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Advanced Placement American Government
Curriculum Map
Constitutional Underpinnings (5-15%)
Constitutional Democracy
1. Distinguish between direct and representative democracy.
2. Explain the interacting values that comprise the democratic faith, such as popular
consent, respect for the individual, equality of opportunity, and personal liberty;
and examine how democratic values may conflict with one another.
3. Analyze the interrelated political processes that comprise democracy.
4. Identify the interdependent political structures that make up the American system
of democracy.
5. Discuss the educational, economic, social, and ideological conditions conducive
to establishing and maintaining democracy.
6. Trace the historical roots of the American Revolution.
7. Explain the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
8. Discuss the impact of the Annapolis Convention and Shays Rebellion on the
calling of the Constitutional Convention.
9. List the major issues on which the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had
consensus as well as those issues on which the delegates had conflicts and
compromise.
10. Debate the arguments against ratification.
11. Summarize the steps involved in ratifying the Constitution.
12. Discuss the major challenges for the American system of constitutional
democracy.
13. Define key terms.
The Constitution
1. Explain the various ways the framers tried to limit government, including
federalism, free elections, and checks and balances.
2. Describe the concept of separation of powers and its relationship to checks and
balances.
3. Define judicial review.
4. Explain how the case Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial
review.
5. Explain how the checks and balances system has been modified by the rise of
national political parties, creation of an independent regulatory commission,
changes in the electoral system, changes in technology, and in international
affairs.
6. Contrast the British and American political systems.
7. Explain the process of the impeachment and removal power.
8. List presidential practices, and discuss how such practices have evolved.
9. Explain the two methods for proposing and for ratifying amendments to the
Constitution.
10. Explain various theoretical perspectives relating to the Constitution.
11. Define key terms.
Federalism
1. Define federalism and its constitutional basis between the national and state
governments.
2. Examine various interpretations of federalism, such as dual, cooperative, marble
cake, competitive, permissive, and "New Federalism."
3. Identify and describe alternatives to federalism.
4. List advantages of federalism as they relate to the needs of a heterogeneous
people.
5. Examine powers of the national government, powers reserved for the states, and
concurrent powers shared by the national and state governments.
6. Identify limits and obligations on both national and state powers.
7. Describe the federal systems found in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland.
8. Discuss the changing role of federal courts in national-state relations, especially
following McCulloch v. Maryland.
9. Describe the expanding role of the federal courts in reviewing state and local
government activities through the Fourteenth Amendment, federal mandates, and
federal preemption.
10. Explain the historical growth in national governmental powers relative to the
states, including the debate between the centralists and decentralists.
11. Identify and describe four types of federal grants, and state the goals of federal
grants.
12. Examine the politics of federal grants, including how the battle over the
appropriate level of government to control the funds tends to be cyclical.
13. Analyze the impact of federal mandates on state and local government.
14. Identify and describe new techniques of federal control.
15. Examine reasons for the growth of big government and reasons why Congress is
pressured to reduce national programs.
16. Discuss why federalism has grown increasingly complicated, with changing
political power distribution, and the reemergence of the states.
17. Define key terms.
Institutions of Government (35-45%)
Congress
1. Assess the factors that go into redistricting, reapportionment, and gerrymandering,
and their impact on House elections.
2. Describe the professional qualifications and profile the typical member of
Congress.
3. Explain the importance of bicameralism.
4. List differences between the House of Representatives and the Senate.
5. Identify and define the basic functions of Congress.
6. Identify the major leadership positions in the House and Senate.
7. Examine the political environment in the Senate. Explain why some consider the
job of U.S. senator to be more prestigious.
8. Indicate the role of unlimited debate and the filibuster in Senate proceedings.
9. Explain the role of and procedures used in the Senate confirmation powers.
10. Distinguish between Congress as a law-making institution and as a representative
assembly.
11. Distinguish between the delegate and trustee roles of legislators.
12. Analyze the types of pressures and influences a member of Congress is subject to
in the decision-making or law-making role.
13. Evaluate the impact and power of congressional staff.
14. Trace the pathway of a bill through both houses of Congress.
15. Analyze the importance of committees and subcommittees with particular focus on
their chairs and the process by which they are chosen, especially the impact of seniority.
16. Explain why so many congressional incumbents win.
17. Explain how the congressional impeachment process works by referring to
Clinton’s impeachment.
18. Define key terms.
The Presidency
1. Evaluate what the public expects of the president in the "unwritten presidential
job description."
2. Describe the office of the presidency as established in the Constitution.
3. Explain the positive qualities that the public wants their president to have.
4. Explain why the media and the president are so often in conflict.
5. Evaluate why Congress and the Supreme Court have often been willing partners
in the expansion of presidential power and identify factors that have strengthened
the presidency.
6. Identify and summarize roles of the president.
7. List the functions of the vice president.
8. Examine two constitutional amendments that significantly affected the vicepresidency.
9. Evaluate the constraints on the ability of the president to act, such as the media
and international pressures.
10. Debate whether the powers of the presidency are both too powerful and too weak.
11. Discuss the presidential legacy of Bill Clinton.
12. Discuss what factors make for a “great” president and what factors contribute to
a failed presidency.
13. Define key terms.
Congressional – Presidential Relations
1. Explain those factors that promote both cooperation and conflict within the
congressional-presidential relationship.
2. List specific reasons why some presidents are more effective with Congress than
others.
3. Explain what the president tries to accomplish in his State of the Union Address.
4. Explain why members of Congress have different political perspectives from that
of the president.
5. Discuss why most presidents seem to have greater legislative success when their
own party controls both houses of Congress. Conversely, explain how divided
government is often preferred by large numbers of the American people.
6. Explain the reasons why Congress and the president have clashed over the war
powers issue. Also, be able to discuss the content of the War Powers Resolution.
7. Explain why confirmation politics can become destructive and even meanspirited at times.
8. List reasons why the presidential use of executive privilege, executive orders, and
the veto can promote discord between him and Congress.
9. Define impoundment, deficits, and continuing resolutions.
10. Explain the issues involved in the Clinton impeachment process.
11. Discuss why coalition building is important to a president’s success or failure vis-avis Congress.
12. Define key terms.
The Bureaucracy
1. Describe the size of the federal bureaucracy.
2. Define bureaucracy and bureaucrat.
3. Describe who bureaucrats are and what bureaucrats do.
4. Describe the formal organization of the bureaucracy.
5. Indicate the importance of the informal organization.
6. Explain how the bureaucracy has evolved and the importance and impact of the Hatch
Act, old and new.
7. List the principles of the formal textbook model of bureaucratic administration.
8. Describe the limitations on bureaucratic power.
9. Assess bureaucratic realities including the existence of iron triangles.
10. Analyze how the fictitious George Brown illustrates the dilemmas faced by
bureaucrats in determining accountability and defining the public interest.
11. Debate the need for big government and big bureaucracy, including a discussion
of how to reorganize and eliminate waste in them.
12. Debate the extent to which government should privatize public services.
13. Examine bureaucratic accountability to the President and to Congress.
14. Define key terms.
The Judiciary
1. Define judicial review.
2. Identify and define eight types of law.
3. Explain how the adversary system shapes the role of judges and the scope of
judicial power.
4. Describe how judges make law.
5. Analyze the role of stare decisis in the judicial system.
6. Outline the structure of federal courts, identifying the jurisdiction of each.
7. Describe the relationship between federal and state courts.
8. Describe the roles of federal lawyers, prosecutors, solicitor general, assistant
attorney general, and public defenders. Also, comment on the role of the Legal
Services Corporation.
9. Describe the process used to select federal judges, including the role of the
president, the Senate, senatorial courtesy, the American Bar Association, and the
Judicial Selection Monitoring Project.
10. Analyze the impact of party, race, sex, and ideology on the judicial selection
process.
11. Compare judicial activism and judicial restraint and their relationship to political
ideology.
12. Explain how ideology and judicial philosophy affect when sitting judges choose
to retire.
13. Discuss how partisan politics enters the judicial selection process, the size of the
federal judiciary, and the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
14. Explain how cases reach the Supreme Court.
15. Discuss the role of briefs and oral arguments in a Supreme Court case.
16. Describe how the Supreme Court acts in conference.
17. Describe the importance of written judicial opinions.
18. Describe the powers of the chief justice.
19. Explain what happens to a case after the Supreme Court has ruled.
20. Debate the proper role of the courts.
21. Analyze the relationship between the Supreme Court and the people.
22. Define key terms.
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (5-15%)
First Amendment Freedoms
1. Explain the Nationalization of the Bill of Rights through selective incorporation.
2. Define the Establishment Clause, including what it does and does not prohibit; and the
prevailing doctrine.
3. Describe the three-part test created in Lemon v. Kurtzman to determine if a statute
violates the Establishment Clause, and identify and describe various tests advocated by
various judges to interpret the establishment clause.
4. Explain how and when tax funds may be used to fund educational programs at churchrelated schools.
5. Analyze the disputes that arise between the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses.
6. Assess how the Supreme Court altered the interpretation of the free exercise clause in
the compelling interest test, Employment Division v. Smith (1990), and how the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 was explicitly designed to reverse that Court decision.
7. Distinguish among belief, speech, and action.
8. Define the following historic constitutional tests on freedom of speech issue: bad
tendency test, clear and present danger test, and the preferred position doctrine.
9. Identify and define doctrines currently used by the Supreme Court to measure the
limits of governmental power on freedom of speech.
10. Explain the prevailing view of the freedom of the press and the Court's position of the
press's right to know.
11. Summarize how the Constitution protects other media.
12. Explain the libel guidelines established by the New York Times v. Sullivan case.
13. List the standards of obscenity as defined by the Miller decision.
14. Compare the changing social and judicial interpretations of obscenity and
pornography.
15. Assess the problems involved in regulating "fighting words."
16. Describe the impact of time, place, and manner regulations on the freedom of
assembly.
17. Explain the significance of sunshine laws, the FOIA, and the electronic FOIA.
18. Summarize legislative and judicial action toward the regulation of sedition.
19. Discuss the relationship of the Christian Coalition to a school prayer amendment.
20. Explain the constitutional implications of hate speech on campus.
21. Discuss how aid may be provided to children attending parochial schools.
22. Discuss the rights of Right to Life groups to protest abortion clinics as well as the
rights of pro-choice groups to have those clinics protected from violence or harassment.
23. Define key terms.
Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property
1. Explain the meaning of due process.
2. What are the major naturalization requirements?
3. Describe dual citizenship.
4. Explain how citizenship is acquired and lost.
5. Identify and describe rights of American citizens.
6. Examine the rights of aliens.
7. Summarize immigration laws for admission to the United States.
8. Examine the political and practical problems caused by the presence of undocumented
aliens.
9. Examine the constitutional protections of property.
10. Compare and contrast procedural and substantive due process.
11. List three aspects of privacy rights.
12. Analyze the current standing in the courts of the right to privacy, especially in regard
to state power to regulate abortions and sexual orientation.
13. Distinguish between unreasonable and reasonable searches and seizures.
14. Identify and describe the exceptions to the general rule against warrantless searches
and seizures.
15. Explain the exclusionary rule, the right to remain silent, and the Miranda warning.
16. Summarize a criminal case in the federal court system, listing the major rights to be
protected and the procedures to be followed.
17. Specify the connection between the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.
18. Debate whether the American system of justice is unjust, in that it has too many
loopholes, is too unreliable, and is discriminatory.
19. Discuss the role of the Supreme Court in protecting civil liberties and the
constraints on that role.
20. Discuss the controversy over the death penalty, noting the new variable of DNA
testing.
21. Explain the significance of racial profiling.
22. Define key terms.
Equal Rights Under the Law
1. Define human rights and how the Constitution provides for protecting civil rights.
Differentiate between civil rights and civil liberties.
2. Discuss the various ways equality can be conceptualized.
3. Trace the development of the women's liberation movement from before the Civil
War to the present. Also, explain the importance of sexual harassment.
4. Summarize the development of the African American struggle for racial justice
from the Civil War to the present.
5. Compare the historical experiences and current demands for equality of women,
Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and Native-Americans. Also, why have Hispanics
not had more political clout?
6. Describe how the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is used
to limit state action that classifies individuals unreasonably.
7. Compare three tiers of tests used to determine whether a law complies with the
equal protection requirement.
8. Define what makes a right fundamental in the constitutional sense.
9. Compare disparate impact and intent to discriminate in proving discrimination.
10. Define Jim Crow laws.
11. Discuss the question raised in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court's
ruling and its effects, and the Court's reversal of Plessy in the 1954 Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka case.
12. Distinguish between de facto and de jure segregation.
13. Examine the efforts made in the past by state governments to prevent Blacks from
voting, and the steps taken by the Supreme Court to end those efforts.
14. Describe the content and impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
15. Evaluate the impact of the Supreme Court decision in Shaw v. Reno that race
cannot be the sole reason for drawing district lines.
16. Analyze the measures used, especially the commerce clause and the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, to regulate discriminatory conduct by private individuals and groups.
17. Examine Boy Scouts v. Dole.
18. Examine features of Title II and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
19. Summarize the provisions of the Fair Housing Act and Amendments, 1968 and
1988.
20. Discuss the controversies caused by the implementation of affirmative action
programs.
21. Discuss the Supreme Court rulings in the University of California Regents v. Bakke,
Richmond v. Croson, and Hopwood v. Texas cases.
22. Evaluate the condition of America's African-American underclass a generation
after the Kerner Commission Report.
23. What was the significance of the Bakke decision? How has admission to public
colleges changed since Bakke?
24. What was the significance of Proposition 209 and Initiative 200?
25. Define key terms.
Political Beliefs and Behaviors (10-20%)
Political Culture and Ideology
1. Define political culture. Also, explain where we learn the American political culture.
2. Identify and describe the major values that are shared by most Americans, in the
tradition of classical liberalism.
3. Assess the relationship between political values and economic change (such as
industrialization and depression).
4. List Franklin Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights.
5. Analyze what is meant by the "American Dream" and its impact on American political,
economic, and social life.
6. Define ideology and identify five schools of political thought.
7. Examine liberalism and criticisms of this school of political thinking.
8. Examine conservatism and cite criticisms of this school of political thought.
9. Examine socialism, environmentalism and libertarianism in American politics.
10. Explain the distribution of ideologies in the American population and what those
ideologies mean to most Americans. Explain why few Americans consider themselves
political extremists.
11. Compare the differences between liberals and conservatives on tolerance and support
for civil liberties.
12. Define and explain the significance of Putnam’s social capital.
13. Assess the impact of September 11 on American political culture.
14. Define key terms.
The American Political Landscape
1. Define ethnocentrism.
2. Define political socialization and demographics.
3. Distinguish between reinforcing cleavages and cross-cutting cleavages.
4. Assess the impact on the development of American democracy of geographic
isolation and a large land area.
5. Evaluate sectional differences in the United States. Include the sunbelt/frostbelt idea.
6. Examine the effect of state and local identity on politics.
7. Identify and describe the three kinds of places in which Americans live.
8. Examine the impact on American politics of race and ethnicity.
9. Outline the agenda of the Women's Movement in American politics and the current
gender issues and the impact of sexual orientation as well.
10. Examine the significance of the FAIR ad in Iowa and Proposition 187 in California.
11. Explain how family structure impacts upon the American political landscape.
12. Identify ways in which religion can be important in American politics.
13. Evaluate the impact of religious diversity and of the clustering of religious population
groups on politics.
14. Describe income and wealth distribution in the United States.
15. Analyze how aside from race, income may be the single most important factor in
explaining views on issues, partisanship, and ideology.
16. Explain what is meant by the post-industrial American society.
17. Analyze the reasons why social class appears not to have as strong an impact in
explaining political behavior in the U.S. as it does in other countries.
18. Describe the political agenda of older Americans.
19. Analyze generational and life cycle effects in politics.
20. Examine the relationship between differing educational levels and political behavior.
21. Discuss reasons for the remarkable national unity and identity that exists in a land of
such demographic diversity.
22. Distinguish between the melting pot and salad bowl analogies.
23. Define key terms.
Public Opinion, Participation, and Voting
1. Identify and define the characteristics of public opinion.
2. Define political socialization and identify sources of our views.
3. Evaluate the impact that public opinion and polls can and should have upon
government.
4. Describe the general public's varying level of interest in politics.
5. Identify the ways Americans can participate in politics and influence government.
6. Explain how candidate appeal played an important role in the 2000 election.
7. Discuss the level of voter turnout in the United States and the factors that may
influence turnout.
8. Explain why voting turnout is so low in the United States.
9. Describe the demographics of voters.
10. Debate whether nonvoting is a critical problem for the American political system.
11. Identify and discuss three main elements of the voting choice.
12. Explain why electoral reform became an important national issue after the 2000
election.
13. Summarize the key components of the Motor-Voter law. How has the law affected
turnout?
14. Define key terms.
Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media (10-20%)
Political Parties
1. Explain the functions of political parties and the extent to which they are currently
being performed by American political parties.
2. Describe the methods used by parties to nominate candidates and how these methods
have changed over time.
3. Compare the American two-party system with the multiparty system.
4. Discuss factors that are associated with the emergence of third parties and independent
candidates.
5. Explain how closed and open primaries work.
6. Trace the development of political parties and the two-party system in America.
7. Explain why the electorate prefers divided government.
8. Identify key characteristics of American political parties today.
9. Define the main function of the national committees and the main job of the national
party chair.
10. Outline party organization below the national level.
11. Analyze how the public perceives the parties to be different and the role of party
platforms in revealing or concealing those differences.
12. Explain the structure and function of parties in government.
13. Examine why parties remain important in the electorate.
14. Evaluate whether the United States is experiencing party dealignment or realignment.
15. Debate whether political parties are dying.
16. Trace the development of the political parties, especially as a response to changing
ideas of party reform.
17. Examine the problems of soft money and outside issue advocacy as they relate to the
principle of accountability.
18. Review the seven categories of party identification.
19. Explain how and why the parties were so evenly divided in the 2000 presidential
election.
20. Define key terms.
Interest Groups
1. Explain Madison's analysis of the problems of faction and possible solutions.
2. Discuss why Americans organize and join groups so readily.
3. Define interest group and movement.
4. How did anonymous issue ads harm Senator McCain’s presidential candidacy.
5. Indicate the most influential economic interest groups, and their primary concerns
relative to government.
6. Discuss the special role played by public interest groups.
7. Provide examples of foreign policy interest groups.
8. Provide examples of government interest groups.
9. Discuss the factors that make an interest group politically potent.
10. Summarize the major techniques of interest groups, including e-mail and litigation.
11. Describe who lobbyists are.
12. Explain the functions of lobbyists, include political/substantive information.
13. Describe the growth of PACs and their role in American politics.
14. Evaluate the impact of PACs on the electoral process, especially campaign finance.
15. Examine reasons for concerns about the power of faction.
16. Discuss the methods used by government to regulate interest groups and their effects.
17. Evaluate the effects of campaign-finance reforms on interest groups. Be sure to
include the impact of soft money.
18. Explain why it has been difficult for Congress to pass campaign finance reform
legislation and the possible effects of the recently enacted campaign finance reform
legislation.
19. Explain the issues involved in the Seattle group protests of 1999.
20. List some major environmental groups and explain how they do business.
21. Define key terms.
Campaigns and Elections
1. Assess the impact of the rules of the electoral game on electoral outcomes.
2. Examine the importance of regularly scheduled elections, fixed terms, winner take all,
and the Electoral College.
3. Compare and contrast House and Senate elections.
4. Identify three stages of the formal process of running for the presidency.
5. Discuss the different procedures used to choose delegates to the national conventions.
6. Analyze how different delegate selection procedures affect candidate campaign
strategies.
7. Trace the changes in the role of the national party conventions.
8. Describe the process of nomination by petition, as demonstrated by Ross Perot in
1992.
9. Outline the usual course of the presidential campaign after the close of the
conventions.
10. Discuss the most important factors in shaping campaign strategies for the presidential
general election.
11. Explain the role played by debates between the presidential candidates since 1960.
12. Debate the pros and cons of presidential primaries.
13. Evaluate the major proposals for reforming the presidential nomination process.
14. Analyze the major proposed reforms of the electoral college system.
15. Explain the reasons for concerns about campaign finance.
16. Trace the major efforts proposed and taken to reform campaign finance.
17. Explain why campaign finance reform, especially of the role of PACs, has been so
difficult to accomplish.
18. Discuss what factors significantly influenced the outcomes of the 1996, 1998 and
2000 elections.
19. What are the pro and con arguments concerning soft money in American politics?
20. Describe the proposed improvements in administering elections.
21. Define key terms.
The Media
1. Define mass media.
2. Describe the pervasiveness of television, talk radio, newspapers, and the World Wide
Web.
3. Explain how the media handled the 2000 presidential election.
4. Outline the evolving influence of the media over the past 200 years.
5. Assess the replacement of parties by the media as mediators between the public and
government.
6. Identify and explain factors that influence how people interpret political messages.
7. Assess the political bias of the news media.
8. Explain why the news media has a potent influence in setting the national agenda and
framing the issues.
9. Indicate the extent to which the news media are regulated by the government.
10. Describe the impact of the media on the choice of candidates.
11. Describe the impact of the new campaign technology, especially media consultants,
on the campaign process.
12. Assess the impact of the media on how voters make choices.
13. Discuss how the media are both observer and participant in government policy
making.
14. Compare the differing relationships between the press and the president, the
Congress, and the Supreme Court.
15. Evaluate whether the news media is doing a good job of bringing information to the
citizens and providing a forum in which to debate complex issues.
16. Define key terms.
Public Policy (5-15%)
Making Economic and Regulatory Policy
1. Define public policy.
2. Identify and define stages of the policy-making process.
3. Explain why the absence of government activity in a particular area does not
necessarily mean government is without a policy in that area.
4. Distinguish between fiscal and monetary policy.
5. Identify the major sources of revenue for the national government and the relative
importance of each.
6. Distinguish between gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP).
7. Debate what is the best type of tax.
8. Explain the origins of the anti-tax movement and its impact on American politics and
policy in the 1980s and 1990s and 2000s.
9. Explain the distinction between deficit and debt.
10. Examine how the tax policy has changed throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
11. Examine how the federal budget process operates.
12. Explain what the item veto allowed and why it was eventually declared
unconstitutional.
13. Describe the functions and operations of the Federal Reserve System.
14. Explain how the national government promotes commerce.
15. Trace the development of U.S. agricultural policy.
16. Discuss the causes and impact of the trade deficit. Explain the role of GATT.
17. Describe the purpose and impact of NAFTA.
18. Explain the pros and cons of protectionism as government policy.
19. Describe how the Clinton regulatory policy differs from that of the Reagan-Bush
years and the George W. Bush proposals.
20. Explain what government regulation is and why we have it.
21. Distinguish between economic and social regulation.
22. Compare executive branch and independent regulatory agencies.
23. Analyze the major arguments of supporters and opponents of regulation.
24. Explain how the social benefits of regulation conflict with the economic objectives.
25. Describe the development of government regulatory efforts from the nineteenth
century to the present day.
26. Define key terms.
Making Social Policy
1. Analyze the arguments over public versus private approaches to social policy.
2. Indicate the role played by federalism in the debate over social policy.
3. Explain the role of the New Deal in social policy.
4. Explain the funding process for Social Security and the questions associated with the
future financial stability of the program.
5. Describe the major components of and basis for the Great Society.
6. Explain the difficulties in changing social policy funded as entitlements.
7. Identify provisions of the 1996 welfare reform bill.
8. Analyze the federal government's three major approaches to health policy: research,
cost control, and access.
9. Distinguish between Medicare and Medicaid.
10. Examine how health care is a mostly private system.
11. Discuss the major problems of the U.S. health care system.
12. Evaluate the major approaches to health care reform, including single-payer, managed
competition, employer-mandated coverage, spending caps, individual responsibility for
coverage, and medical savings accounts.
13. Analyze social policy issues debated during the 2000 Presidential election.
14. Trace the development of the federal government's role in education policy.
15. Analyze the effects of vouchers and charter schools.
16. Discuss why education policy debates are usually not over goals or standards but
rather over the degree of local control and the impact on poor and minorities.
17. Explain how and why the federal government became involved in crime control
policy.
18. Identify the major federal agencies involved in crime control and the major federal
programs directed to crime control.
19. Identify bills passed that affect gun control, crime rates, and domestic terrorism.
20. Explain the politics involved in social policy.
21. Explain how the Canadian health care system differs from the American health care
system.
22. Define key terms.
Making Foreign and Defense Policy
1. Discuss the difficulty of defining and defending vital national security interests as
the Cold War has ended as well as within the context of this new century.
2. List the new foreign policy challenges facing the U.S. during the George W. Bush
Administration.
3. Describe the constitutional position of the executive and legislative branches in
foreign policy.
4. Assess the impact on foreign policy making of: Secretary of State, State Department,
National Security Council, Foreign Service, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
5. Assess the impact of public opinion on American foreign policy.
6. Describe the kinds and role of interest groups involved in foreign policy making.
7. Define bipartisanship in foreign policy.
8. Describe the role of Congress in making foreign policy.
9. Explain why it is difficult to have a truly "democratic foreign policy."
10. Identify and describe six foreign policy strategies.
11. Examine differing U.S. positions toward the United Nations.
12. State the overriding mission of America's defense program in the new century.
13. Explain the constitutional positions of the president and Congress in defense policy.
14. Describe the major organizations involved in the making of overall defense policy.
15. Discuss the major questions regarding women's role in the military and the ban on
gays in the military.
16. Examine the pattern of U.S. defense expenditures relative to the rest of the budget.
17. Describe the process now used to close military bases.
18. Debate the role of the military in a constitutional democracy.
19. Explain the various foreign policy strategies.
20. Define key terms.