Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

WATERGATE'S LONG-TERM EFFECTS ON THE PRESIDENCY AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM


Lesson 6

WATERGATE'S LONG-TERM EFFECTS ON THE PRESIDENCY
AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM

DIRECTIONS: Watergate has been considered a watershed event in the history of the American Presidency and the constitutional system, marking the reversal of a trend toward concentrating power in the hands of the President and bringing in its wake other changes in the status of the Presidency and the other institutions of the constitutional system.

Throughout the year, you have used Document-Based Questions to analyze primary and secondary sources to answer specific questions. This activity reverses that process, challenging you to construct the base of documents for others to use later. In a sense, you are designing a test for future students.

Collect information from newspapers, magazines, and other print media over the past twenty years that is evidence of the following facts (which you will assume to be true):

  1. There was a reversal of the trend of concentrating power and initiative in the Presidency.

  2. The public developed a growing suspicion of government as a corrupt and dishonest entity hostile to the people.

  3. The press became ever-more aggressive in its scrutiny of government officials and the political process.

Refer as well to the earlier Document-Based Question: Origins of the Cold War (Lesson 1 of this Unit) as an example of what your response to this activity should look like when completed.
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