U.S. Government and Politics

Unit One: The Context of American Government and Politics

1.1. Introduction: the internal environment, the changing international role of the U.S., American political culture (individualism, anti-statism, egalitarianism, and populism), American exceptionalism, and religion in American politics and culture.

1.2. The U.S. Constitution: the nature of the original constitutional compromise, the separation of powers, historic constitutional amendments, and constitutional change.

1.3. The federal system: evolutionary development and contemporary state-federal relations.

Unit Two: The Major Institutions of the National Government

2.1. The Presidency: the office and the person, presidential power and constraints, and the evolving character of the presidency.

2.2. The Congress: the structures, roles, and operations of, and relations between, the House of Representatives and Senate; the role of parties in the Congress; the relationship with the Presidency; and the Congressional Budgetary Office.

2.3. The judiciary: the structure of and appointments to the federal judiciary; judicial review; the functioning of the Supreme Court; judicial activism and restraint and civil rights and civil liberties.

2.4. The bureaucracy and policy making: the budgetary process, the role of the presidency, Congress and the bureaucracy, and domestic and foreign policy.

Unit Three: The Process of American Politics

3.1. Interest groups: characteristics of American interest groups; the art of political lobbying; and interest groups and democracy.

3.2. Political parties and elections: the evolution and decline of American political parties; the structure of the electoral system, the role of states in the national electoral system, the national convention, the Electoral College, and campaign financing.

Unit Four: The Enduring Issues of American Politics

4.1. The nature of American democracy: the founding dream; the criticisms of American democracy; evaluating American democracy (e.g., cultural divisions and policy debates).

4.2. Civil rights, race, and gender: the continuing issue of race in American politics; American feminism; and concepts of equality, affirmative action and language issues.

4.3. Civil liberties: freedom of expression; freedom of religion; and political, legal, and property rights.

4.4. The U.S. political economy: the nature of the American economy; government regulation; government subsidization of industry; and poverty in America.

4.5. The U.S. role in international politics: the evolution of U.S. involvement in the international system, and the linkage between domestic and foreign policy determination.