AP Gov Speed Review | Everything You NEED in 14 Minutes

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• Declaration of Independence

  • Natural Rights: Fundamental Rights of all humans, not received from a government

    • Life, liberty, and the right to property → Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

  • Social Contract: Purpose of the government is to protect the rights of the people

    • John Locke created these two theories!!

  • Popular sovereignty: Federal government has limited powers that are granted to it by the Constitution

    • Anything not directly stated as a power of the federal government is a power given to the STATES by the TENTH AMENDMENT

• Types of democracy

  • Participatory democracy: borad citizen participation and an active role for individuals in politics

    • Idea rose with Jacksonian democracy as voting expanded to all white man (universal white male suffrage)

  • Pluralist Democracy: group-based activism to impact policymaking

  • Elite democracy: Limited citizen participation in politics, small group of elites have most of the power

• Constitution:

  • Limited government

  • Republican: representative form of government NOT a democracy (fear of power in the hands of the ppl)

  • Federalists: for Constitution, anti bill of rigths, strong central government

  • Anti-Federalists: against Constitution, pro bill of rights, states rights

  • AoC made a weak central government and too much power to the states

    • Shays’ Rebellion: weak federal response shifted public opinion towards supporting a stronger central government and a new constitution

  • Constitutional Compromises

    • Great Compromise: Established a bicameral legislature

      • Senate = New Jersey/Small State Plan = 2 representatives per state

      • House of Representatives = Virginia/Big State Plan = representatives based on population

    • Electoral college chose the president not congress or the people

      • Safeguard against democracy

    • 3/5 Compromise: enslaved persons would count as 3/5 of a person for congressional apportionment

    • International slave trade extended by 20 years utnil 1808

  • Article V: made amendment process (2/3 of both houses of congress propose, 3/4 of states must ratify)

  • Separation of powers: each branch is assigned specific powers

  • Checks and balances: each branch can limit/block/influence actions of other branches

  • Federalism: division of power between different levels of government

  • Delegated powers: powers given to the federal government

  • Reserved powers: powers not given to the federal governemnt are reserved to the states

  • Concurrent powers: held by both federal and state governments

• Types of federalism

  • Dynamic federalism: the changing balance of power between federal and state governments

  • Dual federalism: states and federal are each supreme in their own sphere, powers don’t overlap

  • Cooperative federalism: states and federal share responsibilties, costs, and administration of policies; increases federal power

• Federal government has increased power by:

  • Giving money to states

    • Categorical grants: federal money to states for a specific purpose

    • Block grants: federal money to the states for use within a broad policy area (preferred by states bc more freedom!!!)

  • Mandates: rules that states must follow, whether the federal government provides money or not

  • Changing interpretation of the Constitution:

    • Necessary and proper clause/elastic clause: Congress cna make laws “necessary and proper” for executing their enumerated powers

      • Allowed Hamilton to create the Bank of the United States

    • Supremacy clause: federal law is superior when state and federal policies conflict

    • Commerce clause: Allows Congress to regulate anything affecting interstate commerce

    • Enumerated powers: directly written in the Constitution

    • Implied POwers: powers of Congress not directly written in the constitution

    • Court Cases!!!

      • McCulloch v Maryland: Congress has implied powers based on the elastic clause (states cannot tax the federal government due to the supremacy clause)

      • United States v Lopez: Struck down the gun free school zones act, limiting Congress’s power; reaffirmed the 10th amendment

• House of Representatives:

  • 435 members representing 435 districts

  • Based on population

  • 2 year terms

  • More formal with more rules and a greater focus on leadership

    • Rules committees

  • Discharge petitions

    • Speed up lawmaking

• Senate:

  • 100 members (2 per state)

  • 6 year terms

  • Less formal with fewer rules

  • Allows filibusters and holds

    • Slow down lawmaking

  • Unanimaous consent agreements

    • Speed up lawmaking

• Standing Committee: they decide if a bill should move to be voted on by the rest of Congress

  • Permanent

  • Bills are sent here first

  • Holding hearings

  • Edit/revise/markup bills

  • Conduct Congressional oversight

• Conference Committee: make compromise versions of House/Senate versions of a bill

• Select Committees: Temporary committees for investigation into specific events (JKR assasination)

• Logrolling: vote trading

• Pork Barrel legislation: provides money, jobs, tangible benefits to a congressional district

• Mandatory sepdning: Spending required by law that can only be changed by new legislation

  • Entitlement programs: Provide benefits people are entitled to receive by law

    • Social secuirty, Medicare, Medicaid, etc

• Discretionary spending: areas of spending that must be annually approved as part of the federal budget

• Reapportionment = changing the number of seats each state has in the house after the census

  • Redistricting: Redrawing congressional districts

    • Gerrymandering: making weird boundaries to benefit a particular party

      • ALLOWED by racial gerrymandering is NOT (Shaw v Reno)

  • Baker v Carr: Banned malapportionment; established ‘one person, one vote’ principle of equal representation

• Forms of Congressional Representation

  • Trustee: representative votes with their conscience regardless of what constituents want

    • Power is trusted in the hands of the representative, thinking they’ll do what’s best for the district based on their opinion

  • Delegate: vote how constituents want, even if they disagree with it morally

    • Power is given to the representative as a voice for the constituents, regardless of the delegate’s personal beliefs

  • Politico: sometimes act as a trustee, sometimes as a delegate

• Presidents

  • Formal Powers: being commander in chief, veto power,

  • Informal powers: executive orders, signing statements, executive agreements, bully pulpit

    • Executive orders: have the power of law, used to expand bureaucracy and make foreign policy

    • Bully Pulpit: actions of the president are widely watched giving them influence

      • State of the Unions are often used as attempts to gain support for their agendas and to pressure congress

  • Major check on presidency is Senate Confirmation of: federal judges, cabinet secretaries, executive agency heads

• Judiciary

  • Created by Article III without power

  • Marbury v Madison: established judicial review; courts can rule on the Constitutionaility of laws

  • Stare decisis: “let the decision stand” = to follow precedent; a guiding principe for judges to rule based on past rulings

  • Ideological shifts on the Supreme Court lead to new precedents and overturning past ones

  • Judicial activism: idea that courts can and SHOULD overrule other branches when wrong in order to advance societla goal

    • AKA they have power so USE ITTTT

  • Reliant on states and executive branch enforcing rulings

  • Congressional Checks on Judiciary

    • Constitutional amendments

    • Altering the number of judges on the court

    • Change the jurisdiction of the courts

    • Impeach judges

    • Past a modified version of the same law

    • Senate must confirm justices

• Bureaucracy

  • Merit System: lower level bureaucrats earn jobs based on merit, not patronage (rip garfield)

  • Cabinet Departments: have major responsibility over a broad policy area

  • Independent Regulatory Commissiosn: make rules regulating specific industries to protect public; narrow area of responsiblity

  • Executive agencies: perform public services

  • Government corporations: act as private companies but are under the federal government

  • Congress has broad policy goals, agencies refine them

    • Administrative discretion: ability of bureaucrats to choose how to implement and enforce laws

    • Rule-making authority: agencies can make regulations that have the power of law

    • Iron triangles: relationship between congressional committees, interest groups, bureaucratic agencies

  • Check on bureaucracy = Congressional Oversight (committee hearings and investigations into an agency’s activities), power of the purse (changing agency budgets), presidents can reorganize bureaucracy through EOs

• Bill of Rights: protects individual liberty by limiting the federal government

• Incorporation: limits governemnts by stating that ALL states must gurantee the rights in the bill of rights

  • Due Porcess Clause: no one can be deprived of their fundamental rights without due process of law

  • Selective incorporation: Bill of Rights applied to states on a case-by-case basis

• Civil liberties: individual personal freedoms

• Freedom of religion

  • Establishment Cause: no official religion or preferential treatment for a religion

    • Engel v Vitale: banned prayers in schools

  • Free exercise clause: the right to practice the religion of your choice

    • Wisconsin v Yoder: stated that forcing Amish students to attend public school beyond 8th grade violated the free exercise clause

• Freedom of speech

  • Schenck v US: there can be a time for restrictions on speech (civil liberties v national security)

    • Challenged the Sediditon and Espionage Act during WWI

  • Tinker v Des Moines: students have free speech at school

  • Unprotected speech: libel, slander, obscenity; speech intended to incite imminent illegal action

  • Protected speech: hate speech, symbolic speech

  • New York Times v US: government is unable to prevent what journalists publish

    • John Peter Zenger: first freedom of press case in USH

• Rights of the accused

  • Exclusionary rule: illegally obtained evidence may not be used in a trial

  • Miranda Rule: suspects in custody must be informed of their 5th and 6th amendment rights

  • Public safety exception: if a question is asked to neutralize a dangerous situation and a suspect responds voluntarily, the statement can be used even though it was made before the Miranda Rights were read

  • Gideon v Wainwright: states must provide an attorney

• Rights of privacy

  • Roe v Wade: right to an abortion based on right of privacy

    • Overturned by Dobbs v Jackson

• Civil Rights: protection of groups of people from discriminatino

  • Based on equal protection clause in the 14th amendment

    • Social movements: civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964: Banned discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or origin

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965: banned obstacles to vote

    • Codified by the 24th amendment

  • Title IX: banned discrimination on the basis of sex in any federlaly funded education program

  • Brown v Board of Education: Banned segregation (overturned Plessy v Ferguson)

  • Affirmative action: preferential admissions and hiring policies for minorities

• Voting behavior

  • Rational-choice voting: voting based on what is perceived to be in one’s own interest

  • Retrospective voting: voting based on the recent past

  • Prospective voting: voting based on how a party/candidate may perform in the future

  • Party line voting: ALWAYS voting for the same party

• State policies to increase voter turnout: autmoatic registration, same-day registration, early voting, mail-in ballots

  • States are fully in charge of voting laws!!!!

• Decreasing voter turnout: photo id laws, registration reqs

• Expansion of voting rights:

  • 15th — suffrage for POC

  • 19th — suffrage for women

  • 24th — no poll taxes

  • 26th — lowered voting age to 18 (old enough to fight, old enough to vote)

• Political parties mainly act to gain power and win elections

  • Party functions:

    • Establish party platoform

    • Recruit and nominate candidates

    • Raise money

    • Mobilize and education voters

  • Parties are weakening because:

    • They’re more candidate centered than policy centered

    • Rise of the primary system

    • Changes in how campaigns can be financed

    • Regional realignment = shift of what regions are dem/rep

    • Party dealignment: ppl leavings dems and reps and become independent

• Barriers to 3rd Party Success: single member districts, plurality sstem, winner take all system, ballot requiremetns

  • Informal Barriers: feeling of a waste of a vote, lack of fudning, major parties absorbing policies of third party platforms

• Interest groups: influence policy for a specific purpose

  • Lobbying: providing info to policymakers to influence legislation

  • Draft legislation: suggest wording on proposed legislation

  • Establishing political action committees to raise and spend money

  • Mobilzing voters in the name of a particular cause

  • They exmplify an inequality of economic and political resources as well as unequal access to law makers

• Primary System: Allows ppl to nominate their party candidate for the general election

  • Open primary: any registered voter can participate in either party’s primary

  • Closed primary: only registered party members may vote

• General election: winner gains political office

• National convention: official nomination of the party’s presidential candidate; formally adopting a party platform

• Strategy: appeal to ideologicla voters during primaries, appeal to moderates/independents during the general election

• Electoral college: officially elects the president, must win 270 electoral votes to win presidency

• Incumbency advantage: incumbents are usually more likely to win reelection

  • Stronger in the House rather than senate

• Modern campaigns are characterized by length of the election cycles and campaign costs

• News/Media:

  • Take the role fo gatekeepers = choosing what issues to report and for how long

  • Form of how ppl get news/info

  • Ideological orientation leads to reinforcing of existing beliefs

    • media bias and questioning credibiliyt