By state law, graduates of public colleges and universities in Georgia must demonstrate proficiency with both the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. This widely used textbook helps students to satisfy that requirement, either in courses or by examination. This brief and affordable study aid begins with a discussion of the ways that state and local governments, in providing services and allocating funds, affect our daily lives. Subsequent chapters are devoted tothe development of our federal system and the importance of constitutions in establishing authority, distributing power, and formalizing procedureshow the various state constitutions differ from each other, even as they all complement the U.S. Constitutionhow constitutions in Georgia have been amended or replacedGeorgia’s governmental institutions at the state, county, and city levelselections in Georgia, including the basic ground rules for holding primaries, general elections, and runoffsKey terms and concepts are covered throughout the book, as well as important court cases at the national and state level. In addition, helpful lists, diagrams, and tables summarize and compare such information asthe structure of Georgia’s court systemthe number of constitutions each of the fifty states has had, the number of times each state’s constitution has been amended, and the length of each state’s current constitutionvarious procedures used by the states to amend their constitutionsGeorgia’s ten constitutions, with highlights of their major changes or featuresthe number of amendments voted on in Georgia from 1984 to 2012the executive branch officials elected by the public across statesthe constitutional boards and commissions in Georgia, with details on the methods by which members are chosenthe number and types of local governments in Georgia since 1952 including counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districtsthe major federal cases in which Georgia has been a party, on issues of discrimination, representation, freedom of speech and the press, the accused or convicted of crimes, and the right to privacyrights and liberties, and how constitutions guarantee and protect them
