AP Government Exam Notes

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy

• Enlightenment Thoughts

  • Republicanism

    • Separation of powers/checks and balances

    • Limited government

  • Declaration of Independence: Declares the colonies independent from Great Britain, asserting self-governance.

  • Social Contract: Government exists by consent of governed.

    • Includes natural rights and popular sovereignty.

  • US Constitution: A blueprint for a republic form of government. Establishes the structure and function of the US government.

• Forms of Democracy:

  • Participatory Democracy: As many people involved in the political process as possible.

  • Elite Democracy: As few people involved as possible.

  • Pluralist Democracy: People associated with interest groups influence public policy.

• Brutus 1 vs. Federalist 10

  • Brutus 1: Supported participatory mode, could not support a larger republic, liked state power (articles).

  • Federalist 10: Liberty should be appealed to because no one group can be tyrannical.

    • Addresses the issue of factions and how to mitigate their effects.

    • Causes: free thought.
      Solution: mitigate effects.

• Anti-Federalists vs. Federalists

  • Federalists: Favored a strong central government, made Federalist Papers, and supported the Necessary and Proper Clause + Supremacy Clause.

  • Anti-Federalists: Stronger state government to avoid tyranny under a monarchy.

• Articles of Confederation

  • Failed because the state government was too strong, and the central government was too weak.

  • Avoided the tyranny of a centralized state.

  • No executive, judicial branch, and Congress couldn't impose taxes.

  • Unanimous agreement to ratify amendments.

  • No power to impose taxes/raise an army.

  • Shay’s Rebellion: convinced people that the articles were weak and needed a federal army.

• Constitutional Compromises

  • Constitution created/ratified through many compromises.

  • Bundle of compromises.

  • Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise): How would people's voices be represented; the compromise was a bicameral legislature (House and Senate).

  • Electoral College: How is the president elected? (Elitist dem.) Each state is given electors equal to congressional representation (House).

  • Three-Fifths Compromise: How are enslaved people counted for representation? (3553​ of the population).

Unit 2: Branches of Government

• Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances

  • Federalist 51: The solution in the document is that each branch of government must work independently but must have powers to check each other.

    • Legislative: Making laws

    • Executive Branch: Enforcing laws

    • Judicial Branch: Judges constitutionality of laws

• Federalism

  • Sharing of power between state and national government.

  • Each government does not have ALL the power.

  • Defined in the Constitution by reserved, exclusive, and concurrent powers.

    • Reserved powers come from the 10th Amendment (hospitals, education, police forces).

  • Fiscal Federalism: Sharing of power through money (grants, mandates).

  • Mandates: Laws requiring states to follow federal directives (compliance is beyond state budget capacity, fed. Gov. gives money, Clean Care Act).

  • 10th Amendment: Power is given to states (non-enumerated power).

  • 14th Amendment: Applies the Bill of Rights to states.

  • Commerce Clause: Allows Congress to regulate commerce among states.

  • Necessary and Proper Clause: Congress can make any law that upholds enumerated power even if they are not directly in the Constitution.

  • McCulloch v. Maryland: Supremacy Clause (federal law over state law).

  • US v. Lopez: Congress overstepped with the Commerce Clause to control the Gun-Free School Zone Act.

• Congress

  • Congress gets its power in Article I of the Constitution.

  • Power of the Purse: Control over federal money.

  • Foreign policy, military legislation.

  • Ability to declare war.

  • Determining the naturalization process.

  • Regulating interstate process.

  • Implied power.

  • Necessary and Proper Clause.

  • Bicameral Legislature

    • House of Representatives: 345 representatives (population-based)

    • Senators: 2 per state, 100 senators, represent the whole state.

    • Both houses needed to pass legislation

• Leadership in the House

  • The House has a Speaker (highest-ranking, majority party, chosen by vote).

  • Majority, minority leaders (led debate, policy-making issues).

  • Whip (renders party discipline), parties in line of party goals.

• Leadership in the Senate

  • President of the Senate (VP)

    • Present not as powerful (non-voting unless tie).

  • President Pro Tempore (when VP is away).

  • Senate Majority Leader (sets the legislative agenda, which bull reaches the floor to debate).

  • Whips: same thing.

• Committee System

  • Standing Committee: Permanent (ex: budget (every year))

  • Joint Committees: Both house/senate members, library of congress.

  • Select Committee: Temporary, created for a specific purpose (ex: investigate scandals).

  • Conference Committee: If the House/Senate can't agree on an identical form of a bill to go to the floor, it goes to this committee.

    • As a bill is considered in these committees, it changes.

  • Hearings, Markup, Reporting Out for bill process.

  • The final stage is voting (goes to the president after it passes).

  • Logrolling in the voting process (if I vote on this bill, I'll give you a favor).

  • Budget process.

    • Mandatory spending (social security, mandated by the government).

    • Discretionary spending (money left over).

• Efficiency of Congress

  • Political Polarization: Democrats become more liberal, and vice versa, which makes negotiation and compromise much more difficult.

• How Representatives in Congress Think of Themselves

  • Trustee: Votes according to best judgment.

  • Delegate: Votes with the will of the people.

  • Politico: Mix of the two, whatever makes the most sense of each vote.

  • Redistricting: Every 10 years a census is done, congressional districts are redrawn by population.

  • Baker v. Carr: Didn’t redraw districts equally (less voters had more power) (one person, one vote principle).

  • Shaw v. Reno: Gerrymandering (drawing a district with an advantage to one party or group) (majority black districts were created).

• Presidential Power

  • The President has no formal law-making power (only informal).

  • Article II (Formal Powers): Veto power, Congress can override veto with 2332​ majority, Commander in Chief (Congress declares war).

  • Informal Powers: Bargaining/persuasion (bully pulpit), executive orders.

• Checks and Balances (Checking President)

  • Presidential appointments (cabinet members): Senate has advice and consent to approve/deny appointments.

  • Federal court nominations: Senate can approve and deny.

  • Presidential power has grown significantly over time.

• Federalist 70

  • Single executive, energy, required to be decisive.

  • Washington thought of himself as a servant to Congress.

  • Andrew Jackson believed he was a representative of the people (not Congress), used veto 12 times, Indian Removal Act (Congress objected but Jackson still did it).

  • Abraham Lincoln (assumed too much power to save the Union, Civil War).

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt: 635 vetoes; after his term, presidential power grew a lot.

  • Presidential appeal to the public.

    • Big advantage over other branches when getting things done (everybody knows him).

    • Media coverage: can speak to people directly as often as they want.

• Judicial Branch

  • Judicial branch checks on other branches.

  • Federalist 78: Lifetime appointments, courts had the right to judicial review (not explicit in the Constitution).

  • Marbury v. Madison: Established judicial review.

  • 3 levels of court system: US District Court, US Circuit Court, SCOTUS.

  • Appointed by President, confirmed by Senate, lifetime appointments.

• Exercise of Judicial Review/Life Appointments

  • Precedence: Hard to overturn (stare decisis) (past court decisions).

  • Legitimacy of court: Ideological changes (presidential appointments) (change of precedents).

  • Judicial Activism: Considers broad effect of decision on society.

  • Judicial Restraint: The only time law should be struck down is when it violates the explicit Constitution.

Unit 3: The Bureaucracy, Civil Liberties, and Civil Rights

• Federal Bureaucracy

  • The Federal Bureaucracy carries out functions of the federal government under the executive branch.

  • Lots of power: Cabinet Secretary at top, 15 executive departments, departments divided into agencies.

  • Commissions: Regulatory groups (created for a specific purpose, Federal Communication Committee).

  • Government Corporations (business + government).

  • Write and enforce regulations, issue fines for violations of law, heads of agencies testify in front of Congress.

  • Iron Triangle: Bureaucracy, Congress, interest groups.

  • The bureaucracy uses discretionary authority for rule-making.

    • Authority is given to the bureaucracy by Congress, giving agencies the power to make rules and carry out laws.

    • When Congress passes a law, departments of the bureaucracy get them.

  • The bureaucracy can be checked by other branches.

    • Enforcing tool of the executive branch.

    • Congressional Oversight: Committees respond to federal agencies.

    • Congress has the power of the purse (allocating funds/budget).

    • The President can check the bureaucracy by firing people.

    • If bureaucratic decisions are unconstitutional, the judicial branch can check.

• Civil Liberties and Rights

  • Bill of Rights: Protects individual liberties.

    • When it was written, it protected people from the federal government only.

    • Has been expanded to states and local governments.

    • Public interest vs. personal freedom.

    • Liberties in the Bill of Rights are not absolute.

• SCOTUS and Freedom of Religion

  • Establishment and free exercise clause.

  • Engel vs. Vitale and Wisconsin v. Yoder.

  • Freedom of speech is not absolute, but to restrict speech, the bar is high.

• Symbolic Speech

  • Tinker v. Des Moines (no disruption from speech).

  • Social order vs. individual freedom.

  • Speech can be restricted in some cases.

• Regulations on Speech

  • Time, place, manner regulations. (cannot restrict manner of speech).

    • Defamatory, obscene speech.

    • Clear and present danger to society (Schenck v. US).

• Freedom of the Press

  • Essential to the working of democracy.

  • Same standards in the press are in speech (time, place, manner, etc.).

  • New York Times vs. US.

• Right to restrain before its printed

  • Prior restraint: right to retrain the press before it's printed.

  • The SCOTUS interpretation of the 2nd Amendment has always allowed individual freedom to have a gun.

  • DC v. Heller is precedent for McDonald v. Chicago.

• Individual Liberty vs Public Order vs Safety

  • 8th Amendment, Cruel and unusual punishment/high bail: Death penalty

  • 4th Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures

  • The collection of metadata after 9/11 was questioned

  • Selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights to states.

  • 14th Amendment due process clause.

  • McDonald v. Chicago: Heller decision went to the states.

• Balancing Act

  • Balancing personal order and public order has led to courts restricting or upholding individual liberty.

  • Miranda Rule: Upholds 5th Amendment (self-incrimination), procedural due process (agents of government have to abide by a procedure; an example is being arrested).

  • 6th Amendment: The accused must have a lawyer.

  • Gideon v. Wainwright: Gideon did not have an attorney.

  • Right to privacy: Not explicit, implied in other amendments.

  • Substantive due process: Are laws themselves just?

• Social Movements

  • Constitutional provisions have inspired/supported social movements.

  • Civil liberties are the rights of the Bill of Rights.

  • Civil rights are the way of how citizens are equally protected by those liberties.

  • Equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment: Made all demographics equal by law (de jure segregation).

  • Not practice by practice (de facto degradation).

  • Letter from Birmingham Jail: MLK letter to white clergy.

  • Women's rights movement, LGBTQ rights, pro-life vs. pro-choice (Expansion of civil rights to different groups).

  • Sometimes SCOTUS has restricted civil rights, and sometimes has protected them.

  • Brown v. Board.

  • Social movements can give a huge impact on the government, policy-wise.

Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

• American Ideologies

  • 5 big ideas shared by every American and what they think of the role of government.

  • Ideologies can change how they think of the role of government (conservatives and liberals).

  • Conservatives: Individualism: emphasizes the interest of individuals against society.

  • Liberals: Individualism: enlightened individuals.

• Cultural Factors Impacting Politics

  • Political socialization: family, school, friends, media, environment.

  • Globalization from across the world influences how people think of government.

  • Generations impact attitude: experiences (example: WWI).

  • Older generations are generally conservative due to policies then (less women’s rights).

• Public Opinion

  • Public opinion is measured through scientific polling, leading to the influence of public policy.

  • Opinion Polls: Getting a feel for public opinion on policy.

    • Benchmark Polls: Taken at the beginning of candidate’s runs.

    • Tracking Polls: Over time, how the group feels about a given issue.

    • Entrance Polls: Before people go to vote.

    • Exit Polls: What they voted (after people leave).

  • How do pollsters confirm legitimacy?

    • The sample size must be representative, random, and have an equal chance to be selected to participate.

  • Discernible relationships between scientific polling and policy debates.

    • Candidates decide how to pass legislation through results of polling.

  • Reliability of public opinion data:

    • Non-scientific polls: Can be funded by political parties.

    • Shows support for party policies.

  • Political ideology sets the basis for political decision-making.

    • Most Americans become in tune with their ideology (liberals become more liberal).

    • Liberal: Expanding government powers (Democrats: women's rights, LGBTQ, and healthcare for the poor).

    • Conservatives: Traditionality; if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, resist change (Republicans: lower taxes, anti-regulation, pro-business without government).

• Public Policy

  • Public policy only affects the attitudes of people who participate in political processes.

Unit 5: Political Participation and Elections

• Economy and Political Ideology

  • Economy

    • Liberals want more government involvement to protect the public good.

    • Conservatives favor less involvement to uphold the free market (supply-side economics).

    • Libertarians: No government involvement in the economy.

      • More on voluntary trade and property rights.

• Political Participation

  • The Constitution protecting voting rights has expanded over time.

  • The right to vote is “franchise.”

    • White men with property, all white men.

    • 15th Amendment: Black men can vote.

    • 17th Amendment: Senators are directly voted for.

    • 19th Amendment: Women's suffrage.

    • 23rd Amendment: DC gets 3 electoral college votes in the presidential election.

    • 24th Amendment: Poll taxes are gone.

    • 26th Amendment: Lowers voting age to 18.

• Voting Models

  • Rational Choice Voting: Voting through self-interest (for themselves through logic).

  • Retrospective Voting: Voting through the past.

  • Prospective Voting: Voting through potential future.

  • Straight Ticket Voting: Voting based on party.

• Voter Turnout

  • Several factors determine voter turnout in any election.

    • Structural barriers (example: voter ID turnout, needing government ID to vote).

    • Political efficacy: Whether people’s votes actually make a difference.

    • Type of elections: Presidential has the most turnout.

    • Demographics: Women tend to vote more Democrat; younger people tend to vote less.

• Linkage Institutions

  • Linkage institutions connect people to the government.

    • Political parties, media, elections, and interest groups.

    • Political parties: An organization with ideological beliefs that brings a cadet for election.

      • Bring candidates to focus/get elected (media coverage, campaign management).

    • Party realignment: When lots of votes move to a different party and parties change.

    • Campaign finance laws have affected parties: How much money can lawfully be given to candidates; communication/media coverage.

  • A 2-party system makes it hard for third parties to win an election.

    • Winner-take-all voting districts.

    • Incorporation of third-party agendas into major parties (major parties adopt/incorporate that agenda onto their own platform).

• Interest Groups

  • Interest groups form around single issues, usually to influence policy-making.

    • The goal is to pass legislation that aligns with group interests.

    • Lobbying: Policy experts help policy-makers and inform them on issues.

      • Part of the iron triangle.

  • The level of influence interest groups can exert depends on some factors.

    • Funding: More funding = more power and access to policy-making.

    • Free-rider problem: A larger group benefits from the goals of interest groups.

• Elections

  • How the president is elected.

    • Closed Primaries: Voters must vote with voters aligned party.

    • Open Primary: Can vote for the candidate.

    • Some states use caucus over primaries.

      • Caucuses are more local/visible; primaries are states/secretive.

    • General Election: Debates, media coverage.

    • Incumbency advantage: The sitting President is more likely to get reelected.

    • Electoral College: Based on population.

    • Congressional elections.

      • Less participation.

      • House seats every 2 years, 1331​ of the Senate seats.

      • Incumbency advantage: More likely to vote for already occupying candidates.

      • Gerrymandered districts are more trouble: Districts are drawn by majority parties.

• Campaigning

  • Running a campaign is complex, and strategies for campaigning affect the election process.

    • Fundraising: Rely on party funding, donors from groups and individuals, PACS.

  • Campaigns can last as long as they want.

  • The election process has gotten longer/more expensive.

• Financial Contributions

  • Laws governing financial contributions in politics.

    • Federal Elections Commission (FEC) set limits originally on donations.

    • Hard Money: Money directly donated to a campaign, traceable, subject to laws.

    • Soft Money: Donated to an interest group that can buy ads for a candidate; not subject to campaign finance laws.

    • Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act: Increased limits of hard money, tried limiting soft money.

    • Citizens United v. FEC: Argued BCRA limitations violated free speech (corporations are people too).

      • Now ads and stuff cannot be limited.

• The Media

  • The media is a linkage institution, or watchdog agency, that holds the government responsible to the people.

    • Newspapers to telegraphs to radio to television to social media.

    • Investigative Reporting: One way the media holds the government accountable.

  • Laws passed based on issues made public.

  • Watchdog agency: Tells citizens what the government is doing to hold them accountable.

  • Gatekeeping aspect of media: What media reports on shapes what the public thinks of the government.

    • Effects elections.

  • Over time, the media has changed, such as the nature; media outlets have changed how content is delivered.

    • Becoming more partisan.

    • Cable news is for profits, so they report what gets the most views (FOX vs. CNN); What confirms existing beliefs.