Northern Essex Community College
Haverhill, Massachusetts 01830
GOV 101 – 01A – Online Course
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Dr. Slaner
FINAL EXAMINATION
This is a TAKE-HOME exam and is UNTIMED. Try to answer the questions asked, and go over your exam to make sure you have said everything you want to say in the way you want to say it. You may talk to other people about the exam, but please do NOT write the exam with anybody else or cite material without attribution. Since the question asks you for your point of view, you should define your position and try to argue it as cogently as possible. This means that the way you arrive at your answer – your logical reasoning and power of analysis – is as important as the answer itself. Exams should be the equivalent of 4 typed pages, i.e., around 1200 words, for EACH question. Answer BOTH of the following questions:
1. The Declaration of Independence, as you know, refers to inalienable rights that people have: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (For Locke it was "life, liberty, and estate.") (a) What do you think Thomas Jefferson meant by "the pursuit of happiness," and how is it connected to his other ideals, life and liberty? (b) Relate this idea to the concept of
justice, and explain what you mean by justice. (c) In terms of race, class, and gender, what are some of the obstacles to the pursuit of happiness in contemporary America? (d) Sketch out your idea of sustainable happiness and justice for all people on Earth (NOT just the United States!). How would this type of happiness affect what is generally referred to as America's "national interest"? (PLEASE NOTE: Part (d) is very important and should be at least one page.)
You should consult a recent book by Danielle Allen,
Our Declaration,
which is summarized and critiqued by Gordon Wood in
The New York Review of Books
(available online).
2. According to Elaine Scarry, “Two staggering inventions exist side by side. One is the social contract: most elaborately known to us through the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writings of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, it ricochets forward and backward across the centuries … The other giant artifact … is the nuclear array, all land-based, sea-based, sky-based missiles that carry the warheads to their destination … [and linked] to the small number of men who control and direct them…. Each of the two artifacts, left to itself, will proliferate. Each brought to bear on the other, will bring that other to a dead halt.” (Thermonuclear Monarchy, p. 27.)
Why does Prof. Scarry see our nuclear stockpile as a negation of democracy, and how does that relate to the title of her book? What constitutional remedy does Prof. Scarry envision, and what else might be necessary to
eliminate nuclear weapons?