How can citizens hold accountable the government officials
who do not serve their constituents?

The citizens elect or "choose to hire" many government officials. Other government officials are appointed by elected officials.
One might consider the government official an employee of the people.

On occasion, the people may be unhappy with the performance or behavior of government officials.
A government official may have committed a crime in office. The citizens may want to remove them from office.

Like a boss in a business, the citizens may choose to fire the person.
Depending on the elected or appointed office this removal process is very different.

1. What do we call the process that removes a President from office?

What are the reasons set out in the U.S. Constitution for removing a person from office?

Describe the process.

Name the presidents that have been subjected to this process.

Name one other official that was fired using this process.

2. Suppose you find out that your Senator has pushed through the U.S. Senate a bill that benefits himself,
but will have very negative effects on his constituents.

You may want to fire him. How do you do this?

3. It is the main headline of the local paper today. Rep. Iamso Haughty has missed the last 30 votes because she was on a fact finding tour of the French Riviera. While there, her expenses were paid by BigBucks, Inc. a company that has closed its local factory to move it to Mexico. Many families have at least one parent who is now unemployed. The article reports that Rep. Haughty helped get a grant from the federal government, that covered many of the costs for Bigbucks, Inc. to move their plant out of the country. You want to remove her from office. What is the process?

What is the alternative you could use?

4. How do the processes for removing an elected state official from office compare with the method for removing a federal official?

The Yes Men - democracy for sale - Try your hand at this approach to dealing with a problem facing you today.

National Constitution Center - Interactive Constitution

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posted 7/2007 In the spirit of Thomas Paine - released to public domain by Cynthia J. O'Hora

Aligned with the following Pa Academic Standards - Reading, Writing Speaking, History, Civics and Government, Civics, Science and Technology.
Aligned with the National Standards for Civics and Government

Save a tree use a digital answer format - Highlight the text. Copy it. Paste it in a word processing document. Save the document in your folder. Answer on the wp document in an easily read, contrasting color or font. (No yellow no fancy fonts). Or perhaps you have the resources to record verbal answers. If you do, be sure to first read / record the question. Then record the answer immediately after it.

Proof your responses. It is funny how speling errors and typeos sneak in to the bets worck.