Catalog Search Results
Language
English
Description
This program reveals how the American bureaucracy delivers significant services directly to the people, how it has expanded in response to citizen demands for increased government services, and how bureaucrats sometimes face contradictory expectations that are difficult to satisfy.
Language
English
Description
This program shows how political parties perform important functions that link the public to the institutions of American government. Parties create coalitions of citizens who share political goals, elect candidates to public office to achieve those goals, and organize the legislative and executive branches of government.
Language
English
Description
This program explores the crucial role of strategy in the two-stage electoral campaign system; the opportunities for citizens to choose, organize, and elect candidates who will pursue policies they favor, and the need for campaigns to increase voter turnout by educating citizens about the importance and influence of their vote.
Language
English
Description
This program examines the need for the United States to use the tools of foreign policy in ways that recognize the growing interdependence of nations - implementing both traditional and new forms of military, trade, and diplomatic strategies to promote benefits for America and the world as a whole.
Language
English
Description
This program examines the search for balance between the original Constitution and the need to interpret and adjust it to meet the needs of changing times. It explains the original Jeffersonian-Madisonian debate, the concept of checks and balances, and the stringent procedures for amending the Constitution.
Language
English
Description
This program shows that the American Presidency has been transformed since the 1930s. Today, presidents are overtly active in the legislative process: they use the media to appeal directly to the people and they exercise leadership over an "institutional presidency" with thousands of aides.
Language
English
Description
This program introduces basic concepts of government, politics, and citizenship. It explores the tension between maintaining order and preserving freedoms, the essential role of politics in addressing the will of the people, and the need for citizens to participate in order to make democracy work.
Language
English
Description
This program examines the role of courts as institutions dedicated to conflict resolution, with the power both to apply and to interpret the meaning of law in trial and appeal courts. It shows the increased power of the Supreme Court through its use of judicial review and the difficulty of creating a judiciary that is independent of politics.
Language
English
Description
Who determines what the Constitution means: the Supreme Court, Congress, or the President? This 1803 case established the judiciary's authority to interpret the Constitution. Marshall's insistence on the principle of "judicial review" of acts of Congress brought him into conflict with President Thomas Jefferson, but established the court's responsibility.
Language
English
Description
This program focuses on the Judicial Branch and its role in government. The Supreme Court's decisions concerning school desegregation, school prayers, abortion, prison overcrowding, the death penalty, and the rights of criminal defendants are explored. Students see how the Court's decisions affect their daily lives, how it resolves disputes without bloodshed, how it interprets our laws and explains what they mean, and how it prevents the other branches...
18) Gibbons v. Ogden
Language
English
Description
Does the Constitution give the states or Congress the right to regulate commerce? In 1818, a steamboat was ordered to leave New York waters because it had no license to operate within the state. In this case, the Marshall court ruled that the federal government did have the power to regulate commerce and in so doing laid the foundation for a unified American common market.
Language
English
Description
This program deciphers the legislative process by explaining how an idea metamorphoses into a law. In interviews, prominent legislators and lobbyists explain how a bill is conceived, moved through the House and Senate or killed in committee, amended, prepared for a vote, and sent for the President or Governor's signature.
Language
English
Description
New revelations on Jimmy Carter's post-presidential years are presented in this A&E Special program. Host Steve Gillon examines Carter from his attempts at global peace-making to his unusual friendship with Yasser Arafat, and his contentious relationships with President Bill Clinton. Also included is commentary from author and historian, Doug Brinkley, on his book, "The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond The White House".