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Study Guide

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Advanced US Government & Politics

Mid-Term Study Guide

Chapter 1: Government
 Systems of Government: Unitary, Federal, Confederal
 Liberal vs. Illiberal democracy
 Power distribution: pluralist, power elite, bureaucratic, participatory

Chapter 2: Constitution
 Enlightenment thinkers and ideas: Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau
 American Revolution
 Articles of Confederation
 Constitutional Convention and Constitution
o Key Principles: Separation of Powers and Federalism
o Compromises, structure of House and Senate, presidency, Electoral College, 17th
Amendment, etc.
o Enumerated, Reserved, and Concurrent powers
 Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist Papers

Chapter 3: Federalism
 Federalism
 10th Amendment
 Nullification
 Commerce Clause
 Supremacy Clause
 Necessary and Proper Clause
 Key Cases: McColloch v. Maryland, Gibbons v. Ogden, Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US, US v.
Lopez, US v. Morrison, Printz v. US, Roe v. Wade, NFIB v. OSHA
 Categorial Grants, Block Grants, Mandates
 Devolution
 Cooperative Federalism
 14th Amendment and incorporation doctrine, Due Process Clause, McDonald v. Chicago
 2nd Amendment

Chapter 4: Political Culture

 Key Characteristics: Liberty, Democracy, Equality, Civic Duty, Individualism
 Equality of Opportunity vs. Equality of Results
 Religion
 Political Realignment
 Generational differences
 Voting Behaviors of American people
 Culture wars: orthodox/traditionalists vs. progressives
 Rust Belt, Bible Belt, Frost Belt, Sun Belt, Blue Wall
 Key Cases: Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson, Obergefell v. Hodges
 Government mistrust, anti-establishment politics, credibility gap

Chapter 7: Public Opinion

 Public opinion polls
 Random sampling, sampling error, exit polls
 Presidential approval ratings
 Political socialization
 Party identification
 Motor Voter Act, Voter ID laws, split-ticket vs. straight ticket (party-line) voting practices
 Types of elections: primaries, general, mid-term, special
 American political ideologies: liberal, conservative, libertarian, moderates (not really an
ideology, but pragmatists)

Chapter 8: Political Participation

 Voting Age Population
 Voting Eligible Population
 Registered Voters
 Voter Fatigue
 Strategies for increasing voter turnout
 Amendments: 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 26th
 Voting Rights Act (1965)
 Shelby County v. Holder

Chapter 12: Media

 State-owned media v. public broadcasters v. private media
 Selective exposure, horse-race journalism, yellow journalism, agenda-setting, sound-bite
politics
 Broadcast media and print media
 1st Amendment
 Federal Communications Commissions

Chapter 9: Political Parties

 Purposes
 Big-Tent/catch-all parties
 Two-party vs. multi-party systems
 Platforms
 Weak American parties
 Decreasing party identification (party dealignment) in US
 Third parties: Green, Libertarian
 Campaign financing: PACs, SuperPACs, McCain-Feingold Act, soft money v. hard money,
Citizens United v. FEC
 Presidential elections
o Primaries v. caucuses
o Super Tuesday
o Frontloading
o Pledged/bound delegates vs. unbound delegates
o Superdelegates
o Proportional voting vs. winner-take-all

Chapter 10: Elections and Campaigns

 Single member districts (winner-take-all) vs. proportional representation
 Electoral College
 22nd Amendment
 Incumbent advantage
 Gerrymandering: racial gerrymandering, safe seats, majority-minority districts, Shaw v.
Reno, Miller v. Johnson