When judging textbooks, well thought-out objections put you on the attack and foes on the
defensive. Our standard review criteria give you this edge. They also help rank textbooks fairly.
Below are a few of our standard review criteria for high school U.S.
Government and Economics textbooks. These are not comprehensive course outlines,
but lists of what textbooks often censor on major topics.
Discuss strict and loose construction equally.
- Give both interpretations of the "necessary and proper" and the "general
welfare" clauses. Note that both views believe in implied powers, but construe them differently.
- Explain the difference between strict and loose construction of judicial review. Strict
constructionists believe the judiciary should determine only whether the executive or legislature has a power under the
Constitution. Loose constructionists believe the courts should also decide if these other branches have properly exercised
their powers.
Benefits of free enterprise include:
- Private property
- counts private property as a human right
- makes individuals and families independent
- fosters efficient allocation of resources and their payments
- Growing net wealth
- dispels the zero-sum notion of wealth that some must grow poorer if others grow richer
- creates a larger economic pie instead of transferring claims to an existing one
- expands all classes' purchasing power
- Market price mechanism
- adjusts supply and demand automatically
- avoids shortages and surpluses
- equalizes production and consumption
