mixed - Compute contribution margin, ratio, and unit - Determine Break Even Analysis Cost Behavior Cost Behavior Vs. Cost Estimation Cost behavior patterns There are four basic cost behavior patterns: fixed, variable, mixed (semi-variable), and step which graphically would appear as below. Fixed Costs Fixed costs remain in TOTAL but change per unit based on the actual amount of production. Here is a video to discuss these concepts. Examples of fixed costs include monthly rent, mortgage or car payments, employee salary, depreciation calculated under straight-line method, and insurance. Variable Costs Variable Costs remain the same PER UNIT but CHANGE in total. Variable costs for a manufacturer would include things like direct labor of hourly workers, other wage employees, direct materials, applied overhead, sales commissions, and depreciation under units of production method. Mixed Costs Mixed costs are costs that contain a portion of both fixed and variable costs. Common examples include utilities and even your cell phone! You may be charged a fixed amount each month for data usage or text messages allowed but when you exceed your limit, you are charged a set amount (variable cost) based on each text message or gigabyte of data you use over your limit. Cost Classification: Fixed, Mixed, Variable, and Step Fixed costs remain constant (in total) over some relevant range of output. Depreciation, insurance, property taxes, and administrative salaries are examples of fixed costs. Recall that so-called fixed costs are fixed in the short run but not necessarily in the long run. In contrast to fixed costs, variable costs vary (in total) directly with changes in volume of production or sales. In particular, total variable costs change as total volume changes. If pizza production increases from 100 10-inch pizzas to 200 10-inch pizzas per day, the amount of dough required per day to make 10-inch pizzas would double. The dough is a variable cost of pizza production. Direct materials and sales commissions are variable costs. Direct labor is a variable cost in many cases. If the total direct labor cost increases as the volume of output increases and decreases as volume decreases, direct labor is a variable cost. Piecework pay is an excellent example of direct labor as a variable cost. In addition, direct labor is frequently a variable cost for workers paid on an hourly basis, as the volume of output increases, more workers are hired. However, sometimes the nature of the work or management policy does not allow direct labor to change as volume changes and direct labor can be a fixed cost. Mixed costs have both fixed and variable characteristics. A mixed cost contains a fixed portion of cost incurred even when the facility is idle, and a variable portion that increases directly with volume. Electricity is an example of a mixed cost. A company must incur a certain cost for basic electrical service. As the company increases its volume of activity, it runs more machines and runs them longer. The firm also may extend its hours of operation. As activity increases, so does the cost of electricity. Managers usually separate mixed costs into their fixed and variable components for decision-making purposes. They include the fixed portion of mixed costs with other fixed costs, while assuming the variable part changes with volume. We will look at ways to separate fixed and variable components of a mixed cost later in the chapter. A step cost is a mixed cost. A step cost remains constant at a certain fixed amount over a range of output (or sales). Then, at certain points, the step costs increase to higher amounts. Visually, step costs appear like stair steps. Supervisors’ salaries are an example of a step cost when companies hire additional supervisors as production increases. For instance, the local McDonald’s restaurant has one supervisor until sales exceed 100 meals during the lunch hour. If sales regularly exceed 100 meals during that hour, the company adds a second supervisor. The supervisor costs will remain the same for between 0 – 100 meals served that hour. When meals served are between 101 – 200, the supervisor cost goes up to reflect 2 supervisors. Step costs will increase by the same amount for each new cost or step. Step costs are sometimes labeled as step variable costs (many small steps) or step fixed costs (only a few large steps). Although we have described four different cost patterns (fixed, variable, mixed, and step), we simplify our discussions in this chapter by assuming managers can separate mixed and step costs into fixed and variable components using cost estimation techniques. Cost Volume Profit Analysis Companies use cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis (also called break-even analysis) to determine what affects changes in their selling prices, costs, and/or volume will have on profits in the short run. A careful and accurate cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis requires knowledge of costs and their fixed or variable behavior as volume changes. A cost-volume-profit chart is a graph that shows the relationships among sales, costs, volume, and profit. Look at illustration below. The illustration shows a cost-volume-profit chart for Video Productions, a company that produces DVDs. Each DVD sells for $20. The variable cost per DVD is $12, and the fixed costs per month are $ 40,000. The total cost line represents the fixed costs of $40,000 plus $12 per unit. Thus, if Video Productions produces and sells 6,000 DVDs, the company’s total costs are $112,000, made up of $40,000 fixed costs and $ 72,000 total variable costs ($ 72,000 = $ 12 per unit X 6,000 units produced and sold). The total revenue line shows how revenue increases as volume increases. Total revenue is $ 120,000 for sales of 6,000 tapes ($ 20 per unit X 6,000 units sold). In the chart, we demonstrate the effect of volume on revenue, costs, and net income, for a particular price, variable cost per unit, and fixed cost per period. At each volume, one can estimate the company’s profit or loss. For example, at a volume of 6,000 units, the profit is $8,000. We can find the net income either by constructing an income statement or using the profit equation. The contribution margin income statement gives the following results for a volume of 6,000 units: We have introduced a new term in this income statement—the contribution margin. The contribution margin is the amount by which revenue exceeds the variable costs of producing that revenue. We can calculate it on a per unit or total sales volume basis. On a per unit basis, the contribution margin for Video Productions is $8 (the selling price of $20 minus the variable cost per unit of $ 12). The contribution margin indicates the amount of money remaining after the company covers its variable costs. This remainder contributes to the coverage of fixed costs and to net income. In Video Production’s income statement, the $ 48,000 contribution margin covers the $ 40,000 fixed costs and leaves $ 8,000 in operating income. You can also calculate a contribution margin ratio by using the following formula: Contribution Margin RATIO = Contribution Margin/Sales The CVP chart above shows cost data for Video Productions in a relevant range of output from 500 to 10,000 units. The relevant range is the range of production or sales volume over which the basic cost behavior assumptions hold true. For volumes outside these ranges, costs behave differently and alter the assumed relationships. For example, if Video Productions produced and sold more than 10,000 units per month, it might be necessary to increase plant capacity (thus incurring additional fixed costs) or to work extra shifts (thus incurring overtime charges and other inefficiencies). In either case, the assumed cost relationships would no longer be valid. The contribution margin income statement is used quite frequently since it separates fixed and variable costs to allow a company to see what it can directly change and what it cannot change. Below we will show how to use this new contribution margin income statement to do the following analyses: - Breakeven in units—the number of units needed to be sold to breakeven - Breakeven in dollars—the number of sales dollars needed to breakeven - Target profit in units—the number of units needed to be sold to reach a target profit - Target profit in dollars—the number of sales dollars needed to reach a target profit - Margin of Safety—the difference between current sales dollars (or budget) and breakeven in sales - Margin of Safety Ratio—the margin of safety (5 above)/ current sales - Operating leverage Break Even Analysis A company breaks even for a given period when sales revenue and costs charged to that period are equal. Thus, the break-even point is that level of operations at which a company realizes no operating income or loss. A company may express a break-even point in dollars of sales revenue or number of units produced or sold. No matter how a company expresses its break-even point, it is still the point of zero operating income or loss. To illustrate the calculation of a break-even point work with the previous company, Video Productions. Recall that Video Productions produces DVDs selling for $20 per unit. Fixed costs per period total $40,000, while variable cost is $12 per unit making the contribution margin per unit $8 or 40% (8/12) of sales. We compute the break-even point in units and sales dollars as: - Break Even in Units = Fixed Cost / Unit Contribution Margin - Break Even in Dollars = Fixed cost / Contribution Margin Ratio The result tells us that Video Productions breaks even at a volume of 5,000 units per month. We can prove that to be true by computing the revenue and total costs at a volume of 5,000 units as follows: Look at the cost-volume-profit chart and note that the revenue and total cost lines cross at 5,000 units—the break-even point. Video Productions has Operating income at volumes greater than 5,000, but it has losses at volumes less than 5,000 units. Target Profit The unit sales or dollar sales can also can be calculated by using the formula above. Let’s say that Video Productions wants to achieve a target profit of $50,000. The following calculations would be completed to calculate the unit and dollars sales to achieve target profit: - Target Profit in Units = Fixed Cost + Target / Unit Contribution Margin - Target Profit in Dollars = Fixed Cost + Taget / Unit Contribution Margin Ratio Margin of Safety If a company’s current sales are more than its break-even point, it has a margin of safety equal to current sales minus break-even sales. The margin of safety is the amount by which sales can decrease before the company incurs a loss. For example, assume Video Productions currently has sales of $120,000 and its break-even sales are $ 100,000. The margin of safety is $ 20,000, computed as follows: Margin of safety = Current sales – Break even sales Margin of safety = $ 120,000 – $ 100,000 = $ 20,000 Sometimes people express the margin of safety as a percentage, called the margin of safety rate or just margin of safety percentage. The margin of safety ratio is equal to Using the data just presented, we compute the margin of safety rate is $20,000 / 120,000 = 16.67 % This means that sales volume could drop by 16.67 percent before the company would incur a loss. In the contribution approach that we used for breakeven analysis did not take inventories into consideration. We will not review the difference in the generally accepted accounting principles approach which is referred to as absorption costing and the contribution approach which is referred to as variable costing. Absorption Costing Absorption costing, also called full costing, is what you are used to under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Under absorption costing, companies treat all manufacturing costs, including both fixed and variable manufacturing costs, as product costs. Remember, total variable costs change proportionately with changes in total activity, while fixed costs do not change as activity levels change. These variable manufacturing costs are usually made up of direct materials, variable manufacturing overhead, and direct labor. The product costs (or cost of goods sold) would include direct materials, direct labor and overhead. The period costs would include selling, general and administrative costs. Remember the following under absorption costing: - Typically used for financial reporting (GAAP) - ALL manufacturing costs are included in the cost (direct materials, direct labor, fixed and variable overhead) - Can be misleading as some costs are not affected by products - Fixed manufacturing overhead costs are applied to units PRODUCED and not just unit sold - Income statement shows Sales – Cost of Goods sold = Gross Margin (or Gross Profit) – Operating Expenses = Net Income and is based on the number of units SOLD. Variable Costing Variable costing (also known as direct costing) treats all fixed manufacturing costs as period costs to be charged to expense in the period received. Under variable costing, companies treat only variable manufacturing costs as product costs. The logic behind this expensing of fixed manufacturing costs is that the company would incur such costs whether a plant was in production or idle. Therefore, these fixed costs do not specifically relate to the manufacture of products. In variable costing, it is important to remember: - ONLY includes variable costs meaning costs that increase with volume - Does not include FIXED costs as volume levels do not change these costs (fixed costs treated as period costs not product costs) - Can provide more accurate information for decision makers as costs are better tied to production levels - Can be applied to ALL costs and not just product costs. - Uses Contribution Margin Income Statement showing Sales – VARIABLE expenses = Contribution Margin – Fixed Expenses = Net Income and is based on the number of units SOLD. Chapter 13: Budgeting By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe budgeting, its objectives, its impact on human behavior, and types of budget systems. - Describe and prepare a master budget for a manufacturing company. Introduction to Budgeting and Budgeting Processes The Budget—For Planning and Control Time and money are scarce resources to all individuals and organizations; the efficient and effective use of these resources requires planning. Planning alone, however, is insufficient. Control is also necessary to ensure that plans actually are carried out. A budget is a tool that managers use to plan and control the use of scarce resources. A budget is a plan showing the company’s objectives and how management intends to acquire and use resources to attain those objectives. Companies, nonprofit organizations, and governmental units use many different types of budgets. Responsibility budgets are designed to judge the performance of an individual segment or manager. Capital budgets evaluate long-term capital projects such as the addition of equipment or the relocation of a plant. This chapter examines the master budget, which consists of a planned operating budget and a financial budget. The planned operating budget helps to plan future earnings and results in a projected income statement. The financial budget helps management plan the financing of assets and results in a projected balance sheet. The budgeting process involves planning for future profitability because earning a reasonable return on resources used is a primary company objective. A company must devise some method to deal with the uncertainty of the future. A company that does no planning whatsoever chooses to deal with the future by default and can react to events only as they occur. Most businesses, however, devise a blueprint for the actions they will take given the foreseeable events that may occur. A budget: (1) shows management’s operating plans for the coming periods; (2) formalizes management’s plans in quantitative terms; (3) forces all levels of management to think ahead, anticipate results, and take action to remedy possible poor results; and (4) may motivate individuals to strive to achieve stated goals. Companies can use budget-to-actual comparisons to evaluate individual performance. For instance, the standard variable cost of producing a personal computer at IBM is a budget figure. This figure can be compared with the actual cost of producing personal computers to help evaluate the performance of the personal computer production managers and employees who produce personal computers. We will do this type of comparison in a later chapter. Many other benefits result from the preparation and use of budgets. For example: (1) businesses can better coordinate their activities; (2) managers become aware of other managers’ plans; (3) employees become more cost conscious and try to conserve resources; (4) the company reviews its organization plan and changes it when necessary; and (5) managers foster a vision that otherwise might not be developed. The planning process that results in a formal budget provides an opportunity for various levels of management to think through and commit future plans to writing. In addition, a properly prepared budget allows management to follow the management-by-exception principle by devoting attention to results that deviate significantly from planned levels. For all these reasons, a budget must clearly reflect the expected results. Failing to budget because of the uncertainty of the future is a poor excuse for not budgeting. In fact, the less stable the conditions, the more necessary and desirable is budgeting, although the process becomes more difficult. Obviously, stable operating conditions permit greater reliance on past experience as a basis for budgeting. Remember, however, that budgets involve more than a company’s past results. Budgets also consider a company’s future plans and express expected activities. As a result, budgeted performance is more useful than past performance as a basis for judging actual results. A budget should describe management’s assumptions relating to: (1) the state of the economy over the planning horizon; (2) plans for adding, deleting, or changing product lines; (3) the nature of the industry’s competition; and (4) the effects of existing or possible government regulations. If these assumptions change during the budget period, management should analyze the effects of the changes and include this in an evaluation of performance based on actual results. Budgets are quantitative plans for the future. However, they are based mainly on past experience adjusted for future expectations. Thus, accounting data related to the past play an important part in budget preparation. The accounting system and the budget are closely related. The details of the budget must agree with the company’s ledger accounts. In turn, the accounts must be designed to provide the appropriate information for preparing the budget, financial statements, and interim financial reports to facilitate operational control. Management should frequently compare accounting data with budgeted projections during the budget period and investigate any differences. Budgeting, however, is not a substitute for good management. Instead, the budget is an important tool of managerial control. Managers make decisions in budget preparation that serve as a plan of action. The period covered by a budget varies according to the nature of the specific activity involved. Cash budgets may cover a week or a month; sales and production budgets may cover a month, a quarter, or a year; and the general operating budget may cover a quarter or a year. Budgeting involves the coordination of financial and non-financial planning to satisfy organizational goals and objectives. No foolproof method exists for preparing an effective budget. However, budget makers should carefully consider the conditions that follow: - Top management support: All management levels must be aware of the budget’s importance to the company and must know that the budget has top management’s support. Top management, then, must clearly state long-range goals and broad objectives. These goals and objectives must be communicated throughout the organization. Long-range goals include the expected quality of products or services, growth rates in sales and earnings, and percentage-of-market targets. Overemphasis on the mechanics of the budgeting process should be avoided. - Participation in goal setting Management uses budgets to show how it intends to acquire and use resources to achieve the company’s long-range goals. Employees are more likely to strive toward organizational goals if they participate in setting them and in preparing budgets. Often, employees have significant information that could help in preparing a meaningful budget. Also, employees may be motivated to perform their own functions within budget constraints if they are committed to achieving organizational goals. - Communicating results People should be promptly and clearly informed of their progress. Effective communication implies (1) timeliness, (2) reasonable accuracy, and (3) improved understanding. Managers should effectively communicate results so employees can make any necessary adjustments in their performance. - Flexibility If significant basic assumptions underlying the budget change during the year, the planned operating budget should be restated. For control purposes, after the actual level of operations is known, the actual revenues and expenses can be compared to expected performance at that level of operations. - Follow-up Budget follow-up and data feedback are part of the control aspect of budgetary control. Since the budgets are dealing with projections and estimates for future operating results and financial positions, managers must continuously check their budgets and correct them if necessary. Often management uses performance reports as a follow-up tool to compare actual results with budgeted results. The term budget has negative connotations for many employees. Often in the past, management has imposed a budget from the top without considering the opinions and feelings of the personnel affected. Such a dictatorial process may result in resistance to the budget. A number of reasons may underlie such resistance, including lack of understanding of the process, concern for status, and an expectation of increased pressure to perform. Employees may believe that the performance evaluation method is unfair or that the goals are unrealistic and unattainable. They may lack confidence in the way accounting figures are generated or may prefer a less formal communication and evaluation system. Often these fears are completely unfounded, but if employees believe these problems exist, it is difficult to accomplish the objectives of budgeting. Problems encountered with such imposed budgets have led accountants and management to adopt participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting means that all levels of management responsible for actual performance actively participate in setting operating goals for the coming period. Managers and other employees are more likely to understand, accept, and pursue goals when they are involved in formulating them. Within a participatory budgeting process, accountants should be compilers or coordinators of the budget, not preparers. They should be on hand during the preparation process to present and explain significant financial data. Accountants must identify the relevant cost data that enables management’s objectives to be quantified in dollars. Accountants are responsible for designing meaningful budget reports. Also, accountants must continually strive to make the accounting system more responsive to managerial needs. That responsiveness, in turn, increases confidence in the accounting system. Although many companies have used participatory budgeting successfully, it does not always work. Studies have shown that in many organizations, participation in the budget formulation failed to make employees more motivated to achieve budgeted goals. Whether or not participation works depends on management’s leadership style, the attitudes of employees, and the organization’s size and structure. Participation is not the answer to all the problems of budget preparation. However, it is one way to achieve better results in organizations that are receptive to the philosophy of participation. Master Budget A master budget consists of a projected income statement (planned operating budget) and a projected balance sheet (financial budget) showing the organization’s objectives and proposed ways of attaining them. In diagram below, we depict a flowchart of the financial planning process that you can use as an overview of the elements in a master budget. The remainder of this chapter describes how a company prepares a master budget. We emphasize the master budget because of its prime importance to financial planning and control in a business entity. The budgeting process starts with management’s plans and objectives for the next period. These plans take into consideration various policy decisions concerning selling price, distribution network, advertising expenditures, and environmental influences from which the company forecasts its sales for the period (in units by product or product line). Managers arrive at the sales budget in dollars by multiplying sales units times sales price per unit. They use expected production, sales volume, and inventory policy to project cost of goods sold. Next, managers project operating expenses such as selling and administrative expenses. This chapter cannot cover all areas of budgeting in detail—entire books have been written on budgeting. However, the following video provides an overview of a budgeting procedure that many successful companies have used. We begin the budget process by discussing the planned operating budget or projected income statement. The projected balance sheet, or financial budget, depends on many items in the projected income statement. Thus, the logical starting point in preparing a master budget is the projected income statement, or planned operating budget. However, since the planned operating budget shows the net effect of many interrelated activities, management must prepare several supporting budgets (sales, production, and purchases, to name a few) before preparing the planned operating budget. The process begins with the sales budget. Operating Budgets In this Operating Budget section, we will discuss the following budgets: - Sales Budget - Production Budget - Cost of Goods Sold Budget - Selling and Administrative Expense Budget - Income Statement Sales Budget he cornerstone of the budgeting process is the sales budget because the usefulness of the entire operating budget depends on it. The sales budget involves estimating or forecasting how much demand exists for a company’s goods and then determining if a realistic, attainable profit can be achieved based on this demand. Sales forecasting can involve either formal or informal techniques, or both. Formal sales forecasting techniques often involve the use of statistical tools. For example, to predict sales for the coming period, management may use economic indicators (or variables) such as the gross national product or gross national personal income, and other variables such as population growth, per capita income, new construction, and population migration. To use economic indicators to forecast sales, a relationship must exist between the indicators (called independent variables) and the sales that are being forecast (called the dependent variable). Then management can use statistical techniques to predict sales based on the economic indicators. Management often supplements formal techniques with informal sales forecasting techniques such as intuition or judgment. In some instances, management modifies sales projections using formal techniques based on other changes in the environment. Examples include the effect on sales of any changes in the expected level of advertising expenditures, the entry of new competitors, and/or the addition or elimination of products or sales territories. In other instances, companies do not use any formal techniques. Instead, sales managers and salespersons estimate how much they can sell. Managers then add up the estimates to arrive at total estimated sales for the period. Usually, the sales manager is responsible for the sales budget and prepares it in units and then in dollars by multiplying the units by their selling price. The sales budget in units is the basis of the remaining budgets that support the operating budget. Production Budget The production budget considers the units in the sales budget and the company’s inventory policy. Managers develop the production budget in units and then in dollars. Determining production volume is an important task. Companies should schedule production carefully to maintain certain minimum quantities of inventory while avoiding excessive inventory accumulation. The principal objective of the production budget is to coordinate the production and sale of goods in terms of time and quantity. Companies using a just-in-time inventory system need to closely coordinate purchasing, sales, and production. In general, maintaining high inventory levels allows for more flexibility in coordinating purchases, sales, and production. However, businesses must compare the convenience of carrying inventory with the cost of carrying inventory; for example, they must consider storage costs and the opportunity cost of funds tied up in inventory. Firms often subdivide the production budget into budgets for materials, labor, and manufacturing overhead, which we will discuss in the manufacturing budgets. Usually materials, labor, and some elements of manufacturing overhead vary directly with production within a given relevant range of production. Fixed manufacturing overhead costs do not vary directly with production but are constant in total within a relevant range of production. To determine fixed manufacturing overhead costs accurately, management must determine the relevant range for the expected level of operations. Cost of Goods Sold Budget The cost of goods sold budget establishes the forecast for the inventory expense and is usually on of the largest expenses on an income statement. A cost of goods sold budget would not be necessary for a service company since they do not sell a product. Management must now prepare a schedule to forecast cost of goods sold, the next major amount in the planned operating budget. We need to understand the costs for making the product. Selling and Administrative Budget The costs of selling a product are closely related to the sales forecast. Generally, the higher the forecast, the higher the selling expenses. Administrative expenses are likely to be less dependent on the sales forecast because many of the items are fixed costs (e.g. salaries of administrative personnel and depreciation of administrative buildings and office equipment). Managers must also estimate other expenses such as interest expense, income tax expense, and research and development expenses. Budgeted Income Statement We will use a standard multi-step income statement showing sales minus gross profit is gross profit (or gross margin). Gross profit minus operating expenses is the income from operations. We will need the Sales budget, Cost of goods sold budget, and the Selling and Administrative expense budgets. Manufacturing Budgets In a manufacturing company, you will have a budget for all of your manufacturing costs including Direct Materials, Direct Labor and Overhead. Each cost will have their own budget. You will need the information from the Sales and Production budgets to complete these 3 budgets: - Material Budget - Direct Labor Budget - Manufacturing Overhead Budget Materials Budget The materials budget (or materials purchases budget) is used to plan how much raw materials we need to have available to meet budgeted production. This budget is prepare similarly to the production budget as the company must decide how much raw materials inventory they want to have on hand at the end of each quarter. This is typically determined as a percent of next quarter’s material needs. In a materials budget, we will deal with units first and then add the budgeted cost near the end. We also need to know how many direct materials are needed for each unit. Direct Labor Budget The direct labor budget is a very easy one. We need to know the units required from the production budget. Next, we need to know how many direct labor hours it takes to complete one unit and the cost per labor hour. Using this information, we can determine how many direct labor hours are required to meet the budgeted level of production. We will take the production units x direct labor per unit to get the number of direct labor hours. Finally, we will take the direct labor hours x the rate per hour. Manufacturing Overhead Budget The final budget for manufacturing is the manufacturing overhead budget. The manufacturing overhead budget is prepare depending on how the company allocates overhead. The company can choose to allocate overhead using one predetermined overhead rate, departmental rates or using activity-based costing. Further, the company can choose to separate the fixed and variable overhead costs and assign costs to overhead using only the variable overhead. Cash Budget Cash budget: After the preceding analyses have been prepared, sufficient information is available to prepare the cash budget and compute the balance in the Cash account for each quarter. Preparing a cash budget requires information about cash receipts and cash disbursements from all the other operating budget schedules. Cash receipts We can prepare the cash receipts schedule based on how the company expects to collect on sales. We know, from past experience, how much of our sales are cash sales and how much are credit sales. We also can analyze past accounts receivable to determine when credit sales are typically paid. Flexible Budget Early in the chapter, you learned that a budget should be adjusted for changes in assumptions or variations in the level of operations. Managers use a technique known as flexible budgeting to deal with budgetary adjustments. A flexible operating budget is a special kind of budget that provides detailed information about budgeted expenses (and revenues) at various levels of output. A flexible budget can be prepared for any level of activity. The advantage to a flexible budget is we can create a budget based on the ACTUAL level of production to give us a clearer picture of our results by comparing the flexible budget to actual results. Flexible Budget A flexible budget is a budget prepared using the ACTUAL level of production instead of the budgeted activity. The difference between actual costs incurred and the flexible budget amount for that same level of operations is called a budget variance. Budget variances can indicate a department’s or company’s degree of efficiency, since they emerge from a comparison of what was with what should have been. The performance report shows the budget variance for each line item. A flexible budget allows volume differences to be removed from the analysis since we are using the same actual level of activity for both budget and actual. How can we do this? We will need to determine the budgeted variable cost per unit for each variable cost. Budgeted fixed costs would remain the same because they do not change based on volume. Flexible budgets often show budgeted amounts for every 10 per cent change in the level of operations, such as at the 70 per cent, 80 per cent, 90 per cent, and 100 per cent levels of capacity. However, actual production may fall between the levels shown in the flexible budget. If so, the company can find the budgeted amounts at that level of operations using the following formula: Budgeted amount = Budgeted fixed portion of costs + [Budgeted variable portion of cost per unit X Actual units of output] Standard Costs Uses of standard costs Whenever you have set goals that you have sought to achieve, these goals could have been called standards. Periodically, you might measure your actual performance against these standards and analyze the differences to see how close you are to your goal. Similarly, management sets goals, such as standard costs, and compares actual costs with these goals to identify possible problems. This section begins with a discussion of the nature of standard costs. Next, we explain how managers use standard costs to establish budgets. Then we describe how management uses the concept of management by exception to investigate variances from standards. We also explain setting standards and how management decides whether to use ideal or practical standards. The section closes with a discussion of the other uses of standard costs. Nature of standard costs A standard cost is a carefully predetermined measure of what a cost should be under stated conditions. Standard costs are not only estimates of what costs will be but also goals to be achieved. When standards are properly set, their achievement represents a reasonably efficient level of performance. Usually, effective standards are the result of engineering studies and of time and motion studies undertaken to determine the amounts of materials, labor, and other services required to produce a product. Also considered in setting standards are general economic conditions because these conditions affect the cost of materials and other services that must be purchased by a manufacturing company. Manufacturing companies determine the standard cost of each unit of product by establishing the standard cost of direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead necessary to produce that unit. Determining the standard cost of direct materials and direct labor is less complicated than determining the standard cost of manufacturing overhead. The standard direct materials cost per unit of a product consists of the standard amount of material required to produce the unit multiplied by the standard price of the material. You must distinguish between the terms standard price and standard cost. Standard price usually refers to the price per unit of inputs into the production process, such as the price per pound of raw materials. Variances Flexible operating budget and budget variances illustrated: As stated earlier, a flexible operating budget provides detailed information about budgeted expenses at various levels of activity. The main advantage of using a flexible operating budget along with a planned operating budget is that management can appraise performance on two levels. First, management can compare the actual results with the planned operating budget, which enables management to analyze the deviation of actual output from expected output. Second, given the actual level of operations, management can compare actual costs at actual volume with budgeted costs at actual volume. The use of flexible operating budgets gives a valid basis for comparison when actual production or sales volume differs from expectations. A company makes a valid analysis of expense controls by comparing actual results with a flexible operating budget based on the levels of sales and production that actually occurred. Calculating Material Variances As stated earlier, standard costs represent goals. Standard cost is the amount a cost should be under a given set of circumstances. The accounting records also contain information about actual costs. The amount by which actual cost differs from standard cost is called a variance. When actual costs are less than the standard cost, a cost variance is favorable. When actual costs exceed the standard costs, a cost variance is unfavorable. Do not automatically equate favorable and unfavorable variances with good and bad. You must base such an appraisal on the causes of the variance. Materials Variances The standard materials cost of any product is simply the standard quantity of materials that should be used multiplied by the standard price that should be paid for those materials. Actual costs may differ from standard costs for materials because the price paid for the materials and/or the quantity of materials used varied from the standard amounts management had set. These two factors are accounted for by isolating two variances for materials—a price variance and a usage variance. Accountants isolate these two materials variances for three reasons. First, different individuals may be responsible for each variance—a purchasing agent for the price variance and a production manager for the usage variance. Second, materials might not be purchased and used in the same period. The variance associated with the purchase should be isolated in the period of purchase, and the variance associated with usage should be isolated in the period of use. As a general rule, the sooner a variance can be isolated, the greater its value in cost control. Third, it is unlikely that a single materials variance—the difference between the standard cost and the actual cost of the materials used—would be of any real value to management for effective cost control. A single variance would not show management what caused the difference, or one variance might simply offset another and make the total difference appear to be immaterial. Materials price variance: In a manufacturing company, the purchasing and accounting departments usually set a standard price for materials meeting certain engineering specifications. They consider factors such as market conditions, vendors’ quoted prices, and the optimum size of a purchase order when setting a standard price. A materials price variance (MPV) occurs when a company pays a higher or lower price than the standard price set for materials. Materials price variance is the difference between actual price paid (AP) and standard price allowed (SP) multiplied by the actual quantity of materials purchased (AQ). In equation form, the materials price variance can be done in two ways: Materials price variance = (SP-AP) x AQ purchased Materials usage variance Because the standard quantity of materials used in making a product is largely a matter of physical requirements or product specifications, usually the engineering department sets it. But if the quality of materials used varies with price, the accounting and purchasing departments may perform special studies to find the right quality. The materials usage variance occurs when more or less than the standard amount of materials is used to produce a product or complete a process. The variance shows only differences from the standard quantity caused by the quantity of materials used; it does not include any effect of variances in price. Thus, the materials usage variance is: Materials usage variance = (SQ-AQ) x SP Calculating Labor Variances Labor Variances Labor rate variance: The labor rate variance occurs when the average rate of pay is higher or lower than the standard cost to produce a product or complete a process. The labor rate variance is similar to the materials price variance. To compute the labor rate variance, we use the actual direct labor-hour rate paid (AR), the standard direct labor-hour rate allowed (SR) and the actual hours of direct labor services worked (AH). It can also be calculated in either of the following ways: Labor rate variance= (SR – AR) x AH Labor efficiency variance Usually, the company’s engineering department sets the standard amount of direct labor-hours needed to complete a product. Engineers may base the direct labor-hours standard on time and motion studies or on bargaining with the employees’ union. The labor efficiency variance occurs when employees use more or less than the standard amount of direct labor-hours to produce a product or complete a process. The labor efficiency variance is similar to the materials usage variance. To compute the labor efficiency variance, we will use the actual direct labor-hours worked (AH), the standard direct labor-hours allowed (SH), and the standard direct labor-hour rate per hour (SR) in either of the following ways: Labor efficiency variance= (SH – AH) x SR Chapter 14: Differential Analysis By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Analyze product costs for planning and decision making. - Identify relevant costs and apply them to managerial decisions. - List the necessary criteria that make information relevant to a decision involving two or more alternative courses of action. - Describe the nature of differential analysis and illustrate its application to decisions involving: - Accepting business at a special price - Discontinuing an unprofitable segment - Making or buying - Replacing a long term asset Differential Analsysis Examples Differential analysis involves analyzing the different costs and benefits that would arise from alternative solutions to a particular problem. Relevant revenues or costs in a given situation are future revenues or costs that differ depending on the alternative course of action selected. Differential revenue is the difference in revenues between two alternatives. Differential cost or expense is the difference between the amounts of relevant costs for two alternatives. Future costs that do not differ between alternatives are irrelevant and may be ignored since they affect both alternatives similarly. Past costs, also known as sunk costs, are not relevant in decision making because they have already been incurred; therefore, these costs cannot be changed no matter which alternative is selected. For certain decisions, revenues do not differ between alternatives. Under those circumstances, management should select the alternative with the least cost. In other situations, costs do not differ between alternatives. Accordingly, management should select the alternative that results in the largest revenue. Many times both future costs and revenues differ between alternatives. In these situations, the management should select the alternative that results in the greatest positive difference between future revenues and expenses (costs). To illustrate relevant, differential, and sunk costs, assume that Joanna Bennett invested $400 in a tiller so she could till gardens to earn $1,500 during the summer. Not long afterward, Bennett was offered a job at a horse stable feeding horses and cleaning stalls for $1,200 for the summer. The costs that she would incur in tilling are $100 for transportation and $150 for supplies. The costs she would incur at the horse stable are $100 for transportation and $50 for supplies. If Bennett works at the stable, she would still have the tiller, which she could loan to her parents and friends at no charge. The tiller cost of $400 is not relevant to the decision because it is a sunk cost. The transportation cost of $100 is also not relevant because it is the same for both alternatives. These costs and revenues are relevant (note: differential means difference): Based on this differential analysis, Joanna Bennett should perform her tilling service rather than work at the stable. Of course, this analysis considers only cash flows; nonmonetary considerations, such as her love for horses, could sway the decision. In many situations, total variable costs differ between alternatives while total fixed costs do not. For example, suppose you are deciding between taking the bus to work or driving your car on a particular day. The differential costs of driving a car to work or taking the bus would involve only the variable costs of driving the car versus the variable costs of taking the bus. Suppose the decision is whether to drive your car to work every day for a year versus taking the bus for a year. If you bought a second car for commuting, certain costs such as insurance and an auto license that are fixed costs of owning a car would be differential costs for this particular decision. Before studying the applications of differential analysis, you must realize that opportunity costs are also relevant in choosing between alternatives. An opportunity cost is the potential benefit that is forgone by not following the next best alternative course of action. For example, assume that the two best uses of a plot of land are as a mobile home park (annual income of $100,000) and as a golf driving range (annual income of $60,000). The opportunity cost of using the land as a mobile home park is $60,000, while the opportunity cost of using the land as a driving range is $100,000. Companies do not record opportunity costs in the accounting records because they are the costs of not following a certain alternative. Thus, opportunity costs are not transactions that occurred but that did not occur. However, opportunity cost is a relevant cost in many decisions because it represents a real sacrifice when one alternative is chosen instead of another. Applying Differential Analysis Applications of differential analysis To illustrate the application of differential analysis to specific decision problems, we consider five decisions: - setting prices of products; - accepting or rejecting special orders; - adding or eliminating products, segments, or customers; - processing or selling joint products; and - deciding whether to make products or buy them. Although these five decisions are not the only applications of differential analysis, they represent typical short-term business decisions using differential analysis. Our discussion ignores income taxes. Pricing Decisions When applying differential analysis to pricing decisions, each possible price for a given product represents an alternative course of action. The sales revenues for each alternative and the costs that differ between alternatives are the relevant amounts in these decisions. Total fixed costs often remain the same between pricing alternatives and, if so, may be ignored. In selecting a price for a product, the goal is to select the price at which total future revenues exceed total future costs by the greatest amount, thus maximizing income. A high price is not necessarily the price that maximizes income. The product may have many substitutes. If a company sets a high price, the number of units sold may decline substantially as customers switch to lower-priced competitive products. Thus, in the maximization of income, the expected volume of sales at each price is as important as the contribution margin per unit of product sold. In making any pricing decision, management should seek the combination of price and volume that produces the largest total contribution margin. This combination is often difficult to identify in an actual situation because management may have to estimate the number of units that can be sold at each price. Make or Buy Decisions Managers also apply differential analysis to make-or-buy decisions. A make-or-buy decision occurs when management must decide whether to make or purchase a part or material used in manufacturing another product. Management must compare the price paid for a part with the additional costs incurred to manufacture the part. When most of the manufacturing costs are fixed and would exist in any case, it is likely to be more economical to make the part rather than buy it. Make or Buy Example To illustrate the application of differential analysis to make-or-buy decisions, assume that Small Motor Company manufactures a part costing $6 for use in its toy automobile engines. Cost components are: materials, $3.00; labor, $1.50; fixed overhead costs, $1.05; and variable overhead costs, $0.45. Small could purchase the part for $5.25. Fixed overhead would presumably continue even if the part were purchased. The added costs (variable costs only) of manufacturing amount to $4.95 ($3.00 DM + $1.50 DL + $0.45 Variable OH). This amount is 30 cents per unit less than the purchase price of the part. Therefore, manufacturing the part should be continued as shown in the following analysis: In make-or-buy decisions, management also should consider the opportunity cost of not utilizing the space for some other purpose. In the previous example, if the opportunity costs of not using this space in its best alternative use is more than 30 cents per unit times the number of units produced, the part should be purchased. In some manufacturing situations, firms avoid a portion of fixed costs by buying from an outside source. For example, suppose eliminating a part would reduce production so that a supervisor’s salary could be saved. In such a situation, firms should treat these fixed costs the same as variable costs in the analysis because they would be relevant costs. Sometimes the cost to manufacture may be only slightly less than the cost of purchasing the part or material. Then management should place considerable weight on other factors such as the competency of existing personnel to undertake manufacturing the part or material, the availability of working capital, and the cost of any loans that may be necessary. Accepting or Rejecting Special Orders Sometimes management has an opportunity to sell its product in two or more markets at two or more different prices. Movie theaters, for example, sell tickets at discount prices to particular groups of people—children, students, and senior citizens. Differential analysis can determine whether companies should sell their products at prices below regular levels. Good business management requires keeping the cost of idleness at a minimum. When operating at less than full capacity, management should seek additional business. Management may decide to accept such additional business at prices lower than average unit costs if the differential revenues from the additional business exceed the differential costs. By accepting special orders at a discount, businesses can keep people employed that they would otherwise lay off. Adding or Eliminating Periodically, management has to decide whether to add or eliminate certain products, segments, or customers. If you have watched a store or a plant open or close in your area, you have seen the results of these decisions. Differential analysis is useful in this decision making because a company’s income statement does not automatically associate costs with certain products, segments, or customers. Thus, companies must reclassify costs as those that the action would change and those that it would not change. If companies add or eliminate products, they usually increase or decrease variable costs. The fixed costs may change, but not in many cases. Management bases decisions to add or eliminate products only on the differential items; that is, the costs and revenues that change. Capital Budgeting Capital budgeting is the process of considering alternative capital projects and selecting those alternatives that provide the most profitable return on available funds, within the framework of company goals and objectives. A capital project is any available alternative to purchase, build, lease, or renovate buildings, equipment, or other long-range major items of property. The alternative selected usually involves large sums of money and brings about a large increase in fixed costs for a number of years in the future. Once a company builds a plant or undertakes some other capital expenditure, its future plans are less flexible. Typical capital budgeting decisions are: - Decision to purchase equipment to reduce cost - Decision to expand by purchasing a new facilities. - Decision to make a purchasing decision on which equipment to buy. - Decision to replace equipment Poor capital-budgeting decisions can be costly because of the large sums of money and relatively long periods involved. If a poor capital budgeting decision is implemented, the company can lose all or part of the funds originally invested in the project and not realize the expected benefits. In addition, other actions taken within the company regarding the project, such as finding suppliers of raw materials, are wasted if the capital-budgeting decision must be revoked. Poor capital-budgeting decisions may also harm the company’s competitive position because the company does not have the most efficient productive assets needed to compete in world markets. Making capital-budgeting decisions involves analyzing cash inflows and outflows. This section shows you how to calculate the benefits and costs used in capital-budgeting decisions. Because money has a time value, these benefits and costs are adjusted for time. The Time Value of Money Money received today is worth more than the same amount of money received at a future date, such as a year from now. This principle is known as the time value of money. Money has time value because of investment opportunities, not because of inflation. For example, $100 today is worth more than $100 to be received one year from today because the $100 received today, once invested, grows to some amount greater than $100 in one year. Future value and present value concepts are extremely important in assessing the desirability of long-term investments (capital budgeting). The net cash inflow (as used in capital budgeting) is the net cash benefit expected from a project in a period. The net cash inflow is the difference between the periodic cash inflows and the periodic cash outflows for a proposed project. Asset Replacement Asset replacement: Sometimes a company must decide whether or not it should replace existing plant assets. Such replacement decisions often occur when faster and more efficient machinery and equipment appear on the market. The computation of the net cash inflow is more complex for a replacement decision than for an acquisition decision because cash inflows and outflows for two items (the asset being replaced and the new asset) must be considered. To illustrate, assume that a company operates two machines purchased four years ago at a cost of $18,000 each. The estimated useful life of each machine is 12 years (with no salvage value). Each machine will produce 40,000 units of product per year. The annual cash operating expenses (labor, repairs, etc.) for the two machines together total $14,000. After the old machines have been used for four years, a new machine becomes available. The new machine can be acquired for $28,000 and has an estimated useful life of eight years (with no salvage value). The new machine produces 60,000 units annually and entails annual cash operating expenses of $10,000. The $4,000 reduction in operating expenses ($14,000 for old machines – $10,000 for the new machine) is a $4,000 increase in net cash inflow (savings) before taxes. The firm would pay $28,000 in the first year to acquire the new machine. In addition to this initial outlay, the annual net cash inflow from replacement is computed as follows: Notice that these figures concentrated only on the differences in costs for each of the two alternatives. Two other items also are relevant to the decision. First, the purchase of the new machine creates a $28,000 cash outflow immediately after acquisition. Second, the two old machines can probably be sold, and the selling price or salvage value of the old machines creates a cash inflow in the period of disposal. Also, the previous example used straight-line depreciation. Out-of-pocket and sunk costs A distinction between out-of-pocket costs and sunk costs needs to be made for capital budgeting decisions. An out-of-pocket cost is a cost requiring a future outlay of resources, usually cash. Out-of-pocket costs can be avoided or changed in amount. Future labor and repair costs are examples of out-of-pocket costs. Sunk Cost Sunk costs are costs already incurred. Nothing can be done about sunk costs at the present time; they cannot be avoided or changed in amount. The price paid for a machine becomes a sunk cost the minute the purchase has been made (before that moment it was an out-of-pocket cost). The amount of that past outlay cannot be changed, regardless of whether the machine is scrapped or used. Thus, depreciation is a sunk cost because it represents a past cash outlay. Depletion and amortization of assets, such as ore deposits and patents, are also sunk costs. A sunk cost is a past cost, while an out-of-pocket cost is a future cost. Only the out-of-pocket costs (the future cash outlays) are relevant to capital budgeting decisions. Sunk costs are not relevant, except for any effect they have on the cash outflow for taxes. Initial cost and salvage value: Any cash outflows necessary to acquire an asset and place it in a position and condition for its intended use are part of the initial cost of the asset. If an investment has a salvage value, that value is a cash inflow in the year of the asset’s disposal. Cost of Capital The cost of capital: The cost of capital is important in project selection. Certainly, any acceptable proposal should offer a return that exceeds the cost of the funds used to finance it. Cost of capital, usually expressed as a rate, is the cost of all sources of capital (debt and equity) employed by a company. For convenience, most current liabilities, such as accounts payable and federal income taxes payable, are treated as being without cost. Every other item on the right (equity) side of the balance sheet has a cost. The subject of determining the cost of capital is a controversial topic in the literature of accounting and finance and is not discussed here. We give the assumed rates for the cost of capital in this book. Next, we describe several techniques for deciding whether to invest in capital projects. Short Term Business Decisions Payback period The payback period is the time it takes for the cumulative sum of the annual net cash inflows from a project to equal the initial net cash outlay. In effect, the payback period answers the question: How long will it take the capital project to recover, or pay back, the initial investment? If the net cash inflows each year are a constant amount, the formula for the payback period is: \| Payback Period \| = \| Initial Cash Outlay/Annual net cash inflow \| Payback Period = $120,000/$18,200 = 6.6 years. For the two assets discussed in the previous section, you can compute the payback period as follows. The purchase of the $120,000 equipment creates an annual net cash Remember that the payback period indicates how long it will take the machine to pay for itself. The replacement machine being considered has a payback period of 10.8 years but a useful life of only 8 years. Therefore, because the investment cannot pay for itself within its useful life, the company should not purchase a new machine to replace the two old machines. When using payback period analysis to evaluate investment proposals, management may choose one of these rules to decide on project selection: - Select the investments with the shortest payback periods. - Select only those investments that have a payback period of less than a specified number of years.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.622857	01/05/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99746/overview", "title": "Accounting For Business and Entrepreneurs, Concepts and Technology", "author": "La Tasha Roberts" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111947/overview	Interconnected Diasporas: 200 Years of Mobility, Identity, and Community in the Liberian Diaspora Overview This presentation considers the Liberia diaspora in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries focused on mobility, identity, and community. It discusses major political organizations and people related to the history of Liberia including the American Colonization Society and Joseph Jenkins Roberts. The presentation provides links to primary sources related to the people who emigrated to Liberia. Attachments Attached is the PowerPoint presentation for this resource. Most of the slides have sparse lecture notes included for instructor use. About This Resource The presentation included here was submitted by a key note speaker in a one-day virtual workshop for world history educators entitled, "Teaching the Global African Diaspora." The workshop was hosted by the Alliance for Learning in World History. This resource was contributed by Dr. Yolanda Covington-Ward, Department of Africana Studies, University of Pittsburgh.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.658281	Lesson	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111947/overview", "title": "Interconnected Diasporas: 200 Years of Mobility, Identity, and Community in the Liberian Diaspora", "author": "World History" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/101413/overview	تطبيقات وأدوات للتّعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد Overview يهدف الموقع التعرف على التطبيقات والأدوات التي يمكن توظيفها في التّعلم الإلكتروني والتّعلم عن بُعد وذلك من أجل التغلب على كثير من مشكلات الواقع التّعليمي الحالي، فضلاً عن استمرار التّعليم وإجراء التقويم في حالات الطوارئ، مثل توقف التّعليم خلال جائحة كورونا Covid-19. الصفحة الرئيسية مرحبـــــــــاً بــــــكم \| \|\| تطبيقات وأدوات للتًعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد \| \|\| \| إعداد الطالب/ عبدالرزاق الخياط إشراف الدكتور/ أنور الوحش \| \|\| من نحن \| الموضوعات \| الصفحة الرئيسية \| يهدف الموقع التعرف على التطبيقات والأدوات التي يمكن توظيفها في التّعلم الإلكتروني \| الموضوعات مرحبـــــــــاً بــــــكم \| \|\| تطبيقات وأدوات للتًعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد \| \|\| إعداد الطالب/ عبدالرزاق الخياط إشراف الدكتور/ أنور الوحش \| \|\| من نحن \| الموضوعات \| الصفحة الرئيسية \| تطبيقات وبرامج لنشر ومشاركة الدروس تطبيقات وبرامج للتواصل عن بُعدتطبيقات وبرامج لإدارة التّعلم عبر الإنترنت \| من نحن مرحبـــــــــاً بــــــكم \| \|\| \| تطبيقات وأدوات للتًعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد \| \|\| إعداد الطالب/ عبدالرزاق الخياط إشراف الدكتور/ أنور الوحش \| \|\| من نحن \| الموضوعات \| الصفحة الرئيسية \| طلبة قسم تكنولوجيا التّعليم والمعلومات مستوى ثالث شعبة الحاسوب كلية التربية _ جامعة إب الدفعة العاشرة (2022 – 2023م) \| تطبيقات وبرامج لنشر ومشاركة الدروس مرحبـــــــــاً بــــــكم \| \|\| \| تطبيقات وأدوات للتًعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد \| \|\| إعداد الطالب/ عبدالرزاق الخياط إشراف الدكتور/ أنور الوحش \| \|\| من نحن \| الموضوعات \| الصفحة الرئيسية \| :أولاً: تطبيقات وبرامج لنشر ومشاركة الدروستساعد المعلمين والمدربين على تقديم الدروس والمواد التعليمية والمواد التعليمية ، حيث تكون معلمة تعليمية كبيرة من المعلمين في التعليم المدرسي ، حيث تقتصر على نشر المحتوى ، كما تُنشأ : Word Press تطبيق وورد برس أحد برامج نشر وإدارة محتوى التّعلم الإلكتروني، فهو يُمكّن المُعلم من تصميم موقع إلكتروني عبر الإنترنت، وبدون الحاجة إلى خبرات سابقة في البرمجة أو تصميم الويب : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق وورد بريس النقر على الرابط التالي :YouTubeتطبيق يوتيوب يمكن الاطلاع على موقع اليوتيوب YouTube من أهم مواقع تدوين وموقع الفيديو ضمن تطبيقات جوجل ، والوصول إلى الحصول على إمكانية الحصول على مقطع فيديو مرئي ، الوصول بسهولة الوصول إلى مقطع فيديو للوصول بسهولة ، يمكن الوصول إلى مقطع فيديو مباشر ، الوصول إلى وسيلة الوصول إلى معلم ، وسرعة انتشار ووصول الفيديو إلى أي مكان على مستوى العالم : Slide Share تطبيق تطبيق تطبيق Slide Share نشر العروض التقديمية على الإنترنت ، فبعد تصميم وتجهيز عرض تقديمي للمحاضرة باستخدام برنامج باوربوينت ، يمكن رفع العرض اونلاين ثم مشاركة الرابط مع الطلاب من خلال مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق شيلد شاير النقر على الرابط التالي :Bloggerتطبيق بلوجر تعد المدونات الإلكترونية Blogs من أسهل التطبيقات التي يمكن توظيفها بفاعلية في العملية التّعليمية، لسهولة استخدامها وإمكاناتها في نشر المحتوى الإلكتروني : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق بلوجر النقر على الرابط التالي Outlook: تطبيق أحد التطبيقات التابعة لشركة مايكروسوفت Microsoft، وبالرغم من استخدامه الأساسي كبرنامج بريد إلكتروني فإنه يتضمن العديد من الأدوات التي يمكن توظيفها بفاعلية في التّعليم : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق اوتلوك النقر على الرابط التالي \| تطبيقات وأدوات للتّعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد مرحبـــــــــاً بــــــكم \| \|\| \| تطبيقات وأدوات للتًعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد \| \|\| إعداد الطالب/ عبدالرزاق الخياط إشراف الدكتور/ أنور الوحش \| \|\| من نحن \| الموضوعات \| الصفحة الرئيسية \| :ثانياً: تطبيقات وبرامج للتواصل عن بُعد.باتت تطبيقات التّعليم عن بعد من أهم التطبيقات المستخدمة بالتّعلم خصوصاً في عالمنا الحالي .وقد ساهم انتشار جائحة كورونا في الانتشار الكبير لهذه الوسيلة التّعليمية المواكبة للعالم التكنولوجي الذي جعل من عالمنا قرية صغيرة : ومن أمثلة هذه التطبيقات : Social Networks تطبيقات التواصل الاجتماعي توفر مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي كثيراً من الخدمات التّعليمية عبر تطبيقاتها المختلفة، مما يساعد في التواصل وتبادل المعلومات بشكل فعال؛ حيث تتيح للمعلم والطلاب الاتصال المباشر والدائم مع بعضهم البعض، ومن أشهر هذه التطبيقات الفيسبوك والواتساب وتويتر : Microsoft Teams تطبيق مايكروسوفت تيمز وهو أيضًا أحد التطبيقات التابعة لشركة مايكروسوفت، ويوفر إنشاء فصول دراسية، والتواصل مع الطلاب والزملاء، وهو ضمن مجموعة الاوفيس ومتوافق مع أنظمة التشغيل المختلفة حيث يمكن استخدامه من خلال الحاسب الآلي، أو الهاتف الذكي : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق مايكروسوفت تيمز النقر على الرابط التالي : Zoom تطبيق زووم تطبيق مميز جدًا، وفكرته هي تنفيذ المحاضرات مباشرة مثل الفيديو كون فرانس، حيث يمكن للمعلم التواصل مع الطلاب بالصوت والصورة، بالإضافة إلى إمكانية مشاركة الشاشة معهم لتقديم العروض التقديمية : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق زووم النقر على الرابط التالي : Skypeتطبيق سكايب .وهو أحد تطبيقات مايكروسوفت، ويتيح التواصل بالصوت والصورة مع الطلاب : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق سكايب النقر على الرابط التالي Nearpod : تطبيق .ويستخدم للتواصل ومشاركة الشاشة بين المعلم والطلاب عبر الهواتف الذكية : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب تطبيق سكايب النقر على الرابط التالي \| تطبيقات وبرامج لإدارة التّعلم عبر الإنترنت مرحبـــــــــاً بــــــكم \| \|\| \| تطبيقات وأدوات للتًعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد \| \|\| إعداد الطالب/ عبدالرزاق الخياط إشراف الدكتور/ أنور الوحش \| \|\| من نحن \| الموضوعات \| الصفحة الرئيسية \| :ثالثاً: تطبيقات وبرامج لإدارة التّعلم عبر الإنترنت: ومن أمثلة هذه التطبيقات(المنصات) : Moodleمنصة مودل هو نظام إدارة تعلّم صُمّم على أُسس تعليمية ليساعد المعلمين على توفير بيئة تعليمية إلكترونية، ويحتوي على عدة وحدات تدعم تقديم المناهج الإلكترونية، منها وحدة الواجبات الدراسية ووحدة المنتدى ووحدة الدرس ووحدة المصادر ووحدة التقييم والاختبارات، وهو يحتاج إلى تحميل مصدر النظام من الموقع الرسمي ثم إعادة رفعه إلى نطاق أو موقع شخصي : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب لمنصة مودل النقر على الرابط التالي : Google Classroom منصة جوجل كلاس رووم هي منصة للتَّعليم الإلكتروني من إنتاج شركة جوجل تم إطلاقها بشكل مجاني لتسهيل التّعلم عن بُعد، وذلك باستخدام التقنيات المتوفرة فيه، والتي من أبرزها: نشر مصادر تعلم إلكترونية للطلاب، إدارة الطلاب المشاركين، التواصل الاجتماعي، طلب تنفيذ التكليفات والمهام، واستلامها وتقييمها، وإرسال الدرجات للطلاب : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب لمنصة جوجل كلاس رووم النقر على الرابط التالي : Edmodo منصة ادمودو هي منصة اجتماعية مجانية توفر للمعلمين والطلاب بيئة للاتصال والتعاون، وتبادل المحتوى التّعليمي وتطبيقاته الرقمية إضافة إلى الواجبات المنزلية والمناقشات والاختبارات الإلكترونية : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب لمنصة ادمودو النقر على الرابط التالي : Schoology منصة سكولوجي هي أيضًا منصة تعليمية توفر للمعلمين بيئة إلكترونية لإدارة الدروس والمحاضرات، حيث توفر نشر الدروس وتعيين التكليفات والواجبات وتصميم الاختبارات : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب لمنصة سكولوجي النقر على الرابط التالي : Black Boardبلاك بورد هو أحد أنظمة إدارة التّعلم الإلكتروني المتكاملة حيث يقوم بإدارة العملية التّعليمية بطريقة تزامنية وغير تزامنية، مهمته تقوم على إدارة العملية التّعليمية وهي منظومة متكاملة يتم الدخول إليها عبر رابط معين، وتستخدم الكثير من الجامعات حول العالم هذه التقنية في عمليات الحضور وتعلم المقررات عن بعد، مما يجعلها من أفضل تطبيقات التّعليم عن بعد : لمعرفة كيفية استخدام الطالب لمنصة بلاك بورد النقر على الرابط التالي \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.746934	Student Guide	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/101413/overview", "title": "تطبيقات وأدوات للتّعلم الإلكتروني عن بُعد", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107104/overview	Educational Analysis Essay Prompt Overview This resources is an educational analysis essay prompt for a first-year composition course. Unit 1: Experiences in Education This is an educational analysis essay prompt.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.769474	07/25/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107104/overview", "title": "Educational Analysis Essay Prompt", "author": "Stephanie Razo" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112166/overview	ISC_112_Industrial_Safety_with_disclaimer_3Jz4hQn ISC_112_Industrial_Safety_with_disclaimer_3Jz4hQn ISC_112_Industrial_Safety_with_disclaimer_3Jz4hQn ISC 112 Mid Term Exam Questions and Answers ISC 112 Quiz Questions and Answers ISC-112, Industrial Safety Overview This is a course in industrial safety practices and training. The course content has been alighed with OSHA-10 standards. This means that, should the instructor be OSHA-10 certified, the students will be able to apply for their OSHA-10 cards upon completing the course. Subjects covered include Workers Compensation, Lock Out, Tag Out Procedures, Industrial Hygiene, Electrical Safety, among others. The course is set up for a 15 week semester and includes mid-term and final exams. The course can be customized and cut down to a shorter session as needed. ISC-112, Industrial Safety This is a course in industrial safety practices and training. The course content has been alighed with OSHA-10 standards. This means that, should the instructor be OSHA-10 certified, the students will be able to apply for their OSHA-10 cards upon completing the course. Subjects covered include Workers Compensation, Lock Out, Tag Out Procedures, Industrial Hygiene, Electrical Safety, among others. The course is set up for a 15 week semester and includes mid-term and final exams. The course can be customized and cut down to a shorter session as needed. Odigia was the platform used to create the course.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.790715	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112166/overview", "title": "ISC-112, Industrial Safety", "author": "Lecture" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114424/overview	AI and OER Open Educational Resources Initiative OERI Resources AI’s Role in Revolutionizing Open Educational Resources (OER) ASCCC-OERI Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Open Educational Resources (OER) Authoring Open Textbooks Breaking Down Barriers: Advancing Open Education through the Power of AI and OER CCCOER Community College Consortium for OER CCCOER: Finding OER Centering DEI in OER through Instructional Design and Equity Consultation Community College Consortium for OER: Community of Practice for Open Education Community College Consortium OER Community of Online Research Assignments Creation: OER Creation & Management, Copyright, Licensing, and CC101, Instructional Design and Ed Tech for OER, Open Pedagogy Curating OER Content through AI and Chat GPT Efficacy of Open Textbook Adoption on Learning Performances and Course Withdrawal Rates: A Meta-Analysis Enhancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER) Faculty Guide to Evaluating Open Education Resources Ferris State University Library OER Resources FLOE Project ¬¬Framework for Reviewing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER) Generative AI in OER Development Generative AI, Synthetic Contents, Open Educational Resources (OER), and Open Educational Practices (OEP): A New Front in the Openness Landscape GSU Open Educational Resources (OER): What is OER How do we respond to generative AI in education? Open educational practices give us a framework for an ongoing process Iowa State University OER Starter Kit iRubric: Evaluating OER Rubric JCCC Open Access Guideline JCCC Scholar Space Kansas Board of Regents OER LibreTexts Commons MASON OER Metafinder (MOM) MERLOT Content Builder Merlot Faculty Development Community Portal Merlot OER Search MERLOT_Peer_Review_Information.htm Missouri A&OER Conference Missouri A&OER Conference 2024: OER 101 MIT OpenCourseWare Educator MO AOA 2024 Conference MOBIUS OER Resources OASIS OER Metafinder OATCJ: Open Access Teaching Case Journal OER Commons OER Commons Higher Education Open-Textbooks OER @ JCCC Guide OER Review Rubric: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus OER Tools: Documentation for Instructors One Size Does Not Fit All: Making Open Textbooks More Accessible 2021 MO A&OER Symposium 2021 Open Author OER Commons Open Case Studies Open Course Library Open Dialogues: Open Education & Accessibility Open Education & AI: Future Trends Forum Open Education Conference 2024 Open Education Consortium: Addressing Accessibility Issues Open Education Network Certificate in Open Education Librarianship Open Education Network Faculty Incentives Open Education SPARC Open Pedagogy Student Toolkit OpenStax Open SUNY Textbooks Open Textbook Library Open Washington OER Network: OER Stories Park University OER Guide Reasons to Use Open Educational Resources: Open Education Consortium Regional Leaders in Open Education Network Regional Leaders OER Resources Regional Leaders of Open Education (RLOE) Program Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resource (OER) Objects Skills Commons OER Repository SPARC Open Education Leadership Program SPARC* Open Education Pedagogy Worksheet SPARC* Open Education Primer An Introduction to Open Educational Resources, Practices and Policy for Academic Libraries Strategic Plan Template SUNY OER Sustainability The 5-Ps of Jumpstarting Open Assessment Creation with Generative AI The OER Starter Kit Workbook The Open Pedagogy Student Toolkit Understanding CC Licenses and Generative AI UNM AI OER Faculty Pilot Project Virginia Clinton-Lisell MO A&OER Conference 2024 Keynote Virginia Clinton-Lisell's MO A&OER 2024 Conference Keynote Address What are OERs and Why Use Them? Why Open Education Matters Open Education Resources Overview This resource provides an overview of Open Education and Open Education Resources (OERs). Presentation Overview Welcome to Learning More About Open Education & OERs - Open Education & OERs Defined - Reasons to Use OERs - Finding OERs: OER Metafinders & Repositories - Finding OERs: Textbooks, Courseware, Assignments, Case Studies, Open Data, etc. - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) & Evaluating OERs - Supporting Faculty and Institutional OER Efforts - My Work with OERs - Creating OERs: Opportunities for Teaching & Learning - On the Horizon: AI and OERs - Learn More: Community College OER Community of Practice, KBOR and JCCC Resources - Learn More: Professional Development Opportunities - Discussion Open Education and OERs Defined Video source TEDxNYED, David Wiley, 03/06/10: https://youtu.be/Rb0syrgsH6M?si=Fu7a3W5xXpFYBWaF "Open Education encompasses educational resources, tools and practices that can be freely and fully used in the digital environment without legal, financial or technical barriers. The meaning of “open” is typically defined in terms of users being able to freely exercise the five “R” rights: retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute." Open Education's three pillars include: - Open Educational Resources (OER) - what we will focus on today - Open Educational Practices (OEP) - Open Educational Policy Open Education: - allows for continuous quality improvement - gives educators and learners control over content - supports try academic freedom OERs are: “OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge” (Hewlett Foundation, n.d.)." Information taken from the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program https://sparcopen.org/our-work/open-education-leadership-program/ Copied and communicated under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, Image source: "What are OERs and why use them?" Copied and communicated under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, Reasons to Use OERs - From 2008-2018, the average net price (including tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies) of public four-year institutions has risen by 24%. - This increase disproportionately affects students and families of color. For Black and Hispanic households, this net price accounts for at least 25% of the median household income in 36 states. - Students spend over $3 billion in financial aid on textbooks each year. - High textbook costs cause adverse student behavior, including: - 64% of students reported not purchasing the required textbook due to cost - 43% reported taking fewer courses - 41% reported choosing not to register for a specific course - 41% reported dropping a course - 36% reported earning a poor grade in a course - The high cost of course materials disproportionately affects food-insecure students. 82% of students who reported missing a meal also reported not buying a textbook. - At Park, 88% of full-time, first-time students receive some kind of financial aid, but only 41% of their average financial aid is met, and the average student debt at graduation is $18,103. Studies from 2005-2020 indicate: - No statistically significant difference in test scores between sections of a class that use OERs vs. commercial textbooks - Classrooms using OERs saw a greater improvement in national test scores - Classes with OERs saw lower failure and withdrawal rates than classes with traditional textbooks OERs "equalize" students' engagement and performance, meaning they lead to a lower standard deviation in page views, on-time assignment submissions, attendance, and Video OER \| Katie Gosa \| TEDxUTA https://youtu.be/dUgqdSOD9bg?si=YE74o9eZBhR-_wSh Scholarship on OER Benefits Degrees of Open: Keynote for the MO A&OER 2024 Conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LGoOd4Zhg Clinton, V., & Khan, S. (2019). Efficacy of Open Textbook Adoption on Learning Performance and Course Withdrawal Rates: A Meta-Analysis. AERA Open, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419872212 Barnes, C. A., Vine, S., & Nadeau, R. (2024). Assessing textbook affordability before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of student and faculty surveys. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 50(2), N.PAG. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102864 Finding OERs: OER Metafinders & Repositories Finding OERs: Textbooks, Courseware, Assignments, Case Studies, Open Data, etc. Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) & Evaluating OERs Video “Open Dialogues: Open education and accessibility” by CTLT, University of British Columbia [Youtube] is licensed CC BY 4.0. Enhancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER) by Nikki Anderson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 License, Doing the Work: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Educational Resources Copyright © by Heather Blicher, Valencia Scott, Stephanie Lenox, Abbey Gaterud, Michaela Willi Hooper, Veronica Vold is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Enhancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER) by Nikki Anderson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 License, Floe Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 License Faculty OER Toolkit by Shannon Moist is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Supporting Faculty and Institutional OER Efforts Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges licensed under CC BY 4.0. https://www.openwa.org/module-1/ Faculty Incentives to Incorporate OERs into their Course Design Video: Open Education Network Faculty Incentives https://oer.suny.edu/oer-sustainability/ Creating a Sustainable Campus-Wide OER Program My Experience with OERs Creating OERs: Opportunities for Teaching & Learning The OER Starter Kit Workbook by Abbey K. Elder & Stacy Katz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Creating OERs in the Classroom with Students Open Education Conference Access, Outcomes, & Engagement: Student-Centred Collaboration as a Values-Based Approach to OER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLsUGPTCIII On the Horizon: OERs & AI University of New Mexico AI-Enhanced OER Development Faculty Pilot Project CCOER Community College Consortium for OER Community of Practice AAI and OER: Defining Education. Open Education GLOBAL 2024 https://youtu.be/nl08elC-yy8?si=5WTqllhAttd2Lx1G How do we respond to generative AI in education? 2023 Bryan Alexander https://youtu.be/ItFKi8JPUEk?si=M5K-v1OzK5WD9HXH Mills, Bali, & Eaton. (2023). How do we respond to generative AI in education? Open educational practices give us a framework for an ongoing process. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching. 46(1). https://journals.sfu.ca/jalt/index.php/jalt/article/view/843/597 McNulty, Rebecca; Dubach, Lily; and Paradiso, James R., "The 5-Ps of Jumpstarting Open Assessment Creation with Generative AI" (2023). Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 1229. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ucfscholar/1229 Tila, D. and Levy, D. (2023) Curating OER Content through AI and ChatGPT. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 11, 510-527. doi: 10.4236/jss.2023.1112035. Learn More: Community College OER COP, KBOR, and JCCC Learn More: Professional Development Opportunities Discussion Discussion Image source: "What are OERs and why use them?" Copied and communicated under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License,	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.915606	03/21/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114424/overview", "title": "Open Education Resources", "author": "Danielle Theiss" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111979/overview	(Template) Adapting OER to Incorporate UDL (Add Institution Name) Overview This template supports faculty and staff as they interrogate their OER and iterate the resource. This template is part of a Canvas course titled Adapting OER to Incorporate UDL. The initial course is offered by ISKME to California Community College faculty and staff and was created with support from the Michelson Foundatin's Spark Grant Program. Background on the Resource and Collaborators Prompts are provided below. Please replace the prompts with your own information. Please note: one template will be created per team unless a team has decided that each person is interrogating a separate OER. In that instance, this section could be copied and pasted into each person's template. Please provide background information on the team members and the resource you have chosen to interrogate and adapt. - Who is on your team and what are their positions at your Institution? - What resource did your team chose to interrogate? - What are your team's goals with interrogating and adapting this resource? - What impact do you envision this will have on students? - What impact do you envision this will have on other faculty and staff at your institution? Adaptations to support Open Educational Practices Prompts are provided below. Please replace the prompts with your own information. Please refer to the Characteristics of OER tool. Based on your interrogation of your resource, please share: - What are you planning to adapt to increase the features of the open licensing on this resource? - How long will this take and who will be the main point person working on this? - How will your team keep track of the changes and future impact on students and faculty? Adaptations to support Accessibility Prompts are provided below. Please replace the prompts with your own information. Please refer to the Characteristics of Accessibility tool. Based on your interrogation of your resource, please share: - What are you planning to adapt to increase the features of Accessibility on this resource? - How long will this take and who will be the main point person working on this? - How will your team keep track of the changes and future impact on students and faculty? Adaptations to support UDL Prompts are provided below. Please replace the prompts with your own information. Please refer to the Characteristics of UDL tool. Based on your interrogation of your resource, please share: - What are you planning to adapt to increase the features of UDL on this resource? - DId your team identify any opportunities to co-create with students and what might that look like? - How long will this take and who will be the main point person working on this? - How will your team keep track of the changes and future impact on students and faculty? Sharing your iteration Prompts are provided below. Please replace the prompts with your own information. Please attach or link your iterated resource in this section. To help make your experience visible to others who pursue similar work, please share the following: - What aspect of this process stretched your thinking about your resource? - What next steps is your team considering?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.938109	01/28/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111979/overview", "title": "(Template) Adapting OER to Incorporate UDL (Add Institution Name)", "author": "Joanna Schimizzi" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/89470/overview	Open For Anti-Racism Template Overview The Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Program – co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons – emerged as a response to the growing awareness of structural racism in our educational systems and the realization that adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy could be transformative at institutions seeking to improve. The program is designed to give participants a workshop experience where they can better understand anti-racist teaching and how the use of OER and open pedagogy can empower them to involve students in the co-creation of an anti-racist classroom. The capstone project involves developing an action plan for incorporating OER and open pedagogy into a course being taught in the spring semester. OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. How To Remix This Template OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. Once logged in, click the remix button on this resource to make your own version of this template. Change the title to describe your project and add text, videos, images, and attachments to the sections below. Delete this section and instructions in other sections before publishing. When you are ready to publish, click next to update the overview, license, and description of your resource, and then click publish. Action Plan Describe how OER and open pedagogy help your class to be anti-racist here. Course Description Add your course description here including the course name and number, and learning outcomes. Attach your syllabus here clicking the Attach Section paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer, name your syllabus, and save. Anti-Racist Assignment / Module Describe your anti-racist assignment or module. Attach your assignment or module here clicking the Attach Section paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer, name your assignment or module, and save. Paste any relevant links that others would find helpful.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:50.953546	Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR)	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/89470/overview", "title": "Open For Anti-Racism Template", "author": "Allyn Leon" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96057/overview	German Level 4, Activity 04: Ab ins Kino / Off to the Movies (Face-to-Face) Overview Students will plan a trip to a movie in Vienna, using the computer to plan the travel, figure out how to purchase their tickets, discuss favorite movies and actors/actresses, and figure out what snacks to have at the movie. Activity Information Did you know that you can access the complete collection of Pathways Project German activities in our new Let’s Chat! German pressbook? View the book here: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/pathwaysgerman Please Note: Many of our activities were created by upper-division students at Boise State University and serve as a foundation that our community of practice can build upon and refine. While they are polished, we welcome and encourage collaboration from language instructors to help modify grammar, syntax, and content where needed. Kindly contact pathwaysproject@boisestate.edu with any suggestions and we will update the content in a timely manner. Off to the Movies / Ab ins Kino Description Students will plan a trip to a movie in Vienna, using the computer to plan the travel, figure out how to purchase their tickets, discuss favorite movies and actors/actresses, and figure out what snacks to have at the movie. Semantic Topics Movies, Film, Movie Theater Food, Essen im Kino, Freindship, Freundschaft Products Music video about a relationship. Musikvideo über eine Beziehung Practices How to interact in a relationship. Determining what is important in relationships. Wie man in einer Beziehung interagiert. Bestimmen, was in Beziehungen wichtig ist Perspectives Cultural norms in relationships both with an English speaking individual and German speaking individual. Kulturelle Normen in Beziehungen sowohl zu einer englischsprachigen als auch zu einer deutschsprachigen Person NCSSFL-ACTFL World-Readiness Standards - Standard 1.2 Students understand and interpret spoken and written language on a variety of topics - Standard 5.1 Students use German both within and beyond the school setting - Standard 3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through German. Idaho State Content Standards - Objective: Comm 1.1 Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions. - Objective: Conn 1.2 Relation information studied in other subjects to the target language and culture. - Objective Comt 1.2 Discuss personal preferences in activities and events both within and beyond the classroom. NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements - I can figure out how to get from one place to another in a foreign city. - I can discuss my preferences about and describe movies. - I can invite someone to a movie with me. Materials Needed Warm-Up 1. Discuss the Can-Do Statements. - Diskutieren Sie die Kann-Aussagen. 2. Divide the students up into groups of twos or threes. - Teilen Sie die Schüler in Zweier- oder Dreiergruppen auf. 3. The students are friends studying abroad in Vienna. - Die Studenten sind Freunde, die in Wien im Ausland studieren. 4. One student asks another if they would like to go to the movies. - Ein Student fragt einen anderen, ob er ins Kino gehen möchte. 5. The Students discuss their favorite German/Austrian Actors/Actresses, Filmmaker, and Films. - Die Studierenden diskutieren ihre liebsten deutschen/österreichischen Schauspieler/innen, Filmemacher und Filme. - use the links below to compare and discuss the 2021 Box office #1 films in Austria against the 2021 Box office #1 films in the United States. - Wenn es die Zeit erlaubt, verwenden Sie die nachstehenden Links, um die 2021 Box Office #1-Filme in Österreich mit den 2021 Box Office #1-Filmen in den Vereinigten Staaten zu vergleichen und zu diskutieren. - List of 2021 Box Office Number one Films in Austria - List of 2021 Box Office Number one Films in the United States Main Activity Using computers or their cell phones have the students... Mithilfe von Computern oder ihren Mobiltelefonen haben die Schüler... 1. Research the movies available to see in Vienna. - recherchieren Sie die Filme, die in Wien zu sehen sind. 2. Decide on which movie to see. - Entscheiden Sie, welchen Film Sie sehen möchten. 3. Create directions to the Theater from the University of Vienna, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien, Austria. - Erstellung einer Anfahrtsbeschreibung zum Theater der Universität Wien, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien, Österreich. 4. Decide what food/snacks they will be ordering and eating at the movie theater. - Entscheiden, welche Speisen/Snacks sie im Kino bestellen und essen. Wrap-Up Have the students present their movie plans to the rest of the class. - Lassen Sie die Schüler ihre Filmpläne dem Rest der Klasse präsentieren. Have the students invite the others to the movie, give a short description of the movie, and see who would like to join them. - Lassen Sie die Schüler die anderen zum Film einladen, geben Sie eine kurze Beschreibung des Films und sehen Sie, wer mitmachen möchte.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.042683	Shawn Moak	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96057/overview", "title": "German Level 4, Activity 04: Ab ins Kino / Off to the Movies (Face-to-Face)", "author": "Mimi Fahnstrom" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93528/overview	POLSC 240 Political Theory Syllabus Political Science 240--Political Theory: Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Overview The Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Program – co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons – emerged as a response to the growing awareness of structural racism in our educational systems and the realization that adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy could be transformative at institutions seeking to improve. The program is designed to give participants a workshop experience where they can better understand anti-racist teaching and how the use of OER and open pedagogy can empower them to involve students in the co-creation of an anti-racist classroom. The capstone project involves developing an action plan for incorporating OER and open pedagogy into a course being taught in the spring semester. OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. Center political philosophers from the underside of modernity i.e. non-Western colonial/decolonial thinkers. Develop final project for students to engage the canon with their critiques of white supremacy as the social, political and economic system. Describe how OER and open pedagogy help your class to be anti-racist here. POLSC 240: Political Theory Syllabus Albert Ponce Ph.D. Political Science 240: Political Theory This course will provide a survey of Western political philosophy from the ancient to the modern period. We will cover prominent theories and concepts in the historical tradition of political thought as well as considering the periodization of political problems. In addition, we will also analyze theories and their potential application to modern political issues. Lecture, therefore, is designed for you to clarify and refine your ideas through critical questions. The goal is for you to come prepared to critically analyze the ideas, themes and concepts derived from the readings and engage in class discussion. Our goal is to examine foundational questions, such as, ‘What is justice?,’ ‘What is freedom?’ and “What is political” and explore their historical and contemporary significance. 4CD Statement in support of Social Justice Reform: Required Texts: PDF’s are uploaded on CANVAS NO COST! Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Dover Thrift Editions)Paperback – June 4, 2004 by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author) ISBN-13: 978-0486434148 The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, (International Publishers, 2014) We will read the daily news, for our collective purposes I have selected NEW YORK TIMES www.nytimes.com as a DVC student you can sign-up for free access. (see email instructions) CANVAS: link via Insite Portal Students are responsible for accessing readings (files tab), discussions and announcements on course webpage. Materials including syllabus, study guides, news stories etc. will be posted at this site. If you have any problems call CANVAS 24/7 Helpline: 1-844-303-5586 \| Grading Scale Total Points: 350points 315-350 A 314-280 B 279-245 C 244-210 D 209-below F Expectations and Appropriate Classroom behavior: I expect you all to take the topics that we discuss and learn about seriously and make an effort to learn them well. To do this, it is essential that you read all assigned readings. Reading the news daily will assist you in linking course concepts to contemporary issues and debates. We will also be discussing differing concepts, ideas and theories, so I hope that everyone will take the time to acknowledge that lecture must be a safe space for all individuals regardless of difference or background, to talk openly and without fear of harassment. This includes undocumented, LGTBQ+, racial groups or religions which represent all our students. Any sexist, racist, or dehumaninzing ideas, acts will not be tolerated. This course will prepare you for the challenges in upper-division political science and social sciences courses. Taking (good) notes is a key to success!! Developing your reflexive note taking skills will provide necessary lifelong tools towards achieving your goals. Lastly, academic integrity is well laid out by Diablo Valley College (see course catalog-and below), so please do your own work. In supporting an enriching learning environment students must conduct themselves appropriately. Violations of DVC Student Code of Conduct will be reported to Dean of Student Life, and may require a meeting with the dean before being allowed to return to class. Student Code of Conduct (pages 35-42 DVC Catalog): Student Learning Outcomes: A. Compare and contrast various political theories and theorists. B. Recognize fundamental political concepts (i.e. freedom, equality, justice, the individual, nature, citizenship, democracy, exploitation, alienation, violence, revolution) as expressed by major political thinkers. C. Discern the assumptions and values that underlie selected political ideologies. D. Relate aspects of political thought of the past to current political ideologies/thought. E. Apply various theoretical approaches to contemporary political problems and assess their strengths and weaknesses. F. Recognize concepts and principles of political thought in the routine operations of political systems. G. Analyze elements of political behavior and the implication of actions taken by leaders and constituents of secular and/or religious movements. Disability Support Services Statement: The staff of the DSS is committed to the establishment of a positive learning environment focusing on academic integrity, sensitivity to our students, and achievement of student success. Students who require alternative formats for course materials or adaptive equipment due to specific disability may request them through the Disability Support Services office. For information related to DVC Disabled Student Services Undocumented Student Resources: As a DVC faculty UndocuAlly feel free to see me about resources or refer to: CCCCD ‘in Defense of Diversity and Inclusion’ Food Pantry: DVC has a food pantry for more information on dates/times for pick-up see link Tutoring is essential for your success! DVC offers free academic support for students. Please visit the DVC Tutoring Services webpage for information about tutoring across the college: DVC also offers free online tutoring through NetTutor, which you can access through the link to in Canvas. Because students who use student support services such as tutoring are more successful in their classes, please make time in your schedule to seek out tutoring support this semester. https://www.dvc.edu/current/tutoring-services/academic-support-center.html Academic Dihonesty and Plagiarism: PLAGIARISM IS THEFT. Do not cheat. Penalties include earning an F (zero points) for the assignment, or an F for the course, or even dismissal from the college. Examples of academic dishonesty include copying from another student, copying from a book or class notes, or smart phone/watch during a closed book exam, submitting materials authored by or revised by another person as the students own work, copying a passage or text directly from a published source without appropriately citing or recognizing that source, doing an assignment or other academic work for another student, securing or supplying in advance a copy of an examination or quiz without the knowledge or consent of the instructor, sharing or receiving the questions from an on-line quiz with another student, taking an on-line quiz with the help of another student, and colluding with another student or students to engage in academic dishonesty. Also, submitting a paper written by you for a course other than this section, purchasing a paper, or having someone else do your work on a paper are all forms of academic dishonesty. Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty is defined as: an act of deception in which a student claims credit for the work or effort of another person or uses unauthorized materials or fabricated information in any academic work. Academic dishonesty is a violation of the DVC Student Code of Conduct and will not be tolerated. Academic dishonesty diminishes the quality of scholarship at Diablo Valley College and hurts the majority of students who conduct themselves honestly. Diablo Valley College defines plagiarism (see pages 32-33 of DVC Catalog) as: representing someone else’s words, ideas, artistry, or data as one’s own, including copying another person’s work (including published and unpublished material, and material from the Internet) without appropriate referencing, presenting someone else’s opinions and theories as one’s own, or working jointly on a project, then submitting it as one’s own Assignments \| Discussion Board: 4 postings (MINIMUM 350 words) 40 points each = 160 points You will be prompted to post on ‘Discussion Board’ 4 times during the semester. Our first post in due by FEB 4th (This is your INTRODUCTION to the class along with a reflection of questions posed MINIMUM 350 words). You are also expected/required to respond to your peer’s postings. Postings will all have due dates of Friday’s 11:59pm unless otherwise noted. NOTE: On right hand bottom include TOTAL WORD COUNT e.g. WORD COUNT: 575 Words Discussion Board Guidelines: You will be required to submit FOUR (4) postings during the semester. The first is your introduction to the class (see ‘Discussion Post 1’). The subsequent Four (4) postings will be reflections prompted by professor questions specific to the readings. You can advance your understanding of the course readings by linking concepts, themes, events, laws etc to our contemporary period. Politics is everywhere and these reflections will have you develop the critical analytic skills needed to make sense of your role in society. Furthermore, you will build the capacity to ask critical questions of law, society and yourself. See below for steps to ensure you will earn maximum points by following these steps. - Respond to posted questions by incorporating key concepts from readings (This is how you will earn maximum points.) - Keep discussion grounded to textual and factual ANALYSIS-NOT OPINION (see ‘Key Concepts’ handout on what constitutes Analysis). - Be respectful of diverse viewpoints-we are all here to learn and grow (see step 2). - Make analytic connections across readings to achieve fullest points. - Interaction with your peers is essential, when responding to AT LEAST ONE student in discussion be sure to follow guidelines detailed above and based on academic sources. - Include TOTAL WORD COUNT listed right bottom of post. Essay response (1) = 90 points You will be given prompt 2 weeks in advance and develop your essay. 2 Questions (45pts each) will be from theorists in first part of our course. Politics, anti-racist, abolition theory & solutions presentation: 100 points You will prepare a presentation of your topic, central thesis/argument and supporting academic evidence-make this fun by selecting a political issue/topic linked social movement or injustice linked to theorists/thinkers from our syllabus in “Modern, decolonial, anti-racist & abolition theory section” you would like to know more about or advocate for. Helpful tips: Get creative-this will be fun, include visual aids, artwork, photos, short video clips will assist your presentation. This will be an OER Open Educational Resources & Open Pedagogy assignment (specific guidelines forthcoming). ___________Schedule-Political Theory (Schedule subject to change)__________ Week 1 Education as Liberation & Ancient Political Thought Jan 24-30th Introduction/Overview Watch: Snoop Dogg Reading: Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (preface, Ch. 1 pgs. 43-50, Ch. 2 pgs 71-75) Watch: Frontline t’s American Carnage Week 2. Jan 31-Feb 6th Reading: Socrates’ Defense Discussion Post 1 (350 words MINIMUM) due Week 3: Feb 7th-Feb 13th Reading: Plato, The Republic Week 4 Feb 14-20th Reading: Plato, The Republic Discussion Post 2 (350 words MINIMUM) due Week 5 Early Modern, Social Contract Theory & Colonization Feb 21-27th Reading: Machiavelli on the Science of Government Reading: Hobbes Theory of the Rational State Week 6 Feb 28-Mar 6th Reading: John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Begin on page 105 (pdf) Essay 2: Sections: 1-6, 8, 9, 12, 14-16,18-19) Week 7 Mar 7-Mar 13th Reading: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (pgs 9-42) Week 8. Mar 14-20th Essay DUE Week 9: Modern and decolonial, anti-racist & Abolition theory Mar 21-25th Reading: Karl Marx & Freidrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (pgs.14-34) Reading: Karl Marx, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts –(pgs. 28-35 & 36-39) SPRING BREAK March 26-April 3rd Week 10: April 4-10th Reading: Karl Marx, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts –(pgs 28-35 & 36-39) Reading: Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract (Introduction & Ch 1: Overview) Watch: 13th documentary Wacth: Jodi Dean: Communism or Feudalism Week 11: April 11-17th Reading: Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract (Introduction & Ch 1: Overview) Discussion Post 3 (350 words MINIMUM) due Week 12: April 18-24th Reading: Frantz Fanon, Preface & Ch 1: ON VIOLENCE pg 7 (preface by Jean Paul Sartre) and through Fanon's chapter on Violence at least though pg 50.) Week 13: April 25-May 1st Reading: continue Frantz Fanon, On Violence Suggested (not required) Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Notes on Decolonizing Philosophy: Against Epistemic Extractivism and Toward the Abolition of the Canon Watch: Battle of Algiers Week 14: May 2-May 8th Reading: Anibal Quijano, Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America (p. 533-543) Reading: Maria Lugones, Coloniality of Gender (p. 1-6) Watch: Abolition 101 Discussion Post 4 Anti-racist & decolonial presentation outline due Week 15: May 9-15th Reading: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #Black Lives to Black Liberation (CH 7) Watch: Angela Y. Davis, Prison Industrial Complex Week 16: May 16-20th. Anti-racist & decolonial theory & solutions Presentation	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.122642	Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR)	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93528/overview", "title": "Political Science 240--Political Theory: Open for Antiracism (OFAR)", "author": "Albert Ponce" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95089/overview	simple squamous epi_top view_wide mount_mesothelium_400x, p000126 Overview p000126 sipmle squamous epi_top view_wide mount_mesothelium_400x p000126 sipmle squamous epi_top view_wide mount_mesothelium_400x p000126 sipmle squamous epi_top view_wide mount_mesothelium_400x one layer surface cells top layer is flat \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.136209	Diagram/Illustration	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95089/overview", "title": "simple squamous epi_top view_wide mount_mesothelium_400x, p000126", "author": "Health, Medicine and Nursing" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114936/overview	School Librarians Creating Openly Licensed Student-Centered Curriculum and Instruction Overview Personal choice and voice are key components to successful face-to-face and virtual learning for today’s K-12 students. Open Educational Resources can support these strategies of inquiry and personalized learning in many formats. Through the readings, digital tool exploration, and OER creation activity in this module, school librarians will further develop their digital expertise in creating student-centered (voice and choice) curriculum and instruction. By publishing lessons on OER Commons, other educators can find them, revise them and reshare them, thus expanding and improving access for all! This is a renewable assignment for school librarians – remember, renewable assignments are an alternative to traditional, disposable assignments, which students “throw away” after they are graded. With renewable assignments learners are asked to create and openly license valuable artifacts that, in addition to supporting their own learning, will be useful to other learners both inside and outside the classroom. An essential part of renewable assignments is the capacity to share them publicly and with an open license. As a school librarian, the lesson you create can also be a renewable assignment designed for K-12 learners; there are samples of renewable assignments in the folder Sample Renewable Assignments in the Renewable Assignments group. Introduction Guidance: Use this lesson to assess learner mastery of student voice and choice, technology integration and Creative Commons. This is the third module of this series - note that Creative Commons licensing in detail was covered in module one. Learners are creating a renewable assignment, meaning it is one that has benefit to an audience greater than just the class. This assignment contributes to the growth of K-12 OER resources available in OER Commons. This renewable assignment is designed to be used in OER Commons. Guidance for using OER Commons is provided in Unit 3 Activity 1 of this lesson. Personal choice and voice are key components to successful face-to-face and virtual learning for today’s K-12 students. Open Educational Resources can support these strategies of inquiry and personalized learning in many formats. Through the readings, digital tool exploration, and OER creation activity in this course, school librarians will further develop their digital expertise in creating student-centered (voice and choice) curriculum and instruction. By publishing lessons on OER Commons, other educators can find them, revise them and reshare them, thus expanding and improving access for all! This is a renewable assignment for school librarians – remember, renewable assignments are an alternative to traditional, disposable assignments, which students “throw away” after they are graded. With renewable assignments learners are asked to create and openly license valuable artifacts that, in addition to supporting their own learning, will be useful to other learners both inside and outside the classroom. An essential part of renewable assignments is the capacity to share them publicly and with an open license. As a school librarian, the lesson you create can also be a renewable assignment designed for K-12 learners; there are samples of renewable assignments in the folder Sample Renewable Assignments in the Renewable Assignments group. This is the third section incorporating OER and Creative Commons licensed material. The first section involved learning about Creative Commons licenses and how they work together. The second section involved remixing Creative Commons licensed content and resharing it. This third section involves creating a renewable assignment for K-12 learners using Creative Commons licensed material and sharing it to OER Commons. This section will guide you through lesson completion by covering: - Unit 1: Inquiry - Unit 2: Personalized Learning - Unit 3: OER Lesson Plan Planning - Unit 4: Final Project: OER Lesson Plan Completion Resources cited: “5.4 Open Pedagogy / Practices” by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0. Cover Photo by Drahomír Hugo Posteby-Mach on Unsplash Section Materials The following materials are required for this section: - Chart a New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow's World by Rachelle Dene Poth - AASL National School Library Standards and Crosswalks - OER Commons - Other readings and websites are linked in specific units. Unit 1: Inquiry Inquiry in its most basic form is about asking questions and finding answers, which may lead to more questions and new ideas and doing something, or not...it all depends on the learner and the purpose. Inquire is the first Shared Foundation in the AASL National School Library Standards. The Inquire Key Commitment for Learners, School Librarians and School Libraries states: "Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems." In fact, the terms inquiry process, inquiry-based research, inquiry culture, inquiry learning, guided inquiry, systematic inquiry process and more can be found throughout the entire standards document. Additionally, you'll find further connections in the AASL crosswalks with the ISTE Standards and Future Ready Librarians Framework. Read: AASL National School Library Standards and Crosswalks Chart a New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow's World by Rachelle Dene Poth Unit 1, Activity 1: What is Inquiry? Inquiry is authentic research. It is real world questions, answers and actions. It is an information seeking process whether it is for personal or academic purposes. For example, how do you search for the best new car to purchase? Or, how might students search for an answer to the question "How is it possible that we drink the same water that the dinosaurs drank?" In both cases, some type of process is needed. Luckily, there are many strategies and models that have been developed over the years to help map out the inquiry process for lifelong learning. Select one or two of the options below to learn more: - The Big6 (website) - Building an Inquiry Mindset (webinar) - The 5E's of Inquiry-Based Learning (article) - Learners Interpret the Standards & Every Standard Tells a Story (video) - Inquiry Learning (LibGuide) - Teaching Inquiry... (podcast) - Teaching With Primary Sources Inquiry Kits (lessons) Unit 1, Activity 2: Inquiry in Chart a New Course 1. Read Chart a New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow's World by Rachelle Dene Poth 2. Skim through the "5 to Try" activities at the end of each chapter. Which one activity would you like to integrate into your teaching and how does inquiry play a role in the activity? Note this for your final project. Unit 2: Personalized Learning Personalized learning is about the individual learner regardless of age. It is emphasized throughout the AASL National School Library Standards as an evidence-based best practice. It is especially evident in the Explore Key Commitment for Learners, School Librarians and School Libraries: "Discover and innovate in a growth mindset developed through experience and reflection" and the Growth Domain: "Pursue personal and aesthetic growth." Personalized learning is also identified in the AASL crosswalks with the ISTE Standards and Future Ready Librarians Framework. Read: AASL National School Library Standards and Crosswalks Chart a New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow's World by Rachelle Dene Poth Unit 2, Activity 1: What is Personalized Learning? Personalized learning is not a new idea but there seem to be many variations in the definition of what it is and what it looks like in education. Technology has played a huge role in the current discussion but most agree that it is not just about using digital tools. For our purposes let's turn to the school library view. In its National School Library Standards AASL defines learning personalization as "the process of using a diverse variety of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic-support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual learners." Select one or two of the following options to learn more: - A Guidebook for Success: Strategies for Implementing Personalized Learning in Rural Schools (article) - How This School Library Increased Student Use by 1,000 Percent (podcast) - It's Time Teachers Reclaimed 'Personalized Learning' in the Name of Equity (article) - Personalized Learning in K-12 Schools, Explained (video) - 3 Myths of Personalized Learning (article) - Why Personalized Learning Should Start in School Libraries (article & webinar link) Unit 2, Activity 2: Personalized Learning in Chart a New Course 1. Read Chart a New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow's World by Rachelle Dene Poth 2. Skim through the "5 to Try" activities at the end of each chapter. Which one activity would you like to integrate into your teaching and how does personalized learning play a role in the activity? Note this for your final project Unit 3: OER Creation An underlying goal of this project is to lend our librarian expertise to ISKME and further the use of the OER Commons platform. So, to that end, throughout the project we have explored and evaluated open educational resources using the OER Commons platform as our main resource. With your depth of background knowledge you are now ready to add a lesson plan of your own to OER Commons. Read/View: OER Commons Unit 3, Activity 1: Review OER Commons Platform To get started in planning to submit your own lesson plan to the OER Commons platform let's review a bit. 1. Sign in to your OER Commons account. 2. Click on your profile picture in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Here you'll find My Items, My Groups, My Hubs, etc. 3. Click into My Items to take a look at what you have saved from past searches. Once you begin adding a lesson plan, you will be able to return to it here and work on it as many times as necessary until it is ready to be published. Even when the lesson plan status changes, it will always appear in your My Items list. 4. In My Groups click into Renewable Assignments and you will see two folders: Lesson Plan for Creative Commons Certification for Educators Course and Sample Renewable Assignments. Take a look at the lesson plan Create a Superhero in the Lesson Plan for Creative Commons Certification for Educators Course folder. I created this lesson plan, submitted it to be published, and once I received the email from OER Commons that it was indeed published, I saved it to this folder. You'll be asked in Unit 4 to save your published lesson plan here too. 5. Return to the home page, view the video "Introducing Open Author" you will find when you scroll down to the middle of the page. (You can skip the second half about remixing.) 6. Return to the top of your screen and click on the green ADD OER button on the right. You will be adding your lesson plan using Open Author. For right now, just click on Learn more about creating OER at the bottom center of the page and scroll through the information. If you clicked on Create Resource or Create on any of these screens and opened the lesson plan template, don't worry you can use it or delete it later, It will appear in your My Items list as an empty draft. Now, move on to Unit 3, Activity 2 for your next steps. Unit 3, Activity 2: Expectations for OER Lesson Plan Submission As you completed Unit 1 and Unit 2 and read Chart a New Course you most likely discovered (or were reminded) that inquiry and personalized learning go hand in hand. Thinking of the "5 to Try" activities from the book, is there one you would like to write into a lesson plan of your own? Do you have a favorite lesson plan that could be infused with something new related to inquiry or personalized learning? Is there a digital tool you learned about in one of the "5 to Try" sections that you could add to one of your existing lesson plans? Remember, you don't need to come up with a lesson that is totally new to you. (But you can.) For example, I have taught the Create a Superhero lesson at least three times and professionally submitted it two different times as an example lesson for school librarians before I revised it for OER Commons. Yes, I really love the concept, but I didn't teach it or write it the same way twice. For OER Commons I shortened the idea from an entire unit to a five part lesson, I changed the use of Microsoft Office and a tool on the Marvel website to Google Apps and added Wakelet as a way to organize the inquiry process. I also checked and double checked for possible copyright issues, of course. Here are a few expectations I'd like you to consider before you move on to actually creating and submitting your lesson plan to OER Commons as your final project in Unit 4: - Who will create the lesson plan? You may do this by yourself or with one other person. The other person may be a member of this cohort or a colleague from your school or district. - What is the topic of your lesson plan? Which content subject area/s does it cover? - Did you search OER Commons to make sure your exact lesson is not already published there? - Does your lesson plan contain an element of inquiry and/or personalized learning? In other words, do you give students some level of research experience and voice and choice? - Does your lesson plan integrate at least one digital tool or activity? Unit 4: Final Project Open Educational Resources can play a huge role in personalized learning and the inquiry process for our students. In just the time of this cohort we have seen OER Commons evolve and become easier to navigate as we have moved from being consumers to being creators. Publishing your lesson plans to the platform as your final projects increases its usefulness for all of you but also for educators everywhere. Unit 4: Final Project The Final Project for this course is to publish the lesson you selected/planned in Unit 3 to the OER Commons platform. To get started click on the green Add OER button in the upper right of the home page. You may write your lesson plan directly into the Open Author template, import from Google Docs or OneDrive, or copy and paste it in from wherever you may have it saved. Review basic steps in the video "Introducing Open Author" if needed. Remember to save and preview as you go along. You can return to your draft as many times as needed by clicking on it in the My Items list. When you are ready click on Publish and the platform will take you through the last steps. This is where you will add a description, standards, tags, Creative Commons license, etc. Once you click on the final Publish button it will go to the OER Commons staff for approval. You will be notified via email in a day or two about the status of your lesson plan. Final Project Points: Please add your published lesson plan to the Lesson Plan for Creative Commons Certification for Educators Course folder in our Renewable Assignments group to share it with me to receive your project points. Rubric \| Criteria \| Exemplary (3 Points) \| Proficient (2 Points) \| Developing (1 Point) \| \| Contains Element of Inquiry \| Lesson plan includes opportunities for student inquiry. \| Minimal incorporation of student inquiry, voice, or choice in the lesson plan. \| Student inquiry, voice, or choice are not in the lesson plan. \| \| Contains Element of Personalized Learning \| Lesson plan includes opportunities for student voice and choice. \| Minimal incorporation of student voice or choice in the lesson plan. \| Student voice or choice are not in the lesson plan. \| \| Integration of Digital Tools/Activities \| Lesson plan integrates at least one digital tool or activity to support student learning and engagement \| Limited integration of digital tools or activities in the lesson plan. \| Digital tools or activities are not in the lesson plan. \| \| Standards alignment \| Lesson plan is effectively aligned to relevant content standards. \| Content standards are included but are not effectively aligned. \| No alignment to content standards. \| \| Creative Commons Licensing and citations \| Lesson plan includes appropriate Creative Commons Licensing for the artifact and includes citations for Creative Commons material remixed in the lesson. \| Lesson plan only includes one of the criteria \| No Creative Commons licensing or citations. \| OER Commons \| Lesson plan is actively shared on OER Commons, in the class group and unit folder. \| Lesson plan is on OER Commons but not in the class group and unit folder. \| Lesson plan is not on OER Commons. \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.171783	04/04/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114936/overview", "title": "School Librarians Creating Openly Licensed Student-Centered Curriculum and Instruction", "author": "Julie Erickson" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115927/overview	Image and Source Study: The Haitian Revolution, Black Jacobins, and Revolutionary Violence in the 18th Century Overview In this assignment, students will use primary and secondary sources, including images, to study the use and framing of violence by Black Revolutionaries. The goal of this assignment is to have students to use the images and documents to consider how race and other factors shape Western views on Black Revolutionaries. Attachments The attachment for this resource is a sample assignment for an essay on the use and framing of violence by Black Revolutionaries. The document includes primary source images for students to use in their essays and a guide for teachers on how to use this assignment in their courses. About This Resource The sample assignment included here was submitted by a participant in a one-day virtual workshop entitled, "Teaching the Global African Diaspora" for world history teachers hosted by the Alliance for Learning in World History. This was a draft document that may subsequently have been revised in light of feedback and discussion during the event. This resource was contributed by Benjamin Henderson, Haitian American Museum, Chicago.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.190402	Activity/Lab	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115927/overview", "title": "Image and Source Study: The Haitian Revolution, Black Jacobins, and Revolutionary Violence in the 18th Century", "author": "World History" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114855/overview	The Energizing Power of Self-Care for Educators and Creators of OERs! Overview Archived session from the 2024 Arizona Regional OER Conference. Session Title: The Energizing Power of Self-Care for Educators and Creators of OERs! This resource includes the session abstract, presenter(s), resources, and recording. Session Abstract, Presenters, Resources, and Recording Session Abstract Educators who use OERs and Creators of OER are valuable colleagues who promote overall satisfaction among faculty and students in education workplaces. Adapting courses and creating OERs is time-consuming work that is worthy and requires dedication. However, the creation and adaptation of OERs in education is often additional to heavy workloads, scholarship, and service. Energizing self-care is a health strategy to improve work-life balance. Self-care and self-development of healthy practices to build resiliency and coping strategies empower one to navigate stressful times and promote health. This energizing session incorporates the active engagement of attendees in teaching/learning and practicing selected self-care activities. Based on the evidence, Practical, real-life applications create an energizing and lively session and allow attendees to try on self-care techniques such as positive self-talk, humor, and deep breathing. The session self-care interventions are quick and easy to use throughout the workday. Presenter(s) - Nancyruth Leibold, Minnesota State University - Laura M. Schwarz, Minnesota State University Resources Recording	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.209134	04/02/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114855/overview", "title": "The Energizing Power of Self-Care for Educators and Creators of OERs!", "author": "OERizona Conference" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115933/overview	How did the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Impact African Civilizations? Overview This resource is a document based activity that consists of eight primary sources related to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The assignment asks students to consider how the trans-Atlantic slave trade impacted African civilizations using primary sources. Attachments The attachment for this resource is a sample document-based question about the impacts of the transatlantic slave trade. The attachment also includes a packet of primary source documents, objects, and artwork for students to use in this activity. About This Resource The sample assignment included here was submitted by a participant in a one-day virtual workshop entitled, "Teaching the Global African Diaspora" for world history teachers hosted by the Alliance for Learning in World History. This is a draft document that may subsequently have been revised in light of feedback and discussion during the event. This resource was contributed by Elizabeth Mulcahy, a social studies educator in Virginia.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.226975	Alliance for Learning in World History	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115933/overview", "title": "How did the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Impact African Civilizations?", "author": "Homework/Assignment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/109257/overview	Innovative Business Proposals. Overview The purpose of the lesson plan was for students to create a renewable assignment [VC1] of an Innovative Business Proposal using 1 of the 17 UNSD Goals. Innovative Business Proposals. UNSD Goals Thematic Lesson Plan	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.243925	10/12/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/109257/overview", "title": "Innovative Business Proposals.", "author": "Mary Robinson" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114867/overview	OER Crash Course: The Why and How of "Open" Overview Archived session from the 2024 Arizona Regional OER Conference. Session Title: OER Crash Course: The Why and How of "Open". This resource includes the session abstract, presenter(s), and recording. Session Abstract, Presenter(s), and Recording Session Abstract Whether you're new to open education or just need a little bit of a refresher, it can be very helpful to focus on the basics. This session will provide an introduction to open educational practices by addressing textbook affordability, copyright and open licensing, and common myths about OER. Presenter(s) - Matthew Bloom, Scottsdale Community College - Chelsea James, Pima Community College - John Doherty, Norther Arizona University Recording	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.257270	04/02/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114867/overview", "title": "OER Crash Course: The Why and How of \"Open\"", "author": "OERizona Conference" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73053/overview	CONCEPT AND TERMINOLOGY OF RECORDS REPOSITORY AND MANAGEMENT Overview This course focuses on the application of management theory and practices related to the planning, organizing, leading and controlling of Records Center. LEARNING OUTCOMES 1.1 Definition and concept of records center 1.2 Types of Records center 1.2.1 National Records center 1.2.2 Commercial Records center 1.2.3 Departmental Records center 1. What is RC? 2. Function of RC 3. Types of RC 4. Characteristic of RC \| DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPT OF RECORDS CENTER \| \|---\| Records center: A building or part of a building designed or adapted for the low-cost storage, maintenance and communication of semi-current records pending their ultimate disposal. TYPES OF RECORDS \| Current Records \| Records that are regularly used for the conduct of current business. Also known as Active records. Normally be maintained in or near their place of origin or in a registry or records office. \| \| Semi Current Records \| Records that are infrequently used in the conduct of current business. Also known as Semi Active Records. Normally be maintained in a records center or other offsite intermediate storage pending their ultimate disposal. \| \| Non Current Records \| Records no longer needed for the conduct of current business. While records with values can be preserve in archival repository. Also known as Non Active Records. \| \| INTRODUCTION \| \|---\| WHY? - When records cease to be current and become semi-current, some of them can be destroyed (under the authority of the disposal schedules). - The majority of records should be transferred from the records offices to a central place where they can be kept securely, used as sources of information and then disposed of systematically. - The majority of semi-current records have to be kept for various periods of time for legal, financial or administrative requirements. Some should be kept because it is thought that they will be valuable for research. \| FUNCTIONS OF RECORD CENTER \| 1. Received and administer all records in what ever format, that are retired from current records system. 2. Provide reference services until the date of their disposal. 3. Dispose all the records according its disposal schedules and plan. 4. As an Information Center for the creating agencies. 5. Provide security for the records. \| TYPES OF RECORD CENTER \| \| National Records Center \| It manage under Record Management Act and National Archives Act. In Malaysia, RC is located in Petaling Jaya, KL. \| Departmental Records Center \| Department /Organization manage to have their own RC. \| Commercial Records Center \| RC which provide maintenance of record for private/company. \| \| CHARACTERISTICS OF RECORD CENTER \| \|---\|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.310834	Student Guide	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73053/overview", "title": "CONCEPT AND TERMINOLOGY OF RECORDS REPOSITORY AND MANAGEMENT", "author": "Lecture Notes" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76475/overview	dummies a Willey Brand https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020279?hl=en Teacher's Tech ( Google Classroom 2020 - Tutorial for Beginners ) Quick Tips on How To Utilize Google Classroom Overview Quick Tips In using Google Classroom Introduction About Classroom What is Google Classroom? Google Classroom delegates teachers to create an online classroom area in which they can manage all the documents that their students need. Documents are stored on Google Drive and can be edited in Drive’s apps, such as Google Docs, Sheets, and so on. But what separates Google Classroom from the regular Google Drive experience is the teacher/student interface, which Google designed for the way teachers and students think and work. You can use Classroom in your school to streamline assignments, boost collaboration, and foster communication. The classroom is available on the web or by mobile app. You can use Classroom with many tools that you already use, such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar. What can you do with Classroom? \| User \| What you can do with Classroom \| \| Teachers \| \| \| Students \| \| \| Guardians \| \| \| Administrators \| \| Check this video tutorial for beginners	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.334963	01/20/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76475/overview", "title": "Quick Tips on How To Utilize Google Classroom", "author": "Danilo Natizon" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115690/overview	Powerpoints for Part 1 Overview This is a test for uploading resources PowerPoints for Part I This is just a test	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.350715	05/01/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115690/overview", "title": "Powerpoints for Part 1", "author": "Erik Dean" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/116977/overview	Greater Enjoyment Greater Enjoyment: An Introduction to Actively Reading and Discussing Literature Overview This book has been developed by Erik Wilbur at Mohave Community College to support Introduction to Literature courses at rural Arizona community colleges. A PDF version and a Microsoft Doc. version of the book are available for download. About This Book This book has been developed to support Introduction to Literature courses at rural Arizona community colleges. Authors This book has been assembled by Erik Wilbur at Mohave Community College. Most of the content in this book has been sourced from creative commons licensed materials. Attributions for this borrowed and/or adapted and remixed content can be found at the end of each chapter. Any text, graphic, or video without an attribution should be attributed to Mohave Community College by using the license below. License Greater Enjoyment: An Introduction to Actively Reading and Discussing Literature by Mohave Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License except where otherwise noted.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.370454	Textbook	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/116977/overview", "title": "Greater Enjoyment: An Introduction to Actively Reading and Discussing Literature", "author": "Reading Literature" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115677/overview	HIST 1301: United States History, Williams Overview This course looks at the “big picture” of United States history. This course explores the ways in which Americans created their highly original society and culture, the stunning geographical changes that marked the early decades of our new nation, documents that reveal the evolution of key American concepts as well as the many controversies that characterized the second half of US history. One of the goals of this course is for students to come to understand the practice of historical thinking: a form of "reading" the past that you can also apply to any number of other aspects of your college work. Attachments The attachment for this resource is a sample syllabus for a course on United States History. About This Resource The sample syllabus was submitted by a participant in a one-day workshop entitled “New Approaches to Frontier History” for world history teachers hosted by the Alliance for Learning in World History. This resource was contributed by Shawna Williams.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.389268	Alliance for Learning in World History	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115677/overview", "title": "HIST 1301: United States History, Williams", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77266/overview	Methods of Reasonin Overview This resource includes categorical logic, propositional logic, informal fallacies and inductive logic. These are the notes that I have used in lieu of a textbook when teaching introductory logic. It consists mostly of explanations of the main concepts and homework exercises.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.405506	02/15/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77266/overview", "title": "Methods of Reasonin", "author": "Leonard Olson" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/89734/overview	Abraham Lincoln, First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858, Excerpts Overview Lincoln, Abraham. 1858. "First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas." Excerpts of speech delivered at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858. https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate1.htm HIST 2010 Election of 1860 - Sectional Tensions/Pre Civil War Contains Lincoln’s ideas about slavery.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.423260	Christopher Gilliland	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/89734/overview", "title": "Abraham Lincoln, First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858, Excerpts", "author": "Susan Jennings" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/80304/overview	Joseph Remondi's Calculus 3 Project: Cycloids and Related Problems Overview This Project has been completed as part of a standard Calculus 3 synchronous online course during Fall 2020 Semester at MassBay Community College, Wellesley Hills, MA. Cycloids and Related Problems This Project has been completed as part of a standard Calculus 3 synchronous online course during Fall 2020 Semester at MassBay Community College, Wellesley Hills, MA.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.439347	Igor Baryakhtar	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/80304/overview", "title": "Joseph Remondi's Calculus 3 Project: Cycloids and Related Problems", "author": "Homework/Assignment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/121638/overview	MAC-222 Final Exam MAC-222 Questions And Answers MAC-222, Advanced CNC Turning Overview This course covers advanced methods in setup and operation of CNC turning centers. Emphasis is placed on programming and production of complex parts. Upon completion, students should be able to demonstrate skills in programming, operations, and setup of CNC turning centers. MAC-222, Advanced CNC Turning This course covers advanced methods in setup and operation of CNC turning centers. Emphasis is placed on programming and production of complex parts. Upon completion, students should be able to demonstrate skills in programming, operations, and setup of CNC turning centers. Resources include lectures, videos, assessments, labs, etc. This product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.458427	11/04/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/121638/overview", "title": "MAC-222, Advanced CNC Turning", "author": "Bo Bunn" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114415/overview	Welding-112 Mid Term Welding-112 Quiz Questions and Answers WLD – 112, Basic Welding Processes WLD-112 Basic Welding Processes Overview This course introduces basic welding and cutting. Emphasis is placed on beads applied with gases, mild steel fillers, and electrodes and the capillary action of solder. Upon completion, students should be able to set up welding and oxy-fuel equipment and perform welding, brazing, and soldering processes. WLD-112 Basic Welding Processes This course introduces basic welding and cutting. Emphasis is placed on beads applied with gases, mild steel fillers, and electrodes and the capillary action of solder. Upon completion, students should be able to set up welding and oxy-fuel equipment and perform welding, brazing, and soldering processes. This product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.478055	Full Course	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114415/overview", "title": "WLD-112 Basic Welding Processes", "author": "Assessment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96868/overview	CarDemo Garage OOP Part 1 Instance Variables, Setter, and Getter OOP Part 2 Constructors OOP Part 3 Create Object and Call Method OOP Part 4 the Use of "this" Keyword OOP Part 5 the Use of "static" Keyword OOP Part 6 Inheritance OOP Part 7 Overriding toString method OOP Part 8 Interfaces 6- Car Example in Java (Object Oriented Programming) Overview Learning the Object Oriented Programming concepts such as classes, interfaces, overriding, and inheritance. 6- Car Example in Java (Lecture Video) In this set of videos we lean about Object-Oriented Programming including classes, interfaces, and overriding in Java Java Source File The source code of project Car in Java	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.502335	08/30/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96868/overview", "title": "6- Car Example in Java (Object Oriented Programming)", "author": "Saeid Samadidana" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/79926/overview	Blood Type Compatibility Exercise Overview This worksheet provides a video reviewing blood types and compatibility as well as assessment questions to determine comprehension. Watch the video below on blood types and compatibility and then test your comprehension using the worksheet below. Source: “Blood Typing Video” by Dr. Bruce Forciea is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Blood Type Review Questions - Circle the antigens that would exist on red blood cells if a person was type AB- blood. A antigen B antigen Rh antigen - Circle the antibodies that would exist in blood plasma if a person was type AB- blood. A antibody B antibody Rh antibody - Which blood type would only have Rh and A antigens on the surface of red blood cells? A+ A- B+ B- AB+ AB- O+ O- - Which blood type would have no Rh antigens, but only have B antigens on the surface of red blood cells? A+ A- B+ B- AB+ AB- O+ O- - Which blood type would only have Rh and B antibodies flowing through blood plasma? A+ A- B+ B- AB+ AB- O+ O- - Maxwell has lost a lot of blood and needs a transfusion. Doctors at the hospital have identified that he has A- blood type, which means he also has B and Rh antibodies in his plasma. Circle blood types that he can safely receive. A+ A- B+ B- AB+ AB- O+ O- - A person who has B+ blood and Rh antigen on their red blood cells wishes to donate their blood. Circle the blood types that CAN receive B+ blood in a transfusion.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.526165	Sara Sanders	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/79926/overview", "title": "Blood Type Compatibility Exercise", "author": "Homework/Assignment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15027/overview	Introduction All species of living organisms, from bacteria to baboons to blueberries, evolved at some point from a different species. Although it may seem that living things today stay much the same, that is not the case—evolution is an ongoing process. The theory of evolution is the unifying theory of biology, meaning it is the framework within which biologists ask questions about the living world. Its power is that it provides direction for predictions about living things that are borne out in experiment after experiment. The Ukrainian-born American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote that “nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution.”Theodosius Dobzhansky. “Biology, Molecular and Organismic.” American Zoologist 4, no. 4 (1964): 449. He meant that the tenet that all life has evolved and diversified from a common ancestor is the foundation from which we approach all questions in biology.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.540818	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15027/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15028/overview	Understanding Evolution Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe how the present-day theory of evolution was developed - Define adaptation - Explain convergent and divergent evolution - Describe homologous and vestigial structures - Discuss misconceptions about the theory of evolution Evolution by natural selection describes a mechanism for how species change over time. That species change had been suggested and debated well before Darwin began to explore this idea. The view that species were static and unchanging was grounded in the writings of Plato, yet there were also ancient Greeks who expressed evolutionary ideas. In the eighteenth century, ideas about the evolution of animals were reintroduced by the naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon who observed that various geographic regions have different plant and animal populations, even when the environments are similar. It was also accepted that there were extinct species. During this time, James Hutton, a Scottish naturalist, proposed that geological change occurred gradually by the accumulation of small changes from processes operating like they are today over long periods of time. This contrasted with the predominant view that the geology of the planet was a consequence of catastrophic events occurring during a relatively brief past. Hutton’s view was popularized in the nineteenth century by the geologist Charles Lyell who became a friend to Darwin. Lyell’s ideas were influential on Darwin’s thinking: Lyell’s notion of the greater age of Earth gave more time for gradual change in species, and the process of change provided an analogy for gradual change in species. In the early nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a book that detailed a mechanism for evolutionary change. This mechanism is now referred to as an inheritance of acquired characteristics by which modifications in an individual are caused by its environment, or the use or disuse of a structure during its lifetime, could be inherited by its offspring and thus bring about change in a species. While this mechanism for evolutionary change was discredited, Lamarck’s ideas were an important influence on evolutionary thought. Charles Darwin and Natural Selection In the mid-nineteenth century, the actual mechanism for evolution was independently conceived of and described by two naturalists: Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Importantly, each naturalist spent time exploring the natural world on expeditions to the tropics. From 1831 to 1836, Darwin traveled around the world on H.M.S. Beagle, including stops in South America, Australia, and the southern tip of Africa. Wallace traveled to Brazil to collect insects in the Amazon rainforest from 1848 to 1852 and to the Malay Archipelago from 1854 to 1862. Darwin’s journey, like Wallace’s later journeys to the Malay Archipelago, included stops at several island chains, the last being the Galápagos Islands west of Ecuador. On these islands, Darwin observed species of organisms on different islands that were clearly similar, yet had distinct differences. For example, the ground finches inhabiting the Galápagos Islands comprised several species with a unique beak shape (Figure). The species on the islands had a graded series of beak sizes and shapes with very small differences between the most similar. He observed that these finches closely resembled another finch species on the mainland of South America. Darwin imagined that the island species might be species modified from one of the original mainland species. Upon further study, he realized that the varied beaks of each finch helped the birds acquire a specific type of food. For example, seed-eating finches had stronger, thicker beaks for breaking seeds, and insect-eating finches had spear-like beaks for stabbing their prey. Wallace and Darwin both observed similar patterns in other organisms and they independently developed the same explanation for how and why such changes could take place. Darwin called this mechanism natural selection. Natural selection, also known as “survival of the fittest,” is the more prolific reproduction of individuals with favorable traits that survive environmental change because of those traits; this leads to evolutionary change. For example, a population of giant tortoises found in the Galapagos Archipelago was observed by Darwin to have longer necks than those that lived on other islands with dry lowlands. These tortoises were “selected” because they could reach more leaves and access more food than those with short necks. In times of drought when fewer leaves would be available, those that could reach more leaves had a better chance to eat and survive than those that couldn’t reach the food source. Consequently, long-necked tortoises would be more likely to be reproductively successful and pass the long-necked trait to their offspring. Over time, only long-necked tortoises would be present in the population. Natural selection, Darwin argued, was an inevitable outcome of three principles that operated in nature. First, most characteristics of organisms are inherited, or passed from parent to offspring. Although no one, including Darwin and Wallace, knew how this happened at the time, it was a common understanding. Second, more offspring are produced than are able to survive, so resources for survival and reproduction are limited. The capacity for reproduction in all organisms outstrips the availability of resources to support their numbers. Thus, there is competition for those resources in each generation. Both Darwin and Wallace’s understanding of this principle came from reading an essay by the economist Thomas Malthus who discussed this principle in relation to human populations. Third, offspring vary among each other in regard to their characteristics and those variations are inherited. Darwin and Wallace reasoned that offspring with inherited characteristics which allow them to best compete for limited resources will survive and have more offspring than those individuals with variations that are less able to compete. Because characteristics are inherited, these traits will be better represented in the next generation. This will lead to change in populations over generations in a process that Darwin called descent with modification. Ultimately, natural selection leads to greater adaptation of the population to its local environment; it is the only mechanism known for adaptive evolution. Papers by Darwin and Wallace (Figure) presenting the idea of natural selection were read together in 1858 before the Linnean Society in London. The following year Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species, was published. His book outlined in considerable detail his arguments for evolution by natural selection. Demonstrations of evolution by natural selection are time consuming and difficult to obtain. One of the best examples has been demonstrated in the very birds that helped to inspire Darwin’s theory: the Galápagos finches. Peter and Rosemary Grant and their colleagues have studied Galápagos finch populations every year since 1976 and have provided important demonstrations of natural selection. The Grants found changes from one generation to the next in the distribution of beak shapes with the medium ground finch on the Galápagos island of Daphne Major. The birds have inherited variation in the bill shape with some birds having wide deep bills and others having thinner bills. During a period in which rainfall was higher than normal because of an El Niño, the large hard seeds that large-billed birds ate were reduced in number; however, there was an abundance of the small soft seeds which the small-billed birds ate. Therefore, survival and reproduction were much better in the following years for the small-billed birds. In the years following this El Niño, the Grants measured beak sizes in the population and found that the average bill size was smaller. Since bill size is an inherited trait, parents with smaller bills had more offspring and the size of bills had evolved to be smaller. As conditions improved in 1987 and larger seeds became more available, the trend toward smaller average bill size ceased. Career Connection Field BiologistMany people hike, explore caves, scuba dive, or climb mountains for recreation. People often participate in these activities hoping to see wildlife. Experiencing the outdoors can be incredibly enjoyable and invigorating. What if your job was to be outside in the wilderness? Field biologists by definition work outdoors in the “field.” The term field in this case refers to any location outdoors, even under water. A field biologist typically focuses research on a certain species, group of organisms, or a single habitat (Figure). One objective of many field biologists includes discovering new species that have never been recorded. Not only do such findings expand our understanding of the natural world, but they also lead to important innovations in fields such as medicine and agriculture. Plant and microbial species, in particular, can reveal new medicinal and nutritive knowledge. Other organisms can play key roles in ecosystems or be considered rare and in need of protection. When discovered, these important species can be used as evidence for environmental regulations and laws. Processes and Patterns of Evolution Natural selection can only take place if there is variation, or differences, among individuals in a population. Importantly, these differences must have some genetic basis; otherwise, the selection will not lead to change in the next generation. This is critical because variation among individuals can be caused by non-genetic reasons such as an individual being taller because of better nutrition rather than different genes. Genetic diversity in a population comes from two main mechanisms: mutation and sexual reproduction. Mutation, a change in DNA, is the ultimate source of new alleles, or new genetic variation in any population. The genetic changes caused by mutation can have one of three outcomes on the phenotype. A mutation affects the phenotype of the organism in a way that gives it reduced fitness—lower likelihood of survival or fewer offspring. A mutation may produce a phenotype with a beneficial effect on fitness. And, many mutations will also have no effect on the fitness of the phenotype; these are called neutral mutations. Mutations may also have a whole range of effect sizes on the fitness of the organism that expresses them in their phenotype, from a small effect to a great effect. Sexual reproduction also leads to genetic diversity: when two parents reproduce, unique combinations of alleles assemble to produce the unique genotypes and thus phenotypes in each of the offspring. A heritable trait that helps the survival and reproduction of an organism in its present environment is called an adaptation. Scientists describe groups of organisms becoming adapted to their environment when a change in the range of genetic variation occurs over time that increases or maintains the “fit” of the population to its environment. The webbed feet of platypuses are an adaptation for swimming. The snow leopards’ thick fur is an adaptation for living in the cold. The cheetahs’ fast speed is an adaptation for catching prey. Whether or not a trait is favorable depends on the environmental conditions at the time. The same traits are not always selected because environmental conditions can change. For example, consider a species of plant that grew in a moist climate and did not need to conserve water. Large leaves were selected because they allowed the plant to obtain more energy from the sun. Large leaves require more water to maintain than small leaves, and the moist environment provided favorable conditions to support large leaves. After thousands of years, the climate changed, and the area no longer had excess water. The direction of natural selection shifted so that plants with small leaves were selected because those populations were able to conserve water to survive the new environmental conditions. The evolution of species has resulted in enormous variation in form and function. Sometimes, evolution gives rise to groups of organisms that become tremendously different from each other. When two species evolve in diverse directions from a common point, it is called divergent evolution. Such divergent evolution can be seen in the forms of the reproductive organs of flowering plants which share the same basic anatomies; however, they can look very different as a result of selection in different physical environments and adaptation to different kinds of pollinators (Figure). In other cases, similar phenotypes evolve independently in distantly related species. For example, flight has evolved in both bats and insects, and they both have structures we refer to as wings, which are adaptations to flight. However, the wings of bats and insects have evolved from very different original structures. This phenomenon is called convergent evolution , where similar traits evolve independently in species that do not share a common ancestry. The two species came to the same function, flying, but did so separately from each other. These physical changes occur over enormous spans of time and help explain how evolution occurs. Natural selection acts on individual organisms, which in turn can shape an entire species. Although natural selection may work in a single generation on an individual, it can take thousands or even millions of years for the genotype of an entire species to evolve. It is over these large time spans that life on earth has changed and continues to change. Evidence of Evolution The evidence for evolution is compelling and extensive. Looking at every level of organization in living systems, biologists see the signature of past and present evolution. Darwin dedicated a large portion of his book, On the Origin of Species, to identifying patterns in nature that were consistent with evolution, and since Darwin, our understanding has become clearer and broader. Fossils Fossils provide solid evidence that organisms from the past are not the same as those found today, and fossils show a progression of evolution. Scientists determine the age of fossils and categorize them from all over the world to determine when the organisms lived relative to each other. The resulting fossil record tells the story of the past and shows the evolution of form over millions of years (Figure). For example, scientists have recovered highly detailed records showing the evolution of humans and horses (Figure). The whale flipper shares a similar morphology to appendages of birds and mammals (Figure) indicating that these species share a common ancestor. Anatomy and Embryology Another type of evidence for evolution is the presence of structures in organisms that share the same basic form. For example, the bones in the appendages of a human, dog, bird, and whale all share the same overall construction (Figure) resulting from their origin in the appendages of a common ancestor. Over time, evolution led to changes in the shapes and sizes of these bones in different species, but they have maintained the same overall layout. Scientists call these synonymous parts homologous structures. Some structures exist in organisms that have no apparent function at all, and appear to be residual parts from a past common ancestor. These unused structures without function are called vestigial structures. Other examples of vestigial structures are wings on flightless birds, leaves on some cacti, and hind leg bones in whales. Link to Learning Visit this interactive site to guess which bones structures are homologous and which are analogous, and see examples of evolutionary adaptations to illustrate these concepts. Another evidence of evolution is the convergence of form in organisms that share similar environments. For example, species of unrelated animals, such as the arctic fox and ptarmigan, living in the arctic region have been selected for seasonal white phenotypes during winter to blend with the snow and ice (Figureab). These similarities occur not because of common ancestry, but because of similar selection pressures—the benefits of not being seen by predators. Embryology, the study of the development of the anatomy of an organism to its adult form, also provides evidence of relatedness between now widely divergent groups of organisms. Mutational tweaking in the embryo can have such magnified consequences in the adult that embryo formation tends to be conserved. As a result, structures that are absent in some groups often appear in their embryonic forms and disappear by the time the adult or juvenile form is reached. For example, all vertebrate embryos, including humans, exhibit gill slits and tails at some point in their early development. These disappear in the adults of terrestrial groups but are maintained in adult forms of aquatic groups such as fish and some amphibians. Great ape embryos, including humans, have a tail structure during their development that is lost by the time of birth. Biogeography The geographic distribution of organisms on the planet follows patterns that are best explained by evolution in conjunction with the movement of tectonic plates over geological time. Broad groups that evolved before the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea (about 200 million years ago) are distributed worldwide. Groups that evolved since the breakup appear uniquely in regions of the planet, such as the unique flora and fauna of northern continents that formed from the supercontinent Laurasia and of the southern continents that formed from the supercontinent Gondwana. The presence of members of the plant family Proteaceae in Australia, southern Africa, and South America is best by their presence prior to the southern supercontinent Gondwana breaking up. The great diversification of marsupials in Australia and the absence of other mammals reflect Australia’s long isolation. Australia has an abundance of endemic species—species found nowhere else—which is typical of islands whose isolation by expanses of water prevents species to migrate. Over time, these species diverge evolutionarily into new species that look very different from their ancestors that may exist on the mainland. The marsupials of Australia, the finches on the Galápagos, and many species on the Hawaiian Islands are all unique to their one point of origin, yet they display distant relationships to ancestral species on mainlands. Molecular Biology Like anatomical structures, the structures of the molecules of life reflect descent with modification. Evidence of a common ancestor for all of life is reflected in the universality of DNA as the genetic material and in the near universality of the genetic code and the machinery of DNA replication and expression. Fundamental divisions in life between the three domains are reflected in major structural differences in otherwise conservative structures such as the components of ribosomes and the structures of membranes. In general, the relatedness of groups of organisms is reflected in the similarity of their DNA sequences—exactly the pattern that would be expected from descent and diversification from a common ancestor. DNA sequences have also shed light on some of the mechanisms of evolution. For example, it is clear that the evolution of new functions for proteins commonly occurs after gene duplication events that allow the free modification of one copy by mutation, selection, or drift (changes in a population’s gene pool resulting from chance), while the second copy continues to produce a functional protein. Misconceptions of Evolution Although the theory of evolution generated some controversy when it was first proposed, it was almost universally accepted by biologists, particularly younger biologists, within 20 years after publication of On the Origin of Species. Nevertheless, the theory of evolution is a difficult concept and misconceptions about how it works abound. Link to Learning This site addresses some of the main misconceptions associated with the theory of evolution. Evolution Is Just a Theory Critics of the theory of evolution dismiss its importance by purposefully confounding the everyday usage of the word “theory” with the way scientists use the word. In science, a “theory” is understood to be a body of thoroughly tested and verified explanations for a set of observations of the natural world. Scientists have a theory of the atom, a theory of gravity, and the theory of relativity, each of which describes understood facts about the world. In the same way, the theory of evolution describes facts about the living world. As such, a theory in science has survived significant efforts to discredit it by scientists. In contrast, a “theory” in common vernacular is a word meaning a guess or suggested explanation; this meaning is more akin to the scientific concept of “hypothesis.” When critics of evolution say evolution is “just a theory,” they are implying that there is little evidence supporting it and that it is still in the process of being rigorously tested. This is a mischaracterization. Individuals Evolve Evolution is the change in genetic composition of a population over time, specifically over generations, resulting from differential reproduction of individuals with certain alleles. Individuals do change over their lifetime, obviously, but this is called development and involves changes programmed by the set of genes the individual acquired at birth in coordination with the individual’s environment. When thinking about the evolution of a characteristic, it is probably best to think about the change of the average value of the characteristic in the population over time. For example, when natural selection leads to bill-size change in medium-ground finches in the Galápagos, this does not mean that individual bills on the finches are changing. If one measures the average bill size among all individuals in the population at one time and then measures the average bill size in the population several years later, this average value will be different as a result of evolution. Although some individuals may survive from the first time to the second, they will still have the same bill size; however, there will be many new individuals that contribute to the shift in average bill size. Evolution Explains the Origin of Life It is a common misunderstanding that evolution includes an explanation of life’s origins. Conversely, some of the theory’s critics believe that it cannot explain the origin of life. The theory does not try to explain the origin of life. The theory of evolution explains how populations change over time and how life diversifies the origin of species. It does not shed light on the beginnings of life including the origins of the first cells, which is how life is defined. The mechanisms of the origin of life on Earth are a particularly difficult problem because it occurred a very long time ago, and presumably it just occurred once. Importantly, biologists believe that the presence of life on Earth precludes the possibility that the events that led to life on Earth can be repeated because the intermediate stages would immediately become food for existing living things. However, once a mechanism of inheritance was in place in the form of a molecule like DNA either within a cell or pre-cell, these entities would be subject to the principle of natural selection. More effective reproducers would increase in frequency at the expense of inefficient reproducers. So while evolution does not explain the origin of life, it may have something to say about some of the processes operating once pre-living entities acquired certain properties. Organisms Evolve on Purpose Statements such as “organisms evolve in response to a change in an environment” are quite common, but such statements can lead to two types of misunderstandings. First, the statement must not be understood to mean that individual organisms evolve. The statement is shorthand for “a population evolves in response to a changing environment.” However, a second misunderstanding may arise by interpreting the statement to mean that the evolution is somehow intentional. A changed environment results in some individuals in the population, those with particular phenotypes, benefiting and therefore producing proportionately more offspring than other phenotypes. This results in change in the population if the characteristics are genetically determined. It is also important to understand that the variation that natural selection works on is already in a population and does not arise in response to an environmental change. For example, applying antibiotics to a population of bacteria will, over time, select a population of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. The resistance, which is caused by a gene, did not arise by mutation because of the application of the antibiotic. The gene for resistance was already present in the gene pool of the bacteria, likely at a low frequency. The antibiotic, which kills the bacterial cells without the resistance gene, strongly selects individuals that are resistant, since these would be the only ones that survived and divided. Experiments have demonstrated that mutations for antibiotic resistance do not arise as a result of antibiotic. In a larger sense, evolution is not goal directed. Species do not become “better” over time; they simply track their changing environment with adaptations that maximize their reproduction in a particular environment at a particular time. Evolution has no goal of making faster, bigger, more complex, or even smarter species, despite the commonness of this kind of language in popular discourse. What characteristics evolve in a species are a function of the variation present and the environment, both of which are constantly changing in a non-directional way. What trait is fit in one environment at one time may well be fatal at some point in the future. This holds equally well for a species of insect as it does the human species. Section Summary Evolution is the process of adaptation through mutation which allows more desirable characteristics to be passed to the next generation. Over time, organisms evolve more characteristics that are beneficial to their survival. For living organisms to adapt and change to environmental pressures, genetic variation must be present. With genetic variation, individuals have differences in form and function that allow some to survive certain conditions better than others. These organisms pass their favorable traits to their offspring. Eventually, environments change, and what was once a desirable, advantageous trait may become an undesirable trait and organisms may further evolve. Evolution may be convergent with similar traits evolving in multiple species or divergent with diverse traits evolving in multiple species that came from a common ancestor. Evidence of evolution can be observed by means of DNA code and the fossil record, and also by the existence of homologous and vestigial structures. Review Questions Which scientific concept did Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently discover? - mutation - natural selection - overbreeding - sexual reproduction Hint: B Which of the following situations will lead to natural selection? - The seeds of two plants land near each other and one grows larger than the other. - Two types of fish eat the same kind of food, and one is better able to gather food than the other. - Male lions compete for the right to mate with females, with only one possible winner. - all of the above Hint: D Which description is an example of a phenotype? - A certain duck has a blue beak. - A mutation occurred to a flower. - Most cheetahs live solitary lives. - both a and c Hint: D Which situation is most likely an example of convergent evolution? - Squid and humans have eyes similar in structure. - Worms and snakes both move without legs. - Some bats and birds have wings that allow them to fly - all of the above Hint: D Free Response If a person scatters a handful of garden pea plant seeds in one area, how would natural selection work in this situation? Hint: The plants that can best use the resources of the area, including competing with other individuals for those resources will produce more seeds themselves and those traits that allowed them to better use the resources will increase in the population of the next generation. Why do scientists consider vestigial structures evidence for evolution? Hint: Vestigial structures are considered evidence for evolution because most structures do not exist in an organism without serving some function either presently or in the past. A vestigial structure indicates a past form or function that has since changed, but the structure remains present because it had a function in the ancestor. How does the scientific meaning of “theory” differ from the common vernacular meaning? Hint: In science, a theory is a thoroughly tested and verified set of explanations for a body of observations of nature. It is the strongest form of knowledge in science. In contrast, a theory in common vernacular can mean a guess or speculation about something, meaning that the knowledge implied by the theory is very weak. Explain why the statement that a monkey is more evolved than a mouse is incorrect. Hint: The statement implies that there is a goal to evolution and that the monkey represents greater progress to that goal than the mouse. Both species are likely to be well adapted to their particular environments, which is the outcome of natural selection.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.578438	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15028/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15029/overview	Formation of New Species Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define species and describe how species are identified as different - Describe genetic variables that lead to speciation - Identify prezygotic and postzygotic reproductive barriers - Explain allopatric and sympatric speciation - Describe adaptive radiation Although all life on earth shares various genetic similarities, only certain organisms combine genetic information by sexual reproduction and have offspring that can then successfully reproduce. Scientists call such organisms members of the same biological species. Species and the Ability to Reproduce A species is a group of individual organisms that interbreed and produce fertile, viable offspring. According to this definition, one species is distinguished from another when, in nature, it is not possible for matings between individuals from each species to produce fertile offspring. Members of the same species share both external and internal characteristics, which develop from their DNA. The closer relationship two organisms share, the more DNA they have in common, just like people and their families. People’s DNA is likely to be more like their father or mother’s DNA than their cousin or grandparent’s DNA. Organisms of the same species have the highest level of DNA alignment and therefore share characteristics and behaviors that lead to successful reproduction. Species’ appearance can be misleading in suggesting an ability or inability to mate. For example, even though domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) display phenotypic differences, such as size, build, and coat, most dogs can interbreed and produce viable puppies that can mature and sexually reproduce (Figure). In other cases, individuals may appear similar although they are not members of the same species. For example, even though bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and African fish eagles (Haliaeetus vocifer) are both birds and eagles, each belongs to a separate species group (Figure). If humans were to artificially intervene and fertilize the egg of a bald eagle with the sperm of an African fish eagle and a chick did hatch, that offspring, called a hybrid (a cross between two species), would probably be infertile—unable to successfully reproduce after it reached maturity. Different species may have different genes that are active in development; therefore, it may not be possible to develop a viable offspring with two different sets of directions. Thus, even though hybridization may take place, the two species still remain separate. Populations of species share a gene pool: a collection of all the variants of genes in the species. Again, the basis to any changes in a group or population of organisms must be genetic for this is the only way to share and pass on traits. When variations occur within a species, they can only be passed to the next generation along two main pathways: asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction. The change will be passed on asexually simply if the reproducing cell possesses the changed trait. For the changed trait to be passed on by sexual reproduction, a gamete, such as a sperm or egg cell, must possess the changed trait. In other words, sexually-reproducing organisms can experience several genetic changes in their body cells, but if these changes do not occur in a sperm or egg cell, the changed trait will never reach the next generation. Only heritable traits can evolve. Therefore, reproduction plays a paramount role for genetic change to take root in a population or species. In short, organisms must be able to reproduce with each other to pass new traits to offspring. Speciation The biological definition of species, which works for sexually reproducing organisms, is a group of actually or potentially interbreeding individuals. There are exceptions to this rule. Many species are similar enough that hybrid offspring are possible and may often occur in nature, but for the majority of species this rule generally holds. In fact, the presence in nature of hybrids between similar species suggests that they may have descended from a single interbreeding species, and the speciation process may not yet be completed. Given the extraordinary diversity of life on the planet there must be mechanisms for speciation: the formation of two species from one original species. Darwin envisioned this process as a branching event and diagrammed the process in the only illustration found in On the Origin of Species (Figurea). Compare this illustration to the diagram of elephant evolution (Figureb), which shows that as one species changes over time, it branches to form more than one new species, repeatedly, as long as the population survives or until the organism becomes extinct. For speciation to occur, two new populations must be formed from one original population and they must evolve in such a way that it becomes impossible for individuals from the two new populations to interbreed. Biologists have proposed mechanisms by which this could occur that fall into two broad categories. Allopatric speciation (allo- = "other"; -patric = "homeland") involves geographic separation of populations from a parent species and subsequent evolution. Sympatric speciation (sym- = "same"; -patric = "homeland") involves speciation occurring within a parent species remaining in one location. Biologists think of speciation events as the splitting of one ancestral species into two descendant species. There is no reason why there might not be more than two species formed at one time except that it is less likely and multiple events can be conceptualized as single splits occurring close in time. Allopatric Speciation A geographically continuous population has a gene pool that is relatively homogeneous. Gene flow, the movement of alleles across the range of the species, is relatively free because individuals can move and then mate with individuals in their new location. Thus, the frequency of an allele at one end of a distribution will be similar to the frequency of the allele at the other end. When populations become geographically discontinuous, that free-flow of alleles is prevented. When that separation lasts for a period of time, the two populations are able to evolve along different trajectories. Thus, their allele frequencies at numerous genetic loci gradually become more and more different as new alleles independently arise by mutation in each population. Typically, environmental conditions, such as climate, resources, predators, and competitors for the two populations will differ causing natural selection to favor divergent adaptations in each group. Isolation of populations leading to allopatric speciation can occur in a variety of ways: a river forming a new branch, erosion forming a new valley, a group of organisms traveling to a new location without the ability to return, or seeds floating over the ocean to an island. The nature of the geographic separation necessary to isolate populations depends entirely on the biology of the organism and its potential for dispersal. If two flying insect populations took up residence in separate nearby valleys, chances are, individuals from each population would fly back and forth continuing gene flow. However, if two rodent populations became divided by the formation of a new lake, continued gene flow would be unlikely; therefore, speciation would be more likely. Biologists group allopatric processes into two categories: dispersal and vicariance. Dispersal is when a few members of a species move to a new geographical area, and vicariance is when a natural situation arises to physically divide organisms. Scientists have documented numerous cases of allopatric speciation taking place. For example, along the west coast of the United States, two separate sub-species of spotted owls exist. The northern spotted owl has genetic and phenotypic differences from its close relative: the Mexican spotted owl, which lives in the south (Figure). Additionally, scientists have found that the further the distance between two groups that once were the same species, the more likely it is that speciation will occur. This seems logical because as the distance increases, the various environmental factors would likely have less in common than locations in close proximity. Consider the two owls: in the north, the climate is cooler than in the south; the types of organisms in each ecosystem differ, as do their behaviors and habits; also, the hunting habits and prey choices of the southern owls vary from the northern owls. These variances can lead to evolved differences in the owls, and speciation likely will occur. Adaptive Radiation In some cases, a population of one species disperses throughout an area, and each finds a distinct niche or isolated habitat. Over time, the varied demands of their new lifestyles lead to multiple speciation events originating from a single species. This is called adaptive radiation because many adaptations evolve from a single point of origin; thus, causing the species to radiate into several new ones. Island archipelagos like the Hawaiian Islands provide an ideal context for adaptive radiation events because water surrounds each island which leads to geographical isolation for many organisms. The Hawaiian honeycreeper illustrates one example of adaptive radiation. From a single species, called the founder species, numerous species have evolved, including the six shown in Figure. Notice the differences in the species’ beaks in Figure. Evolution in response to natural selection based on specific food sources in each new habitat led to evolution of a different beak suited to the specific food source. The seed-eating bird has a thicker, stronger beak which is suited to break hard nuts. The nectar-eating birds have long beaks to dip into flowers to reach the nectar. The insect-eating birds have beaks like swords, appropriate for stabbing and impaling insects. Darwin’s finches are another example of adaptive radiation in an archipelago. Link to Learning Click through this interactive site to see how island birds evolved in evolutionary increments from 5 million years ago to today. Sympatric Speciation Can divergence occur if no physical barriers are in place to separate individuals who continue to live and reproduce in the same habitat? The answer is yes. The process of speciation within the same space is called sympatric speciation; the prefix “sym” means same, so “sympatric” means “same homeland” in contrast to “allopatric” meaning “other homeland.” A number of mechanisms for sympatric speciation have been proposed and studied. One form of sympatric speciation can begin with a serious chromosomal error during cell division. In a normal cell division event chromosomes replicate, pair up, and then separate so that each new cell has the same number of chromosomes. However, sometimes the pairs separate and the end cell product has too many or too few individual chromosomes in a condition called aneuploidy (Figure). Art Connection Which is most likely to survive, offspring with 2n+1 chromosomes or offspring with 2n-1 chromosomes? Polyploidy is a condition in which a cell or organism has an extra set, or sets, of chromosomes. Scientists have identified two main types of polyploidy that can lead to reproductive isolation of an individual in the polyploidy state. Reproductive isolation is the inability to interbreed. In some cases, a polyploid individual will have two or more complete sets of chromosomes from its own species in a condition called autopolyploidy (Figure). The prefix “auto-” means “self,” so the term means multiple chromosomes from one’s own species. Polyploidy results from an error in meiosis in which all of the chromosomes move into one cell instead of separating. For example, if a plant species with 2n = 6 produces autopolyploid gametes that are also diploid (2n = 6, when they should be n = 3), the gametes now have twice as many chromosomes as they should have. These new gametes will be incompatible with the normal gametes produced by this plant species. However, they could either self-pollinate or reproduce with other autopolyploid plants with gametes having the same diploid number. In this way, sympatric speciation can occur quickly by forming offspring with 4n called a tetraploid. These individuals would immediately be able to reproduce only with those of this new kind and not those of the ancestral species. The other form of polyploidy occurs when individuals of two different species reproduce to form a viable offspring called an allopolyploid. The prefix “allo-” means “other” (recall from allopatric): therefore, an allopolyploid occurs when gametes from two different species combine. Figure illustrates one possible way an allopolyploid can form. Notice how it takes two generations, or two reproductive acts, before the viable fertile hybrid results. The cultivated forms of wheat, cotton, and tobacco plants are all allopolyploids. Although polyploidy occurs occasionally in animals, it takes place most commonly in plants. (Animals with any of the types of chromosomal aberrations described here are unlikely to survive and produce normal offspring.) Scientists have discovered more than half of all plant species studied relate back to a species evolved through polyploidy. With such a high rate of polyploidy in plants, some scientists hypothesize that this mechanism takes place more as an adaptation than as an error. Reproductive Isolation Given enough time, the genetic and phenotypic divergence between populations will affect characters that influence reproduction: if individuals of the two populations were to be brought together, mating would be less likely, but if mating occurred, offspring would be non-viable or infertile. Many types of diverging characters may affect the reproductive isolation, the ability to interbreed, of the two populations. Reproductive isolation can take place in a variety of ways. Scientists organize them into two groups: prezygotic barriers and postzygotic barriers. Recall that a zygote is a fertilized egg: the first cell of the development of an organism that reproduces sexually. Therefore, a prezygotic barrier is a mechanism that blocks reproduction from taking place; this includes barriers that prevent fertilization when organisms attempt reproduction. A postzygotic barrier occurs after zygote formation; this includes organisms that don’t survive the embryonic stage and those that are born sterile. Some types of prezygotic barriers prevent reproduction entirely. Many organisms only reproduce at certain times of the year, often just annually. Differences in breeding schedules, called temporal isolation, can act as a form of reproductive isolation. For example, two species of frogs inhabit the same area, but one reproduces from January to March, whereas the other reproduces from March to May (Figure). In some cases, populations of a species move or are moved to a new habitat and take up residence in a place that no longer overlaps with the other populations of the same species. This situation is called habitat isolation. Reproduction with the parent species ceases, and a new group exists that is now reproductively and genetically independent. For example, a cricket population that was divided after a flood could no longer interact with each other. Over time, the forces of natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift will likely result in the divergence of the two groups (Figure). Behavioral isolation occurs when the presence or absence of a specific behavior prevents reproduction from taking place. For example, male fireflies use specific light patterns to attract females. Various species of fireflies display their lights differently. If a male of one species tried to attract the female of another, she would not recognize the light pattern and would not mate with the male. Other prezygotic barriers work when differences in their gamete cells (eggs and sperm) prevent fertilization from taking place; this is called a gametic barrier. Similarly, in some cases closely related organisms try to mate, but their reproductive structures simply do not fit together. For example, damselfly males of different species have differently shaped reproductive organs. If one species tries to mate with the female of another, their body parts simply do not fit together. (Figure). In plants, certain structures aimed to attract one type of pollinator simultaneously prevent a different pollinator from accessing the pollen. The tunnel through which an animal must access nectar can vary widely in length and diameter, which prevents the plant from being cross-pollinated with a different species (Figure). When fertilization takes place and a zygote forms, postzygotic barriers can prevent reproduction. Hybrid individuals in many cases cannot form normally in the womb and simply do not survive past the embryonic stages. This is called hybrid inviability because the hybrid organisms simply are not viable. In another postzygotic situation, reproduction leads to the birth and growth of a hybrid that is sterile and unable to reproduce offspring of their own; this is called hybrid sterility. Habitat Influence on Speciation Sympatric speciation may also take place in ways other than polyploidy. For example, consider a species of fish that lives in a lake. As the population grows, competition for food also grows. Under pressure to find food, suppose that a group of these fish had the genetic flexibility to discover and feed off another resource that was unused by the other fish. What if this new food source was found at a different depth of the lake? Over time, those feeding on the second food source would interact more with each other than the other fish; therefore, they would breed together as well. Offspring of these fish would likely behave as their parents: feeding and living in the same area and keeping separate from the original population. If this group of fish continued to remain separate from the first population, eventually sympatric speciation might occur as more genetic differences accumulated between them. This scenario does play out in nature, as do others that lead to reproductive isolation. One such place is Lake Victoria in Africa, famous for its sympatric speciation of cichlid fish. Researchers have found hundreds of sympatric speciation events in these fish, which have not only happened in great number, but also over a short period of time. Figure shows this type of speciation among a cichlid fish population in Nicaragua. In this locale, two types of cichlids live in the same geographic location but have come to have different morphologies that allow them to eat various food sources. Section Summary Speciation occurs along two main pathways: geographic separation (allopatric speciation) and through mechanisms that occur within a shared habitat (sympatric speciation). Both pathways isolate a population reproductively in some form. Mechanisms of reproductive isolation act as barriers between closely related species, enabling them to diverge and exist as genetically independent species. Prezygotic barriers block reproduction prior to formation of a zygote, whereas postzygotic barriers block reproduction after fertilization occurs. For a new species to develop, something must cause a breach in the reproductive barriers. Sympatric speciation can occur through errors in meiosis that form gametes with extra chromosomes (polyploidy). Autopolyploidy occurs within a single species, whereas allopolyploidy occurs between closely related species. Art Connections Review Questions Which situation would most likely lead to allopatric speciation? - flood causes the formation of a new lake. - A storm causes several large trees to fall down. - A mutation causes a new trait to develop. - An injury causes an organism to seek out a new food source. Hint: A What is the main difference between dispersal and vicariance? - One leads to allopatric speciation, whereas the other leads to sympatric speciation. - One involves the movement of the organism, and the other involves a change in the environment. - One depends on a genetic mutation occurring, and the other does not. - One involves closely related organisms, and the other involves only individuals of the same species. Hint: B Which variable increases the likelihood of allopatric speciation taking place more quickly? - lower rate of mutation - longer distance between divided groups - increased instances of hybrid formation - equivalent numbers of individuals in each population Hint: B What is the main difference between autopolyploid and allopolyploid? - the number of chromosomes - the functionality of the chromosomes - the source of the extra chromosomes - the number of mutations in the extra chromosomes Hint: C Which reproductive combination produces hybrids? - when individuals of the same species in different geographical areas reproduce - when any two individuals sharing the same habitat reproduce - when members of closely related species reproduce - when offspring of the same parents reproduce Hint: C Which condition is the basis for a species to be reproductively isolated from other members? - It does not share its habitat with related species. - It does not exist out of a single habitat. - It does not exchange genetic information with other species. - It does not undergo evolutionary changes for a significant period of time. Hint: C Which situation is not an example of a prezygotic barrier? - Two species of turtles breed at different times of the year. - Two species of flowers attract different pollinators. - Two species of birds display different mating dances. - Two species of insects produce infertile offspring. Hint: D Free Response Why do island chains provide ideal conditions for adaptive radiation to occur? Hint: Organisms of one species can arrive to an island together and then disperse throughout the chain, each settling into different niches and exploiting different food resources to reduce competition. Two species of fish had recently undergone sympatric speciation. The males of each species had a different coloring through which the females could identify and choose a partner from her own species. After some time, pollution made the lake so cloudy that it was hard for females to distinguish colors. What might take place in this situation? Hint: It is likely the two species would start to reproduce with each other. Depending on the viability of their offspring, they may fuse back into one species. Why can polyploidy individuals lead to speciation fairly quickly? Hint: The formation of gametes with new n numbers can occur in one generation. After a couple of generations, enough of these new hybrids can form to reproduce together as a new species.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.622499	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15029/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15030/overview	Reconnection and Rates of Speciation Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe pathways of species evolution in hybrid zones - Explain the two major theories on rates of speciation Speciation occurs over a span of evolutionary time, so when a new species arises, there is a transition period during which the closely related species continue to interact. Reconnection After speciation, two species may recombine or even continue interacting indefinitely. Individual organisms will mate with any nearby individual who they are capable of breeding with. An area where two closely related species continue to interact and reproduce, forming hybrids, is called a hybrid zone. Over time, the hybrid zone may change depending on the fitness of the hybrids and the reproductive barriers (Figure). If the hybrids are less fit than the parents, reinforcement of speciation occurs, and the species continue to diverge until they can no longer mate and produce viable offspring. If reproductive barriers weaken, fusion occurs and the two species become one. Barriers remain the same if hybrids are fit and reproductive: stability may occur and hybridization continues. Art Connection If two species eat a different diet but one of the food sources is eliminated and both species are forced to eat the same foods, what change in the hybrid zone is most likely to occur? Hybrids can be either less fit than the parents, more fit, or about the same. Usually hybrids tend to be less fit; therefore, such reproduction diminishes over time, nudging the two species to diverge further in a process called reinforcement. This term is used because the low success of the hybrids reinforces the original speciation. If the hybrids are as fit or more fit than the parents, the two species may fuse back into one species (Figure). Scientists have also observed that sometimes two species will remain separate but also continue to interact to produce some hybrid individuals; this is classified as stability because no real net change is taking place. Varying Rates of Speciation Scientists around the world study speciation, documenting observations both of living organisms and those found in the fossil record. As their ideas take shape and as research reveals new details about how life evolves, they develop models to help explain rates of speciation. In terms of how quickly speciation occurs, two patterns are currently observed: gradual speciation model and punctuated equilibrium model. In the gradual speciation model, species diverge gradually over time in small steps. In the punctuated equilibrium model, a new species undergoes changes quickly from the parent species, and then remains largely unchanged for long periods of time afterward (Figure). This early change model is called punctuated equilibrium, because it begins with a punctuated or periodic change and then remains in balance afterward. While punctuated equilibrium suggests a faster tempo, it does not necessarily exclude gradualism. Art Connection Which of the following statements is false? - Punctuated equilibrium is most likely to occur in a small population that experiences a rapid change in its environment. - Punctuated equilibrium is most likely to occur in a large population that lives in a stable climate. - Gradual speciation is most likely to occur in species that live in a stable climate. - Gradual speciation and punctuated equilibrium both result in the divergence of species. The primary influencing factor on changes in speciation rate is environmental conditions. Under some conditions, selection occurs quickly or radically. Consider a species of snails that had been living with the same basic form for many thousands of years. Layers of their fossils would appear similar for a long time. When a change in the environment takes place—such as a drop in the water level—a small number of organisms are separated from the rest in a brief period of time, essentially forming one large and one tiny population. The tiny population faces new environmental conditions. Because its gene pool quickly became so small, any variation that surfaces and that aids in surviving the new conditions becomes the predominant form. Link to Learning Visit this website to continue the speciation story of the snails. Section Summary Speciation is not a precise division: overlap between closely related species can occur in areas called hybrid zones. Organisms reproduce with other similar organisms. The fitness of these hybrid offspring can affect the evolutionary path of the two species. Scientists propose two models for the rate of speciation: one model illustrates how a species can change slowly over time; the other model demonstrates how change can occur quickly from a parent generation to a new species. Both models continue to follow the patterns of natural selection. Art Connections Figure If two species eat a different diet but one of the food sources is eliminated and both species are forced to eat the same foods, what change in the hybrid zone is most likely to occur? Hint: Figure Fusion is most likely to occur because the two species will interact more and similar traits in food acquisition will be selected. Figure Which of the following statements is false? - Punctuated equilibrium is most likely to occur in a small population that experiences a rapid change in its environment. - Punctuated equilibrium is most likely to occur in a large population that lives in a stable climate. - Gradual speciation is most likely to occur in species that live in a stable climate. - Gradual speciation and punctuated equilibrium both result in the evolution of new species. Hint: Figure Answer B Review Questions Which term is used to describe the continued divergence of species based on the low fitness of hybrid offspring? - reinforcement - fusion - stability - punctuated equilibrium Hint: A Which components of speciation would be least likely to be a part of punctuated equilibrium? - a division of populations - a change in environmental conditions - ongoing gene flow among all individuals - a large number of mutations taking place at once Hint: C Free Response What do both rate of speciation models have in common? Hint: Both models continue to conform to the rules of natural selection, and the influences of gene flow, genetic drift, and mutation. Describe a situation where hybrid reproduction would cause two species to fuse into one. Hint: If the hybrid offspring are as fit or more fit than the parents, reproduction would likely continue between both species and the hybrids, eventually bringing all organisms under the umbrella of one species.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.649297	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15030/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15031/overview	Introduction All life on Earth is related. Evolutionary theory states that humans, beetles, plants, and bacteria all share a common ancestor, but that millions of years of evolution have shaped each of these organisms into the forms seen today. Scientists consider evolution a key concept to understanding life. Natural selection is one of the most dominant evolutionary forces. Natural selection acts to promote traits and behaviors that increase an organism’s chances of survival and reproduction, while eliminating those traits and behaviors that are to the organism’s detriment. But natural selection can only, as its name implies, select—it cannot create. The introduction of novel traits and behaviors falls on the shoulders of another evolutionary force—mutation. Mutation and other sources of variation among individuals, as well as the evolutionary forces that act upon them, alter populations and species. This combination of processes has led to the world of life we see today.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.665002	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15031/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15032/overview	Population Evolution Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define population genetics and describe how population genetics is used in the study of the evolution of populations - Define the Hardy-Weinberg principle and discuss its importance The mechanisms of inheritance, or genetics, were not understood at the time Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace were developing their idea of natural selection. This lack of understanding was a stumbling block to understanding many aspects of evolution. In fact, the predominant (and incorrect) genetic theory of the time, blending inheritance, made it difficult to understand how natural selection might operate. Darwin and Wallace were unaware of the genetics work by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, which was published in 1866, not long after publication of Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species. Mendel’s work was rediscovered in the early twentieth century at which time geneticists were rapidly coming to an understanding of the basics of inheritance. Initially, the newly discovered particulate nature of genes made it difficult for biologists to understand how gradual evolution could occur. But over the next few decades genetics and evolution were integrated in what became known as the modern synthesis—the coherent understanding of the relationship between natural selection and genetics that took shape by the 1940s and is generally accepted today. In sum, the modern synthesis describes how evolutionary processes, such as natural selection, can affect a population’s genetic makeup, and, in turn, how this can result in the gradual evolution of populations and species. The theory also connects this change of a population over time, called microevolution, with the processes that gave rise to new species and higher taxonomic groups with widely divergent characters, called macroevolution. Everyday Connection Evolution and Flu VaccinesEvery fall, the media starts reporting on flu vaccinations and potential outbreaks. Scientists, health experts, and institutions determine recommendations for different parts of the population, predict optimal production and inoculation schedules, create vaccines, and set up clinics to provide inoculations. You may think of the annual flu shot as a lot of media hype, an important health protection, or just a briefly uncomfortable prick in your arm. But do you think of it in terms of evolution? The media hype of annual flu shots is scientifically grounded in our understanding of evolution. Each year, scientists across the globe strive to predict the flu strains that they anticipate being most widespread and harmful in the coming year. This knowledge is based in how flu strains have evolved over time and over the past few flu seasons. Scientists then work to create the most effective vaccine to combat those selected strains. Hundreds of millions of doses are produced in a short period in order to provide vaccinations to key populations at the optimal time. Because viruses, like the flu, evolve very quickly (especially in evolutionary time), this poses quite a challenge. Viruses mutate and replicate at a fast rate, so the vaccine developed to protect against last year’s flu strain may not provide the protection needed against the coming year’s strain. Evolution of these viruses means continued adaptions to ensure survival, including adaptations to survive previous vaccines. Population Genetics Recall that a gene for a particular character may have several alleles, or variants, that code for different traits associated with that character. For example, in the ABO blood type system in humans, three alleles determine the particular blood-type protein on the surface of red blood cells. Each individual in a population of diploid organisms can only carry two alleles for a particular gene, but more than two may be present in the individuals that make up the population. Mendel followed alleles as they were inherited from parent to offspring. In the early twentieth century, biologists in a field of study known as population genetics began to study how selective forces change a population through changes in allele and genotypic frequencies. The allele frequency (or gene frequency) is the rate at which a specific allele appears within a population. Until now we have discussed evolution as a change in the characteristics of a population of organisms, but behind that phenotypic change is genetic change. In population genetics, the term evolution is defined as a change in the frequency of an allele in a population. Using the ABO blood type system as an example, the frequency of one of the alleles, IA, is the number of copies of that allele divided by all the copies of the ABO gene in the population. For example, a study in JordanSahar S. Hanania, Dhia S. Hassawi, and Nidal M. Irshaid, “Allele Frequency and Molecular Genotypes of ABO Blood Group System in a Jordanian Population,” Journal of Medical Sciences 7 (2007): 51-58, doi:10.3923/jms.2007.51.58. found a frequency of IA to be 26.1 percent. The IB and I0 alleles made up 13.4 percent and 60.5 percent of the alleles respectively, and all of the frequencies added up to 100 percent. A change in this frequency over time would constitute evolution in the population. The allele frequency within a given population can change depending on environmental factors; therefore, certain alleles become more widespread than others during the process of natural selection. Natural selection can alter the population’s genetic makeup; for example, if a given allele confers a phenotype that allows an individual to better survive or have more offspring. Because many of those offspring will also carry the beneficial allele, and often the corresponding phenotype, they will have more offspring of their own that also carry the allele, thus, perpetuating the cycle. Over time, the allele will spread throughout the population. Some alleles will quickly become fixed in this way, meaning that every individual of the population will carry the allele, while detrimental mutations may be swiftly eliminated if derived from a dominant allele from the gene pool. The gene pool is the sum of all the alleles in a population. Sometimes, allele frequencies within a population change randomly with no advantage to the population over existing allele frequencies. This phenomenon is called genetic drift. Natural selection and genetic drift usually occur simultaneously in populations and are not isolated events. It is hard to determine which process dominates because it is often nearly impossible to determine the cause of change in allele frequencies at each occurrence. An event that initiates an allele frequency change in an isolated part of the population, which is not typical of the original population, is called the founder effect. Natural selection, random drift, and founder effects can lead to significant changes in the genome of a population. Hardy-Weinberg Principle of Equilibrium In the early twentieth century, English mathematician Godfrey Hardy and German physician Wilhelm Weinberg stated the principle of equilibrium to describe the genetic makeup of a population. The theory, which later became known as the Hardy-Weinberg principle of equilibrium, states that a population’s allele and genotype frequencies are inherently stable— unless some kind of evolutionary force is acting upon the population, neither the allele nor the genotypic frequencies would change. The Hardy-Weinberg principle assumes conditions with no mutations, migration, emigration, or selective pressure for or against genotype, plus an infinite population; while no population can satisfy those conditions, the principle offers a useful model against which to compare real population changes. Working under this theory, population geneticists represent different alleles as different variables in their mathematical models. The variable p, for example, often represents the frequency of a particular allele, say Y for the trait of yellow in Mendel’s peas, while the variable q represents the frequency of y alleles that confer the color green. If these are the only two possible alleles for a given locus in the population, p + q = 1. In other words, all the p alleles and all the q alleles make up all of the alleles for that locus that are found in the population. But what ultimately interests most biologists is not the frequencies of different alleles, but the frequencies of the resulting genotypes, known as the population’s genetic structure, from which scientists can surmise the distribution of phenotypes. If the phenotype is observed, only the genotype of the homozygous recessive alleles can be known; the calculations provide an estimate of the remaining genotypes. Since each individual carries two alleles per gene, if the allele frequencies (p and q) are known, predicting the frequencies of these genotypes is a simple mathematical calculation to determine the probability of getting these genotypes if two alleles are drawn at random from the gene pool. So in the above scenario, an individual pea plant could be pp (YY), and thus produce yellow peas; pq (Yy), also yellow; or qq (yy), and thus producing green peas (Figure). In other words, the frequency of pp individuals is simply p2; the frequency of pq individuals is 2pq; and the frequency of qq individuals is q2. And, again, if p and q are the only two possible alleles for a given trait in the population, these genotypes frequencies will sum to one: p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1. Art Connection In plants, violet flower color (V) is dominant over white (v). If p = 0.8 and q = 0.2 in a population of 500 plants, how many individuals would you expect to be homozygous dominant (VV), heterozygous (Vv), and homozygous recessive (vv)? How many plants would you expect to have violet flowers, and how many would have white flowers? In theory, if a population is at equilibrium—that is, there are no evolutionary forces acting upon it—generation after generation would have the same gene pool and genetic structure, and these equations would all hold true all of the time. Of course, even Hardy and Weinberg recognized that no natural population is immune to evolution. Populations in nature are constantly changing in genetic makeup due to drift, mutation, possibly migration, and selection. As a result, the only way to determine the exact distribution of phenotypes in a population is to go out and count them. But the Hardy-Weinberg principle gives scientists a mathematical baseline of a non-evolving population to which they can compare evolving populations and thereby infer what evolutionary forces might be at play. If the frequencies of alleles or genotypes deviate from the value expected from the Hardy-Weinberg equation, then the population is evolving. Link to Learning Use this online calculator to determine the genetic structure of a population. Section Summary The modern synthesis of evolutionary theory grew out of the cohesion of Darwin’s, Wallace’s, and Mendel’s thoughts on evolution and heredity, along with the more modern study of population genetics. It describes the evolution of populations and species, from small-scale changes among individuals to large-scale changes over paleontological time periods. To understand how organisms evolve, scientists can track populations’ allele frequencies over time. If they differ from generation to generation, scientists can conclude that the population is not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and is thus evolving. Art Connections Figure In plants, violet flower color (V) is dominant over white (v). If p=.8 and q = 0.2 in a population of 500 plants, how many individuals would you expect to be homozygous dominant (VV), heterozygous (Vv), and homozygous recessive (vv)? How many plants would you expect to have violet flowers, and how many would have white flowers? Hint: Figure The expected distribution is 320 VV, 160Vv, and 20 vv plants. Plants with VV or Vv genotypes would have violet flowers, and plants with the vv genotype would have white flowers, so a total of 480 plants would be expected to have violet flowers, and 20 plants would have white flowers. Review Questions What is the difference between micro- and macroevolution? - Microevolution describes the evolution of small organisms, such as insects, while macroevolution describes the evolution of large organisms, like people and elephants. - Microevolution describes the evolution of microscopic entities, such as molecules and proteins, while macroevolution describes the evolution of whole organisms. - Microevolution describes the evolution of organisms in populations, while macroevolution describes the evolution of species over long periods of time. - Microevolution describes the evolution of organisms over their lifetimes, while macroevolution describes the evolution of organisms over multiple generations. Hint: C Population genetics is the study of: - how selective forces change the allele frequencies in a population over time - the genetic basis of population-wide traits - whether traits have a genetic basis - the degree of inbreeding in a population Hint: A Which of the following populations is not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium? - a population with 12 homozygous recessive individuals (yy), 8 homozygous dominant individuals (YY), and 4 heterozygous individuals (Yy) - a population in which the allele frequencies do not change over time - p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1 - a population undergoing natural selection Hint: D One of the original Amish colonies rose from a ship of colonists that came from Europe. The ship’s captain, who had polydactyly, a rare dominant trait, was one of the original colonists. Today, we see a much higher frequency of polydactyly in the Amish population. This is an example of: - natural selection - genetic drift - founder effect - b and c Hint: D Free Response Solve for the genetic structure of a population with 12 homozygous recessive individuals (yy), 8 homozygous dominant individuals (YY), and 4 heterozygous individuals (Yy). Hint: p = (82 + 4)/48 = .42; q = (122 + 4)/48 = .58; p2 = .17; 2pq = .48; q2 = .34 Explain the Hardy-Weinberg principle of equilibrium theory. Hint: The Hardy-Weinberg principle of equilibrium is used to describe the genetic makeup of a population. The theory states that a population’s allele and genotype frequencies are inherently stable: unless some kind of evolutionary force is acting upon the population, generation after generation of the population would carry the same genes, and individuals would, as a whole, look essentially the same. Imagine you are trying to test whether a population of flowers is undergoing evolution. You suspect there is selection pressure on the color of the flower: bees seem to cluster around the red flowers more often than the blue flowers. In a separate experiment, you discover blue flower color is dominant to red flower color. In a field, you count 600 blue flowers and 200 red flowers. What would you expect the genetic structure of the flowers to be? Hint: Red is recessive so q2 = 200/800 = 0.25; q = 0.5; p = 1-q = 0.5; p2 = 0.25; 2pq = 0.5. You would expect 200 homozygous blue flowers, 400 heterozygous blue flowers, and 200 red flowers.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.695048	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15032/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15033/overview	Population Genetics Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the different types of variation in a population - Explain why only heritable variation can be acted upon by natural selection - Describe genetic drift and the bottleneck effect - Explain how each evolutionary force can influence the allele frequencies of a population Individuals of a population often display different phenotypes, or express different alleles of a particular gene, referred to as polymorphisms. Populations with two or more variations of particular characteristics are called polymorphic. The distribution of phenotypes among individuals, known as the population variation, is influenced by a number of factors, including the population’s genetic structure and the environment (Figure). Understanding the sources of a phenotypic variation in a population is important for determining how a population will evolve in response to different evolutionary pressures. Genetic Variance Natural selection and some of the other evolutionary forces can only act on heritable traits, namely an organism’s genetic code. Because alleles are passed from parent to offspring, those that confer beneficial traits or behaviors may be selected for, while deleterious alleles may be selected against. Acquired traits, for the most part, are not heritable. For example, if an athlete works out in the gym every day, building up muscle strength, the athlete’s offspring will not necessarily grow up to be a body builder. If there is a genetic basis for the ability to run fast, on the other hand, this may be passed to a child. Link to Learning Before Darwinian evolution became the prevailing theory of the field, French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck theorized that acquired traits could, in fact, be inherited; while this hypothesis has largely been unsupported, scientists have recently begun to realize that Lamarck was not completely wrong. Visit this site to learn more. Heritability is the fraction of phenotype variation that can be attributed to genetic differences, or genetic variance, among individuals in a population. The greater the hereditability of a population’s phenotypic variation, the more susceptible it is to the evolutionary forces that act on heritable variation. The diversity of alleles and genotypes within a population is called genetic variance. When scientists are involved in the breeding of a species, such as with animals in zoos and nature preserves, they try to increase a population’s genetic variance to preserve as much of the phenotypic diversity as they can. This also helps reduce the risks associated with inbreeding, the mating of closely related individuals, which can have the undesirable effect of bringing together deleterious recessive mutations that can cause abnormalities and susceptibility to disease. For example, a disease that is caused by a rare, recessive allele might exist in a population, but it will only manifest itself when an individual carries two copies of the allele. Because the allele is rare in a normal, healthy population with unrestricted habitat, the chance that two carriers will mate is low, and even then, only 25 percent of their offspring will inherit the disease allele from both parents. While it is likely to happen at some point, it will not happen frequently enough for natural selection to be able to swiftly eliminate the allele from the population, and as a result, the allele will be maintained at low levels in the gene pool. However, if a family of carriers begins to interbreed with each other, this will dramatically increase the likelihood of two carriers mating and eventually producing diseased offspring, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. Changes in allele frequencies that are identified in a population can shed light on how it is evolving. In addition to natural selection, there are other evolutionary forces that could be in play: genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, nonrandom mating, and environmental variances. Genetic Drift The theory of natural selection stems from the observation that some individuals in a population are more likely to survive longer and have more offspring than others; thus, they will pass on more of their genes to the next generation. A big, powerful male gorilla, for example, is much more likely than a smaller, weaker one to become the population’s silverback, the pack’s leader who mates far more than the other males of the group. The pack leader will father more offspring, who share half of his genes, and are likely to also grow bigger and stronger like their father. Over time, the genes for bigger size will increase in frequency in the population, and the population will, as a result, grow larger on average. That is, this would occur if this particular selection pressure, or driving selective force, were the only one acting on the population. In other examples, better camouflage or a stronger resistance to drought might pose a selection pressure. Another way a population’s allele and genotype frequencies can change is genetic drift (Figure), which is simply the effect of chance. By chance, some individuals will have more offspring than others—not due to an advantage conferred by some genetically-encoded trait, but just because one male happened to be in the right place at the right time (when the receptive female walked by) or because the other one happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (when a fox was hunting). Art Connection Do you think genetic drift would happen more quickly on an island or on the mainland? Small populations are more susceptible to the forces of genetic drift. Large populations, on the other hand, are buffered against the effects of chance. If one individual of a population of 10 individuals happens to die at a young age before it leaves any offspring to the next generation, all of its genes—1/10 of the population’s gene pool—will be suddenly lost. In a population of 100, that’s only 1 percent of the overall gene pool; therefore, it is much less impactful on the population’s genetic structure. Link to Learning Go to this site to watch an animation of random sampling and genetic drift in action. Genetic drift can also be magnified by natural events, such as a natural disaster that kills—at random—a large portion of the population. Known as the bottleneck effect, it results in a large portion of the genome suddenly being wiped out (Figure). In one fell swoop, the genetic structure of the survivors becomes the genetic structure of the entire population, which may be very different from the pre-disaster population. Another scenario in which populations might experience a strong influence of genetic drift is if some portion of the population leaves to start a new population in a new location or if a population gets divided by a physical barrier of some kind. In this situation, those individuals are unlikely to be representative of the entire population, which results in the founder effect. The founder effect occurs when the genetic structure changes to match that of the new population’s founding fathers and mothers. The founder effect is believed to have been a key factor in the genetic history of the Afrikaner population of Dutch settlers in South Africa, as evidenced by mutations that are common in Afrikaners but rare in most other populations. This is likely due to the fact that a higher-than-normal proportion of the founding colonists carried these mutations. As a result, the population expresses unusually high incidences of Huntington’s disease (HD) and Fanconi anemia (FA), a genetic disorder known to cause blood marrow and congenital abnormalities—even cancer.A. J. Tipping et al., “Molecular and Genealogical Evidence for a Founder Effect in Fanconi Anemia Families of the Afrikaner Population of South Africa,” PNAS 98, no. 10 (2001): 5734-5739, doi: 10.1073/pnas.091402398. Link to Learning Watch this short video to learn more about the founder and bottleneck effects. Scientific Method Connection Testing the Bottleneck Effect Question: How do natural disasters affect the genetic structure of a population? Background: When much of a population is suddenly wiped out by an earthquake or hurricane, the individuals that survive the event are usually a random sampling of the original group. As a result, the genetic makeup of the population can change dramatically. This phenomenon is known as the bottleneck effect. Hypothesis: Repeated natural disasters will yield different population genetic structures; therefore, each time this experiment is run, the results will vary. Test the hypothesis: Count out the original population using different colored beads. For example, red, blue, and yellow beads might represent red, blue, and yellow individuals. After recording the number of each individual in the original population, place them all in a bottle with a narrow neck that will only allow a few beads out at a time. Then, pour 1/3 of the bottle’s contents into a bowl. This represents the surviving individuals after a natural disaster kills a majority of the population. Count the number of the different colored beads in the bowl, and record it. Then, place all of the beads back in the bottle and repeat the experiment four more times. Analyze the data: Compare the five populations that resulted from the experiment. Do the populations all contain the same number of different colored beads, or do they vary? Remember, these populations all came from the same exact parent population. Form a conclusion: Most likely, the five resulting populations will differ quite dramatically. This is because natural disasters are not selective—they kill and spare individuals at random. Now think about how this might affect a real population. What happens when a hurricane hits the Mississippi Gulf Coast? How do the seabirds that live on the beach fare? Gene Flow Another important evolutionary force is gene flow: the flow of alleles in and out of a population due to the migration of individuals or gametes (Figure). While some populations are fairly stable, others experience more flux. Many plants, for example, send their pollen far and wide, by wind or by bird, to pollinate other populations of the same species some distance away. Even a population that may initially appear to be stable, such as a pride of lions, can experience its fair share of immigration and emigration as developing males leave their mothers to seek out a new pride with genetically unrelated females. This variable flow of individuals in and out of the group not only changes the gene structure of the population, but it can also introduce new genetic variation to populations in different geological locations and habitats. Mutation Mutations are changes to an organism’s DNA and are an important driver of diversity in populations. Species evolve because of the accumulation of mutations that occur over time. The appearance of new mutations is the most common way to introduce novel genotypic and phenotypic variance. Some mutations are unfavorable or harmful and are quickly eliminated from the population by natural selection. Others are beneficial and will spread through the population. Whether or not a mutation is beneficial or harmful is determined by whether it helps an organism survive to sexual maturity and reproduce. Some mutations do not do anything and can linger, unaffected by natural selection, in the genome. Some can have a dramatic effect on a gene and the resulting phenotype. Nonrandom Mating If individuals nonrandomly mate with their peers, the result can be a changing population. There are many reasons nonrandom mating occurs. One reason is simple mate choice; for example, female peahens may prefer peacocks with bigger, brighter tails. Traits that lead to more matings for an individual become selected for by natural selection. One common form of mate choice, called assortative mating, is an individual’s preference to mate with partners who are phenotypically similar to themselves. Another cause of nonrandom mating is physical location. This is especially true in large populations spread over large geographic distances where not all individuals will have equal access to one another. Some might be miles apart through woods or over rough terrain, while others might live immediately nearby. Environmental Variance Genes are not the only players involved in determining population variation. Phenotypes are also influenced by other factors, such as the environment (Figure). A beachgoer is likely to have darker skin than a city dweller, for example, due to regular exposure to the sun, an environmental factor. Some major characteristics, such as sex, are determined by the environment for some species. For example, some turtles and other reptiles have temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). TSD means that individuals develop into males if their eggs are incubated within a certain temperature range, or females at a different temperature range. Geographic separation between populations can lead to differences in the phenotypic variation between those populations. Such geographical variation is seen between most populations and can be significant. One type of geographic variation, called a cline, can be seen as populations of a given species vary gradually across an ecological gradient. Species of warm-blooded animals, for example, tend to have larger bodies in the cooler climates closer to the earth’s poles, allowing them to better conserve heat. This is considered a latitudinal cline. Alternatively, flowering plants tend to bloom at different times depending on where they are along the slope of a mountain, known as an altitudinal cline. If there is gene flow between the populations, the individuals will likely show gradual differences in phenotype along the cline. Restricted gene flow, on the other hand, can lead to abrupt differences, even speciation. Section Summary Both genetic and environmental factors can cause phenotypic variation in a population. Different alleles can confer different phenotypes, and different environments can also cause individuals to look or act differently. Only those differences encoded in an individual’s genes, however, can be passed to its offspring and, thus, be a target of natural selection. Natural selection works by selecting for alleles that confer beneficial traits or behaviors, while selecting against those for deleterious qualities. Genetic drift stems from the chance occurrence that some individuals in the germ line have more offspring than others. When individuals leave or join the population, allele frequencies can change as a result of gene flow. Mutations to an individual’s DNA may introduce new variation into a population. Allele frequencies can also be altered when individuals do not randomly mate with others in the group. Art Connections Review Questions When male lions reach sexual maturity, they leave their group in search of a new pride. This can alter the allele frequencies of the population through which of the following mechanisms? - natural selection - genetic drift - gene flow - random mating Hint: C Which of the following evolutionary forces can introduce new genetic variation into a population? - natural selection and genetic drift - mutation and gene flow - natural selection and nonrandom mating - mutation and genetic drift Hint: B What is assortative mating? - when individuals mate with those who are similar to themselves - when individuals mate with those who are dissimilar to themselves - when individuals mate with those who are the most fit in the population - when individuals mate with those who are least fit in the population Hint: A When closely related individuals mate with each other, or inbreed, the offspring are often not as fit as the offspring of two unrelated individuals. Why? - Close relatives are genetically incompatible. - The DNA of close relatives reacts negatively in the offspring. - Inbreeding can bring together rare, deleterious mutations that lead to harmful phenotypes. - Inbreeding causes normally silent alleles to be expressed. Hint: C What is a cline? - the slope of a mountain where a population lives - the degree to which a mutation helps an individual survive - the number of individuals in the population - gradual geographic variation across an ecological gradient Hint: D Free Response Describe a situation in which a population would undergo the bottleneck effect and explain what impact that would have on the population’s gene pool. Hint: A hurricane kills a large percentage of a population of sand-dwelling crustaceans—only a few individuals survive. The alleles carried by those surviving individuals would represent the entire population’s gene pool. If those surviving individuals are not representative of the original population, the post-hurricane gene pool will differ from the original gene pool. Describe natural selection and give an example of natural selection at work in a population. Hint: The theory of natural selection stems from the observation that some individuals in a population survive longer and have more offspring than others: thus, more of their genes are passed to the next generation. For example, a big, powerful male gorilla is much more likely than a smaller, weaker one to become the population’s silverback: the pack’s leader who mates far more than the other males of the group. Therefore, the pack leader will father more offspring who share half of his genes and are likely to grow bigger and stronger like their father. Over time, the genes for bigger size will increase in frequency in the population, and the average body size, as a result, grow larger on average. Explain what a cline is and provide examples. Hint: A cline is a type of geographic variation that is seen in populations of a given species that vary gradually across an ecological gradient. For example, warm-blooded animals tend to have larger bodies in the cooler climates closer to the earth’s poles, allowing them to better conserve heat. This is considered a latitudinal cline. Flowering plants tend to bloom at different times depending on where they are along the slope of a mountain. This is known as an altitudinal cline.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.733835	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15033/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15034/overview	Adaptive Evolution Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the different ways natural selection can shape populations - Describe how these different forces can lead to different outcomes in terms of the population variation Natural selection only acts on the population’s heritable traits: selecting for beneficial alleles and thus increasing their frequency in the population, while selecting against deleterious alleles and thereby decreasing their frequency—a process known as adaptive evolution. Natural selection does not act on individual alleles, however, but on entire organisms. An individual may carry a very beneficial genotype with a resulting phenotype that, for example, increases the ability to reproduce (fecundity), but if that same individual also carries an allele that results in a fatal childhood disease, that fecundity phenotype will not be passed on to the next generation because the individual will not live to reach reproductive age. Natural selection acts at the level of the individual; it selects for individuals with greater contributions to the gene pool of the next generation, known as an organism’s evolutionary (Darwinian) fitness. Fitness is often quantifiable and is measured by scientists in the field. However, it is not the absolute fitness of an individual that counts, but rather how it compares to the other organisms in the population. This concept, called relative fitness, allows researchers to determine which individuals are contributing additional offspring to the next generation, and thus, how the population might evolve. There are several ways selection can affect population variation: stabilizing selection, directional selection, diversifying selection, frequency-dependent selection, and sexual selection. As natural selection influences the allele frequencies in a population, individuals can either become more or less genetically similar and the phenotypes displayed can become more similar or more disparate. Stabilizing Selection If natural selection favors an average phenotype, selecting against extreme variation, the population will undergo stabilizing selection (Figure). In a population of mice that live in the woods, for example, natural selection is likely to favor individuals that best blend in with the forest floor and are less likely to be spotted by predators. Assuming the ground is a fairly consistent shade of brown, those mice whose fur is most closely matched to that color will be most likely to survive and reproduce, passing on their genes for their brown coat. Mice that carry alleles that make them a bit lighter or a bit darker will stand out against the ground and be more likely to fall victim to predation. As a result of this selection, the population’s genetic variance will decrease. Directional Selection When the environment changes, populations will often undergo directional selection (Figure), which selects for phenotypes at one end of the spectrum of existing variation. A classic example of this type of selection is the evolution of the peppered moth in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the moths were predominately light in color, which allowed them to blend in with the light-colored trees and lichens in their environment. But as soot began spewing from factories, the trees became darkened, and the light-colored moths became easier for predatory birds to spot. Over time, the frequency of the melanic form of the moth increased because they had a higher survival rate in habitats affected by air pollution because their darker coloration blended with the sooty trees. Similarly, the hypothetical mouse population may evolve to take on a different coloration if something were to cause the forest floor where they live to change color. The result of this type of selection is a shift in the population’s genetic variance toward the new, fit phenotype. Link to Learning In science, sometimes things are believed to be true, and then new information comes to light that changes our understanding. The story of the peppered moth is an example: the facts behind the selection toward darker moths have recently been called into question. Read this article to learn more. Diversifying Selection Sometimes two or more distinct phenotypes can each have their advantages and be selected for by natural selection, while the intermediate phenotypes are, on average, less fit. Known as diversifying selection (Figure), this is seen in many populations of animals that have multiple male forms. Large, dominant alpha males obtain mates by brute force, while small males can sneak in for furtive copulations with the females in an alpha male’s territory. In this case, both the alpha males and the “sneaking” males will be selected for, but medium-sized males, which can’t overtake the alpha males and are too big to sneak copulations, are selected against. Diversifying selection can also occur when environmental changes favor individuals on either end of the phenotypic spectrum. Imagine a population of mice living at the beach where there is light-colored sand interspersed with patches of tall grass. In this scenario, light-colored mice that blend in with the sand would be favored, as well as dark-colored mice that can hide in the grass. Medium-colored mice, on the other hand, would not blend in with either the grass or the sand, and would thus be more likely to be eaten by predators. The result of this type of selection is increased genetic variance as the population becomes more diverse. Art Connection In recent years, factories have become cleaner, and less soot is released into the environment. What impact do you think this has had on the distribution of moth color in the population? Frequency-dependent Selection Another type of selection, called frequency-dependent selection, favors phenotypes that are either common (positive frequency-dependent selection) or rare (negative frequency-dependent selection). An interesting example of this type of selection is seen in a unique group of lizards of the Pacific Northwest. Male common side-blotched lizards come in three throat-color patterns: orange, blue, and yellow. Each of these forms has a different reproductive strategy: orange males are the strongest and can fight other males for access to their females; blue males are medium-sized and form strong pair bonds with their mates; and yellow males (Figure) are the smallest, and look a bit like females, which allows them to sneak copulations. Like a game of rock-paper-scissors, orange beats blue, blue beats yellow, and yellow beats orange in the competition for females. That is, the big, strong orange males can fight off the blue males to mate with the blue’s pair-bonded females, the blue males are successful at guarding their mates against yellow sneaker males, and the yellow males can sneak copulations from the potential mates of the large, polygynous orange males. In this scenario, orange males will be favored by natural selection when the population is dominated by blue males, blue males will thrive when the population is mostly yellow males, and yellow males will be selected for when orange males are the most populous. As a result, populations of side-blotched lizards cycle in the distribution of these phenotypes—in one generation, orange might be predominant, and then yellow males will begin to rise in frequency. Once yellow males make up a majority of the population, blue males will be selected for. Finally, when blue males become common, orange males will once again be favored. Negative frequency-dependent selection serves to increase the population’s genetic variance by selecting for rare phenotypes, whereas positive frequency-dependent selection usually decreases genetic variance by selecting for common phenotypes. Sexual Selection Males and females of certain species are often quite different from one another in ways beyond the reproductive organs. Males are often larger, for example, and display many elaborate colors and adornments, like the peacock’s tail, while females tend to be smaller and duller in decoration. Such differences are known as sexual dimorphisms (Figure), which arise from the fact that in many populations, particularly animal populations, there is more variance in the reproductive success of the males than there is of the females. That is, some males—often the bigger, stronger, or more decorated males—get the vast majority of the total matings, while others receive none. This can occur because the males are better at fighting off other males, or because females will choose to mate with the bigger or more decorated males. In either case, this variation in reproductive success generates a strong selection pressure among males to get those matings, resulting in the evolution of bigger body size and elaborate ornaments to get the females’ attention. Females, on the other hand, tend to get a handful of selected matings; therefore, they are more likely to select more desirable males. Sexual dimorphism varies widely among species, of course, and some species are even sex-role reversed. In such cases, females tend to have a greater variance in their reproductive success than males and are correspondingly selected for the bigger body size and elaborate traits usually characteristic of males. The selection pressures on males and females to obtain matings is known as sexual selection; it can result in the development of secondary sexual characteristics that do not benefit the individual’s likelihood of survival but help to maximize its reproductive success. Sexual selection can be so strong that it selects for traits that are actually detrimental to the individual’s survival. Think, once again, about the peacock’s tail. While it is beautiful and the male with the largest, most colorful tail is more likely to win the female, it is not the most practical appendage. In addition to being more visible to predators, it makes the males slower in their attempted escapes. There is some evidence that this risk, in fact, is why females like the big tails in the first place. The speculation is that large tails carry risk, and only the best males survive that risk: the bigger the tail, the more fit the male. This idea is known as the handicap principle. The good genes hypothesis states that males develop these impressive ornaments to show off their efficient metabolism or their ability to fight disease. Females then choose males with the most impressive traits because it signals their genetic superiority, which they will then pass on to their offspring. Though it might be argued that females should not be picky because it will likely reduce their number of offspring, if better males father more fit offspring, it may be beneficial. Fewer, healthier offspring may increase the chances of survival more than many, weaker offspring. Link to Learning In 1915, biologist Ronald Fisher proposed another model of sexual selection: the Fisherian runaway model, which suggests that selection of certain traits is a result of sexual preference. In both the handicap principle and the good genes hypothesis, the trait is said to be an honest signal of the males’ quality, thus giving females a way to find the fittest mates— males that will pass the best genes to their offspring. No Perfect Organism Natural selection is a driving force in evolution and can generate populations that are better adapted to survive and successfully reproduce in their environments. But natural selection cannot produce the perfect organism. Natural selection can only select on existing variation in the population; it does not create anything from scratch. Thus, it is limited by a population’s existing genetic variance and whatever new alleles arise through mutation and gene flow. Natural selection is also limited because it works at the level of individuals, not alleles, and some alleles are linked due to their physical proximity in the genome, making them more likely to be passed on together (linkage disequilibrium). Any given individual may carry some beneficial alleles and some unfavorable alleles. It is the net effect of these alleles, or the organism’s fitness, upon which natural selection can act. As a result, good alleles can be lost if they are carried by individuals that also have several overwhelmingly bad alleles; likewise, bad alleles can be kept if they are carried by individuals that have enough good alleles to result in an overall fitness benefit. Furthermore, natural selection can be constrained by the relationships between different polymorphisms. One morph may confer a higher fitness than another, but may not increase in frequency due to the fact that going from the less beneficial to the more beneficial trait would require going through a less beneficial phenotype. Think back to the mice that live at the beach. Some are light-colored and blend in with the sand, while others are dark and blend in with the patches of grass. The dark-colored mice may be, overall, more fit than the light-colored mice, and at first glance, one might expect the light-colored mice be selected for a darker coloration. But remember that the intermediate phenotype, a medium-colored coat, is very bad for the mice—they cannot blend in with either the sand or the grass and are more likely to be eaten by predators. As a result, the light-colored mice would not be selected for a dark coloration because those individuals that began moving in that direction (began being selected for a darker coat) would be less fit than those that stayed light. Finally, it is important to understand that not all evolution is adaptive. While natural selection selects the fittest individuals and often results in a more fit population overall, other forces of evolution, including genetic drift and gene flow, often do the opposite: introducing deleterious alleles to the population’s gene pool. Evolution has no purpose—it is not changing a population into a preconceived ideal. It is simply the sum of the various forces described in this chapter and how they influence the genetic and phenotypic variance of a population. Section Summary Because natural selection acts to increase the frequency of beneficial alleles and traits while decreasing the frequency of deleterious qualities, it is adaptive evolution. Natural selection acts at the level of the individual, selecting for those that have a higher overall fitness compared to the rest of the population. If the fit phenotypes are those that are similar, natural selection will result in stabilizing selection, and an overall decrease in the population’s variation. Directional selection works to shift a population’s variance toward a new, fit phenotype, as environmental conditions change. In contrast, diversifying selection results in increased genetic variance by selecting for two or more distinct phenotypes. Other types of selection include frequency-dependent selection, in which individuals with either common (positive frequency-dependent selection) or rare (negative frequency-dependent selection) are selected for. Finally, sexual selection results from the fact that one sex has more variance in the reproductive success than the other. As a result, males and females experience different selective pressures, which can often lead to the evolution of phenotypic differences, or sexual dimorphisms, between the two. Art Connection Review Questions Which type of selection results in greater genetic variance in a population? - stabilizing selection - directional selection - diversifying selection - positive frequency-dependent selection Hint: C When males and females of a population look or act differently, it is referred to as ________. - sexual dimorphism - sexual selection - diversifying selection - a cline Hint: A The good genes hypothesis is a theory that explains what? - why more fit individuals are more likely to have more offspring - why alleles that confer beneficial traits or behaviors are selected for by natural selection - why some deleterious mutations are maintained in the population - why individuals of one sex develop impressive ornamental traits Hint: D Free Response Give an example of a trait that may have evolved as a result of the handicap principle and explain your reasoning. Hint: The peacock’s tail is a good example of the handicap principle. The tail, which makes the males more visible to predators and less able to escape, is clearly a disadvantage to the bird’s survival. But because it is a disadvantage, only the most fit males should be able to survive with it. Thus, the tail serves as an honest signal of quality to the females of the population; therefore, the male will earn more matings and greater reproductive success. List the ways in which evolution can affect population variation and describe how they influence allele frequencies. Hint: There are several ways evolution can affect population variation: stabilizing selection, directional selection, diversifying selection, frequency-dependent selection, and sexual selection. As these influence the allele frequencies in a population, individuals can either become more or less related, and the phenotypes displayed can become more similar or more disparate.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.767407	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15034/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15035/overview	Introduction This bee and Echinacea flower (Figure) could not look more different, yet they are related, as are all living organisms on Earth. By following pathways of similarities and changes—both visible and genetic—scientists seek to map the evolutionary past of how life developed from single-celled organisms to the tremendous collection of creatures that have germinated, crawled, floated, swam, flown, and walked on this planet.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.783295	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15035/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15036/overview	Organizing Life on Earth Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the need for a comprehensive classification system - List the different levels of the taxonomic classification system - Describe how systematics and taxonomy relate to phylogeny - Discuss the components and purpose of a phylogenetic tree In scientific terms, the evolutionary history and relationship of an organism or group of organisms is called its phylogeny. A phylogeny describes the relationships of an organism, such as from which organisms it is thought to have evolved, to which species it is most closely related, and so forth. Phylogenetic relationships provide information on shared ancestry but not necessarily on how organisms are similar or different. Phylogenetic Trees Scientists use a tool called a phylogenetic tree to show the evolutionary pathways and connections among organisms. A phylogenetic tree is a diagram used to reflect evolutionary relationships among organisms or groups of organisms. Scientists consider phylogenetic trees to be a hypothesis of the evolutionary past since one cannot go back to confirm the proposed relationships. In other words, a “tree of life” can be constructed to illustrate when different organisms evolved and to show the relationships among different organisms (Figure). Unlike a taxonomic classification diagram, a phylogenetic tree can be read like a map of evolutionary history. Many phylogenetic trees have a single lineage at the base representing a common ancestor. Scientists call such trees rooted, which means there is a single ancestral lineage (typically drawn from the bottom or left) to which all organisms represented in the diagram relate. Notice in the rooted phylogenetic tree that the three domains— Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya—diverge from a single point and branch off. The small branch that plants and animals (including humans) occupy in this diagram shows how recent and miniscule these groups are compared with other organisms. Unrooted trees don’t show a common ancestor but do show relationships among species. In a rooted tree, the branching indicates evolutionary relationships (Figure). The point where a split occurs, called a branch point, represents where a single lineage evolved into a distinct new one. A lineage that evolved early from the root and remains unbranched is called basal taxon. When two lineages stem from the same branch point, they are called sister taxa. A branch with more than two lineages is called a polytomy and serves to illustrate where scientists have not definitively determined all of the relationships. It is important to note that although sister taxa and polytomy do share an ancestor, it does not mean that the groups of organisms split or evolved from each other. Organisms in two taxa may have split apart at a specific branch point, but neither taxa gave rise to the other. The diagrams above can serve as a pathway to understanding evolutionary history. The pathway can be traced from the origin of life to any individual species by navigating through the evolutionary branches between the two points. Also, by starting with a single species and tracing back towards the "trunk" of the tree, one can discover that species' ancestors, as well as where lineages share a common ancestry. In addition, the tree can be used to study entire groups of organisms. Another point to mention on phylogenetic tree structure is that rotation at branch points does not change the information. For example, if a branch point was rotated and the taxon order changed, this would not alter the information because the evolution of each taxon from the branch point was independent of the other. Many disciplines within the study of biology contribute to understanding how past and present life evolved over time; these disciplines together contribute to building, updating, and maintaining the “tree of life.” Information is used to organize and classify organisms based on evolutionary relationships in a scientific field called systematics. Data may be collected from fossils, from studying the structure of body parts or molecules used by an organism, and by DNA analysis. By combining data from many sources, scientists can put together the phylogeny of an organism; since phylogenetic trees are hypotheses, they will continue to change as new types of life are discovered and new information is learned. Limitations of Phylogenetic Trees It may be easy to assume that more closely related organisms look more alike, and while this is often the case, it is not always true. If two closely related lineages evolved under significantly varied surroundings or after the evolution of a major new adaptation, it is possible for the two groups to appear more different than other groups that are not as closely related. For example, the phylogenetic tree in Figure shows that lizards and rabbits both have amniotic eggs, whereas frogs do not; yet lizards and frogs appear more similar than lizards and rabbits. Another aspect of phylogenetic trees is that, unless otherwise indicated, the branches do not account for length of time, only the evolutionary order. In other words, the length of a branch does not typically mean more time passed, nor does a short branch mean less time passed— unless specified on the diagram. For example, in Figure, the tree does not indicate how much time passed between the evolution of amniotic eggs and hair. What the tree does show is the order in which things took place. Again using Figure, the tree shows that the oldest trait is the vertebral column, followed by hinged jaws, and so forth. Remember that any phylogenetic tree is a part of the greater whole, and like a real tree, it does not grow in only one direction after a new branch develops. So, for the organisms in Figure, just because a vertebral column evolved does not mean that invertebrate evolution ceased, it only means that a new branch formed. Also, groups that are not closely related, but evolve under similar conditions, may appear more phenotypically similar to each other than to a close relative. Link to Learning Head to this website to see interactive exercises that allow you to explore the evolutionary relationships among species. The Levels of Classification Taxonomy (which literally means “arrangement law”) is the science of classifying organisms to construct internationally shared classification systems with each organism placed into more and more inclusive groupings. Think about how a grocery store is organized. One large space is divided into departments, such as produce, dairy, and meats. Then each department further divides into aisles, then each aisle into categories and brands, and then finally a single product. This organization from larger to smaller, more specific categories is called a hierarchical system. The taxonomic classification system (also called the Linnaean system after its inventor, Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician) uses a hierarchical model. Moving from the point of origin, the groups become more specific, until one branch ends as a single species. For example, after the common beginning of all life, scientists divide organisms into three large categories called a domain: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Within each domain is a second category called a kingdom. After kingdoms, the subsequent categories of increasing specificity are: phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species (Figure). The kingdom Animalia stems from the Eukarya domain. For the common dog, the classification levels would be as shown in Figure. Therefore, the full name of an organism technically has eight terms. For the dog, it is: Eukarya, Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae, Canis, and lupus. Notice that each name is capitalized except for species, and the genus and species names are italicized. Scientists generally refer to an organism only by its genus and species, which is its two-word scientific name, in what is called binomial nomenclature. Therefore, the scientific name of the dog is Canis lupus. The name at each level is also called a taxon. In other words, dogs are in order Carnivora. Carnivora is the name of the taxon at the order level; Canidae is the taxon at the family level, and so forth. Organisms also have a common name that people typically use, in this case, dog. Note that the dog is additionally a subspecies: the “familiaris” in Canis lupus familiaris. Subspecies are members of the same species that are capable of mating and reproducing viable offspring, but they are considered separate subspecies due to geographic or behavioral isolation or other factors. Figure shows how the levels move toward specificity with other organisms. Notice how the dog shares a domain with the widest diversity of organisms, including plants and butterflies. At each sublevel, the organisms become more similar because they are more closely related. Historically, scientists classified organisms using characteristics, but as DNA technology developed, more precise phylogenies have been determined. Art Connection At what levels are cats and dogs considered to be part of the same group? Link to Learning Visit this website to classify three organisms—bear, orchid, and sea cucumber—from kingdom to species. To launch the game, under Classifying Life, click the picture of the bear or the Launch Interactive button. Recent genetic analysis and other advancements have found that some earlier phylogenetic classifications do not align with the evolutionary past; therefore, changes and updates must be made as new discoveries occur. Recall that phylogenetic trees are hypotheses and are modified as data becomes available. In addition, classification historically has focused on grouping organisms mainly by shared characteristics and does not necessarily illustrate how the various groups relate to each other from an evolutionary perspective. For example, despite the fact that a hippopotamus resembles a pig more than a whale, the hippopotamus may be the closest living relative of the whale. Section Summary Scientists continually gain new information that helps understand the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Each group of organisms went through its own evolutionary journey, called its phylogeny. Each organism shares relatedness with others, and based on morphologic and genetic evidence, scientists attempt to map the evolutionary pathways of all life on Earth. Historically, organisms were organized into a taxonomic classification system. However, today many scientists build phylogenetic trees to illustrate evolutionary relationships. Art Connections Review Questions What is used to determine phylogeny? - mutations - DNA - evolutionary history - organisms on earth Hint: C What do scientists in the field of systematics accomplish? - discover new fossil sites - organize and classify organisms - name new species - communicate among field biologists Hint: B Which statement about the taxonomic classification system is correct? - There are more domains than kingdoms. - Kingdoms are the top category of classification. - Classes are divisions of orders. - Subspecies are the most specific category of classification. Hint: D On a phylogenetic tree, which term refers to lineages that diverged from the same place? - sister taxa - basal taxa - rooted taxa - dichotomous taxa Hint: A Free Response How does a phylogenetic tree relate to the passing of time? Hint: The phylogenetic tree shows the order in which evolutionary events took place and in what order certain characteristics and organisms evolved in relation to others. It does not relate to time. Some organisms that appear very closely related on a phylogenetic tree may not actually be closely related. Why is this? Hint: In most cases, organisms that appear closely related actually are; however, there are cases where organisms evolved through convergence and appear closely related but are not. List the different levels of the taxonomic classification system. Hint: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.815379	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15036/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15037/overview	Determining Evolutionary Relationships Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Compare homologous and analogous traits - Discuss the purpose of cladistics - Describe maximum parsimony Scientists must collect accurate information that allows them to make evolutionary connections among organisms. Similar to detective work, scientists must use evidence to uncover the facts. In the case of phylogeny, evolutionary investigations focus on two types of evidence: morphologic (form and function) and genetic. Two Options for Similarities In general, organisms that share similar physical features and genomes tend to be more closely related than those that do not. Such features that overlap both morphologically (in form) and genetically are referred to as homologous structures; they stem from developmental similarities that are based on evolution. For example, the bones in the wings of bats and birds have homologous structures (Figure). Notice it is not simply a single bone, but rather a grouping of several bones arranged in a similar way. The more complex the feature, the more likely any kind of overlap is due to a common evolutionary past. Imagine two people from different countries both inventing a car with all the same parts and in exactly the same arrangement without any previous or shared knowledge. That outcome would be highly improbable. However, if two people both invented a hammer, it would be reasonable to conclude that both could have the original idea without the help of the other. The same relationship between complexity and shared evolutionary history is true for homologous structures in organisms. Misleading Appearances Some organisms may be very closely related, even though a minor genetic change caused a major morphological difference to make them look quite different. Similarly, unrelated organisms may be distantly related, but appear very much alike. This usually happens because both organisms were in common adaptations that evolved within similar environmental conditions. When similar characteristics occur because of environmental constraints and not due to a close evolutionary relationship, it is called an analogy or homoplasy. For example, insects use wings to fly like bats and birds, but the wing structure and embryonic origin is completely different. These are called analogous structures (Figure). Similar traits can be either homologous or analogous. Homologous structures share a similar embryonic origin; analogous organs have a similar function. For example, the bones in the front flipper of a whale are homologous to the bones in the human arm. These structures are not analogous. The wings of a butterfly and the wings of a bird are analogous but not homologous. Some structures are both analogous and homologous: the wings of a bird and the wings of a bat are both homologous and analogous. Scientists must determine which type of similarity a feature exhibits to decipher the phylogeny of the organisms being studied. Link to Learning This website has several examples to show how appearances can be misleading in understanding the phylogenetic relationships of organisms. Molecular Comparisons With the advancement of DNA technology, the area of molecular systematics, which describes the use of information on the molecular level including DNA analysis, has blossomed. New computer programs not only confirm many earlier classified organisms, but also uncover previously made errors. As with physical characteristics, even the DNA sequence can be tricky to read in some cases. For some situations, two very closely related organisms can appear unrelated if a mutation occurred that caused a shift in the genetic code. An insertion or deletion mutation would move each nucleotide base over one place, causing two similar codes to appear unrelated. Sometimes two segments of DNA code in distantly related organisms randomly share a high percentage of bases in the same locations, causing these organisms to appear closely related when they are not. For both of these situations, computer technologies have been developed to help identify the actual relationships, and, ultimately, the coupled use of both morphologic and molecular information is more effective in determining phylogeny. Evolution Connection Why Does Phylogeny Matter?Evolutionary biologists could list many reasons why understanding phylogeny is important to everyday life in human society. For botanists, phylogeny acts as a guide to discovering new plants that can be used to benefit people. Think of all the ways humans use plants—food, medicine, and clothing are a few examples. If a plant contains a compound that is effective in treating cancer, scientists might want to examine all of the relatives of that plant for other useful drugs. A research team in China identified a segment of DNA thought to be common to some medicinal plants in the family Fabaceae (the legume family) and worked to identify which species had this segment (Figure). After testing plant species in this family, the team found a DNA marker (a known location on a chromosome that enabled them to identify the species) present. Then, using the DNA to uncover phylogenetic relationships, the team could identify whether a newly discovered plant was in this family and assess its potential medicinal properties. Building Phylogenetic Trees How do scientists construct phylogenetic trees? After the homologous and analogous traits are sorted, scientists often organize the homologous traits using a system called cladistics. This system sorts organisms into clades: groups of organisms that descended from a single ancestor. For example, in Figure, all of the organisms in the orange region evolved from a single ancestor that had amniotic eggs. Consequently, all of these organisms also have amniotic eggs and make a single clade, also called a monophyletic group. Clades must include all of the descendants from a branch point. Art Connection Which animals in this figure belong to a clade that includes animals with hair? Which evolved first, hair or the amniotic egg? Clades can vary in size depending on which branch point is being referenced. The important factor is that all of the organisms in the clade or monophyletic group stem from a single point on the tree. This can be remembered because monophyletic breaks down into “mono,” meaning one, and “phyletic,” meaning evolutionary relationship. Figure shows various examples of clades. Notice how each clade comes from a single point, whereas the non-clade groups show branches that do not share a single point. Art Connection What is the largest clade in this diagram? Shared Characteristics Organisms evolve from common ancestors and then diversify. Scientists use the phrase “descent with modification” because even though related organisms have many of the same characteristics and genetic codes, changes occur. This pattern repeats over and over as one goes through the phylogenetic tree of life: - A change in the genetic makeup of an organism leads to a new trait which becomes prevalent in the group. - Many organisms descend from this point and have this trait. - New variations continue to arise: some are adaptive and persist, leading to new traits. - With new traits, a new branch point is determined (go back to step 1 and repeat). If a characteristic is found in the ancestor of a group, it is considered a shared ancestral character because all of the organisms in the taxon or clade have that trait. The vertebrate in Figure is a shared ancestral character. Now consider the amniotic egg characteristic in the same figure. Only some of the organisms in Figure have this trait, and to those that do, it is called a shared derived character because this trait derived at some point but does not include all of the ancestors in the tree. The tricky aspect to shared ancestral and shared derived characters is the fact that these terms are relative. The same trait can be considered one or the other depending on the particular diagram being used. Returning to Figure, note that the amniotic egg is a shared ancestral character for the Amniota clade, while having hair is a shared derived character for some organisms in this group. These terms help scientists distinguish between clades in the building of phylogenetic trees. Choosing the Right Relationships Imagine being the person responsible for organizing all of the items in a department store properly—an overwhelming task. Organizing the evolutionary relationships of all life on Earth proves much more difficult: scientists must span enormous blocks of time and work with information from long-extinct organisms. Trying to decipher the proper connections, especially given the presence of homologies and analogies, makes the task of building an accurate tree of life extraordinarily difficult. Add to that the advancement of DNA technology, which now provides large quantities of genetic sequences to be used and analyzed. Taxonomy is a subjective discipline: many organisms have more than one connection to each other, so each taxonomist will decide the order of connections. To aid in the tremendous task of describing phylogenies accurately, scientists often use a concept called maximum parsimony, which means that events occurred in the simplest, most obvious way. For example, if a group of people entered a forest preserve to go hiking, based on the principle of maximum parsimony, one could predict that most of the people would hike on established trails rather than forge new ones. For scientists deciphering evolutionary pathways, the same idea is used: the pathway of evolution probably includes the fewest major events that coincide with the evidence at hand. Starting with all of the homologous traits in a group of organisms, scientists look for the most obvious and simple order of evolutionary events that led to the occurrence of those traits. Link to Learning Head to this website to learn how maximum parsimony is used to create phylogenetic trees. These tools and concepts are only a few of the strategies scientists use to tackle the task of revealing the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Recently, newer technologies have uncovered surprising discoveries with unexpected relationships, such as the fact that people seem to be more closely related to fungi than fungi are to plants. Sound unbelievable? As the information about DNA sequences grows, scientists will become closer to mapping the evolutionary history of all life on Earth. Section Summary To build phylogenetic trees, scientists must collect accurate information that allows them to make evolutionary connections between organisms. Using morphologic and molecular data, scientists work to identify homologous characteristics and genes. Similarities between organisms can stem either from shared evolutionary history (homologies) or from separate evolutionary paths (analogies). Newer technologies can be used to help distinguish homologies from analogies. After homologous information is identified, scientists use cladistics to organize these events as a means to determine an evolutionary timeline. Scientists apply the concept of maximum parsimony, which states that the order of events probably occurred in the most obvious and simple way with the least amount of steps. For evolutionary events, this would be the path with the least number of major divergences that correlate with the evidence. Art Connections Figure Which animals in this figure belong to a clade that includes animals with hair? Which evolved first, hair or the amniotic egg? Hint: Figure Rabbits and humans belong in the clade that includes animals with hair. The amniotic egg evolved before hair because the Amniota clade is larger than the clade that encompasses animals with hair. Review Questions Which statement about analogies is correct? - They occur only as errors. - They are synonymous with homologous traits. - They are derived by similar environmental constraints. - They are a form of mutation. Hint: C What do scientists use to apply cladistics? - homologous traits - homoplasies - analogous traits - monophyletic groups Hint: A What is true about organisms that are a part of the same clade? - They all share the same basic characteristics. - They evolved from a shared ancestor. - They usually fall into the same classification taxa. - They have identical phylogenies. Hint: B Why do scientists apply the concept of maximum parsimony? - to decipher accurate phylogenies - to eliminate analogous traits - to identify mutations in DNA codes - to locate homoplasies Hint: A Free Response Dolphins and fish have similar body shapes. Is this feature more likely a homologous or analogous trait? Hint: Dolphins are mammals and fish are not, which means that their evolutionary paths (phylogenies) are quite separate. Dolphins probably adapted to have a similar body plan after returning to an aquatic lifestyle, and, therefore, this trait is probably analogous. Why is it so important for scientists to distinguish between homologous and analogous characteristics before building phylogenetic trees? Hint: Phylogenetic trees are based on evolutionary connections. If an analogous similarity were used on a tree, this would be erroneous and, furthermore, would cause the subsequent branches to be inaccurate. Describe maximum parsimony. Hint: Maximum parsimony hypothesizes that events occurred in the simplest, most obvious way, and the pathway of evolution probably includes the fewest major events that coincide with the evidence at hand.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.850012	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15037/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15038/overview	Perspectives on the Phylogenetic Tree Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe horizontal gene transfer - Illustrate how prokaryotes and eukaryotes transfer genes horizontally - Identify the web and ring models of phylogenetic relationships and describe how they differ from the original phylogenetic tree concept The concepts of phylogenetic modeling are constantly changing. It is one of the most dynamic fields of study in all of biology. Over the last several decades, new research has challenged scientists’ ideas about how organisms are related. New models of these relationships have been proposed for consideration by the scientific community. Many phylogenetic trees have been shown as models of the evolutionary relationship among species. Phylogenetic trees originated with Charles Darwin, who sketched the first phylogenetic tree in 1837 (Figurea), which served as a pattern for subsequent studies for more than a century. The concept of a phylogenetic tree with a single trunk representing a common ancestor, with the branches representing the divergence of species from this ancestor, fits well with the structure of many common trees, such as the oak (Figureb). However, evidence from modern DNA sequence analysis and newly developed computer algorithms has caused skepticism about the validity of the standard tree model in the scientific community. Limitations to the Classic Model Classical thinking about prokaryotic evolution, included in the classic tree model, is that species evolve clonally. That is, they produce offspring themselves with only random mutations causing the descent into the variety of modern-day and extinct species known to science. This view is somewhat complicated in eukaryotes that reproduce sexually, but the laws of Mendelian genetics explain the variation in offspring, again, to be a result of a mutation within the species. The concept of genes being transferred between unrelated species was not considered as a possibility until relatively recently. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), also known as lateral gene transfer, is the transfer of genes between unrelated species. HGT has been shown to be an ever-present phenomenon, with many evolutionists postulating a major role for this process in evolution, thus complicating the simple tree model. Genes have been shown to be passed between species which are only distantly related using standard phylogeny, thus adding a layer of complexity to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships. The various ways that HGT occurs in prokaryotes is important to understanding phylogenies. Although at present HGT is not viewed as important to eukaryotic evolution, HGT does occur in this domain as well. Finally, as an example of the ultimate gene transfer, theories of genome fusion between symbiotic or endosymbiotic organisms have been proposed to explain an event of great importance—the evolution of the first eukaryotic cell, without which humans could not have come into existence. Horizontal Gene Transfer Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the introduction of genetic material from one species to another species by mechanisms other than the vertical transmission from parent(s) to offspring. These transfers allow even distantly related species to share genes, influencing their phenotypes. It is thought that HGT is more prevalent in prokaryotes, but that only about 2% of the prokaryotic genome may be transferred by this process. Some researchers believe such estimates are premature: the actual importance of HGT to evolutionary processes must be viewed as a work in progress. As the phenomenon is investigated more thoroughly, it may be revealed to be more common. Many scientists believe that HGT and mutation appear to be (especially in prokaryotes) a significant source of genetic variation, which is the raw material for the process of natural selection. These transfers may occur between any two species that share an intimate relationship (Table). \| Summary of Mechanisms of Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic HGT \| \|\|\| \|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Mechanism \| Mode of Transmission \| Example \| \| \| Prokaryotes \| transformation \| DNA uptake \| many prokaryotes \| \| transduction \| bacteriophage (virus) \| bacteria \| \| \| conjugation \| pilus \| many prokaryotes \| \| \| gene transfer agents \| phage-like particles \| purple non-sulfur bacteria \| \| \| Eukaryotes \| from food organisms \| unknown \| aphid \| \| jumping genes \| transposons \| rice and millet plants \| \| \| epiphytes/parasites \| unknown \| yew tree fungi \| \| \| from viral infections \| HGT in Prokaryotes The mechanism of HGT has been shown to be quite common in the prokaryotic domains of Bacteria and Archaea, significantly changing the way their evolution is viewed. The majority of evolutionary models, such as in the Endosymbiont Theory, propose that eukaryotes descended from multiple prokaryotes, which makes HGT all the more important to understanding the phylogenetic relationships of all extant and extinct species. The fact that genes are transferred among common bacteria is well known to microbiology students. These gene transfers between species are the major mechanism whereby bacteria acquire resistance to antibiotics. Classically, this type of transfer has been thought to occur by three different mechanisms: - Transformation: naked DNA is taken up by a bacteria - Transduction: genes are transferred using a virus - Conjugation: the use a hollow tube called a pilus to transfer genes between organisms More recently, a fourth mechanism of gene transfer between prokaryotes has been discovered. Small, virus-like particles called gene transfer agents (GTAs) transfer random genomic segments from one species of prokaryote to another. GTAs have been shown to be responsible for genetic changes, sometimes at a very high frequency compared to other evolutionary processes. The first GTA was characterized in 1974 using purple, non-sulfur bacteria. These GTAs, which are thought to be bacteriophages that lost the ability to reproduce on their own, carry random pieces of DNA from one organism to another. The ability of GTAs to act with high frequency has been demonstrated in controlled studies using marine bacteria. Gene transfer events in marine prokaryotes, either by GTAs or by viruses, have been estimated to be as high as 1013 per year in the Mediterranean Sea alone. GTAs and viruses are thought to be efficient HGT vehicles with a major impact on prokaryotic evolution. As a consequence of this modern DNA analysis, the idea that eukaryotes evolved directly from Archaea has fallen out of favor. While eukaryotes share many features that are absent in bacteria, such as the TATA box (found in the promoter region of many genes), the discovery that some eukaryotic genes were more homologous with bacterial DNA than Archaea DNA made this idea less tenable. Furthermore, the fusion of genomes from Archaea and Bacteria by endosymbiosis has been proposed as the ultimate event in eukaryotic evolution. HGT in Eukaryotes Although it is easy to see how prokaryotes exchange genetic material by HGT, it was initially thought that this process was absent in eukaryotes. After all, prokaryotes are but single cells exposed directly to their environment, whereas the sex cells of multicellular organisms are usually sequestered in protected parts of the body. It follows from this idea that the gene transfers between multicellular eukaryotes should be more difficult. Indeed, it is thought that this process is rarer in eukaryotes and has a much smaller evolutionary impact than in prokaryotes. In spite of this fact, HGT between distantly related organisms has been demonstrated in several eukaryotic species, and it is possible that more examples will be discovered in the future. In plants, gene transfer has been observed in species that cannot cross-pollinate by normal means. Transposons or “jumping genes” have been shown to transfer between rice and millet plant species. Furthermore, fungal species feeding on yew trees, from which the anti-cancer drug TAXOL® is derived from the bark, have acquired the ability to make taxol themselves, a clear example of gene transfer. In animals, a particularly interesting example of HGT occurs within the aphid species (Figure). Aphids are insects that vary in color based on carotenoid content. Carotenoids are pigments made by a variety of plants, fungi, and microbes, and they serve a variety of functions in animals, who obtain these chemicals from their food. Humans require carotenoids to synthesize vitamin A, and we obtain them by eating orange fruits and vegetables: carrots, apricots, mangoes, and sweet potatoes. On the other hand, aphids have acquired the ability to make the carotenoids on their own. According to DNA analysis, this ability is due to the transfer of fungal genes into the insect by HGT, presumably as the insect consumed fungi for food. A carotenoid enzyme called a desaturase is responsible for the red coloration seen in certain aphids, and it has been further shown that when this gene is inactivated by mutation, the aphids revert back to their more common green color (Figure). Genome Fusion and the Evolution of Eukaryotes Scientists believe the ultimate in HGT occurs through genome fusion between different species of prokaryotes when two symbiotic organisms become endosymbiotic. This occurs when one species is taken inside the cytoplasm of another species, which ultimately results in a genome consisting of genes from both the endosymbiont and the host. This mechanism is an aspect of the Endosymbiont Theory, which is accepted by a majority of biologists as the mechanism whereby eukaryotic cells obtained their mitochondria and chloroplasts. However, the role of endosymbiosis in the development of the nucleus is more controversial. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of different (separate) evolutionary origin, with the mitochondrial DNA being derived from the circular genomes of bacteria that were engulfed by ancient prokaryotic cells. Mitochondrial DNA can be regarded as the smallest chromosome. Interestingly enough, mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother. The mitochondrial DNA degrades in sperm when the sperm degrades in the fertilized egg or in other instances when the mitochondria located in the flagellum of the sperm fails to enter the egg. Within the past decade, the process of genome fusion by endosymbiosis has been proposed by James Lake of the UCLA/NASA Astrobiology Institute to be responsible for the evolution of the first eukaryotic cells (Figurea). Using DNA analysis and a new mathematical algorithm called conditioned reconstruction (CR), his laboratory proposed that eukaryotic cells developed from an endosymbiotic gene fusion between two species, one an Archaea and the other a Bacteria. As mentioned, some eukaryotic genes resemble those of Archaea, whereas others resemble those from Bacteria. An endosymbiotic fusion event, such as Lake has proposed, would clearly explain this observation. On the other hand, this work is new and the CR algorithm is relatively unsubstantiated, which causes many scientists to resist this hypothesis. More recent work by Lake (Figureb) proposes that gram-negative bacteria, which are unique within their domain in that they contain two lipid bilayer membranes, indeed resulted from an endosymbiotic fusion of archaeal and bacterial species. The double membrane would be a direct result of the endosymbiosis, with the endosymbiont picking up the second membrane from the host as it was internalized. This mechanism has also been used to explain the double membranes found in mitochondria and chloroplasts. Lake’s work is not without skepticism, and the ideas are still debated within the biological science community. In addition to Lake’s hypothesis, there are several other competing theories as to the origin of eukaryotes. How did the eukaryotic nucleus evolve? One theory is that the prokaryotic cells produced an additional membrane that surrounded the bacterial chromosome. Some bacteria have the DNA enclosed by two membranes; however, there is no evidence of a nucleolus or nuclear pores. Other proteobacteria also have membrane-bound chromosomes. If the eukaryotic nucleus evolved this way, we would expect one of the two types of prokaryotes to be more closely related to eukaryotes. The nucleus-first hypothesis proposes that the nucleus evolved in prokaryotes first (Figurea), followed by a later fusion of the new eukaryote with bacteria that became mitochondria. The mitochondria-first hypothesis proposes that mitochondria were first established in a prokaryotic host (Figureb), which subsequently acquired a nucleus, by fusion or other mechanisms, to become the first eukaryotic cell. Most interestingly, the eukaryote-first hypothesis proposes that prokaryotes actually evolved from eukaryotes by losing genes and complexity (Figurec). All of these hypotheses are testable. Only time and more experimentation will determine which hypothesis is best supported by data. Web and Network Models The recognition of the importance of HGT, especially in the evolution of prokaryotes, has caused some to propose abandoning the classic “tree of life” model. In 1999, W. Ford Doolittle proposed a phylogenetic model that resembles a web or a network more than a tree. The hypothesis is that eukaryotes evolved not from a single prokaryotic ancestor, but from a pool of many species that were sharing genes by HGT mechanisms. As shown in Figurea, some individual prokaryotes were responsible for transferring the bacteria that caused mitochondrial development to the new eukaryotes, whereas other species transferred the bacteria that gave rise to chloroplasts. This model is often called the “web of life.” In an effort to save the tree analogy, some have proposed using the Ficus tree (Figureb) with its multiple trunks as a phylogenetic to represent a diminished evolutionary role for HGT. Ring of Life Models Others have proposed abandoning any tree-like model of phylogeny in favor of a ring structure, the so-called “ring of life” (Figure); a phylogenetic model where all three domains of life evolved from a pool of primitive prokaryotes. Lake, again using the conditioned reconstruction algorithm, proposes a ring-like model in which species of all three domains—Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya—evolved from a single pool of gene-swapping prokaryotes. His laboratory proposes that this structure is the best fit for data from extensive DNA analyses performed in his laboratory, and that the ring model is the only one that adequately takes HGT and genomic fusion into account. However, other phylogeneticists remain highly skeptical of this model. In summary, the “tree of life” model proposed by Darwin must be modified to include HGT. Does this mean abandoning the tree model completely? Even Lake argues that all attempts should be made to discover some modification of the tree model to allow it to accurately fit his data, and only the inability to do so will sway people toward his ring proposal. This doesn’t mean a tree, web, or a ring will correlate completely to an accurate description of phylogenetic relationships of life. A consequence of the new thinking about phylogenetic models is the idea that Darwin’s original conception of the phylogenetic tree is too simple, but made sense based on what was known at the time. However, the search for a more useful model moves on: each model serving as hypotheses to be tested with the possibility of developing new models. This is how science advances. These models are used as visualizations to help construct hypothetical evolutionary relationships and understand the massive amount of data being analyzed. Section Summary The phylogenetic tree, first used by Darwin, is the classic “tree of life” model describing phylogenetic relationships among species, and the most common model used today. New ideas about HGT and genome fusion have caused some to suggest revising the model to resemble webs or rings. Review Questions The transfer of genes by a mechanism not involving asexual reproduction is called: - meiosis - web of life - horizontal gene transfer - gene fusion Hint: C Particles that transfer genetic material from one species to another, especially in marine prokaryotes: - horizontal gene transfer - lateral gene transfer - genome fusion device - gene transfer agents Hint: D What does the trunk of the classic phylogenetic tree represent? - single common ancestor - pool of ancestral organisms - new species - old species Hint: A Which phylogenetic model proposes that all three domains of life evolved from a pool of primitive prokaryotes? - tree of life - web of life - ring of life - network model Hint: C Free Response Compare three different ways that eukaryotic cells may have evolved. Hint: Some hypotheses propose that mitochondria were acquired first, followed by the development of the nucleus. Others propose that the nucleus evolved first and that this new eukaryotic cell later acquired the mitochondria. Still others hypothesize that prokaryotes descended from eukaryotes by the loss of genes and complexity. Describe how aphids acquired the ability to change color. Hint: Aphids have acquired the ability to make the carotenoids on their own. DNA analysis has demonstrated that this ability is due to the transfer of fungal genes into the insect by HGT, presumably as the insect consumed fungi for food.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.884816	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15038/overview", "title": "Biology, Evolutionary Processes", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15193/overview	Introduction Since its founding, the United States has relied on citizen participation to govern at the local, state, and national levels. This civic engagement ensures that representative democracy will continue to flourish and that people will continue to influence government. The right of citizens to participate in government is an important feature of democracy, and over the centuries many have fought to acquire and defend this right. During the American Revolution (1775–1783), British colonists fought for the right to govern themselves. In the early nineteenth century, agitated citizens called for the removal of property requirements for voting so poor white men could participate in government just as wealthy men could. Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and many other groups fought for the right to vote and hold office. The poster shown above (Figure), created during World War II, depicts voting as an important part of the fight to keep the United States free. The purpose of voting and other forms of political engagement is to ensure that government serves the people, and not the other way around. But what does government do to serve the people? What different forms of government exist? How do they differ? How can citizens best engage with and participate in the crucial process of governing the nation? This chapter seeks to answer these questions.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.900180	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15193/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15194/overview	What is Government? Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain what government is and what it does - Identify the type of government in the United States and compare it to other forms of government Government affects all aspects of people’s lives. What we eat, where we go to school, what kind of education we receive, how our tax money is spent, and what we do in our free time are all affected by government. Americans are often unaware of the pervasiveness of government in their everyday lives, and many are unsure precisely what it does. Here we will look at what government is, what it does, and how the government of the United States differs from other kinds of governments. DEFINING GOVERNMENT The term government describes the means by which a society organizes itself and allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits that the society as a whole needs. Among the goals that governments around the world seek to accomplish are economic prosperity for the nation, secure national borders, and the safety and well-being of citizens. Governments also provide benefits for their citizens. The type of benefits provided differ according to the country and their specific type of governmental system, but governments commonly provide such things as education, health care, and an infrastructure for transportation. The term politics refers to the process of gaining and exercising control within a government for the purpose of setting and achieving particular goals, especially those related to the division of resources within a nation. Sometimes governmental systems are confused with economic systems. This is because certain types of political thought or governmental organization are closely related to or develop with certain types of economic systems. For example, the economic system of capitalism in Western Europe and North America developed at roughly the same time as ideas about democratic republics, self-government, and natural rights. At this time, the idea of liberty became an important concept. According to John Locke, an English political philosopher of the seventeenth century, all people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. From this came the idea that people should be free to consent to being governed. In the eighteenth century, in Great Britain’s North American colonies, and later in France, this developed into the idea that people should govern themselves through elected representatives and not a king; only those representatives chosen by the people had the right to make laws to govern them. Similarly, Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher who was born nineteen years after Locke’s death, believed that all people should be free to acquire property in any way that they wished. Instead of being controlled by government, business, and industry, Smith argued, people should be allowed to operate as they wish and keep the proceeds of their work. Competition would ensure that prices remained low and faulty goods disappeared from the market. In this way, businesses would reap profits, consumers would have their needs satisfied, and society as a whole would prosper. Smith discussed these ideas, which formed the basis for industrial capitalism, in his book The Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776, the same year that the Declaration of Independence was written. Representative government and capitalism developed together in the United States, and many Americans tend to equate democracy, a political system in which people govern themselves, with capitalism. In theory, a democratic government promotes individualism and the freedom to act as one chooses instead of being controlled, for good or bad, by government. Capitalism, in turn, relies on individualism. At the same time, successful capitalists prefer political systems over which they can exert at least some influence in order to maintain their liberty. Democracy and capitalism do not have to go hand in hand, however. Indeed, one might argue that a capitalist economic system might be bad for democracy in some respects. Although Smith theorized that capitalism would lead to prosperity for all, this has not necessarily been the case. Great gaps in wealth between the owners of major businesses, industries, and financial institutions and those who work for others in exchange for wages exist in many capitalist nations. In turn, great wealth may give a very small minority great influence over the government—a greater influence than that held by the majority of the population, which will be discussed later. Socialism is an alternative economic system. In socialist societies, the means of generating wealth, such as factories, large farms, and banks, are owned by the government and not by private individuals. The government accumulates wealth and then redistributes it to citizens, primarily in the form of social programs that provide such things as free or inexpensive health care, education, and childcare. In socialist countries, the government also usually owns and controls utilities such as electricity, transportation systems like airlines and railroads, and telecommunications systems. In many socialist countries the government is an oligarchy: only members of a certain political party or ruling elite can participate in government. For example, in China, the government is run by members of the Chinese Communist Party. However, socialist countries can have democratic forms of government as well, such as Sweden. Although many Americans associate socialism with tyranny and a loss of individual liberties, this does not have to be the case, as we see in Sweden. In the United States, the democratic government works closely together with its capitalist economic system. The interconnectedness of the two affects the way in which goods and services are distributed. The market provides many goods and services needed by Americans. For example, food, clothing, and housing are provided in ample supply by private businesses that earn a profit in return. These goods and services are known as private goods.Paul A. Samuelson. 1954. “The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure,” Review of Economics and Statistics 36, No. 4: 387–389. People can purchase what they need in the quantity in which they need it. This, of course, is the ideal. In reality, those who live in poverty cannot always afford to buy ample food and clothing to meet their needs, or the food and clothing that they can afford to buy in abundance is of inferior quality. Also, it is often difficult to find adequate housing; housing in the most desirable neighborhoods—those that have low crime rates and good schools—is often too expensive for poor or working-class (and sometimes middle-class) people to buy or rent. Thus, the market cannot provide everything (in enough quantity or at low enough costs) in order to meet everyone’s needs. Therefore, some goods are provided by the government. Such goods or services that are available to all without charge are called public goods. Two such public goods are national security and education. It is difficult to see how a private business could protect the United States from attack. How could it build its own armies and create plans for defense and attack? Who would pay the men and women who served? Where would the intelligence come from? Due to its ability to tax, draw upon the resources of an entire nation, and compel citizen compliance, only government is capable of protecting the nation. Similarly, public schools provide education for all children in the United States. Children of all religions, races and ethnicities, socioeconomic classes, and levels of academic ability can attend public schools free of charge from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. It would be impossible for private schools to provide an education for all of the nation’s children. Private schools do provide some education in the United States; however, they charge tuition, and only those parents who can afford to pay their fees (or whose children gain a scholarship) can attend these institutions. Some schools charge very high tuition, the equivalent to the tuition at a private college. If private schools were the only educational institutions, most poor and working-class children and many middle-class children would be uneducated. Private schooling is a type of good called a toll good. Toll goods are available to many people, and many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price. They occupy a middle ground between public and private goods. All parents may send their children to public schools in the United States. They can choose to send their children to a private school, but the private school will charge them. On the other hand, public schools, which are operated by the government, provide free education so all children can attend school. Therefore, everyone in the nation benefits from the educated voters and workers produced by the public school system. Another distinction between public and private goods is that public goods are available to all, typically without additional charge. What other public goods does government provide in the United States? At the federal, state, and local level, government provides stability and security, not only in the form of a military but also in the form of police and fire departments. Government provides other valuable goods and services such as public education, public transportation, mail service, and food, housing, and health care for the poor (Figure). If a house catches on fire, the fire department does not demand payment before they put the fire out. If someone breaks into a house and tries to harm the occupants, the police will try to protect them and arrest the intruder, but the police department will not request payment for services rendered. The provision of these goods and services is funded by citizens paying into the general tax base. Government also performs the important job of protecting common goods: goods that all people may use free of charge but that are of limited supply, such as fish in the sea or clean drinking water. Because everyone can use these goods, they must be protected so a few people do not take everything that is available and leave others with nothing. Some examples of common goods, private goods, public goods, and toll goods are listed below (Figure). This federal website shares information about the many services the government provides. Fishing Regulations One of the many important things government does is regulate public access to common goods like natural resources. Unlike public goods, which all people may use without charge, common goods are in limited supply. If more public schools are needed, the government can build more. If more firefighters or mail carriers are needed, the government can hire them. Public lands and wildlife, however, are not goods the government can simply multiply if supply falls due to demand. Indeed, if some people take too freely from the supply of common goods, there will not be enough left for others to use. Fish are one of the many common goods in which the government currently regulates access. It does so to ensure that certain species are not fished into extinction, thus depriving future generations of an important food source and a means to make a living. This idea is known as sustainability. Environmentalists want to set strict fishing limits on a variety of species. Commercial fishers resist these limits, claiming they are unnecessary and, if enforced, would drive them out of business (Figure). Currently, fishing limits are set by a combination of scientists, politicians, local resource managers, and groups representing the interests of fishers.Juliet Elperin, “U.S. Tightens Fishing Policy, Setting 2012 Catch Limits for All Mandated Species,” Washington Post, 8 January 2012. Should the government regulate fishing? Is it right to interfere with people’s ability to earn money today in order to protect the access of future generations to the nation’s common goods? Besides providing stability and goods and services for all, government also creates a structure by which goods and services can be made available to the people. In the United States, people elect representatives to city councils, state legislatures, and Congress. These bodies make laws to govern their respective jurisdictions. They also pass measures to raise money, through the imposition of taxes on such things as income, property, and sales. Local, state, and national governments also draft budgets to determine how the revenue taken in will be spent for services. On the local level, funds are allotted for education, police and fire departments, and maintenance of public parks. State governments allocate money for state colleges and universities, maintenance of state roads and bridges, and wildlife management, among other priorities. On the national level, money goes to such things as defense, Social Security, pensions for veterans, maintenance of federal courts and prisons, and management of national parks. At each level, representatives elected by the people try to secure funding for things that will benefit those who live in the areas they represent. Once money has been allocated, government agencies at each level then receive funds for the purposes mentioned above and use them to provide services to the public. Local, state, and national governments also make laws to maintain order and to ensure the efficient functioning of society, including the fair operation of the business marketplace. In the United States, for example, Congress passes laws regulating banking, and government agencies regulate such things as the amount of toxic gases that can be emitted by factories, the purity of food offered for sale, and the safety of toys and automobiles. In this way, government checks the actions of business, something that it would not do if capitalism in the United States functioned strictly in the manner that Adam Smith believed it should…almost entirely unregulated. Besides providing goods to citizens and maintaining public safety, most governments also provide a means for citizens to participate in government and to make their opinions known to those in power. Western democracies like the United States, Britain, France, and others protect citizens’ freedom of speech and the press. These nations, and others in the world, also allow citizens to vote. As noted earlier, politics is the process by which choices are made regarding how resources will be allocated and which economic and social policies government will pursue. Put more simply, politics is the process of who gets what and how. Politics involves choosing which values government will support and which it will not. If government chooses to support an ideal such as individualism, it may choose to loosen regulations on business and industry or to cut taxes so that people have more money to invest in business. If it chooses to support an ideal such as egalitarianism, which calls for equal treatment for all and the destruction of socioeconomic inequalities, it may raise taxes in order to be able to spend more on public education, public transportation, housing for the poor, and care for the elderly. If, for example, the government is more concerned with national security than with individual liberty, it may authorize the tapping of people’s phones and restrict what newspapers may publish. If liberty is more important, then government will place greater restrictions on the extent that law enforcement agencies can intrude upon citizens’ private communications. The political process and the input of citizens help determine the answer. Civic engagement, or the participation that connects citizens to government, is a vital ingredient of politics. In the United States, citizens play an important role in influencing what policies are pursued, what values the government chooses to support, what initiatives are granted funding, and who gets to make the final decisions. Political engagement can take many forms: reading about politics, listening to news reports, discussing politics, attending (or watching televised) political debates, donating money to political campaigns, handing out flyers promoting a candidate, voting, joining protest marches, and writing letters to their elected representatives. DIFFERENT TYPES OF GOVERNMENT The government of the United States can best be described as a republic, or representative democracy. A democracy is a government in which political power—influence over institutions, leaders, and policies—rests in the hands of the people. In a representative democracy, however, the citizens do not govern directly. Instead, they elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people. Thus, U.S. citizens vote for members of Congress, the president and vice president, members of state legislatures, governors, mayors, and members of town councils and school boards to act on their behalf. Most representative governments favor majority rule: the opinions of the majority of the people have more influence with government than those of the minority. If the number of elected representatives who favor a proposed law is greater than those who oppose it, the law will be enacted. However, in representative governments like the United States, minority rights are protected: people cannot be deprived of certain rights even if an overwhelming number of people think that they should be. For example, let’s say American society decided that atheists, people who do not believe that God exists, were evil and should be imprisoned or expelled from the country. Even though atheists only account for about 7 percent of the population, they would be protected due to minority rights.Michael Lipka. 5 November 2015. “7 Facts about Atheists,” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/05/7-facts-about-atheists/. Even though the number of Americans who believe in God far outweighs the number who do not, the minority is still protected. Because decisions are made through majority rule, making your opinions known and voting for those men and women who make decisions that affect all of us are critical and influential forms of civic engagement in a representative democracy such as the United States. In a direct democracy, unlike representative democracy, people participate directly in making government decisions. For example, in ancient Athens, the most famous example of a direct democracy, all male citizens were allowed to attend meetings of the Assembly. Here they debated and voted for or against all proposed laws. Although neither the federal government nor any of the state governments function as a direct democracy—the Constitution requires the national and state governments to be representative forms of government—some elements of direct democracy do exist in the United States. While residents of the different states vote for people to represent them and to make laws in their behalf in the state legislatures and in Congress, people may still directly vote on certain issues. For example, a referendum or proposed law might be placed on the ballot for citizens to vote on directly during state or local elections instead of leaving the matter in the hands of the state legislature. At New England town meetings, all residents are allowed to debate decisions affecting the town (Figure). Such occasions provide additional opportunities for civic engagement. Most countries now have some form of representative government (Figure). At the other end of the political spectrum are elite-driven forms of government. In a monarchy, one ruler, usually a hereditary ruler, holds political power. Although the power of some monarchs is limited by law, and such kings and queens often rule along with an elected legislature that makes laws for the country, this is not always the case. Many southwest Asian kingdoms, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have absolute monarchs whose power is unrestricted. As discussed earlier, another nondemocratic form of government is oligarchy, in which a handful of elite members of society, often those who belong to a particular political party, hold all political power. For example, in Cuba, as in China, only members of the Communist Party are allowed to vote or hold public office, and the party’s most important members make all government decisions. Some nondemocratic societies are totalitarian in nature. Under totalitarianism, the government is more important than the citizens, and it controls all aspects of citizens’ lives. Citizens’ rights are limited, and the government does not allow political criticism or opposition. These forms of government are fairly rare. North Korea is an example of a totalitarian government. The CIA website provides information about the types of government across the world. Summary Government provides stability to society, as well as many crucial services such as free public education, police and fire services, and mail delivery. It also regulates access to common goods, such as public land, for the benefit of all. Government creates a structure whereby people can make their needs and opinions known to public officials. This is one of the key factors that makes the United States a representative democracy. A country where people elect representatives to make political decisions for them depends on the ability and willingness of ordinary people to make their voices known, unlike an oligarchy dominated by only a small group of people. What goods are available to all without direct payment? - private goods - public goods - common goods - toll goods Hint: B In which form of government does a small group of elite people hold political power? - direct democracy - monarchy - oligarchy - totalitarian What is the difference between a representative democracy and a direct democracy? Hint: In a representative democracy, people elect representatives to make political decisions and pass laws for them. In a direct democracy, people make all political decisions and pass laws themselves. What does government do for people?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.930652	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15194/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15195/overview	Who Governs? Elitism, Pluralism, and Tradeoffs Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the pluralism-elitism debate - Explain the tradeoffs perspective on government The United States allows its citizens to participate in government in many ways. The United States also has many different levels and branches of government that any citizen or group might approach. Many people take this as evidence that U.S. citizens, especially as represented by competing groups, are able to influence government actions. Some political theorists, however, argue that this is not the case. They claim that only a handful of economic and political elites have any influence over government. ELITISM VS. PLURALISM Many Americans fear that a set of elite citizens is really in charge of government in the United States and that others have no influence. This belief is called the elite theory of government. In contrast to that perspective is the pluralist theory of government, which says that political power rests with competing interest groups who share influence in government. Pluralist theorists assume that citizens who want to get involved in the system do so because of the great number of access points to government. That is, the U.S. system, with several levels and branches, has many places where people and groups can engage the government. The foremost supporter of elite theory was C. Wright Mills. In his book, The Power Elite, Mills argued that government was controlled by a combination of business, military, and political elites.C. Wright Mills. 1956. The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press. Most are highly educated, often graduating from prestigious universities (Figure). According to elite theory, the wealthy use their power to control the nation’s economy in such a way that those below them cannot advance economically. Their wealth allows the elite to secure for themselves important positions in politics. They then use this power to make decisions and allocate resources in ways that benefit them. Politicians do the bidding of the wealthy instead of attending to the needs of ordinary people, and order is maintained by force. Indeed, those who favor government by the elite believe the elite are better fit to govern and that average citizens are content to allow them to do so.Jack L. Walker. 1966. “A Critique of the Elitist Theory of Democracy,” The American Political Science Review 60, No. 2: 295. In apparent support of the elite perspective, one-third of U.S. presidents have attended Ivy League schools, a much higher percentage than the rest of the U.S. population.The Ivy League is technically an athletic conference in the Northeast comprised of sports teams from eight institutions of higher education—Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University—however, the term is also used to connote academic excellence or social elitism. All five of the most recent U.S. presidents attended Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, or Columbia. Among members of the House of Representatives, 93 percent have a bachelor’s degree, as do 99 percent of members of the Senate.Jennifer E. Manning, “Membership of the 113th Congress: A Profile,” Congressional Research Service, p. 5 (Table 5), November 24, 2014. Fewer than 40 percent of U.S. adults have even an associate’s degree.Kyla Calvert Mason. 22 April 2014. “Percentage of Americans with College Degrees Rises, Paying for Degrees Tops Financial Challenges,” http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/percentage-americans-college-degrees-rises-paying-degrees-tops-financial-challenges/. The majority of the men and women in Congress also engaged in either state or local politics, were business people, or practiced law before being elected to Congress.Manning, p. 3 (Table 2). Approximately 80 percent of both the Senate and the House of Representatives are male, and fewer than 20 percent of members of Congress are people of color (Figure). The nation’s laws are made primarily by well-educated white male professionals and businessmen. The makeup of Congress is important because race, sex, profession, education, and socioeconomic class have an important effect on people’s political interests. For example, changes in the way taxes are levied and spent do not affect all citizens equally. A flat tax, which generally requires that everyone pay the same percentage rate, hurts the poor more than it does the rich. If the income tax rate was flat at 10 percent, all Americans would have to pay 10 percent of their income to the federal government. Someone who made $40,000 a year would have to pay $4,000 and be left with only $36,000 to live on. Someone who made $1,000,000 would have to pay $100,000, a greater sum, but he or she would still be left with $900,000. People who were not wealthy would probably pay more than they could comfortably afford, while the wealthy, who could afford to pay more and still live well, would not see a real impact on their daily lives. Similarly, the allocation of revenue affects the rich and the poor differently. Giving more money to public education does not benefit the wealthy as much as it does the poor, because the wealthy are more likely than the poor to send their children to private schools or to at least have the option of doing so. However, better funded public schools have the potential to greatly improve the upward mobility of members of other socioeconomic classes who have no other option than to send their children to public schools. Currently, more than half of the members of Congress are millionaires; their median net worth is just over $1 million, and some have much more.Alan Rappeport, “Making it Rain: Members of Congress Are Mostly Millionaires,” New York Times, 12 January 2016. As of 2003, more than 40 percent of Congress sent their children to private schools. Overall, only 10 percent of the American population does so.Grace Chen. “How Many Politicians Send Their Kids to Public Schools?” http://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/how-many-politicians-send-their-kids-to-public-schools (February 18, 2016). Therefore, a Congress dominated by millionaires who send their children to private schools is more likely to believe that flat taxes are fair and that increased funding for public education is not a necessity. Their experience, however, does not reflect the experience of average Americans. Pluralist theory rejects this approach, arguing that although there are elite members of society they do not control government. Instead, pluralists argue, political power is distributed throughout society. Rather than resting in the hands of individuals, a variety of organized groups hold power, with some groups having more influence on certain issues than others. Thousands of interest groups exist in the United States.“The Non-Governmental Order: Will NGOs Democratise, or Merely Disrupt, Global Governance?” The Economist, 9 December 1999. Approximately 70–90 percent of Americans report belonging to at least one group.Ronald J. Hrebenar. 1997. Interest Group Politics in America, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 14; Clive S. Thomas. 2004. Research Guide to U.S. and International Interest Groups. Westport, CT: Praeger, 106. According to pluralist theory, people with shared interests will form groups in order to make their desires known to politicians. These groups include such entities as environmental advocates, unions, and organizations that represent the interests of various businesses. Because most people lack the inclination, time, or expertise necessary to decide political issues, these groups will speak for them. As groups compete with one another and find themselves in conflict regarding important issues, government policy begins to take shape. In this way, government policy is shaped from the bottom up and not from the top down, as we see in elitist theory. Robert Dahl, author of Who Governs?, was one of the first to advance the pluralist theory, and argued that politicians seeking an “electoral payoff” are attentive to the concerns of politically active citizens and, through them, become acquainted with the needs of ordinary people. They will attempt to give people what they want in exchange for their votes.Dahl, Who Governs? 91–93. The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-partisan research group that provides data on who gives to whom in elections. Visit OpenSecrets.org: Center for Responsive Politics to track campaign contributions, congressional bills and committees, and interest groups and lobbyists. THE TRADEOFFS PERSPECTIVE Although elitists and pluralists present political influence as a tug-of-war with people at opposite ends of a rope trying to gain control of government, in reality government action and public policy are influenced by an ongoing series of tradeoffs or compromises. For instance, an action that will meet the needs of large numbers of people may not be favored by the elite members of society. Giving the elite what they want may interfere with plans to help the poor. As pluralists argue, public policy is created as a result of competition among groups. In the end, the interests of both the elite and the people likely influence government action, and compromises will often attempt to please them both. Since the framing of the U.S. Constitution, tradeoffs have been made between those who favor the supremacy of the central government and those who believe that state governments should be more powerful. Should state governments be able to respond to the desires of citizen groups by legalizing the use of marijuana? Should the national government be able to close businesses that sell marijuana even in states where it is legal? Should those who control the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) be allowed to eavesdrop on phone conversations of Americans and read their email? Should groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which protect all citizens’ rights to freedom of speech, be able to prevent this? Many of the tradeoffs made by government are about freedom of speech. The First Amendment of the Constitution gives Americans the right to express their opinions on matters of concern to them; the federal government cannot interfere with this right. Because of the Fourteenth Amendment, state governments must protect this right also. At the same time, neither the federal government nor state governments can allow someone’s right to free expression to interfere with someone else’s ability to exercise his or her own rights. For example, in the United States, it is legal for women to have abortions. Many people oppose this right, primarily for religious reasons, and often protest outside facilities that provide abortions. In 2007, the state of Massachusetts enacted a law that required protestors to stand thirty-five feet away from clinic entrances. The intention was to prevent women seeking abortions from being harassed or threatened with violence. Groups favoring the protection of women’s reproductive rights supported the law. Groups opposed to abortion argued that the buffer zone prevented them from speaking to women to try to persuade them not to have the procedure done. In 2014, in the case of McCullen v. Coakley, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law that created a buffer zone between protestors and clinic entrances.McCullen v. Coakley, 573 U.S. __ (2014); Melissa Jeltsen, “The Reality of Abortion Clinics without Buffer Zones,” The Huffington Post, 13 July 2014. The federal government does not always side with those who oppose abortion, however. Several states have attempted to pass laws requiring women to notify their husbands, and often obtain their consent, before having an abortion. All such laws have been found unconstitutional by the courts. Tradeoffs also occur as a result of conflict between groups representing the competing interests of citizens. Many Americans believe that the U.S. must become less dependent on foreign sources of energy. Many also would like people to have access to inexpensive sources of energy. Such people are likely to support fracking: the process of hydraulic fracturing that gives drilling companies access to natural gas trapped between layers of shale underground. Fracking produces abundant, inexpensive natural gas, a great benefit to people who live in parts of the country where it is expensive to heat homes during the winter. Fracking also creates jobs. At the same time, many scholars argue that fracking can result in the contamination of drinking water, air pollution, and increased risk of earthquakes. One study has even linked fracking to cancer. Thus, those who want to provide jobs and inexpensive natural gas are in conflict with those who wish to protect the natural environment and human health (Figure). Both sides are well intentioned, but they disagree over what is best for people.Gail Bambrick. 11 December 2012. “Fracking: Pro and Con,” https://now.tufts.edu/articles/fracking-pro-and-con. Tradeoffs are especially common in the United States Congress. Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives usually vote according to the concerns of people who live in their districts. Not only does this often pit the interests of people in different parts of the country against one another, but it also frequently favors the interests of certain groups of people over the interests of others within the same state. For example, allowing oil companies to drill off the state’s coast may please those who need the jobs that will be created, but it will anger those who wish to preserve coastal lands as a refuge for wildlife and, in the event of an accident, may harm the interests of people who depend on fishing and tourism for their living. At times, House members and senators in Congress may ignore the voters in their home states and the groups that represent them in order to follow the dictates of the leaders of the political party to which they belong. For example, a member of Congress from a state with a large elderly population may be inclined to vote in favor of legislation to increase benefits for retired people; however, his or her political party leaders, who disapprove of government spending on social programs, may ask for a vote against it. The opposite can occur as well, especially in the case of a legislator soon facing re-election. With two-year terms of office, we are more likely to see House members buck their party in favor of their constituents. Finally, the government may attempt to resolve conflicting concerns within the nation as a whole through tradeoffs. After repeated incidents of mass shootings at schools, theaters, churches, and shopping malls, many are concerned with protecting themselves and their families from firearm violence. Some groups would like to ban the sale of automatic weapons completely. Some do not want to ban gun ownership; they merely want greater restrictions to be put in place on who can buy guns or how long people must wait between the time they enter the store to make a purchase and the time when they are actually given possession of the weapon. Others represent the interests of those who oppose any restrictions on the number or type of weapons Americans may own. So far, state governments have attempted to balance the interests of both groups by placing restrictions on such things as who can sell guns, where gun sales may take place, or requirements for background checks, but they have not attempted to ban gun sales altogether. For example, although federal law does not require private gun dealers (people who sell guns but do not derive most of their income from doing so) to conduct background checks before selling firearms to people at gun shows, some states have passed laws requiring this.“Gun Show Background Checks State Laws,” http://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/gun-show-firearms-bankground-checks-state-laws-map.html (February 18, 2016). Summary Many question whether politicians are actually interested in the needs of average citizens and debate how much influence ordinary people have over what government does. Those who support the elite theory of government argue that a small, wealthy, powerful elite controls government and makes policy to benefit its members and perpetuate their power. Others favor the pluralist theory, which maintains that groups representing the people’s interests do attract the attention of politicians and can influence government policy. In reality, government policy usually is the result of a series of tradeoffs as groups and elites fight with one another for influence and politicians attempt to balance the demands of competing interests, including the interests of the constituents who elected them to office. The elite theory of government maintains that ________. - special interest groups make government policy - politicians who have held office for a long time are favored by voters - poor people and people of color should not be allowed to vote - wealthy, politically powerful people control government, and government has no interest in meeting the needs of ordinary people Hint: D According to the pluralist theory of government, ________. - government does what the majority of voters want it to do - government policy is formed as a result of the competition between groups with different goals and interests - ordinary people acting on their own have a significant influence on government - wealthy people decide what government policy will be, and politicians have no interest in pleasing anyone else Which of the following is a good example of a tradeoff? - The government pleases environmental activists by preserving public lands but also pleases ranchers by allowing them to rent public lands for grazing purposes. - The government pleases environmental activists by reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park but angers ranchers by placing their cattle in danger. - The government pleases oil companies by allowing them to drill on lands set aside for conservation but allows environmental activist groups to protest the drilling operations. - Groups that represent a variety of conflicting interests are all allowed to protest outside Congress and the White House. Hint: A	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.957648	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15195/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15196/overview	Engagement in a Democracy Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the importance of citizen engagement in a democracy - Describe the main ways Americans can influence and become engaged in government - Discuss factors that may affect people’s willingness to become engaged in government Participation in government matters. Although people may not get all that they want, they can achieve many goals and improve their lives through civic engagement. According to the pluralist theory, government cannot function without active participation by at least some citizens. Even if we believe the elite make political decisions, participation in government through the act of voting can change who the members of the elite are. WHY GET INVOLVED? Are fewer people today active in politics than in the past? Political scientist Robert Putnam has argued that civic engagement is declining; although many Americans may report belonging to groups, these groups are usually large, impersonal ones with thousands of members. People who join groups such as Amnesty International or Greenpeace may share certain values and ideals with other members of the group, but they do not actually interact with these other members. These organizations are different from the types of groups Americans used to belong to, like church groups or bowling leagues. Although people are still interested in volunteering and working for the public good, they are more interested in either working individually or joining large organizations where they have little opportunity to interact with others. Putnam considers a number of explanations for this decline in small group membership, including increased participation by women in the workforce, a decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in divorces, and the effect of technological developments, such as the internet, that separate people by allowing them to feel connected to others without having to spend time in their presence.Robert D. Putnam. 2001. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 75. Putnam argues that a decline in social capital—“the collective value of all ‘social networks’ [those whom people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other”—accompanies this decline in membership in small, interactive groups.———. 1995. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democracy 6: 66–67, 69; “About Social Capital,” https://www.hks.harvard.edu/programs/saguaro/about-social-capital (May 2, 2016). Included in social capital are such things as networks of individuals, a sense that one is part of an entity larger than oneself, concern for the collective good and a willingness to help others, and the ability to trust others and to work with them to find solutions to problems. This, in turn, has hurt people’s willingness and ability to engage in representative government. If Putnam is correct, this trend is unfortunate, because becoming active in government and community organizations is important for many reasons. To learn more about political engagement in the United States, read “The Current State of Civic Engagement in America” by the Pew Research Center. Civic engagement can increase the power of ordinary people to influence government actions. Even those without money or connections to important people can influence the policies that affect their lives and change the direction taken by government. U.S. history is filled with examples of people actively challenging the power of elites, gaining rights for themselves, and protecting their interests. For example, slavery was once legal in the United States and large sectors of the U.S. economy were dependent on this forced labor. Slavery was outlawed and blacks were granted citizenship because of the actions of abolitionists. Although some abolitionists were wealthy white men, most were ordinary people, including men and women of both races. White women and blacks were able to actively assist in the campaign to end slavery despite the fact that, with few exceptions, they were unable to vote. Similarly, the right to vote once belonged solely to white men until the Fifteenth Amendment gave the vote to African American men. The Nineteenth Amendment extended the vote to include women, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made exercising the right to vote a reality for African American men and women in the South. None of this would have happened, however, without the efforts of people who marched in protest, participated in boycotts, delivered speeches, wrote letters to politicians, and sometimes risked arrest in order to be heard (Figure). The tactics used to influence the government and effect change by abolitionists and members of the women’s rights and African American civil rights movements are still used by many activists today. The rights gained by these activists and others have dramatically improved the quality of life for many in the United States. Civil rights legislation did not focus solely on the right to vote or to hold public office; it also integrated schools and public accommodations, prohibited discrimination in housing and employment, and increased access to higher education. Activists for women’s rights fought for, and won, greater reproductive freedom for women, better wages, and access to credit. Only a few decades ago, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and intercourse between consenting adults of the same sex was illegal in many states. Although legal discrimination against gays and lesbians still remains, consensual intercourse between homosexual adults is no longer illegal anywhere in the United States, and same-sex couples have the right to legally marry. Activism can improve people’s lives in less dramatic ways as well. Working to make cities clean up vacant lots, destroy or rehabilitate abandoned buildings, build more parks and playgrounds, pass ordinances requiring people to curb their dogs, and ban late-night noise greatly affects people’s quality of life. The actions of individual Americans can make their own lives better and improve their neighbors’ lives as well. Representative democracy cannot work effectively without the participation of informed citizens, however. Engaged citizens familiarize themselves with the most important issues confronting the country and with the plans different candidates have for dealing with those issues. Then they vote for the candidates they believe will be best suited to the job, and they may join others to raise funds or campaign for those they support. They inform their representatives how they feel about important issues. Through these efforts and others, engaged citizens let their representatives know what they want and thus influence policy. Only then can government actions accurately reflect the interests and concerns of the majority. Even people who believe the elite rule government should recognize that it is easier for them to do so if ordinary people make no effort to participate in public life. PATHWAYS TO ENGAGEMENT People can become civically engaged in many ways, either as individuals or as members of groups. Some forms of individual engagement require very little effort. One of the simplest ways is to stay informed about debates and events in the community, in the state, and in the nation. Awareness is the first step toward engagement. News is available from a variety of reputable sources, such as newspapers like the New York Times; national news shows, including those offered by the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio; and reputable internet sites. Visit Avaaz and Change.org for more information on current political issues. Another form of individual engagement is to write or email political representatives. Filing a complaint with the city council is another avenue of engagement. City officials cannot fix problems if they do not know anything is wrong to begin with. Responding to public opinion polls, actively contributing to a political blog, or starting a new blog are all examples of different ways to be involved. One of the most basic ways to engage with government as an individual is to vote (Figure). Individual votes do matter. City council members, mayors, state legislators, governors, and members of Congress are all chosen by popular vote. Although the president of the United States is not chosen directly by popular vote but by a group called the Electoral College, the votes of individuals in their home states determine how the Electoral College ultimately votes. Registering to vote beforehand is necessary in most states, but it is usually a simple process, and many states allow registration online. (We discuss voter registration and voter turnout in more depth in a later chapter.) Voting, however, is not the only form of political engagement in which people may participate. Individuals can engage by attending political rallies, donating money to campaigns, and signing petitions. Starting a petition of one’s own is relatively easy, and some websites that encourage people to become involved in political activism provide petitions that can be circulated through email. Taking part in a poll or survey is another simple way to make your voice heard. Votes for Eighteen-Year-Olds Young Americans are often reluctant to become involved in traditional forms of political activity. They may believe politicians are not interested in what they have to say, or they may feel their votes do not matter. However, this attitude has not always prevailed. Indeed, today’s college students can vote because of the activism of college students in the 1960s. Most states at that time required citizens to be twenty-one years of age before they could vote in national elections. This angered many young people, especially young men who could be drafted to fight the war in Vietnam. They argued that it was unfair to deny eighteen-year-olds the right to vote for the people who had the power to send them to war. As a result, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age in national elections to eighteen, was ratified by the states and went into effect in 1971. Are you engaged in or at least informed about actions of the federal or local government? Are you registered to vote? How would you feel if you were not allowed to vote until age twenty-one? Some people prefer to work with groups when participating in political activities or performing service to the community. Group activities can be as simple as hosting a book club or discussion group to talk about politics. Coffee Party USA provides an online forum for people from a variety of political perspectives to discuss issues that are of concern to them. People who wish to be more active often work for political campaigns. Engaging in fundraising efforts, handing out bumper stickers and campaign buttons, helping people register to vote, and driving voters to the polls on Election Day are all important activities that anyone can engage in. Individual citizens can also join interest groups that promote the causes they favor. Getting Involved In many ways, the pluralists were right. There is plenty of room for average citizens to become active in government, whether it is through a city council subcommittee or another type of local organization. Civic organizations always need volunteers, sometimes for only a short while and sometimes for much longer. For example, Common Cause is a non-partisan organization that seeks to hold government accountable for its actions. It calls for campaign finance reform and paper verification of votes registered on electronic voting machines. Voters would then receive proof that the machine recorded their actual vote. This would help to detect faulty machines that were inaccurately tabulating votes or election fraud. Therefore, one could be sure that election results were reliable and that the winning candidate had in fact received the votes counted in their favor. Common Cause has also advocated that the Electoral College be done away with and that presidential elections be decided solely on the basis of the popular vote. Follow-up activity: Choose one of the following websites to connect with organizations and interest groups in need of help: - Common Cause; - Friends of the Earth which mobilizes people to protect the natural environment; - Grassroots International which works for global justice; - The Family Research Council which promotes traditional marriage and Judeo-Christian values; or - Eagle Forum which supports greater restrictions on immigration and fewer restrictions on home schooling. Political activity is not the only form of engagement, and many people today seek other opportunities to become involved. This is particularly true of young Americans. Although young people today often shy away from participating in traditional political activities, they do express deep concern for their communities and seek out volunteer opportunities.Jared Keller. 4 May 2015. “Young Americans are Opting Out of Politics, but Not Because They’re Cynical,” http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/young-people-are-not-so-politically-inclined. Although they may not realize it, becoming active in the community and engaging in a wide variety of community-based volunteer efforts are important forms of civic engagement and help government do its job. The demands on government are great, and funds do not always exist to enable it to undertake all the projects it may deem necessary. Even when there are sufficient funds, politicians have differing ideas regarding how much government should do and what areas it should be active in. Volunteers and community organizations help fill the gaps. Examples of community action include tending a community garden, building a house for Habitat for Humanity, cleaning up trash in a vacant lot, volunteering to deliver meals to the elderly, and tutoring children in after-school programs (Figure). Some people prefer even more active and direct forms of engagement such as protest marches and demonstrations, including civil disobedience. Such tactics were used successfully in the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and remain effective today. Likewise, the sit-ins (and sleep-ins and pray-ins) staged by African American civil rights activists, which they employed successfully to desegregate lunch counters, motels, and churches, have been adopted today by movements such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street (Figure). Other tactics, such as boycotting businesses of whose policies the activists disapproved, are also still common. Along with boycotts, there are now “buycotts,” in which consumers purchase goods and services from companies that give extensively to charity, help the communities in which they are located, or take steps to protect the environment. Many ordinary people have become political activists. Read “19 Young Activists Changing America” to learn about people who are working to make people’s lives better. Ritchie Torres In 2013, at the age of twenty-five, Ritchie Torres became the youngest member of the New York City Council and the first gay council member to represent the Bronx (Figure). Torres became interested in social justice early in his life. He was raised in poverty in the Bronx by his mother and a stepfather who left the family when Torres was twelve. The mold in his family’s public housing apartment caused him to suffer from asthma as a child, and he spent time in the hospital on more than one occasion because of it. His mother’s complaints to the New York City Housing Authority were largely ignored. In high school, Torres decided to become a lawyer, participated in mock trials, and met a young and aspiring local politician named James Vacca. After graduation, he volunteered to campaign for Vacca in his run for a seat on the City Council. After Vacca was elected, he hired Torres to serve as his housing director to reach out to the community on Vacca’s behalf. While doing so, Torres took pictures of the poor conditions in public housing and collected complaints from residents. In 2013, Torres ran for a seat on the City Council himself and won. He remains committed to improving housing for the poor.Winston Ross, “Ritchie Torres: Gay, Hispanic and Powerful,” Newsweek, 25 January 2015. Why don’t more young people run for local office as Torres did? What changes might they effect in their communities if they were elected to a government position? FACTORS OF ENGAGEMENT Many Americans engage in political activity on a regular basis. A survey conducted in 2008 revealed that approximately two-thirds of American adults had participated in some type of political action in the past year. These activities included largely non-personal activities that did not require a great deal of interaction with others, such as signing petitions, contacting elected representatives, or contributing money to campaigns.Aaron Smith et al., 1 September 2009. “The Current State of Civic Engagement in America,” http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/09/01/the-current-state-of-civic-engagement-in-america/. Americans aged 18–29 were less likely to become involved in traditional forms of political activity than older Americans. A 2015 poll of more than three thousand young adults by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics revealed that only 22 percent claimed to be politically engaged, and fewer than 10 percent said that they belonged to any type of political organization or had volunteered for a political campaign. Only slightly more said that they had gone to political rallies.Harvard Institute of Politics, “Survey of Young Americans’ Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service,” Survey, October 30, 2015–November 9, 2015. http://www.iop.harvard.edu/sites/default/files_new/pictures/151208_Harvard_IOP_Fall_2015_Topline.pdf. However, although Americans under age thirty are less likely than older Americans to engage in traditional types of political participation, many remain engaged in activities on behalf of their communities. One-third reported that they had voluntarily engaged in some form of community service in the past year.Keller, “Young Americans are Opting Out.” Why are younger Americans less likely to become involved in traditional political organizations? One answer may be that as American politics become more partisan in nature, young people turn away. Committed partisanship, which is the tendency to identify with and to support (often blindly) a particular political party, alienates some Americans who feel that elected representatives should vote in support of the nation’s best interests instead of voting in the way their party wishes them to. When elected officials ignore all factors other than their party’s position on a particular issue, some voters become disheartened while others may become polarized. However, a recent study reveals that it is a distrust of the opposing party and not an ideological commitment to their own party that is at the heart of most partisanship among voters.Marc Hetherington and Thomas Rudolph, “Why Don’t Americans Trust the Government?” The Washington Post, 30 January 2014. Young Americans are particularly likely to be put off by partisan politics. More Americans under the age of thirty now identify themselves as Independents instead of Democrats or Republicans (Figure). Instead of identifying with a particular political party, young Americans are increasingly concerned about specific issues, such as same-sex marriage.Keller, “Young Americans are Opting Out.” People whose votes are determined based on single issues are unlikely to vote according to party affiliation. The other factor involved in low youth voter turnout in the past was that younger Americans did not feel that candidates generally tackle issues relevant to their lives. When younger voters cannot relate to the issues put forth in a campaign, such as entitlements for seniors, they lose interest. This dynamic changed somewhat in 2016 as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders made college costs an issue, even promising free college tuition for undergraduates at public institutions. Senator Sanders enjoyed intense support on college campuses across the United States. After his nomination campaign failed, this young voter enthusiasm faded. Despite the fact that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton eventually took up the free tuition issue, young people did not flock to her as well as they had to Sanders. In the general election, won by Republican nominee Donald Trump, turnout was down and Clinton received a smaller proportion of the youth vote than President Obama had in 2012.Tami Luhby and Jennifer Agiesta. 8 November 2016. “Exit Polls: Clinton Fails to Energize African-Americans, Latinos and the Young, http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/08/politics/first-exit-polls-2016/. While some Americans disapprove of partisanship in general, others are put off by the ideology—established beliefs and ideals that help shape political policy—of one of the major parties. This is especially true among the young. As some members of the Republican Party have become more ideologically conservative (e.g., opposing same-sex marriage, legalization of certain drugs, immigration reform, gun control, separation of church and state, and access to abortion), those young people who do identify with one of the major parties have in recent years tended to favor the Democratic Party.Harvard Institute of Politics, “No Front-Runner among Prospective Republican Candidates,” http://iop.harvard.edu/no-front-runner-among-prospective-republican-candidates-hillary-clinton-control-democratic-primary (May 2, 2016). Of the Americans under age thirty who were surveyed by Harvard in 2015, more tended to hold a favorable opinion of Democrats in Congress than of Republicans, and 56 percent reported that they wanted the Democrats to win the presidency in 2016 (Figure). Even those young Americans who identify themselves as Republicans are more liberal on certain issues, such as being supportive of same-sex marriage and immigration reform, than are older Republicans. The young Republicans also may be more willing to see similarities between themselves and Democrats.Jocelyn Kiley and Michael Dimock. 25 September 2014. “The GOP’s Millennial Problem Runs Deep,” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/25/the-gops-millennial-problem-runs-deep/. Once again, support for the views of a particular party does not necessarily mean that someone will vote for members of that party. Other factors may keep even those college students who do wish to vote away from the polls. Because many young Americans attend colleges and universities outside of their home states, they may find it difficult to register to vote. In places where a state-issued ID is required, students may not have one or may be denied one if they cannot prove that they paid in-state tuition rates.“Keeping Students from the Polls,” New York Times, 26 December 2011. The likelihood that people will become active in politics also depends not only on age but on such factors as wealth and education. In a 2006 poll, the percentage of people who reported that they were regular voters grew as levels of income and education increased.18 October 2006. “Who Votes, Who Doesn’t, and Why,” http://www.people-press.org/2006/10/18/who-votes-who-doesnt-and-why/. Political involvement also depends on how strongly people feel about current political issues. Unfortunately, public opinion polls, which politicians may rely on when formulating policy or deciding how to vote on issues, capture only people’s latent preferences or beliefs. Latent preferences are not deeply held and do not remain the same over time. They may not even represent a person’s true feelings, since they may be formed on the spot when someone is asked a question about which he or she has no real opinion. Indeed, voting itself may reflect merely a latent preference because even people who do not feel strongly about a particular political candidate or issue vote. On the other hand, intense preferences are based on strong feelings regarding an issue that someone adheres to over time. People with intense preferences tend to become more engaged in politics; they are more likely to donate time and money to campaigns or to attend political rallies. The more money that one has and the more highly educated one is, the more likely that he or she will form intense preferences and take political action.Jonathan M. Ladd. 11 September 2015. “Don’t Worry about Special Interests,” https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2015/9/11/9279615/economic-inequality-special-interests. Summary Civic and political engagement allows politicians to know how the people feel. It also improves people’s lives and helps them to build connections with others. Individuals can educate themselves on important issues and events, write to their senator or representative, file a complaint at city hall, attend a political rally, or vote. People can also work in groups to campaign or raise funds for a candidate, volunteer in the community, or protest a social injustice or an unpopular government policy. Although wealthier, older, more highly educated citizens are the most likely to be engaged with their government, especially if they have intense preferences about an issue, younger, less wealthy people can do much to change their communities and their country. Supporting the actions of the Democratic Party simply because one identifies oneself as a member of that party is an example of ________. - partisanship - ideology - latent preference - social capital When a person is asked a question about a political issue that he or she has little interest in and has not thought much about, that person’s answer will likely reflect ________. - ideology - partisanship - intense preferences - latent preferences Hint: D What kinds of people are most likely to become active in politics or community service? What political activities can people engage in other than running for office? Hint: People can pay attention to the news in order to be aware of the most important issues of the day. They can contribute money to a campaign or attend a rally in support of a political candidate whose views they favor. They can write letters to members of Congress and to state and local politicians. They can vote. Is citizen engagement necessary for a democracy to function? Explain. Which is the more important reason for being engaged: to gain power or improve the quality of life? Why? Are all Americans equally able to become engaged in government? What factors make it more possible for some people to become engaged than others? What could be done to change this? Which pathways of engagement in U.S. government do you plan to follow? Why do you prefer these approaches? Are there any redeeming qualities to elitism and any downsides to pluralism? Are there benefits to having elites rule? Are there problems with allowing interest groups to exercise influence over government? Explain. Books: Dahl, Robert A. 1991. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ———. 1961. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Dolan, Julie, Melissa M. Deckman, and Michele L. Swers. 2015. Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Mills, C. Wright. 1956. The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press. Olson, Mancur. 1971. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Putnam, Robert D. 2001. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Films: 1949. All the King’s Men. 1976. All the President’s Men. 1972. The Candidate. 2007. Charlie Wilson’s War. 2008. Frost/Nixon. 1933. Gabriel over the White House. 2008. Milk. 1939. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:51.995365	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15196/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15197/overview	Introduction Overview - The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition - The Articles of Confederation - The Development of the Constitution - The Ratification of the Constitution - Constitutional Change The U.S. Constitution, see Figure, is one of the world’s most enduring symbols of democracy. It is also the oldest, and shortest, written constitutions of the modern era still in existence. Its writing was by no means inevitable, however. Indeed, in many ways the Constitution was not the beginning but rather the culmination of American (and British) political thought about government power as well as a blueprint for the future. It is tempting to think of the framers of the Constitution as a group of like-minded men aligned in their lofty thinking regarding rights and freedoms. This assumption makes it hard to oppose constitutional principles in modern-day politics because people admire the longevity of the Constitution and like to consider its ideals above petty partisan politics. However, the Constitution was designed largely out of necessity following the failure of the first revolutionary government, and it featured a series of pragmatic compromises among its disparate stakeholders. It is therefore quite appropriate that more than 225 years later the U.S. government still requires compromise to function properly. How did the Constitution come to be written? What compromises were needed to ensure the ratification that made it into law? This chapter addresses these questions and also describes why the Constitution remains a living, changing document.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.011963	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15197/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15198/overview	The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the origins of the core values in American political thought, including ideas regarding representational government - Summarize Great Britain’s actions leading to the American Revolution American political ideas regarding liberty and self-government did not suddenly emerge full-blown at the moment the colonists declared their independence from Britain. The varied strands of what became the American republic had many roots, reaching far back in time and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Indeed, it was not new ideas but old ones that led the colonists to revolt and form a new nation. POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES The beliefs and attitudes that led to the call for independence had long been an important part of colonial life. Of all the political thinkers who influenced American beliefs about government, the most important is surely John Locke (Figure). The most significant contributions of Locke, a seventeenth-century English philosopher, were his ideas regarding the relationship between government and natural rights, which were believed to be God-given rights to life, liberty, and property. Locke was not the first Englishman to suggest that people had rights. The British government had recognized its duty to protect the lives, liberties, and property of English citizens long before the settling of its North American colonies. In 1215, King John signed Magna Carta—a promise to his subjects that he and future monarchs would refrain from certain actions that harmed, or had the potential to harm, the people of England. Prominent in Magna Carta’s many provisions are protections for life, liberty, and property. For example, one of the document’s most famous clauses promises, “No freemen shall be taken, imprisoned . . . or in any way destroyed . . . except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” Although it took a long time for modern ideas regarding due process to form, this clause lays the foundation for the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. While Magna Carta was intended to grant protections only to the English barons who were in revolt against King John in 1215, by the time of the American Revolution, English subjects, both in England and in North America, had come to regard the document as a cornerstone of liberty for men of all stations—a right that had been recognized by King John I in 1215, but the people had actually possessed long before then. The rights protected by Magna Carta had been granted by the king, and, in theory, a future king or queen could take them away. The natural rights Locke described, however, had been granted by God and thus could never be abolished by human beings, even royal ones, or by the institutions they created. So committed were the British to the protection of these natural rights that when the royal Stuart dynasty began to intrude upon them in the seventeenth century, Parliament removed King James II, already disliked because he was Roman Catholic, in the Glorious Revolution and invited his Protestant daughter and her husband to rule the nation. Before offering the throne to William and Mary, however, Parliament passed the English Bill of Rights in 1689. A bill of rights is a list of the liberties and protections possessed by a nation’s citizens. The English Bill of Rights, heavily influenced by Locke’s ideas, enumerated the rights of English citizens and explicitly guaranteed rights to life, liberty, and property. This document would profoundly influence the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. American colonists also shared Locke’s concept of property rights. According to Locke, anyone who invested labor in the commons—the land, forests, water, animals, and other parts of nature that were free for the taking—might take as much of these as needed, by cutting trees, for example, or building a fence around a field. The only restriction was that no one could take so much that others were deprived of their right to take from the commons as well. In the colonists’ eyes, all free white males should have the right to acquire property, and once it had been acquired, government had the duty to protect it. (The rights of women remained greatly limited for many more years.) Perhaps the most important of Locke’s ideas that influenced the British settlers of North America were those regarding the origins and purpose of government. Most Europeans of the time believed the institution of monarchy had been created by God, and kings and queens had been divinely appointed to rule. Locke, however, theorized that human beings, not God, had created government. People sacrificed a small portion of their freedom and consented to be ruled in exchange for the government’s protection of their lives, liberty, and property. Locke called this implicit agreement between a people and their government the social contract. Should government deprive people of their rights by abusing the power given to it, the contract was broken and the people were no longer bound by its terms. The people could thus withdraw their consent to obey and form another government for their protection. The belief that government should not deprive people of their liberties and should be restricted in its power over citizens’ lives was an important factor in the controversial decision by the American colonies to declare independence from England in 1776. For Locke, withdrawing consent to be ruled by an established government and forming a new one meant replacing one monarch with another. For those colonists intent on rebelling, however, it meant establishing a new nation and creating a new government, one that would be greatly limited in the power it could exercise over the people. The desire to limit the power of government is closely related to the belief that people should govern themselves. This core tenet of American political thought was rooted in a variety of traditions. First, the British government did allow for a degree of self-government. Laws were made by Parliament, and property-owning males were allowed to vote for representatives to Parliament. Thus, Americans were accustomed to the idea of representative government from the beginning. For instance, Virginia established its House of Burgesses in 1619. Upon their arrival in North America a year later, the English Separatists who settled the Plymouth Colony, commonly known as the Pilgrims, promptly authored the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to govern themselves according to the laws created by the male voters of the colony.Nathaniel Philbrick. 2006. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. New York: Penguin, 41. By the eighteenth century, all the colonies had established legislatures to which men were elected to make the laws for their fellow colonists. When American colonists felt that this longstanding tradition of representative self-government was threatened by the actions of Parliament and the King, the American Revolution began. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The American Revolution began when a small and vocal group of colonists became convinced the king and Parliament were abusing them and depriving them of their rights. By 1776, they had been living under the rule of the British government for more than a century, and England had long treated the thirteen colonies with a degree of benign neglect. Each colony had established its own legislature. Taxes imposed by England were low, and property ownership was more widespread than in England. People readily proclaimed their loyalty to the king. For the most part, American colonists were proud to be British citizens and had no desire to form an independent nation. All this began to change in 1763 when the Seven Years War between Great Britain and France came to an end, and Great Britain gained control of most of the French territory in North America. The colonists had fought on behalf of Britain, and many colonists expected that after the war they would be allowed to settle on land west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been taken from France. However, their hopes were not realized. Hoping to prevent conflict with Indian tribes in the Ohio Valley, Parliament passed the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade the colonists to purchase land or settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.François Furstenberg. 2008. “The Significance of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier in Atlantic History,” The American Historical Review 113 (3): 654. To pay its debts from the war and maintain the troops it left behind to protect the colonies, the British government had to take new measures to raise revenue. Among the acts passed by Parliament were laws requiring American colonists to pay British merchants with gold and silver instead of paper currency and a mandate that suspected smugglers be tried in vice-admiralty courts, without jury trials. What angered the colonists most of all, however, was the imposition of direct taxes: taxes imposed on individuals instead of on transactions. Because the colonists had not consented to direct taxation, their primary objection was that it reduced their status as free men. The right of the people or their representatives to consent to taxation was enshrined in both Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. Taxes were imposed by the House of Commons, one of the two houses of the British Parliament. The North American colonists, however, were not allowed to elect representatives to that body. In their eyes, taxation by representatives they had not voted for was a denial of their rights. Members of the House of Commons and people living in England had difficulty understanding this argument. All British subjects had to obey the laws passed by Parliament, including the requirement to pay taxes. Those who were not allowed to vote, such as women and blacks, were considered to have virtual representation in the British legislature; representatives elected by those who could vote made laws on behalf of those who could not. Many colonists, however, maintained that anything except direct representation was a violation of their rights as English subjects. The first such tax to draw the ire of colonists was the Stamp Act, passed in 1765, which required that almost all paper goods, such as diplomas, land deeds, contracts, and newspapers, have revenue stamps placed on them. The outcry was so great that the new tax was quickly withdrawn, but its repeal was soon followed by a series of other tax acts, such as the Townshend Acts (1767), which imposed taxes on many everyday objects such as glass, tea, and paint. The taxes imposed by the Townshend Acts were as poorly received by the colonists as the Stamp Act had been. The Massachusetts legislature sent a petition to the king asking for relief from the taxes and requested that other colonies join in a boycott of British manufactured goods. British officials threatened to suspend the legislatures of colonies that engaged in a boycott and, in response to a request for help from Boston’s customs collector, sent a warship to the city in 1768. A few months later, British troops arrived, and on the evening of March 5, 1770, an altercation erupted outside the customs house. Shots rang out as the soldiers fired into the crowd (Figure). Several people were hit; three died immediately. Britain had taxed the colonists without their consent. Now, British soldiers had taken colonists’ lives. Following this event, later known as the Boston Massacre, resistance to British rule grew, especially in the colony of Massachusetts. In December 1773, a group of Boston men boarded a ship in Boston harbor and threw its cargo of tea, owned by the British East India Company, into the water to protest British policies, including the granting of a monopoly on tea to the British East India Company, which many colonial merchants resented.Bernhard Knollenberg. 1975. Growth of the American Revolution: 1766-1775. New York: Free Press, 95-96. This act of defiance became known as the Boston Tea Party. Today, many who do not agree with the positions of the Democratic or the Republican Party have organized themselves into an oppositional group dubbed the Tea Party (Figure). In the early months of 1774, Parliament responded to this latest act of colonial defiance by passing a series of laws called the Coercive Acts, intended to punish Boston for leading resistance to British rule and to restore order in the colonies. These acts virtually abolished town meetings in Massachusetts and otherwise interfered with the colony’s ability to govern itself. This assault on Massachusetts and its economy enraged people throughout the colonies, and delegates from all the colonies except Georgia formed the First Continental Congress to create a unified opposition to Great Britain. Among other things, members of the institution developed a declaration of rights and grievances. In May 1775, delegates met again in the Second Continental Congress. By this time, war with Great Britain had already begun, following skirmishes between colonial militiamen and British troops at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Congress drafted a Declaration of Causes explaining the colonies’ reasons for rebellion. On July 2, 1776, Congress declared American independence from Britain and two days later signed the Declaration of Independence. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence officially proclaimed the colonies’ separation from Britain. In it, Jefferson eloquently laid out the reasons for rebellion. God, he wrote, had given everyone the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. People had created governments to protect these rights and consented to be governed by them so long as government functioned as intended. However, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Britain had deprived the colonists of their rights. The king had “establish[ed] . . . an absolute Tyranny over these States.” Just as their English forebears had removed King James II from the throne in 1689, the colonists now wished to establish a new rule. Jefferson then proceeded to list the many ways in which the British monarch had abused his power and failed in his duties to his subjects. The king, Jefferson charged, had taxed the colonists without the consent of their elected representatives, interfered with their trade, denied them the right to trial by jury, and deprived them of their right to self-government. Such intrusions on their rights could not be tolerated. With their signing of the Declaration of Independence (Figure), the founders of the United States committed themselves to the creation of a new kind of government. Thomas Jefferson explains in the Declaration of Independence why many colonists felt the need to form a new nation. His evocation of the natural rights of man and his list of grievances against the king also served as the model for the Declaration of Sentiments that was written in 1848 in favor of giving women in the United States rights equal to those of men. View both documents and compare. For many years the British colonists in North America had peacefully accepted rule by the king and Parliament. They were proud to be Englishmen. Much of their pride, however, stemmed from their belief that they were heirs to a tradition of limited government and royal acknowledgement of the rights of their subjects. Colonists’ pride in their English liberties gave way to dismay when they perceived that these liberties were being abused. People had come to regard life, liberty, and property not as gifts from the monarch but as natural rights no government could take away. A chain of incidents—the Proclamation of 1763, the trial of smugglers in courts without juries, the imposition of taxes without the colonists’ consent, and the attempted interference with self-government in the colonies—convinced many colonists that the social contract between the British government and its citizens had been broken. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared American independence from Great Britain. British colonists in North America in the late seventeenth century were greatly influenced by the political thought of ________. - King James II - Thomas Jefferson - John Locke - James Madison Hint: C The agreement that citizens will consent to be governed so long as government protects their natural rights is called ________. - the divine right of kings - the social contract - a bill of rights - due process What key tenets of American political thought were influential in the decision to declare independence from Britain? Hint: Americans believed all people (i.e., white males) possessed the rights to life, liberty, and property. The best way to protect these rights was by limiting the power of government and allowing people to govern themselves. What actions by the British government convinced the colonists that they needed to declare their independence?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.038304	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15198/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15199/overview	The Articles of Confederation Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the steps taken during and after the American Revolution to create a government - Identify the main features of the Articles of Confederation - Describe the crises resulting from key features of the Articles of Confederation Waging a successful war against Great Britain required that the individual colonies, now sovereign states that often distrusted one another, form a unified nation with a central government capable of directing the country’s defense. Gaining recognition and aid from foreign nations would also be easier if the new United States had a national government able to borrow money and negotiate treaties. Accordingly, the Second Continental Congress called upon its delegates to create a new government strong enough to win the country’s independence but not so powerful that it would deprive people of the very liberties for which they were fighting. PUTTING A NEW GOVERNMENT IN PLACE The final draft of the Articles of Confederation, which formed the basis of the new nation’s government, was accepted by Congress in November 1777 and submitted to the states for ratification. It would not become the law of the land until all thirteen states had approved it. Within two years, all except Maryland had done so. Maryland argued that all territory west of the Appalachians, to which some states had laid claim, should instead be held by the national government as public land for the benefit of all the states. When the last of these states, Virginia, relinquished its land claims in early 1781, Maryland approved the Articles.Stuart Bruchey. 1990. Enterprise: The Dynamic Economy of a Free People. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 223. A few months later, the British surrendered. Americans wished their new government to be a republic, a regime in which the people, not a monarch, held power and elected representatives to govern according to the rule of law. Many, however, feared that a nation as large as the United States could not be ruled effectively as a republic. Many also worried that even a government of representatives elected by the people might become too powerful and overbearing. Thus, a confederation was created—an entity in which independent, self-governing states form a union for the purpose of acting together in areas such as defense. Fearful of replacing one oppressive national government with another, however, the framers of the Articles of Confederation created an alliance of sovereign states held together by a weak central government. View the Articles of Confederation at the National Archives. The timeline for drafting and ratifying the Articles of Confederation is available at the Library of Congress. Following the Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen states had drafted and ratified a constitution providing for a republican form of government in which political power rested in the hands of the people, although the right to vote was limited to free (white) men, and the property requirements for voting differed among the states. Each state had a governor and an elected legislature. In the new nation, the states remained free to govern their residents as they wished. The central government had authority to act in only a few areas, such as national defense, in which the states were assumed to have a common interest (and would, indeed, have to supply militias). This arrangement was meant to prevent the national government from becoming too powerful or abusing the rights of individual citizens. In the careful balance between power for the national government and liberty for the states, the Articles of Confederation favored the states. Thus, powers given to the central government were severely limited. The Confederation Congress, formerly the Continental Congress, had the authority to exchange ambassadors and make treaties with foreign governments and Indian tribes, declare war, coin currency and borrow money, and settle disputes between states. Each state legislature appointed delegates to the Congress; these men could be recalled at any time. Regardless of its size or the number of delegates it chose to send, each state would have only one vote. Delegates could serve for no more than three consecutive years, lest a class of elite professional politicians develop. The nation would have no independent chief executive or judiciary. Nine votes were required before the central government could act, and the Articles of Confederation could be changed only by unanimous approval of all thirteen states. WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE ARTICLES? The Articles of Confederation satisfied the desire of those in the new nation who wanted a weak central government with limited power. Ironically, however, their very success led to their undoing. It soon became apparent that, while they protected the sovereignty of the states, the Articles had created a central government too weak to function effectively. One of the biggest problems was that the national government had no power to impose taxes. To avoid any perception of “taxation without representation,” the Articles of Confederation allowed only state governments to levy taxes. To pay for its expenses, the national government had to request money from the states, which were required to provide funds in proportion to the value of the land within their borders. The states, however, were often negligent in this duty, and the national government was underfunded. Without money, it could not pay debts owed from the Revolution and had trouble conducting foreign affairs. For example, the inability of the U.S. government to raise sufficient funds to compensate colonists who had remained loyal to Great Britain for their property losses during and after the American Revolution was one of the reasons the British refused to evacuate the land west of the Appalachians. The new nation was also unable to protect American ships from attacks by the Barbary pirates.Joseph J. Ellis. 2015. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789. New York: Knopf, 92. Foreign governments were also, understandably, reluctant to loan money to a nation that might never repay it because it lacked the ability to tax its citizens. The fiscal problems of the central government meant that the currency it issued, called the Continental, was largely worthless and people were reluctant to use it. Furthermore, while the Articles of Confederation had given the national government the power to coin money, they had not prohibited the states from doing so as well. As a result, numerous state banks issued their own banknotes, which had the same problems as the Continental. People who were unfamiliar with the reputation of the banks that had issued the banknotes often refused to accept them as currency. This reluctance, together with the overwhelming debts of the states, crippled the young nation’s economy. The country’s economic woes were made worse by the fact that the central government also lacked the power to impose tariffs on foreign imports or regulate interstate commerce. Thus, it was unable to prevent British merchants from flooding the U.S. market with low-priced goods after the Revolution, and American producers suffered from the competition. Compounding the problem, states often imposed tariffs on items produced by other states and otherwise interfered with their neighbors’ trade. The national government also lacked the power to raise an army or navy. Fears of a standing army in the employ of a tyrannical government had led the writers of the Articles of Confederation to leave defense largely to the states. Although the central government could declare war and agree to peace, it had to depend upon the states to provide soldiers. If state governors chose not to honor the national government’s request, the country would lack an adequate defense. This was quite dangerous at a time when England and Spain still controlled large portions of North America (Table). \| Problems with the Articles of Confederation \| \| \|---\|---\| \| Weakness of the Articles of Confederation \| Why Was This a Problem? \| \| The national government could not impose taxes on citizens. It could only request money from the states. \| Requests for money were usually not honored. As a result, the national government did not have money to pay for national defense or fulfill its other responsibilities. \| \| The national government could not regulate foreign trade or interstate commerce. \| The government could not prevent foreign countries from hurting American competitors by shipping inexpensive products to the United States. It could not prevent states from passing laws that interfered with domestic trade. \| \| The national government could not raise an army. It had to request the states to send men. \| State governments could choose not to honor Congress’s request for troops. This would make it hard to defend the nation. \| \| Each state had only one vote in Congress regardless of its size. \| Populous states were less well represented. \| \| The Articles could not be changed without a unanimous vote to do so. \| Problems with the Articles could not be easily fixed. \| \| There was no national judicial system. \| Judiciaries are important enforcers of national government power. \| The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, already recognized by many, became apparent to all as a result of an uprising of Massachusetts farmers, led by Daniel Shays. Known as Shays’ Rebellion, the incident panicked the governor of Massachusetts, who called upon the national government for assistance. However, with no power to raise an army, the government had no troops at its disposal. After several months, Massachusetts crushed the uprising with the help of local militias and privately funded armies, but wealthy people were frightened by this display of unrest on the part of poor men and by similar incidents taking place in other states.David P. Szatmary. 1980. Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 84-86, 102-104. To find a solution and resolve problems related to commerce, members of Congress called for a revision of the Articles of Confederation. Shays’ Rebellion: Symbol of Disorder and Impetus to Act In the summer of 1786, farmers in western Massachusetts were heavily in debt, facing imprisonment and the loss of their lands. They owed taxes that had gone unpaid while they were away fighting the British during the Revolution. The Continental Congress had promised to pay them for their service, but the national government did not have sufficient money. Moreover, the farmers were unable to meet the onerous new tax burden Massachusetts imposed in order to pay its own debts from the Revolution. Led by Daniel Shays (Figure), the heavily indebted farmers marched to a local courthouse demanding relief. Faced with the refusal of many Massachusetts militiamen to arrest the rebels, with whom they sympathized, Governor James Bowdoin called upon the national government for aid, but none was available. The uprising was finally brought to an end the following year by a privately funded militia after the protestors’ unsuccessful attempt to raid the Springfield Armory. Were Shays and his followers justified in their attacks on the government of Massachusetts? What rights might they have sought to protect? Fearful of creating a system so powerful that it might abuse its citizens, the men who drafted the Articles of Confederation deliberately sought to limit the powers of the national government. The states maintained the right to govern their residents, while the national government could declare war, coin money, and conduct foreign affairs but little else. Its inability to impose taxes, regulate commerce, or raise an army hindered its ability to defend the nation or pay its debts. A solution had to be found. What important power did the national government lack under the Articles of Confederation? - It could not coin money. - It could not declare war. - It could not impose taxes. - It could not conduct foreign affairs. Hint: C In what ways did Shays’ Rebellion reveal the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.064584	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15199/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15200/overview	The Development of the Constitution Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the conflicts present and the compromises reached in drafting the Constitution - Summarize the core features of the structure of U.S. government under the Constitution In 1786, Virginia and Maryland invited delegates from the other eleven states to meet in Annapolis, Maryland, for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, only five states sent representatives. Because all thirteen states had to agree to any alteration of the Articles, the convention in Annapolis could not accomplish its goal. Two of the delegates, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, requested that all states send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia the following year to attempt once again to revise the Articles of Confederation. All the states except Rhode Island chose delegates to send to the meeting, a total of seventy men in all, but many did not attend. Among those not in attendance were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom were overseas representing the country as diplomats. Because the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation proved impossible to overcome, the convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787 decided to create an entirely new government. POINTS OF CONTENTION Fifty-five delegates arrived in Philadelphia in May 1787 for the meeting that became known as the Constitutional Convention. Many wanted to strengthen the role and authority of the national government but feared creating a central government that was too powerful. They wished to preserve state autonomy, although not to a degree that prevented the states from working together collectively or made them entirely independent of the will of the national government. While seeking to protect the rights of individuals from government abuse, they nevertheless wished to create a society in which concerns for law and order did not give way in the face of demands for individual liberty. They wished to give political rights to all free men but also feared mob rule, which many felt would have been the result of Shays’ Rebellion had it succeeded. Delegates from small states did not want their interests pushed aside by delegations from more populous states like Virginia. And everyone was concerned about slavery. Representatives from southern states worried that delegates from states where it had been or was being abolished might try to outlaw the institution. Those who favored a nation free of the influence of slavery feared that southerners might attempt to make it a permanent part of American society. The only decision that all could agree on was the election of George Washington, the former commander of the Continental Army and hero of the American Revolution, as the president of the convention. The Question of Representation: Small States vs. Large States One of the first differences among the delegates to become clear was between those from large states, such as New York and Virginia, and those who represented small states, like Delaware. When discussing the structure of the government under the new constitution, the delegates from Virginia called for a bicameral legislature consisting of two houses. The number of a state’s representatives in each house was to be based on the state’s population. In each state, representatives in the lower house would be elected by popular vote. These representatives would then select their state’s representatives in the upper house from among candidates proposed by the state’s legislature. Once a representative’s term in the legislature had ended, the representative could not be reelected until an unspecified amount of time had passed. Delegates from small states objected to this Virginia Plan. Another proposal, the New Jersey Plan, called for a unicameral legislature with one house, in which each state would have one vote. Thus, smaller states would have the same power in the national legislature as larger states. However, the larger states argued that because they had more residents, they should be allotted more legislators to represent their interests (Figure). Slavery and Freedom Another fundamental division separated the states. Following the Revolution, some of the northern states had either abolished slavery or instituted plans by which slaves would gradually be emancipated. Pennsylvania, for example, had passed the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1780. All people born in the state to enslaved mothers after the law’s passage would become indentured servants to be set free at age twenty-eight. In 1783, Massachusetts had freed all enslaved people within the state. Many Americans believed slavery was opposed to the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence. Others felt it was inconsistent with the teachings of Christianity. Some feared for the safety of the country’s white population if the number of slaves and white Americans’ reliance on them increased. Although some southerners shared similar sentiments, none of the southern states had abolished slavery and none wanted the Constitution to interfere with the institution. In addition to supporting the agriculture of the South, slaves could be taxed as property and counted as population for purposes of a state’s representation in the government. Federal Supremacy vs. State Sovereignty Perhaps the greatest division among the states split those who favored a strong national government and those who favored limiting its powers and allowing states to govern themselves in most matters. Supporters of a strong central government argued that it was necessary for the survival and efficient functioning of the new nation. Without the authority to maintain and command an army and navy, the nation could not defend itself at a time when European powers still maintained formidable empires in North America. Without the power to tax and regulate trade, the government would not have enough money to maintain the nation’s defense, protect American farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition, create the infrastructure necessary for interstate commerce and communications, maintain foreign embassies, or pay federal judges and other government officials. Furthermore, other countries would be reluctant to loan money to the United States if the federal government lacked the ability to impose taxes in order to repay its debts. Besides giving more power to populous states, the Virginia Plan also favored a strong national government that would legislate for the states in many areas and would have the power to veto laws passed by state legislatures. Others, however, feared that a strong national government might become too powerful and use its authority to oppress citizens and deprive them of their rights. They advocated a central government with sufficient authority to defend the nation but insisted that other powers be left to the states, which were believed to be better able to understand and protect the needs and interests of their residents. Such delegates approved the approach of the New Jersey Plan, which retained the unicameral Congress that had existed under the Articles of Confederation. It gave additional power to the national government, such as the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce and to compel states to comply with laws passed by Congress. However, states still retained a lot of power, including power over the national government. Congress, for example, could not impose taxes without the consent of the states. Furthermore, the nation’s chief executive, appointed by the Congress, could be removed by Congress if state governors demanded it. Individual Liberty vs. Social Stability The belief that the king and Parliament had deprived colonists of their liberties had led to the Revolution, and many feared the government of the United States might one day attempt to do the same. They wanted and expected their new government to guarantee the rights of life, liberty, and property. Others believed it was more important for the national government to maintain order, and this might require it to limit personal liberty at times. All Americans, however, desired that the government not intrude upon people’s rights to life, liberty, and property without reason. COMPROMISE AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Beginning in May 1787 and throughout the long, hot Philadelphia summer, the delegations from twelve states discussed, debated, and finally—after compromising many times—by September had worked out a new blueprint for the nation. The document they created, the U.S. Constitution, was an ingenious instrument that allayed fears of a too-powerful central government and solved the problems that had beleaguered the national government under the Articles of Confederation. For the most part, it also resolved the conflicts between small and large states, northern and southern states, and those who favored a strong federal government and those who argued for state sovereignty. The closest thing to minutes of the Constitutional Convention is the collection of James Madison’s letters and notes about the proceedings in Philadelphia. Several such letters and notes may be found at the Library of Congress’s American Memory project. The Great Compromise The Constitution consists of a preamble and seven articles. The first three articles divide the national government into three branches—Congress, the executive branch, and the federal judiciary—and describe the powers and responsibilities of each. In Article I, ten sections describe the structure of Congress, the basis for representation and the requirements for serving in Congress, the length of Congressional terms, and the powers of Congress. The national legislature created by the article reflects the compromises reached by the delegates regarding such issues as representation, slavery, and national power. After debating at length over whether the Virginia Plan or the New Jersey Plan provided the best model for the nation’s legislature, the framers of the Constitution had ultimately arrived at what is called the Great Compromise, suggested by Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Congress, it was decided, would consist of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state, regardless of size, would have two senators, making for equal representation as in the New Jersey Plan. Representation in the House would be based on population. Senators were to be appointed by state legislatures, a variation on the Virginia Plan. Members of the House of Representatives would be popularly elected by the voters in each state. Elected members of the House would be limited to two years in office before having to seek reelection, and those appointed to the Senate by each state’s political elite would serve a term of six years. Congress was given great power, including the power to tax, maintain an army and a navy, and regulate trade and commerce. Congress had authority that the national government lacked under the Articles of Confederation. It could also coin and borrow money, grant patents and copyrights, declare war, and establish laws regulating naturalization and bankruptcy. While legislation could be proposed by either chamber of Congress, it had to pass both chambers by a majority vote before being sent to the president to be signed into law, and all bills to raise revenue had to begin in the House of Representatives. Only those men elected by the voters to represent them could impose taxes upon them. There would be no more taxation without representation. The Three-Fifths Compromise and the Debates over Slavery The Great Compromise that determined the structure of Congress soon led to another debate, however. When states took a census of their population for the purpose of allotting House representatives, should slaves be counted? Southern states were adamant that they should be, while delegates from northern states were vehemently opposed, arguing that representatives from southern states could not represent the interests of enslaved people. If slaves were not counted, however, southern states would have far fewer representatives in the House than northern states did. For example, if South Carolina were allotted representatives based solely on its free population, it would receive only half the number it would have received if slaves, who made up approximately 43 percent of the population, were included.U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. 1790. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: Department of Commerce. The Three-Fifths Compromise, illustrated in Figure, resolved the impasse, although not in a manner that truly satisfied anyone. For purposes of Congressional apportionment, slaveholding states were allowed to count all their free population, including free African Americans and 60 percent (three-fifths) of their enslaved population. To mollify the north, the compromise also allowed counting 60 percent of a state’s slave population for federal taxation, although no such taxes were ever collected. Another compromise regarding the institution of slavery granted Congress the right to impose taxes on imports in exchange for a twenty-year prohibition on laws attempting to ban the importation of slaves to the United States, which would hurt the economy of southern states more than that of northern states. Because the southern states, especially South Carolina, had made it clear they would leave the convention if abolition were attempted, no serious effort was made by the framers to abolish slavery in the new nation, even though many delegates disapproved of the institution. Indeed, the Constitution contained two protections for slavery. Article I postponed the abolition of the foreign slave trade until 1808, and in the interim, those in slaveholding states were allowed to import as many slaves as they wished.U.S. Const. art. I, § 9. Furthermore, the Constitution placed no restrictions on the domestic slave trade, so residents of one state could still sell enslaved people to other states. Article IV of the Constitution—which, among other things, required states to return fugitives to the states where they had been charged with crimes—also prevented slaves from gaining their freedom by escaping to states where slavery had been abolished. Clause 3 of Article IV (known as the fugitive slave clause) allowed slave owners to reclaim their human property in the states where slaves had fled.U.S. Const. art. IV, § 2. Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances Although debates over slavery and representation in Congress occupied many at the convention, the chief concern was the challenge of increasing the authority of the national government while ensuring that it did not become too powerful. The framers resolved this problem through a separation of powers, dividing the national government into three separate branches and assigning different responsibilities to each one, as shown in Figure. They also created a system of checks and balances by giving each of three branches of government the power to restrict the actions of the others, thus requiring them to work together. Congress was given the power to make laws, but the executive branch, consisting of the president and the vice president, and the federal judiciary, notably the Supreme Court, were created to, respectively, enforce laws and try cases arising under federal law. Neither of these branches had existed under the Articles of Confederation. Thus, Congress can pass laws, but its power to do so can be checked by the president, who can veto potential legislation so that it cannot become a law. Later, in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court established its own authority to rule on the constitutionality of laws, a process called judicial review. Other examples of checks and balances include the ability of Congress to limit the president’s veto. Should the president veto a bill passed by both houses of Congress, the bill is returned to Congress to be voted on again. If the bill passes both the House of Representatives and the Senate with a two-thirds vote in its favor, it becomes law even though the president has refused to sign it. Congress is also able to limit the president’s power as commander-in-chief of the armed forces by refusing to declare war or provide funds for the military. To date, the Congress has never refused a president’s request for a declaration of war. The president must also seek the advice and consent of the Senate before appointing members of the Supreme Court and ambassadors, and the Senate must approve the ratification of all treaties signed by the president. Congress may even remove the president from office. To do this, both chambers of Congress must work together. The House of Representatives impeaches the president by bringing formal charges against him or her, and the Senate tries the case in a proceeding overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The president is removed from office if found guilty. According to political scientist Richard Neustadt, the system of separation of powers and checks and balances does not so much allow one part of government to control another as it encourages the branches to cooperate. Instead of a true separation of powers, the Constitutional Convention “created a government of separated institutions sharing powers.”R. E. Neustadt. 1960. Presidential Power and the Politics of Leadership. New York: Wiley, 33. For example, knowing the president can veto a law he or she disapproves, Congress will attempt to draft a bill that addresses the president’s concerns before sending it to the White House for signing. Similarly, knowing that Congress can override a veto, the president will use this power sparingly. Federal Power vs. State Power The strongest guarantee that the power of the national government would be restricted and the states would retain a degree of sovereignty was the framers’ creation of a federal system of government. In a federal system, power is divided between the federal (or national) government and the state governments. Great or explicit powers, called enumerated powers, were granted to the federal government to declare war, impose taxes, coin and regulate currency, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, raise and maintain an army and a navy, maintain a post office, make treaties with foreign nations and with Native American tribes, and make laws regulating the naturalization of immigrants. All powers not expressly given to the national government, however, were intended to be exercised by the states. These powers are known as reserved powers (Figure). Thus, states remained free to pass laws regarding such things as intrastate commerce (commerce within the borders of a state) and marriage. Some powers, such as the right to levy taxes, were given to both the state and federal governments. Both the states and the federal government have a chief executive to enforce the laws (a governor and the president, respectively) and a system of courts. Although the states retained a considerable degree of sovereignty, the supremacy clause in Article VI of the Constitution proclaimed that the Constitution, laws passed by Congress, and treaties made by the federal government were “the supreme Law of the Land.” In the event of a conflict between the states and the national government, the national government would triumph. Furthermore, although the federal government was to be limited to those powers enumerated in the Constitution, Article I provided for the expansion of Congressional powers if needed. The “necessary and proper” clause of Article I provides that Congress may “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing [enumerated] Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.” The Constitution also gave the federal government control over all “Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” This would prove problematic when, as the United States expanded westward and population growth led to an increase in the power of the northern states in Congress, the federal government sought to restrict the expansion of slavery into newly acquired territories. A growing number of institutes and study centers focus on the Constitution and the founding of the republic. Examples such as the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage and the Bill of Rights Institute have informative public websites with documents and videos. Another example is the National Constitution Center that also holds programs related to aspects of the enduring U.S. Constitution. Realizing that flaws in the Articles of Confederation could harm the new country and recognizing that the Articles could not easily be revised as originally intended, delegates from the states who met in Philadelphia from May through September 1787 set about drafting a new governing document. The United States that emerged from the Constitutional Convention in September was not a confederation, but it was a republic whose national government had been strengthened greatly. Congress had been transformed into a bicameral legislature with additional powers, and a national judicial system had been created. Most importantly, a federal system had been established with the power to govern the new country. To satisfy the concerns of those who feared an overly strong central government, the framers of the Constitution created a system with separation of powers and checks and balances. Although such measures satisfied many, concerns still lingered that the federal government remained too powerful. According to the Great Compromise, how would representation in Congress be apportioned? - Each state would have equal representation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. - Congress would be a unicameral legislature with each state receiving equal representation. - Representation in the House of Representatives would be based on each state’s population and every state would have two senators. - Representation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate would be based on a state’s population. Hint: C How did the delegates to the Constitutional Convention resolve their disagreement regarding slavery? - It was agreed that Congress would abolish slavery in 1850. - It was agreed that a state’s slave population would be counted for purposes of representation but not for purposes of taxation. - It was agreed that a state’s slave population would be counted for purposes of taxation but not for purposes of representation. - It was agreed that 60 percent of a state’s slave population would be counted for purposes of both representation and taxation. What does separation of powers mean? Hint: Separation of powers refers to the process of dividing government into different branches and giving different responsibilities and powers to each branch. In this way, the separate branches must work together to govern the nation. For example, according to the Constitution, Congress has the power to draft legislation. However, the president must sign a piece of proposed legislation before it becomes a law. Thus, the president and Congress must work together to make the nation’s laws.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.096370	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15200/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15201/overview	The Ratification of the Constitution Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the steps required to ratify the Constitution - Describe arguments the framers raised in support of a strong national government and counterpoints raised by the Anti-Federalists On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia voted to approve the document they had drafted over the course of many months. Some did not support it, but the majority did. Before it could become the law of the land, however, the Constitution faced another hurdle. It had to be ratified by the states. THE RATIFICATION PROCESS Article VII, the final article of the Constitution, required that before the Constitution could become law and a new government could form, the document had to be ratified by nine of the thirteen states. Eleven days after the delegates at the Philadelphia convention approved it, copies of the Constitution were sent to each of the states, which were to hold ratifying conventions to either accept or reject it. This approach to ratification was an unusual one. Since the authority inherent in the Articles of Confederation and the Confederation Congress had rested on the consent of the states, changes to the nation’s government should also have been ratified by the state legislatures. Instead, by calling upon state legislatures to hold ratification conventions to approve the Constitution, the framers avoided asking the legislators to approve a document that would require them to give up a degree of their own power. The men attending the ratification conventions would be delegates elected by their neighbors to represent their interests. They were not being asked to relinquish their power; in fact, they were being asked to place limits upon the power of their state legislators, whom they may not have elected in the first place. Finally, because the new nation was to be a republic in which power was held by the people through their elected representatives, it was considered appropriate to leave the ultimate acceptance or rejection of the Constitution to the nation’s citizens. If convention delegates, who were chosen by popular vote, approved it, then the new government could rightly claim that it ruled with the consent of the people. The greatest sticking point when it came to ratification, as it had been at the Constitutional Convention itself, was the relative power of the state and federal governments. The framers of the Constitution believed that without the ability to maintain and command an army and navy, impose taxes, and force the states to comply with laws passed by Congress, the young nation would not survive for very long. But many people resisted increasing the powers of the national government at the expense of the states. Virginia’s Patrick Henry, for example, feared that the newly created office of president would place excessive power in the hands of one man. He also disapproved of the federal government’s new ability to tax its citizens. This right, Henry believed, should remain with the states. Other delegates, such as Edmund Randolph of Virginia, disapproved of the Constitution because it created a new federal judicial system. Their fear was that the federal courts would be too far away from where those who were tried lived. State courts were located closer to the homes of both plaintiffs and defendants, and it was believed that judges and juries in state courts could better understand the actions of those who appeared before them. In response to these fears, the federal government created federal courts in each of the states as well as in Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts, and Kentucky, which was part of Virginia.Pauline Maier. 2010. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York: Simon & Schuster, 464. Perhaps the greatest source of dissatisfaction with the Constitution was that it did not guarantee protection of individual liberties. State governments had given jury trials to residents charged with violating the law and allowed their residents to possess weapons for their protection. Some had practiced religious tolerance as well. The Constitution, however, did not contain reassurances that the federal government would do so. Although it provided for habeas corpus and prohibited both a religious test for holding office and granting noble titles, some citizens feared the loss of their traditional rights and the violation of their liberties. This led many of the Constitution’s opponents to call for a bill of rights and the refusal to ratify the document without one. The lack of a bill of rights was especially problematic in Virginia, as the Virginia Declaration of Rights was the most extensive rights-granting document among the states. The promise that a bill of rights would be drafted for the Constitution persuaded delegates in many states to support ratification.Maier, Ratification, 431. Thomas Jefferson on the Bill of Rights John Adams and Thomas Jefferson carried on a lively correspondence regarding the ratification of the Constitution. In the following excerpt (reproduced as written) from a letter dated March 15, 1789, after the Constitution had been ratified by nine states but before it had been approved by all thirteen, Jefferson reiterates his previously expressed concerns that a bill of rights to protect citizens’ freedoms was necessary and should be added to the Constitution: “In the arguments in favor of a declaration of rights, . . . I am happy to find that on the whole you are a friend to this amendment. The Declaration of rights is like all other human blessings alloyed with some inconveniences, and not accomplishing fully it’s object. But the good in this instance vastly overweighs the evil. . . . This instrument [the Constitution] forms us into one state as to certain objects, and gives us a legislative & executive body for these objects. It should therefore guard us against their abuses of power. . . . Experience proves the inefficacy of a bill of rights. True. But tho it is not absolutely efficacious under all circumstances, it is of great potency always, and rarely inefficacious. . . . There is a remarkeable difference between the . . . Inconveniences which attend a Declaration of rights, & those which attend the want of it. . . . The inconveniences of the want of a Declaration are permanent, afflicting & irreparable: they are in constant progression from bad to worse.”Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, March 15, 1789, https://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/exhibit/p7/p7_1text.html. What were some of the inconveniences of not having a bill of rights that Jefferson mentioned? Why did he decide in favor of having one? It was clear how some states would vote. Smaller states, like Delaware, favored the Constitution. Equal representation in the Senate would give them a degree of equality with the larger states, and a strong national government with an army at its command would be better able to defend them than their state militias could. Larger states, however, had significant power to lose. They did not believe they needed the federal government to defend them and disliked the prospect of having to provide tax money to support the new government. Thus, from the very beginning, the supporters of the Constitution feared that New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia would refuse to ratify it. That would mean all nine of the remaining states would have to, and Rhode Island, the smallest state, was unlikely to do so. It had not even sent delegates to the convention in Philadelphia. And even if it joined the other states in ratifying the document and the requisite nine votes were cast, the new nation would not be secure without its largest, wealthiest, and most populous states as members of the union. THE RATIFICATION CAMPAIGN On the question of ratification, citizens quickly separated into two groups: Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Federalists supported it. They tended to be among the elite members of society—wealthy and well-educated landowners, businessmen, and former military commanders who believed a strong government would be better for both national defense and economic growth. A national currency, which the federal government had the power to create, would ease business transactions. The ability of the federal government to regulate trade and place tariffs on imports would protect merchants from foreign competition. Furthermore, the power to collect taxes would allow the national government to fund internal improvements like roads, which would also help businessmen. Support for the Federalists was especially strong in New England. Opponents of ratification were called Anti-Federalists. Anti-Federalists feared the power of the national government and believed state legislatures, with which they had more contact, could better protect their freedoms. Although some Anti-Federalists, like Patrick Henry, were wealthy, most distrusted the elite and believed a strong federal government would favor the rich over those of “the middling sort.” This was certainly the fear of Melancton Smith, a New York merchant and landowner, who believed that power should rest in the hands of small, landowning farmers of average wealth who “are more temperate, of better morals and less ambitious than the great.”Isaac Krannick. 1999. “The Great National Discussion: The Discourse of Politics in 1787.” In What Did the Constitution Mean to Early Americans? ed. Edward Countryman. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 52. Even members of the social elite, like Henry, feared that the centralization of power would lead to the creation of a political aristocracy, to the detriment of state sovereignty and individual liberty. Related to these concerns were fears that the strong central government Federalists advocated for would levy taxes on farmers and planters, who lacked the hard currency needed to pay them. Many also believed Congress would impose tariffs on foreign imports that would make American agricultural products less welcome in Europe and in European colonies in the western hemisphere. For these reasons, Anti-Federalist sentiment was especially strong in the South. Some Anti-Federalists also believed that the large federal republic that the Constitution would create could not work as intended. Americans had long believed that virtue was necessary in a nation where people governed themselves (i.e., the ability to put self-interest and petty concerns aside for the good of the larger community). In small republics, similarities among members of the community would naturally lead them to the same positions and make it easier for those in power to understand the needs of their neighbors. In a larger republic, one that encompassed nearly the entire Eastern Seaboard and ran west to the Appalachian Mountains, people would lack such a strong commonality of interests.Krannick, Great National Discussion, 42-43. Likewise, Anti-Federalists argued, the diversity of religion tolerated by the Constitution would prevent the formation of a political community with shared values and interests. The Constitution contained no provisions for government support of churches or of religious education, and Article VI explicitly forbade the use of religious tests to determine eligibility for public office. This caused many, like Henry Abbot of North Carolina, to fear that government would be placed in the hands of “pagans . . . and Mahometans [Muslims].”Krannick, Great National Discussion, 42. It is difficult to determine how many people were Federalists and how many were Anti-Federalists in 1787. The Federalists won the day, but they may not have been in the majority. First, the Federalist position tended to win support among businessmen, large farmers, and, in the South, plantation owners. These people tended to live along the Eastern Seaboard. In 1787, most of the states were divided into voting districts in a manner that gave more votes to the eastern part of the state than to the western part.Evelyn C. Fink and William H. Riker. 1989. “The Strategy of Ratification.” In The Federalist Papers and the New Institutionalism, eds. Bernard Grofman and Donald Wittman. New York: Agathon, 229. Thus, in some states, like Virginia and South Carolina, small farmers who may have favored the Anti-Federalist position were unable to elect as many delegates to state ratification conventions as those who lived in the east. Small settlements may also have lacked the funds to send delegates to the convention.Fink and Riker, Strategy of Ratification, 221. In all the states, educated men authored pamphlets and published essays and cartoons arguing either for or against ratification (Figure). Although many writers supported each position, it is the Federalist essays that are now best known. The arguments these authors put forth, along with explicit guarantees that amendments would be added to protect individual liberties, helped to sway delegates to ratification conventions in many states. For obvious reasons, smaller, less populous states favored the Constitution and the protection of a strong federal government. As shown in Figure, Delaware and New Jersey ratified the document within a few months after it was sent to them for approval in 1787. Connecticut ratified it early in 1788. Some of the larger states, such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, also voted in favor of the new government. New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution in the summer of 1788. Although the Constitution went into effect following ratification by New Hampshire, four states still remained outside the newly formed union. Two were the wealthy, populous states of Virginia and New York. In Virginia, James Madison’s active support and the intercession of George Washington, who wrote letters to the convention, changed the minds of many. Some who had initially opposed the Constitution, such as Edmund Randolph, were persuaded that the creation of a strong union was necessary for the country’s survival and changed their position. Other Virginia delegates were swayed by the promise that a bill of rights similar to the Virginia Declaration of Rights would be added after the Constitution was ratified. On June 25, 1788, Virginia became the tenth state to grant its approval. The approval of New York was the last major hurdle. Facing considerable opposition to the Constitution in that state, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote a series of essays, beginning in 1787, arguing for a strong federal government and support of the Constitution (Figure). Later compiled as The Federalist and now known as The Federalist Papers, these eighty-five essays were originally published in newspapers in New York and other states under the name of Publius, a supporter of the Roman Republic. The essays addressed a variety of issues that troubled citizens. For example, in Federalist No. 51, attributed to James Madison (Figure), the author assured readers they did not need to fear that the national government would grow too powerful. The federal system, in which power was divided between the national and state governments, and the division of authority within the federal government into separate branches would prevent any one part of the government from becoming too strong. Furthermore, tyranny could not arise in a government in which “the legislature necessarily predominates.” Finally, the desire of office holders in each branch of government to exercise the powers given to them, described as “personal motives,” would encourage them to limit any attempt by the other branches to overstep their authority. According to Madison, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” Other essays countered different criticisms made of the Constitution and echoed the argument in favor of a strong national government. In Federalist No. 35, for example, Hamilton (Figure) argued that people’s interests could in fact be represented by men who were not their neighbors. Indeed, Hamilton asked rhetorically, would American citizens best be served by a representative “whose observation does not travel beyond the circle of his neighbors and his acquaintances” or by someone with more extensive knowledge of the world? To those who argued that a merchant and land-owning elite would come to dominate Congress, Hamilton countered that the majority of men currently sitting in New York’s state senate and assembly were landowners of moderate wealth and that artisans usually chose merchants, “their natural patron[s] and friend[s],” to represent them. An aristocracy would not arise, and if it did, its members would have been chosen by lesser men. Similarly, Jay reminded New Yorkers in Federalist No. 2 that union had been the goal of Americans since the time of the Revolution. A desire for union was natural among people of such “similar sentiments” who “were united to each other by the strongest ties,” and the government proposed by the Constitution was the best means of achieving that union. Objections that an elite group of wealthy and educated bankers, businessmen, and large landowners would come to dominate the nation’s politics were also addressed by Madison in Federalist No. 10. Americans need not fear the power of factions or special interests, he argued, for the republic was too big and the interests of its people too diverse to allow the development of large, powerful political parties. Likewise, elected representatives, who were expected to “possess the most attractive merit,” would protect the government from being controlled by “an unjust and interested [biased in favor of their own interests] majority.” For those who worried that the president might indeed grow too ambitious or king-like, Hamilton, in Federalist No. 68, provided assurance that placing the leadership of the country in the hands of one person was not dangerous. Electors from each state would select the president. Because these men would be members of a “transient” body called together only for the purpose of choosing the president and would meet in separate deliberations in each state, they would be free of corruption and beyond the influence of the “heats and ferments” of the voters. Indeed, Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 70, instead of being afraid that the president would become a tyrant, Americans should realize that it was easier to control one person than it was to control many. Furthermore, one person could also act with an “energy” that Congress did not possess. Making decisions alone, the president could decide what actions should be taken faster than could Congress, whose deliberations, because of its size, were necessarily slow. At times, the “decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch” of the chief executive might be necessary. The Library of Congress has The Federalist Papers on their website. The Anti-Federalists also produced a body of writings, less extensive than The Federalists Papers, which argued against the ratification of the Constitution. However, these were not written by one small group of men as The Federalist Papers had been. A collection of the writings that are unofficially called The Anti-Federalist Papers is also available online. The arguments of the Federalists were persuasive, but whether they actually succeeded in changing the minds of New Yorkers is unclear. Once Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788, New York realized that it had little choice but to do so as well. If it did not ratify the Constitution, it would be the last large state that had not joined the union. Thus, on July 26, 1788, the majority of delegates to New York’s ratification convention voted to accept the Constitution. A year later, North Carolina became the twelfth state to approve. Alone and realizing it could not hope to survive on its own, Rhode Island became the last state to ratify, nearly two years after New York had done so. Term Limits One of the objections raised to the Constitution’s new government was that it did not set term limits for members of Congress or the president. Those who opposed a strong central government argued that this failure could allow a handful of powerful men to gain control of the nation and rule it for as long as they wished. Although the framers did not anticipate the idea of career politicians, those who supported the Constitution argued that reelecting the president and reappointing senators by state legislatures would create a body of experienced men who could better guide the country through crises. A president who did not prove to be a good leader would be voted out of office instead of being reelected. In fact, presidents long followed George Washington’s example and limited themselves to two terms. Only in 1951, after Franklin Roosevelt had been elected four times, was the Twenty-Second Amendment passed to restrict the presidency to two terms. Are term limits a good idea? Should they have originally been included in the Constitution? Why or why not? Are there times when term limits might not be good? Summary Anti-Federalists objected to the power the Constitution gave the federal government and the absence of a bill of rights to protect individual liberties. The Federalists countered that a strong government was necessary to lead the new nation and promised to add a bill of rights to the Constitution. The Federalist Papers, in particular, argued in favor of ratification and sought to convince people that the new government would not become tyrannical. Finally, in June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to approve the Constitution, making it the law of the land. The large and prosperous states of Virginia and New York followed shortly thereafter, and the remaining states joined as well. Why were The Federalist Papers written? - To encourage states to oppose the Constitution. - To encourage New York to ratify the Constitution. - To oppose the admission of slaveholding states to the federal union. - To encourage people to vote for George Washington as the nation’s first president. What argument did Alexander Hamilton use to convince people that it was not dangerous to place power in the hands of one man? - That man would have to pass a religious test before he could become president; thus, citizens could be sure that he was of good character. - One man could respond to crises more quickly than a group of men like Congress. - It was easier to control the actions of one man than the actions of a group. - both B and C Hint: D Why did so many people oppose ratification of the Constitution, and how was their opposition partly overcome?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.126253	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15201/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15202/overview	Constitutional Change Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe how the Constitution can be formally amended - Explain the contents and significance of the Bill of Rights - Discuss the importance of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth Amendments A major problem with the Articles of Confederation had been the nation’s inability to change them without the unanimous consent of all the states. The framers learned this lesson well. One of the strengths they built into the Constitution was the ability to amend it to meet the nation’s needs, reflect the changing times, and address concerns or structural elements they had not anticipated. THE AMENDMENT PROCESS Since ratification in 1789, the Constitution has been amended only twenty-seven times. The first ten amendments were added in 1791. Responding to charges by Anti-Federalists that the Constitution made the national government too powerful and provided no protections for the rights of individuals, the newly elected federal government tackled the issue of guaranteeing liberties for American citizens. James Madison, a member of Congress from Virginia, took the lead in drafting nineteen potential changes to the Constitution. Madison followed the procedure outlined in Article V that says amendments can originate from one of two sources. First, they can be proposed by Congress. Then, they must be approved by a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate before being sent to the legislatures in all the states. If three-quarters of state legislatures vote to approve an amendment, it becomes part of the Constitution. A second method allows for the petitioning of Congress by the states: Upon receiving such petitions from two-thirds of the states, Congress must call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments, which would then be forwarded to the states for ratification by the required three-quarters. All the current constitutional amendments were created using the first method. Having drafted nineteen proposed amendments, Madison submitted them to Congress. Only twelve were approved by two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and sent to the states for ratification. Of these, only ten were accepted by three-quarters of the state legislatures. In 1791, these first ten amendments were added to the Constitution and became known as the Bill of Rights. The ability to change the Constitution has made it a flexible, living document that can respond to the nation’s changing needs and has helped it remain in effect for more than 225 years. At the same time, the framers made amending the document sufficiently difficult that it has not been changed repeatedly; only seventeen amendments have been added since the ratification of the first ten (one of these, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, was among Madison’s rejected nine proposals). KEY CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES The Bill of Rights was intended to quiet the fears of Anti-Federalists that the Constitution did not adequately protect individual liberties and thus encourage their support of the new national government. Many of these first ten amendments were based on provisions of the English Bill of Rights and the Virginia Declaration of Rights. For example, the right to bear arms for protection (Second Amendment), the right not to have to provide shelter and provision for soldiers in peacetime (Third Amendment), the right to a trial by jury (Sixth and Seventh Amendments), and protection from excessive fines and from cruel and unusual punishment (Eighth Amendment) are taken from the English Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment, which requires among other things that people cannot be deprived of their life, liberty, or property except by a legal proceeding, was also greatly influenced by English law as well as the protections granted to Virginians in the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Learn more about the formal process of amending the Constitution and view exhibits related to the passage of specific amendments at the National Archives website. Other liberties, however, do not derive from British precedents. The protections for religion, speech, the press, and assembly that are granted by the First Amendment did not exist under English law. (The right to petition the government did, however.) The prohibition in the First Amendment against the establishment of an official church by the federal government differed significantly from both English precedent and the practice of several states that had official churches. The Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unwarranted search and seizure of their property, was also new. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments were intended to provide yet another assurance that people’s rights would be protected and that the federal government would not become too powerful. The Ninth Amendment guarantees that liberties extend beyond those described in the preceding documents. This was an important acknowledgment that the protected rights were extensive, and the government should not attempt to interfere with them. The Supreme Court, for example, has held that the Ninth Amendment protects the right to privacy even though none of the preceding amendments explicitly mentions this right. The Tenth Amendment, one of the first submitted to the states for ratification, ensures that states possess all powers not explicitly assigned to the federal government by the Constitution. This guarantee protects states’ reserved powers to regulate such things as marriage, divorce, and intrastate transportation and commerce, and to pass laws affecting education and public health and safety. Of the later amendments only one, the Twenty-First, repealed another amendment, the Eighteenth, which had prohibited the manufacture, import, export, distribution, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Other amendments rectify problems that have arisen over the years or that reflect changing times. For example, the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave voters the right to directly elect U.S. senators. The Twentieth Amendment, which was ratified in 1933 during the Great Depression, moved the date of the presidential inauguration from March to January. In a time of crisis, like a severe economic depression, the president needed to take office almost immediately after being elected, and modern transportation allowed the new president to travel to the nation’s capital quicker than before. The Twenty-Second Amendment, added in 1955, limits the president to two terms in office, and the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, first submitted for ratification in 1789, regulates the implementation of laws regarding salary increases or decreases for members of Congress. Of the remaining amendments, four are of especially great significance. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, ratified at the end of the Civil War, changed the lives of African Americans who had been held in slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to African Americans and equal protection under the law regardless of race or color. It also prohibited states from depriving their residents of life, liberty, or property without a legal proceeding. Over the years, the Fourteenth Amendment has been used to require states to protect most of the same federal freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights. The Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments extended the right to vote. The Constitution had given states the power to set voting requirements, but the states had used this authority to deny women the right to vote. Most states before the 1830s had also used this authority to deny suffrage to property-less men and often to African American men as well. When states began to change property requirements for voters in the 1830s, many that had allowed free, property-owning African American men to vote restricted the suffrage to white men. The Fifteenth Amendment gave men the right to vote regardless of race or color, but women were still prohibited from voting in most states. After many years of campaigns for suffrage, as shown in Figure, the Nineteenth Amendment finally gave women the right to vote in 1920. Subsequent amendments further extended the suffrage. The Twenty-Third Amendment (1961) allowed residents of Washington, DC to vote for the president. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) abolished the use of poll taxes. Many southern states had used a poll tax, a tax placed on voting, to prevent poor African Americans from voting. Thus, the states could circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment; they argued that they were denying African American men and women the right to vote not because of their race but because of their inability to pay the tax. The last great extension of the suffrage occurred in 1971 in the midst of the Vietnam War. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment reduced the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. Many people had complained that the young men who were fighting in Vietnam should have the right to vote for or against those making decisions that might literally mean life or death for them. Many other amendments have been proposed over the years, including an amendment to guarantee equal rights to women, but all have failed. Guaranteeing Your First Amendment Rights The liberties of U.S. citizens are protected by the Bill of Rights, but potential or perceived threats to these freedoms arise constantly. This is especially true regarding First Amendment rights. Read about some of these threats at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website and let people know how you feel about these issues. What issue regarding First Amendment protections causes you the most concern? One of the problems with the Articles of Confederation was the difficulty of changing it. To prevent this difficulty from recurring, the framers provided a method for amending the Constitution that required a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and in three-quarters of state legislatures to approve a change. The possibility of amending the Constitution helped ensure its ratification, although many feared the powerful federal government it created would deprive them of their rights. To allay their anxieties, the framers promised that a Bill of Rights safeguarding individual liberties would be added following ratification. These ten amendments were formally added to the document in 1791 and other amendments followed over the years. Among the most important were those ending slavery, granting citizenship to African Americans, and giving the right to vote to Americans regardless of race, color, or sex. How many states must ratify an amendment before it becomes law? - all - three-fourths - two-thirds - one-half Hint: B What is the Bill of Rights? - first ten amendments to the Constitution that protect individual freedoms - powers given to Congress in Article I of the Constitution - twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution over the years - document authored by Thomas Jefferson that details the rights of the citizens What did the Fourteenth Amendment achieve? Hint: The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship to African Americans and made all Americans equal before the law regardless of race or color. Over the years it has also been used to require states to guarantee their residents the same protections as those granted by the federal government in the Bill of Rights What core values and beliefs led to the American Revolution and the writing of the Articles of Confederation? How do these values and beliefs affect American politics today? Was Britain truly depriving colonists of their natural rights? Explain your reasoning. Do the Constitution and the Bill of Rights protect the life, liberty, and property of all Americans? Why or why not? Was the Bill of Rights a necessary addition to the Constitution? Defend your answer. One of the chief areas of compromise at the Constitutional Convention was the issue of slavery. Should delegates who opposed slavery have been willing to compromise? Why or why not? Is the federal government too powerful? Should states have more power? If so, what specific power(s) should states have? What new amendments should be added to the Constitution? Why? Suggested Reading Appleby, Joyce. 1976. “Liberalism and the American Revolution.” The New England Quarterly 49 (March): 3–26. Bailyn, Bernard. 1967. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Massachusetts: Belknap Press. Beeman, Richard. 2010. Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. New York: Random House. Cook, Don. 1995. The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760–1785. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Drinker Bowen, Catherine. 1967. Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787. Boston: Little, Brown. Ellis, Joseph. 2015. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789. New York: Knopf. Grant, Ruth W. 1991. John Locke’s Liberalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Knollenberg, Bernard. 1975. Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775. New York: Free Press. Lipsky, Seth. 2011. The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide. New York: Basic Books. Locke, John. 1689. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Translated by William Popple. http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/locke/toleration.pdf ———. 1690. Two Treatises of Government. http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/locke/government.pdf Maier, Pauline. 2010. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788. New York: Simon & Schuster. Morgan, Edward S. 1975. American Slavery, American Freedom. New York: W. Norton and Company. Szatmary, David P. 1980. Shays’ Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. Urofsky, Melvin I., and Paul Finkelman. 2011. A March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the United States. Volume I: From the Founding to 1890. New York: Oxford University Press. Wood, Gordon. 1998. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.157676	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15202/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15203/overview	Introduction Federalism figures prominently in the U.S. political system. Specifically, the federal design spelled out in the Constitution divides powers between two levels of government—the states and the federal government—and creates a mechanism for them to check and balance one another. As an institutional design, federalism both safeguards state interests and creates a strong union led by a capable central government. American federalism also seeks to balance the forces of decentralization and centralization. We see decentralization when we cross state lines and encounter different taxation levels, welfare eligibility requirements, and voting regulations, to name just a few. Centralization is apparent in the fact that the federal government is the only entity permitted to print money, to challenge the legality of state laws, or to employ money grants and mandates to shape state actions. Colorful billboards with simple messages may greet us at state borders (Figure), but behind them lies a complex and evolving federal design that has structured relationships between states and the federal government since the late 1700s. What specific powers and responsibilities are granted to the federal and state governments? How does our process of government keep these separate governing entities in balance? To answer these questions and more, this chapter traces the origins, evolution, and functioning of the American system of federalism, as well as its advantages and disadvantages for citizens.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.173037	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15203/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15204/overview	The Division of Powers Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the concept of federalism - Discuss the constitutional logic of federalism - Identify the powers and responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments Modern democracies divide governmental power in two general ways; some, like the United States, use a combination of both structures. The first and more common mechanism shares power among three branches of government—the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The second, federalism, apportions power between two levels of government: national and subnational. In the United States, the term federal government refers to the government at the national level, while the term states means governments at the subnational level. FEDERALISM DEFINED AND CONTRASTED Federalism is an institutional arrangement that creates two relatively autonomous levels of government, each possessing the capacity to act directly on behalf of the people with the authority granted to it by the national constitution.See John Kincaid. 1975. “Federalism.” In Civitas: A Framework for Civil Education, eds. Charles Quigley and Charles Bahmueller. Calabasas, CA: Center for Civic Education, 391–392; William S. Riker. 1975. “Federalism.” In Handbook of Political Science, eds. Fred Greenstein and Nelson Polsby. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 93–172. Although today’s federal systems vary in design, five structural characteristics are common to the United States and other federal systems around the world, including Germany and Mexico. First, all federal systems establish two levels of government, with both levels being elected by the people and each level assigned different functions. The national government is responsible for handling matters that affect the country as a whole, for example, defending the nation against foreign threats and promoting national economic prosperity. Subnational, or state governments, are responsible for matters that lie within their regions, which include ensuring the well-being of their people by administering education, health care, public safety, and other public services. By definition, a system like this requires that different levels of government cooperate, because the institutions at each level form an interacting network. In the U.S. federal system, all national matters are handled by the federal government, which is led by the president and members of Congress, all of whom are elected by voters across the country. All matters at the subnational level are the responsibility of the fifty states, each headed by an elected governor and legislature. Thus, there is a separation of functions between the federal and state governments, and voters choose the leader at each level.Garry Willis, ed. 1982. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. New York: Bantam Books, 237. The second characteristic common to all federal systems is a written national constitution that cannot be changed without the substantial consent of subnational governments. In the American federal system, the twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution since its adoption were the result of an arduous process that required approval by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the states. The main advantage of this supermajority requirement is that no changes to the Constitution can occur unless there is broad support within Congress and among states. The potential drawback is that numerous national amendment initiatives—such as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which aims to guarantee equal rights regardless of sex—have failed because they cannot garner sufficient consent among members of Congress or, in the case of the ERA, the states. Third, the constitutions of countries with federal systems formally allocate legislative, judicial, and executive authority to the two levels of government in such a way as to ensure each level some degree of autonomy from the other. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president assumes executive power, Congress exercises legislative powers, and the federal courts (e.g., U.S. district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court) assume judicial powers. In each of the fifty states, a governor assumes executive authority, a state legislature makes laws, and state-level courts (e.g., trial courts, intermediate appellate courts, and supreme courts) possess judicial authority. While each level of government is somewhat independent of the others, a great deal of interaction occurs among them. In fact, the ability of the federal and state governments to achieve their objectives often depends on the cooperation of the other level of government. For example, the federal government’s efforts to ensure homeland security are bolstered by the involvement of law enforcement agents working at local and state levels. On the other hand, the ability of states to provide their residents with public education and health care is enhanced by the federal government’s financial assistance. Another common characteristic of federalism around the world is that national courts commonly resolve disputes between levels and departments of government. In the United States, conflicts between states and the federal government are adjudicated by federal courts, with the U.S. Supreme Court being the final arbiter. The resolution of such disputes can preserve the autonomy of one level of government, as illustrated recently when the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot interfere with the federal government’s actions relating to immigration.Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. __ (2012). In other instances, a Supreme Court ruling can erode that autonomy, as demonstrated in the 1940s when, in United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., the Court enabled the federal government to regulate commercial activities that occurred within states, a function previously handled exclusively by the states.United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., 315 U.S. 110 (1942). Finally, subnational governments are always represented in the upper house of the national legislature, enabling regional interests to influence national lawmaking.Ronald L. Watts. 1999. Comparing Federal Systems, 2nd ed. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University, 6–7; Daniel J. Elazar. 1992. Federal Systems of the World: A Handbook of Federal, Confederal and Autonomy Arrangements. Harlow, Essex: Longman Current Affairs. In the American federal system, the U.S. Senate functions as a territorial body by representing the fifty states: Each state elects two senators to ensure equal representation regardless of state population differences. Thus, federal laws are shaped in part by state interests, which senators convey to the federal policymaking process. The governmental design of the United States is unusual; most countries do not have a federal structure. Aside from the United States, how many other countries have a federal system? Division of power can also occur via a unitary structure or confederation (Figure). In contrast to federalism, a unitary system makes subnational governments dependent on the national government, where significant authority is concentrated. Before the late 1990s, the United Kingdom’s unitary system was centralized to the extent that the national government held the most important levers of power. Since then, power has been gradually decentralized through a process of devolution, leading to the creation of regional governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as well as the delegation of specific responsibilities to them. Other democratic countries with unitary systems, such as France, Japan, and Sweden, have followed a similar path of decentralization. In a confederation, authority is decentralized, and the central government’s ability to act depends on the consent of the subnational governments. Under the Articles of Confederation (the first constitution of the United States), states were sovereign and powerful while the national government was subordinate and weak. Because states were reluctant to give up any of their power, the national government lacked authority in the face of challenges such as servicing the war debt, ending commercial disputes among states, negotiating trade agreements with other countries, and addressing popular uprisings that were sweeping the country. As the brief American experience with confederation clearly shows, the main drawback with this system of government is that it maximizes regional self-rule at the expense of effective national governance. FEDERALISM AND THE CONSTITUTION The Constitution contains several provisions that direct the functioning of U.S. federalism. Some delineate the scope of national and state power, while others restrict it. The remaining provisions shape relationships among the states and between the states and the federal government. The enumerated powers of the national legislature are found in Article I, Section 8. These powers define the jurisdictional boundaries within which the federal government has authority. In seeking not to replay the problems that plagued the young country under the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution’s framers granted Congress specific powers that ensured its authority over national and foreign affairs. To provide for the general welfare of the populace, it can tax, borrow money, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and protect property rights, for example. To provide for the common defense of the people, the federal government can raise and support armies and declare war. Furthermore, national integration and unity are fostered with the government’s powers over the coining of money, naturalization, postal services, and other responsibilities. The last clause of Article I, Section 8, commonly referred to as the elastic clause or the necessary and proper cause, enables Congress “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying” out its constitutional responsibilities. While the enumerated powers define the policy areas in which the national government has authority, the elastic clause allows it to create the legal means to fulfill those responsibilities. However, the open-ended construction of this clause has enabled the national government to expand its authority beyond what is specified in the Constitution, a development also motivated by the expansive interpretation of the commerce clause, which empowers the federal government to regulate interstate economic transactions. The powers of the state governments were never listed in the original Constitution. The consensus among the framers was that states would retain any powers not prohibited by the Constitution or delegated to the national government.Jack Rakove. 2007. James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic. New York: Pearson; Samuel H. Beer. 1998. To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. However, when it came time to ratify the Constitution, a number of states requested that an amendment be added explicitly identifying the reserved powers of the states. What these Anti-Federalists sought was further assurance that the national government’s capacity to act directly on behalf of the people would be restricted, which the first ten amendments (Bill of Rights) provided. The Tenth Amendment affirms the states’ reserved powers: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Indeed, state constitutions had bills of rights, which the first Congress used as the source for the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Some of the states’ reserved powers are no longer exclusively within state domain, however. For example, since the 1940s, the federal government has also engaged in administering health, safety, income security, education, and welfare to state residents. The boundary between intrastate and interstate commerce has become indefinable as a result of broad interpretation of the commerce clause. Shared and overlapping powers have become an integral part of contemporary U.S. federalism. These concurrent powers range from taxing, borrowing, and making and enforcing laws to establishing court systems (Figure).Elton E. Richter. 1929. “Exclusive and Concurrent Powers in the Federal Constitution,” Notre Dame Law Review 4, No. 8: 513–542. http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4416&context=ndlr Article I, Sections 9 and 10, along with several constitutional amendments, lay out the restrictions on federal and state authority. The most important restriction Section 9 places on the national government prevents measures that cause the deprivation of personal liberty. Specifically, the government cannot suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which enables someone in custody to petition a judge to determine whether that person’s detention is legal; pass a bill of attainder, a legislative action declaring someone guilty without a trial; or enact an ex post facto law, which criminalizes an act retroactively. The Bill of Rights affirms and expands these constitutional restrictions, ensuring that the government cannot encroach on personal freedoms. The states are also constrained by the Constitution. Article I, Section 10, prohibits the states from entering into treaties with other countries, coining money, and levying taxes on imports and exports. Like the federal government, the states cannot violate personal freedoms by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, passing bills of attainder, or enacting ex post facto laws. Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, prohibits the states from denying citizens the rights to which they are entitled by the Constitution, due process of law, or the equal protection of the laws. Lastly, three civil rights amendments—the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth—prevent both the states and the federal government from abridging citizens’ right to vote based on race, sex, and age. This topic remains controversial because states have not always ensured equal protection. The supremacy clause in Article VI of the Constitution regulates relationships between the federal and state governments by declaring that the Constitution and federal law are the supreme law of the land. This means that if a state law clashes with a federal law found to be within the national government’s constitutional authority, the federal law prevails. The intent of the supremacy clause is not to subordinate the states to the federal government; rather, it affirms that one body of laws binds the country. In fact, all national and state government officials are bound by oath to uphold the Constitution regardless of the offices they hold. Yet enforcement is not always that simple. In the case of marijuana use, which the federal government defines to be illegal, twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have nevertheless established medical marijuana laws, others have decriminalized its recreational use, and four states have completely legalized it. The federal government could act in this area if it wanted to. For example, in addition to the legalization issue, there is the question of how to treat the money from marijuana sales, which the national government designates as drug money and regulates under laws regarding its deposit in banks. Various constitutional provisions govern state-to-state relations. Article IV, Section 1, referred to as the full faith and credit clause or the comity clause, requires the states to accept court decisions, public acts, and contracts of other states. Thus, an adoption certificate or driver’s license issued in one state is valid in any other state. The movement for marriage equality has put the full faith and credit clause to the test in recent decades. In light of Baehr v. Lewin, a 1993 ruling in which the Hawaii Supreme Court asserted that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, a number of states became worried that they would be required to recognize those marriage certificates.Baehr v. Lewin. 1993. 74 Haw. 530. To address this concern, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996. The law declared that “No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need recognize a marriage between persons of the same sex, even if the marriage was concluded or recognized in another state.” The law also barred federal benefits for same-sex partners. DOMA clearly made the topic a state matter. It denoted a choice for states, which led many states to take up the policy issue of marriage equality. Scores of states considered legislation and ballot initiatives on the question. The federal courts took up the issue with zeal after the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor struck down the part of DOMA that outlawed federal benefits.United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. __ (2013). That move was followed by upwards of forty federal court decisions that upheld marriage equality in particular states. In 2014, the Supreme Court decided not to hear several key case appeals from a variety of states, all of which were brought by opponents of marriage equality who had lost in the federal courts. The outcome of not hearing these cases was that federal court decisions in four states were affirmed, which, when added to other states in the same federal circuit districts, brought the total number of states permitting same-sex marriage to thirty.Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Delivers Tacit Win to Gay Marriage,” New York Times, 6 October, 2014. Then, in 2015, the Obergefell v. Hodges case had a sweeping effect when the Supreme Court clearly identified a constitutional right to marriage based on the Fourteenth Amendment.Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015). The privileges and immunities clause of Article IV asserts that states are prohibited from discriminating against out-of-staters by denying them such guarantees as access to courts, legal protection, property rights, and travel rights. The clause has not been interpreted to mean there cannot be any difference in the way a state treats residents and non-residents. For example, individuals cannot vote in a state in which they do not reside, tuition at state universities is higher for out-of-state residents, and in some cases individuals who have recently become residents of a state must wait a certain amount of time to be eligible for social welfare benefits. Another constitutional provision prohibits states from establishing trade restrictions on goods produced in other states. However, a state can tax out-of-state goods sold within its borders as long as state-made goods are taxed at the same level. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCES Federal, state, and local governments depend on different sources of revenue to finance their annual expenditures. In 2014, total revenue (or receipts) reached $3.2 trillion for the federal government, $1.7 trillion for the states, and $1.2 trillion for local governments.Data reported by http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/federal_revenue. State and local government figures are estimated. Two important developments have fundamentally changed the allocation of revenue since the early 1900s. First, the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 authorized Congress to impose income taxes without apportioning it among the states on the basis of population, a burdensome provision that Article I, Section 9, had imposed on the national government.Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 158 U.S. 601 (1895). With this change, the federal government’s ability to raise revenue significantly increased and so did its ability to spend. The second development regulates federal grants, that is, transfers of federal money to state and local governments. These transfers, which do not have to be repaid, are designed to support the activities of the recipient governments, but also to encourage them to pursue federal policy objectives they might not otherwise adopt. The expansion of the federal government’s spending power has enabled it to transfer more grant money to lower government levels, which has accounted for an increasing share of their total revenue.See Robert Jay Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: A Historical Perspective on Contemporary Issues,” Congressional Research Service, Report 7-5700, 5 March 2015. The sources of revenue for federal, state, and local governments are detailed in Figure. Although the data reflect 2013 results, the patterns we see in the figure give us a good idea of how governments have funded their activities in recent years. For the federal government, 47 percent of 2013 revenue came from individual income taxes and 34 percent from payroll taxes, which combine Social Security tax and Medicare tax. For state governments, 50 percent of revenue came from taxes, while 30 percent consisted of federal grants. Sales tax—which includes taxes on purchased food, clothing, alcohol, amusements, insurance, motor fuels, tobacco products, and public utilities, for example—accounted for about 47 percent of total tax revenue, and individual income taxes represented roughly 35 percent. Revenue from service charges (e.g., tuition revenue from public universities and fees for hospital-related services) accounted for 11 percent. The tax structure of states varies. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming do not have individual income taxes. Figure illustrates yet another difference: Fuel tax as a percentage of total tax revenue is much higher in South Dakota and West Virginia than in Alaska and Hawaii. However, most states have done little to prevent the erosion of the fuel tax’s share of their total tax revenue between 2007 and 2014 (notice that for many states the dark blue dots for 2014 are to the left of the light blue numbers for 2007). Fuel tax revenue is typically used to finance state highway transportation projects, although some states do use it to fund non-transportation projects. The most important sources of revenue for local governments in 2013 were taxes, federal and state grants, and service charges. For local governments the property tax, a levy on residential and commercial real estate, was the most important source of tax revenue, accounting for about 74 percent of the total. Federal and state grants accounted for 37 percent of local government revenue. State grants made up 87 percent of total local grants. Charges for hospital-related services, sewage and solid-waste management, public city university tuition, and airport services are important sources of general revenue for local governments. Intergovernmental grants are important sources of revenue for both state and local governments. When economic times are good, such grants help states, cities, municipalities, and townships carry out their regular functions. However, during hard economic times, such as the Great Recession of 2007–2009, intergovernmental transfers provide much-needed fiscal relief as the revenue streams of state and local governments dry up. During the Great Recession, tax receipts dropped as business activities slowed, consumer spending dropped, and family incomes decreased due to layoffs or work-hour reductions. To offset the adverse effects of the recession on the states and local governments, federal grants increased by roughly 33 percent during this period.Jeffrey L. Barnett et al. 2014. 2012 Census of Governments: Finance-State and Local Government Summary Report, Appendix Table A-1. December 17. Washington, DC: United States Census Bureau, 2. In 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provided immediate economic-crisis management assistance such as helping local and state economies ride out the Great Recession and shoring up the country’s banking sector. A total of $274.7 billion in grants, contracts, and loans was allocated to state and local governments under the ARRA.Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” 4. The bulk of the stimulus funds apportioned to state and local governments was used to create and protect existing jobs through public works projects and to fund various public welfare programs such as unemployment insurance.James Feyrer and Bruce Sacerdote. 2011. “Did the Stimulus Stimulate? Real Time Estimates of the Effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” (Working Paper No. 16759), Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w16759.pdf How are the revenues generated by our tax dollars, fees we pay to use public services and obtain licenses, and monies from other sources put to use by the different levels of government? A good starting point to gain insight on this question as it relates to the federal government is Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Recall, for instance, that the Constitution assigns the federal government various powers that allow it to affect the nation as a whole. A look at the federal budget in 2014 (Figure) shows that the three largest spending categories were Social Security (24 percent of the total budget); Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and marketplace subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (24 percent); and defense and international security assistance (18 percent). The rest was divided among categories such as safety net programs (11 percent), including the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other low-income assistance programs; interest on federal debt (7 percent); benefits for federal retirees and veterans (8 percent); and transportation infrastructure (3 percent).Data reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 2015. “Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?” March 11. http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go It is clear from the 2014 federal budget that providing for the general welfare and national defense consumes much of the government’s resources—not just its revenue, but also its administrative capacity and labor power. Figure compares recent spending activities of local and state governments. Educational expenditures constitute a major category for both. However, whereas the states spend comparatively more than local governments on university education, local governments spend even more on elementary and secondary education. That said, nationwide, state funding for public higher education has declined as a percentage of university revenues; this is primarily because states have taken in lower amounts of sales taxes as internet commerce has increased. Local governments allocate more funds to police protection, fire protection, housing and community development, and public utilities such as water, sewage, and electricity. And while state governments allocate comparatively more funds to public welfare programs, such as health care, income support, and highways, both local and state governments spend roughly similar amounts on judicial and legal services and correctional services. Federalism is a system of government that creates two relatively autonomous levels of government, each possessing authority granted to them by the national constitution. Federal systems like the one in the United States are different from unitary systems, which concentrate authority in the national government, and from confederations, which concentrate authority in subnational governments. The U.S. Constitution allocates powers to the states and federal government, structures the relationship between these two levels of government, and guides state-to-state relationships. Federal, state, and local governments rely on different sources of revenue to enable them to fulfill their public responsibilities. Which statement about federal and unitary systems is most accurate? - In a federal system, power is concentrated in the states; in a unitary system, it is concentrated in the national government. - In a federal system, the constitution allocates powers between states and federal government; in a unitary system, powers are lodged in the national government. - Today there are more countries with federal systems than with unitary systems. - The United States and Japan have federal systems, while Great Britain and Canada have unitary systems. Hint: B Which statement is most accurate about the sources of revenue for local and state governments? - Taxes generate well over one-half the total revenue of local and state governments. - Property taxes generate the most tax revenue for both local and state governments. - Between 30 and 40 percent of the revenue for local and state governments comes from grant money. - Local and state governments generate an equal amount of revenue from issuing licenses and certificates. What key constitutional provisions define the scope of authority of the federal and state governments? Hint: The following parts of the Constitution sketch the powers of the states and the federal government: Article I, Section 8; the supremacy clause of Article VI; and the Tenth Amendment. The following parts of the Constitution detail the limits on their authority: Article I, Sections 9 and 10; Bill of Rights; Fourteenth Amendment; and the civil rights amendments. What are the main functions of federal and state governments?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.205414	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15204/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15205/overview	The Evolution of American Federalism Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe how federalism has evolved in the United States - Compare different conceptions of federalism The Constitution sketches a federal framework that aims to balance the forces of decentralized and centralized governance in general terms; it does not flesh out standard operating procedures that say precisely how the states and federal governments are to handle all policy contingencies imaginable. Therefore, officials at the state and national levels have had some room to maneuver as they operate within the Constitution’s federal design. This has led to changes in the configuration of federalism over time, changes corresponding to different historical phases that capture distinct balances between state and federal authority. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN NATIONAL POWER AND STATE POWER As George Washington’s secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795, Alexander Hamilton championed legislative efforts to create a publicly chartered bank. For Hamilton, the establishment of the Bank of the United States was fully within Congress’s authority, and he hoped the bank would foster economic development, print and circulate paper money, and provide loans to the government. Although Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s secretary of state, staunchly opposed Hamilton’s plan on the constitutional grounds that the national government had no authority to create such an instrument, Hamilton managed to convince the reluctant president to sign the legislation.The Lehrman Institute. “The Founding Trio: Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson.” http://lehrmaninstitute.org/history/FoundingTrio.asp When the bank’s charter expired in 1811, Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans prevailed in blocking its renewal. However, the fiscal hardships that plagued the government during the War of 1812, coupled with the fragility of the country’s financial system, convinced Congress and then-president James Madison to create the Second Bank of the United States in 1816. Many states rejected the Second Bank, arguing that the national government was infringing upon the states’ constitutional jurisdiction. A political showdown between Maryland and the national government emerged when James McCulloch, an agent for the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank, refused to pay a tax that Maryland had imposed on all out-of-state chartered banks. The standoff raised two constitutional questions: Did Congress have the authority to charter a national bank? Were states allowed to tax federal property? In McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall (Figure) argued that Congress could create a national bank even though the Constitution did not expressly authorize it.McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819). Under the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8, the Supreme Court asserted that Congress could establish “all means which are appropriate” to fulfill “the legitimate ends” of the Constitution. In other words, the bank was an appropriate instrument that enabled the national government to carry out several of its enumerated powers, such as regulating interstate commerce, collecting taxes, and borrowing money. This ruling established the doctrine of implied powers, granting Congress a vast source of discretionary power to achieve its constitutional responsibilities. The Supreme Court also sided with the federal government on the issue of whether states could tax federal property. Under the supremacy clause of Article VI, legitimate national laws trump conflicting state laws. As the court observed, “the government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action and its laws, when made in pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme law of the land.” Maryland’s action violated national supremacy because “the power to tax is the power to destroy.” This second ruling established the principle of national supremacy, which prohibits states from meddling in the lawful activities of the national government. Defining the scope of national power was the subject of another landmark Supreme Court decision in 1824. In Gibbons v. Ogden, the court had to interpret the commerce clause of Article I, Section 8; specifically, it had to determine whether the federal government had the sole authority to regulate the licensing of steamboats operating between New York and New Jersey.Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824). Aaron Ogden, who had obtained an exclusive license from New York State to operate steamboat ferries between New York City and New Jersey, sued Thomas Gibbons, who was operating ferries along the same route under a coasting license issued by the federal government. Gibbons lost in New York state courts and appealed. Chief Justice Marshall delivered a two-part ruling in favor of Gibbons that strengthened the power of the national government. First, interstate commerce was interpreted broadly to mean “commercial intercourse” among states, thus allowing Congress to regulate navigation. Second, because the federal Licensing Act of 1793, which regulated coastal commerce, was a constitutional exercise of Congress’s authority under the commerce clause, federal law trumped the New York State license-monopoly law that had granted Ogden an exclusive steamboat operating license. As Marshall pointed out, “the acts of New York must yield to the law of Congress.”Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824). Various states railed against the nationalization of power that had been going on since the late 1700s. When President John Adams signed the Sedition Act in 1798, which made it a crime to speak openly against the government, the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures passed resolutions declaring the act null on the grounds that they retained the discretion to follow national laws. In effect, these resolutions articulated the legal reasoning underpinning the doctrine of nullification—that states had the right to reject national laws they deemed unconstitutional.W. Kirk Wood. 2008. Nullification, A Constitutional History, 1776–1833. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. A nullification crisis emerged in the 1830s over President Andrew Jackson’s tariff acts of 1828 and 1832. Led by John Calhoun, President Jackson’s vice president, nullifiers argued that high tariffs on imported goods benefited northern manufacturing interests while disadvantaging economies in the South. South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Nullification declaring both tariff acts null and void and threatened to leave the Union. The federal government responded by enacting the Force Bill in 1833, authorizing President Jackson to use military force against states that challenged federal tariff laws. The prospect of military action coupled with the passage of the Compromise Tariff Act of 1833 (which lowered tariffs over time) led South Carolina to back off, ending the nullification crisis. The ultimate showdown between national and state authority came during the Civil War. Prior to the conflict, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that the national government lacked the authority to ban slavery in the territories.Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). But the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 led eleven southern states to secede from the United States because they believed the new president would challenge the institution of slavery. What was initially a conflict to preserve the Union became a conflict to end slavery when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves in the rebellious states. The defeat of the South had a huge impact on the balance of power between the states and the national government in two important ways. First, the Union victory put an end to the right of states to secede and to challenge legitimate national laws. Second, Congress imposed several conditions for readmitting former Confederate states into the Union; among them was ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. In sum, after the Civil War the power balance shifted toward the national government, a movement that had begun several decades before with McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Odgen (1824). The period between 1819 and the 1860s demonstrated that the national government sought to establish its role within the newly created federal design, which in turn often provoked the states to resist as they sought to protect their interests. With the exception of the Civil War, the Supreme Court settled the power struggles between the states and national government. From a historical perspective, the national supremacy principle introduced during this period did not so much narrow the states’ scope of constitutional authority as restrict their encroachment on national powers.Joseph R. Marbach, Troy E. Smith, and Ellis Katz. 2005. Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing. DUAL FEDERALISM The late 1870s ushered in a new phase in the evolution of U.S. federalism. Under dual federalism, the states and national government exercise exclusive authority in distinctly delineated spheres of jurisdiction. Like the layers of a cake, the levels of government do not blend with one another but rather are clearly defined. Two factors contributed to the emergence of this conception of federalism. First, several Supreme Court rulings blocked attempts by both state and federal governments to step outside their jurisdictional boundaries. Second, the prevailing economic philosophy at the time loathed government interference in the process of industrial development. Industrialization changed the socioeconomic landscape of the United States. One of its adverse effects was the concentration of market power. Because there was no national regulatory supervision to ensure fairness in market practices, collusive behavior among powerful firms emerged in several industries.Marc Allen Eisner. 2014. The American Political Economy: Institutional Evolution of Market and State. New York: Routledge. To curtail widespread anticompetitive practices in the railroad industry, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission. Three years later, national regulatory capacity was broadened by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which made it illegal to monopolize or attempt to monopolize and conspire in restraining commerce (Figure 03_02_Commerce). In the early stages of industrial capitalism, federal regulations were focused for the most part on promoting market competition rather than on addressing the social dislocations resulting from market operations, something the government began to tackle in the 1930s.Eisner, The American Political Economy; Stephen Skowronek. 1982. Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877–1920. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. The new federal regulatory regime was dealt a legal blow early in its existence. In 1895, in United States v. E. C. Knight, the Supreme Court ruled that the national government lacked the authority to regulate manufacturing.United States v. E. C. Knight, 156 U.S. 1 (1895). The case came about when the government, using its regulatory power under the Sherman Act, attempted to override American Sugar’s purchase of four sugar refineries, which would give the company a commanding share of the industry. Distinguishing between commerce among states and the production of goods, the court argued that the national government’s regulatory authority applied only to commercial activities. If manufacturing activities fell within the purview of the commerce clause of the Constitution, then “comparatively little of business operations would be left for state control,” the court argued. In the late 1800s, some states attempted to regulate working conditions. For example, New York State passed the Bakeshop Act in 1897, which prohibited bakery employees from working more than sixty hours in a week. In Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court ruled this state regulation that capped work hours unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905). In other words, the right to sell and buy labor is a “liberty of the individual” safeguarded by the Constitution, the court asserted. The federal government also took up the issue of working conditions, but that case resulted in the same outcome as in the Lochner case.Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (1918). COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM The Great Depression of the 1930s brought economic hardships the nation had never witnessed before (Figure). Between 1929 and 1933, the national unemployment rate reached 25 percent, industrial output dropped by half, stock market assets lost more than half their value, thousands of banks went out of business, and the gross domestic product shrunk by one-quarter.Nicholas Crafts and Peter Fearon. 2010. “Lessons from the 1930s Great Depression,” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 26: 286–287; Gene Smiley. “The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Great Depression.” http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreatDepression.html Given the magnitude of the economic depression, there was pressure on the national government to coordinate a robust national response along with the states. Cooperative federalism was born of necessity and lasted well into the twentieth century as the national and state governments each found it beneficial. Under this model, both levels of government coordinated their actions to solve national problems, such as the Great Depression and the civil rights struggle of the following decades. In contrast to dual federalism, it erodes the jurisdictional boundaries between the states and national government, leading to a blending of layers as in a marble cake. The era of cooperative federalism contributed to the gradual incursion of national authority into the jurisdictional domain of the states, as well as the expansion of the national government’s power in concurrent policy areas.Marbach et al, Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. The New Deal programs President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed as a means to tackle the Great Depression ran afoul of the dual-federalism mindset of the justices on the Supreme Court in the 1930s. The court struck down key pillars of the New Deal—the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act, for example—on the grounds that the federal government was operating in matters that were within the purview of the states. The court’s obstructionist position infuriated Roosevelt, leading him in 1937 to propose a court-packing plan that would add one new justice for each one over the age of seventy, thus allowing the president to make a maximum of six new appointments. Before Congress took action on the proposal, the Supreme Court began leaning in support of the New Deal as Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Owen Roberts changed their view on federalism.Jeff Shesol. 2010. Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court. New York: W. W. Norton. In National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) v. Jones and Laughlin Steel,National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) v. Jones & Laughlin Steel, 301 U.S. 1 (1937). for instance, the Supreme Court ruled the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 constitutional, asserting that Congress can use its authority under the commerce clause to regulate both manufacturing activities and labor-management relations. The New Deal changed the relationship Americans had with the national government. Before the Great Depression, the government offered little in terms of financial aid, social benefits, and economic rights. After the New Deal, it provided old-age pensions (Social Security), unemployment insurance, agricultural subsidies, protections for organizing in the workplace, and a variety of other public services created during Roosevelt’s administration. In the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson’s administration expanded the national government’s role in society even more. Medicaid (which provides medical assistance to the indigent), Medicare (which provides health insurance to the elderly and disabled), and school nutrition programs were created. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), the Higher Education Act (1965), and the Head Start preschool program (1965) were established to expand educational opportunities and equality (Figure). The Clean Air Act (1965), the Highway Safety Act (1966), and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966) promoted environmental and consumer protection. Finally, laws were passed to promote urban renewal, public housing development, and affordable housing. In addition to these Great Society programs, the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) gave the federal government effective tools to promote civil rights equality across the country. While the era of cooperative federalism witnessed a broadening of federal powers in concurrent and state policy domains, it is also the era of a deepening coordination between the states and the federal government in Washington. Nowhere is this clearer than with respect to the social welfare and social insurance programs created during the New Deal and Great Society eras, most of which are administered by both state and federal authorities and are jointly funded. The Social Security Act of 1935, which created federal subsidies for state-administered programs for the elderly; people with handicaps; dependent mothers; and children, gave state and local officials wide discretion over eligibility and benefit levels. The unemployment insurance program, also created by the Social Security Act, requires states to provide jobless benefits, but it allows them significant latitude to decide the level of tax to impose on businesses in order to fund the program as well as the duration and replacement rate of unemployment benefits. A similar multilevel division of labor governs Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance.Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol. 2014. “Progressive Federalism and the Contested Implemented of Obama’s Health Reform,” In The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America, eds. Jeffrey A. Jenkins and Sidney M. Milkis. New York: Cambridge University Press. Thus, the era of cooperative federalism left two lasting attributes on federalism in the United States. First, a nationalization of politics emerged as a result of federal legislative activism aimed at addressing national problems such as marketplace inefficiencies, social and political inequality, and poverty. The nationalization process expanded the size of the federal administrative apparatus and increased the flow of federal grants to state and local authorities, which have helped offset the financial costs of maintaining a host of New Deal- and Great Society–era programs. The second lasting attribute is the flexibility that states and local authorities were given in the implementation of federal social welfare programs. One consequence of administrative flexibility, however, is that it has led to cross-state differences in the levels of benefits and coverage.R. Kent Weaver. 2000. Ending Welfare as We Know It. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. NEW FEDERALISM During the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon (1969–1974) and Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), attempts were made to reverse the process of nationalization—that is, to restore states’ prominence in policy areas into which the federal government had moved in the past. New federalism is premised on the idea that the decentralization of policies enhances administrative efficiency, reduces overall public spending, and improves policy outcomes. During Nixon’s administration, general revenue sharing programs were created that distributed funds to the state and local governments with minimal restrictions on how the money was spent. The election of Ronald Reagan heralded the advent of a “devolution revolution” in U.S. federalism, in which the president pledged to return authority to the states according to the Constitution. In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, congressional leaders together with President Reagan consolidated numerous federal grant programs related to social welfare and reformulated them in order to give state and local administrators greater discretion in using federal funds.Allen Schick. 2007. The Federal Budget, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. However, Reagan’s track record in promoting new federalism was inconsistent. This was partly due to the fact that the president’s devolution agenda met some opposition from Democrats in Congress, moderate Republicans, and interest groups, preventing him from making further advances on that front. For example, his efforts to completely devolve Aid to Families With Dependent Children (a New Deal-era program) and food stamps (a Great Society-era program) to the states were rejected by members of Congress, who feared states would underfund both programs, and by members of the National Governors’ Association, who believed the proposal would be too costly for states. Reagan terminated general revenue sharing in 1986.Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” 30–31. Several Supreme Court rulings also promoted new federalism by hemming in the scope of the national government’s power, especially under the commerce clause. For example, in United States v. Lopez, the court struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which banned gun possession in school zones.United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995). It argued that the regulation in question did not “substantively affect interstate commerce.” The ruling ended a nearly sixty-year period in which the court had used a broad interpretation of the commerce clause that by the 1960s allowed it to regulate numerous local commercial activities.See Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997). However, many would say that the years since the 9/11 attacks have swung the pendulum back in the direction of central federal power. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security federalized disaster response power in Washington, and the Transportation Security Administration was created to federalize airport security. Broad new federal policies and mandates have also been carried out in the form of the Faith-Based Initiative and No Child Left Behind (during the George W. Bush administration) and the Affordable Care Act (during Barack Obama’s administration). Cooperative Federalism versus New Federalism Morton Grodzins coined the cake analogy of federalism in the 1950s while conducting research on the evolution of American federalism. Until then most scholars had thought of federalism as a layer cake, but according to Grodzins the 1930s ushered in “marble-cake federalism” (Figure): “The American form of government is often, but erroneously, symbolized by a three-layer cake. A far more accurate image is the rainbow or marble cake, characterized by an inseparable mingling of differently colored ingredients, the colors appearing in vertical and diagonal strands and unexpected whirls. As colors are mixed in the marble cake, so functions are mixed in the American federal system.”Morton Grodzins. 2004. “The Federal System.” In American Government Readings and Cases, ed. P. Woll. New York: Pearson Longman, 74–78. Cooperative federalism has several merits: - Because state and local governments have varying fiscal capacities, the national government’s involvement in state activities such as education, health, and social welfare is necessary to ensure some degree of uniformity in the provision of public services to citizens in richer and poorer states. - The problem of collective action, which dissuades state and local authorities from raising regulatory standards for fear they will be disadvantaged as others lower theirs, is resolved by requiring state and local authorities to meet minimum federal standards (e.g., minimum wage and air quality). - Federal assistance is necessary to ensure state and local programs (e.g., water and air pollution controls) that generate positive externalities are maintained. For example, one state’s environmental regulations impose higher fuel prices on its residents, but the externality of the cleaner air they produce benefits neighboring states. Without the federal government’s support, this state and others like it would underfund such programs. New federalism has advantages as well: - Because there are economic, demographic, social, and geographical differences among states, one-size-fits-all features of federal laws are suboptimal. Decentralization accommodates the diversity that exists across states. - By virtue of being closer to citizens, state and local authorities are better than federal agencies at discerning the public’s needs. - Decentralized federalism fosters a marketplace of innovative policy ideas as states compete against each other to minimize administrative costs and maximize policy output. Which model of federalism do you think works best for the United States? Why? The leading international journal devoted to the practical and theoretical study of federalism is called Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Find out where its name comes from. Federalism in the United States has gone through several phases of evolution during which the relationship between the federal and state governments has varied. In the era of dual federalism, both levels of government stayed within their own jurisdictional spheres. During the era of cooperative federalism, the federal government became active in policy areas previously handled by the states. The 1970s ushered in an era of new federalism and attempts to decentralize policy management. In McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme Court invoked which provisions of the constitution? - Tenth Amendment and spending clause - commerce clause and supremacy clause - necessary and proper clause and supremacy clause - taxing power and necessary and proper clause Hint: C Which statement about new federalism is not true? - New federalism was launched by President Nixon and continued by President Reagan. - New federalism is based on the idea that decentralization of responsibility enhances administrative efficiency. - United States v. Lopez is a Supreme Court ruling that advanced the logic of new federalism. - President Reagan was able to promote new federalism consistently throughout his administration. Which is not a merit of cooperative federalism? - Federal cooperation helps mitigate the problem of collective action among states. - Federal assistance encourages state and local governments to generate positive externalities. - Cooperative federalism respects the traditional jurisdictional boundaries between states and federal government. - Federal assistance ensures some degree of uniformity of public services across states. Hint: C What are the main differences between cooperative federalism and dual federalism? What were the implications of McCulloch v. Maryland for federalism? Hint: The McCulloch decision established the doctrine of implied powers, meaning the federal government can create policy instruments deemed necessary and appropriate to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. The case also affirmed the principle of national supremacy embodied in Article VI of the Constitution, namely, that the Constitution and legitimate federal laws trump state laws.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.241443	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15205/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15206/overview	Intergovernmental Relationships Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain how federal intergovernmental grants have evolved over time - Identify the types of federal intergovernmental grants - Describe the characteristics of federal unfunded mandates The national government’s ability to achieve its objectives often requires the participation of state and local governments. Intergovernmental grants offer positive financial inducements to get states to work toward selected national goals. A grant is commonly likened to a “carrot” to the extent that it is designed to entice the recipient to do something. On the other hand, unfunded mandates impose federal requirements on state and local authorities. Mandates are typically backed by the threat of penalties for non-compliance and provide little to no compensation for the costs of implementation. Thus, given its coercive nature, a mandate is commonly likened to a “stick.” GRANTS The national government has used grants to influence state actions as far back as the Articles of Confederation when it provided states with land grants. In the first half of the 1800s, land grants were the primary means by which the federal government supported the states. Millions of acres of federal land were donated to support road, railroad, bridge, and canal construction projects, all of which were instrumental in piecing together a national transportation system to facilitate migration, interstate commerce, postal mail service, and movement of military people and equipment. Numerous universities and colleges across the country, such as Ohio State University and the University of Maine, are land-grant institutions because their campuses were built on land donated by the federal government. At the turn of the twentieth century, cash grants replaced land grants as the main form of federal intergovernmental transfers and have become a central part of modern federalism.Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments.” Federal cash grants do come with strings attached; the national government has an interest in seeing that public monies are used for policy activities that advance national objectives. Categorical grants are federal transfers formulated to limit recipients’ discretion in the use of funds and subject them to strict administrative criteria that guide project selection, performance, and financial oversight, among other things. These grants also often require some commitment of matching funds. Medicaid and the food stamp program are examples of categorical grants. Block grants come with less stringent federal administrative conditions and provide recipients more flexibility over how to spend grant funds. Examples of block grants include the Workforce Investment Act program, which provides state and local agencies money to help youths and adults obtain skill sets that will lead to better-paying jobs, and the Surface Transportation Program, which helps state and local governments maintain and improve highways, bridges, tunnels, sidewalks, and bicycle paths. Finally, recipients of general revenue sharing faced the least restrictions on the use of federal grants. From 1972 to 1986, when revenue sharing was abolished, upwards of $85 billion of federal money was distributed to states, cities, counties, towns, and villages.John Mikesell. 2014. Fiscal Administration, 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing. During the 1960s and 1970s, funding for federal grants grew significantly, as the trend line shows in Figure. Growth picked up again in the 1990s and 2000s. The upward slope since the 1990s is primarily due to the increase in federal grant money going to Medicaid. Federally funded health-care programs jumped from $43.8 billion in 1990 to $320 billion in 2014.Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” 5. Health-related grant programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) represented more than half of total federal grant expenses. The federal government uses grants and other tools to achieve its national policy priorities. Take a look at the National Priorities Project to find out more. The national government has greatly preferred using categorical grants to transfer funds to state and local authorities because this type of grant gives them more control and discretion in how the money is spent. In 2014, the federal government distributed 1,099 grants, 1,078 of which were categorical, while only 21 were block grants.——, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” Table 4. In response to the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, more than a dozen new federal grant programs relating to homeland security were created, but as of 2011, only three were block grants. There are a couple of reasons that categorical grants are more popular than block grants despite calls to decentralize public policy. One reason is that elected officials who sponsor these grants can take credit for their positive outcomes (e.g., clean rivers, better-performing schools, healthier children, a secure homeland) since elected officials, not state officials, formulate the administrative standards that lead to the results. Another reason is that categorical grants afford federal officials greater command over grant program performance. A common criticism leveled against block grants is that they lack mechanisms to hold state and local administrators accountable for outcomes, a reproach the Obama administration has made about the Community Services Block Grant program. Finally, once categorical grants have been established, vested interests in Congress and the federal bureaucracy seek to preserve them. The legislators who enact them and the federal agencies that implement them invest heavily in defending them, ensuring their continuation.Schick, The Federal Budget. Reagan’s “devolution revolution” contributed to raising the number of block grants from six in 1981 to fourteen in 1989. Block grants increased to twenty-four in 1999 during the Clinton administration and to twenty-six during Obama’s presidency, but by 2014 the total had dropped to twenty-one, accounting for 10 percent of total federal grant outlay.Robert Jay Dilger and Eugene Boyd, “Block Grants: Perspectives and Controversies,” Congressional Research Service, Report R40486, 15 July 2014, 1–3. In 1994, the Republican-controlled Congress passed legislation that called for block-granting Medicaid, which would have capped federal Medicaid spending. President Clinton vetoed the legislation. However, congressional efforts to convert Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to a block grant succeeded. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant replaced the AFDC in 1996, marking the first time the federal government transformed an entitlement program (which guarantees individual rights to benefits) into a block grant. Under the AFDC, the federal government had reimbursed states a portion of the costs they bore for running the program without placing a ceiling on the amount. In contrast, the TANF block grant caps annual federal funding at $16.489 billion and provides a yearly lump sum to each state, which it can use to manage its own program. Block grants have been championed for their cost-cutting effects. By eliminating uncapped federal funding, as the TANF issue illustrates, the national government can reverse the escalating costs of federal grant programs. This point has not been lost on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), former chair of the House Budget Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, who has tried multiple times but without success to convert Medicaid into a block grant, a reform he estimates could save the federal government upwards of $732 billion over ten years.Jonathan Weisman, “Ryan’s Budget Would Cut $5 trillion in Spending Over a Decade,” New York Times, 1 April 2014. Another noteworthy characteristic of block grants is that their flexibility has been undermined over time as a result of creeping categorization, a process in which the national government places new administrative requirements on state and local governments or supplants block grants with new categorical grants.Kenneth Finegold, Laura Wherry, and Stephanie Schardin. 2014. “Block Grants: Historical Overview and Lessons Learned,” New Federalism: Issues and Options for States Series A, No A-63: 1–7. Among the more common measures used to restrict block grants’ programmatic flexibility are set-asides (i.e., requiring a certain share of grant funds to be designated for a specific purpose) and cost ceilings (i.e., placing a cap on funding other purposes). UNFUNDED MANDATES Unfunded mandates are federal laws and regulations that impose obligations on state and local governments without fully compensating them for the administrative costs they incur. The federal government has used mandates increasingly since the 1960s to promote national objectives in policy areas such as the environment, civil rights, education, and homeland security. One type of mandate threatens civil and criminal penalties for state and local authorities that fail to comply with them across the board in all programs, while another provides for the suspension of federal grant money if the mandate is not followed. These types of mandates are commonly referred to as crosscutting mandates. Failure to fully comply with crosscutting mandates can result in punishments that normally include reduction of or suspension of federal grants, prosecution of officials, fines, or some combination of these penalties. If only one requirement is not met, state or local governments may not get any money at all. For example, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizes the federal government to withhold federal grants as well as file lawsuits against state and local officials for practicing racial discrimination. Finally, some mandates come in the form of partial preemption regulations, whereby the federal government sets national regulatory standards but delegates the enforcement to state and local governments. For example, the Clean Air Act sets air quality regulations but instructs states to design implementation plans to achieve such standards (Figure).Martha Derthick. 1987. “American Federalism: Madison’s Middle Ground in the 1980s,” Public Administration Review 47, No. 1: 66–74. The widespread use of federal mandates in the 1970s and 1980s provoked a backlash among state and local authorities, which culminated in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) in 1995. The UMRA’s main objective has been to restrain the national government’s use of mandates by subjecting rules that impose unfunded requirements on state and local governments to greater procedural scrutiny. However, since the act’s implementation, states and local authorities have obtained limited relief. A new piece of legislation aims to take this approach further. The 2015 Unfunded Mandates and Information Transparency Act, HR 50, passed the House early in 2015 before being referred to the Senate, where it waits committee consideration.U.S. Congress. Senate. 2015–2016. H. R. 50 – Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2015 H. Rept. 114-11. https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/50 The number of mandates has continued to rise, and some have been especially costly to states and local authorities. Consider the Real ID Act of 2005, a federal law designed to beef up homeland security. The law requires driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards (DL/IDs) to contain standardized anti-fraud security features, specific data, and machine-readable technology. It also requires states to verify the identity of everyone being reissued DL/IDs. The Department of Homeland Security announced a phased enforcement of the law in 2013, which requires individuals to present compliant DL/IDs to board commercial airlines starting in 2016. The cost to states of re-issuing DL/IDs, implementing new identity verification procedures, and redesigning DL/IDs is estimated to be $11 billion, and the federal government stands to reimburse only a small fraction.National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, and American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. 2006. The Real ID Act: National Impact Analysis. http://www.ncsl.org/print/statefed/real_id_impact_report_final_sept19.pdf Compliance with the federal law has been onerous for many states; only twenty-two were in full compliance with Real ID in 2015.Homeland Security. “REAL ID Enforcement in Brief.” http://www.dhs.gov/real-id-enforcement-brief# (June 12, 2015); National Conference of State Legislatures. “Countdown to REAL ID.” http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/count-down-to-real-id.aspx (June 12, 2015). The continued use of unfunded mandates clearly contradicts new federalism’s call for giving states and local governments more flexibility in carrying out national goals. The temptation to use them appears to be difficult for the federal government to resist, however, as the UMRA’s poor track record illustrates. This is because mandates allow the federal government to fulfill its national priorities while passing most of the cost to the states, an especially attractive strategy for national lawmakers trying to cut federal spending.Robert Jay Dilger and Richard S. Beth, “Unfunded Mandates Reform Act: History, Impact, and Issues,” Congressional Research Service, Report 7-5700, 17 November 2014. Some leading federalism scholars have used the term coercive federalism to capture this aspect of contemporary U.S. federalism.John Kincaid. 1990. “From Cooperative Federalism to Coercive Federalism,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 509: 139–152. In other words, Washington has been as likely to use the stick of mandates as the carrot of grants to accomplish its national objectives. As a result, there have been more instances of confrontational interactions between the states and the federal government. The Clery Act The Clery Act of 1990, formally the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, requires public and private colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid programs to disclose information about campus crime. The Act is named after Jeanne Clery, who in 1986 was raped and murdered by a fellow student in her Lehigh University dorm room. The U.S. Department of Education’s Clery Act Compliance Division is responsible for enforcing the 1990 Act. Specifically, to remain eligible for federal financial aid funds and avoid penalties, colleges and universities must comply with the following provisions: - Publish an annual security report and make it available to current and prospective students and employees; - Keep a public crime log that documents each crime on campus and is accessible to the public; - Disclose information about incidents of criminal homicide, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, and hate crimes that occurred on or near campus; - Issue warnings about Clery Act crimes that pose a threat to students and employees; - Develop a campus community emergency response and notification strategy that is subject to annual testing; - Gather and report fire data to the federal government and publish an annual fire safety report; - Devise procedures to address reports of missing students living in on-campus housing. For more about the Clery Act, see Clery Center for Security on Campus, http://clerycenter.org. Were you made aware of your campus’s annual security report before you enrolled? Do you think reporting about campus security is appropriately regulated at the federal level under the Clery Act? Why or why not? To accomplish its policy priorities, the federal government often needs to elicit the cooperation of states and local governments, using various strategies. Block and categorical grants provide money to lower government levels to subsidize the cost of implementing policy programs fashioned in part by the federal government. This strategy gives state and local authorities some degree of flexibility and discretion as they coordinate with the federal government. On the other hand, mandate compels state and local governments to abide by federal laws and regulations or face penalties. Which statement about federal grants in recent decades is most accurate? - The federal government allocates the most grant money to income security. - The amount of federal grant money going to states has steadily increased since the 1960s. - The majority of federal grants are block grants. - Block grants tend to gain more flexibility over time. Which statement about unfunded mandates is false? - The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act has prevented Congress from using unfunded mandates. - The Clean Air Act is a type of federal partial preemptive regulation. - Title VI of the Civil Rights Act establishes crosscutting requirements. - New federalism does not promote the use of unfunded mandates. Hint: D What does it mean to refer to the carrot of grants and the stick of mandates?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.269296	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15206/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15207/overview	Competitive Federalism Today Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the dynamic of competitive federalism - Analyze some issues over which the states and federal government have contended Certain functions clearly belong to the federal government, the state governments, and local governments. National security is a federal matter, the issuance of licenses is a state matter, and garbage collection is a local matter. One aspect of competitive federalism today is that some policy issues, such as immigration and the marital rights of gays and lesbians, have been redefined as the roles that states and the federal government play in them have changed. Another aspect of competitive federalism is that interest groups seeking to change the status quo can take a policy issue up to the federal government or down to the states if they feel it is to their advantage. Interest groups have used this strategy to promote their views on such issues as abortion, gun control, and the legal drinking age. CONTENDING ISSUES Immigration and marriage equality have not been the subject of much contention between states and the federal government until recent decades. Before that, it was understood that the federal government handled immigration and states determined the legality of same-sex marriage. This understanding of exclusive responsibilities has changed; today both levels of government play roles in these two policy areas. Immigration federalism describes the gradual movement of states into the immigration policy domain.Carol M. Swain and Virgina M. Yetter. (2014). “Federalism and the Politics of Immigration Reform.” In The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America, eds. Jeffery A. Jenkins and Sidney M. Milkis. New York: Cambridge University Press. Since the late 1990s, states have asserted a right to make immigration policy on the grounds that they are enforcing, not supplanting, the nation’s immigration laws, and they are exercising their jurisdictional authority by restricting illegal immigrants’ access to education, health care, and welfare benefits, areas that fall under the states’ responsibilities. In 2005, twenty-five states had enacted a total of thirty-nine laws related to immigration; by 2014, forty-three states and Washington, DC, had passed a total of 288 immigration-related laws and resolutions.National Conference of State Legislatures. “State Laws Related to Immigration and Immigrants.” http://www.ncsl.org/research/immigration/state-laws-related-to-immigration-and-immigrants.aspx (June 23, 2015). Arizona has been one of the states at the forefront of immigration federalism. In 2010, it passed Senate Bill 1070, which sought to make it so difficult for illegal immigrants to live in the state that they would return to their native country, a strategy referred to as “attrition by enforcement.”Michele Waslin. 2012. “Discrediting ‘Self Deportation’ as Immigration Policy,” February 6. http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/discrediting-%E2%80%9Cself-deportation%E2%80%9D-immigration-policy The federal government filed suit to block the Arizona law, contending that it conflicted with federal immigration laws. Arizona’s law has also divided society, because some groups, like the Tea Party movement, have supported its tough stance against illegal immigrants, while other groups have opposed it for humanitarian and human-rights reasons (Figure). According to a poll of Latino voters in the state by Arizona State University researchers, 81 percent opposed this bill.Daniel González. 2010. “SB 1070 Backlash Spurs Hispanics to Join Democrats,” June 8. http://archive.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/06/08/20100608arizona-immigration-law-backlash.html In 2012, in Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court affirmed federal supremacy on immigration.Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. __ (2012). The court struck down three of the four central provisions of the Arizona law—namely, those allowing police officers to arrest an undocumented immigrant without a warrant if they had probable cause to think he or she had committed a crime that could lead to deportation, making it a crime to seek a job without proper immigration papers, and making it a crime to be in Arizona without valid immigration papers. The court upheld the “show me your papers” provision, which authorizes police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest who they suspect is an illegal immigrant.Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. __ (2012). However, in letting this provision stand, the court warned Arizona and other states with similar laws that they could face civil rights lawsuits if police officers applied it based on racial profiling.Julia Preston, “Arizona Ruling Only a Narrow Opening for Other States,” New York Times, 25 June 2012. All in all, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion embraced an expansive view of the U.S. government’s authority to regulate immigration and aliens, describing it as broad and undoubted. That authority derived from the legislative power of Congress to “establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization,” enumerated in the Constitution. Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 has been the subject of heated debate. Read the views of proponents and opponents of the law. Marital rights for gays and lesbians have also significantly changed in recent years. By passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, the federal government stepped into this policy issue. Not only did DOMA allow states to choose whether to recognize same-sex marriages, it also defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, which meant that same-sex couples were denied various federal provisions and benefits—such as the right to file joint tax returns and receive Social Security survivor benefits. In 1997, more than half the states in the union had passed some form of legislation banning same-sex marriage. By 2006, two years after Massachusetts became the first state to recognize marriage equality, twenty-seven states had passed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court changed the dynamic established by DOMA by ruling that the federal government had no authority to define marriage. The Court held that states possess the “historic and essential authority to define the marital relation,” and that the federal government’s involvement in this area “departs from this history and tradition of reliance on state law to define marriage.”United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. __ (2013). Edith Windsor: Icon of the Marriage Equality Movement Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor, has become an icon of the marriage equality movement for her successful effort to force repeal the DOMA provision that denied married same-sex couples a host of federal provisions and protections. In 2007, after having lived together since the late 1960s, Windsor and her partner Thea Spyer were married in Canada, where same-sex marriage was legal. After Spyer died in 2009, Windsor received a $363,053 federal tax bill on the estate Spyer had left her. Because her marriage was not valid under federal law, her request for the estate-tax exemption that applies to surviving spouses was denied. With the counsel of her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, Windsor sued the federal government and won (Figure). Because of the Windsor decision, federal laws could no longer discriminate against same-sex married couples. What is more, marriage equality became a reality in a growing number of states as federal court after federal court overturned state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. The Windsor case gave federal judges the moment of clarity from the U.S. Supreme Court that they needed. James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project, summarizes the significance of the case as follows: “Part of what’s gotten us to this exciting moment in American culture is not just Edie’s lawsuit but the story of her life. The love at the core of that story, as well as the injustice at its end, is part of what has moved America on this issue so profoundly.”James Esseks. 2014. “Op-ed: In the Wake of Windsor,” June 26. http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/06/26/op-ed-wake-windsor (June 24, 2015). In the final analysis, same-sex marriage is a protected constitutional right as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which took up the issue again when it heard Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. What role do you feel the story of Edith Windsor played in reframing the debate over same-sex marriage? How do you think it changed the federal government’s view of its role in legislation regarding same-sex marriage relative to the role of the states? Following the Windsor decision, the number of states that recognized same-sex marriages increased rapidly, as illustrated in Figure. In 2015, marriage equality was recognized in thirty-six states plus Washington, DC, up from seventeen in 2013. The diffusion of marriage equality across states was driven in large part by federal district and appeals courts, which have used the rationale underpinning the Windsor case (i.e., laws cannot discriminate between same-sex and opposite-sex couples based on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment) to invalidate state bans on same-sex marriage. The 2014 court decision not to hear a collection of cases from four different states essentially affirmed same-sex marriage in thirty states. And in 2015 the Supreme Court gave same-sex marriage a constitutional basis of right nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges. In sum, as the immigration and marriage equality examples illustrate, constitutional disputes have arisen as states and the federal government have sought to reposition themselves on certain policy issues, disputes that the federal courts have had to sort out. STRATEGIZING ABOUT NEW ISSUES Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was established in 1980 by a woman whose thirteen-year-old daughter had been killed by a drunk driver. The organization lobbied state legislators to raise the drinking age and impose tougher penalties, but without success. States with lower drinking ages had an economic interest in maintaining them because they lured youths from neighboring states with restricted consumption laws. So MADD decided to redirect its lobbying efforts at Congress, hoping to find sympathetic representatives willing to take action. In 1984, the federal government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA), a crosscutting mandate that gradually reduced federal highway grant money to any state that failed to increase the legal age for alcohol purchase and possession to twenty-one. After losing a legal battle against the NMDAA, all states were in compliance by 1988.South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987). By creating two institutional access points—the federal and state governments—the U.S. federal system enables interest groups such as MADD to strategize about how best to achieve their policy objectives. The term venue shopping refers to a strategy in which interest groups select the level and branch of government (legislature, judiciary, or executive) they calculate will be most advantageous for them.Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones. 1993. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. If one institutional venue proves unreceptive to an advocacy group’s policy goal, as state legislators were to MADD, the group will attempt to steer its issue to a more responsive venue. The strategy anti-abortion advocates have used in recent years is another example of venue shopping. In their attempts to limit abortion rights in the wake of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision making abortion legal nationwide, anti-abortion advocates initially targeted Congress in hopes of obtaining restrictive legislation.Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Lack of progress at the national level prompted them to shift their focus to state legislators, where their advocacy efforts have been more successful. By 2015, for example, thirty-eight states required some form of parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion, forty-six states allowed individual health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, and thirty-two states prohibited the use of public funds to carry out an abortion except when the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. While 31 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age resided in one of the thirteen states that had passed restrictive abortion laws in 2000, by 2013, about 56 percent of such women resided in one of the twenty-seven states where abortion is restricted.Elizabeth Nash et al. 2013. “Laws Affecting Reproductive Health and Rights: 2013 State Policy Review.” http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/updates/2013/statetrends42013.html (June 24, 2015). Some policy areas have been redefined as a result of changes in the roles that states and the federal government play in them. The constitutional disputes these changes often trigger have had to be sorted out by the Supreme Court. Contemporary federalism has also witnessed interest groups engaging in venue shopping. Aware of the multiple access points to our political system, such groups seek to access the level of government they deem will be most receptive to their policy views. Which statement about immigration federalism is false? - The Arizona v. United States decision struck down all Arizona’s most restrictive provisions on illegal immigration. - Since the 1990s, states have increasingly moved into the policy domain of immigration. - Federal immigration laws trump state laws. - States’ involvement in immigration is partly due to their interest in preventing illegal immigrants from accessing public services such as education and welfare benefits. Hint: A Which statement about the evolution of same-sex marriage is false? - The federal government became involved in this issue when it passed DOMA. - In the 1990s and 2000s, the number of state restrictions on same-sex marriage increased. - United States v. Windsor legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. - More than half the states had legalized same-sex marriage by the time the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal nationwide in 2015. Which statement about venue shopping is true? - MADD steered the drinking age issue from the federal government down to the states. - Anti-abortion advocates have steered the abortion issue from the states up to the federal government. - Both MADD and anti-abortion proponents redirected their advocacy from the states to the federal government. - None of the statements are correct. Hint: D What does venue shopping mean?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.296703	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15207/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15208/overview	Advantages and Disadvantages of Federalism Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the advantages of federalism - Explain the disadvantages of federalism The federal design of our Constitution has had a profound effect on U.S. politics. Several positive and negative attributes of federalism have manifested themselves in the U.S. political system. THE BENEFITS OF FEDERALISM Among the merits of federalism are that it promotes policy innovation and political participation and accommodates diversity of opinion. On the subject of policy innovation, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed in 1932 that “a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932). What Brandeis meant was that states could harness their constitutional authority to engage in policy innovations that might eventually be diffused to other states and at the national level. For example, a number of New Deal breakthroughs, such as child labor laws, were inspired by state policies. Prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, several states had already granted women the right to vote. California has led the way in establishing standards for fuel emissions and other environmental policies (Figure). Recently, the health insurance exchanges run by Connecticut, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Washington have served as models for other states seeking to improve the performance of their exchanges.Christine Vestal and Michael Ollove, “Why some state-run health exchanges worked,” USA Today, 10 December 2013. Another advantage of federalism is that because our federal system creates two levels of government with the capacity to take action, failure to attain a desired policy goal at one level can be offset by successfully securing the support of elected representatives at another level. Thus, individuals, groups, and social movements are encouraged to actively participate and help shape public policy. Federalism and Political Office Thinking of running for elected office? Well, you have several options. As Table shows, there are a total of 510,682 elected offices at the federal, state, and local levels. Elected representatives in municipal and township governments account for a little more than half the total number of elected officials in the United States. Political careers rarely start at the national level. In fact, a very small share of politicians at the subnational level transition to the national stage as representatives, senators, vice presidents, or presidents. \| Elected Officials at the Federal, State, and Local Levels \| \|\| \|---\|---\|---\| \| Number of Elective Bodies \| Number of Elected Officials \| \| \| Federal Government \| 1 \| \| \| Executive branch \| 2 \| \| \| U.S. Senate \| 100 \| \| \| U.S. House of Representatives \| 435 \| \| \| State Government \| 50 \| \| \| State legislatures \| 7,382 \| \| \| Statewide offices \| 1,036 \| \| \| State boards \| 1,331 \| \| \| Local Government \| \|\| \| County governments \| 3,034 \| 58,818 \| \| Municipal governments \| 19,429 \| 135,531 \| \| Town governments \| 16,504 \| 126,958 \| \| School districts \| 13,506 \| 95,000 \| \| Special districts \| 35,052 \| 84,089 \| \| Total \| 87,576 \| 510,682 \| If you are interested in serving the public as an elected official, there are more opportunities to do so at the local and state levels than at the national level. As an added incentive for setting your sights at the subnational stage, consider the following. Whereas only 28 percent of U.S. adults trusted Congress in 2014, about 62 percent trusted their state governments and 72 percent had confidence in their local governments.Justin McCarthy. 2014. “Americans Still Trust Local Government More Than State,” September 22. http://www.gallup.com/poll/176846/americans-trust-local-government-state.aspx (June 24, 2015). If you ran for public office, what problems would you most want to solve? What level of government would best enable you to solve them, and why? The system of checks and balances in our political system often prevents the federal government from imposing uniform policies across the country. As a result, states and local communities have the latitude to address policy issues based on the specific needs and interests of their citizens. The diversity of public viewpoints across states is manifested by differences in the way states handle access to abortion, distribution of alcohol, gun control, and social welfare benefits, for example. THE DRAWBACKS OF FEDERALISM Federalism also comes with drawbacks. Chief among them are economic disparities across states, race-to-the-bottom dynamics (i.e., states compete to attract business by lowering taxes and regulations), and the difficulty of taking action on issues of national importance. Stark economic differences across states have a profound effect on the well-being of citizens. For example, in 2014, Maryland had the highest median household income ($73,971), while Mississippi had the lowest ($39,680).See http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/ for more data on household income. There are also huge disparities in school funding across states. In 2013, New York spent $19,818 per student for elementary and secondary education, while Utah spent $6,555.Governing. “Education Spending Per Student by State.” http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html (June 24, 2015). Furthermore, health-care access, costs, and quality vary greatly across states.The Commonwealth Fund. “Aiming Higher: Results from a Scorecard on State Health System Performance, 2014.” http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/apr/2014-state-scorecard (June 24, 2015). Proponents of social justice contend that federalism has tended to obstruct national efforts to effectively even out these disparities. The National Education Association discusses the problem of inequality in the educational system of the United States. Read its proposed solution and decide whether you agree. The economic strategy of using race-to-the-bottom tactics in order to compete with other states in attracting new business growth also carries a social cost. For example, workers’ safety and pay can suffer as workplace regulations are lifted, and the reduction in payroll taxes for employers has led a number of states to end up with underfunded unemployment insurance programs.Alexander Hertel-Fernandez. 2012. “Why U.S. Unemployment Insurance is in Financial Trouble,” February. http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn_basic_facts_hertel-fernandez_on_unemployment_insurance_financing.pdf Nineteen states have also opted not to cover more of their residents under Medicaid, as encouraged by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, for fear it will raise state public spending and increase employers’ cost of employee benefits, despite provisions that the federal government will pick up nearly all cost of the expansion.Matt Broaddus and January Angeles. 2012. “Federal Government Will Pick Up Nearly All Costs of Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion,” March 28. http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-government-will-pick-up-nearly-all-costs-of-health-reforms-medicaid-expansion More than half of these states are in the South. The federal design of our Constitution and the system of checks and balances has jeopardized or outright blocked federal responses to important national issues. President Roosevelt’s efforts to combat the scourge of the Great Depression were initially struck down by the Supreme Court. More recently, President Obama’s effort to make health insurance accessible to more Americans under the Affordable Care Act immediately ran into legal challengesNational Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. __ (2012). from some states, but it has been supported by the Supreme Court so far. However, the federal government’s ability to defend the voting rights of citizens suffered a major setback when the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. __ (2013). No longer are the nine states with histories of racial discrimination in their voting processes required to submit plans for changes to the federal government for approval. The benefits of federalism are that it can encourage political participation, give states an incentive to engage in policy innovation, and accommodate diverse viewpoints across the country. The disadvantages are that it can set off a race to the bottom among states, cause cross-state economic and social disparities, and obstruct federal efforts to address national problems. Which of the following is not a benefit of federalism? - Federalism promotes political participation. - Federalism encourages economic equality across the country. - Federalism provides for multiple levels of government action. - Federalism accommodates a diversity of opinion. Hint: B Describe the advantages of federalism. Describe the disadvantages of federalism. Hint: Federalism can trigger a race to the bottom, leading states to reduce workplace regulations and social benefits for employees; it can obstruct federal efforts to address national problems; and it can deepen economic and social disparities among states. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems. How have the political and economic relationships between the states and federal government evolved since the early 1800s? Discuss how the federal government shapes the actions of state and local governments. What are the merits and drawbacks of American federalism? What do you see as the upcoming challenges to federalism in the next decade? Choose an issue and outline how the states and the federal government could respond. Beer, Samuel H. 1998. To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Berry, Christopher R. 2009. Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments. New York: Cambridge University Press. Derthick, Martha, ed. 1999. Dilemmas of Scale in America’s Federal Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Diamond, Martin. 1981. The Founding of the American Democratic Republic. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Elazar, Daniel J. 1992. Federal Systems of the World: A Handbook of Federal, Confederal and Autonomy Arrangements. Harlow, Essex: Longman Current Affairs. Grodzins, Morton. 2004. “The Federal System.” In American Government Readings and Cases, ed. P. Woll. New York: Pearson Longman, 74–78. LaCroix, Alison. 2011. The Ideological Origins of American Federalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Orren, Karen, and Stephen Skowronek. 2004. The Search for American Political Development. New York: Cambridge University Press. O’Toole, Laurence J., Jr., and Robert K. Christensen, eds. 2012. American Intergovernmental Relations: Foundations, Perspectives, and Issues. Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press. Peterson, Paul E. 1995. The Price of Federalism. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Watts, Ronald L. 1999. Comparing Federal Systems. 2nd ed. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.327291	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15208/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15291/overview	Selected Supreme Court Cases A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935). This case represented a challenge to the constitutionality of a law called the National Industrial Recovery Act. This law was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempt to rebuild the nation’s economy during the Great Depression. Major industries in the United States, however, objected to the way the law empowered the president to regulate aspects of American industry, such as labor conditions and even pay. In the unanimous decision, the court determined that the act was unconstitutional because it shifted the power to regulate commerce from the legislative branch to the executive branch. Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. ___ (2012). This case involved federal attempts to prevent an Arizona state immigration law (S.B. 1070) from being enforced. The United States brought suit, arguing that immigration law is exclusively in the federal domain. Agreeing with the federal government, a federal district court enjoined specific provisions in the law. Arizona appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the decision. In a 5–3 decision, the court found that specific provisions in the law did conflict with federal law, while others were constitutional. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). This case represented a challenge to the principle of “separate but equal” established by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. The case was brought by students who were denied admittance to certain public schools based exclusively on race. The unanimous decision in Brown v. Board determined that the existence of racially segregated public schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court decided that schools segregated by race perpetrated harm by giving legal sanction to the idea that African Americans were inherently inferior. The ruling effectively overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and removed the legal supports for segregated schools nationwide. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976). This case concerned the power of the then recently created Federal Election Commission to regulate the financing of political campaigns. These restrictions limited the amount of contributions that could be made to candidates and required political contributions to be disclosed, among other things. In 1975, Senator James Buckley filed suit, arguing that these limits amounted to a violation of First Amendment protections on free speech and free association. In a series of decisions in this complex case, the court determined that these restrictions did not violate the First Amendment. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. ___ (2014). This case involved a challenge to the mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that required that all employment-based group health care plans provide coverage for certain types of contraceptives. The law, however, allowed exemptions for religious employers such as churches that held a religious-based opposition to contraception. The plaintiffs in the case argued that Hobby Lobby, a large family-owned chain of arts and crafts stores, was run based on Christian principles and therefore should be exempt as well because of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA). The 5–4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby agreed with the plaintiffs and declared that RFRA permits for-profit companies like Hobby Lobby to deny coverage for contraception in their health plans when that coverage violates a religious belief. Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000). Following voting in the November 2000 presidential election, observers recognized that the outcome of the very close national election hinged on the outcome of the election in Florida. Because the Florida election was so close, manual recounts were called for by the state’s supreme court. Then-governor George W. Bush, who was ahead in the initial count, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the manual recount and to declare that the method of manual recount being used violated his rights to equal protection and due process. The court issued a two-part per curiam opinion on the case. (In a per curiam opinion, the court makes it clear that the decision in the case is not intended to set a legal precedent.) In the first part, the court ruled in a 7–2 decision that the manual recount did violate the plaintiff’s right to equal protection. In the second part, decided by a smaller 5–4 margin, the court ruled that there was not sufficient time to adjust the recount procedure and conduct a full recount. The effect of this ruling gave the Florida electoral votes, and thus the presidency, to George W. Bush. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010). In 2007, the nonprofit corporation Citizens United was prevented by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from showing a movie about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The FEC noted that showing the movie violated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). BCRA prohibited campaign communications one month before a primary election and two months before a general election, required donors to be disclosed, and prohibited corporations from using their general funds for campaign communications. The plaintiffs argued that these restrictions constituted a violation of the First Amendment. The 5–4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC agreed with the plaintiffs and concluded that the restrictions imposed by BCRA and enforced by the FEC violated the corporation’s First Amendment right to free expression. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856). This case concerned the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise, which declared that certain states would be entirely free of slavery. Dred Scott, a slave, was brought by his owner into free territories. When the owner brought him back to Missouri, a slave state, Dred Scott sued claiming that his time living in free territory made him free. After failing in his attempts in Missouri, Scott appealed to the Supreme Court. In a 7–2 decision, the court declared that the relevant parts of the Missouri Compromise were unconstitutional, and that Scott remained a slave as a result. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963). In 1961, Clarence E. Gideon was arrested and accused of breaking into a poolroom and stealing money from a cigarette machine. Not being able to afford a lawyer, and being denied a public defender by the judge, Gideon defended himself and was subsequently found guilty. Gideon appealed to the Supreme Court declaring that the denial by the trial judge constituted a violation of his constitutional right to representation. The unanimous decision by the court in Gideon v. Wainwright agreed that the Sixth Amendment required that those facing felony criminal charges be supplied with legal representation. King v. Burwell, 576 U.S. ___ (2015). When Congress wrote and passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, lawmakers intended for states to create exchanges through which residents in those states could purchase health care insurance plans. For those residents who could not afford the premiums, the law also allowed for tax credits to help reduce the cost. If states didn’t create an exchange, the federal government created the exchange for the state. While the intention of the lawmakers was for the tax credits to apply to the federally created exchanges as well, the language of the law was somewhat unclear on this point. Residents in Virginia brought suit against the law arguing that the law should be interpreted in a way that withholds tax credits from those participating in the federally created exchange. In the 6–3 decision, the court disagreed, stating that viewing the law in its entirety made it clear that the intent of the law was to provide the tax credits to those participating in either exchange. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). This case concerned two men in Houston who in 1998 were prosecuted and convicted under a Texas law that forbade certain types of intimate sexual relations between two persons of the same sex. The men appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection and privacy were violated when they were prosecuted for consensual sexual intimacy in their own home. In the 6–3 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, the court concluded that while so-called anti-sodomy statutes like the law in Texas did not violate one’s right to equal protection, they did violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court stated that the government had no right to infringe on the liberty of persons engaging in such private and personal acts. Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803). This case involved the nomination of justices of the peace in Washington, DC, by President John Adams at the end of his term. Despite the Senate confirming the nominations, some of the commissions were not delivered before Adams left office. The new president, Thomas Jefferson, decided not to deliver the commissions. William Marbury, one of the offended justices, sued, saying that the Judiciary Act of 1789 empowered the court to force Secretary of State James Madison to deliver the commissions. In the unanimous decision in Marbury v. Madison, the court declared that while Marbury’s rights were violated when Madison refused to deliver the commission, the court did not have the power to force the secretary to do so despite what the Judiciary Act says. In declaring that the law conflicted with the U.S. Constitution, the case established the principle of judicial review wherein the Supreme Court has the power to declare laws passed by Congress and signed by the president to be unconstitutional. McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010). This case developed as a consequence of the decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), which dismissed a Washington, DC, handgun ban as a violation of the Second Amendment. In McDonald v. Chicago, the plaintiffs argued that the Fourteenth Amendment had the effect of applying the Second Amendment to the states, not just to the federal government. In a 5–4 decision, the court agreed with the plaintiffs and concluded that rights like the right to keep and bear arms are important enough for maintaining liberty that the Fourteenth Amendment rightly applies them to the states. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). When Ernesto Miranda was arrested, interrogated, and confessed to kidnapping in 1963, the arresting officers neglected to inform him of his Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate. After being found guilty at trial, Miranda appealed to the Supreme Court, insisting that the officers violated his Fifth Amendment rights. The 5–4 decision in Miranda v. Arizona found that the right to not incriminate oneself relies heavily on the suspect’s right to be informed of these rights at the time of arrest. The opinion indicated that suspects must be told that they have the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent in order to ensure that any statements they provide are issued voluntarily. National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. ___ (2012). This case represented a challenge to the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The suing states argued that the Medicare expansion and the individual mandate that required citizens to purchase health insurance or pay a fine were both unconstitutional. The 5–4 decision found that the Medicare expansion was permissible, but that the federal government could not withhold all Medicare funding for states that refused to accept the expansion. More importantly, it found that Congress had the power to apply the mandate to purchase health insurance under its enumerated power to tax. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). This case began when the New York Times published a full-page advertisement claiming that the arrest of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Alabama was part of a concerted effort to ruin him. Insulted, an Alabama official filed a libel suit against the newspaper. Under Alabama law, which did not require that persons claiming libel have to show harm, the official won a judgment. The New York Times appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the ruling violated its First Amendment right to free speech. In a unanimous decision, the court declared that the First Amendment protects even false statements by the press, as long as those statements are not made with actual malice. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015). This case concerned groups of same-sex couples who brought suits against a number of states and relevant agencies that refused to recognize same-sex marriages created in states where such marriages were legal. In the 5–4 decision, the court found that not only did the Fourteenth Amendment provision for equal protection under the law require that states recognize same-sex marriages formed in other states, but that no state could deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples if they also issued them to other types of couples. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). When Homer Plessy, a man of mixed racial heritage, sat in a whites-only railroad car in an attempt to challenge a Louisiana law that required railroad cars be segregated, he was arrested and convicted. Appealing his conviction to the Supreme Court, he argued that the segregation law was a violation of the principle of equal protection under the law in the Fourteenth Amendment. In a 7–1 decision, the court disagreed, indicating that the law was not a violation of the equal protection principle because the different train cars were separate but equal. Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate but equal” remained a guiding principle of segregation until Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). This case involved a pregnant woman from Texas who desired to terminate her pregnancy. At the time, Texas only allowed abortions in cases where the woman’s life was in danger. Using the pseudonym “Jane Roe,” the woman appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Constitution provides women the right to terminate an abortion. The 7–2 decision in Roe v. Wade sided with the plaintiff and declared that the right to privacy upheld in the decision in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) included a woman’s right to an abortion. In balancing the rights of the woman with the interests of the states to protect human life, the court created a trimester framework. In the first trimester, a pregnant woman could seek an abortion without restriction. In the second and third trimesters, however, the court asserted that states had an interest in regulating abortions, provided that those regulations were based on health needs. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States. See A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States. Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. ___ (2013). After decades in which African Americans encountered obstacles to voting, particularly in southern states, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among other things, the law prohibited certain congressional districts from changing election laws without federal authorization. In 2010, Shelby County in Alabama brought a suit against the U.S. attorney general, claiming that both section five of the act, which required districts to seek preapproval, and section four, which determined which districts had to seek preapproval, were unconstitutional. In a 5–4 decision, the court found that both sections violated the Tenth Amendment. United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ___ (2013). When Thea Clara Spyer died in 2009, she left her estate to her wife, Edith Windsor, with whom she had been legally married in Canada years before. Because of a 1996 U.S. law called the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), this marriage was not recognized by the federal government. As a result, Windsor was compelled to pay an enormous tax on the inheritance, which she would not have had to pay had the federal government recognized the marriage. Appealing to the Supreme Court, Windsor argued that DOMA was unconstitutional because it deprives same-sex couples of their Fifth Amendment right to equal protection. In the 5–4 decision, the court agreed with Windsor, stating that DOMA was intended to treat certain married couples differently in blatant violation of their Fifth Amendment rights.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.347079	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15291/overview", "title": "American Government, Selected Supreme Court Cases", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/82935/overview	JPPM - Marv's Story Overview What should you do if you're lucky enough to find an artifact? In this resource, JPPM Educator Kenny walks you through a simple 4-step process for making sure your find gets taken care of. Available in video and text form, this resource also includes connections for instructors to Maryland State Social Studies Frameworks for grades 2 and 3 on Civic Engagment and Civic Virtue. Resource The below resource "Marv's Story" is intended to be used with "If You Find an Artifact..." found here on OER Commons. In that resource, JPPM Educator Kenny walks you through a simple 4-step process for making sure your find gets taken care of. Mary Marvin Brekenridge Patterson, or "Marv" owned the farm which was to become Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum when artifacts were found on it--her story provides a case study in civics. Marv's Story Over 30 years ago, a woman living on ”Point Farm” in Southern Maryland discovered ancient artifacts while walking on the beach. An artifact is anything that was made, used, or changed by people and left behind, and these looked like they had come from a long-ago group of Native Americans. At that time, the farm belonged to Mary Marvin Patterson (she went by ”Marv”). There was a 10,000 square foot main house, working farms, barns, and several smaller houses. Each building had been designed by Gertrude Sawyer in the 1930s for Jefferson Patterson, Marv’s husband. Mr. Patterson had died in November 1977 and at that time, Marv began looking for someone to give the land to. She wanted it to be just the right person or people because the Patterson’s had loved Point Farm so much. When the possible Native American artifacts were found by one of Point Farm’s tenants, she contacted archaeologists from the state of Maryland instead of keeping them for herself. The archaeologists surveyed the property looking for possible sites where more artifacts could be and found more than 40 in just one week. After Mrs. Patterson learned about all the sites (some over 9,000 years old), she decided to give the 512 acres of land and buildings of Point Farm to the state of Maryland. She didn’t have to do this because of any rule or law, she did it because she thought it was best that others could learn from the land instead of just a few people knowing about what was there. She called it “the greatest gift that is in my power to give,” and did so in memory of her husband Jefferson Patterson. Today, Point Farm has been renamed Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum and includes historical sites from Native American tribes who lived in the area thousands of years ago, colonial era homes, a former sharecropper’s cabin built after the Civil War, and all of the buildings designed by Gertrude Sawyer.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.362506	Social Science	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/82935/overview", "title": "JPPM - Marv's Story", "author": "Political Science" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11789/overview	Introduction to Social Stratification in the United States Aaron grew up on a farm in rural Ohio, left home to serve in the Army, and returned a few years later to take over the family farm. He moved into the same house he had grown up in and soon married a young woman with whom he had attended high school. As they began to have children, they quickly realized that the income from the farm was no longer sufficient to meet their needs. Aaron, with little experience beyond the farm, accepted a job as a clerk at a local grocery store. It was there that his life and the lives of his wife and children were changed forever. One of the managers at the store liked Aaron, his attitude, and his work ethic. He took Aaron under his wing and began to groom him for advancement at the store. Aaron rose through the ranks with ease. Then the manager encouraged him to take a few classes at a local college. This was the first time Aaron had seriously thought about college. Could he be successful, Aaron wondered? Could he actually be the first one in his family to earn a degree? Fortunately, his wife also believed in him and supported his decision to take his first class. Aaron asked his wife and his manager to keep his college enrollment a secret. He did not want others to know about it in case he failed. Aaron was nervous on his first day of class. He was older than the other students, and he had never considered himself college material. Through hard work and determination, however, he did very well in the class. While he still doubted himself, he enrolled in another class. Again, he performed very well. As his doubt began to fade, he started to take more and more classes. Before he knew it, he was walking across the stage to receive a Bachelor’s degree with honors. The ceremony seemed surreal to Aaron. He couldn’t believe he had finished college, which once seemed like an impossible feat. Shortly after graduation, Aaron was admitted into a graduate program at a well-respected university where he earned a Master’s degree. He had not only become the first from his family to attend college but also he had earned a graduate degree. Inspired by Aaron’s success, his wife enrolled at a technical college, obtained a degree in nursing, and became a registered nurse working in a local hospital’s labor and delivery department. Aaron and his wife both worked their way up the career ladder in their respective fields and became leaders in their organizations. They epitomized the American Dream—they worked hard and it paid off. This story may sound familiar. After all, nearly one in three first-year college students is a first-generation degree candidate, and it is well documented that many are not as successful as Aaron. According to the Center for Student Opportunity, a national nonprofit, 89 percent of first-generation students will not earn an undergraduate degree within six years of starting their studies. In fact, these students “drop out of college at four times the rate of peers whose parents have postsecondary degrees” (Center for Student Opportunity quoted in Huot 2014). Why do students with parents who have completed college tend to graduate more often than those students whose parents do not hold degrees? That question and many others will be answered as we explore social stratification. References Huot, Anne E. 2014. "A Commitment to Making College Accessible to First-Generation College Students." Huffington Post. Retrieved December 22, 2014 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-e-huot/first-generation-college-students_b_6081958.html).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.377505	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11789/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Social Stratification in the United States", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11790/overview	What Is Social Stratification? Overview - Differentiate between open and closed stratification systems - Distinguish between caste and class systems - Understand meritocracy as an ideal system of stratification Sociologists use the term social stratification to describe the system of social standing. Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power. You may remember the word “stratification” from geology class. The distinct vertical layers found in rock, called stratification, are a good way to visualize social structure. Society’s layers are made of people, and society’s resources are distributed unevenly throughout the layers. The people who have more resources represent the top layer of the social structure of stratification. Other groups of people, with progressively fewer and fewer resources, represent the lower layers of our society. In the United States, people like to believe everyone has an equal chance at success. To a certain extent, Aaron illustrates the belief that hard work and talent—not prejudicial treatment or societal values—determine social rank. This emphasis on self-effort perpetuates the belief that people control their own social standing. However, sociologists recognize that social stratification is a society-wide system that makes inequalities apparent. While there are always inequalities between individuals, sociologists are interested in larger social patterns. Stratification is not about individual inequalities, but about systematic inequalities based on group membership, classes, and the like. No individual, rich or poor, can be blamed for social inequalities. The structure of society affects a person's social standing. Although individuals may support or fight inequalities, social stratification is created and supported by society as a whole. Factors that define stratification vary in different societies. In most societies, stratification is an economic system, based on wealth, the net value of money and assets a person has, andincome, a person’s wages or investment dividends. While people are regularly categorized based on how rich or poor they are, other important factors influence social standing. For example, in some cultures, wisdom and charisma are valued, and people who have them are revered more than those who don’t. In some cultures, the elderly are esteemed; in others, the elderly are disparaged or overlooked. Societies’ cultural beliefs often reinforce the inequalities of stratification. One key determinant of social standing is the social standing of our parents. Parents tend to pass their social position on to their children. People inherit not only social standing but also the cultural norms that accompany a certain lifestyle. They share these with a network of friends and family members. Social standing becomes a comfort zone, a familiar lifestyle, and an identity. This is one of the reasons first-generation college students do not fare as well as other students. Other determinants are found in a society’s occupational structure. Teachers, for example, often have high levels of education but receive relatively low pay. Many believe that teaching is a noble profession, so teachers should do their jobs for love of their profession and the good of their students—not for money. Yet no successful executive or entrepreneur would embrace that attitude in the business world, where profits are valued as a driving force. Cultural attitudes and beliefs like these support and perpetuate social inequalities. Recent Economic Changes and U.S. Stratification As a result of the Great Recession that rocked our nation’s economy in the last few years, many families and individuals found themselves struggling like never before. The nation fell into a period of prolonged and exceptionally high unemployment. While no one was completely insulated from the recession, perhaps those in the lower classes felt the impact most profoundly. Before the recession, many were living paycheck to paycheck or even had been living comfortably. As the recession hit, they were often among the first to lose their jobs. Unable to find replacement employment, they faced more than loss of income. Their homes were foreclosed, their cars were repossessed, and their ability to afford healthcare was taken away. This put many in the position of deciding whether to put food on the table or fill a needed prescription. While we’re not completely out of the woods economically, there are several signs that we’re on the road to recovery. Many of those who suffered during the recession are back to work and are busy rebuilding their lives. The Affordable Health Care Act has provided health insurance to millions who lost or never had it. But the Great Recession, like the Great Depression, has changed social attitudes. Where once it was important to demonstrate wealth by wearing expensive clothing items like Calvin Klein shirts and Louis Vuitton shoes, now there’s a new, thriftier way of thinking. In many circles, it has become hip to be frugal. It’s no longer about how much we spend, but about how much we don't spend. Think of shows like Extreme Couponing on TLC and songs like Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” Systems of Stratification Sociologists distinguish between two types of systems of stratification. Closed systems accommodate little change in social position. They do not allow people to shift levels and do not permit social relationships between levels. Open systems, which are based on achievement, allow movement and interaction between layers and classes. Different systems reflect, emphasize, and foster certain cultural values and shape individual beliefs. Stratification systems include class systems and caste systems, as well as meritocracy. The Caste System Caste systems are closed stratification systems in which people can do little or nothing to change their social standing. A caste system is one in which people are born into their social standing and will remain in it their whole lives. People are assigned occupations regardless of their talents, interests, or potential. There are virtually no opportunities to improve a person's social position. In the Hindu caste tradition, people were expected to work in the occupation of their caste and to enter into marriage according to their caste. Accepting this social standing was considered a moral duty. Cultural values reinforced the system. Caste systems promote beliefs in fate, destiny, and the will of a higher power, rather than promoting individual freedom as a value. A person who lived in a caste society was socialized to accept his or her social standing. Although the caste system in India has been officially dismantled, its residual presence in Indian society is deeply embedded. In rural areas, aspects of the tradition are more likely to remain, while urban centers show less evidence of this past. In India’s larger cities, people now have more opportunities to choose their own career paths and marriage partners. As a global center of employment, corporations have introduced merit-based hiring and employment to the nation. The Class System A class system is based on both social factors and individual achievement. Aclass consists of a set of people who share similar status with regard to factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. Unlike caste systems, class systems are open. People are free to gain a different level of education or employment than their parents. They can also socialize with and marry members of other classes, which allows people to move from one class to another. In a class system, occupation is not fixed at birth. Though family and other societal models help guide a person toward a career, personal choice plays a role. In class systems, people have the option to form exogamous marriages, unions of spouses from different social categories. Marriage in these circumstances is based on values such as love and compatibility rather than on social standing or economics. Though social conformities still exist that encourage people to choose partners within their own class, people are not as pressured to choose marriage partners based solely on those elements. Marriage to a partner from the same social background is anendogamous union. Meritocracy Meritocracy is an ideal system based on the belief that social stratification is the result of personal effort—or merit—that determines social standing. High levels of effort will lead to a high social position, and vice versa. The concept of meritocracy is an ideal—because a society has never existed where social rank was based purely on merit. Because of the complex structure of societies, processes like socialization, and the realities of economic systems, social standing is influenced by multiple factors—not merit alone. Inheritance and pressure to conform to norms, for instance, disrupt the notion of a pure meritocracy. While a meritocracy has never existed, sociologists see aspects of meritocracies in modern societies when they study the role of academic and job performance and the systems in place for evaluating and rewarding achievement in these areas. Status Consistency Social stratification systems determine social position based on factors like income, education, and occupation. Sociologists use the term status consistency to describe the consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across these factors. Caste systems correlate with high status consistency, whereas the more flexible class system has lower status consistency. To illustrate, let’s consider Susan. Susan earned her high school degree but did not go to college. That factor is a trait of the lower-middle class. She began doing landscaping work, which, as manual labor, is also a trait of lower-middle class or even lower class. However, over time, Susan started her own company. She hired employees. She won larger contracts. She became a business owner and earned a lot of money. Those traits represent the upper-middle class. There are inconsistencies between Susan’s educational level, her occupation, and her income. In a class system, a person can work hard and have little education and still be in middle or upper class, whereas in a caste system that would not be possible. In a class system, low status consistency correlates with having more choices and opportunities. The Commoner Who Could Be Queen On April 29, 2011, in London, England, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, married Catherine Middleton, a commoner. It is rare, though not unheard of, for a member of the British royal family to marry a commoner. Kate Middleton has an upper-class background, but does not have royal ancestry. Her father was a former flight dispatcher and her mother a former flight attendant and owner of Party Pieces. According to Grace Wong's 2011 article titled, "Kate Middleton: A family business that built a princess," "[t]he business grew to the point where [her father] quit his job . . . and it's evolved from a mom-and-pop outfit run out of a shed . . . into a venture operated out of three converted farm buildings in Berkshire." Kate and William met when they were both students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland (Köhler 2010). Britain’s monarchy arose during the Middle Ages. Its social hierarchy placed royalty at the top and commoners on the bottom. This was generally a closed system, with people born into positions of nobility. Wealth was passed from generation to generation through primogeniture, a law stating that all property would be inherited by the firstborn son. If the family had no son, the land went to the next closest male relation. Women could not inherit property, and their social standing was primarily determined through marriage. The arrival of the Industrial Revolution changed Britain’s social structure. Commoners moved to cities, got jobs, and made better livings. Gradually, people found new opportunities to increase their wealth and power. Today, the government is a constitutional monarchy with the prime minister and other ministers elected to their positions, and with the royal family’s role being largely ceremonial. The long-ago differences between nobility and commoners have blurred, and the modern class system in Britain is similar to that of the United States (McKee 1996). Today, the royal family still commands wealth, power, and a great deal of attention. When Queen Elizabeth II retires or passes away, Prince Charles will be first in line to ascend the throne. If he abdicates (chooses not to become king) or dies, the position will go to Prince William. If that happens, Kate Middleton will be called Queen Catherine and hold the position of queen consort. She will be one of the few queens in history to have earned a college degree (Marquand 2011). There is a great deal of social pressure on her not only to behave as a royal but also to bear children. In fact, Kate and Prince William welcomed their first son, Prince George, on July 22, 2013 and are expecting their second child. The royal family recently changed its succession laws to allow daughters, not just sons, to ascend the throne. Kate’s experience—from commoner to potential queen—demonstrates the fluidity of social position in modern society. Summary Stratification systems are either closed, meaning they allow little change in social position, or open, meaning they allow movement and interaction between the layers. A caste system is one in which social standing is based on ascribed status or birth. Class systems are open, with achievement playing a role in social position. People fall into classes based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. A meritocracy is a system of social stratification that confers standing based on personal worth, rewarding effort. Section Quiz What factor makes caste systems closed? - They are run by secretive governments. - People cannot change their social standings. - Most have been outlawed. - They exist only in rural areas. Hint: B What factor makes class systems open? - They allow for movement between the classes. - People are more open-minded. - People are encouraged to socialize within their class. - They do not have clearly defined layers. Hint: A Which of these systems allows for the most social mobility? - Caste - Monarchy - Endogamy - Class Hint: D Which person best illustrates opportunities for upward social mobility in the United States? - First-shift factory worker - First-generation college student - Firstborn son who inherits the family business - First-time interviewee who is hired for a job Hint: B Which statement illustrates low status consistency? - A suburban family lives in a modest ranch home and enjoys a nice vacation each summer. - A single mother receives food stamps and struggles to find adequate employment. - A college dropout launches an online company that earns millions in its first year. - A celebrity actress owns homes in three countries. Hint: C Based on meritocracy, a physician’s assistant would: - receive the same pay as all the other physician’s assistants - be encouraged to earn a higher degree to seek a better position - most likely marry a professional at the same level - earn a pay raise for doing excellent work Hint: D Short Answer Track the social stratification of your family tree. Did the social standing of your parents differ from the social standing of your grandparents and great-grandparents? What social traits were handed down by your forebears? Are there any exogamous marriages in your history? Does your family exhibit status consistencies or inconsistencies? What defines communities that have low status consistency? What are the ramifications, both positive and negative, of cultures with low status consistency? Try to think of specific examples to support your ideas. Review the concept of stratification. Now choose a group of people you have observed and been a part of—for example, cousins, high school friends, classmates, sport teammates, or coworkers. How does the structure of the social group you chose adhere to the concept of stratification? Further Research The New York Times investigated social stratification in their series of articles called “Class Matters.” The online accompaniment to the series includes an interactive graphic called “How Class Works,” which tallies four factors—occupation, education, income, and wealth—and places an individual within a certain class and percentile. What class describes you? Test your class rank on the interactive site:http://openstaxcollege.org/l/NY_Times_how_class_works References Köhler, Nicholas. 2010. “An Uncommon Princess.” Maclean’s, November 22. Retrieved January 9, 2012 (http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/22/an-uncommon-princess/). McKee, Victoria. 1996. “Blue Blood and the Color of Money.” New York Times, June 9. Marquand, Robert. 2011. “What Kate Middleton’s Wedding to Prince William Could Do for Britain.” Christian Science Monitor, April 15. Retrieved January 9, 2012 (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0415/What-Kate-Middleton-s-wedding-to-Prince-William-could-do-for-Britain). Wong, Grace. 2011. "Kate Middleton: A Family Business That Built a Princess." CNN Money. Retrieved December 22, 2014 (http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/smallbusiness/kate-middleton-party-pieces/).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.411991	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11790/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Social Stratification in the United States", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11791/overview	Social Stratification and Mobility in the United States Overview - Understand the U.S. class structure - Describe several types of social mobility - Recognize characteristics that define and identify class Most sociologists define social class as a grouping based on similar social factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. These factors affect how much power and prestige a person has. Social stratification reflects an unequal distribution of resources. In most cases, having more money means having more power or more opportunities. Stratification can also result from physical and intellectual traits. Categories that affect social standing include family ancestry, race, ethnicity, age, and gender. In the United States, standing can also be defined by characteristics such as IQ, athletic abilities, appearance, personal skills, and achievements. Standard of Living In the last century, the United States has seen a steady rise in its standard of living, the level of wealth available to a certain socioeconomic class in order to acquire the material necessities and comforts to maintain its lifestyle. The standard of living is based on factors such as income, employment, class, poverty rates, and housing affordability. Because standard of living is closely related to quality of life, it can represent factors such as the ability to afford a home, own a car, and take vacations. In the United States, a small portion of the population has the means to the highest standard of living. A Federal Reserve Bank study shows that a mere one percent of the population holds one-third of our nation’s wealth (Kennickell 2009). Wealthy people receive the most schooling, have better health, and consume the most goods and services. Wealthy people also wield decision-making power. Many people think of the United States as a “middle-class society.” They think a few people are rich, a few are poor, and most are fairly well off, existing in the middle of the social strata. But as the study mentioned above indicates, there is not an even distribution of wealth. Millions of women and men struggle to pay rent, buy food, find work, and afford basic medical care. Women who are single heads of household tend to have a lower income and lower standard of living than their married or male counterparts. This is a worldwide phenomenon known as the “feminization of poverty”—which acknowledges that women disproportionately make up the majority of individuals in poverty across the globe. In the United States, as in most high-income nations, social stratifications and standards of living are in part based on occupation (Lin and Xie 1988). Aside from the obvious impact that income has on someone’s standard of living, occupations also influence social standing through the relative levels of prestige they afford. Employment in medicine, law, or engineering confers high status. Teachers and police officers are generally respected, though not considered particularly prestigious. At the other end of the scale, some of the lowest rankings apply to positions like waitress, janitor, and bus driver. The most significant threat to the relatively high standard of living we’re accustomed to in the United States is the decline of the middle class. The size, income, and wealth of the middle class have all been declining since the 1970s. This is occurring at a time when corporate profits have increased more than 141 percent, and CEO pay has risen by more than 298 percent (Popken 2007). G. William Domhoff, of the University of California at Santa Cruz, reports that “In 2010, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 35.4% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 53.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 89%, leaving only 11% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers)” (Domhoff 2013). While several economic factors can be improved in the United States (inequitable distribution of income and wealth, feminization of poverty, stagnant wages for most workers while executive pay and profits soar, declining middle class), we are fortunate that the poverty experienced here is most often relative poverty and not absolute poverty. Whereas absolute poverty is deprivation so severe that it puts survival in jeopardy, relative poverty is not having the means to live the lifestyle of the average person in your country. As a wealthy developed country, the United States has the resources to provide the basic necessities to those in need through a series of federal and state social welfare programs. The best-known of these programs is likely the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture. (This used to be known as the food stamp program.) The program began in the Great Depression, when unmarketable or surplus food was distributed to the hungry. It was not until 1961 that President John F. Kennedy initiated a food stamp pilot program. His successor Lyndon B. Johnson was instrumental in the passage of the Food Stamp Act in 1964. In 1965, more than 500,000 individuals received food assistance. In March 2008, on the precipice of the Great Recession, participation hovered around 28 million people. During the recession, that number escalated to more than 40 million (USDA). Social Classes in the United States Does a person’s appearance indicate class? Can you tell a man’s education level based on his clothing? Do you know a woman’s income by the car she drives? For sociologists, categorizing class is a fluid science. Sociologists generally identify three levels of class in the United States: upper, middle, and lower class. Within each class, there are many subcategories. Wealth is the most significant way of distinguishing classes, because wealth can be transferred to one’s children and perpetuate the class structure. One economist, J.D. Foster, defines the 20 percent of U.S. citizens’ highest earners as “upper income,” and the lower 20 percent as “lower income.” The remaining 60 percent of the population make up the middle class. But by that distinction, annual household incomes for the middle class range between $25,000 and $100,000 (Mason and Sullivan 2010). One sociological perspective distinguishes the classes, in part, according to their relative power and control over their lives. The upper class not only have power and control over their own lives but also their social status gives them power and control over others’ lives. The middle class doesn’t generally control other strata of society, but its members do exert control over their own lives. In contrast, the lower class has little control over their work or lives. Below, we will explore the major divisions of U.S. social class and their key subcategories. Upper Class The upper class is considered the top, and only the powerful elite get to see the view from there. In the United States, people with extreme wealth make up 1 percent of the population, and they own one-third of the country’s wealth (Beeghley 2008). Money provides not just access to material goods, but also access to a lot of power. As corporate leaders, members of the upper class make decisions that affect the job status of millions of people. As media owners, they influence the collective identity of the nation. They run the major network television stations, radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and sports franchises. As board members of the most influential colleges and universities, they influence cultural attitudes and values. As philanthropists, they establish foundations to support social causes they believe in. As campaign contributors, they sway politicians and fund campaigns, sometimes to protect their own economic interests. U.S. society has historically distinguished between “old money” (inherited wealth passed from one generation to the next) and “new money” (wealth you have earned and built yourself). While both types may have equal net worth, they have traditionally held different social standings. People of old money, firmly situated in the upper class for generations, have held high prestige. Their families have socialized them to know the customs, norms, and expectations that come with wealth. Often, the very wealthy don’t work for wages. Some study business or become lawyers in order to manage the family fortune. Others, such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, capitalize on being a rich socialite and transform that into celebrity status, flaunting a wealthy lifestyle. However, new-money members of the upper class are not oriented to the customs and mores of the elite. They haven’t gone to the most exclusive schools. They have not established old-money social ties. People with new money might flaunt their wealth, buying sports cars and mansions, but they might still exhibit behaviors attributed to the middle and lower classes. The Middle Class Many people consider themselves middle class, but there are differing ideas about what that means. People with annual incomes of $150,000 call themselves middle class, as do people who annually earn $30,000. That helps explain why, in the United States, the middle class is broken into upper and lower subcategories. Upper-middle-class people tend to hold bachelor’s and postgraduate degrees. They’ve studied subjects such as business, management, law, or medicine. Lower-middle-class members hold bachelor’s degrees from four-year colleges or associate’s degrees from two-year community or technical colleges. Comfort is a key concept to the middle class. Middle-class people work hard and live fairly comfortable lives. Upper-middle-class people tend to pursue careers that earn comfortable incomes. They provide their families with large homes and nice cars. They may go skiing or boating on vacation. Their children receive high-quality education and healthcare (Gilbert 2010). In the lower middle class, people hold jobs supervised by members of the upper middle class. They fill technical, lower-level management or administrative support positions. Compared to lower-class work, lower-middle-class jobs carry more prestige and come with slightly higher paychecks. With these incomes, people can afford a decent, mainstream lifestyle, but they struggle to maintain it. They generally don’t have enough income to build significant savings. In addition, their grip on class status is more precarious than in the upper tiers of the class system. When budgets are tight, lower-middle-class people are often the ones to lose their jobs. The Lower Class The lower class is also referred to as the working class. Just like the middle and upper classes, the lower class can be divided into subsets: the working class, the working poor, and the underclass. Compared to the lower middle class, lower-class people have less of an educational background and earn smaller incomes. They work jobs that require little prior skill or experience and often do routine tasks under close supervision. Working-class people, the highest subcategory of the lower class, often land decent jobs in fields like custodial or food service. The work is hands-on and often physically demanding, such as landscaping, cooking, cleaning, or building. Beneath the working class is the working poor. Like the working class, they have unskilled, low-paying employment. However, their jobs rarely offer benefits such as healthcare or retirement planning, and their positions are often seasonal or temporary. They work as sharecroppers, migrant farm workers, housecleaners, and day laborers. Some are high school dropouts. Some are illiterate, unable to read job ads. How can people work full-time and still be poor? Even working full-time, millions of the working poor earn incomes too meager to support a family. Minimum wage varies from state to state, but in many states it is approaching $8.00 per hour (Department of Labor 2014). At that rate, working 40 hours a week earns $320. That comes to $16,640 a year, before tax and deductions. Even for a single person, the pay is low. A married couple with children will have a hard time covering expenses. The underclass is the United States’ lowest tier. Members of the underclass live mainly in inner cities. Many are unemployed or underemployed. Those who do hold jobs typically perform menial tasks for little pay. Some of the underclass are homeless. For many, welfare systems provide a much-needed support through food assistance, medical care, housing, and the like. Social Mobility Social mobility refers to the ability to change positions within a social stratification system. When people improve or diminish their economic status in a way that affects social class, they experience social mobility. Individuals can experience upward or downward social mobility for a variety of reasons. Upward mobility refers to an increase—or upward shift—in social class. In the United States, people applaud the rags-to-riches achievements of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez or Michael Jordan. Bestselling author Stephen King worked as a janitor prior to being published. Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi before becoming a powerful media personality. There are many stories of people rising from modest beginnings to fame and fortune. But the truth is that relative to the overall population, the number of people who rise from poverty to wealth is very small. Still, upward mobility is not only about becoming rich and famous. In the United States, people who earn a college degree, get a job promotion, or marry someone with a good income may move up socially. In contrast,downward mobility indicates a lowering of one’s social class. Some people move downward because of business setbacks, unemployment, or illness. Dropping out of school, losing a job, or getting a divorce may result in a loss of income or status and, therefore, downward social mobility. It is not uncommon for different generations of a family to belong to varying social classes. This is known as intergenerational mobility. For example, an upper-class executive may have parents who belonged to the middle class. In turn, those parents may have been raised in the lower class. Patterns of intergenerational mobility can reflect long-term societal changes. Similarly, intragenerational mobility refers to changes in a person's social mobility over the course of his or her lifetime. For example, the wealth and prestige experienced by one person may be quite different from that of his or her siblings. Structural mobility happens when societal changes enable a whole group of people to move up or down the social class ladder. Structural mobility is attributable to changes in society as a whole, not individual changes. In the first half of the twentieth century, industrialization expanded the U.S. economy, raising the standard of living and leading to upward structural mobility. In today’s work economy, the recent recession and the outsourcing of jobs overseas have contributed to high unemployment rates. Many people have experienced economic setbacks, creating a wave of downward structural mobility. When analyzing the trends and movements in social mobility, sociologists consider all modes of mobility. Scholars recognize that mobility is not as common or easy to achieve as many people think. In fact, some consider social mobility a myth. Class Traits Class traits, also called class markers, are the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class. Class traits indicate the level of exposure a person has to a wide range of cultures. Class traits also indicate the amount of resources a person has to spend on items like hobbies, vacations, and leisure activities. People may associate the upper class with enjoyment of costly, refined, or highly cultivated tastes—expensive clothing, luxury cars, high-end fund-raisers, and opulent vacations. People may also believe that the middle and lower classes are more likely to enjoy camping, fishing, or hunting, shopping at large retailers, and participating in community activities. While these descriptions may identify class traits, they may also simply be stereotypes. Moreover, just as class distinctions have blurred in recent decades, so too have class traits. A very wealthy person may enjoy bowling as much as opera. A factory worker could be a skilled French cook. A billionaire might dress in ripped jeans, and a low-income student might own designer shoes. Turn-of-the-Century “Social Problem Novels”: Sociological Gold Mines Class distinctions were sharper in the nineteenth century and earlier, in part because people easily accepted them. The ideology of social order made class structure seem natural, right, and just. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, U.S. and British novelists played a role in changing public perception. They published novels in which characters struggled to survive against a merciless class system. These dissenting authors used gender and morality to question the class system and expose its inequalities. They protested the suffering of urbanization and industrialization, drawing attention to these issues. These “social problem novels,” sometimes called Victorian realism, forced middle-class readers into an uncomfortable position: they had to question and challenge the natural order of social class. For speaking out so strongly about the social issues of class, authors were both praised and criticized. Most authors did not want to dissolve the class system. They wanted to bring about an awareness that would improve conditions for the lower classes, while maintaining their own higher class positions (DeVine 2005). Soon, middle-class readers were not their only audience. In 1870, Forster’s Elementary Education Act required all children ages five through twelve in England and Wales to attend school. The act increased literacy levels among the urban poor, causing a rise in sales of cheap newspapers and magazines. The increasing number of people who rode public transit systems created a demand for “railway literature,” as it was called (Williams 1984). These reading materials are credited with the move toward democratization in England. By 1900 the British middle class had established a rigid definition for itself, and England’s working class also began to self-identify and demand a better way of life. Many of the novels of that era are seen as sociological goldmines. They are studied as existing sources because they detail the customs and mores of the upper, middle, and lower classes of that period in history. Examples of “social problem” novels include Charles Dickens’s The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1838), which shocked readers with its brutal portrayal of the realities of poverty, vice, and crime. Thomas Hardy’sTess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) was considered revolutionary by critics for its depiction of working-class women (DeVine 2005), and U.S. novelist Theodore Dreiser’sSister Carrie (1900) portrayed an accurate and detailed description of early Chicago. Summary There are three main classes in the United States: upper, middle, and lower class. Social mobility describes a shift from one social class to another. Class traits, also called class markers, are the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class. Section Quiz In the United States, most people define themselves as: - middle class - upper class - lower class - no specific class Hint: A Structural mobility occurs when: - an individual moves up the class ladder - an individual moves down the class ladder - a large group moves up or down the class ladder due to societal changes - a member of a family belongs to a different class than his or her siblings Hint: C The behaviors, customs, and norms associated with a class are known as: - class traits - power - prestige - underclass Hint: A Which of the following scenarios is an example of intragenerational mobility? - A janitor belongs to the same social class as his grandmother did. - An executive belongs to a different class than her parents. - An editor shares the same social class as his cousin. - A lawyer belongs to a different class than her sister. Hint: B Occupational prestige means that jobs are: - all equal in status - not equally valued - assigned to a person for life - not part of a person’s self-identity Hint: B Short Answer Which social class do you and your family belong to? Are you in a different social class than your grandparents and great-grandparents? Does your class differ from your social standing, and, if so, how? What aspects of your societal situation establish you in a social class? What class traits define your peer group? For example, what speech patterns or clothing trends do you and your friends share? What cultural elements, such as taste in music or hobbies, define your peer group? How do you see this set of class traits as different from other classes either above or below yours? Write a list of ten to twenty class traits that describe the environment of your upbringing. Which of these seem like true class traits, and which seem like stereotypes? What items might fall into both categories? How do you imagine a sociologist might address the conflation of class traits and stereotypes? Further Research PBS made a documentary about social class called “People Like Us: Social Class in America.” The filmmakers interviewed people who lived in Park Avenue penthouses and Appalachian trailer parks. The accompanying web site is full of information, interactive games, and life stories from those who participated. Read about it at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/social_class_in_America References Beeghley, Leonard. 2008. The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. DeVine, Christine. 2005. Class in Turn-of-the-Century Novels of Gissing, James, Hardy and Wells. London: Ashgate Publishing Co. Domhoff, G. William. 2013. "Wealth, Income, and Power." Retrieved December 22, 2014 (http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html). Gilbert, Dennis. 2010. The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality. Newbury Park, CA: Pine Forge Press. Kennickell, Arthur B. 2009. Ponds and Streams: Wealth and Income in the U.S., 1989 to 2007. January 7. Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2009/200913/200913pap.pdf). Lin, Nan, and Wen Xie. 1988. “Occupational Prestige in Urban China.” American Journal of Sociology 93(4):793–832. Mason, Jeff, and Andy Sullivan. 2010. “Factbox: What Is Middle Class in the United States?” Reuters, September 14. Retrieved August 29, 2011 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/14/us-usa-taxes-middleclass-idUSTRE68D3QD20100914). Popken, Ben. "CEO Pay Up 298%, Average Worker's? 4.3% (1995-2005)," 2007, The Consumerist. Retrieved on December 31, 2014 (http://consumerist.com/2007/04/09/ceo-pay-up-298-average-workers-43-1995-2005/) United States Department of Labor. 2014. “Wage and Hour Division: Minimum Wage Laws in the States—September 1, 2014.” Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm). United States Department of Agriculture, 2013, "Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Database: Overview." Retrieved December 31, 2014 (http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-and-nutrition-assistance-research-database/ridge-project-summaries.aspx?type=2&summaryId=233) Williams, Raymond. 1984 [1976]. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.449722	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11791/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Social Stratification in the United States", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11792/overview	Global Stratification and Inequality Overview - Define global stratification - Describe different sociological models for understanding global stratification - Understand how studies of global stratification identify worldwide inequalities Untitled Section Global stratification compares the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries across the world. Global stratification highlights worldwide patterns of social inequality. In the early years of civilization, hunter-gatherer and agrarian societies lived off the earth and rarely interacted with other societies. When explorers began traveling, societies began trading goods, as well as ideas and customs. In the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution created unprecedented wealth in Western Europe and North America. Due to mechanical inventions and new means of production, people began working in factories—not only men, but women and children as well. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, industrial technology had gradually raised the standard of living for many people in the United States and Europe. The Industrial Revolution also saw the rise of vast inequalities between countries that were industrialized and those that were not. As some nations embraced technology and saw increased wealth and goods, others maintained their ways; as the gap widened, the nonindustrialized nations fell further behind. Some social researchers, such as Walt Rostow, suggest that the disparity also resulted from power differences. Applying a conflict theory perspective, he asserts that industrializing nations took advantage of the resources of traditional nations. As industrialized nations became rich, other nations became poor (Rostow 1960). Sociologists studying global stratification analyze economic comparisons between nations. Income, purchasing power, and wealth are used to calculate global stratification. Global stratification also compares the quality of life that a country’s population can have. Poverty levels have been shown to vary greatly. The poor in wealthy countries like the United States or Europe are much better off than the poor in less-industrialized countries such as Mali or India. In 2002, the UN implemented the Millennium Project, an attempt to cut poverty worldwide by the year 2015. To reach the project’s goal, planners in 2006 estimated that industrialized nations must set aside 0.7 percent of their gross national income—the total value of the nation’s good and service, plus or minus income received from and sent to other nations—to aid in developing countries (Landler and Sanger, 2009; Millennium Project 2006). Models of Global Stratification Various models of global stratification all have one thing in common: they rank countries according to their relative economic status, or gross national product (GNP). Traditional models, now considered outdated, used labels to describe the stratification of the different areas of the world. Simply put, they were named “first world, “second world,” and “third world.” First and second world described industrialized nations, while third world referred to “undeveloped” countries (Henslin 2004). When researching existing historical sources, you may still encounter these terms, and even today people still refer to some nations as the “third world.” Another model separates countries into two groups: more developed and less developed. More-developed nations have higher wealth, such as Canada, Japan, and Australia. Less-developed nations have less wealth to distribute among higher populations, including many countries in central Africa, South America, and some island nations. Yet another system of global classification defines countries based on the per capita gross domestic product (GDP), a country’s average national wealth per person. The GDP is calculated (usually annually) one of two ways: by totaling either the income of all citizens or the value of all goods and services produced in the country during the year. It also includes government spending. Because the GDP indicates a country’s productivity and performance, comparing GDP rates helps establish a country’s economic health in relation to other countries. The figures also establish a country’s standard of living. According to this analysis, a GDP standard of a middle-income nation represents a global average. In low-income countries, most people are poor relative to people in other countries. Citizens have little access to amenities such as electricity, plumbing, and clean water. People in low-income countries are not guaranteed education, and many are illiterate. The life expectancy of citizens is lower than in high-income countries. The Big Picture: Calculating Global Stratification A few organizations take on the job of comparing the wealth of nations. The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) is one of them. Besides a focus on population data, the PRB publishes an annual report that measures the relative economic well-being of all the world’s countries. It’s called the Gross National Income (GNI) and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). The GNI measures the current value of goods and services produced by a country. The PPP measures the relative power a country has to purchase those same goods and services. So, GNI refers to productive output and PPP refers to buying power. The total figure is divided by the number of residents living in a country to establish the average income of a resident of that country. Because costs of goods and services vary from one country to the next, the GNI PPP converts figures into a relative international unit. Calculating GNI PPP figures helps researchers accurately compare countries’ standard of living. They allow the United Nations and Population Reference Bureau to compare and rank the wealth of all countries and consider international stratification issues (nationsonline.org). Summary Global stratification compares the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries as a whole. By comparing income and productivity between nations, researchers can better identify global inequalities. Section Quiz Social stratification is a system that: - ranks society members into categories - destroys competition between society members - allows society members to choose their social standing - reflects personal choices of society members Hint: A Which graphic concept best illustrates the concept of social stratification? - Pie chart - Flag poles - Planetary movement - Pyramid Hint: D The GNI PPP figure represents: - a country’s total accumulated wealth - annual government spending - the average annual income of a country’s citizens - a country’s debt Hint: C Short Answer Why is it important to understand and be aware of global stratification? Make a list of specific issues that are related to global stratification. For inspiration, turn on a news channel or read the newspaper. Next, choose a topic from your list, and look at it more closely. Who is affected by this issue? How is the issue specifically related to global stratification? Compare a family that lives in a grass hut in Ethiopia to an American family living in a trailer home in the Unites States. Assuming both exist at or below the poverty levels established by their country, how are the families’ lifestyles and economic situations similar and how are they different? Further Research Nations Online refers to itself as “among other things, a more or less objective guide to the world, a statement for the peaceful, nonviolent coexistence of nations.” The website provides a variety of cultural, financial, historical, and ethnic information on countries and peoples throughout the world: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/Nations_Online. References Millennium Project. 2006. “Expanding the financial envelope to achieve the Goals.” Millennium Project Official Website. Retrieved January 9, 2012 (https://web.archive.org/web/20130202045634/http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/costs_benefits2.htm). Nationsonline.org. “Countries by Gross National Income (GNI).” Retrieved January 9, 2012 (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/GNI_PPP_of_countries.htm). PRB.org. “GNI PPP Per Capita (US$).” PRB 2011 World Population Data Sheet. 2011 Population Reference Bureau. Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.prb.org/DataFinder/Topic/Rankings.aspx?ind=61). Rostow, Walt W. 1960. The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Landler, Mark, and David E. Sanger. 2009. “World Leaders Pledge $1.1 Trillion for Crisis.” New York Times, April 3. Retrieved January 9, 2012 (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/world/europe/03summit.html).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.476577	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11792/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Social Stratification in the United States", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11793/overview	Theoretical Perspectives on Social Stratification Overview - Understand and apply functionalist, conflict theory, and interactionist perspectives on social stratification Basketball is one of the highest-paying professional sports. There is stratification even among teams. For example, the Minnesota Timberwolves hand out the lowest annual payroll, while the Los Angeles Lakers reportedly pay the highest. Kobe Bryant, a Lakers shooting guard, is one of the highest paid athletes in the NBA, earning around $30.5 million a year (Forbes 2014). Even within specific fields, layers are stratified and members are ranked. In sociology, even an issue such as NBA salaries can be seen from various points of view. Functionalists will examine the purpose of such high salaries, while conflict theorists will study the exorbitant salaries as an unfair distribution of money. Social stratification takes on new meanings when it is examined from different sociological perspectives—functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Functionalism In sociology, the functionalist perspective examines how society’s parts operate. According to functionalism, different aspects of society exist because they serve a needed purpose. What is the function of social stratification? In 1945, sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore published the Davis-Moore thesis, which argued that the greater the functional importance of a social role, the greater must be the reward. The theory posits that social stratification represents the inherently unequal value of different work. Certain tasks in society are more valuable than others. Qualified people who fill those positions must be rewarded more than others. According to Davis and Moore, a firefighter’s job is more important than, for instance, a grocery store cashier’s. The cashier position does not require the same skill and training level as firefighting. Without the incentive of higher pay and better benefits, why would someone be willing to rush into burning buildings? If pay levels were the same, the firefighter might as well work as a grocery store cashier. Davis and Moore believed that rewarding more important work with higher levels of income, prestige, and power encourages people to work harder and longer. Davis and Moore stated that, in most cases, the degree of skill required for a job determines that job’s importance. They also stated that the more skill required for a job, the fewer qualified people there would be to do that job. Certain jobs, such as cleaning hallways or answering phones, do not require much skill. The employees don’t need a college degree. Other work, like designing a highway system or delivering a baby, requires immense skill. In 1953, Melvin Tumin countered the Davis-Moore thesis in “Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis.” Tumin questioned what determined a job’s degree of importance. The Davis-Moore thesis does not explain, he argued, why a media personality with little education, skill, or talent becomes famous and rich on a reality show or a campaign trail. The thesis also does not explain inequalities in the education system or inequalities due to race or gender. Tumin believed social stratification prevented qualified people from attempting to fill roles (Tumin 1953). For example, an underprivileged youth has less chance of becoming a scientist, no matter how smart she is, because of the relative lack of opportunity available to her. The Davis-Moore thesis also does not explain why a basketball player earns millions of dollars a year when a doctor who saves lives, a soldier who fights for others’ rights, and a teacher who helps form the minds of tomorrow will likely not make millions over the course of their careers. The Davis-Moore thesis, though open for debate, was an early attempt to explain why stratification exists. The thesis states that social stratification is necessary to promote excellence, productivity, and efficiency, thus giving people something to strive for. Davis and Moore believed that the system serves society as a whole because it allows everyone to benefit to a certain extent. Conflict Theory Conflict theorists are deeply critical of social stratification, asserting that it benefits only some people, not all of society. For instance, to a conflict theorist, it seems wrong that a basketball player is paid millions for an annual contract while a public school teacher earns $35,000 a year. Stratification, conflict theorists believe, perpetuates inequality. Conflict theorists try to bring awareness to inequalities, such as how a rich society can have so many poor members. Many conflict theorists draw on the work of Karl Marx. During the nineteenth-century era of industrialization, Marx believed social stratification resulted from people’s relationship to production. People were divided by a single line: they either owned factories or worked in them. In Marx’s time, bourgeois capitalists owned high-producing businesses, factories, and land, as they still do today. Proletariats were the workers who performed the manual labor to produce goods. Upper-class capitalists raked in profits and got rich, while working-class proletariats earned skimpy wages and struggled to survive. With such opposing interests, the two groups were divided by differences of wealth and power. Marx saw workers experience deep alienation, isolation and misery resulting from powerless status levels (Marx 1848). Marx argued that proletariats were oppressed by the money-hungry bourgeois. Today, while working conditions have improved, conflict theorists believe that the strained working relationship between employers and employees still exists. Capitalists own the means of production, and a system is in place to make business owners rich and keep workers poor. According to conflict theorists, the resulting stratification creates class conflict. If he were alive in today’s economy, as it recovers from a prolonged recession, Marx would likely have argued that the recession resulted from the greed of capitalists, satisfied at the expense of working people. Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a theory that uses everyday interactions of individuals to explain society as a whole. Symbolic interactionism examines stratification from a micro-level perspective. This analysis strives to explain how people’s social standing affects their everyday interactions. In most communities, people interact primarily with others who share the same social standing. It is precisely because of social stratification that people tend to live, work, and associate with others like themselves, people who share their same income level, educational background, or racial background, and even tastes in food, music, and clothing. The built-in system of social stratification groups people together. This is one of the reasons why it was rare for a royal prince like England’s Prince William to marry a commoner. Symbolic interactionists also note that people’s appearance reflects their perceived social standing. Housing, clothing, and transportation indicate social status, as do hairstyles, taste in accessories, and personal style. To symbolically communicate social standing, people often engage in conspicuous consumption, which is the purchase and use of certain products to make a social statement about status. Carrying pricey but eco-friendly water bottles could indicate a person’s social standing. Some people buy expensive trendy sneakers even though they will never wear them to jog or play sports. A $17,000 car provides transportation as easily as a $100,000 vehicle, but the luxury car makes a social statement that the less expensive car can’t live up to. All these symbols of stratification are worthy of examination by an interactionist. Summary Social stratification can be examined from different sociological perspectives—functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. The functionalist perspective states that systems exist in society for good reasons. Conflict theorists observe that stratification promotes inequality, such as between rich business owners and poor workers. Symbolic interactionists examine stratification from a micro-level perspective. They observe how social standing affects people’s everyday interactions and how the concept of “social class” is constructed and maintained through everyday interactions. Section Quiz The basic premise of the Davis-Moore thesis is that the unequal distribution of rewards in social stratification: - is an outdated mode of societal organization - is an artificial reflection of society - serves a purpose in society - cannot be justified Hint: C Unlike Davis and Moore, Melvin Tumin believed that, because of social stratification, some qualified people were _______ higher-level job positions. - denied the opportunity to obtain - encouraged to train for - often fired from - forced into Hint: A Which statement represents stratification from the perspective of symbolic interactionism? - Men often earn more than women, even working the same job. - After work, Pat, a janitor, feels more comfortable eating in a truck stop than a French restaurant. - Doctors earn more money because their job is more highly valued. - Teachers continue to struggle to keep benefits such as health insurance. Hint: B When Karl Marx said workers experience alienation, he meant that workers: - must labor alone, without companionship - do not feel connected to their work - move from one geographical location to another - have to put forth self-effort to get ahead Hint: B Conflict theorists view capitalists as those who: - are ambitious - fund social services - spend money wisely - get rich while workers stay poor Hint: D Short Answer Analyze the Davis-Moore thesis. Do you agree with Davis and Moore? Does social stratification play an important function in society? What examples can you think of that support the thesis? What examples can you think of that refute the thesis? Consider social stratification from the symbolic interactionist perspective. How does social stratification influence the daily interactions of individuals? How do systems of class, based on factors such as prestige, power, income, and wealth, influence your own daily routines, as well as your beliefs and attitudes? Illustrate your ideas with specific examples and anecdotes from your own life and the lives of people in your community. References Davis, Kingsley, and Wilbert E. Moore. “Some Principles of Stratification.” American Sociological Review 10(2):242–249. Retrieved January 9, 2012 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/2085643). Forbes.com LLC. 2014. "#15 Kobe Bryant." Retrived December 22, 2014 (http://www.forbes.com/profile/kobe-bryant/). Marx, Karl. 1848. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Retrieved January 9, 2012 (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/). Tumin, Melvin M. 1953. “Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis.” American Sociological Review 18(4):387–394.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.504615	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11793/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Social Stratification in the United States", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11804/overview	Introduction to Gender, Sex, and Sexuality In 2009, the eighteen-year old South African athlete, Caster Semenya, won the women’s 800-meter world championship in Track and Field. Her time of 1:55:45, a surprising improvement from her 2008 time of 2:08:00, caused officials from the International Association of Athletics Foundation (IAAF) to question whether her win was legitimate. If this questioning were based on suspicion of steroid use, the case would be no different from that of Roger Clemens or Mark McGuire, or even Track and Field Olympic gold medal winner Marion Jones. But the questioning and eventual testing were based on allegations that Caster Semenya, no matter what gender identity she possessed, was biologically a male. You may be thinking that distinguishing biological maleness from biological femaleness is surely a simple matter—just conduct some DNA or hormonal testing, throw in a physical examination, and you’ll have the answer. But it is not that simple. Both biologically male and biologically female people produce a certain amount of testosterone, and different laboratories have different testing methods, which makes it difficult to set a specific threshold for the amount of male hormones produced by a female that renders her sex male. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) criteria for determining eligibility for sex-specific events are not intended to determine biological sex. “Instead these regulations are designed to identify circumstances in which a particular athlete will not be eligible (by reason of hormonal characteristics) to participate in the 2012 Olympic Games" in the female category (International Olympic Committee 2012). To provide further context, during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, eight female athletes with XY chromosomes underwent testing and were ultimately confirmed as eligible to compete as women (Maugh 2009). To date, no males have undergone this sort of testing. Doesn’t that imply that when women perform better than expected, they are “too masculine,” but when men perform well they are simply superior athletes? Can you imagine Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man, being examined by doctors to prove he was biologically male based solely on his appearance and athletic ability? Can you explain how sex, sexuality, and gender are different from each other? In this chapter, we will discuss the differences between sex and gender, along with issues like gender identity and sexuality. We will also explore various theoretical perspectives on the subjects of gender and sexuality, including the social construction of sexuality and queer theory. References International Olympic Committee, Medical and Scientific Department. 2012. “IOC Regulations on Female Hyperandrogenism.” Retrieved December 8, 2014 (http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Medical_commission/2012-06-22-IOC-Regulations-on-Female-Hyperandrogenism-eng.pdf). Maugh, Thomas H., III. 2009. “Row Over South African Athlete Highlights Ambiguities of Gender.” Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 8, 2014 (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/21/science/sci-runner-side21).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.521880	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11804/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Gender, Sex, and Sexuality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11805/overview	Sex and Gender Overview - Define and differentiate between sex and gender - Define and discuss what is meant by gender identity - Understand and discuss the role of homophobia and heterosexism in society - Distinguish the meanings of transgender, transsexual, and homosexual identities When filling out a document such as a job application or school registration form you are often asked to provide your name, address, phone number, birth date, and sex or gender. But have you ever been asked to provide your sex and your gender? Like most people, you may not have realized that sex and gender are not the same. However, sociologists and most other social scientists view them as conceptually distinct.Sex refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females, including both primary sex characteristics (the reproductive system) and secondary characteristics such as height and muscularity.Gender refers to behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to being female or male. A person’s sex, as determined by his or her biology, does not always correspond with his or her gender. Therefore, the terms sex andgender are not interchangeable. A baby boy who is born with male genitalia will be identified as male. As he grows, however, he may identify with the feminine aspects of his culture. Since the termsex refers to biological or physical distinctions, characteristics of sex will not vary significantly between different human societies. Generally, persons of the female sex, regardless of culture, will eventually menstruate and develop breasts that can lactate. Characteristics of gender, on the other hand, may vary greatly between different societies. For example, in U.S. culture, it is considered feminine (or a trait of the female gender) to wear a dress or skirt. However, in many Middle Eastern, Asian, and African cultures, dresses or skirts (often referred to as sarongs, robes, or gowns) are considered masculine. The kilt worn by a Scottish male does not make him appear feminine in his culture. The dichotomous view of gender (the notion that someone is either male or female) is specific to certain cultures and is not universal. In some cultures gender is viewed as fluid. In the past, some anthropologists used the term berdache to refer to individuals who occasionally or permanently dressed and lived as a different gender. The practice has been noted among certain Native American tribes (Jacobs, Thomas, and Lang 1997). Samoan culture accepts what Samoans refer to as a “third gender.”Fa’afafine, which translates as “the way of the woman,” is a term used to describe individuals who are born biologically male but embody both masculine and feminine traits. Fa’afafines are considered an important part of Samoan culture. Individuals from other cultures may mislabel them as homosexuals because fa’afafines have a varied sexual life that may include men and women (Poasa 1992). The Legalese of Sex and Gender The terms sex andgender have not always been differentiated in the English language. It was not until the 1950s that U.S. and British psychologists and other professionals working with intersex and transsexual patients formally began distinguishing between sex and gender. Since then, psychological and physiological professionals have increasingly used the term gender (Moi 2005). By the end of the twenty-first century, expanding the proper usage of the termgender to everyday language became more challenging—particularly where legal language is concerned. In an effort to clarify usage of the termssex andgender, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 1994 briefing, “The word gender has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics) distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to female and masculine is to male” (J.E.B. v. Alabama, 144 S. Ct. 1436 [1994]). Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a different take, however. Viewing the words as synonymous, she freely swapped them in her briefings so as to avoid having the word “sex” pop up too often. It is thought that her secretary supported this practice by suggestions to Ginsberg that “those nine men” (the other Supreme Court justices), “hear that word and their first association is not the way you want them to be thinking” (Case 1995). This anecdote reveals that both sex and gender are actually socially defined variables whose definitions change over time. Sexual Orientation A person’s sexual orientation is his or her physical, mental, emotional, and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male or female). Sexual orientation is typically divided into four categories:heterosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the other sex;homosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the same sex;bisexuality, the attraction to individuals of either sex; andasexuality, no attraction to either sex. Heterosexuals and homosexuals may also be referred to informally as “straight” and “gay,” respectively. The United States is aheteronormative society, meaning it assumes sexual orientation is biologically determined and unambiguous. Consider that homosexuals are often asked, “When did you know you were gay?” but heterosexuals are rarely asked, “When did you know that you were straight?” (Ryle 2011). According to current scientific understanding, individuals are usually aware of their sexual orientation between middle childhood and early adolescence (American Psychological Association 2008). They do not have to participate in sexual activity to be aware of these emotional, romantic, and physical attractions; people can be celibate and still recognize their sexual orientation. Homosexual women (also referred to as lesbians), homosexual men (also referred to as gays), and bisexuals of both genders may have very different experiences of discovering and accepting their sexual orientation. At the point of puberty, some may be able to announce their sexual orientations, while others may be unready or unwilling to make their homosexuality or bisexuality known since it goes against U.S. society’s historical norms (APA 2008). Alfred Kinsey was among the first to conceptualize sexuality as a continuum rather than a strict dichotomy of gay or straight. He created a six-point rating scale that ranges from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. See the figure below. In his 1948 work Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Kinsey writes, “Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats … The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects” (Kinsey 1948). Later scholarship by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick expanded on Kinsey’s notions. She coined the term “homosocial” to oppose “homosexual,” describing nonsexual same-sex relations. Sedgwick recognized that in U.S. culture, males are subject to a clear divide between the two sides of this continuum, whereas females enjoy more fluidity. This can be illustrated by the way women in the United States can express homosocial feelings (nonsexual regard for people of the same sex) through hugging, handholding, and physical closeness. In contrast, U.S. males refrain from these expressions since they violate the heteronormative expectation that male sexual attraction should be exclusively for females. Research suggests that it is easier for women violate these norms than men, because men are subject to more social disapproval for being physically close to other men (Sedgwick 1985). There is no scientific consensus regarding the exact reasons why an individual holds a heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual orientation. Research has been conducted to study the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, but there has been no evidence that links sexual orientation to one factor (APA 2008). Research, however, does present evidence showing that homosexuals and bisexuals are treated differently than heterosexuals in schools, the workplace, and the military. In 2011, for example, Sears and Mallory used General Social Survey data from 2008 to show that 27 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) respondents reported experiencing sexual orientation-based discrimination during the five years prior to the survey. Further, 38 percent of openly LGB people experienced discrimination during the same time. Much of this discrimination is based on stereotypes and misinformation. Some is based on heterosexism, which Herek (1990) suggests is both an ideology and a set of institutional practices that privilege heterosexuals and heterosexuality over other sexual orientations. Much like racism and sexism, heterosexism is a systematic disadvantage embedded in our social institutions, offering power to those who conform to hetereosexual orientation while simultaneously disadvantaging those who do not.Homophobia, an extreme or irrational aversion to homosexuals, accounts for further stereotyping and discrimination. Major policies to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation have not come into effect until the last few years. In 2011, President Obama overturned “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a controversial policy that required homosexuals in the US military to keep their sexuality undisclosed. The Employee Non-Discrimination Act, which ensures workplace equality regardless of sexual orientation, is still pending full government approval. Organizations such as GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) advocate for homosexual rights and encourage governments and citizens to recognize the presence of sexual discrimination and work to prevent it. Other advocacy agencies frequently use the acronyms LBGT and LBGTQ, which stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender” (and “Queer” or “Questioning” when the Q is added). Sociologically, it is clear that gay and lesbian couples are negatively affected in states where they are denied the legal right to marriage. In 1996, The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed, explicitly limiting the definition of “marriage” to a union between one man and one woman. It also allowed individual states to choose whether or not they recognized same-sex marriages performed in other states. Imagine that you married an opposite-sex partner under similar conditions—if you went on a cross-country vacation the validity of your marriage would change every time you crossed state lines. In another blow to same-sex marriage advocates, in November 2008 California passed Proposition 8, a state law that limited marriage to unions of opposite-sex partners. Over time, advocates for same-sex marriage have won several court cases, laying the groundwork for legalized same-sex marriage across the United States, including the June 2013 decision to overturn part of DOMA in Windsor v. United States, and the Supreme Court’s dismissal ofHollingsworth v. Perry, affirming the August 2010 ruling that found California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional. In October 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals to rulings against same-sex marriage bans, which effectively legalized same-sex marriage in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin, Colorado, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming (Freedom to Marry, Inc. 2014). Same-sex marriage is now legal across most of the United States. The next few years will determine whether the right to same-sex marriage is affirmed, depending on whether the U.S. Supreme Court takes a judicial step to guarantee the freedom to marry as a civil right. Gender Roles As we grow, we learn how to behave from those around us. In this socialization process, children are introduced to certain roles that are typically linked to their biological sex. The term gender role refers to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to look and how they should behave. These roles are based on norms, or standards, created by society. In U.S. culture, masculine roles are usually associated with strength, aggression, and dominance, while feminine roles are usually associated with passivity, nurturing, and subordination. Role learning starts with socialization at birth. Even today, our society is quick to outfit male infants in blue and girls in pink, even applying these color-coded gender labels while a baby is in the womb. One way children learn gender roles is through play. Parents typically supply boys with trucks, toy guns, and superhero paraphernalia, which are active toys that promote motor skills, aggression, and solitary play. Daughters are often given dolls and dress-up apparel that foster nurturing, social proximity, and role play. Studies have shown that children will most likely choose to play with “gender appropriate” toys (or same-gender toys) even when cross-gender toys are available because parents give children positive feedback (in the form of praise, involvement, and physical closeness) for gender normative behavior (Caldera, Huston, and O’Brien 1998). The drive to adhere to masculine and feminine gender roles continues later in life. Men tend to outnumber women in professions such as law enforcement, the military, and politics. Women tend to outnumber men in care-related occupations such as childcare, healthcare (even though the term “doctor” still conjures the image of a man), and social work. These occupational roles are examples of typical U.S. male and female behavior, derived from our culture’s traditions. Adherence to them demonstrates fulfillment of social expectations but not necessarily personal preference (Diamond 2002). Gender Identity U.S. society allows for some level of flexibility when it comes to acting out gender roles. To a certain extent, men can assume some feminine roles and women can assume some masculine roles without interfering with their gender identity. Gender identity is a person’s deeply held internal perception of his or her gender. Individuals who identify with the role that is the different from their biological sex are called transgender. Transgender is not the same as homosexual, and many homosexual males view both their sex and gender as male. Transgender males are males who have such a strong emotional and psychological connection to the feminine aspects of society that they identify their gender as female. The parallel connection to masculinity exists for transgender females. It is difficult to determine the prevalence of transgenderism in society. However, it is estimated that two to five percent of the U.S. population is transgender (Transgender Law and Policy Institute 2007). Transgender individuals who attempt to alter their bodies through medical interventions such as surgery and hormonal therapy—so that their physical being is better aligned with gender identity—are called transsexuals. They may also be known as male-to-female (MTF) or female-to-male (FTM). Not all transgender individuals choose to alter their bodies: many will maintain their original anatomy but may present themselves to society as another gender. This is typically done by adopting the dress, hairstyle, mannerisms, or other characteristic typically assigned to another gender. It is important to note that people who cross-dress, or wear clothing that is traditionally assigned to a gender different from their biological sex, are not necessarily transgender. Cross-dressing is typically a form of self-expression, entertainment, or personal style, and it is not necessarily an expression against one’s assigned gender (APA 2008). There is no single, conclusive explanation for why people are transgender. Transgender expressions and experiences are so diverse that it is difficult to identify their origin. Some hypotheses suggest biological factors such as genetics or prenatal hormone levels as well as social and cultural factors such as childhood and adulthood experiences. Most experts believe that all of these factors contribute to a person’s gender identity (APA 2008). After years of controversy over the treatment of sex and gender in the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (Drescher 2010), the most recent edition, DSM-5, responds to allegations that the term “Gender Identity Disorder” is stigmatizing by replacing it with “Gender Dysphoria.” Gender Identity Disorder as a diagnostic category stigmatized the patient by implying there was something “disordered” about them. Gender Dysphoria, on the other hand, removes some of that stigma by taking the word "disorder" out while maintaining a category that will protect patient access to care, including hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery. In the DSM-5,Gender Dysphoria is a condition of people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they identify with. For a person to be diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria, there must be a marked difference between the individual’s expressed/experienced gender and the gender others would assign him or her, and it must continue for at least six months. In children, the desire to be of the other gender must be present and verbalized. This diagnosis is now a separate category from sexual dysfunction and paraphilia, another important part of removing stigma from the diagnosis (APA 2013). Changing the clinical description may contribute to a larger acceptance of transgender people in society. Studies show that people who identify as transgender are twice as likely to experience assault or discrimination as nontransgender individuals; they are also one and a half times more likely to experience intimidation (National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs 2010; Giovanniello 2013). Organizations such as the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and Global Action for Trans Equality work to prevent, respond to, and end all types of violence against transgender, transsexual, and homosexual individuals. These organizations hope that by educating the public about gender identity and empowering transgender and transsexual individuals, this violence will end. Real-Life Freaky Friday What if you had to live as a sex you were not biologically born to? If you are a man, imagine that you were forced to wear frilly dresses, dainty shoes, and makeup to special occasions, and you were expected to enjoy romantic comedies and daytime talk shows. If you are a woman, imagine that you were forced to wear shapeless clothing, put only minimal effort into your personal appearance, not show emotion, and watch countless hours of sporting events and sports-related commentary. It would be pretty uncomfortable, right? Well, maybe not. Many people enjoy participating in activities, whether they are associated with their biological sex or not, and would not mind if some of the cultural expectations for men and women were loosened. Now, imagine that when you look at your body in the mirror, you feel disconnected. You feel your genitals are shameful and dirty, and you feel as though you are trapped in someone else’s body with no chance of escape. As you get older, you hate the way your body is changing, and, therefore, you hate yourself. These elements of disconnect and shame are important to understand when discussing transgender individuals. Fortunately, sociological studies pave the way for a deeper and more empirically grounded understanding of the transgender experience. Summary The terms “sex” and “gender” refer to two different identifiers. Sex denotes biological characteristics differentiating males and females, while gender denotes social and cultural characteristics of masculine and feminine behavior. Sex and gender are not always synchronous. Individuals who strongly identify with the opposing gender are considered transgender. Section Quiz The terms “masculine” and “feminine” refer to a person’s _________. - sex - gender - both sex and gender - none of the above Hint: B The term _______ refers to society's concept of how men and women are expected to act and how they should behave. - gender role - gender bias - sexual orientation - sexual attitudes Hint: A Research indicates that individuals are aware of their sexual orientation _______. - at infancy - in early adolescence - in early adulthood - in late adulthood Hint: B A person who is biologically female but identifies with the male gender and has undergone surgery to alter her body is considered _______. - transgender - transsexual - a cross-dresser - homosexual Hint: B Which of following is correct regarding the explanation for transgenderism? - It is strictly biological and associated with chemical imbalances in the brain. - It is a behavior that is learned through socializing with other transgender individuals. - It is genetic and usually skips one generation. - Currently, there is no definitive explanation for transgenderism. Hint: D Short Answer Why do sociologists find it important to differentiate between sex and gender? What importance does the differentiation have in modern society? How is children’s play influenced by gender roles? Think back to your childhood. How “gendered” were the toys and activities available to you? Do you remember gender expectations being conveyed through the approval or disapproval of your playtime choices? Further Research For more information on gender identity and advocacy for transgender individuals see the Global Action for Trans Equality web site at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/trans_equality. References American Psychological Association (APA). 2008. “Answers to Your Questions: For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality.” Washington, DC. Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/orientation.aspx). American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Caldera, Yvonne, Aletha Huston, and Marion O’Brien. 1998. “Social Interactions and Play Patterns of Parents and Toddlers with Feminine, Masculine, and Neutral Toys.” Child Development 60(1):70–76. Case, M.A. 1995. "Disaggregating Gender from Sex and Sexual Orientation: The Effeminate Man in the Law and Feminist Jurisprudence." Yale Law Journal 105(1):1–105. Drescher, J. 2010. “Queer diagnoses: Parallels and contrasts in the history of homosexuality, gender variance, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Archives of Sexual Behavior.” 39: 427–460. Freedom to Marry, Inc. 2014. "History and Timeline of the Freedom to Marry in the United States \| Freedom to Marry.” Retrieved November 11, 2014 (http://www.freedomtomarry.org/pages/history-and-timeline-of-marriage). Giovanniello, Sarah. 2013. "NCAVP Report: 2012 Hate Violence Disproportionately Target Transgender Women of Color." GLAAD. N.p., Retrieved October 10, 2014 (http://www.glaad.org/blog/ncavp-report-2012-hate-violence-disproportionately-target-transgender-women-color). Herek, G. M. 1990. “The Context of Anti-Gay Violence: Notes on Cultural and Psychological Heterosexism." Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 5: 316–333. Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang. 1997. Two Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. J.E.B. v. Alabama, 144 S. Ct. 1436 (1994). Kinsey, Alfred C. et al. 1998 [1948]. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Moi, T. 2005. Sex, Gender and the Body. New York: Oxford University Press. National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. 2010. “Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States.” Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.avp.org/storage/documents/Reports/2012_NCAVP_2011_HV_Report.pdf). Poasa, Kris. 1992. “The Samoan Fa’afafine: One Case Study and Discussion of Transsexualism.” Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality 5(3):39–51. Ryle, Robyn. 2011. Questioning Gender: A Sociological Exploration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Sears, Brad and Christy Mallory. 2011. "Documented Evidence of Employment Discrimination & Its Effects on LGBT People." Los Angeles, CA: The Williams Institute. Retrieved December 12, 2014 (http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Sears-Mallory-Discrimination-July-20111.pdf) Sedgwick, Eve. 1985. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia University Press.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.601648	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11805/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Gender, Sex, and Sexuality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11806/overview	Gender Overview - Explain the influence of socialization on gender roles in the United States - Understand the stratification of gender in major American institutions - Describe gender from the view of each sociological perspective Gender and Socialization The phrase “boys will be boys” is often used to justify behavior such as pushing, shoving, or other forms of aggression from young boys. The phrase implies that such behavior is unchangeable and something that is part of a boy’s nature. Aggressive behavior, when it does not inflict significant harm, is often accepted from boys and men because it is congruent with the cultural script for masculinity. The “script” written by society is in some ways similar to a script written by a playwright. Just as a playwright expects actors to adhere to a prescribed script, society expects women and men to behave according to the expectations of their respective gender roles. Scripts are generally learned through a process known as socialization, which teaches people to behave according to social norms. Socialization Children learn at a young age that there are distinct expectations for boys and girls. Cross-cultural studies reveal that children are aware of gender roles by age two or three. At four or five, most children are firmly entrenched in culturally appropriate gender roles (Kane 1996). Children acquire these roles through socialization, a process in which people learn to behave in a particular way as dictated by societal values, beliefs, and attitudes. For example, society often views riding a motorcycle as a masculine activity and, therefore, considers it to be part of the male gender role. Attitudes such as this are typically based on stereotypes, oversimplified notions about members of a group. Gender stereotyping involves overgeneralizing about the attitudes, traits, or behavior patterns of women or men. For example, women may be thought of as too timid or weak to ride a motorcycle. Gender stereotypes form the basis of sexism. Sexismrefers to prejudiced beliefs that value one sex over another. It varies in its level of severity. In parts of the world where women are strongly undervalued, young girls may not be given the same access to nutrition, healthcare, and education as boys. Further, they will grow up believing they deserve to be treated differently from boys (UNICEF 2011; Thorne 1993). While it is illegal in the United States when practiced as discrimination, unequal treatment of women continues to pervade social life. It should be noted that discrimination based on sex occurs at both the micro- and macro-levels. Many sociologists focus on discrimination that is built into the social structure; this type of discrimination is known as institutional discrimination (Pincus 2008). Gender socialization occurs through four major agents of socialization: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Each agent reinforces gender roles by creating and maintaining normative expectations for gender-specific behavior. Exposure also occurs through secondary agents such as religion and the workplace. Repeated exposure to these agents over time leads men and women into a false sense that they are acting naturally rather than following a socially constructed role. Family is the first agent of socialization. There is considerable evidence that parents socialize sons and daughters differently. Generally speaking, girls are given more latitude to step outside of their prescribed gender role (Coltrane and Adams 2004; Kimmel 2000; Raffaelli and Ontai 2004). However, differential socialization typically results in greater privileges afforded to sons. For instance, boys are allowed more autonomy and independence at an earlier age than daughters. They may be given fewer restrictions on appropriate clothing, dating habits, or curfew. Sons are also often free from performing domestic duties such as cleaning or cooking and other household tasks that are considered feminine. Daughters are limited by their expectation to be passive and nurturing, generally obedient, and to assume many of the domestic responsibilities. Even when parents set gender equality as a goal, there may be underlying indications of inequality. For example, boys may be asked to take out the garbage or perform other tasks that require strength or toughness, while girls may be asked to fold laundry or perform duties that require neatness and care. It has been found that fathers are firmer in their expectations for gender conformity than are mothers, and their expectations are stronger for sons than they are for daughters (Kimmel 2000). This is true in many types of activities, including preference for toys, play styles, discipline, chores, and personal achievements. As a result, boys tend to be particularly attuned to their father’s disapproval when engaging in an activity that might be considered feminine, like dancing or singing (Coltraine and Adams 2008). Parental socialization and normative expectations also vary along lines of social class, race, and ethnicity. African American families, for instance, are more likely than Caucasians to model an egalitarian role structure for their children (Staples and Boulin Johnson 2004). The reinforcement of gender roles and stereotypes continues once a child reaches school age. Until very recently, schools were rather explicit in their efforts to stratify boys and girls. The first step toward stratification was segregation. Girls were encouraged to take home economics or humanities courses and boys to take math and science. Studies suggest that gender socialization still occurs in schools today, perhaps in less obvious forms (Lips 2004). Teachers may not even realize they are acting in ways that reproduce gender differentiated behavior patterns. Yet any time they ask students to arrange their seats or line up according to gender, teachers may be asserting that boys and girls should be treated differently (Thorne 1993). Even in levels as low as kindergarten, schools subtly convey messages to girls indicating that they are less intelligent or less important than boys. For example, in a study of teacher responses to male and female students, data indicated that teachers praised male students far more than female students. Teachers interrupted girls more often and gave boys more opportunities to expand on their ideas (Sadker and Sadker 1994). Further, in social as well as academic situations, teachers have traditionally treated boys and girls in opposite ways, reinforcing a sense of competition rather than collaboration (Thorne 1993). Boys are also permitted a greater degree of freedom to break rules or commit minor acts of deviance, whereas girls are expected to follow rules carefully and adopt an obedient role (Ready 2001). Mimicking the actions of significant others is the first step in the development of a separate sense of self (Mead 1934). Like adults, children become agents who actively facilitate and apply normative gender expectations to those around them. When children do not conform to the appropriate gender role, they may face negative sanctions such as being criticized or marginalized by their peers. Though many of these sanctions are informal, they can be quite severe. For example, a girl who wishes to take karate class instead of dance lessons may be called a “tomboy” and face difficulty gaining acceptance from both male and female peer groups (Ready 2001). Boys, especially, are subject to intense ridicule for gender nonconformity (Coltrane and Adams 2004; Kimmel 2000). Mass media serves as another significant agent of gender socialization. In television and movies, women tend to have less significant roles and are often portrayed as wives or mothers. When women are given a lead role, it often falls into one of two extremes: a wholesome, saint-like figure or a malevolent, hypersexual figure (Etaugh and Bridges 2003). This same inequality is pervasive in children’s movies (Smith 2008). Research indicates that in the ten top-grossing G-rated movies released between 1991 and 2013, nine out of ten characters were male (Smith 2008). Television commercials and other forms of advertising also reinforce inequality and gender-based stereotypes. Women are almost exclusively present in ads promoting cooking, cleaning, or childcare-related products (Davis 1993). Think about the last time you saw a man star in a dishwasher or laundry detergent commercial. In general, women are underrepresented in roles that involve leadership, intelligence, or a balanced psyche. Of particular concern is the depiction of women in ways that are dehumanizing, especially in music videos. Even in mainstream advertising, however, themes intermingling violence and sexuality are quite common (Kilbourne 2000). Social Stratification and Inequality Stratification refers to a system in which groups of people experience unequal access to basic, yet highly valuable, social resources. The United States is characterized by gender stratification (as well as stratification of race, income, occupation, and the like). Evidence of gender stratification is especially keen within the economic realm. Despite making up nearly half (49.8 percent) of payroll employment, men vastly outnumber women in authoritative, powerful, and, therefore, high-earning jobs (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). Even when a woman’s employment status is equal to a man’s, she will generally make only 77 cents for every dollar made by her male counterpart (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). Women in the paid labor force also still do the majority of the unpaid work at home. On an average day, 84 percent of women (compared to 67 percent of men) spend time doing household management activities (U.S. Census Bureau 2011). This double duty keeps working women in a subordinate role in the family structure (Hochschild and Machung 1989). Gender stratification through the division of labor is not exclusive to the United States. According to George Murdock’s classic work, Outline of World Cultures (1954), all societies classify work by gender. When a pattern appears in all societies, it is called a cultural universal. While the phenomenon of assigning work by gender is universal, its specifics are not. The same task is not assigned to either men or women worldwide. But the way each task’s associated gender is valued is notable. In Murdock’s examination of the division of labor among 324 societies around the world, he found that in nearly all cases the jobs assigned to men were given greater prestige (Murdock and White 1968). Even if the job types were very similar and the differences slight, men’s work was still considered more vital. There is a long history of gender stratification in the United States. When looking to the past, it would appear that society has made great strides in terms of abolishing some of the most blatant forms of gender inequality (see timeline below) but underlying effects of male dominance still permeate many aspects of society. - Before 1809—Women could not execute a will - Before 1840—Women were not allowed to own or control property - Before 1920—Women were not permitted to vote - Before 1963—Employers could legally pay a woman less than a man for the same work - Before 1973—Women did not have the right to a safe and legal abortion (Imbornoni 2009) Theoretical Perspectives on Gender Sociological theories help sociologists to develop questions and interpret data. For example, a sociologist studying why middle-school girls are more likely than their male counterparts to fall behind grade-level expectations in math and science might use a feminist perspective to frame her research. Another scholar might proceed from the conflict perspective to investigate why women are underrepresented in political office, and an interactionist might examine how the symbols of femininity interact with symbols of political authority to affect how women in Congress are treated by their male counterparts in meetings. Structural Functionalism Structural functionalism has provided one of the most important perspectives of sociological research in the twentieth century and has been a major influence on research in the social sciences, including gender studies. Viewing the family as the most integral component of society, assumptions about gender roles within marriage assume a prominent place in this perspective. Functionalists argue that gender roles were established well before the pre-industrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the home, such as hunting, and women typically took care of the domestic responsibilities in or around the home. These roles were considered functional because women were often limited by the physical restraints of pregnancy and nursing and unable to leave the home for long periods of time. Once established, these roles were passed on to subsequent generations since they served as an effective means of keeping the family system functioning properly. When changes occurred in the social and economic climate of the United States during World War II, changes in the family structure also occurred. Many women had to assume the role of breadwinner (or modern hunter-gatherer) alongside their domestic role in order to stabilize a rapidly changing society. When the men returned from war and wanted to reclaim their jobs, society fell back into a state of imbalance, as many women did not want to forfeit their wage-earning positions (Hawke 2007). Conflict Theory According to conflict theory, society is a struggle for dominance among social groups (like women versus men) that compete for scarce resources. When sociologists examine gender from this perspective, we can view men as the dominant group and women as the subordinate group. According to conflict theory, social problems are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups. Consider the Women’s Suffrage Movement or the debate over women’s “right to choose” their reproductive futures. It is difficult for women to rise above men, as dominant group members create the rules for success and opportunity in society (Farrington and Chertok 1993). Friedrich Engels, a German sociologist, studied family structure and gender roles. Engels suggested that the same owner-worker relationship seen in the labor force is also seen in the household, with women assuming the role of the proletariat. This is due to women’s dependence on men for the attainment of wages, which is even worse for women who are entirely dependent upon their spouses for economic support. Contemporary conflict theorists suggest that when women become wage earners, they can gain power in the family structure and create more democratic arrangements in the home, although they may still carry the majority of the domestic burden, as noted earlier (Rismanand and Johnson-Sumerford 1998). Feminist Theory Feminist theory is a type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues. It uses the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and inequalities. Radical feminism, in particular, considers the role of the family in perpetuating male dominance. In patriarchal societies, men’s contributions are seen as more valuable than those of women. Patriarchal perspectives and arrangements are widespread and taken for granted. As a result, women’s viewpoints tend to be silenced or marginalized to the point of being discredited or considered invalid. Sanday’s study of the Indonesian Minangkabau (2004) revealed that in societies some consider to be matriarchies (where women comprise the dominant group), women and men tend to work cooperatively rather than competitively regardless of whether a job is considered feminine by U.S. standards. The men, however, do not experience the sense of bifurcated consciousness under this social structure that modern U.S. females encounter (Sanday 2004). Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role of symbols in human interaction. This is certainly relevant to the discussion of masculinity and femininity. Imagine that you walk into a bank hoping to get a small loan for school, a home, or a small business venture. If you meet with a male loan officer, you may state your case logically by listing all the hard numbers that make you a qualified applicant as a means of appealing to the analytical characteristics associated with masculinity. If you meet with a female loan officer, you may make an emotional appeal by stating your good intentions as a means of appealing to the caring characteristics associated with femininity. Because the meanings attached to symbols are socially created and not natural, and fluid, not static, we act and react to symbols based on the current assigned meaning. The word gay, for example, once meant “cheerful,” but by the 1960s it carried the primary meaning of “homosexual.” In transition, it was even known to mean “careless” or “bright and showing” (Oxford American Dictionary 2010). Furthermore, the wordgay (as it refers to a homosexual), carried a somewhat negative and unfavorable meaning fifty years ago, but it has since gained more neutral and even positive connotations. When people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the gender role assigned to them, they are said to bedoing gender. This notion is based on the work of West and Zimmerman (1987). Whether we are expressing our masculinity or femininity, West and Zimmerman argue, we are always "doing gender." Thus, gender is something we do or perform, not something we are. In other words, both gender and sexuality are socially constructed. The social construction of sexuality refers to the way in which socially created definitions about the cultural appropriateness of sex-linked behavior shape the way people see and experience sexuality. This is in marked contrast to theories of sex, gender, and sexuality that link male and female behavior tobiological determinism, or the belief that men and women behave differently due to differences in their biology. Being Male, Being Female, and Being Healthy In 1971, Broverman and Broverman conducted a groundbreaking study on the traits mental health workers ascribed to males and females. When asked to name the characteristics of a female, the list featured words such as unaggressive, gentle, emotional, tactful, less logical, not ambitious, dependent, passive, and neat. The list of male characteristics featured words such as aggressive, rough, unemotional, blunt, logical, direct, active, and sloppy (Seem and Clark 2006). Later, when asked to describe the characteristics of a healthy person (not gender specific), the list was nearly identical to that of a male. This study uncovered the general assumption that being female is associated with being somewhat unhealthy or not of sound mind. This concept seems extremely dated, but in 2006, Seem and Clark replicated the study and found similar results. Again, the characteristics associated with a healthy male were very similar to that of a healthy (genderless) adult. The list of characteristics associated with being female broadened somewhat but did not show significant change from the original study (Seem and Clark 2006). This interpretation of feminine characteristic may help us one day better understand gender disparities in certain illnesses, such as why one in eight women can be expected to develop clinical depression in her lifetime (National Institute of Mental Health 1999). Perhaps these diagnoses are not just a reflection of women’s health, but also a reflection of society’s labeling of female characteristics, or the result of institutionalized sexism. Summary Children become aware of gender roles in their earliest years, and they come to understand and perform these roles through socialization, which occurs through four major agents: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Socialization into narrowly prescribed gender roles results in the stratification of males and females. Each sociological perspective offers a valuable view for understanding how and why gender inequality occurs in our society. Section Quiz Which of the following is the best example of a gender stereotype? - Women are typically shorter than men. - Men do not live as long as women. - Women tend to be overly emotional, while men tend to be levelheaded. - Men hold more high-earning, leadership jobs than women. Hint: C Which of the following is the best example of the role peers play as an agent of socialization for school-aged children? - Children can act however they wish around their peers because children are unaware of gender roles. - Peers serve as a support system for children who wish to act outside of their assigned gender roles. - Peers tend to reinforce gender roles by criticizing and marginalizing those who behave outside of their assigned roles. - None of the above Hint: C To which theoretical perspective does the following statement most likely apply: Women continue to assume the responsibility in the household along with a paid occupation because it keeps the household running smoothly, i.e., at a state of balance? - Conflict theory - Functionalism - Feminist theory - Symbolic interactionism Hint: B Only women are affected by gender stratification. - True - False Hint: B According to the symbolic interactionist perspective, we “do gender”: - during half of our activities - only when they apply to our biological sex - only if we are actively following gender roles - all of the time, in everything we do Hint: D Short Answer In what way do parents treat sons and daughters differently? How do sons and daughters typically respond to this treatment? What can be done to lessen the effects of gender stratification in the workplace? How does gender stratification harm both men and women? Further Research Learn more about gender at the Kinsey Institute here: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/2EKinsey References Box Office Mojo. n.d. "Domestic Grosses by MPAA Rating." Retrieved December 29, 2014 (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/mpaa.htm?page=G&p=.htm). Campbell, Patricia, and Jennifer Storo. 1994. "Girls Are … Boys Are … : Myths, Stereotypes & Gender Differences.” Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved February 13, 2012 (http://www.campbell-kibler.com/Stereo.pdf). Coltrane, Scott, and Michele Adams. 2008. Gender and Families Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Cooley, Charles Horton. 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner’s. Davis, Donald M. 1993. “TV Is a Blonde, Blonde World.” American Demographics, Special Issue: Women Change Places 15(5):34–41. Etaugh, Clair, and Judith Bridges. 2004. Women’s Lives: a Topical Approach. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Farrington, K., and W. Chertok. 1993. “Social Conflict Theories of the Family.” Pp. 357–381 in Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach, edited by P.G. Boss, W.J. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W.R. Schumm and S.K. Steinmetz. New York: Plenum. Hardwick, Courtney. 2014. "10 of the Highest Paid Child Stars." The Richest.com. Retrieved December 29, 2014 (http://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/money/10-of-the-highest-paid-child-stars/). Hawke, Lucy A. 2008. “Gender Roles Within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?” ESSAI 5:70-74. Retrieved February 22, 2012 (http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=essai). Hochschild, Arlie R., and Anne Machung. 1989. The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. New York: Viking. Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. 2009. “Women’s Rights Movement in the United States.” Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html). Kane, Eileen. 1996. “Gender, Culture, and Learning.” Washington, DC: Academy for Educational Development. Kilbourne, Jean. 2000. Can’t Buy Me Love: How Advertising Changed the Way We Think and Feel. New York: Touchstone Publishing. Kimmel, Michael. 2000. The Gendered Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Lips, Hillary M. 2004. “The Gender Gap in Possible Selves: Divergence of Academic Self-Views among High School and University Students. Sex Roles 50(5/6):357–371. Mead, George Herbert. 1967 [1934]. Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Murdock, George Peter, and Douglas R. White. 1969. “Standard Cross-Cultural Sample.” Ethnology 9:329–369. National Institute of Mental Health. 1999. Unpublished Epidemiological Catchment Area Analyses. Oxford American Dictionary. 2010. 3rd ed. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. Pincus, Fred. 2000. “Discrimination Comes in Many Forms: Individual, Institutional, and Structural.” Pp. 31-35 in Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. New York, NY: Routledge. Raffaelli, Marcela, and Lenna L. Ontai. 2004. “Gender Socialization in Latino/a Families: Results from Two Retrospective Studies.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 50(5/6):287–299. Ready, Diane. 2001. “‘Spice Girls,’ ‘Nice Girls,’ ‘Girlies,’ and ‘Tomboys’: Gender Discourses, Girls’ Cultures and Femininities in the Primary Classroom.” Gender and Education 13(2):153-167. Risman, Barbara, and Danette Johnson-Sumerford. 1998. “Doing It Fairly: A Study of Postgender Marriages.” Journal of Marriage and Family (60)1:23–40. Sadker, David, and Myra Sadker. 1994. Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls. Toronto, ON: Simon & Schuster. Sanday, Peggy Reeves. 2004. Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Seem, Susan Rachael, and Diane M. Clark. 2006. “Healthy Women, Healthy Men, and Healthy Adults: An Evaluation of Gender Role Stereotypes in the Twenty-first Century.”Sex Roles 55(3-4):247–258. Smith, Stacy. 2008. “Gender Stereotypes: An Analysis of Popular Films and TV.” Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Retrieved on January 10, 2012 (http://www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/downloads/GDIGM_Gender_Stereotypes.pdf). Staples, Robert, and Leanor Boulin Johnson. 2004. Black Families at the Crossroads: Challenges and Prospects. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Thorne, Barrie. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. UNICEF. 2007. “Early Gender Socialization.” August 29. Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/index_40749.html). U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009.” Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf). U.S. Census Bureau. 2011. “American Time Use Survey Summary.” June 22. Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm). West, Candace, and Don Zimmerman. 1987. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1(2):125–151.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.640962	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11806/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Gender, Sex, and Sexuality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11807/overview	Sex and Sexuality Overview - Understand different attitudes associated with sex and sexuality - Define sexual inequality in various societies - Discuss theoretical perspectives on sex and sexuality Sexual Attitudes and Practices In the area of sexuality, sociologists focus their attention on sexual attitudes and practices, not on physiology or anatomy. Sexuality is viewed as a person’s capacity for sexual feelings. Studying sexual attitudes and practices is a particularly interesting field of sociology because sexual behavior is a cultural universal. Throughout time and place, the vast majority of human beings have participated in sexual relationships (Broude 2003). Each society, however, interprets sexuality and sexual activity in different ways. Many societies around the world have different attitudes about premarital sex, the age of sexual consent, homosexuality, masturbation, and other sexual behaviors (Widmer, Treas, and Newcomb 1998). At the same time, sociologists have learned that certain norms are shared among most societies. The incest taboo is present in every society, though which relative is deemed unacceptable for sex varies widely from culture to culture. For example, sometimes the relatives of the father are considered acceptable sexual partners for a woman while the relatives of the mother are not. Likewise, societies generally have norms that reinforce their accepted social system of sexuality. What is considered “normal” in terms of sexual behavior is based on the mores and values of the society. Societies that value monogamy, for example, would likely oppose extramarital sex. Individuals are socialized to sexual attitudes by their family, education system, peers, media, and religion. Historically, religion has been the greatest influence on sexual behavior in most societies, but in more recent years, peers and the media have emerged as two of the strongest influences, particularly among U.S. teens (Potard, Courtois, and Rusch 2008). Let us take a closer look at sexual attitudes in the United States and around the world. Sexuality around the World Cross-national research on sexual attitudes in industrialized nations reveals that normative standards differ across the world. For example, several studies have shown that Scandinavian students are more tolerant of premarital sex than are U.S. students (Grose 2007). A study of 37 countries reported that non-Western societies—like China, Iran, and India—valued chastity highly in a potential mate, while Western European countries—such as France, the Netherlands, and Sweden—placed little value on prior sexual experiences (Buss 1989). \| Country \| Males (Mean) \| Females (Mean) \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| China \| 2.54 \| 2.61 \| \| India \| 2.44 \| 2.17 \| \| Indonesia \| 2.06 \| 1.98 \| \| Iran \| 2.67 \| 2.23 \| \| Israel (Palestinian) \| 2.24 \| 0.96 \| \| Sweden \| 0.25 \| 0.28 \| \| Norway \| 0.31 \| 0.30 \| \| Finland \| 0.27 \| 0.29 \| \| The Netherlands \| 0.29 \| 0.29 \| Even among Western cultures, attitudes can differ. For example, according to a 33,590-person survey across 24 countries, 89 percent of Swedes responded that there is nothing wrong with premarital sex, while only 42 percent of Irish responded this way. From the same study, 93 percent of Filipinos responded that sex before age 16 is always wrong or almost always wrong, while only 75 percent of Russians responded this way (Widmer, Treas, and Newcomb 1998). Sexual attitudes can also vary within a country. For instance, 45 percent of Spaniards responded that homosexuality is always wrong, while 42 percent responded that it is never wrong; only 13 percent responded somewhere in the middle (Widmer, Treas, and Newcomb 1998). Of industrialized nations, Sweden is thought to be the most liberal when it comes to attitudes about sex, including sexual practices and sexual openness. The country has very few regulations on sexual images in the media, and sex education, which starts around age six, is a compulsory part of Swedish school curricula. Sweden’s permissive approach to sex has helped the country avoid some of the major social problems associated with sex. For example, rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease are among the world’s lowest (Grose 2007). It would appear that Sweden is a model for the benefits of sexual freedom and frankness. However, implementing Swedish ideals and policies regarding sexuality in other, more politically conservative, nations would likely be met with resistance. Sexuality in the United States The United States prides itself on being the land of the “free,” but it is rather restrictive when it comes to its citizens’ general attitudes about sex compared to other industrialized nations. In an international survey, 29 percent of U.S. respondents stated that premarital sex is always wrong, while the average among the 24 countries surveyed was 17 percent. Similar discrepancies were found in questions about the condemnation of sex before the age of 16, extramarital sex, and homosexuality, with total disapproval of these acts being 12, 13, and 11 percent higher, respectively, in the United States, than the study’s average (Widmer, Treas, and Newcomb 1998). U.S. culture is particularly restrictive in its attitudes about sex when it comes to women and sexuality. It is widely believed that men are more sexual than are women. In fact, there is a popular notion that men think about sex every seven seconds. Research, however, suggests that men think about sex an average of 19 times per day, compared to 10 times per day for women (Fisher, Moore, and Pittenger 2011). Belief that men have—or have the right to—more sexual urges than women creates a double standard. Ira Reiss, a pioneer researcher in the field of sexual studies, defined the double standard as prohibiting premarital sexual intercourse for women but allowing it for men (Reiss 1960). This standard has evolved into allowing women to engage in premarital sex only within committed love relationships, but allowing men to engage in sexual relationships with as many partners as they wish without condition (Milhausen and Herold 1999). Due to this double standard, a woman is likely to have fewer sexual partners in her life time than a man. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey, the average thirty-five-year-old woman has had three opposite-sex sexual partners while the average thirty-five-year-old man has had twice as many (Centers for Disease Control 2011). The future of a society’s sexual attitudes may be somewhat predicted by the values and beliefs that a country’s youth expresses about sex and sexuality. Data from the most recent National Survey of Family Growth reveals that 70 percent of boys and 78 percent of girls ages fifteen to nineteen said they “agree” or “strongly agree” that “it’s okay for an unmarried female to have a child" (National Survey of Family Growth 2013). In a separate survey, 65 percent of teens stated that they “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that although waiting until marriage for sex is a nice idea, it’s not realistic (NBC News 2005). This does not mean that today’s youth have given up traditional sexual values such as monogamy. Nearly all college men (98.9 percent) and women (99.2 percent) who participated in a 2002 study on sexual attitudes stated they wished to settle down with one mutually exclusive sexual partner at some point in their lives, ideally within the next five years (Pedersen et al. 2002). Sex Education One of the biggest controversies regarding sexual attitudes is sexual education in U.S. classrooms. Unlike in Sweden, sex education is not required in all public school curricula in the United States. The heart of the controversy is not about whether sex education should be taught in school (studies have shown that only seven percent of U.S. adults oppose sex education in schools); it is about the type of sex education that should be taught. Much of the debate is over the issue of abstinence. In a 2005 survey, 15 percent of U.S. respondents believed that schools should teach abstinence exclusively and should not provide contraceptives or information on how to obtain them. Forty-six percent believed schools should institute an abstinence-plus approach, which teaches children that abstinence is best but still gives information about protected sex. Thirty-six percent believed teaching about abstinence is not important and that sex education should focus on sexual safety and responsibility (NPR 2010). Research suggests that while government officials may still be debating about the content of sexual education in public schools, the majority of U.S. adults are not. Those who advocated abstinence-only programs may be the proverbial squeaky wheel when it comes to this controversy, since they represent only 15 percent of parents. Fifty-five percent of respondents feel giving teens information about sex and how to obtain and use protection will not encourage them to have sexual relations earlier than they would under an abstinence program. About 77 percent think such a curriculum would make teens more likely to practice safe sex now and in the future (NPR 2004). Sweden, whose comprehensive sex education program in its public schools educates participants about safe sex, can serve as a model for this approach. The teenage birthrate in Sweden is 7 per 1,000 births, compared with 49 per 1,000 births in the United States. Among fifteen to nineteen year olds, reported cases of gonorrhea in Sweden are nearly 600 times lower than in the United States (Grose 2007). Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Sexuality Sociologists representing all three major theoretical perspectives study the role sexuality plays in social life today. Scholars recognize that sexuality continues to be an important and defining social location and that the manner in which sexuality is constructed has a significant effect on perceptions, interactions, and outcomes. Structural Functionalism When it comes to sexuality, functionalists stress the importance of regulating sexual behavior to ensure marital cohesion and family stability. Since functionalists identify the family unit as the most integral component in society, they maintain a strict focus on it at all times and argue in favor of social arrangements that promote and ensure family preservation. Functionalists such as Talcott Parsons (1955) have long argued that the regulation of sexual activity is an important function of the family. Social norms surrounding family life have, traditionally, encouraged sexual activity within the family unit (marriage) and have discouraged activity outside of it (premarital and extramarital sex). From a functionalist point of view, the purpose of encouraging sexual activity in the confines of marriage is to intensify the bond between spouses and to ensure that procreation occurs within a stable, legally recognized relationship. This structure gives offspring the best possible chance for appropriate socialization and the provision of basic resources. From a functionalist standpoint, homosexuality cannot be promoted on a large-scale as an acceptable substitute for heterosexuality. If this occurred, procreation would eventually cease. Thus, homosexuality, if occurring predominantly within the population, is dysfunctional to society. This criticism does not take into account the increasing legal acceptance of same-sex marriage, or the rise in gay and lesbian couples who choose to bear and raise children through a variety of available resources. Conflict Theory From a conflict theory perspective, sexuality is another area in which power differentials are present and where dominant groups actively work to promote their worldview as well as their economic interests. Recently, we have seen the debate over the legalization of gay marriage intensify nationwide. For conflict theorists, there are two key dimensions to the debate over same-sex marriage—one ideological and the other economic. Dominant groups (in this instance, heterosexuals) wish for their worldview—which embraces traditional marriage and the nuclear family—to win out over what they see as the intrusion of a secular, individually driven worldview. On the other hand, many gay and lesbian activists argue that legal marriage is a fundamental right that cannot be denied based on sexual orientation and that, historically, there already exists a precedent for changes to marriage laws: the 1960s legalization of formerly forbidden interracial marriages is one example. From an economic perspective, activists in favor of same-sex marriage point out that legal marriage brings with it certain entitlements, many of which are financial in nature, like Social Security benefits and medical insurance (Solmonese 2008). Denial of these benefits to gay couples is wrong, they argue. Conflict theory suggests that as long as heterosexuals and homosexuals struggle over these social and financial resources, there will be some degree of conflict. Symbolic Interactionism Interactionists focus on the meanings associated with sexuality and with sexual orientation. Since femininity is devalued in U.S. society, those who adopt such traits are subject to ridicule; this is especially true for boys or men. Just as masculinity is the symbolic norm, so too has heterosexuality come to signify normalcy. Prior to 1973, the American Psychological Association (APA) defined homosexuality as an abnormal or deviant disorder. Interactionist labeling theory recognizes the impact this has made. Before 1973, the APA was powerful in shaping social attitudes toward homosexuality by defining it as pathological. Today, the APA cites no association between sexual orientation and psychopathology and sees homosexuality as a normal aspect of human sexuality (APA 2008). Interactionists are also interested in how discussions of homosexuals often focus almost exclusively on the sex lives of gays and lesbians; homosexuals, especially men, may be assumed to be hypersexual and, in some cases, deviant. Interactionism might also focus on the slurs used to describe homosexuals. Labels such as “queen” and “fag” are often used to demean homosexual men by feminizing them. This subsequently affects how homosexuals perceive themselves. Recall Cooley’s “looking-glass self,” which suggests that self develops as a result of our interpretation and evaluation of the responses of others (Cooley 1902). Constant exposure to derogatory labels, jokes, and pervasive homophobia would lead to a negative self-image, or worse, self-hate. The CDC reports that homosexual youths who experience high levels of social rejection are six times more likely to have high levels of depression and eight times more likely to have attempted suicide (CDC 2011). Queer Theory Queer Theory is an interdisciplinary approach to sexuality studies that identifies Western society’s rigid splitting of gender into male and female roles and questions the manner in which we have been taught to think about sexual orientation. According to Jagose (1996), Queer [Theory] focuses on mismatches between anatomical sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, not just division into male/female or homosexual/hetereosexual. By calling their discipline “queer,” scholars reject the effects of labeling; instead, they embraced the word “queer” and reclaimed it for their own purposes. The perspective highlights the need for a more flexible and fluid conceptualization of sexuality—one that allows for change, negotiation, and freedom. The current schema used to classify individuals as either “heterosexual” or “homosexual” pits one orientation against the other. This mirrors other oppressive schemas in our culture, especially those surrounding gender and race (black versus white, male versus female). Queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argued against U.S. society’s monolithic definition of sexuality and its reduction to a single factor: the sex of someone’s desired partner. Sedgwick identified dozens of other ways in which people’s sexualities were different, such as: - Even identical genital acts mean very different things to different people. - Sexuality makes up a large share of the self-perceived identity of some people, a small share of others’. - Some people spend a lot of time thinking about sex, others little. - Some people like to have a lot of sex, others little or none. - Many people have their richest mental/emotional involvement with sexual acts that they don’t do, or don’t even want to do. - Some people like spontaneous sexual scenes, others like highly scripted ones, others like spontaneous-sounding ones that are nonetheless totally predictable. - Some people, homo- hetero- and bisexual, experience their sexuality as deeply embedded in a matrix of gender meanings and gender differentials. Others of each sexuality do not (Sedgwick 1990). Thus, theorists utilizing queer theory strive to question the ways society perceives and experiences sex, gender, and sexuality, opening the door to new scholarly understanding. Throughout this chapter we have examined the complexities of gender, sex, and sexuality. Differentiating between sex, gender, and sexual orientation is an important first step to a deeper understanding and critical analysis of these issues. Understanding the sociology of sex, gender, and sexuality will help to build awareness of the inequalities experienced by subordinate categories such as women, homosexuals, and transgender individuals. Summary When studying sex and sexuality, sociologists focus their attention on sexual attitudes and practices, not on physiology or anatomy. Norms regarding gender and sexuality vary across cultures. In general, the United States tends to be fairly conservative in its sexual attitudes. As a result, homosexuals continue to face opposition and discrimination in most major social institutions. Section Quiz What Western country is thought to be the most liberal in its attitudes toward sex? - United States - Sweden - Mexico - Ireland Hint: B Compared to most Western societies, U.S. sexual attitudes are considered _______. - conservative - liberal - permissive - free Hint: A Sociologists associate sexuality with _______. - heterosexuality - homosexuality - biological factors - a person’s capacity for sexual feelings Hint: D According to national surveys, most U.S. parents support which type of sex education program in school? - Abstinence only - Abstinence plus sexual safety - Sexual safety without promoting abstinence - No sex education Hint: B Which theoretical perspective stresses the importance of regulating sexual behavior to ensure marital cohesion and family stability? - Functionalism - Conflict theory - Symbolic interactionalism - Queer theory Hint: A Short Answer Identify three examples of how U.S. society is heteronormative. Consider the types of derogatory labeling that sociologists study and explain how these might apply to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Further Research For more information about sexual attitudes and practices in countries around the world, see the entire “Attitudes Toward Nonmarital Sex in 24 Countries” article from the Journal of Sex Research athttp://openstaxcollege.org/l/journal_of_sex_research. References American Psychological Association (APA). 2008. “Answers to Your Questions: For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality.” Washington, DC. Retrieved January 10, 2012 (http://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/orientation.aspx). Broude, Gwen J. 2003. “Sexual Attitudes and Practices.” Pp. 177–184 in Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures Volume 1. New York, NY: Springer. Buss, David M. 1989. “Sex Differences in Human Mate Preferences: Evolutionary Hypothesis Tested in 37 Cultures.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12(1):1–49. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2011. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health.” January 25. Retrieved February 13, 2012 (http://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth.htm). Cooley, Charles Horton. 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner. Fisher, T.D., Z.T. Moore, and M. Pittenger. 2011. “Sex on the Brain?: An Examination of Frequency of Sexual Cognitions as a Function of Gender, Erotophilia, and Social Desirability.” The Journal of Sex Research 49(1):69–77. Grose, Thomas K. 2007. “Straight Facts About the Birds and Bees.” US News and World Report, March 18. Retrieved February 13, 2012 (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070318/26sex.htm). Hall, Donald. 2003. Queer Theories. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Jagose, Annamarie. 1996. Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press. Milhausen, Robin, and Edward Herold. 1999. “Does the Sexuality Double Standard Still Exist? Perceptions of University Women.” Journal of Sex Research 36(4):361–368. National Public Radio (NPR). 2004. NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll: Sex Education in America. Retrieved February 13, 2012 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1622610). National Survey of Family Growth. 2013. "Key Statistics From the National Survey for Family Growth." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 13, 2014 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/a.htm"). National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. 2010. “Findings from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, Centre for Sexual Health Promotion, Indiana University.” Journal of Sexual Medicine 7(s5):243–373. NBC News/People. 2005. National Survey of Young Teens’ Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. January 27. Parsons, Talcott, Robert F. Bales, James Olds, Morris Zelditsch, and Philip E. Slater. 1955. Family, Socialization, and Interaction Process. New York: Free Press. Pedersen, W.C., L.C. Miller, A. Putcha-Bhagavatula, and Y. Yang. 2002. “Evolved Sex Differences in the Number of Partners Desired? The Long and the Short of It.” Psychological Science 13(2):157–161. Potard, C., R. Courtoisand, and E. Rusch. 2008. “The Influence of Peers on Risky Sexual Behavior During Adolescence.” European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care 13(3):264–270. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1990. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Solmonese, Joe. 2008. “Gay Marriage Makes Financial Sense.” BusinessWeek. Retrieved February 22, 2012 (http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/04/_pro_preempting.html). Transgender Law & Policy Institute. 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2012 (www.transgenderlaw.org). Turner, William B. 2000. A Genealogy of Queer Theory. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Widmer, Eric D., Judith Treas, and Robert Newcomb. 1998. “Attitudes Toward Nonmarital Sex in 24 Countries.” Journal of Sex Research 35(4):349.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.679414	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11807/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Gender, Sex, and Sexuality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15289/overview	Federalist Papers #10 and #51 Federalist Paper #10: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection From the New York Packet. Friday, November 23, 1787. Author: James Madison To the People of the State of New York: AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations. The valuable improvements made by the American constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this side, as was wished and expected. Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence, of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true. It will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we labor have been erroneously charged on the operation of our governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing distrust of public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed from one end of the continent to the other. These must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations. By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community. There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects. There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests. It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties. The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government. No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the balance between them. Yet the parties are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail. Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign manufactures? are questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole. The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS. If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed. Let me add that it is the great desideratum by which this form of government can be rescued from the opprobrium under which it has so long labored, and be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind. By what means is this object attainable? Evidently by one of two only. Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time must be prevented, or the majority, having such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression. If the impulse and the opportunity be suffered to coincide, we well know that neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an adequate control. They are not found to be such on the injustice and violence of individuals, and lose their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful. From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions. A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the Union. The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended. The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose. On the other hand, the effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people. The question resulting is, whether small or extensive republics are more favorable to the election of proper guardians of the public weal; and it is clearly decided in favor of the latter by two obvious considerations: In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude. Hence, the number of representatives in the two cases not being in proportion to that of the two constituents, and being proportionally greater in the small republic, it follows that, if the proportion of fit characters be not less in the large than in the small republic, the former will present a greater option, and consequently a greater probability of a fit choice. In the next place, as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters. It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniences will be found to lie. By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the representatives too little acquainted with all their local circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you render him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures. The other point of difference is, the greater number of citizens and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of republican than of democratic government; and it is this circumstance principally which renders factious combinations less to be dreaded in the former than in the latter. The smaller the society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same party; and the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Besides other impediments, it may be remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary. Hence, it clearly appears, that the same advantage which a republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic,--is enjoyed by the Union over the States composing it. Does the advantage consist in the substitution of representatives whose enlightened views and virtuous sentiments render them superior to local prejudices and schemes of injustice? It will not be denied that the representation of the Union will be most likely to possess these requisite endowments. Does it consist in the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties, against the event of any one party being able to outnumber and oppress the rest? In an equal degree does the increased variety of parties comprised within the Union, increase this security. Does it, in fine, consist in the greater obstacles opposed to the concert and accomplishment of the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority? Here, again, the extent of the Union gives it the most palpable advantage. The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State. In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government. And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in being republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit and supporting the character of Federalists. Federalist Paper #51: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments From the New York Packet. Friday, February 8, 1788. Author: Alexander Hamilton or James Madison To the People of the State of New York: TO WHAT expedient, then, shall we finally resort, for maintaining in practice the necessary partition of power among the several departments, as laid down in the Constitution? The only answer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places. Without presuming to undertake a full development of this important idea, I will hazard a few general observations, which may perhaps place it in a clearer light, and enable us to form a more correct judgment of the principles and structure of the government planned by the convention. In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others. Were this principle rigorously adhered to, it would require that all the appointments for the supreme executive, legislative, and judiciary magistracies should be drawn from the same fountain of authority, the people, through channels having no communication whatever with one another. Perhaps such a plan of constructing the several departments would be less difficult in practice than it may in contemplation appear. Some difficulties, however, and some additional expense would attend the execution of it. Some deviations, therefore, from the principle must be admitted. In the constitution of the judiciary department in particular, it might be inexpedient to insist rigorously on the principle: first, because peculiar qualifications being essential in the members, the primary consideration ought to be to select that mode of choice which best secures these qualifications; secondly, because the permanent tenure by which the appointments are held in that department, must soon destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them. It is equally evident, that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others, for the emoluments annexed to their offices. Were the executive magistrate, or the judges, not independent of the legislature in this particular, their independence in every other would be merely nominal. But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as well as public. We see it particularly displayed in all the subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights. These inventions of prudence cannot be less requisite in the distribution of the supreme powers of the State. But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self-defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further precautions. As the weight of the legislative authority requires that it should be thus divided, the weakness of the executive may require, on the other hand, that it should be fortified. An absolute negative on the legislature appears, at first view, to be the natural defense with which the executive magistrate should be armed. But perhaps it would be neither altogether safe nor alone sufficient. On ordinary occasions it might not be exerted with the requisite firmness, and on extraordinary occasions it might be perfidiously abused. May not this defect of an absolute negative be supplied by some qualified connection between this weaker department and the weaker branch of the stronger department, by which the latter may be led to support the constitutional rights of the former, without being too much detached from the rights of its own department? If the principles on which these observations are founded be just, as I persuade myself they are, and they be applied as a criterion to the several State constitutions, and to the federal Constitution it will be found that if the latter does not perfectly correspond with them, the former are infinitely less able to bear such a test. There are, moreover, two considerations particularly applicable to the federal system of America, which place that system in a very interesting point of view. First. In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government; and the usurpations are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself. Second. It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure. There are but two methods of providing against this evil: the one by creating a will in the community independent of the majority that is, of the society itself; the other, by comprehending in the society so many separate descriptions of citizens as will render an unjust combination of a majority of the whole very improbable, if not impracticable. The first method prevails in all governments possessing an hereditary or self-appointed authority. This, at best, is but a precarious security; because a power independent of the society may as well espouse the unjust views of the major, as the rightful interests of the minor party, and may possibly be turned against both parties. The second method will be exemplified in the federal republic of the United States. Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to depend on the extent of country and number of people comprehended under the same government. This view of the subject must particularly recommend a proper federal system to all the sincere and considerate friends of republican government, since it shows that in exact proportion as the territory of the Union may be formed into more circumscribed Confederacies, or States oppressive combinations of a majority will be facilitated: the best security, under the republican forms, for the rights of every class of citizens, will be diminished: and consequently the stability and independence of some member of the government, the only other security, must be proportionately increased. Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful. It can be little doubted that if the State of Rhode Island was separated from the Confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of rights under the popular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed by such reiterated oppressions of factious majorities that some power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved the necessity of it. In the extended republic of the United States, and among the great variety of interests, parties, and sects which it embraces, a coalition of a majority of the whole society could seldom take place on any other principles than those of justice and the general good; whilst there being thus less danger to a minor from the will of a major party, there must be less pretext, also, to provide for the security of the former, by introducing into the government a will not dependent on the latter, or, in other words, a will independent of the society itself. It is no less certain than it is important, notwithstanding the contrary opinions which have been entertained, that the larger the society, provided it lie within a practical sphere, the more duly capable it will be of self-government. And happily for the REPUBLICAN CAUSE, the practicable sphere may be carried to a very great extent, by a judicious modification and mixture of the FEDERAL PRINCIPLE. PUBLIUS.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.703236	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15289/overview", "title": "American Government, Federalist Papers #10 and #51", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15292/overview	Preface Overview Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe. For more information, visit: OpenStax Psychology Welcome to Psychology, an OpenStax resource. This textbook has been created with several goals in mind: accessibility, customization, and student engagement—all while encouraging students toward high levels of academic scholarship. Instructors and students alike will find that this textbook offers a strong foundation in psychology in an accessible format. 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For many students, this may be their only college-level psychology course. As such, this textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of psychology and understand how those concepts apply to their lives. The text has been developed to meet the scope and sequence of most general psychology courses. At the same time, the book includes a number of innovative features designed to enhance student learning. A strength of Psychology is that instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Coverage and Scope Our Psychology textbook adheres to the scope and sequence of most introductory psychology courses nationwide. We strive to make psychology, as a discipline, interesting and accessible to students. A comprehensive coverage of core concepts is grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research, including coverage of the DSM-5 in discussions of psychological disorders. 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The organization and pedagogical features were developed and vetted with feedback from psychology educators dedicated to the project. - Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology - Chapter 2: Psychological Research - Chapter 3: Biopsychology - Chapter 4: States of Consciousness - Chapter 5: Sensation and Perception - Chapter 6: Learning - Chapter 7: Thinking and Intelligence - Chapter 8: Memory - Chapter 9: Lifespan Development - Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion - Chapter 11: Personality - Chapter 12: Social Psychology - Chapter 13: Industrial-Organizational Psychology - Chapter 14: Stress, Lifestyle, and Health - Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders - Chapter 16: Therapy and Treatment Pedagogical Foundation Throughout Psychology, you will find features that draw the students into psychological inquiry by taking selected topics a step further. 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Selected assessment items touch directly on students’ lives. - Link to Learning features direct students to online interactive exercises and animations that add a fuller context to core content and provide an opportunity for application. - Personal Application Questions engage students in topics at a personal level that encourages reflection and promotes discussion. Ancillaries OpenStax projects offer an array of ancillaries for students and instructors. The following resources are available. - PowerPoint Slides - Test Bank About Our Team Senior Content LeadRose M. Spielman, PhD Dr. Rose Spielman has been teaching psychology and working as a licensed clinical psychologist for 20 years. Her academic career has included positions at Quinnipiac University, Housatonic Community College, and Goodwin College. As a licensed clinical psychologist, educator, and volunteer director, Rose is able to connect with people from diverse backgrounds and facilitate treatment, advocacy, and education. In her years of work as a teacher, therapist, and administrator, she has helped thousands of students and clients and taught them to advocate for themselves and move their lives forward to become more productive citizens and family members. Senior Contributors - Kathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State College - William Jenkins, Mercer University - Arlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph’s University - Marilyn Lovett, Livingstone College - Marion Perlmutter, University of Michigan Reviewers - Daniel Bellack, Trident Technical College - Jerimy Blowers, Cayuga Community College - Salena Brody, Collin College - Bettina Casad, University of Missouri–St. Louis - Sharon Chacon, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College - Barbara Chappell, Walden University - James Corpening - Frank Eyetsemitan, Roger Williams University - Tamara Ferguson, Utah State University - Kathleen Flannery, Saint Anselm College - Johnathan Forbey, Ball State University - Laura Gaudet, Chadron State College - William Goggin, University of Southern Mississippi - Jeffery K. Gray, Charleston Southern University - Heather Griffiths, Fayetteville State University - Mark Holder, University of British Columbia - Rita Houge, Des Moines Area Community College - Colette Jacquot, Strayer University - John Johanson, Winona State University - Andrew Johnson, Park University - Shaila Khan, Tougaloo College - Carol Laman, Houston Community College - Thomas Malloy, Rhode Island College - Jan Mendoza, Golden West College - Christopher Miller, University of Minnesota - Lisa Moeller, Beckfield College - Hugh Riley, Baylor University - Juan Salinas, University of Texas at Austin - Brittney Schrick, Southern Arkansas University - Phoebe Scotland, College of the Rockies - Christine Selby, Husson University - Brian Sexton, Kean University - Nancy Simpson, Trident Technical College - Robert Stennett, University of Georgia - Jennifer Stevenson, Ursinus College - Eric Weiser, Curry College - Valjean Whitlow, American Public University	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.731268	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15292/overview", "title": "Psychology, Preface", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104463/overview	Education Standards 3_Grade K Version with Guidance_v5.2.7 K.OA.A.2 4_Grade K Version with Guidance_v5.2.7 K.OA.A.3 5_Grade K Version with Guidance_v5.2.7 K.OA.A.4 6_Grade K Version with Guidance_v5.2.7 K.OA.A.5 OREGON MATH STANDARDS (2021): [K.OA] Overview The intent of clarifying statements is to provide additional guidance for educators to communicate the intent of the standard to support the future development of curricular resources and assessments aligned to the 2021 math standards. Clarifying statements can be in the form of succinct sentences or paragraphs that attend to one of four types of clarifications: (1) Student Experiences; (2) Examples; (3) Boundaries; and (4) Connection to Math Practices. Oregon Math Guidance: K.OA.A.1 Cluster: K.OA.A - Understand addition and subtraction. STANDARD: K.OA.A.1 Standards Statement (2021): Represent addition as putting together and adding to and subtraction as taking apart and taking from using objects, drawings, physical expressions, numbers or equations. Connections: Preceding Pathway Content (2021) \| Subsequent Pathway Content (2021) \| Cross Domain Connections (2021) \| Common Core (CCSS) (2010) \| N/A \| K.OA.A.2, 1.OA.A.1 \| K.NCC.A.1 \| K.OA.A.1 K.OA.A Crosswalk \| Standards Guidance: Clarifications - Practices combining, separating, and naming quantities. - Uses simple strategies to solve mathematical problems and communicates how he/she solved it. - Students should be able to represent real-life problems involving the addition and subtraction of whole numbers within 10 with objects and drawings. Terminology - Physical expressions can include, but not limited to, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, or other types of physical movement. - Pictorial drawings need not show details, but should show the mathematics in the problem. Boundaries - Exposure to equations is expected but mastery of equations is not required. - Drawings do not need to show details but should show the mathematics in the problem. - Kindergarten students should see addition and subtraction equations, and student writing of equations in kindergarten is encouraged, but it is not required. However, please note that it is not until First Grade when “Understand the meaning of the equal sign” is an expectation. Teaching Strategies - Representations may include objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, expressions, or equations. - Student drawings should show the mathematics of the solution from the given context. Equations should be derived from contexts. Progressions - Students may bring from home different ways to show numbers with their fingers and to raise (or lower) them when counting. The three major ways used around the world are starting with the thumb, the little finger, or the pointing finger (ending with the thumb in the latter two cases). Each way has advantages physically or mathematically, so students can use whatever is familiar to them. (Please reference page 8 in the Progression document) Examples - Representation can include objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds, acting out, verbal explanations, expressions or equations. An example of representational sounds can be clapping. Illustrative Mathematics:[Ten Frame Addition] [Dice Addition 2] Oregon Math Guidance: K.OA.A.2 STANDARD: K.OA.A.2 Standards Statement (2021): Represent addition as putting together and adding to and subtraction as taking apart and taking from using objects, drawings, physical expressions, numbers or equations. Connections: Preceding Pathway Content (2021) \| Subsequent Pathway Content (2021) \| Cross Domain Connections (2021) \| Common Core (CCSS) (2010) \| K.OA.A.1 \| K.OA.A.3, 1.OA.A.1, 1.OA.B.3, 1.OA.B.4, 1.OA.C.6 \| N/A \| K.OA.A.2 K.OA.A Crosswalk \| Standards Guidance: Clarifications - Use addition and subtraction within 10 to solve and represent problems in authentic contexts involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, and taking apart. - Practices combining, separating, and naming quantities. - Uses simple strategies to solve mathematical problems and communicates how he/she solved it. Terminology - Students should be provided with a variety of problem types including Join: Result Unknown, Separate: Result Unknown, and Part-Part-Whole: Whole Unknown; however, students are not required to know or use this terminology. - Join: Result Unknown - Example: 3 birds were sitting in a tree and 2 more birds flew onto the tree. How many birds were in the tree then? - Separate: Result Unknown - Example: Toni had 8 guppies. She gave 3 guppies to Roger. How many guppies does Toni have now? - Part-Part-Whole: Whole Unknown - Example: 6 girls and 4 boys were playing soccer. How many children were playing soccer? - Join: Result Unknown Boundaries - Exposure to equations is expected but mastery of equations is not required in Kindergarten. Teaching Strategies - Use objects and drawings to represent the word problem. In order to solve word problems within 10, use numbers 0-9 - Students should be able to solve real-life problems involving the addition and subtraction of single-digit whole numbers, using a variety of strategies such as: - counting on - counting backward - making 10 Examples - Illustrative Mathematics: [Ten Flashing Fireflies] [Dice Addition 1] [What’s Missing?] - Student Achievement Partners: [Teddy Bears] [Fly Away] Oregon Math Guidance: K.OA.A.3 STANDARD: K.OA.A.3 Standards Statement (2021): Using objects or drawings, and equations, decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way. Connections: Preceding Pathway Content (2021) \| Subsequent Pathway Content (2021) \| Cross Domain Connections (2021) \| Common Core (CCSS) (2010) \| K.OA.A.2 \| K.OA.A.4, K.OA.A.5, 1.OA.C.6 \| K.NBT.A.1, K.NCC.A.1 \| K.OA.A.3 K.OA.A Crosswalk \| Standards Guidance: Clarifications - Students practice combining, separating, and naming quantities. Terminology - Decomposition is the process of breaking apart a number into a variety of parts that all equal the same whole. Example 9 = 6 +3; 9 = 5 + 4 both equations equal 9. - The terms below are used to clarify expectations for the teaching professional. Students are not required to use this terminology when engaging with the learning objective. - Compose – put together numbers - Decompose – break apart numbers Teaching Strategies - Use objects or drawings to decompose numbers in at least two different ways. Record each decomposition with a drawing, number bond, or equation. - Teachers should use dot card images for students to explain how they see different number combinations. Examples - Illustrative Mathematics: Oregon Math Guidance: K.OA.A.4 STANDARD: K.OA.A.4 Standards Statement (2021): By using objects, drawings, or equations, find the unknown number that makes 10 when added to a given number from 1 - 9. Connections: Preceding Pathway Content (2021) \| Subsequent Pathway Content (2021) \| Cross Domain Connections (2021) \| Common Core (CCSS) (2010) \| K.OA.A.3 \| 1.OA.C.6 \| N/A \| K.OA.A.4 K.OA.A Crosswalk \| Standards Guidance: Clarifications - This standard builds upon the understanding that a number can be decomposed into parts. (K.OA.A.3). - Once students have had experiences breaking apart ten into various combinations, this asks students to find a missing part of 10. Examples - A full case of juice boxes has 10 boxes. There are only 6 boxes in this case. How many juice boxes are missing? - Student Achievement Partners: Oregon Math Guidance: K.OA.A.5 STANDARD: K.OA.A.5 SStandards Statement (2021): Fluently add and subtract within 5 with accurate, efficient, and flexible strategies. Connections: Preceding Pathway Content (2021) \| Subsequent Pathway Content (2021) \| Cross Domain Connections (2021) \| Common Core (CCSS) (2010) \| K.OA.A.3 \| 1.OA.C.6 \| N/A \| K.OA.A.5 K.OA.A Crosswalk \| Standards Guidance: Clarifications - Uses simple strategies to solve mathematical problems and communicates how he/she solved it. - Students should be able to solve real-life problems involving the addition and subtraction of numbers within five. Terminology - The terms below are used to clarify expectations for the teaching professional. Students are not required to use this terminology when engaging with the learning objective. - Fluently/Fluency -- To achieve fluency, students should be able to choose flexibly among methods and strategies to solve mathematical problems accurately and efficiently. Boundaries - Fluency does not lend itself to timed tests or speed. - Exposure to equations is expected but mastery of equations is not required. Progressions - Experience with decompositions of numbers and with Add To and Take From situations enables students to begin to fluently add and subtract within 5. (Please reference page 11 in the Progression document) Examples - Record the sum or difference with a drawing oral response, visual cue or equation. Can use an oral response to a verbal or visual cue to demonstrate fluency. - When making toothpick designs to represent the various combinations of the number “5”, the student writes the numerals for the various parts (such as “4” and “1”) or selects a number sentence that represents that particular situation (such as 5 = 4 + 1). - Illustrative Mathematics: - Student Achievement Partners:	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.827388	06/01/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104463/overview", "title": "OREGON MATH STANDARDS (2021): [K.OA]", "author": "Mark Freed" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60461/overview	Chapter 2.4: Constitution of 1845 Overview Constitution of 1845 Constitution of 1845 The Constitution of 1845, which provided for the government of Texas as a state in the United States, was almost twice as long as the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. The framers, members of the Convention of 1845, drew heavily on the newly adopted Constitution of Louisiana and on the constitution drawn by the Convention of 1833 , but apparently used as a working model the Constitution of the republic for a general plan of government and bill of rights. The legislative department was composed of a Senate of from nineteen to thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of from forty-five to ninety. Representatives, elected for two years, were required to have attained the age of twenty-one. Senators were elected for four years, one-half chosen biennially, all at least thirty years old. Legislators’ compensation was set at three dollars a day for each day of attendance and three dollars for each twenty-five miles of travel to and from the capital. All bills for raising revenue had to originate in the House of Representatives. Austin was made the capital until 1850, after which the people were to choose a permanent seat of government. A census was ordered for each eighth year, following which adjustment of the legislative membership was to be made. Regular sessions were biennial. Ministers of the Gospel were ineligible to be legislators. The governor’s term was two years, and he was made ineligible for more than four years in any period of six years. He was required to be a citizen and a resident of Texas for at least three years before his election and to be at least thirty years of age. He could appoint the attorney general, secretary of state, and supreme and district court judges, subject to confirmation by the Senate; but the comptroller and treasurer were elected biennially by a joint session of the legislature. The governor could convene the legislature and adjourn it in case of disagreement between the two houses and was commander-in-chief of the militia. He could grant pardons and reprieves. His veto could be overruled by two-thirds of both houses. The judiciary consisted of a Supreme Court, district courts, and such inferior courts as the legislature might establish, the judges of the higher courts being appointed by the governor for six-year terms. The Supreme Court was made up of three judges, any two of whom constituted a quorum. Supreme and district judges could be removed by the governor on address of two-thirds of both houses of the legislature for any cause that was not sufficient ground for impeachment. A district attorney for each district was elected by joint vote of both houses, to serve for two years. County officers were elected for two years by popular vote. The sheriff was not eligible to serve more than four years of any six. Trial by jury was extended to cases in equity as well as in civil and criminal law. The longest article of the constitution was Article VII, on General Provisions. Most of its thirty-seven sections were limitations on the legislature. One section forbade the holding of office by any citizen who had ever participated in a duel. Bank corporations were prohibited, and the legislature was forbidden to authorize individuals to issue bills, checks, promissory notes, or other paper to circulate as money. The state debt was limited to $100,000, except in case of war, insurrection, or invasion. Equal and uniform taxation was required; income and occupation taxes might be levied; each family was to be allowed an exemption of $250 on household goods. A noteworthy section made exempt from forced sale any family homestead, not to exceed 200 acres of land or city property not exceeding $2,000 in value; the owner, if a married man, could not sell or trade the homestead except with the consent of his wife. Section XIX recognized the separate ownership by married women of all real and personal property owned before marriage or acquired afterwards by gift or inheritance. Texas was a pioneer state in providing for homestead protection and for recognition of community property. In the article on education the legislature was directed to make suitable provision for support and maintenance of public schools, and 10 percent of the revenue from taxation was set aside as a Permanent School Fund. School lands were not to be sold for twenty years but could be leased, the income from the leases becoming a part of the Available School Fund. Land provisions of the Constitution of 1836 were reaffirmed, and the General Land Office was continued in operation. By a two-thirds vote of each house an amendment to the constitution could be proposed. If a majority of the voters approved the amendment and two-thirds of both houses of the next legislature ratified it, the measure became a part of the constitution. Only one amendment was ever made to the Constitution of 1845. It was approved on January 16, 1850, and provided for the election of state officials formerly appointed by the governor or by the legislature. The Constitution of 1845 has been the most popular of all Texas constitutions. Its straightforward, simple form prompted many national politicians, including Daniel Webster, to remark that the Texas constitution was the best of all of the state constitutions. Though some men, including Webster, argued against the annexation of Texas, the constitution was accepted by the United States on December 29, 1845. Reading Review Questions - Why was the constitution of 1845 written? - What does biennial mean and what does the establishment of a biennial legislature indicate Texans desired in their legislative branch? - What powers did the state governor have over the state courts? - What was a prominent feature of Article VII of the Texas constitution of 1845? - What policy area was well provided for by the new constitution? - Why is the 1845 constitution considered one of the most popular in Texas history? For More Information For More Informationhttps://tarltonapps.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/texas1845 More information on the Constitution of Texas (1845) may be found at the Texas Constitutions 1824-1876 project of the Tarlton Law Library, Jamail Center for Legal Research at the University of Texas School of Law, The University of Texas at Austin. The project includes digitized images and searchable text versions of the constitutions.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.845702	Annette Howard	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60461/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Texas' Constitution, Chapter 2.4: Constitution of 1845", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60436/overview	Chapter 1.1: Independence for Texas Overview Independence for Texas Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain why American settlers in Texas sought independence from Mexico - Discuss early attempts to make Texas independent of Mexico - Describe the relationship between Anglo-Americans and Tejanos in Texas before and after independence Six Flags Over Texas Texas has a rich and diverse history. Understanding that history helps explain why contemporary Texas is the way it is. This chapter explores a tiny piece of that history. “Six flags over Texas” is the slogan used to describe the six nations that have had sovereignty over some or all of the current territory of the U.S. state of Texas: Spain (1519–1685; 1690–1821), France (1685–1690), Mexico (1821–1836), the Republic of Texas (1836–1845), the Confederate States of America (1861–1865), and the United States of America (1845–1861; 1865–present). The image below shows the six flags flying over the Texas State History Museum, in Austin. American Settlers Move to Texas As the incursions of the earlier filibusters into Texas demonstrated, American expansionists had desired this area of Spain’s empire in America for many years. After the 1819 Adams-Onís treaty established the boundary between Mexico and the United States, more American expansionists began to move into the northern portion of Mexico’s province of Coahuila y Texas. Following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, American settlers immigrated to Texas in even larger numbers, intent on taking the land from the new and vulnerable Mexican nation in order to create a new American slave state. After the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty defined the U.S.-Mexico boundary, Spain began actively encouraging Americans to settle their northern province. Texas was sparsely settled, and the few Mexican farmers and ranchers who lived there were under constant threat of attack by hostile Indian tribes, especially the Comanche, who supplemented their hunting with raids in pursuit of horses and cattle. To increase the non-Indian population in Texas and provide a buffer zone between its hostile tribes and the rest of Mexico, Spain began to recruit empresarios. An empresario was someone who brought settlers to the region in exchange for generous grants of land. Moses Austin, a once-prosperous entrepreneur reduced to poverty by the Panic of 1819, requested permission to settle three hundred English-speaking American residents in Texas. Spain agreed on the condition that the resettled people convert to Roman Catholicism. On his deathbed in 1821, Austin asked his son Stephen to carry out his plans, and Mexico, which had won independence from Spain the same year, allowed Stephen to take control of his father’s grant. Like Spain, Mexico also wished to encourage settlement in the state of Coahuila y Texas and passed colonization laws to encourage immigration. Thousands of Americans, primarily from slave states, flocked to Texas and quickly came to outnumber the Tejanos, the Mexican residents of the region. The soil and climate offered good opportunities to expand slavery and the cotton kingdom. Land was plentiful and offered at generous terms. Unlike the U.S. government, Mexico allowed buyers to pay for their land in installments and did not require a minimum purchase. Furthermore, to many whites, it seemed not only their God-given right but also their patriotic duty to populate the lands beyond the Mississippi River, bringing with them American slavery, culture, laws, and political traditions. CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Daniel M. Regalado. License: CC BY: Attribution The Texas War for Independence The Texas War for Independence Many Americans who migrated to Texas at the invitation of the Mexican government did not completely shed their identity or loyalty to the United States. They brought American traditions and expectations with them (including, for many, the right to own slaves). For instance, the majority of these new settlers were Protestant, and though they were not required to attend the Catholic mass, Mexico’s prohibition on the public practice of other religions upset them and they routinely ignored it. Accustomed to representative democracy, jury trials, and the defendant’s right to appear before a judge, the Anglo-American settlers in Texas also disliked the Mexican legal system, which provided for an initial hearing by an alcalde, an administrator who often combined the duties of mayor, judge, and law enforcement officer. The alcalde sent a written record of the proceeding to a judge in Saltillo, the state capital, who decided the outcome. Settlers also resented that at most two Texas representatives were allowed in the state legislature. Their greatest source of discontent, though, was the Mexican government’s 1829 abolition of slavery. Most American settlers were from southern states, and many had brought slaves with them. Mexico tried to accommodate them by maintaining the fiction that the slaves were indentured servants. But American slaveholders in Texas distrusted the Mexican government and wanted Texas to be a new U.S. slave state. The dislike of most for Roman Catholicism (the prevailing religion of Mexico) and a widely held belief in American racial superiority led them generally to regard Mexicans as dishonest, ignorant, and backward. Belief in their own superiority inspired some Texans to try to undermine the power of the Mexican government. When empresario Haden Edwards attempted to evict people who had settled his land grant before he gained title to it, the Mexican government nullified its agreement with him. Outraged, Edwards and a small party of men took prisoner the alcalde of Nacogdoches. The Mexican army marched to the town, and Edwards and his troops then declared the formation of the Republic of Fredonia between the Sabine and Rio Grande Rivers. To demonstrate loyalty to their adopted country, a force led by Stephen Austin hastened to Nacogdoches to support the Mexican army. Edwards’s revolt collapsed, and the revolutionaries fled Texas. The growing presence of American settlers in Texas, their reluctance to abide by Mexican law, and their desire for independence caused the Mexican government to grow wary. In 1830, it forbade future U.S. immigration and increased its military presence in Texas. Settlers continued to stream illegally across the long border; by 1835, after immigration resumed, there were twenty thousand Anglo-Americans in Texas. Fifty-five delegates from the Anglo-American settlements gathered in 1831 to demand the suspension of customs duties, the resumption of immigration from the United States, better protection from Indian tribes, the granting of promised land titles, and the creation of an independent state of Texas separate from Coahuila. Ordered to disband, the delegates reconvened in early April 1833 to write a constitution for an independent Texas. Surprisingly, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexico’s new president, agreed to all demands, except the call for statehood. Coahuila y Texas made provisions for jury trials, increased Texas’s representation in the state legislature, and removed restrictions on commerce. Texans’ hopes for independence were quashed in 1834, however, when Santa Anna dismissed the Mexican Congress and abolished all state governments, including that of Coahuila y Texas. In January 1835, reneging on earlier promises, he dispatched troops to the town of Anahuac to collect customs duties. Lawyer and soldier William B. Travis and a small force marched on Anahuac in June, and the fort surrendered. On October 2, Anglo-American forces met Mexican troops at the town of Gonzales; the Mexican troops fled and the Americans moved on to take San Antonio. Now more cautious, delegates to the Consultation of 1835 at San Felipe de Austin voted against declaring independence, instead drafting a statement, which became known as the Declaration of Causes, promising continued loyalty if Mexico returned to a constitutional form of government. They selected Henry Smith, leader of the Independence Party, as governor of Texas and placed Sam Houston, a former soldier who had been a congressman and governor of Tennessee, in charge of its small military force. The Consultation delegates met again in March 1836. They declared their independence from Mexico and drafted a constitution calling for an American-style judicial system and an elected president and legislature. Significantly, they also established that slavery would not be prohibited in Texas. Many wealthy Tejanos supported the push for independence, hoping for liberal governmental reforms and economic benefits. Remember the Alamo! Remember the Alamo! Mexico had no intention of losing its northern province. Santa Anna and his army of four thousand had besieged San Antonio in February 1836. Hopelessly outnumbered, its two hundred defenders, under Travis, fought fiercely from their refuge in an old mission known as the Alamo. After ten days, however, the mission was taken and all but a few of the defenders were dead, including Travis and James Bowie, the famed frontiersman who was also a land speculator and slave trader. A few male survivors, possibly including the frontier legend and former Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett, were led outside the walls and executed. The few women and children inside the mission were allowed to leave with the only adult male survivor, a slave owned by Travis who was then freed by the Mexican Army. Terrified, they fled. Although hungry for revenge, the Texas forces under Sam Houston nevertheless withdrew across Texas, gathering recruits as they went. Coming upon Santa Anna’s encampment on the banks of San Jacinto River on April 21, 1836, they waited as the Mexican troops settled for an afternoon nap. Assured by Houston that “Victory is certain!” and told to “Trust in God and fear not!” the seven hundred men descended on a sleeping force nearly twice their number with cries of “Remember the Alamo!” Within fifteen minutes the Battle of San Jacinto was over. Approximately half the Mexican troops were killed, and the survivors, including Santa Anna, taken prisoner. Santa Anna grudgingly signed a peace treaty and was sent to Washington, where he met with President Andrew Jackson and, under pressure, agreed to recognize an independent Texas with the Rio Grande River as its southwestern border. By the time the agreement had been signed, however, Santa Anna had been removed from power in Mexico. For that reason, the Mexican Congress refused to be bound by Santa Anna’s promises and continued to insist that the renegade territory still belonged to Mexico. The Lone Star Republic The Lone Star Republic In September 1836, military hero Sam Houston was elected president of Texas, and, following the relentless logic of U.S. expansion, Texans voted in favor of annexation to the United States. This had been the dream of many settlers in Texas all along. They wanted to expand the United States west and saw Texas as the next logical step. Slaveholders there, such as Sam Houston, William B. Travis and James Bowie (the latter two of whom died at the Alamo), believed too in the destiny of slavery. Mindful of the vicious debates over Missouri that had led to talk of disunion and war, American politicians were reluctant to annex Texas or, indeed, even to recognize it as a sovereign nation. Annexation would almost certainly mean war with Mexico, and the admission of a state with a large slave population, though permissible under the Missouri Compromise, would bring the issue of slavery once again to the fore. Texas had no choice but to organize itself as the independent Lone Star Republic. To protect itself from Mexican attempts to reclaim it, Texas sought and received recognition from France, Great Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The United States did not officially recognize Texas as an independent nation until March 1837, nearly a year after the final victory over the Mexican army at San Jacinto. Uncertainty about its future did not discourage Americans committed to expansion, especially slaveholders, from rushing to settle in the Lone Star Republic, however. Between 1836 and 1846, its population nearly tripled. By 1840, nearly twelve thousand enslaved Africans had been brought to Texas by American slaveholders. Many new settlers had suffered financial losses in the severe financial depression of 1837 and hoped for a new start in the new nation. According to folklore, across the United States, homes and farms were deserted overnight, and curious neighbors found notes reading only “GTT” (“Gone to Texas”). Many Europeans, especially Germans, also immigrated to Texas during this period. In keeping with the program of ethnic cleansing and white racial domination, as illustrated by the image at the beginning of this chapter, Americans in Texas generally treated both Tejano and Indian residents with utter contempt, eager to displace and dispossess them. Anglo-American leaders failed to return the support their Tejano neighbors had extended during the rebellion and repaid them by seizing their lands. In 1839, the republic’s militia attempted to drive out the Cherokee and Comanche. The impulse to expand did not lay dormant, and Anglo-American settlers and leaders in the newly formed Texas republic soon cast their gaze on the Mexican province of New Mexico as well. Repeating the tactics of earlier filibusters, a Texas force set out in 1841 intent on taking Santa Fe. Its members encountered an army of New Mexicans and were taken prisoner and sent to Mexico City. On Christmas Day, 1842, Texans avenged a Mexican assault on San Antonio by attacking the Mexican town of Mier. In August, another Texas army was sent to attack Santa Fe, but Mexican troops forced them to retreat. Clearly, hostilities between Texas and Mexico had not ended simply because Texas had declared its independence. Key Vocabulary - Empresario - Moses Austin - Stephen Austin - alcalde - General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna - William B. Travis - Sam Houston Reading Review Questions - For what two reasons were empresarios recruited by the Spanish? - Why was Texas an attractive region to American settlers? - What argument did some whites make for their move to Texas other then the geography of the region? - What widely held belief did many Texans hold regarding Mexicans prior to independence? - Why did Haden Edwards form the Republic of Fredonia? - Why did Mexico forbid American immigration starting in 1830? - What demands were made by the 55 member delegation of 1831? - How did Santa Anna betray Texans in 1834? - Briefly describe what happened at the Alamo in San Antonio. - What was the primary reason Texas forces and Sam Houston victorious in the Battle of San Jacinto? - What were the two reasons why the United States was hesitant to annex Texas in 1836? - How did white settlers to Texas view themselves and, consequently, how did the treat Mexican and Indian residents of Texas? Assignment LETTER TO SANTA Write a letter to Mexican President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna explaining why Texas wanted independence from Mexico. Outline and explain the reasons for your request. Be diplomatic in your approach in an effort to avoid violence and, ultimately, war. Attributions CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Six Flags Over Texas. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Six Flags of Texas. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Six_Flags_of_Texas.jpg. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.876806	12/06/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60436/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Texas History and Culture, Chapter 1.1: Independence for Texas", "author": "Annette Howard" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60438/overview	Chapter 1.3: Texas in the American Civil War Overview Texas in the American Civil War Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Understand Texas’ role in the American Civil War - Understand the influence the American Civil War had on Texas - Understand the continuing influence the American Civil has on contemporary Texas Introduction Introduction The U.S. state of Texas declared its secession from the United States of America on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States on March 2, 1861, after it replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. As with those of other States, the Declaration was not recognized by the United States government at Washington. Some Texan military units fought in the Civil War east of the Mississippi River, but Texas was most useful for supplying soldiers and horses for Confederate forces. Texas’ supply role lasted until mid-1863, after which time Union gunboats controlled the Mississippi River, making large transfers of men, horses or cattle impossible. Some cotton was sold in Mexico, but most of the crop became useless because of the Union naval blockade of Galveston, Houston, and other ports. Secession Secession In the late winter of 1860, Texan counties sent delegates to a special convention to debate the merits of secession. The convention adopted an “Ordinance of Secession” by a vote of 166 to 8, which was ratified by a popular referendum on February 23.1 Separately from the Ordinance of Secession, which was considered a legal document, Texas also issued a declaration of causes spelling out the rationale for declaring secession.2 The document specifies several reasons for secession, including its solidarity with its “sister slave-holding States,” the U.S. government’s inability to prevent Indian attacks, slave-stealing raids, and other border-crossing acts of banditry. It accuses northern politicians and abolitionists of committing a variety of outrages upon Texans. The bulk of the document offers justifications for slavery saying that remaining a part of the United States would jeopardize the security of the two. The declaration includes this extract praising slavery, in which the Union itself is referred to as the “confederacy”: We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. — Texas Secession Convention, A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union, (February 1861).3 At this time, African Americans comprised 30 percent of the state’s population, and they were overwhelmingly enslaved. According to one Texan, keeping them enslaved was the primary goal of the state in joining the Confederacy: Independence without slavery, would be valueless… The South without slavery would not be worth a mess of pottage. — Caleb Cutwell, letter to the Galveston Tri-Weekly, (February 22, 1865).4 Secession Convention and the Confederacy Secession Convention and the Confederacy Following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, public opinion in the cotton states of the Lower South (South Carolina through Texas) swung in favor of secession. By February 1861, the other six states of the sub-region had separately passed ordinances of secession. However, events in Texas were delayed, largely due to the resistance of Southern Unionist governor, Sam Houston. Unlike the other “cotton states”‘ chief executives, who took the initiative in secessionist efforts, Houston refused to call the Texas Legislature into special session to consider the question, relenting only when it became apparent citizens were prepared to act without him. In early December 1860, before South Carolina even seceded, a group of State officials published via newspaper a call for a statewide election of convention delegates on January 8, 1861. This election was highly irregular, even for the standards of the day. It often relied on voice vote at public meetings, although “viva voce” (voice) voting for popular elections had been used since at least March 1846, less than three months after statehood.5 Unionists were often discouraged from attending or chose not to participate. This resulted in lopsided representation of secessionists delegates.6 The election call had stipulated for the delegates to assemble in convention on January 28. Houston called the Legislature into session, hoping that the elected body would declare the unauthorized convention illegal.7 On January 21, 1861, the Legislature met in Austin and was addressed by Houston. Calling Lincoln’s election “unfortunate,” he nonetheless emphasized, in a reference to the upcoming meeting of the secession convention, it was no justification for “rash action”. However, the Texas Legislature voted the delegates’ expense money and supplies and—over Houston’s veto—made a pledge to uphold the legality of the Convention’s actions. The only stipulation was that the people of Texas have the final say in referendum. With gubernatorial forces routed, the Secession Convention convened on January 28 and, in the first order of business, voted to back the legislature 140–28 in that an ordinance of secession, if adopted, be submitted for statewide consideration. The following day, convention president Oran Roberts introduced a resolution suggesting Texas leave the Union. The ordinance was read on the floor the next day, citing the failures of the federal government to protect the lives and property of Texas citizens and accusing the Northern states of using the same as a weapon to “strike down the interests and prosperity”8 of the Southern people. After the grievances were listed, the ordinance repealed the one of July 4, 1845, in which Texas approved annexation by the United States and the Constitution of the United States, and revoked all powers of, obligations to, and allegiance to, the U.S. federal government and the U.S. Constitution.9 In the interests of historical significance and posterity, the ordinance was written to take effect on March 2, the date of Texas Declaration of Independence (and, coincidentally, Houston’s birthday). On February 1, members of the Legislature, and a huge crowd of private citizens, packed the House galleries and balcony to watch the final vote on the question of secession. Seventy “yea” votes were recorded before there was a single “nay.” One of the negative votes is enshrined in Texas history books. James Webb Throckmorton, from Collin County in North Texas, in response to the roar of hisses and boos and catcalls which greeted his decision, retorted, “When the rabble hiss, well may patriots tremble.” Appreciating his style, the crowd afforded him a grudging round of applause (like many Texans who initially opposed secession, Throckmorton accepted the result and served his state, rising to the rank of brigadier-general in the Confederate army).10 The final tally for secession was 166–7, a vote whose legality was upheld by the Texas Legislature on February 7. Other than in South Carolina, where the vote was unanimous, this was the highest percentage of any other state of the Lower South. On February 7, the Legislature ordered a referendum to be held on the ordinance under the direction of the convention.11 The decision was further affirmed on February 23 when a statewide referendum resulted in Texas voters approving the measure, 46,129 to 14,697. The last order of business was to appoint a delegation to represent Texas in Montgomery, Alabama, where their counterparts from the other six seceding states were meeting to form a new Confederacy. On March 4, the convention assembled again to formally declare Texas out of the Union and to approve the “Constitution of the Confederate States of America”, which had been drawn up by its “Provisional Congress” (as it turned out, Texas had already been admitted into the fold on March 1). In March, George Williamson, the Louisianan state commissioner, addressed the Texan secession convention, where he called upon Texas and the slave states of the U.S. to declare secession from the Union in order to continue the institution of slavery: With the social balance wheel of slavery to regulate its machinery, we may fondly indulge the hope that our Southern government will be perpetual… Louisiana looks to the formation of a Southern confederacy to preserve the blessings of African slavery… — George Williamson, speech to the Texan secession convention, (March 1861).12 Governor Sam Houston accepted secession but asserted that the Convention had no power to link the state with the new Southern Confederacy. Instead, he urged that Texas revert to its former status as an independent republic and stay neutral. Houston took his seat on March 16, the date state officials were scheduled to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. He remained silent as his name was called out three times and, after failing to respond, the office of governor was declared vacant and Houston was deposed from office. Seizure of Federal Property and Arms Seizure of Federal Property and Arms After Texas passed its Ordinance of Secession, the state government appointed four men as “Commissioners of Public Safety” to negotiate with the federal government for the safe transfer of military installations and bases in Texas to the Confederates. Along with land baron Samuel A. Maverick and Thomas J. Devine, Dr. Philip N. Luckett met with U.S. Army General David E. Twiggs on February 8, 1861, to arrange the surrender of the federal property in San Antonio, including the military stores being housed in the old Alamo mission. As a result of the negotiations, Twiggs delivered his entire command and its associated Army property (10,000 rifled muskets) to the Confederacy, an act that brought cries of treason from Unionists throughout the state.[13 Almost immediately, Twiggs was dismissed from the U.S. Army by President Buchanan for “treachery to the flag of his country.” Shortly afterwards, he accepted a commission as general in the Confederate Army but was so upset by being branded a traitor that he wrote a letter to Buchanan stating the intention to call upon him for a “personal interview” (then a common euphemism to fight a duel).[14 Future Confederate general Robert E. Lee, then still a colonel in the U.S. Army, was in San Antonio at the time and when he heard the news of the surrender to Texas authorities, responded, “Has it come so soon as this?”[15] Unionist Sentiment and Opposition to the Confederacy Unionist Sentiment and Opposition to the Confederacy Despite the prevailing view of the vast majority of the state’s politicians and the delegates to the Secession Convention, there were a significant number of Texans who opposed secession. The referendum on the issue indicated that some 25% favored remaining in the Union at the time the question was originally considered. The largest concentration of anti-secession sentiment was among the German Texan population in the Texas Hill Country, and in some of the counties of North Texas. In the latter region, most of the residents were originally from states of the Upper South. Some of the leaders initially opposed to secession accepted the Confederate cause once the matter was decided, some withdrew from public life, others left the state, and a few even joined the Union army.[16] Confederate conscription laws forced most men of military age into the Confederate army, regardless of their sentiment. However, at least 2000 Texans joined the Union ranks.[17] Many Unionists were executed.[18] Conscription into the Confederate Army was unacceptable to many Unionists and some attempted to flee from Texas. Capt. James Duff, Confederate provost marshal for the Hill Country, executed two Unionists, prompting flight.[19] In August 1862, Confederate soldiers under Lt. Colin D. McRae tracked down a band of German Texans headed out of state and attacked their camp in a bend of the Nueces River. After a pitched battle that resulted in the deaths of two Confederates and the wounding of McRae and eighteen of his men, the Unionists were routed. Approximately 19 Unionists were killed in the fighting.[20] After the battle 9 to 11 of the wounded Unionists were murdered with shots to the head in what became known as the Nueces massacre. Another nine Unionists were pursued and executed in the following weeks.[21] Future Republican congressman Edward Degener was the father of two men who were murdered in the massacre.[22] The German population around Austin County, led by Paul Machemehl, was successful in reaching Mexico. In October 1862, approximately 150 settlers in and around Cooke County on the Red River were arrested by the 11th Texas Cavalry led by Colonel William C. Young on the orders of Colonel James Bourland, Confederate Provost Marshal for northern Texas. A court was convened in Gainesville to try them for allegedly plotting to seize the arsenals at Sherman and Gainesville and to kill their Confederate neighbors, seize their property, and to cooperate with Union army forces poised to invade northern Texas from Arkansas and/or Indian Territory. Several of the settlers were hanged in what is now downtown Gainesville during the first week of October. Nineteen additional men were found guilty and hanged before the end of the month. A total of about forty Unionists were hanged in Gainesville, two were shot while trying to escape, and two more were hanged elsewhere after being turned over to a military tribunal. Under the primitive conditions on the Texas frontier during the Civil War, evidence against the accused was questionable, and the legal proceedings were highly imperfect. A granite monument in a small park marks the spot where the hangings took place.[23] The Confederacy’s conscription act proved controversial, not only in Texas but all across the South. Despite the referendum result, some opponents argued that the war was being fought by poor people on behalf of a few wealthy slave owners. The Act exempted from the draft men who owned fifteen or more slaves.[24] Draft resistance was widespread especially among Texans of German or Mexican descent; many of the latter went to Mexico. Potential draftees went into hiding, Confederate officials hunted them down, and many were shot or captured and forced into the army.[25] Sam Houston Sam Houston Sam Houston was the premier Southern Unionist in Texas. While he argued for slave property rights and deplored the election of the Lincoln Administration, he considered secession unconstitutional and thought secession at that moment in time was a “rash action” that was certain to lead to a conflict favoring the industrial and populated North. He predicted: “Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South.”[26] Houston rejected the actions of the Texas Secession Convention, believing it had overstepped its authority in becoming a member state of the newly formed Confederacy. He refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was deposed from office. In a speech he wrote, but did not deliver, he said: Fellow-Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas….I protest….against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void.[27] After his ouster from the governor’s office, Houston maintained a low public profile until his death in July 1863. Before he died, Houston wrote a friend: “There comes a time a man’s section is his country…I stand with mine. I was a conservative citizen of the United States…I am now a conservative citizen of the Southern Confederacy.”[28] Military Recruitment Military Recruitment Over 70,000 Texans served in the Confederate army and Texas regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war. Some men were veterans of the Mexican–American War; a few had served in the earlier Texas Revolution. The state furnished the Confederacy with 45 regiments of cavalry, 23 regiments of infantry, 12 battalions of cavalry, 4 battalions of infantry, 5 regiments of heavy artillery, and 30 batteries of light artillery. The state maintained at its own expense some additional troops that were for home defense. These included 5 regiments and 4 battalions of cavalry, and 4 regiments and one battalion of infantry. In 1862 the Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, passed a conscription law that ordered all men from 18 to 45 years of age to be placed into military service except ministers, state, city, county officers, and certain slave owners; all persons holding 20 slaves or more were exempt from Confederate conscription under the “Twenty Negro Law.”[29] When the first companies of Texas soldiers reached Richmond, Virginia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis greeted them with the words: “Texans! The troops of other states have their reputations to gain, but the sons of the defenders of the Alamo have theirs to maintain. I am assured that you will be faithful to the trust.”[30] “The Texas Brigade” (also known as “Hood’s Brigade”) was a unit composed of the 1st, 4th and 5th Texas infantry regiments augmented at times by the 18th Georgia Infantry and Hampton’s (South Carolina) Legion until they were permanently teamed with the 3rd Arkansas Infantry. Often serving as “shock troops” of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, the Texas Brigade was “always favorites” of General Lee and on more than one occasion Lee praised their fighting qualities, remarking that none had brought greater honor to their native state than “my Texans.” Hood’s men suffered severe casualties in a number of fights, most notably at the Battle of Antietam, where they faced off with Wisconsin’s Iron Brigade, and at Gettysburg, where they assaulted Houck’s Ridge and then Little Round Top. “Walker’s Greyhound Division” was a division composed of four brigades with Texan units; the only division in the Confederate States Army that maintained its single-state composition throughout the War. Formed in 1862 under command of Major General John George Walker it fought in the Western Theater and the Trans-Mississippi Department, and was considered an elite backbone of the army. Detached from the division in 1863, the 4th brigade fought at the Battle of Arkansas Post, where it became isolated and was forced to surrender. A new fourth brigade was added the division in 1865. Among the most famous mounted units were Terry’s Texas Rangers, a militia of former rangers and frontiersmen, many of whom later became peacekeepers in the Old West; and the 33rd Texas Cavalry Regiment of Colonel Santos Benavides, which guarded the Confederate cotton trade lines from Texas into northern Mexico. Over 2,000 Texas men joined the Union Army. Notable among them was future Texas governor Edmund J. Davis who initially commanded the Union Army’s 1st Texas Cavalry and rose to the rank of brigadier general. Texas’s relatively large German population around Austin County led by Paul Machemehl tried to remain neutral in the War but eventually left Confederate Texas for Mexico. East Texas gave the most support to secession, and the only East Texas counties in which significant numbers of people opposed secession were Angelina County, Fannin County, and Lamar County, although these counties supplied many men to Texas regiments, including the 9th Texas Infantry Regiment; the 1st Partisan Rangers; 3rd, 4th, 9th, 27th, and 29th Texas Cavalry; and the 9th Texas Field Battery. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln named a former United States Congressman, Andrew J. Hamilton, as the Military Governor of Texas. Hamilton held the title throughout the War. During the early stages of Reconstruction Hamilton was named as the first provisional civilian governor. For a time thereafter, active-duty U.S. Army officers served as military governors of Texas. Years into the war, one Confederate soldier from Texas gave his reasons for fighting for the Confederacy, stating that “we are fighting for our property”, whereas Union soldiers were fighting for the “flimsy and abstract idea that a negro is equal to an Anglo.”[31] Battles in Texas Battles in Texas Texas did not experience many significant battles. However, the Union mounted several attempts to capture the “Trans-Mississippi” regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war’s end. With ports to the east captured or under blockade, Texas in particular became a blockade-running haven. Referred to as the “backdoor” of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to provide loads of harvested cottonthat were transported overland to the Mexican border town of Matamoros, Tamaulipas and shipped to Europe in exchange for supplies. Determined to shut off this trade, the Union mounted several attacks, each of them unsuccessful. Texas Occupation Texas Occupation The U.S. Navy blockaded the principal seaport, Galveston, for four years, and federal infantry occupied the city for three months in late 1862. Confederate troops under Gen. John B. Magruder recaptured the city on January 1, 1863 and it remained in Confederate hands until the end of the war. A few days later the Confederate raider CSS Alabama attacked and sank the USS Hatteras in a naval engagement off the coast of Galveston. A few other cities also fell to Union troops at times during the war, including Port Lavaca, Indianola, and Brownsville. Federal attempts to seize control of Laredo, Corpus Christi, and Sabine Pass failed. By the end of the war no territory but Brazos Island and El Paso was in Union hands. The California Column occupied the region around El Paso from 1862 to the end of the war. The most notable military battle in Texas during the war happened on September 8, 1863. At the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small garrison of 46 Confederates from the mostly-Irish Davis Guards under Lt. Richard W. Dowling, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, defeated a much larger Union force from New Orleans under Gen. William B. Franklin. Skilled gunnery by Dowling’s troops disabled the lead ships in Franklin’s flotilla, prompting the remainder—4,000 men on 27 ships—to retreat back to New Orleans. This victory against such overwhelming odds resulted in the Confederate Congress passing a special resolution of recognition, and the only contemporary military decoration of the South, the Davis Guard Medal. CSA President Jefferson Davis stated, “Sabine Pass will stand, perhaps for all time, as the greatest military victory in the history of the world.” In 1864, many Texas forces, including a division under Camille de Polignac, a French prince and Confederate general, moved into Northwestern Louisiana to stall Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ Red River Campaign, which was intended to advance into Texas from its eastern border. Confederate forces halted the expedition at the Battle of Mansfield, just east of the Texas border. Union forces from Brazos Island launched the Brazos Santiago Expedition, leading to the last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought in Texas on May 12, 1865, well after Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, at Old Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Collapse of Confederate Authority in Texas Collapse of Confederate Authority in Texas In the spring of 1865, Texas contained over 60,000 soldiers of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi under General Edmund Kirby Smith. As garrison troops far removed from the main theaters of the war, morale had deteriorated to the point of frequent desertion and thievery. News of the surrender of Lee and other Confederate generals east of the Mississippi finally reached Texas around April 20. Local Confederate authorities had mixed opinions on their future course of action. Most senior military leaders vowed to press on with the war, including commanding general Kirby Smith. Many soldiers, however, greeted frequent speeches whose theme was “fight on, boys” with derision, or simply failed to attend them. The month of May brought increasing rates of desertion. News of Joseph E. Johnston’s and Richard Taylor’s surrenders confirmed that Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas were now essentially alone to continue the Confederate cause. On May 14, troops in Galveston briefly mutinied but were persuaded to remain under arms. However, morale continued to sink. Generals John B. Magruder and Kirby Smith (who had already corresponded with Union Maj. Gen. John Pope regarding surrender terms on May 9) no longer sought to rally their demoralized troops, but rather began discussing the distribution of Confederate government property. Magruder pleaded that the rapid disbanding of the army would prevent depredations by disgruntled soldiers against the civilian population. The haste to disband the army, combined with the pressing need to protect Confederate property from Union confiscation, created general mayhem. Soldiers began openly pillaging the Galveston quartermasters stores on May 21. Over the next few days, a mob demanded that a government warehouse be opened to them, and soldiers detained and plundered a train. Several hundred civilians sacked the blockade runner Lark when it docked on May 24, and troops sent to pacify the crowd soon joined in the plunder. On May 23, residents in Houston sacked the ordnance building and the clothing bureau. Riots continued in the city until May 26. Both government and private stores were raided extensively in Tyler, Marshall, Huntsville, Gonzales, Hempstead, La Grange, and Brownsville. In Navasota, a powder explosion cost eight lives and flattened twenty buildings. In Austin, the State Treasury was raided and $17,000 in gold was stolen. By May 27, half of the original confederate forces in Texas had deserted or been disbanded, and formal order had disappeared into lawlessness in many areas of Texas. The formal remnants of Kirby Smith’s army had finally disintegrated by the end of May. Upon his arrival in Houston from Shreveport, the general called a court of inquiry to investigate the “causes and manner of the disbandment of the troops in the District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.” The May 30 findings laid the blame primarily on the civilian population. Kirby Smith addressed his few remaining soldiers and condemned those that had fled for not struggling to the last and leaving him “a commander without an army– a General without troops.” On June 2, he formally surrendered what was left of the Army of the “Trans-Mississippi.” Notable Civil War Leaders From Texas Notable Civil War Leaders From Texas A number of notable leaders were associated with Texas during the Civil War. John Bell Hood gained fame as the commander of the Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia and played a prominent role as an army commander late in the war. “Sul” Ross was a significant leader in a number of “Trans-Mississippi” Confederate armies. Felix Huston Robertson was the only native Texan Confederate general. Capt. TJ Goree was one of Lt. General James Longstreet’s most trusted aides. John H. Reagan was an influential member of Jefferson Davis’s cabinet. Col. Santos Benavides was a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War. Benavides was the highest-ranking Tejano soldier to serve in the Confederate military. The office of Governor of Texas was in flux throughout the war, with several men in power at various times. Sam Houston was governor when Texas seceded from the United States, but refused to declare any loyalty to the new Confederacy. He was replaced by Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark. Clark filled the rest of Houston’s term in 1861, and narrowly lost re-election by just 124 votes to Francis Lubbock. During his tenure, Lubbock supported Confederate conscription, working to draft all able-bodied men, including resident aliens, into the Confederate army. When Lubbock’s term ended in 1863, he joined the military. Ardent secessionist Pendleton Murrah replaced him in office. Even after Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865, Murrah encouraged Texans to continue the revolution, and he and several supporters fled to Mexico. Lingering Effects Lingering Effects The effects of the American Civil War linger even after 150 years have passed. It’s not uncommon to see the Confederate flag (especially the “Confederate Battle Flag”) and there are dozens of statues, monuments, and schools named after Confederate leaders. The controversy over these elements rages today. Reading Review Questions - When did Texas secede from the U.S. and why did they unseat Governor Sam Houston? - Describe Texas’ primary role in the Civil War. What hindered this role for continuing for the entire War? - How did Texas justify the institution of “slavery” in the declaration of causes addendum to the Ordinance of Secession? - Describe whyTexas trailed behind in the southern movement towards secession. What specifically caused Texans to remove Houston as governor? - Describe the controversy behind the conscription act. - Describe how important the battles within Texas were to the overall war effort. How did many troops respond? - When did Texas “surrender” and when were the slaves “liberated”? - Describe the lingering effects the Civil War has had on Texas. Notes Notes - Buenger, Walter L. (March 8, 2011). "Secession Convention". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. - "A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union". Avalon Project. Yale Law School. 2008. - "A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union". Avalon Project. Yale Law School. 2008. - Cutwell, Caleb (February 22, 1865). "Letter to the Galveston Tri-Weekly". Civil War Talk. Texas. Retrieved September 13, 2015. - An Act to direct the mode of voting in all popular elections, approved March 19, 1846. Gammel, H.P.N., ed. (1898). The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897. 2. University of North Texas. p. 1318. - Buenger, Walter L. (March 8, 2011). "Secession Convention". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. - Buenger, Walter L. (March 8, 2011). "Secession Convention". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. - "An Ordinance: To dissolve the union between the State of Texas and the other States, united under the compact styled "The Constitution of the United States of America." Adopted in Convention, at Austin City, the first day of February, A.D. 1861." Narrative History of Texas Secessionand Readmission to the Union. Austin. August 24, 2011. - "An Ordinance: To dissolve the union between the State of Texas and the other States, united under the compact styled "The Constitution of the United States of America." Adopted in Convention, at Austin City, the first day of February, A.D. 1861." Narrative History of Texas Secessionand Readmission to the Union. Austin. August 24, 2011. - Minor, David (November 1, 2011). "Throckmorton, James Webb". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. - An Act to provide for submitting the Ordinance of Secession to a vote of the People, approved February 7, 1861. Gammel, H.P.N., ed. (1898). The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897. 5. University of North Texas. pp. 347–348. - Winkler, E.W. (1861). Journal of the Secession Convention of Texas. Texas. Retrieved September 8, 2015. - Roberts, O.M. (1899). Evans, Clement A., ed. Texas. Confederate Military History. XI. Atlanta, Georgia: Confederate Publishing Company. pp. 20–22. - "General Twiggs and Buchanan". The New York Times. May 13, 1861. - Freeman, Douglas S. (1934). "R. E. Lee, A Biography". Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved May 20, 2008. - Enter your footnote content here. - "Civil War". Texas Military Forces Museum. Retrieved November 5, 2015. - Wooster, Ralph A. (March 4, 2011). "Civil War". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. - McGowen, Stanley S. (July 2000). "Battle or Massacre? The Incident on the Nueces, August 10, 1862". Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Texas State Historical Association. 104 (1): 64–86. JSTOR 30241669. - Campbell, Randolph B. (2003). Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-1998-8138-3. - "Lamar W. Henkins: German Freethinkers and the Massacre at the Nueces". The Rag Blog. August 15, 2012. - Foner, Eric (March 1989). "The South's Inner Civil War: The more fiercely the Confederacy fought for its independence, the more bitterly divided it became. To fully understand the vast changes the war unleashed on the country, you must first understand the plight of the Southerners who didn't want secession". American Heritage. Vol. 40 no. 2. American Heritage Publishing Company. p. 5. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2013. - McCaslin, Richard B. (June 15, 2010). "Great Hanging at Gainesville". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 22 November 2014. - Texas in the Civil War: A Capsule History Archived August 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. - Elliott, Claude (1947). "Union Sentiment in Texas 1861-1865". Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Texas State Historical Association. 50 (4): 449–477. JSTOR 30237490. - Williams, Alfred Mason (1893). Sam Houston and the War of Independence in Texas. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 354. - Haley, James l. (2004). Sam Houston. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 390–391. ISBN 978-0-8061-5214-1. - Houston, General (June 2, 1861). "Gen. Houston's Position". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2011. - Loewen, James W. (2007). Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: The New Press. pp. 224–226. ISBN 978-1-56584-100-0. OCLC 29877812. Retrieved January 19, 2016. - McComb, David G. (1989). Texas, a modern history. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-292-74665-2. - McPherson, James M. (1997). For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. p. 117. ISBN 0-19-509-023-3. OCLC 34912692. Retrieved March 8, 2016. - Clampitt, Brad R. (April 2005). "The Breakup: The Collapse of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Army in Texas, 1865". Southwest Historical Quarterly. Texas State Historical Association. 108 (4). JSTOR 30240424. - "An Act to admit the State of Texas to Representation in the Congress of the United States". Texas State Archives and Library Commission. Retrieved August 24, 2011.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.918828	12/06/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60438/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Texas History and Culture, Chapter 1.3: Texas in the American Civil War", "author": "Annette Howard" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60442/overview	Chapter 1.5: Governor E.J. Davis Overview Governor E.J. Davis Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Understand the role and importance of Governor E.J. Davis in Texas' history Introduction Introduction Edmund Jackson Davis (October 2, 1827 – February 24, 1883) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. He was a Southern Unionist and a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He also served for one term from 1870 to 1874 as the 14th Governor of Texas. Civil War Years Civil War Years In early 1861, Edmund Davis supported Governor Sam Houston in their mutual stand against secession. Davis also urged Robert E. Lee not to violate his oath of allegiance to the United States. Davis ran to become a delegate to the Secession Convention but was defeated. He thereafter refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America[1] and was removed from his judgeship. He fled from Texas and took refuge in Union-occupied New Orleans, Louisiana. He next sailed to Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln issued him a colonel’s commission with the authority to recruit the 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment (Union).[2] Davis recruited his regiment from Union men who had fled from Texas to Louisiana. The regiment would see considerable action during the remainder of the war. On November 10, 1864, President Lincoln appointed Davis as a brigadier general of volunteers. Lincoln did not submit Davis’s nomination to this grade to the U.S. Senate until December 12, 1864.[3] The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on February 14, 1865.[4] Davis was among those present when General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Confederate forces in Texas on June 2, 1865.[5] Davis was mustered out of the volunteers on August 24, 1865.[6] Post War Post War Following the end of the war, Davis became a member of the 1866 Texas Constitutional Convention. He supported the rights of freed slaves and urged the division of Texas into several Republican-controlled states. In 1869, he was narrowly elected governor against Andrew Jackson Hamilton, a Unionist Democrat. As a Radical Republican during Reconstruction, his term in office was controversial. On July 22, 1870, the Texas State Police came into being to combat crime statewide in Texas. It worked against racially-based crimes, and included black police officers, which caused protest from former slaveowners (and future segregationists). Davis created the “State Guard of Texas” and the “Reserve Militia,” which were forerunners of the Texas National Guard.[7] Davis’ government was marked by a commitment to the civil rights of African Americans. One of his protégés was Norris Wright Cuney of Galveston, who continued the struggle for equality until his own death in 1896 and is honored as one of the important figures in Texas and American black history. Though Davis was highly unpopular among former Confederates, and most material written about him for many years was unfavorable, he was considered to have been a hero for the Union Army. He also gained the respect and friendship of Spanish-speaking residents on the Rio Grande frontier.[8] In 1873, Davis was defeated for reelection by Democrat Richard Coke (42,633 votes to 85,549 votes) in an election marked by irregularities. Davis contested the results and refused to leave his office on the ground floor of the Capitol. Democratic lawmakers and Governor-elect Coke reportedly had to climb ladders to the Capitol’s second story where the legislature convened. When President Grant refused to send troops to the defeated governor’s rescue, Davis reluctantly left the capital in January 1874. He locked the door to the governor’s office and took the key, forcing Coke’s supporters to break in with an axe.[9] John Henninger Reagan helped to oust him after he tried to stay in office beyond the end of his term. Davis was the last Republican governor of Texas until Republican Bill Clements defeated the Democrat John Luke Hill in 1978 and assumed the governorship the following January, 105 years after Davis vacated the office. Following his defeat, Davis was nominated to be collector of customs at Galveston but declined the appointment because he disliked U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes. He ran for governor again in 1880 but was soundly defeated. His name was placed in nomination for Vice President of the United States at the 1880 Republican National Convention, which met in Chicago and chose James A. Garfield as the standard-bearer. Had Davis succeeded, he might have wound up in the White House, as did Chester A. Arthur, the man who received the vice presidential nomination that year. Davis lost an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1882. After Democrats regained power in the state legislature, they passed laws making voter registration more difficult, such as requiring payment of poll taxes, which worked to disfranchise blacks, Mexican Americans and poor whites. They also instituted a white primary. In the 1890s, more than 100,000 blacks were voting but by 1906, only 5,000 managed to get through these barriers.[10] As Texas became essentially a one-party state, the white primary excluded minorities from the political competitive process. They did not fully recover their constitutional rights until after enforcement under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Edmund J. Davis died in 1883 and was given a war hero’s burial at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. A large gravestone was placed in Davis’ honor by a brother. Davis was survived by his wife, the former Anne Elizabeth Britton (whose father, Forbes Britton, had been chief of staff to Texas Governor Sam Houston), and two sons: Britton (a West Point graduate and military officer), and Waters (an attorney and merchant in El Paso).[11] Reading Review Questions - What was Edmund J. Davis’ stand on secession? What did he refuse to do when Texas seceded? - What role did Davis play in the Civil War? - When was Davis elected governor of Texas and for what political party? - What law enforcement units did Davis create while governor? - To what two groups of Texans was Davis considered a friend? - What two rebellious things did Davis do when he lost reelection in 1873? - Why can it be said that E.J. Davis was almost President of the United States? Notes Notes - Odie Arambula, "Young lawyer Davis had big local role," Laredo Morning Times, May 6, 2012, p. 17A ↵ - Texas State Handbook Online. Moneyhon, Carl H. (30 May 2010). "Davis, Edmund Jackson". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 29 September 2010. ↵ - Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. p. 720 ↵ - Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. p. 720 ↵ - Texas State Handbook Online. Moneyhon, Carl H. (30 May 2010). "Davis, Edmund Jackson". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 29 September 2010. ↵ - Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. p. 720 ↵ - Texas State Handbook Online. Olsen, Bruce A. (30 May 2010). "Texas National Guard". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 29 September 2010. ↵ - Odie Arambula, Visiting the Past column, "Radical Republican Davis had support", Laredo Morning Times, 20 May 2012, p. 15A ↵ - Brown, Lyle C., Langenegger, Joyce A., Garcia, Sonia R., et al. PRACTICING TEXAS POLITICS, Thirteenth Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. (Page 67-68) ↵ - African-American Pioneers of Texas: From the Old West to the New Frontiers (Teacher’s Manual) (PDF). Museum of Texas Tech University: Education Division. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-05. ↵ - Texas State Handbook Online. Moneyhon, Carl H. (30 May 2010). "Davis, Edmund Jackson". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 29 September 2010. ↵	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.944137	Annette Howard	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60442/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Texas History and Culture, Chapter 1.5: Governor E.J. Davis", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60451/overview	Chapter 2.2: Constitution of Coahuila And Texas (1827) Overview Constitution Of Coahuila And Texas (1827) Constitution Of Coahuila And Texas (1827) The Constitution of 1824 of the Republic of Mexico provided that each state in the republic should frame its own constitution. The state of Coahuila and the former Spanish province of Texas were combined as the state of Coahuila and Texas. The legislature for the new state was organized at Saltillo in August 1824, with the Baron de Bastrop representing Texas. More than two years was spent on the framing of a constitution, which was finally published on March 11, 1827. The constitution divided the state into three departments, of which Texas, as the District of Bexar, was one. The Catholic religion was made the state religion; citizens were guaranteed liberty, security, property, and equality; slavery was forbidden after promulgation of the constitution, and there could be no import of slaves after six months. Citizenship was defined and its forfeiture outlined. Legislative power was delegated to a unicameral legislature composed of twelve deputies elected by popular vote; Texas was allowed two of the twelve. The body, which met annually from January through April and could be called in special session, was given wide and diverse powers. In addition to legislative functions, it could elect state officials if no majority was shown in the regular voting, could serve as a grand jury in political and electoral matters, and could regulate the army and militia. It was instructed to promote education and protect the liberty of the press. Executive power was vested in a governor and vice governor, elected for four-year terms by popular vote. The governor could recommend legislation, grant pardons, lead the state militia, and see that the laws were obeyed. The vice governor presided over the council and served as police chief at the capital. The governor appointed for each department a chief of police, and an elaborate plan of local government was set up. Judicial authority was vested in state courts having charge of minor crimes and civil cases. The courts could try cases but could not interpret the law; misdemeanors were tried by the judge without a jury. Military men and ecclesiastics were subject to rules made by their own orders. Trial by jury, promised by the constitution, was never established, nor was the school system ever set up. The laws were published only in Spanish, which few Anglo-Texans could read. Because of widespread objections to government under this document, the Convention of 1833 proposed a new constitution to give Texas statehood separate from Coahuila. Reading Review Questions - When were the state of Coahuila and province of Texas combined into one state? - What was made the state religion of Coahuila and Texas? - What three freedoms were citizens guaranteed? - What was forbidden once the constitution went into effect? - How many branches of government did the constitution establish? - What two things, promised by the constitution, were never established? - Why did most Anglo-Texans not understand the laws? - What did dislike for the constitution prompt Texans to do? For More Information For More Information More information on the Constitution Of Coahuila And Texas (1827) may be found at the Texas Constitutions 1824-1876 project of the Tarlton Law Library, Jamail Center for Legal Research at the University of Texas School of Law, The University of Texas at Austin. The project includes digitized images and searchable text versions of the constitutions.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.961221	Annette Howard	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60451/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Texas' Constitution, Chapter 2.2: Constitution of Coahuila And Texas (1827)", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60443/overview	Chapter 1.6: The Texas Oil Boom Overview By the end of this section, students will be able to: - Understand the history of Texas' oil boom - Understand the importance of Texas' oil boom Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Understand the history of Texas' oil boom - Understand the importance of Texas' oil boom The Gusher Age The Gusher Age The Texas oil boom, sometimes called the gusher age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in the U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas. The find was unprecedented in its size and ushered in an age of rapid regional development and industrialization that has few parallels in U.S. history. Texas quickly became one of the leading oil-producing states in the U.S., along with Oklahoma and California; soon the nation overtook the Russian Empire as the top producer of petroleum. By 1940 Texas had come to dominate U.S. production. Some historians even define the beginning of the world’s Oil Age as the beginning of this era in Texas.[1] The major petroleum strikes that began the rapid growth in petroleum exploration and speculation occurred in Southeast Texas, but soon reserves were found across Texas and wells were constructed in North Texas, East Texas, and the Permian Basin in West Texas. Although limited reserves of oil had been struck during the 19th century, the strike at Spindletop near Beaumont in 1901 gained national attention, spurring exploration and development that continued through the 1920s and beyond. Spindletop and the Joiner strike in East Texas, at the outset of the Great Depression, were the key strikes that launched this era of change in the state. The Importance of Oil to Texas' Development The Importance of Oil to Texas' Development This period had a transformative effect on Texas. At the turn of the century, the state was predominantly rural with no large cities.[2] By the end of World War II, the state was heavily industrialized, and the populations of Texas cities had broken into the top 20 nationally.[3] The city of Houston was among the greatest beneficiaries of the boom, and the Houston area became home to the largest concentration of refineries and petrochemical plants in the world.[4] The city grew from a small commercial center in 1900 to one of the largest cities in the United States during the decades following the era. This period, however, changed all of Texas’ commercial centers (and developed the Beaumont/Port Arthur area, where the boom began). H. Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Sid W. Richardson, and Clint Murchison were the four most influential businessmen during this era. These men became among the wealthiest and most politically powerful in the state and the nation. Reading Review Questions - What happened at Spindletop in Beaumont in 1901? - How did the Spindletop discovery change Texas’ role in the U.S. economy? - Why was Texas not hit quite as hard as the rest of the country by the Great Depression? - How did the “gusher age” transform Texas by the end of World War I? Notes Notes - Olson, James Stuart (2001). Encyclopedia of the industrial revolution in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30830-7. p.238. ↵ - "Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1900". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved November 3, 2009. ↵ - "Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1950". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved November 2, 2009. "Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1940". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved November 2, 2009. ↵ - "Chapter Two: Galveston Bay" (PDF). Texas A&M University-Galveston: Galveston Bay Information Center (Galveston Bay Estuary Project). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 20, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2009. ... it [Galveston Bay] is at the center of the state's petrochemical industry, with 30 percent of U.S. petroleum industry and nearly 50 percent of U.S. production of ethylene and propylene Occuring [sic] on its shores. Weisman (2008), p. 166, "The industrial megaplex that begins on the east side of Houston and continues uninterrupted to the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles away, is the largest concentration of petroleum refineries, petrochemical companies, and storage structures on Earth." ↵	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:52.980678	12/06/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60443/overview", "title": "Texas Government 1.0, Texas History and Culture, Chapter 1.6: The Texas Oil Boom", "author": "Annette Howard" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66331/overview	What is Public Policy? Overview What is Public Policy? Learning Objective By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the underlying controversies in making public policy Introduction It is easy to imagine that when designers engineer a product, like a car, they do so with the intent of satisfying the consumer. But the design of any complicated product must take into account the needs of regulators, transporters, assembly line workers, parts suppliers, and myriad other participants in the manufacture and shipment process. And manufacturers must also be aware that consumer tastes are fickle: A gas-guzzling sports car may appeal to an unmarried twenty- something with no children; but what happens to product satisfaction when gas prices fluctuate, or the individual gets married and has children? In many ways, the process of designing policy isn’t that much diﬀerent. The government, just like auto companies, needs to ensure that its citizen-consumers have access to an array of goods and services. And just as in auto companies, a wide range of actors is engaged in figuring out how to do it. Sometimes, this process eﬀectively provides policies that benefit citizens. But just as often, the process of policymaking is muddied by the demands of competing interests with diﬀerent opinions about society’s needs or the role that government should play in meeting them. To understand why, we begin by thinking about what we mean by the term “public policy.” Public Policy Defined One approach to thinking about public policy is to see it as the broad strategy the government uses to do its job. More formally, it is the relatively stable set of purposive governmental actions that address matters of concern to some part of society. This description is useful in that it helps to explain both what public policy is and what it isn’t. First, public policy is a guide to legislative action that is more or less fixed for long periods of time, not just short-term fixes or single legislative acts. Policy also doesn’t happen by accident, and it is rarely formed simply as the result of the campaign promises of a single elected oﬃcial, even the governor. Public policy can be complicated and controversial; deciding what works best and how to allocate resources to achieve a policy goal can involve multiple trade- oﬀs. While elected oﬃcials are often important in shaping policy, most policy outcomes are the result of considerable debate, compromise, and refinement that happen over years and are finalized only after input from multiple institutions within government as well as from interest groups and the public. Consider the example of government health care expansion. A follower of politics in the news media may come away thinking the reforms implemented in 2010 were as sudden as they were sweeping, having been developed in the final weeks before they were enacted. The reality is that expanding health care access by the government had actually been a priority of the Democratic Party for several decades. What may have seemed like a policy developed over a period of months was in fact formed after years of analysis, reflection upon existing policy, and even trial implementation of similar types of programs at the state level. Remember that the policies of the federal government often have a direct consequence for Texas. Texas led other states in an eﬀort to combat the federal government's eﬀorts to take over the healthcare industry by the Obama administration's program. Even before passage of the Aﬀordable Care Act (ACA; 2010), which expanded health care coverage to millions and of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA; 2010), more than 50 percent of all healthcare expenditures in the United States already came from federal government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Several House and Senate members from both parties along with First Lady Hillary Clinton had proposed significant expansions in federal health care policy during the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton, providing a number of diﬀerent options for any eventual health care overhaul. Much of what became the ACA was drawn from proposals originally developed at the state level, by none other than Obama’s 2012 Republican presidential opponent Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts. This story illustrates an important aspect of policy, Republicans are not all the same. Republicans in Texas tend to be more conservative than Republicans in other parts of the country. This simply means that policy differences or preferences can occur within a political party. Likewise, Democrats in Texas tend to be more conservative than other parts of the country. In addition to being thoughtful and generally stable, public policy deals with issues of concern to some large segment of society, as opposed to matters of interest only to individuals or a small group of people. Governments frequently interact with individual actors like citizens, corporations, or other countries. They may even pass highly specialized pieces of legislation, known as private bills, which confer specific privileges on individual entities. But public policy covers only those issues that are of interest to larger segments of society or that directly or indirectly aﬀect society as a whole. Paying oﬀ the loans of a specific individual would not be public policy, but creating a process for loan forgiveness available to certain types of borrowers (such as those who provide a public service by becoming teachers) would certainly rise to the level of public policy. A final important characteristic of public policy is that it is more than just the actions of government; it also includes the behaviors or outcomes that government action creates. Policy can even be made when government refuses to act in ways that would change the status quo when circumstances or public opinion begin to shift. For example, much of the debate over gun control policy in the United States has centered on the unwillingness of Congress to act, even in the face of public opinion that supports some changes to gun control policy. In fact, one of the last major changes occurred in 2004, when lawmakers’ inaction resulted in the expiration of a piece of legislation known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (1994). Of course, this is relevant to Texas given the culture for freedom and self defense. Public Policy as Outcomes Governments rarely want to keep their policies a secret. Elected oﬃcials want to be able to take credit for the things they have done to help their constituents, and their opponents are all too willing to cast blame when policy initiatives fail. We can therefore think of policy as the formal expression of what elected or appointed oﬃcials are trying to accomplish. In passing the HCERA (2010), Congress declared its policy through an act that directed how it would appropriate money. The president can also implement or change policy through an executive order, which oﬀers instructions about how to implement law under his or her discretion. Finally, policy changes can come as a result of court actions or opinions, such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which formally ended school segregation in the United States. Typically, elected and even high-ranking appointed oﬃcials lack either the specific expertise or tools needed to successfully create and implement public policy on their own. They turn instead to the vast government bureaucracy to provide policy guidance. For example, when Congress passed the Clean Water Act (1972), it dictated that steps should be taken to improve water quality throughout the country. But it ultimately left it to the bureaucracy to figure out exactly how ‘clean’ water needed to be. In doing so, Congress provided the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with discretion to determine how much pollution is allowed in U.S. waterways. There is one more way of thinking about policy outcomes: in terms of winners and losers. Almost by definition, public policy promotes certain types of behavior while punishing others. So, the individuals or corporations that a policy favors are most likely to benefit, or win, whereas those the policy ignores or punishes are likely to lose. Even the best-intended policies can have unintended consequences and may even ultimately harm someone, if only those who must pay for the policy through higher taxes. For example, a policy designed to encourage students to go to liberal arts colleges may cause trade school enrollment to decline. Strategies to promote diversity in higher education may make it more diﬃcult for qualified white or male applicants to get accepted into competitive programs. Eﬀorts to clean up drinking water supplies may make companies less competitive and cost employees their livelihood. Even something that seems to help everyone, such as promoting charitable giving through tax incentives, runs the risk of lowering tax revenues from the rich (who contribute a greater share of their income to charity) and shifting tax burdens to the poor (who must spend a higher share of their income to achieve a desired standard of living). And while policy pronouncements and bureaucratic actions are certainly meant to rationalize policy, it is whether a given policy helps or hurts constituents (or is perceived to do so) that ultimately determines how voters will react toward the government in future elections. Finding a Middle Ground: The Social Safety Net During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States created a set of policies and programs that constituted a social safety net for the millions who had lost their jobs, their homes, and their savings (Figure 11.2). Under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the federal government began programs like the Work Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps to combat unemployment and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to refinance Depression-related mortgage debts. The Texas Department of Public Welfare was established in 1939 during the New Deal. As the eﬀects of the Depression eased, the government phased out many of these programs. Other programs, like Social Security or the minimum wage, remain a part of the way the federal government redistributes wealth among members of its population. The federal government has also added further social support programs, like Medicaid, Medicare, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, to ensure a baseline or minimal standard of living for all, even in the direst of times. In recent decades, however, some have criticized these safety net programs for ineﬃciency and for incentivizing welfare dependence. They deride “government leeches” who use food stamps to buy lobster or other seemingly inappropriate items. Critics deeply resent the use of taxpayer money to relieve social problems like unemployment and poverty; workers who may themselves be struggling to put food on the table or pay the mortgage feel their hard-earned money should not support other families. “If I can get by without government support,” the reasoning goes, “those welfare families can do the same. Their poverty is not my problem.” As for Texas, roughly 14 percent of Texas residents received Social Security benefits as of December 2016, according to the Social Security Administration. That translates to approximately 4 million people in Texas who received Social Security disbursements related to retirement, survivors, or disability benefits. About 2.9 million people in Texas were receiving retirement benefits. Of Texas’ estimated 3.4 million people aged 65 or older, about 87 percent received Social Security benefits, which is lower than this figure for the United States as a whole (which is roughly 90 percent). Benefits in Texas totaled roughly $4.85 billion for the month of December 2016, per the Social Security Administration. That works out to an average benefit of $1,206 for that month. So where should the government draw the line? While there have been some instances of welfare fraud, the welfare reforms of the 1990s have made long-term dependence on the federal government less likely as the welfare safety net was pushed to the states. And with the income gap between the richest and the poorest at its highest level in history, this topic is likely to continue to receive much discussion in the coming years. \| Question: Where is the middle ground in the public policy argument over the social safety net? How can the Texas government protect its most vulnerable citizens without placing an undue burden on others? \| Categorizing Public Policy The idea of public policy is by its very nature a politically contentious one. Among the diﬀerences between American liberals and conservatives are the policy preferences prevalent in each group. Modern liberals tend to feel very comfortable with the idea of the government shepherding progressive social and economic reforms, believing that these will lead to outcomes more equitable and fair for all members of society. Conservatives, on the other hand, often find government involvement onerous and overreaching. They feel society would function more eﬃciently if oversight of most “public” matters were returned to the private sphere. Before digging too deeply into a discussion of the nature of public policy, let us look first at why so many aspects of society come under the umbrella of public policy to begin with. Different Types of Goods Think for a minute about what it takes to make people happy and satisfied. As we live our daily lives, we experience a range of physical, psychological, and social needs that must be met in order for us to be happy and productive. At the very least, we require food, water, and shelter. In very basic subsistence societies, people acquire these through farming crops, digging wells, and creating shelter from local materials. People also need social interaction with others and the ability to secure goods they acquire, lest someone else try to take them. As their tastes become more complex, they may find it advantageous to exchange their items for others; this requires not only a mechanism for barter but also a system of transportation. The more complex these systems are, the greater the range of items people can access to keep them alive and make them happy. However, this increase in possessions also creates a stronger need to secure what they have acquired. Economists use the term goods to describe the range of commodities, services, and systems that help us satisfy our wants or needs. This term can certainly apply to the food you eat or the home you live in, but it can also describe the systems of transportation or public safety used to protect them. Most of the goods you interact with in your daily life are private goods, which means that they can be owned by a particular person or group of people, and are excluded from use by others, typically by means of a price. For example, your home or apartment is a private good reserved for your own use because you pay rent or make mortgage payments for the right to live there. Further, private goods are finite and can run out if overused, even if only in the short term. The fact that private goods are excludable and finite makes them tradable. A farmer who grows corn, for instance, owns that corn, and since only a finite amount of corn exists, others may want to trade their goods for it if their own food supplies begin to dwindle. Proponents of free-market economics believe that the market forces of supply and demand, working minimal government involvement, are the most eﬀective way for markets to operate. The primary purpose of the government in this system is secure property rights. One of the basic principles of free-market economics is that for just about any good that can be privatized, the most eﬃcient means for exchange is the marketplace. A well-functioning market will allow producers of goods to come together with consumers of goods to negotiate a trade. People facilitate trade by creating a currency—a common unit of exchange—so they do not need to carry around everything they may want to trade at all times. As long as there are several providers or sellers of the same good, consumers can negotiate with them to find a price they are willing to pay. As long as there are several buyers for a seller’s goods, providers can negotiate with them to find a price buyers are willing to accept. And, the logic goes, if prices begin to rise too much, other sellers will enter the marketplace, oﬀering lower prices. A second basic principle of free-market economics is that it is largely unnecessary for the government to protect the value of private goods. Farmers who own land used for growing food have a vested interest in protecting their land to ensure its continued production. Business owners must protect the reputation of their business or no one will buy from them. And, to the degree that producers need to ensure the quality of their product or industry, they can accomplish that by creating a group or association that operates outside government control. In short, industries have an interest in self-regulating to protect their own value. According to free-market economics, as long as everything we could ever want or need is a private good, and so long as every member of society has some ability to provide for themselves and their families, public policy regulating the exchange of goods and services is really unnecessary. Some people in the United States argue that the self-monitoring and self- regulating incentives provided by the existence of private goods mean that sound public policy requires very little government action. Known as libertarians, these individuals believe government almost always operates less eﬃciently than the private sector (the segment of the economy run for profit and not under government control), and that government actions should therefore be kept to a minimum. Even as many in the United States recognize the benefits provided by private goods, we have increasingly come to recognize problems with the idea that all social problems can be solved by exclusively private ownership. First, not all goods can be classified as strictly private. Can you really consider the air you breathe to be private? Air is a diﬃcult good to privatize because it is not excludable—everyone can get access to it at all times—and no matter how much of it you breathe, there is still plenty to go around. Geographic regions like forests have environmental, social, recreational, and aesthetic value that cannot easily be reserved for private ownership. Resources like migrating birds or schools of fish may have value if hunted or fished, but they cannot be owned due to their migratory nature. Finally, national security provided by the armed forces protects all citizens and cannot reasonably be reserved for only a few. These are all examples of what economists call public goods, sometimes referred to as collective goods. Unlike private property, they are not excludable and are essentially infinite. Forests, water, and fisheries, however, are a type of public good called common goods, which are not excludable but may be finite. The problem with both public and common goods is that since no one owns them, no one has a financial interest in protecting their long-term or future value. Without government regulation, a factory owner can feel free to pollute the air or water, since he or she will have no responsibility for the pollution once the winds or waves carry it somewhere else (see Figure 11.4). Without government regulation, someone can hunt all the migratory birds or deplete a fishery by taking all the fish, eliminating future breeding stocks that would maintain the population. The situation in which individuals exhaust a common resource by acting in their own immediate self-interest is called the tragedy of the commons. A second problem with strict adherence to free-market economics is that some goods are too large, or too expensive, for individuals to provide them for themselves. Consider the need for a marketplace: Where does the marketplace come from? How do we get the goods to market? Who provides the roads and bridges? Who patrols the waterways? Who provides security? Who ensures the regulation of the currency? No individual buyer or seller could accomplish this. The very nature of the exchange of private goods requires a system that has some of the openness of public or common goods, but is maintained by either groups of individuals or entire societies. Economists consider goods like cable TV, cellphone service, and private schools to be toll goods. Toll goods are similar to public goods in that they are open to all and theoretically infinite if maintained, but they are paid for or provided by some outside (nongovernment) entity. Many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price. The name “toll goods” comes from the fact that, early on, many toll roads were in fact privately owned commodities. Even today, states from Virginia to California have allowed private companies to build public roads in exchange for the right to profit by charging tolls. So long as land was plentiful, and most people in the United States lived a largely rural subsistence lifestyle, the diﬀerence between private, public, common, and toll goods was mostly academic. But as public lands increasingly became private through sale and settlement, and as industrialization and the rise of mass production allowed monopolies and oligopolies to become more influential, support for public policies regulating private entities grew. By the beginning of the twentieth century, led by the Progressives, the United States had begun to search for ways to govern large businesses that had managed to distort market forces by monopolizing the supply of goods. And, largely as a result of the Great Depression, people wanted ways of developing and protecting public goods that were fairer and more equitable than had existed before. These forces and events led to the increased regulation of public and common goods, and a move for the public sector—the government—to take over of the provision of many toll goods. Classic Types of Policy Public policy, then, ultimately boils down to determining the distribution, allocation, and enjoyment of public, common, and toll goods within a society. While the specifics of policy often depend on the circumstances, two broad questions all policymakers must consider are a) who pays the costs of creating and maintaining the goods, and b) who receives the benefits of the goods? When private goods are bought and sold in a market place, the costs and benefits go to the participants in the transaction. Your landlord benefits from receipt of the rent you pay, and you benefit by having a place to live. But non-private goods like roads, waterways, and national parks are controlled and regulated by someone other than the owners, allowing policymakers to make decisions about who pays and who benefits. In 1964, Theodore Lowi argued that it was possible to categorize policy based upon the degree to which costs and benefits were concentrated on the few or diﬀused across the many. One policy category, known as distributive policy, tends to collect payments or resources from many but concentrates direct benefits on relatively few. Highways are often developed through distributive policy. Distributive policy is also common when society feels there is a social benefit to individuals obtaining private goods such as higher education that oﬀer long-term benefits, but the upfront cost may be too high for the average citizen. One example of the way distributive policy works is the story of the Transcontinental Railroad. In the 1860s, the U.S. government began to recognize the value of building a robust railroad system to move passengers and freight around the country. A particular goal was connecting California and the other western territories acquired during the 1840s war with Mexico to the rest of the country. The problem was that constructing a nationwide railroad system was a costly and risky proposition. To build and support continuous rail lines, private investors would need to gain access to tens of thousands of miles of land, some of which might be owned by private citizens. The solution was to charter two private corporations—the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads—and provide them with resources and land grants to facilitate the construction of the railroads (see Figure 11.5).Through these grants, publicly owned land was distributed to private citizens, who could then use it for their own gain. However, a broader public gain was simultaneously being provided in the form of a nationwide transportation network. Texas continues to have more railroad mileage than any other state and the largest number of railroad employees. In 1992 chemicals accounted for thirty percent of the railroad tonnage originating in the state, while agricultural products, the leading category during the early years, accounted for only seven percent. Coal represented the largest category of rail tonnage terminating in Texas. The state is second only to Virginia with its extensive coal shipping piers in the amount of coal terminated. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqr01. The same process operates in the agricultural sector, where various federal programs help farmers and food producers through price supports and crop insurance, among other forms of assistance. These programs help individual farmers and agriculture companies stay afloat and realize consistent profits. They also achieve the broader goal of providing plenty of sustenance for the people of the United States, so that few of us have to “live oﬀ the land.” Other examples of distributive policy support citizens’ eﬀorts to achieve “the American Dream.” American society recognizes the benefits of having citizens who are financially invested in the country’s future. Among the best ways to encourage this investment are to ensure that citizens are highly educated and have the ability to acquire high-cost private goods such as homes and businesses. However, very few people have the savings necessary to pay upfront for a college education, a first home purchase, or the start-up costs of a business. To help out, the government has created a range of incentives that everyone in the country pays for through taxes but that directly benefit only the recipients. Examples include grants (such as Pell grants), tax credits and deductions, and subsidized or federally guaranteed loans. Each of these programs aims to achieve a policy outcome. Pell grants exist to help students graduate from college, whereas Federal Housing Administration mortgage loans lead to home ownership. While distributive policy, according to Lowi, has diﬀuse costs and concentrated benefits, regulatory policy features the opposite arrangement, with concentrated costs and diﬀuse benefits. A relatively small number of groups or individuals bear the costs of regulatory policy, but its benefits are expected to be distributed broadly across society. As you might imagine, regulatory policy is most eﬀective for controlling or protecting public or common resources. Among the best-known examples are policies designed to protect public health and safety, and the environment. These regulatory policies prevent manufacturers or businesses from maximizing their profits by excessively polluting the air or water, selling products they know to be harmful, or compromising the health of their employees during production. A final type of policy is redistributive policy, so named because it redistributes resources in society from one group to another. That is, according to Lowi, the costs are concentrated and so are the benefits, but diﬀerent groups bear the costs and enjoy the benefits. Most redistributive policies are intended to have a sort of “Robin Hood” eﬀect; their goal is to transfer income and wealth from one group to another such that everyone enjoys at least a minimal standard of living. Typically, the wealthy and middle class pay into the federal tax base, which then funds need-based programs that support low-income individuals and families. A few examples of redistributive policies are Head Start (education), Medicaid (health care), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, income support), and food programs like the Supplementary Nutritional Aid Program (SNAP). The government also uses redistribution to incentivize specific behaviors or aid small groups of people. Pell grants to encourage college attendance and tax credits to encourage home ownership are other examples of redistribution. Link to Learning The Public Policy Project on Ballotpedia aims to illuminate major policy issues being discussed and implemented throughout the United States. Public policy can be complicated and controversial; deciding what works best and how to allocate resources to achieve a policy goal can involve multiple trade-oﬀs. Much of the public policy that aﬀects citizens economically, legally and socially, is made at the state level. Explore links and introductions to public policy in Texas to Texas public policy articles on Ballotpedia. References and Further Reading Texas Public Policy Foundation. Accessed September 10, 2019. James E. Anderson. 2000. Public Policymaking: An Introduction, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Miﬄin. Kaiser Family Foundation (2009). National Health Insurance—A Brief History of Reform Eﬀorts in the U.S. Accessed September 10, 2019. CBS Boston (2013, November). Romneycare vs. Obamacare: Key Similarities & Diﬀerences. Retrieved on October 22, 2019. E. E. Schattschneider (1960). The Semi-Sovereign People. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Plumer, B. (2012, December). Everything you need to know about the assault weapons ban, in one post. Washington Post. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Scroggin, A. (2018). On Social Security’s anniversary, let’s look at what it means for Texans today. AARP. Retrieved on October 22, 2019. Mildenberg, D. (2013, November 26). Private Toll Road Investors Shift Revenue Risk to States. Bloomberg. Retrieved on October 22, 2019. History (2019, September 11). Transcontinental Railroad. Licensing and Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY American Government. Authored by: OpenStax. Provided by:OpenStax; Rice University. Located at: https://cnx.org/contents/W8wOWXNF@12.1:Y1CfqFju@5/Preface. License: CC BY: Attribution License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/9e28f580-0d1b-4d72- 8795-c48329947ac2@1.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.025804	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66331/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, Public Policy in Texas, What is Public Policy?", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66316/overview	Political Parties: Background and Structure Overview Political Parties: Background and Structure Learning Objective By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the evolution of political parties in Texas and the state's current party system Introduction: Political Parties as Unique Organizations in Texas You can read the full platform of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party at their respective websites. Political Parties: A History Lesson In Federalist No. 10, written in the late eighteenth century, James Madison noted that the formation of self-interested groups, which he called factions, was inevitable in any society, as individuals started to work together to protect themselves from the government. Interest groups and political parties are two of the most easily identified forms of factions in the United States. These groups are similar in that they are both mediating institutions responsible for communicating public preferences to the government. They are not themselves government institutions in a formal sense. Neither is directly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution nor do they have any real, legal authority to influence policy. But whereas interest groups often work indirectly to influence our leaders, political parties are organizations that try to directly influence public policy through its members who seek to win and hold public oﬃce. Parties accomplish this by identifying and aligning sets of issues that are important to voters in the hopes of gaining support during elections; their positions on these critical issues are often presented in documents known as a party platform, which is adopted at each party’s presidential nominating convention every four years. If successful, a party can create a large enough electoral coalition to gain control of the government. Once in power, the party is then able to deliver, to its voters and elites, the policy preferences they choose by electing its partisans to the government. In this respect, parties provide choices to the electorate, something they are doing that is in such sharp contrast to their opposition. Winning elections and implementing policy would be hard enough in simple political systems, but in a country as complex as the United States, political parties must take on great responsibilities to win elections and coordinate behavior across the many local, state, and national governing bodies. Indeed, political diﬀerences between states and local areas can contribute much complexity. If a party stakes out issue positions on which few people agree and therefore builds too narrow a coalition of voter support, that party may find itself marginalized. But if the party takes too broad a position on issues, it might find itself in a situation where the members of the party disagree with one another, making it diﬃcult to pass legislation, even if the party can secure victory. It should come as no surprise that the story of U.S. political parties largely mirrors the story of the United States itself. The United States has seen sweeping changes to its size, its relative power, and its social and demographic composition. These changes have been mirrored by the political parties as they have sought to shift their coalitions to establish and maintain power across the nation and as party leadership has changed. As you will learn later, this also means that the structure and behavior of modern parties largely parallel the social, demographic, and geographic divisions within the United States today. To understand how this has happened, we look at the origins of the U.S. party system. The Party-in-the-Electorate A key fact about the U.S. political party system is that it’s all about the votes. If voters do not show up to vote for a party’s candidates on Election Day, the party has no chance of gaining office and implementing its preferred policies. As we have seen, for much of their history, the two parties have been adapting to changes in the size, composition, and preferences of the U.S. electorate. It only makes sense, then, that parties have found it in their interest to build a permanent and stable presence among the voters. By fostering a sense of loyalty, a party can insulate itself from changes in the system and improve its odds of winning elections. The party-in-the- electorate are those members of the voting public who consider themselves to be part of a political party and/or who consistently prefer the candidates of one party over the other. What it means to be part of a party depends on where a voter lives and how much he or she chooses to participate in politics. At its most basic level, being a member of the party-in-the-electorate simply means a voter is more likely to voice support for a party. These voters are often called party identifiers, since they usually represent themselves in public as being members of a party, and they may attend some party events or functions. Party identifiers are also more likely to provide financial support for the candidates of their party during election season. This does not mean self- identified Democrats will support all the party’s positions or candidates, but it does mean that, on the whole, they feel their wants or needs are more likely to be met if the Democratic Party is successful. Party identifiers make up the majority of the voting public. Gallup, the polling agency, has been collecting data on voter preferences for the past several decades. Its research suggests that historically, over half of American adults have called themselves “Republican” or “Democrat” when asked how they identify themselves politically. Even among self- proclaimed independents, the overwhelming majority claim to lean in the direction of one party or the other, suggesting they behave as if they identified with a party during elections even if they preferred not to publicly pick a side. Partisan support is so strong that, in a poll conducted from August 5 to August 9, 2015, about 88 percent of respondents said they either identified with or, if they were independents, at least leaned toward one of the major political parties. Thus, in a poll conducted in January 2016, even though about 42 percent of respondents said they were independent, this does not mean that they are not, in fact, more likely to favor one party over the other. Strictly speaking, party identification is not quite the same thing as party membership. People may call themselves Republicans or Democrats without being registered as a member of the party, and the Republican and Democratic parties do not require individuals to join their formal organization in the same way that parties in some other countries do. Many states require voters to declare a party aﬃliation before participating in primaries, but primary participation is irregular and infrequent, and a voter may change his or her identity long before changing party registration. For most voters, party identification is informal at best and often matters only in the weeks before an election. It does matter, however, because party identification guides some voters, who may know little about a particular issue or candidate, in casting their ballots. If, for example, someone thinks of him- or herself as a Republican and always votes Republican, he or she will not be confused when faced with a candidate, perhaps in a local or county election, whose name is unfamiliar. If the candidate is a Republican, the voter will likely cast a ballot for him or her. Party ties can manifest in other ways as well. The actual act of registering to vote and selecting a party reinforces party loyalty. Moreover, while pundits and scholars often deride voters who blindly vote their party, the selection of a party in the first place can be based on issue positions and ideology. In that regard, voting your party on Election Day is not a blind act—it is a shortcut based on issue positions. The Party Organization A significant subset of American voters views their party identification as something far beyond simply a shortcut to voting. These individuals get more energized by the political process and have chosen to become more active in the life of political parties. They are part of what is known as the party organization. The party organization is the formal structure of the political party, and its active members are responsible for coordinating party behavior and supporting party candidates. It is a vital component of any successful party because it bears most of the responsibility for building and maintaining the party “brand.” It also plays a key role in helping select, and elect, candidates for public oﬃce. Local Organizations Since winning elections is the first goal of the political party, it makes sense that the formal party organization mirrors the local-state-federal structure of the U.S. political system. While the lowest level of party organization is technically the precinct, many of the operational responsibilities for local elections fall upon the county-level organization. The county-level organization is in many ways the workhorse of the party system, especially around election time. This level of organization frequently takes on many of the most basic responsibilities of a democratic system, including identifying and mobilizing potential voters and donors, identifying and training potential candidates for public oﬃce, and recruiting new members for the party. County organizations are also often responsible for finding rank and file members to serve as volunteers on Election Day, either as oﬃcials responsible for operating the polls or as monitors responsible for ensuring that elections are conducted honestly and fairly. They may also hold regular meetings to provide members the opportunity to meet potential candidates and coordinate strategy. Of course, all this is voluntary and relies on dedicated party members being willing to pitch in to run the party. State Organizations Most of the county organizations’ formal eﬀorts are devoted to supporting party candidates running for county and city oﬃces. But a fair amount of political power is held by individuals in statewide oﬃce or in state-level legislative or judicial bodies. While the county-level oﬃces may be active in these local competitions, most of the coordination for them will take place in the state-level organizations. Like their more local counterparts, state-level organizations are responsible for key party functions, such as statewide candidate recruitment and campaign mobilization. Most of their eﬀorts focus on electing high-ranking oﬃcials such as the governor or occupants of other statewide oﬃces (e.g., the state’s treasurer or attorney general) as well as candidates to represent the state and its residents in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The greater value of state- and national-level oﬃces requires state organizations to take on several key responsibilities in the life of the party. First, state-level organizations usually accept greater fundraising responsibilities than do their local counterparts. Statewide races and races for national oﬃce have become increasingly expensive in recent years. The average cost of a successful House campaign was $1.2 million in 2014; for Senate races, it was $8.6 million. While individual candidates are responsible for funding and running their own races, it is typically up to the state-level organization to coordinate giving across multiple races and to develop the staﬃng expertise that these candidates will draw upon at election time. State organizations are also responsible for creating a sense of unity among members of the state party. Building unity can be very important as the party transitions from sometimes-contentious nomination battles to the all-important general election. The state organization uses several key tools to get its members working together towards a common goal. First, it helps the party’s candidates prepare for state primary elections or caucuses that allow voters to choose a nominee to run for public oﬃce at either the state or national level. Caucuses are a form of town hall meeting at which voters in a precinct get together to voice their preferences, rather than voting individually throughout the day. Second, the state organization is also responsible for drafting a state platform that serves as a policy guide for partisans who are eventually selected to public oﬃce. These platforms are usually the result of a negotiation between the various coalitions within the party and are designed to ensure that everyone in the party will receive some benefits if their candidates win the election. Finally, state organizations hold a statewide convention at which delegates from the various county organizations come together to discuss the needs of their areas. The state conventions are also responsible for selecting delegates to the national convention. National Party Organization The local and state-level party organizations are the workhorses of the political process. They take on most of the responsibility for party activities and are easily the most active participants in the party formation and electoral processes. They are also largely invisible to most voters. The average citizen knows very little about the local party’s behavior unless there is a phone call or a knock on the door in the days or weeks before an election. The same is largely true of the activities of the state-level party. Typically, the only people who notice are those who are already actively engaged in politics or are being targeted for donations. But most people are aware of the presence and activity of the national party organizations for several reasons. First, many Americans, especially young people, are more interested in the topics discussed at the national level than at the state or local level. According to John Green of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics: “Local elections tend to be about things like sewers, and roads and police protection— which are not as dramatic an issue as same-sex marriage or global warming or international aﬀairs.” Presidential elections and the behavior of the U.S. Congress are also far more likely to make the news broadcasts than the activities of county commissioners, and the national-level party organization is mostly responsible for coordinating the activities of participants at this level. The national party is a fundraising army for presidential candidates and also serves a key role in trying to coordinate and direct the efforts of the House and Senate. For this reason, its leadership is far more likely to become visible to media consumers, whether they intend to vote or not. A second reason for the prominence of the national organization is that it usually coordinates the grandest spectacles in the life of a political party. Most voters are never aware of the numerous county-level meetings or coordinating activities. Primary elections, one of the most important events to take place at the state level, have a much lower turnout than the nationwide general election. In 2012, for example, only one-third of the eligible voters in New Hampshire voted in the state’s primary, one of the earliest and thus most important in the nation; however, 70 percent of eligible voters in the state voted in the general election in November 2012. People may see or read an occasional story about the meetings of the state committees or convention but pay little attention. But the national conventions, organized and sponsored by the national-level party, can dominate the national discussion for several weeks in late summer, a time when the major media outlets are often searching for news. These conventions are the definition of a media circus at which high-ranking politicians, party elites, and sometimes celebrities, such as actor/director Clint Eastwood, along with individuals many consider to be the future leaders of the party are brought before the public so the party can make its best case for being the one to direct the future of the country. National party conventions culminate in the formal nomination of the party nominees for the oﬃces of president and vice president, and they mark the oﬃcial beginning of the presidential competition between the two parties. In the past, national conventions were often the sites of high drama and political intrigue. As late as 1968, the identities of the presidential and/or vice-presidential nominees were still unknown to the general public when the convention opened. It was also common for groups protesting key events and issues of the day to try to raise their profile by using the conventions to gain the media spotlight. National media outlets would provide “gavel to gavel” coverage of the conventions, and the relatively limited number of national broadcast channels meant most viewers were essentially forced to choose between following the conventions or checking out of the media altogether. Much has changed since the 1960s, however, and between 1960 and 2004, viewership of both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention had declined by half. National conventions are not the spectacles they once were, and this fact is almost certainly having an impact on the profile of the national party organization. Both parties have come to recognize the value of the convention as a medium through which they can communicate to the average viewer. To ensure that they are viewed in the best possible light, the parties have worked hard to turn the public face of the convention into a highly sanitized, highly orchestrated media event. Speakers are often required to have their speeches prescreened to ensure that they do not deviate from the party line or run the risk of embarrassing the eventual nominee—whose name has often been known by all for several months. And while protests still happen, party organizations have becoming increasingly adept at keeping protesters away from the convention sites, arguing that safety and security are more important than First Amendment rights to speech and peaceable assembly. For example, protestors were kept behind concrete barriers and fences at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. With the advent of cable TV news and the growth of internet blogging, the major news outlets have found it unnecessary to provide the same level of coverage they once did. Between 1976 and 1996, ABC and CBS cut their coverage of the nominating conventions from more than fifty hours to only five. NBC cut its coverage to fewer than five hours.10 One reason may be that the outcome of nominating conventions are also typically known in advance, meaning there is no drama. Today, the nominee’s acceptance speech is expected to be no longer than an hour, so it will not take up more than one block of prime-time TV programming. This is not to say the national conventions are no longer important, or that the national party organizations are becoming less relevant. The conventions, and the organizations that run them, still contribute heavily to a wide range of key decisions in the life of both parties. The national party platform is formally adopted at the convention, as are the key elements of the strategy for contesting the national campaign. And even though the media is paying less attention, key insiders and major donors often use the convention as a way of gauging the strength of the party and its ability to effectively organize and coordinate its members. They are also paying close attention to the rising stars who are given time at the convention’s podium, to see which are able to connect with the party faithful. Most observers credit Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention with bringing him to national prominence. The Party-in-Government One of the first challenges facing the party-in-government, or the party identifiers who have been elected or appointed to hold public office, is to achieve their policy goals. The means to do this is chosen in meetings of the two major parties; Republican meetings are called party conferences and Democrat meetings are called party caucuses. Members of each party meet in these closed sessions and discuss what items to place on the legislative agenda and make decisions about which party members should serve on the committees that draft proposed laws. Party members also elect the leaders of their respective parties in the House and the Senate, and their party whips. Leaders serve as party managers and are the highest-ranking members of the party in each chamber of Congress. The party whip ensures that members are present when a piece of legislation is to be voted on and directs them how to vote. The whip is the second-highest ranking member of the party in each chamber. Thus, both the Republicans and the Democrats have a leader and a whip in the House, and a leader and a whip in the Senate. The leader and whip of the party that holds the majority of seats in each house are known as the majority leader and the majority whip. The leader and whip of the party with fewer seats are called the minority leader and the minority whip. The party that controls the majority of seats in the House of Representatives also elects someone to serve as Speaker of the House. People elected to Congress as independents (that is, not members of either the Republican or Democratic parties) must choose a party to conference or caucus with. For example, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for Senate as an independent candidate, caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. One problem facing the party-in-government relates to the design of the country’s political system. The U.S. government is based on a complex principle of separation of powers, with power divided among the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. The system is further complicated by federalism, which relegates some powers to the states, which also have separation of powers. This complexity creates a number of problems for maintaining party unity. The biggest is that each level and unit of government has different constituencies that the office holder must satisfy. The person elected to the White House is more beholden to the national party organization than are members of the House or Senate, because members of Congress must be reelected by voters in very different states, each with its own state-level and county-level parties. Some of this complexity is eased for the party that holds the executive branch of government. Executive offices are typically more visible to the voters than the legislature, in no small part because a single person holds the office. Voters are more likely to show up at the polls and vote if they feel strongly about the candidate running for president or governor, but they are also more likely to hold that person accountable for the government’s failures. Members of the legislature from the executive’s party are under a great deal of pressure to make the executive look good, because a popular president or governor may be able to help other party members win oﬃce. Even so, partisans in the legislature cannot be expected to simply obey the executive’s orders. First, legislators may serve a constituency that disagrees with the executive on key matters of policy. If the issue is important enough to voters, as in the case of gun control or abortion rights, an oﬃce holder may feel his or her job will be in jeopardy if he or she too closely follows the party line, even if that means disagreeing with the executive. A good example occurred when the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which desegregated public accommodations and prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, was introduced in Congress. The bill was supported by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both of whom were Democrats. Nevertheless, many Republicans, such as William McCulloch, a conservative representative from Ohio, voted in its favor while many southern Democrats opposed it. A second challenge is that each house of the legislature has its own leadership and committee structure, and those leaders may not be in total harmony with the president. Key benefits like committee appointments, leadership positions, and money for important projects in their home district may hinge on legislators following the lead of the party. These pressures are particularly acute for the majority party, so named because it controls more than half the seats in one of the two chambers. The Speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader, the majority party’s congressional leaders, have significant tools at their disposal to punish party members who defect on a particular vote. Finally, a member of the minority party must occasionally work with the opposition on some issues in order to accomplish any of his or her constituency’s goals. This is especially the case in the Senate, which is a super-majority institution. Sixty votes (of the 100 possible) are required to get anything accomplished, because Senate rules allow individual members to block legislation via holds and filibusters. The only way to block the blocking is to invoke cloture, a procedure calling for a vote on an issue, which takes 60 votes. References and Resources Texas Secretary of State. Candidate Information. Accessed October 19, 2019. “Party Affiliation,” Gallup Poll. (March 1, 2016). Jeffrey L. Jones, “Democratic, Republican Identification Near Historical Lows,” Gallup Poll. (March 14, 2016). Russ Choma, “Money Won on Tuesday, But Rules of the Game Changed,” 5 November 2014. (March 1, 2016). Elizabeth Lehman, “Trend Shows Generation Focuses Mostly on Social, National Issues.” March 15, 2016). “Voter Turnout,” ElectProject.Org (March 14, 2016). Abdullah Halimah, “Eastwood, the Empty Chair, and the Speech Everyone’s Talking About,” 31 August 2012, (March 14, 2016). “Influence of Democratic and Republican Conventions on Opinions of the Presidential Candidates.” (March 14, 2016). Timothy Zick, “Speech and Spatial Tactics,” Texas Law Review February (2006): 581. Thomas E. Patterson, “Is There a Future for On-the-Air Televised Conventions?” (March 14, 2016). Todd Leopold, “The Day America Met Barack Obama.” (March 14, 2016). Sidney R. Waldman. 2007. America and the Limits of the Politics of Selfishness. New York: Lexington Books, 27. Alicia W. Stewart and Tricia Escobedo (2014, April 10). “What You Might Not Know About the 1964 Civil Rights Act.” Licensing and Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Daniel M. Regalado. License: CC BY: Attribution Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY American Government. Authored by: OpenStax. Provided by: OpenStax; Rice University. Located at: http://cnx.org/contents/5bcc0e59-7345- 421d-8507-a1e4608685e8@18.11. License: : CC BY: Attribution License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/5bcc0e59-7345-421d-8507-a1e4608685e8@18.11	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.068192	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66316/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, Political Parties in Texas, Political Parties: Background and Structure", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66319/overview	Third-Party Movements in Texas Overview Third-Party Movements in Texas Learning Objective By the end of this section, you should be able to: Discuss electoral trends in Texas, specifically dealigned parties and third- party movements Introduction: Third-Party Movements in Texas At various points in the past 170 years, elites and voters have sought to create alternatives to the existing party system. Political parties that are formed as alternatives to the Republican and Democratic parties are known as third parties, or minor parties. As with many other states, the two-party system in Texas has made it very diﬃcult for third parties to get on the ballot. Many voters believe that their votes would be wasted if they vote for a third-party candidate. Because the history of elections shows that a Republican or Democrat will almost always win, most voters decide that it is more rational to vote for the major-party candidate whose ideology most closely aligns with their own. La Raza Unida La Raza Unida, meaning "united race," was created in the early 1970s to combat growing inequality and dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party that was typically supported by Mexican-American voters. José Ángel Gutiérrez led the party at its inception, which was concentrated in Zavala County. After its establishment in Texas, the party launched electoral campaigns in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, though it only secured oﬃcial party status for statewide races in Texas. La Raza Unida was able to win races in Crystal City, Cotulla, and Carrizo Springs in Texas by taking advantage of nonpartisan elections. The party did so well in Zavala County and other surrounding counties that at one point the party won two city council majorities, two school board majorities, and two mayoralties. Although the party did poorly in the 1978 Texas elections and leaders and members dropped away, it signified the growing influence of Latinos in the state. Green Party of Texas The Green Party of Texas is the state party organization for Texas of the Green Party of the United States. The party was founded as the electoral arm of the political movements for grassroots democracy, social justice, ecological wisdom, peace, and nonviolence. The Green Party of Texas began to organize a statewide grassroots eﬀort in the late 1990s. Small, active Green groups existed in large cities throughout the state (particularly Houston, Dallas, and Austin) before this time, but Ralph Nader's 1996 campaign spurred the growth of the Green Party of Texas. The Texas Green Party has retroactively gained ballot access through 2026 via the passage and signing of HB-2504 in 2019 after having obtained 2% of the statewide vote for Railroad Commissioner in 2016. Libertarian Party of Texas In recent years, the Libertarian Party of Texas has emerged as a third-party alternative to the two major political parties. Libertarians believe in limited government and are typically considered fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Although the Libertarian Party has been unsuccessful at the polls and has had little impact on Election Day, they can influence politics in other ways. For example, the major parties may adopt some of the positions promoted by Libertarians (or members of other minor parties) in order to win their support in run-oﬀ elections. The Occupy and Tea Party Movements in Texas The new voices of the Occupy and Tea Party movements have become prominent both nationwide as well as in Texas. Created following government bailouts in 2008, the Occupy movement has held demonstrations in Austin and other major Texas cities, protesting the influence of big corporations and Wall Street on American politics. Born in part from an older third-party movement known as the Libertarian Party, the Tea Party movement has allied itself with the Republican Party and has had greater influence in Texas due to its antitax messaging. The Tea Party movement was launched following a February 19, 2009 call by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for a "tea party," when several conservative activists agreed by conference call to coalesce against Obama's agenda and scheduled a series of protests. Supporters of the movement subsequently have had a major impact on the internal politics of the Republican Party. The Tea Party is more hostile to government and views government intervention in all forms, and especially taxation and the regulation of business, as a threat to capitalism and democracy. It is less willing to tolerate interventions in the market place, even when they are designed to protect the markets themselves. Although an anti-tax faction within the Republican Party has existed for some time, some factions of the Tea Party movement are also active at the intersection of religious liberty and social issues, especially in opposing such initiatives as same-sex marriage and abortion rights. The Tea Party has argued that government, both directly and by neglect, is threatening the ability of evangelicals to observe their moral obligations, including practices some perceive as endorsing social exclusion. Although the Tea Party is a movement and not a political party, 86 percent of Tea Party members who voted in 2012 cast their votes for Republicans. Additionally, research has shown that members of the Tea Party Caucus vote like a third party in Congress. Some members of the Republican Party are closely aﬃliated with the movement, and before the 2012 elections, Tea Party activist Grover Norquist exacted promises from many Republicans in Congress that they would oppose any bill that sought to raise taxes. The inflexibility of Tea Party members has led to tense floor debates and was ultimately responsible for the 2014 primary defeat of Republican majority leader Eric Cantor and the 2015 resignation of the sitting Speaker of the House John Boehner. In 2015, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, all of whom were Republican presidential candidates, signed Norquist’s pledge as well. References and Further Reading Ballotpedia. Minor Political Party. Accessed October 18, 2019. Acosta, T. P. (2019, May 7). "RAZA UNIDA PARTY.” Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved October 16, 2019. Juarez, A. (1972). The Emergence of El Partido De La Raza Unida: California's New Political Party. Aztl√°n. M. Garcia, I. M. (1989). United we win: The rise and fall of La Raza Unida Party. University of Arizona Press. José Ángel Gutiérrez Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. Raza Unida Party Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. Byrne, E. (2019, May 20). Critics say bill moving through Texas Legislature designed to aid GOP reelection bids. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Etheridge, E. (2009, Feb 20). "Rick Santelli: Tea Party Time.” New York Times: Opinionator. Pallasch, A. M. (2010, September 19). 'Best 5 minutes of my life'; His '09 CNBC rant against mortgage bailouts for 'losers' ignited the Tea Party movement. Chicago Sun-Times. p. A4. Pew Research Center (2011, Feb 23). The Tea Party and Religion. Accessed October 16, 2019. Ragusa, J. & Gaspar, A. (2016). Where's the Tea Party? An Examination of the Tea Party's Voting Behavior in the House of Representatives. Political Research Quarterly. 69 (2): 361-372. doi:10.1177/1065912916640901. Waldman, P. (2015, Aug 13). Nearly All the GOP Candidates Bow Down to Grover Norquist, The Washington Post. Accessed October 16, 2019. Licensing and Attribution CC-LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation: The Occupy and Tea Party Movements in Texas. Authored by: Daniel M. Regalado. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY Green Party of Texas. Authored by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Texas License: CC BY: Attribution La Raza Unida. Authored by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raza_Unida_Party License: CC BY: Attribution Tea Party Caucus. Authored by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Caucus License: CC BY: Attribution Tea Party Movement. Authored by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.098108	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66319/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, Political Parties in Texas, Third-Party Movements in Texas", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66321/overview	Glossary Overview Glossary Glossary: Political Parties in Texas Occupy movement: aimed at limiting the influence of Wall Street and big corporations in American politics. partisan polarization: the degree to which Republicans have become more conservative and Democrats have become more liberal party-in-government: party identifiers who have been elected or appointed to hold public office party organization: the formal structure of a political party that facilitates the coordination of party behavior and support for party candidates. party platform: a statement of principles and purpose issued by a political party political ideology: a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and oﬀers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order political party: a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power through representation in government political socialization: the process by which we are trained to understand and join a country’s political world public opinion: a collection of popular views about something; for example, a person, a local or national event, or a new idea Shivercrat movement: a movement led by the Texas governor Allan Shivers during the 1950s in which conservative Democrats in Texas supported Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency because many of those conservative Democrats believed that the national Democratic party had become too liberal straight-ticket voting: the practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot The Tea Party movement: an American fiscally-conservative political movement within the Republican Party that has called for lower taxes, and for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget deficit through decreased government spending third parties (minor parties): political parties that are formed as alternatives to the Republican and Democratic parties trifecta: when one party controls the three vital centers of state political power—the oﬃce of the governor, the state House, and the state Senate two-party system: a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, nearly all elected oﬃcials are members of one of the two major parties white primary: primary election in which only white voters are eligible to participate References and Further Reading Hershey, Marjorie Randon (2007). Party Politics in America 12th ed. Longman Classics in Political Science. Pages 110-111. Berman, R. (2010, July 5). Gallup: Tea Party's top concerns are debt, size of government. () The Hill. Retrieved October 16, 2019. Somashekhar, S. (2010, September 12). Tea Party DC March: "Tea party activists march on Capitol Hill.” The Washington Post. Retrieved October 16, 2019. Ballotpedia. Party Control of Texas State Government. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Licensing and Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Political Parties in Texas: Glossary. Authored by: panOpen. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.118889	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66321/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, Political Parties in Texas, Glossary", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66314/overview	Assessment Overview This is a quiz for Chapter 8. Texas Government Chapter Eight Quiz Check your knowledge of Chapter Eight by taking the quiz linked below. The quiz will open in a new browser window or tab. This is a quiz for Chapter 8. Check your knowledge of Chapter Eight by taking the quiz linked below. The quiz will open in a new browser window or tab.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.135655	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66314/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, Elections and Campaigns in Texas, Assessment", "author": "Kris Seago" }

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