AP U.S Government & Politics

Unit 1

1.2 & 1.3

    Anti-Federalists

  • Opposed the Constitution

  • George Mason & Samuel Adams

    • Brutus Papers

  • Small farmers, shopkeepers, laborers

  • Weak national government

  • Direct election of officials

  • Shorter terms

  • Rule by the common man

  • Strengthened protections for individual liberties

  • They are the reason why we have the Bill of Rights in the Constitution

    Federalists

  • Supported the Constitution

    • Didn’t need a Bill of Rights

  • James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay

    • Federalist Papers

  • Large landowners, wealthy merchants, professionals

  • Weaker state governments

  • Strong national government

  • Indirect election of officials

  • Longer terms

  • Government by the elite

  • Expected a few violations of individual liberties

    Essential Vocabulary

  • Participatory Democracy: Emphasizes broad participation in politics and civil society

  • Pluralist Democracy: Recognizes group-based activism by nongovernmental interests striving for impact on political decision-making

  • Elite Democracy: which emphasizes limited participation in politics and civil society

1.7 & 1.8

    Essential Vocabulary

  • 10th Amendment: “Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

  • Federalism: A government in which authority is divided between two sovereign levels of government: aka the federal and state governments.

    •    Government Powers Under U.S. Federalism:

    Constitutional Clauses

  • Necessary and Proper Clause (Elastic Clause) [Article I]:  

    • Allows Congress to pass laws to carry out its “implied” powers, but Supreme Court interpretations can influence the extent of these powers.

  • Commerce Clause [Article I]:

    • Allows the national government to regulate interstate commerce, but Supreme Court interpretations can influence the extent of this power.

  • Supremacy Clause [Article VI]:

    • Laws of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land, but Supreme Court interpretations may affect when specific actions exceed this constitutional power.

  • Due Process & Equal Protection Clauses [14th Amendment]:

    • The national government has the power to enforce protections for any person against the states, but Supreme Court interpretations can influence the extent of those protections.

Supreme Court Cases

  • McCulloh v. Maryland(1819):

    • Federal Bank was on state property and not registered with the state

    • This bank was then taxed by the state, disrupting the federal government's operations.

    • The Supreme Court ruled that the state government cannot disrupt the operations of the federal government by taxing them in such a manner.

    • It was ruled that federal decisions and actions are supreme over state decisions.

    • Federal laws override state laws.

  • U.S. v. Lopez(1995):

    • The student decides to carry a gun to school. He is arrested. State charges dropped, federal charges gained because federal law against guns in schools was broken.

    • Federal law is questioned because gun rights are states’ rights

    • The federal government brought up the commerce clause to defend the Gun Free Schools Act

    • Federal Government Arguments:

      • A state with guns in schools can cause gun violence, which can direct people away from that state, which negatively affects trade.

      • Arguments of the federal government:

    • Lopez's Arguments:

      • Gun regulation on school property is a power specifically reserved for the states.

      • The connection between the commerce clause and gun violence is weak at best, tyrannical federal overreach at worst.

    • Supreme Court sides with Lopez

Unit 2

Formality in the House of Representatives

  • Debate must be limited

    • Each member can speak for only one hour that time can be shortened

  • Members can only offer amendments to a bill if it is germane(specifically related to the bill)

  • Speaker of the House (or someone the Speaker appoints) controls who speaks

  • Rules committee can speed up, slow down, or even “kill” a bill before it gets to the floor

  • Rules committee assigns every bill to the appropriate standing committee, schedules bills for debate and determines when voting on a bill will take place

Senate Formalities

  • Less centralized than the House

  • Does not have strict hierarchy like the House

  • Senators can speak as long as they want

  • Filibuster = a senator can speak long enough for the deadline to pass or get the opposition to give in

Coalitions

  • Caucus/conference = members of each house who belong to the same party

    • Independent members can shoose which conference they want to associate with

    • Sub groups will also form

  • Bipartisan = groups that are made of members of both parties

  • Member states with similar interest work together

    • Farming, fishing, oil production, etc.

  • Members from different states may work together for a common cause

List of enumerated (delegated) powers

  • Taxation

  • Creation of a military

  • Ability to declare war

  • Establish a court system

  • Establish a postal system

  • Create money

  • Regulated commerce

  • Regulate immigration/naturalization

  • Powers of impeachment

    • House brings on charges

    • Senate tries the case

Power of the Purse (delegated power)

  • Congress may raise money and spend money on behalf of the people

  • Congress must pass a budget for the government

Implied powers of Congress

  • Necessary and proper clause!

    • Examples:

      • National Bank

      • Draft

      • IRS

      • National Minimum Wage

      • National Medicare Care

2.3

Ideology: Beliefs

Gridlock: When politics get so divided, it is hard to pass laws

Gerrymandering: Redistricting to give a political party an advantage

Racial Gerrymandering: Redistricting based on race

  • Delegate Model

    • Believes he or she must vote with the will of the people

    • Believes he or she is there to represent the people’s beliefs and desires, not their own

  • Trustee Model

  • Politico Model

2.4 + 2.5

Formal Powers of the President

  • Commander in Chief of the Army & Navy

  • Grant pardons (except in cases of impeachment)

  • Make treaties

  • Appointment of ambassadors, judges, etc. 

    • Must be approved by the Senate

  • May fill vacancies in the Senate during recess if needed

  • Veto legislation from Congress

    • Pocket veto

Informal (Implied) Powers of the President

  • Foreign policy

    • President has the ability to influence relationships with other countries

  • Bargaining & persuasion

    • Social media use? 

  • Executive orders

    • Can use these to bypass Congress and make laws by himself

  • Executive agreements

    • Agreements w/ other countries even though Congress does not approve

  • Signing statements

    • President’s way of expressing his concerns over a passed law

  • Executive privilege

    • Do not have to tell everything to the public

    • Can’t hide criminal information

Checks and Balances in Congress

  • Senate = power of advice and consent

    • Presidential appointments must be approved by the Senate

  • Presidential appointments

    • Ambassadors to other nations

      • Approved by Senate

    • White House Staff

    • Presidential Cabinet

      • Approved by Senate

    • Judges to Federal Courts

      • This is hotly contested

      • Provides a long lasting influence for the President

2.7

  • Bully Pulpit: President uses his position to shape public opinion and promote their political platform.

US Constitution

  • Judicial Negating:

  • Judicial Nullification:

  • Voiding:

Judicial Review

The Supreme Court’s power to declare laws unconstitutional. This was established in the Marbury v. Madison case.

Stare Decisis

The legal principle that courts should respect precedent set by previous judicial decisions, ensuring consistency and stability in the law.

  • Courts should rule similarily to previous court rulings

  • Setting a precedent means that a court establishes a way you interpret a law and future cases should follow that interpretation of the law.

  • Courts look at precedents when overseeing an on-going case with similar circumstances.

2.12 + 2.13

The bureaucracy and rulemaking

What does the Bureaucracy look like?

  • Cabinet Department’s (15 of them)

    • Appointed by President and confirmed by the Senate

    • Secretary of Education, Secretary of Defense

  • Independent Executive Agencies

    • Have a narrow focus

    • Appointed by President and confirmed by the Senate

    • NASA, IRS, 

  • Independent Regulatory Commissions

    • Protect the public interest by enforcing rules over federal regulations

    • Usually headed by Boards - can be removed

    • Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

  • Government Corporations

    • A government organization that provides a service

    • United States Postal Service (USPS)

Bereaucracy implements federal policy

  • Quasi-legislative (interact with Congress)

    • Rule-making (writes and enforces legislation)

    • Testify in Congressional oversight meetings

  • Quasi-judicial

    • Administrative discretion

    • Administrative adjudication

**Congress or the President gives a mandate and the Bureaucracy will work to make that a reality

Bureaucracy Rule Implementation Examples

  • Department of Homeland Security

    • Set rules and regulations for naturalization

  • Department of Transportation

    • Set standards for airline safety

    • Investigate airline issues and non-compliance

  • Department of Veteran Affairs

    • Set requirements for disability benefits

  • Securities Exchange Commission

    • Define insider trading violations

    • Prosecute non-compliant businesses

Iron Triangle

How people get shit done in the government —- Antosz

Unit 3

3.7

Selective Incorporation

Definition: The process by which the Bill of Rights is applied to the states.

(AKA: incorporating the Bill of Rights to the states)

14th Amendment

  • “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”

  • Due Process Clause: “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law”

Gitlow v. New York

  • Establishes selective incorporation

  • Ruling extends the 1st Amendment’s free speech and press to the state

3.10 + 3.11

Social Movements

Social Movements

Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Enacted to outlaw discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

  • Title 2: Prohibits discrimination in public accommodations (e.g., hotels, restaurants, theaters).

  • Title 7: Prohibits discrimination by employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, and national origin. It established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce this provision.

    • Title 7 motivated social movements to ensure safe work environments. If people are discriminated, it encouraged people to speak up.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

This was a law to enforce the 15th Amendment. It outlawed literacy tests and provided appointment for federal examiners. It applied a national prohibition of the denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race or color. With the 24th Amendment, passed a year before, the Voting Rights Act made sure there was no discrimination in voting. Poll taxes, literacy tests, etc, led to this law being passed since it was used to discriminate against Black People. The 24th Amendment which abolished poll taxes was passed alongside this law.

Title 9

It prevents people from being discriminated based on sex in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance. It was the result of the women’s rights movement.

Civil Rights vs. Civil Liberties

Civil Rights

Civil Liberties

Ensures that every American regardless of sex, religion, or race has access to these civil liberties

Rights guaranteed to every American citizen by the Constitution

14th Amendment

Protects citizens from discrimination based on:

  • Race

  • Religion

  • National Origin

  • Sex

Key Phrases:

  • Privileges and Immunities

    • Up to the states

  • Due Process Clause

    • Process oriented protection of natural law

  • Equal Protection Clause

    • Bridges the 5th and 14th amendments

How social movemens look for change:

  • Constitutional Amendments

  • Acts of Congress

  • Executive Directives (Orders)

  • Judicial Review & Stare Decisis

Civil Rights Movements (required to know)

  • 1950s/1960s: African American Civil Rights Movements

    • Martin Luther King Jr. 

    • Malcolm X

    • Civil Rights Act 1964

    • Voting Rights Act 1965

  • 1960s/1970s: Women’s Rights Movement

    • 19th Amendment (1920)

    • NOW Organization

    • The Feminine Mystique 

      • A book by Betty Friedan that questioned the societal roles for women (taking care of children, being a stay at home mom)

    • Title IX (filled the gap in the Civil Rights Act of 1964)

  • 1970s/1980s: LGBTQ+ Movements

    • “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Policy

      • You can’t be openly gay in the military: We don’t ask you if you’re gay, you don’t tell us if you’re gay.

  • 1970s: Right to Life Movement

    • Response to Roe v. Wade

3.13

  • Affirmative Action: Describes policies enacted that favor groups that have been historically discriminated against

    • Affirmative Action has been interpreted as diversity in the workforce, meaning, seeking different minority groups (for hiring, for colleges, etc.)

Controversy

  • Is it constitutional to have minority quotas(minimum amounts of minorities) in various institutions?

  • Is the constitution color-blind?

Supreme Court Rulings

  • De Jure Segregation: Racial discrimination by law

  • De Facto Segregation: Racial segregation by personal choice

  • Supreme Court ruled against DE JURE segregation.

  • Supreme Court ruled against minority quotas in colleges.

  • Supreme Court ruled that firefighters can take a test and be determined whether they can be hired, even if black people score less becasue the test was an accurate representation of the job.

Unit 4

5 Values Shared by All Americans

  1. Individualism

  •     Self-reliance & independence

  1. Equality of Opportunity

  2. Free Enterprise

  •     Laissez faire economics

  1. Rule of Law

  •     Every citizen is equal under the law - no special privileges

  1. Limited Government

  •     Government is limited defined, and established through checks and balances

Political Socialization (aka: How do you figure out your political beliefs?)

  1. Family

  2. Schools

  3. Peers

  4. Media

  5. Civic/Religious Organizations

  6. Globalization

How Does Ideology Change?

  • Generational Effects

    • A person’s voting behavior and ideology is influenced by the generation they are born into

      • Silent Generation (born before 1945)

        • High belief in church attendance and religious beliefs

        • Rigid gender roles to men and women

        • Tough on crime & pro troops

      • Baby boomers (WWII - 1960s)

        • More liberal than silent generation (grew up in the 1960s)

        • Still voted conservative (for the most part)

      • Generation X (Mid 1960s - 1980)

        • Grew up with divorce

        • First to use the internet

        • More diversity

        • More liberal

      • Millennials (1981-1996)

        • Even more ethnically diverse

        • More likely to think about racial discrimination in society

        • More favorable to immigrants

How do Political Events Affect Socialization?

  • Silent Generation

    • Great Depression

  • Baby Boomers

    • Vietnam War

  • Millenials

    • 9/11

4.1

Polls

If a poll is created with scientific rigor, then it is the best tool for measuring public opinion.

The process includes:

  • Writing questions that are as free from bias as possible

  • Presenting questions to a small, randomized group of people

  • Generalizing those results to a larger population

4 types of polls

  • Opinion Poll

    • What people think on certain things

    • Helps get a feel for the public’s opinion on a certain topic of dicerning people’s feeling on certain candidates or polocies.

  • Benchmark Poll

    • How favored is the candidate among the people

    • Taken at the beginning of a candidate’s run and gives the campaign a benchmark against which they can compare future polls to see how the candidate is faring.

  • Tracking Poll

    • How opinion shifts over time

    • Conducted over time, usually with the same group of people, gives information on how the group feels about a given issue.

  • Entrance/Exit Poll

    • Who people voted for

    • Conducted at voting sites and asks people how they voted

Sample = A small group of people to represent a bigger group of people

Samping Methodology

  • A sample needs to be representative

Sampling Error

Neutral Questions

Two Major Types of Polls

  1. Focus Group

  2. Mass Survey

4.6

  • Public opinion affects election outcomes and policy debates

  • On primary debates, the most favorable person on opinion polls gets put at the center of the debate stage.

  • Politicians generally vote for policies that are favored by the people

  • The relationship between public opinion polls and elections and policy debates can be affected by how people view…

  • Social Desirability Bias

    • When people filling out surveys give out socially desirable answer, even if they don’t follow through with it. (when people don’t want others to know who they voted for on a poll and give a false answer)

  • Non-Response Bias

    • Certain groups are more likely to respond to public opinion polls than others. (More Hillary supporters can respond to a survey, showing a Hillary victory, but Trump can win because more people who don’t respond to surveys may vote for Trump)

  • Polls can be funded by partisan groups and are not reliable

4.9 + 4.10

  • Fiscal Policy: Decisions government makes about spending & taxation

    • 16th amendment established the federal income tax

    • Congress created the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

  • Monetary Policy: Decisions government makes about how much money is in the economy

    • Federal Reserve buys and sells bonds, sets reserve requirements, and sets interest rates

    • Congress passes an annual budget every year

      • Congress is considered to have the “power of the purse”

Liberal Economic Perspective

  • Government spending is good

  • Push for government spending

    • Keynesian economics

      • FDR during the Great Depression

Conservative Economic Perspective

  • Free Markets, no taxes

  • Allows the free market to regulate itself

    • Invisible Hand

    • Laissez faire 

      • The economy should not be affected by the government

  • Supply side economics

    • AKA Trickle down economics

      • Rich people spend money on the middle class, the middle class spends it on the lower class (the money trickles down)

    • Support businesses! 

Libertarian Economic Perspective (leans conservative in this topic)

  • Least amount of government regulations possible

  • No regulation on business and no government programs. 

Liberal Social Ideology

  • Don’t want the government to be involved in social issues

    • Marijuana legalization

    • Abortion

    • Same-sex marriage

  • Support social welfare programs

Conservative Social Ideology

  • Want the government to be involved in:

    • Marijuanna

    • Abortion

    • Same-sex marriage

  • Wary of increased spending on social welfare

Libertarian Social Ideology (leans more liberal in this topic)

  • No government involvement

    • Government should protect private property and uphold individual freedoms

Unit 5

5.1

Voting Rights and Protections in the Constitution

Legal protections are found in the following amendments:

  • 15: Granted African American men the right to vote

  • 17: Direct election for senators

  • 19: Granted women the right to vote

  • 24: Eliminated poll taxes (a barrier to voting)

  • 26: Lowered the voting age to 18

Voting Models

  1. Rational choice voting: Person votes based on self-interest; carefully studies the issues/platforms (I want this so I’ll vote for this)

  2. Retrospective voting: Person votes based on the recent track record of the candidates (This guy seems to do well, I’ll vote for him again)

  3. Prospective voting: Person votes based on predictions of how a party or candidate will perform in the future (I think this guy will do good in the future, I’ll vote for him)

  4. Party-line voting: Person votes for all the candidates of the voter’s party