RI T3W9 Features of Deomocracy Quiz 2021

Page 1 of 4 Raffles Institution 2021 Year 3 Social Studies Unit 2: Government and Governance Features of Democracy Quiz What feature of democracy do each of the following examples best represent? Put a tick beside the correct answer. 1. Current distribution of seats by party in the current 19th Bunderstag (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestag) “There are 34 [political parties] in total to choose from. To someone accustomed to the American two-party system, this might seem a bit crowded. But in Germany this is democracy as its post-war founders imagined it, with all views and social currents, serious or not, represented. There is a party for more vegans in the federal government, for more adherence to the Bible, for a basic universal income, for senior-citizen visibility, hip hop, gardening in Magdeburg or happiness for all of humanity. To prevent chaos – and the framers of the 1949 constitution had the Weimar Republic in mind – most of these parties won't actually make it into the Bundestag. That's because the threshold for a party to win a seat in parliament is either 5 percent of votes, or three districts won via direct mandates. Based on all current polls, only seven parties will make it into the Bundestag: the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel; their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU); the center-left Social Democrats (SDP); ecology-focused Greens; the post-communist The Left; the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD); and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP). All the other parties combined are likely to share the remaining 4 or 5 percent of the votes, and so will be left out.” (Source: Handelsblatt) A) Elections C) Civil society B) Political opposition D) Limits on government power

Page 2 of 4 2. “The Bill of Rights is the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. It spells out Americans’ rights in relation to their government. It guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual—like freedom of speech, press, and religion. It sets rules for due process of law and reserves all powers not delegated to the Federal Government to the people or the States. And it specifies that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” The First Amendment provides several rights protections: to express ideas through speech and the press, to assemble or gather with a group to protest or for other reasons, and to ask the government to fix problems. It also protects the right to religious beliefs and practices. It prevents the government from creating or favoring a religion. The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms. The Fifth Amendment provides several protections for people accused of crimes. It states that serious criminal charges must be started by a grand jury. A person cannot be tried twice for the same offense (double jeopardy) or have property taken away w