1. The “Establishment Clause” prevents the government from favoring a religion. The “Lemon Test” determines if a law violates the clause, if the law favors or restricts a certain religion, than it is not allowed. This helps to separate government and religion.
   
2. Yes, in Texas v. Johnson, the Supreme Court deemed that the burning of the American flag is unlawful, and an infringement on the First Amendment.
   
3. When someone says “I’m taking the Fifth”, they are invoking their Fifth Amendment right which allows them to refuse certain questions as they could be self-incriminating.

1. The federal system like the United States, divides up power between governments on the national and state level. Individuals can vote on the local, state, and national level, allowing them the ability to contribute to policy making. In confederation systems, power is given to the state government and the central government is weak. Political participation is typically seen with state governments rather than federal. Unitary systems means that all political power is given to the central government, and states can only follow the rules set for them by the national government.
   
2. The system of division of power provides a system for checks and balance, ensuring that one person or branch does not have more power over the others. Power is shared through the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, helping protect individual’s rights. It is also divided among state and central government, allowing us to protects rights through federalism. This system of division ensures that every branch of government can not gain more power than the other, allowing for equality.
   
3. While the United States is a federalist country, the national government influences local and state government through funding, regulation and aid. During the COVID-19 pandemic New York State received billions in federal aid through programs like CARES Act, CRRSA Act, and American Rescue plan. These programs helped with the distribution of vaccines, operation of schools and hospitals. New York State received $5.1 billion through the Coronavirus Relief Fund. The COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrating that while states do make policies for public health, they would not be able to make those without the aid provided by the federal government.

Sources:
https://www.osc.ny.gov/reports/covid-relief-program-tracker
https://openbudget.ny.gov/covid-funding/crf.html

1. Factions remind me of social classes and the differing interests. Madison describes factions as individuals united under a common interest that can conflict with other groups. We talked about how employers want to maximize profit, and how the workers want higher wages and better work environments.
   
2. Madison states that the disparity in wealth stems from an individuals “talents” or “abilities”. This means that some people are born with different skills that lead to them gaining more property and wealth. This understanding tells us that the difference in wealth is due to individuals rather than social circumstances.
   
3. I think that Madison’s explanation holds some truth because a person’s skills, abilities, education, opportunity, and work ethic apply to their wealth. However, he does not address things like family wealth, background, access to education, and discrimination that can play a role in someone’s wealth.
   
4. The “first object” of the government is to protect property rights. This did shock me a bit, but not as much. I think at the time, when there was lots of exploration and colonization, that property did directly correlate to wealth and influence, but I am surprised that it was specifically their core mission, as I assumed that individual’s rights would be more important.
   
5. I am not surprised that Madison leaned republican. He thought that democracy would threaten the rights of the rich and give rights to the many. From his perspective and many wealth and influencal men, they often write and create laws that would benefit themselves. So if Madison promoted a democracy, not only would he lose power but so would his friends. So a representative republic would allow him and others like him to hold a majority of the power. This system limited the power of the many and protected the “first object” of property/power.

1. The Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) are institutions that maintain power through force and fear, these would include; police, military and government. Althusser states these institutions are repressive because they utilize their power to manipulate the masses into following societal standards and using violence as punishment. An example of this would be if there was a protest being planned, the police may be sent to end it and could use force in order to maintain peace.
2. Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) are institutions that influence individuals through socialization and values. An example of these would be parents, schools, religious institutions, and political parties. They work by promoting ideas of collectivity and common norms, they do not use fear or violence, but rather let people accept their ideas as the norm. An example would be, at schools we are taught to listen to the teacher, the authoritative figure, outside of school we listen to people of power (Presidents, parents, bosses, etc).
3. Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses are different because while they both are systems used to condition the masses, their approach of doing so is drastic. Repressive uses means of violence and exploitation of power, whereas Ideological uses manipulation to normalize their ideas and values. For example; in school we are taught when it is appropriate to yell and be quiet, it is an ideological system that normalizes students to be quiet when reading. However, if a student starts to yell, they disobey the ideological system and then the repressive system might be utilized, threatening to call home or using a stern voice to silence the child.
4. An example of an ideology is the portrayal of parties and clubs in any form of media. When searching up club and parties on social media you often see people having fun. This depicTs ISA, there is no pressure to believe this, however, if a teenager is invited to their first party they might think to all the movies they see where teenagers are having fun and laughing, and feel inclined to go. Now if media depicted parties as a place where people are miserable, that would make people feel less inclined to go when invited.

1. The biggest shock to me about the wealth inequality is that about 90 percent of Americans have little or no net assets. This shocked me because of how large the percentage is. I would have assumed that about 15-20% did not have assets, but 90 is a surreal number. That means that majority of homes and cars might be owned, but their debt and mortgages outweigh all of those.

2. Living in a society with a large wealth gap is evident through politics. When an individual has more money than others they are ble to have greater influence over people, government, media, and policies. Many wealthy indivduals donate to political campaigns allowing them to have more control, and elect officials that benefit them. Those chosen officals will make policies that benefit the people backing them instead of the average person who is too busy working to fund campaigns. These inequalities not only affect wealth, but also the opportunities given. It is harder to move classes today than it has been in the past 200 years. This leaves the wealthy to have more advantages beyond their wealth.