Answer to Question 1
An ideal response will:
1, Recount the intent of the framers in balancing the will of the people against cool, collected consideration of policy issues.
2, Describe how the Seventeenth Amendment made the Senate more accountable by establishing direct election of senators.
3, Examine the current demographics of the Senate in contrast to the public, noting senators tend to be wealthier, more educated, racially homogenous (white), and male, compared to the public and even the House of Representatives.
4, Discuss the merits of elite representation as opposed to a less educated, poorer, racially and gender proportionate governing class.
5, Relate how some critics charge that being too directly representative leads to gridlock and pandering to special interest groups.
6, Formulate an argument on representativeness versus effectiveness in American democracy.
7, Offer a conclusion restating the main points of the argument.
Answer to Question 2
An ideal response will:
1, State that in one national survey, only 20 percent of American rate the ethics of members of Congress as high or very high.
2, Note that close observers of the legislative branch argue that in the past few decades, members of Congress have actually become more ethical and more upstanding than at any point in our nation's history.
3, Suggest that the gap between perception and reality may be due to the fact that there is much more reporting of ethical transgressions than in the past and the recent trend for aggressive investigative journalism.
