Packet for Unit One in AP US Government and Politics
Concepts:
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Why did the Articles of Confederation fail?
What was the immediate impact of Shay's Rebellion?
What motivated the Framers of the Constitution? Were they elitists or pragmatists?
Why did the Framers create a republican form of government?
Why did the Framers create a federal system of government?
What is the purpose of checks and balances and the separation of powers?
Why are plurality systems democratic but unstable?
What are some theories of democratic governments?
How is political power actually distributed in America?
What explains major political change?
What value or values matter most to American democracy?
Are trade-offs among political purposes inevitable?
What is the difference between a democracy and a republic?
What branch of government has the greatest power?
Does the Constitution tell us what goals the government should serve?
Whose freedom does the Constitution protect?
What freedoms does the Constitution protect?
Where is sovereignty located in the American political system?
How is power divided between the national government and the states under the Constitution?
What competing values are at stake in federalism?
Who should decide what matters ought to be governed mainly or solely by national laws?
Readings:
Textbook assignment: Patterson text, Chapters 1-3
Federalist 10 and 51.
Vocab List:
Agency loss
Agent
Amendment
Anti-Federalists
Articles of Confederation
Authoritarian government
Authority
Autocracy
Bargaining
Bicameral legislature
Bill of Rights
Block grants
Bureaucratic rule
Cabinet
Capitalism
Categorical grants
Checks and balances
Coalition
Collective action
Collective goods
Commerce clause
Communism
Compromise
Concurrent powers
Confederacy
Confederation
Conformity costs
Constitution
Constitutional democracy
Constitutionalism
Cooperative federalism
Coordination
Cutthroat competition
Declaration of Independence
Delegated powers
Delegates
Delegation
Democracy
Denials of power
Devolution
Direct democracy
Diversity
Dual federalism
Elastic clause
Electoral College
Electoral votes
Elitism
Enumerated powers
Equality
Establishment clause
Externalities
Extradition
Faction
Federalism
Federalist Papers
Federalists
Fiscal federalism
Focal point
Free-rider problem
Full faith and credit clause
Government
Governor
Grants of power
Grants-in-aid
Great Compromise
Home rule
Implied powers
Inalienable rights
Individualism
Institution
Judicial Review
Liberty
Limited government
Line-item veto
Logroll
Majoritarianism
Majority rule
Marble Federalism
Nationalist
Nationalization
Necessary and proper clause
New Jersey Plan
North-South Compromise
Northwest Ordinance
Office
Oligarchy
Override
Pardons and reprieves
Parliamentary government
Pluralism
Plurality
Pocket veto
Political culture
Political system
Politician
Politics
Popular sovereignty
Power
Preemption legislation
Preferences
Primary election
Principal
Prisoner's dilemma
Private goods
Privatize
Privileges and immunities
clause
Public goods
Public policy
Ratify
Representative democracy
Republic
Reserved powers
Revenue sharing
Revenue sharing
Selective incorporation
Self-government
Separated institutions sharing
power
Separation of powers
Shared federalism
Shay's Rebellion
Signing statements
Simple majority
Social contract
Socialism
Sovereignty
States' rights
Supremacy Clause
Take care clause
Tenth Amendment
Three-Fifths Compromise
Totalitarianism
Tragedy of the commons
Transaction costs
Trustees
Tyranny
Tyranny of the majority
Unitary Government
Unitary system
Unity
Veto
Virginia Plan
Assignments to complete:
1.) Create a chart of checks and balances. Find a historic example of each branch checking
the other.
2.) Practice a timed essay (25 min.) using the following example:
In The Federalist paper number 10, James Madison expressed concern over the possibility
that both majority and minority factions would have too much power over government, and
he presented ways of minimizing that danger. The United States Constitution established a
democratic government but also contained several provisions that limited majority rule.
Throughout the next two centuries, the role of majority rule in the United States government
and politics continued to change.
(a) Identify the part of the national government that was originally most closely tied to
citizens and explain how it was tied to citizens.
(b) Explain two ways the United States Constitution limited majority rule.
(c) Choose two of the following twentieth-century developments and explain how each
moved the United States from a less democratic system to a more democratic system.
 Primary elections
 The Seventeenth Amendment
 Expansion of Suffrage
3.) Analyze the following table and answer the following questions:
The Changing Purpose of Federal Grants to State and Local Governments
Area of State and Local Level Spending
Transportation and highways
Health/Medicaid
Education and Training
Income Security
Community and regional development
Miscellaneous
1960
43.00%
3.00%
8.00%
38.00%
0.00%
9.00%
2006
10.00%
43.00%
13.00%
21.00%
5.00%
8.00%
Which of the following does this table convey:
I.
That federal spending increased significantly in the area of healthcare
from 1960 to 2006.
II.
That federal spending decreased significantly in the area of transportation
and highways from 1960 to 2006.
III.
That, funds were shifted from highways to healthcare from 1960 to 2006.
IV.
That education and training used a somewhat larger percentage of federal
grants to state and local governments in 2006 than it did 46 years prior.
a. I, II, III, and IV
b. II, III and IV
c. IV only
d. II only
e. II and IV
Questions in addition to those in your textbook:
1. Why can't we solve our disputes through simple bargaining all the time? What factors
serve to undermine bargaining in different settings? What can people or governments do to
help solve disputes despite these factors?
2. What sorts of institutions are commonly used to manage conflicts in societies? What are
some examples of where these institutions have failed?
3. Discuss how the coordination and transaction costs for states changed when the national
government moved from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution.
4. What are principals and agents? When in your life have you been one or the other?
5. What are some examples of public and private goods that you consume? How did you
acquire them?
6. How much experience did the colonists have in self-government prior to the Revolutionary
War? In which issue areas did they have the most experience? The least? How did these
experiences shape the institutions they designed in the Articles of Confederation and under
the Constitution?
7. How were decisions made under the Articles? What sorts of decisions were not made by
the confederation? How did this system affect the war effort? How did it affect the
conduct of the national and state governments once the war was over?
8. What were the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan? What sorts of states supported each
plan and why? How did the Great Compromise attempt to satisfy both groups of states?
9. Why is the Electoral College so complicated?
10. According to James Madison, what are "factions"? What problems do they cause for
government? How can they be eliminated? How can the effects of faction be minimized?
11. In Federalist No. 51, why did Madison argue that it was necessary to separate
governmental authority among several branches?
12. What are the main differences between unitary, confederal and federal governments?
Which type of government is most common?
13. Most of the Framers felt that the Constitution adequately protected the states against
encroachment by the national government. IF this was the case, how did proponents of
nationalization succeed in expanding the power of the national government?
14. Why would national majorities sometimes find it easier to work through the national
government than through state governments? What are some examples of policy areas in
which this strategy has been used?
15. What factors facilitated the expansion of national powers in the New Deal and the Great
Society programs?
16. What are unfunded mandates? What four general forms can these mandates take? Why
does the federal government increasingly rely on these mandates?