POLS 6395 AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

Fall Semester AY2004-2005

Final Examination

30 November 2004



Instructions: Choose any 3 of the following 5 Questions to answer. Each answer must be typed in WORD and be less than five double-spaced pages. The answers are due by 5PM on Wednesday 8 December 2004.

  1. Explain the argument that Madison makes to support his opening sentence in Federalist #10:
             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.
    What view of political parties is embodied in Federalist #10? What weaknesses do you see in Madison's argument?

  2. Why was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 a "bad deal" for the South. Why do you suppose they agreed to it?

  3. What were the main findings of Fogel and Engerman's Time on the Cross (updated in Fogel's Without Consent or Contract)? Why do you suppose so many people were (and are) disturbed by their findings?

  4. What role did disease play in the spread of slavery in the United States and how did disease affect the South after the Civil War?

  5. What is unusual about the economics of railroads and why did these unusual economic characteristics of the railroad business lead to government regulation?