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CREDIT BY EXAMINATION - GOVERNMENT 312L
Policies Effective for the Academic Year 2009-2010*
*This is to be used as a guide only. Policies are subject to change.
UT Austin provides you with the opportunity to earn course credit by examination. Such credit will satisfy degree requirements in the same way as credit earned by passing a course, except that it will not count as credit earned in residence. Although you may take tests before you enroll in UT Austin, you must be a currently or previously enrolled student in order to receive credit. Unsuccessful attempts to earn credit by examination will not become part of your official transcript.
Faculty members in the Department of Government select the test, set the levels of performance required for credit, and specify who is eligible to take the test. DIIA-Student Testing Services assists the department by communicating policies, giving the test, and reporting the credit.
ELIGIBILITY FOR CREDIT BY EXAMINATION IN GOVERNMENT 312L
To be eligible for credit by examination for GOV 312L you must not have a passing or failing grade in GOV 312L or an equivalent course, and you must already have received a passing grade in GOV 310L or an equivalent course.
UT AUSTIN TEST FOR CREDIT IN GOV 312L
To accommodate students who wish to satisfy a part of their course requirements
for US government outside of normal classroom work, the department offers
the option of credit by examination. The GOV 312L course for which credit
by examination is available is called "US and Texas Government and Constitution."
The examination is offered twice each year, toward the middle of the fall
and spring semesters. A schedule giving exact test dates can be obtained
from the Student Testing Services before the beginning of each testing period.
You should expect to answer three broad essay questions. The questions will deal with some aspect of the general topic of US and Texas Constitution and Government. A maximum of three hours working time is allowed.
Level of Performance Required for Credit
To earn credit by examination for GOV 312L, students must make a grade of C or better on each of the essay questions they answer. Because one does not need to attend 15 weeks of lecture, write papers, and read as many books and articles as customarily assigned in the regular GOV 312L classes, this test will be graded more stringently than an ordinary final in GOV 312L.
The UT Austin Test for Credit in GOV 312L will be a more advanced and detailed version of exams typically given in GOV 310L courses. It is a more demanding version of the CLEP Subject Examination in American Government, the Advanced Placement Examination in Government and Politics, and the UT Austin Test on Texas Government, which are used for credit by examination for GOV 310L. The examination is graded by regular Department of Government faculty; therefore, there is no point in wasting your time taking the examination if you have not read the assigned books carefully and developed considerable mastery of the material.
Grading Policy
Someone in the Department of Government will read your essays. If you pass all three essays, you will be awarded credit for the examination.
TEST ADMINISTRATION
Test Periods: The UT Austin Test for Credit in Government 312L test is offered on campus several days before class registration in September and March.
Test Registration: You must register for a test online.
Test Registration for Students with Disabilities: If your require academic accommodations or assistance due to a documented disability, you should contact these two offices at least five business days before the day of the test:
- Services for Students with Disabilities, in the Office of the Dean of Students at ssd@uts.cc.utexas.edu, http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd/, or (512) 471-6259 to seek approval for authorized accommodations;
- DIIA-Student Testing Services at (512) 232-2662 to register and make arrangements to take the test.
Registration Fee and Test Fee Payment:
The total test fee is $70 (subject to change). When you confirm your
registration for a test you will be immediately billed a non-refundable
test registration fee of $15. The remainder of the test fee will be billed
after you take the test. Payment is due within 14 days after the test
administration.
Repeating the Test: You may take the UT Austin Test for Credit in Government 312L only once.
Admission to the Test Room: When you register online you will be given the location of your test room. You must present, at the test room, a generally accepted form of identification that includes both your signature and photograph. Without such identification, you will be admitted only if you bring and relinquish a photograph of yourself. You should take several sharpened No. 2 pencils to the test room; all other test materials will be provided.
Test Results: Results are available about 15 working days after the test date, in time to register for classes. Once they are available, results may be found online.
READING LIST FOR THE UT AUSTIN TEST FOR CREDIT IN GOV 312L
Well before the scheduled date of the examination, students should undertake a careful study of the constitutions and politics of the United States and Texas. The questions will deal broadly with the basic institutions, processes, and policies of the two governments, but students will find it useful to consult the following documents from which test items may be directly drawn:
Constitution of the United States, including the 27 amendments (a copy may be found in the Rossiter edition of the Federalist Papers cited next).
A close reading and study of the Constitution should be the core exercise in any course on US and Texas Government and Constitution. You should familiarize yourself with all seven articles in the main body as well as with the 27 amendments. Specifically, you should be prepared to draw on the Constitution to discuss (1) the structure, mode of selection, and powers of the House of Representatives and the Senate (Art. I), (2) the mode of selection, term, qualifications, and powers of the Presidency (Art. II), (3) the structure, mode of selection, term, and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (Art. III), (4) the necessary and proper clause (Art. I), (5) the Republican Guarantee (Art. IV), (6) the amendment procedure (Art. V), (7) the Supremacy Clause (Art. VI), (8) the ratification procedure (Art. VII), and (9) the basic content of each of the 27 amendments.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, edited by Clinton Rossiter, Mentor, 1961. Students should pay special attention to numbers 1, 8, 9, 10, 15, 23, 33, 39, 47, 51, 52, 54, 62, 70, and 78.
These essays constitute the leading meditations on the meaning of the Constitution of 1789 and the intentions of the Founders. They may be read both as arguments for the ratification of the Constitution and as profound works of political theory. Along the way they provide a convenient guide to the content of the Constitution as well. Among the issues you should be aware of as you study these essays are the following: (1) the defects of the Articles of Confederation, (2) the importance of the Union for avoiding conflicts among the states, (3) the violence of factions and how it may be regulated, (4) the principle of legislation for states or governments in their collective or corporate capacities as against legislation for the individual citizens of which they consist, (5) the appropriate powers of government as argued by Hamilton (No. 23), (6) why the necessary and proper clause and the supremacy clause do not create a national government with excessive powers (No. 33), (7) whether the Constitution creates a republican form of government (No. 39), (8) whether the government it creates is federal or national (No. 39), (9) the doctrine of separation of powers as propounded by Montesquieu, (10) separation of powers as laid out in the Constitution in terms of formal powers and in terms of how it is to be maintained, (11) the meaning of the claim that the motive of the man is fitted to the Constitutional rights of the place (No. 51), (12) arguments in favor of arrangements for the House of Representatives and the Senate (Nos. 52, 54, 62), (13) the defense of a strong executive (No. 70), (14) justification for life tenure for an appointive Supreme Court (No. 78), and (15) interpretation of the prerogative of the Court to exercise judicial review (No. 78).
Anti-Federalist Thought, the best collection of which is in Herbert J. Storing, Ed., The Anti-Federalist, The University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Letter I by Centinel, p. 7 in Storing
Essay XI by Brutus, p. 162 in Storing
Letter IV by Agrippa, p. 234 in Storing
These essays lay out arguments against the wholesale revision of the Articles of Confederation and advance criticisms of specific features of the proposed constitution as drafted in Philadelphia. You should pay especial attention to Centinel's critique of the complexity of the proposed government and the possible consequences for its accountability to the people; to the attack by Brutus on the powers of the proposed judiciary; and to Agrippa's discussion of the extent of national power under the proposed plan.
Thomas R. Dye, Politics In America, fourth edition; Prentice-Hall, 2001.
This is a popular and comprehensive test on American national government. Apart from familiarizing yourself with the text's treatment of the main institutional, procedural, and substantive features of American politics, you should consider the following questions: (1) What does democracy mean and what kind of democracy do we have in the United States? (2) To what extent does the Constitution establish democratic government? (3) What does "federalism" mean, how has its meaning changed over the course of American history, and what are the chief features of federal-state relations today? (4) Does public opinion play too large or too small a role in forming public policy? How much does the public know? (5) What is a "liberal?" What is a "conservative?" How liberal or conservative are Americans? (6) To what extent do the mass media set the agenda of American poitics? What is the nature of biases in the mass media, and what are the consequences of those biases for the political process? (7) Does the United States typically have higher or lower voter turnout than other democracies? What are the causes of these differences? (8) to what extent do campaigns and elections translate public opinion into public policy? (9) Why is it commonly thought that American political parties are in decline? What difference does it make if they are? (10) The Constitution guarantees the right of association, assembly, and petition, but many feel today that the proliferation of special interest groups is detrimental to the quality of government. Address. (11) Why is Congress so unpopular? Do you agree that it should be? (12) Is the Presidency too powerful or not powerful enough? (13) Is the federal bureaucracy democratically accountable? Why or why not? (14) Who is Clarence Thomas and why was his 1990 nomination to the Supreme Court controversial? Why does it matter who is on the Court?
Richard H. Kraemer, Charldean Newell, and David F. Prindle, Texas Politics (8th edition), West Publishing Co., 2001.
This is a readily available text that is frequently assigned in regular courses at the University of Texas. Although the Texas Constitution (1876) is the basic law of the state, the document itself is so long and detailed that it is rarely printed in full and even more rarely read. This text addresses constitutional issues in a specific chapter (2) and throughout the text as they relate to the various topics under examination. In general, you should be thinking about the following questions and issues as you read this text: (1) What kind of state is Texas? How did it come into being? How is its particular history related to contemporary political processes? (2) Why has the present state constitution lasted since 1876, but been amended 353 times? Why has wholesale, as opposed to piecemeal, constitutional revision failed? (3) Compare the importance of counties, cities, special districts, and regional planning bodies in terms of their constitutional powers, their revenue-raising capacities, and their political legitimacy. (4) What are the chief interests organized as lobbies in Texas? How effective are attempts to regulate lobbies and how, if at all, should these attempts be altered? (5) Texas has no party system; rather, it is dominated by a number of political factions within the major political parties. Discuss. (6) Why is voter turnout so low in Texas elections? Will changing the electoral rules and procedures likely increase citizen participation? Would that necessarily be desirable? What are the consequences of different turnout rates among Anglos, Mexican Americans and African Americans? (7) Compare the significance of parties and personality in the organization and operation of the Texas legislature. (8) Should the legislature become more "professional"? What would that mean? (9) What are the powers of the Governor and how can the incumbent use them? (10) What is "co-optation"? Have interest groups in Texas co-opted governmental agencies? What are the policy consequences? What efforts have been made to eliminate co-optation and to what effect? (11) Compare and contrast the organization of power in the Texas Legislature and the US Congress. (12) Compare, contrast, and evaluate the administrations of three recent governors. Who was most effective and why? (13) What are the advantages and disadvantages of filling judgeships by partisan elections? (14) What is a tort? Why is it important to Texas politics in the 2000s? (15) What are the main sources of tax and nontax revenue for the state of Texas? How have these changed in the last 20 years? What has the state legislature done in those two decades to compensate for the changing revenue base? (16) In the year 2020, how is the population of Texas likely to be different from its population now? What political consequences are likely to be the result of these changes in population?
TAKING A GOVERNMENT ESSAY EXAMINATION
How to Read an Essay Question
A Government essay examination is going to require you to understand the basic facts about the political system and to be able to put them together in a coherent analytical or normative argument.
The main thing you need to understand in answering an essay question is what is being asked. You should be careful to answer the question that is asked, rather than the one you hoped would be asked or are prepared to answer. Although some questions may be straightforward and simple (e.g., What are the Constitutional powers of the President of the United States?), the questions you are likely to encounter on this exam will be more demanding. They will ask you not only to demonstrate command of facts, of details you may remember from your reading, but also to put those facts together in a well organized and convincing argument about important interpretive or normative issues.
An example of the type of question that might appear is the following:
"The rise of the primary system is a major cause of the decline of political parties in the United States. Discuss."
Graders for this question would expect the student to know a great deal about the primary system (when it was first introduced, what it replaced, how quickly it spread, how it operates, the major criticisms and defenses of it) and about the so-called decline of political parties (what is involved in the decline of parties, what indicators might suggest such a trend, during what time parties have been in decline, what the consequences are, good or bad, of such a development, etc.). This, however, is simply the beginning: the primary purpose of the question is to see if you can use your knowledge of primaries and political parties to consider the claim involved in the first sentence of the question: namely, that the rise of the primary system is itself a major cause of the decline of parties. Is this statement supported by the facts as you know them? Do you agree or disagree? Why? What alternative explanations for the decline of parties can you suggest? This question requires you to think about causality and to place various events and trends in a causal chain. It expects you to draw a clear and unequivocal conclusion that directly answers the question.
Almost any question you may encounter on an exam will open up a number of cognate issues. It is important that you exercise discipline to avoid being lured into a tangential discussion that is not directly pertinent to the question. For example, a major issue that relates to the above sample question is the tension between the intended and unintended consequences of political reforms. Well-read students will know, for example, that political primaries are an outgrowth of the Progressive impulse in American politics and that they were intended to wrest control of the nominating process from the "smoke-filled rooms" of party leaders and hand it back to the voters. They may well have opinions, backed by empirical evidence, that suggest that the primary reforms backfired. Or, they may be tempted to discuss the normative issue of whether it is better to leave politics in the hands of the professionals who may be better informed or more experienced than the voters, who are only episodically involved in the political process. Interesting matters to be sure, but they are not what the question demands that you address and they should be introduced only if you can make a strong case that they belong in your answer.
How to Answer an Essay Question
The key to a successful exam is to develop an argument in your essays. Not just any argument will do, of course. You need not worry that you may advance an argument with which your grader disagrees: that is of no consequence. The grader may be a strong proponent of the primary system, while you argue that it has been a great misfortune for America. That will not affect your grade. Your grade will depend on how well you develop your thesis, whatever that thesis is.
To develop a thesis you must first have one. Read the question and decide where you stand on it. Once you have decided on the thesis you wish to propound, organize your essay to support it. Generally, an essay should have three distinct parts.
- I. Introduction
The introduction should be brief, clear, and powerful. It should leave the reader in no doubt as to what the author intends to argue and should be written in such a way that the reader is eager to continue in order to see how the author makes his or her case.
For example, confronted with the question on political primaries above, one might write something like the following:
"The introduction of the primary system is inextricably connected to the decline of political parties. Although primaries were designed to reinvigorate parties by making them more democratic and responsive to the electorate, they have had the perverse effect of vitiating party organizations, reducing voter turnout, and giving disproportionate influence to political activists and amateurs who misrepresent the views of the majority of regular party supporters. Primaries are, therefore, a major cause of the decline of political parties."
Or,
"The rise of primaries and the decline of parties are certainly linked temporally. Considering only the presidential nomination process, the rise of primaries is closely correlated with the collapse of the national nominating conventions as decision-making institutions, the weakening of party loyalty among voters, and the disarray of parties as governing organizations. But correlation is not causation. In fact, rather than being the cause, primaries are merely one unfortunate symptom of the deeper forces that have produced the decomposition of American political parties in the second half of the twentieth century."
- II. Main Body
The body of your essay is the place where you assemble the facts that support the bold and specific claims made in the introduction. Any solid answer to the sample question would have to involve some basic description of the primary system--what it is, how it works, where it has been adopted, what its principal effects are, and so on. The answer would also need to address the matter of the decline of political parties--what does this mean, what evidence of decline can be found?
To these two sets of facts it is necessary to add logical analysis. What is causing what? One form of reasoning can involve temporal sequencing. If you can show, for example, that the decline of parties was well advanced before primaries were fully established, this would support the argument that the latter could not be the cause of the former. Another logical aid involves comparison. No other country in the world has a system of party primaries like that in the United States. Nevertheless, scholars commonly believe that the signs of party decline observed in the United States can also be found in most of the other Western democracies. This suggests that the causes of decline may be located in more general social and economic processes common to the democracies and are not a function of the particular mode of candidate selection employed in the US.
An additional analytical device is to consider whether purported explanations of political phenomena can be described as either manifest or latent. For example, James Madison in Federalist Paper 10 argues that the manifest (i.e., overt, closest temporally) cause of political factions is inequality of property. This is because those who have property of various sorts organize to protect it against the claims of those who have little or none. If the analysis stops here, however, our understanding will be incomplete. Madison goes on to point out that the latent cause of faction (i.e., the deeper, more fundamental cause) is, as he puts it, "sown in the nature of man." Factions result from human nature, from the different natural endowments with which human beings are blessed and from which, Madison believes, unequal possession of property derives. In making a causal argument, then, you need to be able to distinguish fundamental from secondary causes.
- III. Conclusion
The conclusion should write itself. You will be running out of time. If you have no idea what to say in your conclusion, you are most likely in trouble. The conclusion might reiterate briefly your main thesis, it might draw out some implications of the thesis, or it might even refer to corollaries of the thesis--other conclusions that must be true because your thesis is true.
UT Austin students must petition (or claim) their credit to have it appear on their official transcript. DIIA-Student Testing Services reports petitioned credit to the Office of the Registrar.
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