Reference no: EM132337021
Be familiar with the following concepts:
- Know the definition of politics, power and authority.
- Understand the political processes as described in Chapter 1 of Kernell's, The Logic of American Politics, as necessary for success in resolving collective action problems in politics.
- Understand how the Founders justified their revolutionary principles in the Declaration of Independence and structured the American Republic in the Constitution.
- Know the difference between a republic and a democracy.
- Understand the difference between public and private goods, and the role of a free market system in a republican form of government.
- Understand what America's commitment to the principle of constitutionalism means and the role of limited government (that there are limits on the rightful power of government over citizens).
- Be able to identify who wrote the Federalist Papers and the significance and author of Federalist Paper # 10.
- Know the principle of checks and balances in the U.S. system of government that allows the majority's will to work through representative institutions but place checks on the power of those institutions.
- Know how the U.S. constitution provides for limited government by defining lawful powers and by dividing those powers among competing institutions
- Understand that constitutional authority for governing in America is divided between a national government on the one hand and the state governments on the other. Understand that national law is supreme over conflicting state law. Also understand the role of the 10th Amendment in defining the power of the states ("reserved powers').
- Know the ruling in the following foundational 19th century US Supreme Courts cases:
o Marbury v. Madison o McCulloch v. Maryland
- Know how the U.S. constitution provides for representative government mainly through its electoral processes (both direct and indirect).
- Know that the Bill of Rights was the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution and that it provided a list of individual rights to be protected by law. Know and be able to identify several of the key first ten amendments that have enduring constitutional meaning today.
- Know the issues taken up during the constitutional convention, which one consumed the most time and attention. Know the difference between the "Great Compromise" and the "3/5th Compromise."
- Know the difference between the Federalist and Anti-Federalists during the period of the formation of the US Constitution.
- Know the difference between a bicameral and unicameral legislature.
- Be able to identify the term of service for the President, United States Senator, and House of Representatives. Know the composition of the House and Senate, and how their membership is apportioned and elected. Understand how the Congressional apportionment translates into votes in the Electoral College.
- Know the definition of civil rights and understand the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. Know the importance of the 1957 Civil Rights Act and the three key pieces of civil rights legislation passed during the 1960s -- the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (prohibiting discrimination in housing).
- Know the significance of U.S. Supreme Court rulings in both perpetuating discrimination in the U.S. and in prohibiting the practice of separate but equal schools for the purposes of racial segregation. Know the difference between Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education.
- Know examples of Jim Crow laws set up in the southern states after Reconstruction to disenfranchise black citizens and physically separate them from whites.
- Know the difference between De Jure Discrimination and De Facto Discrimination.
- Know the definition of civil liberties, and how it differs from the concept of civil rights.
- Know some of the key civil liberties cases outlined in Kernell, including Gideon v. Wainwright, Mapp v. Ohio, and Miranda v. Arizona.