A.P. Government and Politics: Summer Reading Assignment
A.P. Government & Politics
Summer Reading Assignment
It is essential that you complete the work before the start of school as this material will be used in our first classes as lecture and quiz material.
Task 1: Read and outline chapters 1 & 2.
 Please read chapters 1 & 2 from the Government in America text. Your note should be in the outline format, using the Harvard outline model. Your notes should be handwritten and legible. You should have 5-6 pages of notes per chapter.
 CH1: Introducing Government in America
 Ch.2: The Constitution
Textbook: Please check out the text from the library.
 Edwards, George C. III, martin P. Wattenburg, and Robert L. Lineberry. Government in America: People,
Politics, and Policy , 12th ed. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2006.
Task 2: Federalist Papers Assignment
 Read Federalist 47, 48, and 51 – Ch 1. American Government: Readings and Cases
 Please type your answers
Questions:
1.
Madison points out in Federalist 47 that the powers of the three branches of government are distributed and blended together in certain ways. At the same time, he notes that “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” How does Madison justify the intermixture of powers with his theory of the separation of powers?
2.
What is Madison's view of the inherent power potentials of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government? To what does Madison attribute the potential power of these branches of government?
3.
What does Madison mean when he says (Federalist 51), “The great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others”?
4.
How did Madison's view of human nature affect his theory of government?
5.
The entire thrust of Madison's argument in Federalist 47, 48, and 51 seems to be in the direction of controlling and even weakening the exercise of governmental power. This is a negative view of the role of government. The main question The Federalist raises seems to be how to prevent the arbitrary exercise of political power, rather than how to guarantee effective political leadership. Do you accept Madison's goal as the primary one in establishing a governmental system? Is the Constitution really as negative as
Madison implies?
Textbook: Please check out from the library
 Woll, Peter. American Government: Readings and Cases , 16th ed. New York: PearsonLongman, 2006.

A.P. Government & Politics
Summer Reading Assignment
Task 3: Chapter Identifications
Chapter Identifications (IDs) – You will be creating handwritten flashcards with the term on one side and the information on the back. For each term on the list follow the steps below:
Include a one to two sentence description/definition of the word/term/or person
Address how the word/term/or person is important in the context of the unit being studied
On the bottom of the card put a page reference/citation of where you got the information.
When you turn these in write your name on the front card and secure your IDs with a rubber and or place them in a zip lock bag. If they aren’t secured they may be lost!
Ch. 1 – Introduction Ch. 2 – The Constitution
1.
Authority
2.
Bureaucratic Theory of democracy
3.
Democracy
4.
Direct Democracy
5.
Dissolution
6.
Elite Theory of democracy (Marxist Theory)
7.
Equality
8.
GDP
9.
Government
10.
Hyperpluralism
11.
Legislature
12.
Legitimacy
13.
Liberty
14.
Linkage institutions
15.
Majoritarian Theory of democracy
16.
Majority rule/Minority rights
17.
Pluralism/Pluralist Theory on democracy
18.
Policy agenda
19.
Policy gridlock
20.
Political culture
21.
Politics
22.
Power
23.
Public goods
24.
Representative democracy (Republic)
25.
Social Contract Theory
26.
Universal suffrage
1.
Amendment
2.
An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution
3.
Anti-federalism
4.
Articles of Confederation
5.
Bicameral legislature
6.
Bill of attainder
7.
Bill of Rights
8.
Checks and balances
9.
Coalition
10.
Confederate system
11.
Connecticut Compromise
12.
Constitutional Convention
13.
Electoral college
14.
Ex Post Facto law
15.
Executive agreement
16.
Faction
17.
Federalist #10
18.
Federalist #51
19.
Federalists
20.
Great Compromise
21.
Habeas Corpus
22.
Judicial Review
23.
Madisonian model
24.
Natural rights
25.
New Jersey Plan
26.
Ratification
27.
Republic
28.
Separation of powers
29.
Shays’s Rebellion
30.
Unalienable
31.
Unicameral legislature
32.
Unitary system
33.
Virginia Plan

A.P. Government & Politics
Summer Reading Assignment
Background reading: The Federalist Papers
A nation without a national government is, in my view, an awful spectacle.
–Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 85
Nowhere was the furor over the proposed Constitution more intense than in New York. Within days after it was signed, the Constitution became the subject of widespread criticism in the New York newspapers. Many commentators charged that the Constitution diminished the rights Americans had won in the Revolution.
Fearful that the cause for the Constitution might be lost in his home state, Alexander Hamilton devised a plan to write a series of letters or essays rebutting the critics. It is not surprising that Hamilton, a brilliant lawyer, came forward at this moment to defend the new Constitution. At Philadelphia, he was the only New Yorker to have signed the Constitution. The other New York delegates had angrily left the convention convinced that the rights of the people were being abandoned.
Hamilton himself was very much in favor of strengthening the central government. Hamilton’s Constitution would have called for a president elected for life with the power to appoint state governors. Hamilton soon backed away from these ideas, and decided that the Constitution, as written, was the best one possible.
Hamilton published his first essay in the New York Independent Journal on October 27, 1787. He signed the articles with the Roman name “Publius.” (The use of pseudonyms by writers on public affairs was a common practice.) Hamilton soon recruited two others, James Madison and John Jay, to contribute essays to the series.
They also used the pseudonym “Publius.”
James Madison, sometimes called the Father of the Constitution, had played a major role during the Philadelphia
Convention. As a delegate from Virginia, he participated actively in the debates. He also kept detailed notes of the proceedings and drafted much of the Constitution.
Unlike Hamilton and Madison, John Jay of New York had not been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. A judge and diplomat, he was serving as secretary of foreign affairs in the national government.
Between October 1787 and August 1788, “Publius” wrote 85 essays in several New York newspapers. Hamilton wrote over 60 percent of these essays and helped with the writing of others. Madison probably wrote about a third of them with Jay composing the rest. The essays had an immediate impact on the ratification debate in New
York and in the other states. The demand for reprints was so great that one New York newspaper publisher printed the essays together in two volumes entitled The Federalist, A Collection of Essays, written in favor of the
New Constitution, By a Citizen of New York. By this time the identity of “Publius,” never a well-kept secret, was pretty well known.
The Federalist, also called The Federalist Papers, has served two very different purposes in American history. The
85 essays succeeded by helping to persuade doubtful New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution. Today, The Federalist
Papers helps us to more clearly understand what the writers of the Constitution had in mind when they drafted that amazing document 200 years ago. Use the internet if you want to view the full copy of each of the Federalist
Papers.