Willis Wang
Aug.30th
AP U.S. Government
Master Outline
Chapter 1: Political Thinking And Political Culture: Becoming a Responsible Citizen
I. Learning to think Politically
A. Political thinking: rationally choose what can be believed and apply to form political
judgments
1. Casting votes
2. Forming an opinion on a political issue
3. Contributing to a political cause
B. Obstacles to Political Thinking
1. Half of adult Americans gained information from cable television, talk shows, or
Internet blogs.
a. The talk show culture does not always provide facts
1. The Bush administration tightly controlled the messages from U.S.
government, which resulted in a blur of fact.
a. Republicans thought Iraq and al Qaeda were almost the same
2. The Obama administration made Democrats thought that the economic
stimulus program created more jobs than it actually had
b.
The more citizens know about politics, the more they want to be engaged
into it
1. The Intercollegiate Studies Association (ISA) found out that the preferred
time for college students to participate in politics is when they have a firm
understanding of public affairs, but not when they finish college.
2. What Political Science Can Contribute to Political Thinking
a. Political Science: systematic study of government and politics
1. Reliable Information about U.S. political system
2. Generalizations about tendencies in American politics
3. Terms that describe a particular phenomenon / aspect of politics
II. Political Culture: Americans’ Enduring Beliefs
A. Political Culture: The beliefs people hold about their politics, often resulted from
traditions
1. Americans are resulted from people in various countries, include England,
Germany, Ireland, African, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Mexico, and China.
B. Core Values: Liberty, Individualism, Equality, and Self-Government
1. Liberty
a. Definition: Individuals can follow their will to to act and think freely
b. Religious sentiments came to U.S. to avoid religious persecution
c. U.S. had no hereditary nobility that owned lands
2. Individualism
a. Definition: personal initiative and self-sufficiency
3. Equality
a. Definition: all individuals are equal and should be treated equally before the
law
4. Self-government
a. Definition: the notion of people are the automate source of governing
authority and can voice their thoughts
b. The origin of self government came from colonial America
C. The Limits and Power of Americans’ Ideals
1. Unfair Treatments:
a. Black people:
1. Under Jim Crow era, they experienced the notion of “separation but
equal”, which forced them to use more terrible facilities compare to those
used by white people
2. Black children are twice as likely to live in poverty and die when they are
young in compare to white children
b. Chinese
1. In 1882, Congress suspended Chinese immigrants because they find them
inferior
c. Japanese
1. California enacted legislation that prohibited Japanese to purchase things.
2. Efforts:
a. Women
1. In 1848, the Declaration of Sentiments was issued base on the talk in
national convention on women’s rights
b.
Black
1. Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves
2. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the civil rights movements
3. The U.S. has the world’s most elaborate system of higher education
a. In the 1800s, the U.S. had its free public education system
b. 1/4 of adults in U.S. have a college degree, which ranks second only to Canda
in the world
D. Politics And Power In America
1. Politics is the notion of society solving conflicts and distributing resulting benefits
and costs
2. Power is the degree of influence on political developments
3. Power enables one to:
a. Provide or refuse health benefits
b. Raise or cut taxes
c. Permit or prohibit abortions
d. Protest and take away private property
e. Impose trade barriers
f. Make war or declare peace
4. Three key elements to keep politics within bounds: democracy, constitutionalism,
and a free market
E. A Democratic System
1. Democracy: a form of government in which the people govern either directly or
representatively
2. Majoritarianism:
a. The phenomenon in which political leaders respond to policy that the majority
wants
b. Can be occurred through the competition between Republican and Democratic
parties
c. When the economy became worsen in 2008, it helped the Democrats gain
control of the presidency and both houses of Congress
3. Pluralism
a. The preference by specific groups determines what government does
4. Authority
a. Recognized right of officials to exercise power
b. Obama used his constitutional authority as a commander- in- chief to increase
the number of troops in Afghanistan
F. A Constitutional System
1. History was filled with examples of majority tyranny
a. Debtors forced creditors to accept payment in worthless paper money instead
of valuable gold.
2. Bill of Rights served as a check on the majority
a. Congress would be prohibited from enacting laws that infringe up freedom of
speech
3. Constitutionalism: lawful restrictions on government’s power
4. Legal action: the use of the courts as a means of asserting rights
a. Gideon v. Wainwright
1. Gideon could not afford a lawyer when he was accused of breaking into a
pool hall
2. Violation of Sixth Amendment
G. A Free- Market System
1. Free-market system: system with private transactions
a. U.S. government intervenes through regulatory, taxing, and spending policies
b. Tax rate if lower in U.S. compare to that in European countries
2. Corporate power is an influential power
a. Roughly 2/3 of all lobbyists represent business firms
b. It controls over wages
III. The Text’s Organization
A. Public policies: decision of government to act through public policy process
B. Procedure of Public policy process
1. Recognize a problem (Problem Recognition)
2. Come up with a solution (Policy Formulation)
3. Implement a policy and evaluate it (Policy Implementation)
C. Example of Public policy process
1. Problem Recognition: The case of Hurricane Katrina destroyed many parts in New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005
2. Policy Formulation: A decision to come up with a new levee system to protect New
Orleans from flooding
3. Policy Implementation: An misjudgment where the analysis thought that the war in
Iraq would ended in several months in 2003; however, it ended in 2011
Chapter 2: Constitutional Democracy: Promoting Liberty And Self-Government
I. Before The Constitution: The Colonial And Revolutionary Experiences
A. Colonies experienced in self-government with an elected representative assembly
B. Parliament backed down the Townshend Act, but kept the tax on tea.
1. This decision infuriated the colonists
C. Deaths of colonists in the Boston Tea Party triggered the start of American Revolution
D. The Declaration of Independence
1. John Locke claimed that government is founded on a social contract
a. Consists of an inalienable rights (natural rights): life, liberty, and property
b. If government fails to oblige to respect natural rights, people have the right to
rebel against it
2. Declaration of Independence was established upon the idea of natural rights
a. Life, liberty, and persuit of happiness
b. Convey a notion of liberty, equality, individual rights, self-government, and
lawful powers
E. The Articles of Confederation
1. A constitution defines how a government will legitimately work
a. The method for choosing its leaders
b. The institutions that leaders will work for
c. Procedures they must follow in making policy
d. Powers they wield lawfully
2. Under the Articles
a. States possess sovereignty, freedom, and independence
b. No judiciary or independent executive
c. Legislation will be enacted with 9 out of 13 votes
d. Congress was prohibited from interfering with the states’ trade policies
e. Congress could not levy taxes on states
F. A Nation Dissolving
1. In the Shay’s Rebellion, due to the previous promise made between the government
and people, Daniel Shays and others fought to keep their lands
2. Governor of Massachusetts asked for help from Congress, but Congress had
already ran out of money
3. Shay’s Rebellion caused Virginia and Maryland to invite others to amend the
Articles of Confederations in Annapolis Convention.
II. Negotiating Toward A Constitution
A. The Great Compromise: A Two-Chamber Congress
1. The Virginia Plan (large-state plan)
a. Separate judicial and executive branch
b. Two-Chambers
1. The lower chamber would be chosen by the voters
2.
The upper chamber would be selected by members of the lower chamber
from lists of nominees provided by their state legislatures
3. In both chambers, the states with more population will have more
representatives
a. Delaware and Rhode Island would have 1 vote, whereas Virginia will
have more than 12 votes
c. New Jersey Plan (the small-state plan)
1. Congress has the power to tax and regulate commerce among the states
2. A single chamber and each state has 1 vote
d. The Great Compromise
1. Bicameral
a. The house of Representative will be apportioned base on population
b. The Senate will have 2 votes fore each state
2. The Three-Fifths Compromise: Issues of Slavery and Trade
a. The South afraid that North would use its majority in the House and the
Senate to enact tax policies to the South
1. The South also afraid that Congress may lay heavy tax on export products
b. The Three-Fifths Compromise viewed 5 slaves as a person
1. This fraction allowed the South to reach half of seats in the House of
Representatives
2. A notion of contradictory between practice of slavery and nation’s desire
toward liberty and equality
3. A Strategy for Ratification
a. Normally, any proposed change in the Articles of Confederation would need to
reach agreement in Congress and confirmed by all the states.
b. Delegates ignored the Congress and submitted the document to the states,
which later on obtained 9 approvals.
4. The Ratification Debate
a. The Anti-Federalists:
1.
distrusted centralized power
2. Bill of Rights had not been created yet.
3. The Article of Federation did not mention about the president, which some
delegates worried that the U.S might turn into a monarchy
b. The Federalists:
1. Published The Federalists Paper
a. The constitution would shape a prosperous union
b. The separation of power both empowered and restricted the federal
government (Number 48 to 51 of The Federalist Paper)
5. The Constitution passed only after Federalists guaranteed to have a bill of rights
B. The Framers’ Goals
1. Goals:
a. The national government was strong enough to meet the nation’s needs
especially in defense and commerce
1. Federalism created the national government and states
b. Establish a national government that is both limited government and
representative government
1. Limited government: the government is limited by laws
2. Representative government: people have a voice in the process of
governance
C. Protecting Liberty: Limited Government
1. Grants and Denials of Power:
a. Grants of power:
1. Specifically listed in Article I, Section 8
2.
The power to tax, establish an army and navy declare war, regulate
commerce among the states, create a national currency and borrow money
b. Denials of power:
1. Citizens have the right to be in the court under a writ of habeas corpus
2. Cannot pass post ex facto laws, which means that courts cannot use the
current laws to accuse a behavior illegal, because the act may be legal at
that time
D. Using Power to Offset Power
1. The importance of separation of powers was seen due to an incident in
Pennsylvania
a. Quakers were denied with their religious beliefs
b. Those who object to the Revolutionary War was prosecuted
c. The right of trial by jury was eliminated
2. Complete power is distributed by respective branches ( legislative, executive, and
judicial)
E. Separated and Institutions Sharing Power: Checks and Balances
1. Shared Legislative Powers
a. The president:
1. can veto acts of Congress, recommend legislation, and call for special
sessions of Congress.
2. Has the power to executive and interpret the laws Congress makes
b. Supreme Court:
1. Interpret acts of Congress
2. Judicial review (declares a law of Congress void)
c. Congress
1. Senate and House of Representatives can block each other from acting
2. Shared Executive Powers
a. The president needs to ask base on laws
b. Needs the money for activities from Congress
3. Shared Judicial Powers
a. Congress decides the size of the federal court system, and the number of
Supreme Court justices
1. Can also impeach and remove federal judges
b. President has the power to appoint federal judges with the consent of the
Senate
F. The Bill of Rights
1. Constitution granted the federal government direct authority over individual
citizens, but did not contain a list of citizens’ rights
2. James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights, which included rights such as
freedom of speech and religion and due process protections
3. The Bill of Rights served as an example of limited government
G. Judicial Review
1. Marbury v. Madison
a. Supreme Court could not issue Marbury a writ of mandamus because it lacked
the constitutional authority to do so, unless through a constitutional
amendment.
b. The Court held up the power of judicial review, which enabled judiciary to
decide whether a government official has acted within the boundary of the
Constitution
III. Providing For Representative Government
A. Democracy versus Republic
1. Democracy: a government in which the power of the majority is unlimited whether
exercised directly or through a representative body
2. Republic: a government that includes a carefully designed institutions for the
majority but not overwhelmed by it
a. Designs to flirter immediate, temporary sentiments to reduce the possibility of
a unwise policy
b. Constitution is a form of the Republic
B. Limited Popular Rule
1. The House of Representatives was the only institution that would base on a direct
popular vote
2. Senators would be elected by the state legislatures, and because people choose state
legislatures, the people elected senators indirectly
3. President is elected by the Electoral College
4. Federal judges would be appointed
C. Altering the Constitution: More Power to the People
1. Jefferson Democracy: A Revolution of the Spirit
a. Thomas Jefferson worried that the federal officials would alienate people and
their interests.
b. Under Adams, the national government tended to favor the nation’s wealthy
interests.
c. He thought Congress as the institution to suit presenting majority opinion.
2. Jacksonian Democracy: Linking the People and the Presidency
a. Jackson recognized that the president as the only official who would claim to
represent the people as a whole
b. He urged the states to award their electoral votes to the candidate who is more
popular in the states.
3. The Progressives: Senate and Primary Elections
a. Progressive reforms
1. Initiative and referendum
2. Recall election: through petitions by the citizens, an officeholder must
submit an reelection before the regular expiration of his or her term came
3. Primary election
4. Direct election of U.S. senators by 17th Amendment (originally were
elected by state legislators)
IV. Constitutional Democracy Today
A. The type of government created in the United States in 1787 was called the
constitutional democratic republic
1. Exercised base on laws and respect for individual rights
2. The majority influences elections
3. Series of carefully-designed institutions
B. Currently, the American System today us a representative government
1. Direct election over House of Representatives and chief executive
2. Heavily rely on primary elections
3. The relationship between an electoral majority and a governing majority is less
tight in U.S. compare to other countries
a. For instance, European parliamentary democracy avoids the scenario where
judicial branch does not check on legislative branch.