I.

Democracy is a Western concept, generally understood as the power or the rule of

the people. When the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion,
reversing Roe v. Wade, an article in the Guardian called the ruling “a mockery of
democracy”.
Write an essay of about 400 words to discuss the issue. Your answer should make clear
what the decision means, whether you think it is undemocratic and why/why not, and how
Americans can exercise democracy in this matter within the social and political reality of
the US?

Millions of women had just lost access to abortion on 24/6/2022 after America’s
highest court overturned a near-50-year-old ruling and other precedents enshrining that right.
The conservative justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s majority opinion that Roe v Wade
was “egregiously wrong and deeply damaging”, and that states should decide whether to
limit or criminalize the procedure.

In favor of overturning the Roe and Wade ruling, Judge Samuel Alito said the Supreme
Court's 1973 decision had caused severe consequences and failed to bring about a resolution.
for the abortion controversy

"The case has sparked controversy and deeply divided the country," Judge Alito said.

The justices in favor of reversing Roe and Wade's rulings argued that abortion was a
fundamental moral question, noting that the US Constitution does not prohibit individual
states from creating their own regulations on abortion rights. pregnant.

"Roe and Casey took that authority away (from the people of the states.) Today, we
overturn the ruling, returning authority to the people and their elected representatives," said
the statement. the group of judges said.

The decision cemented the supreme court’s emergence an alternative center of power
that threatens to rupture the delicate governing balance of executive, legislature and
judiciary. Simon Schama, a leading historian, tweeted on Friday: “American democracy is in
deep trouble. It can’t survive in its present form if the constitution is manipulated to impose
minority rule.”

This decision is devastating for all people who can become pregnant, but it
disproportionally impacts women of color, LGBTQ persons, young women, people with
disabilities, immigrants, low-income people, and survivors of domestic and sexual violence
—all of whom face barriers in accessing affordable and safe reproductive health care. Black
and Brown women already have unprecedented mortality rates in this country from
pregnancy and childbirth due to disparities in health care access, and now those who live in
states that ban abortions will face even higher risks for pregnancy-related complications.

This decision is devasting to the countless generations of people, who have fought for
and protected this fundamental civil right. It is devasting because it puts at risk many other
basic civil rights that have been fought for and won over decades of struggle. It is
abundantly clear that this may just be the beginning—access to contraception, marriage
equality, and other rights for women and marginalized communities are now at risk. And it
is devasting to so many of us who work in these communities and know the severe impact it
will have.

II. What were the main economic arguments for Brexit? Are these arguments supported
by evidence? Write an essay of about 400 words to answer these questions. Reference the
relevant economic outcomes of Brexit when possible.

There are three economic aspects worth considering when it comes to Brexit:
Membership fee, Trade, and Job / Employment

Brexit taking place is reported to be the root of raising membership fee for some
remaining countries to compensate for the financial loss. EU membership fee deals with:
Peace and security, Single market, High food and environmental standards, Human rights,
Global power

Brexiteers argued that leaving the EU would result in an immediate cost saving of
billions of pounds each year, as the country would no longer contribute to the EU budget.
The money could far better be spent on reducing taxation or public services. Small and
medium-sized companies, which have never traded overseas, would be free from the costs of
regulatory burdens that come with EU membership. In 2018, the UK government paid
£13.198 billion to the EU budget, and EU spending on the UK was forecast to be £4,273
billion. So the UK9s’ contribution was estimated at nearly £9 billion. If the UK leaves the
EU, this money can be saved to develop the country's economy or improve welfare services

For: Before leaving the EU, the UK hadn't had much control over trade. Therefore,
Brexit would make UK goods get taxed and put on tariffs legitimately by the EU as the UK
no longer is a part of the bloc, making the UK products more expensive and less appealing to
EU countries looking to import British goods. Then, it also costs more for UK exporters so
that the country can protect local production. The UK’s leaving the EU could help place
tariffs on EU goods, which encourages the consumption of UK products. The monetary
values of exporting goods and services of UK- non-EU from 2010 to 2019 were higher than
those of the UK- the EU during the same period. Therefore, the equivalent percentage of all
UK to non-EU exportation is also higher than that of the UK- the EU. Noticeably, the trade
deficits of UK - non-EU countries were always positive, but that of UK - the EU were
negative during the 10 years.

For: Leavers argues that foreign immigrants took away jobs and lowered the wages in the
UK. Since the free movement of people is a basic tenet of the EU law, they believe that leaving
the bloc would be the best way to stem the flow.

III. In the “Declaration of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson wrote “We hold the truth to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal,...” Write an essay of 250 words to address the
following questions:

What did “all men are created equal” mean to Jefferson and the Founding Fathers?
What does it mean to you?
By going down in American history and focusing on important events and their
legacies, demonstrate the extent to which the idea “all men are created equal” has been
actualized in American society.
 When Jefferson wrote his famous preamble, he was restating the philosophy of natural
rights expressed in the Virginia Declaration that the Founders embraced. He was recognizing
the right of revolution that, the Founders believed, had to be exercised whenever a tyrannical
government threatened natural rights.
For founding father, they did not intend it to mean individual equality. Rather, what
they declared was that American colonists, as a people, had the same rights to self-
government as other nations.
In a famous attack on the constitutionality of writs of assistance in 1761, prominent
lawyer James Otis said, “It is a power that places the liberty of every man in the hands of
every petty officer.”
As members of the Continental Congress contemplated independence in May and June
of 1776, many colonies were dissolving their charters with England. As the actual vote on
independence approached, a few colonies were issuing their own declarations of
independence and bills of rights.
In the Gettysburg, Lincoln took Jefferson’s language and transformed it into
constitutional poetry. It took the Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history, for
Lincoln to begin to make Jefferson’s vision of equality a constitutional reality. After the war,
the Declaration’s vision was embodied in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the
Constitution, which formally ended slavery, guaranteed all persons the “equal protection of
the laws,” and gave African-American men the right to vote. At the Seneca Falls Convention
in 1848, when supporters of gaining greater rights for women met, they, too, used the
Declaration of Independence as a guide for drafting their Declaration of Sentiments.