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AP US Government |
Calendar for First Semester:
September
October
November
December
January
September:
Sept.
9 –
Class introduction, formal logic
Homework: Read Pericle's
Funeral Oration, Hofstader's The Paranoid Style in American Politics.
Fallacy/Paranoid politics homework
Sept.
11 – (Fallacy homework due)
Fallacies, Paranoid Style of Politics, Aristotle and the Greek conception of the state
Homework: Plato’s The Crito
Sept.
15 – (Paranoid politics homework due)
The Crito and the organic conception of the state, intro to
Hobbes
Homework:
excerpts from The Leviathan.
Sept.
17 –
Thomas Hobbes and the state of nature, introduction to Locke
Homework:
excerpts from The Second Treatise
Sept.
21 –
Locke and the social contract
Excerpt
from Wealth of Nations
Sept. 23 –Adam Smith
Homework:
excerpts from John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty
Sept.
25 – John Stuart Mill and individual liberty
Homework: Read
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 1
Sept.
29 – The tension between government and freedom, from coercion to consent, quiz
review
Homework:
prep for quiz, read Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
Oct
1 – Take quiz, intro to colonial America and the revolution
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg Chap. 2
Oct 5 -- The Articles of Confederation, the Constitutional Convention
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg Chap. 2
“Framing the Constitution,” by Charles Beard
“The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action” by John P. Roche
Oct.
7 – The Constitution as an economic document? As a pact with
slavery? As a pragmatic document?
Homework:
Centinel’s Anti-Federalist Papers
Oct.
12 – The concerns of the anti-federalists
Homework:
Federalist #14, 15
"The
Enlarged Republic-Then and Now" by Cass Sunstein
Oct. 15 – The Federalist response
Oct.
19 -- Federalism
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 3 and Federalist #51 (in the back of text),
Philosophy talk assignment
Oct.
21 – (Philosophy talk assignment due)
Separation of powers and Federalist #51
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 3,
Oct.
26 – Prep
for quiz
Homework:
prep for quiz
Oct.
28 – Quiz
Homework:
Lowi
and Ginsburg, Chapter 8
Oct
30 --
The Federal Courts and how to amend the Constitution
Homework:
Lowi
and Ginsburg, Chapter 8
Nov 3 –
Judicial Review
Federalist
#78
“Vigilante
Justices” by Antonin Scalia
“The
Democratic Character of Judicial Review” by Eugene Rosto
Nov 5 – – Judicial Review II -- 60 Minutes Scalia interview
Lowi
and Ginsburg, Chapter 8
“How
the Supreme Court Arrives at a Decision” by William Brennan
Nov.
10 – What Cases Does The Court Take? and How Does The Court Decide?
Homework:
“Brennan v. Rehnquist” by Peter Irons
“Storm
Center” by David O’Brien
“Judicial
Self-Restraint” by John Roche
O’Connor,
Rehnquist, and Scalia readings on Roe v. Wade
Nov. 13 – Judicial philosophy
HW: "When Judges Make Foreign Policy" by Noah Feldman
Nov.
17 –
Prep for quiz
Homework:
prep for quiz
Nov.
19 -- Take quiz
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg 110-126
Nov.
23 – Civil liberties and the nationalizing of the Bill of Rights
Homework:
Hallmark cases packet
Nov.
25 – Civil liberties
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg 114-127, Scalia-Strossen debate assignment
Dec
1 –
Civil liberties (Scalia-Strossen debate due)
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg 114-127,
Dec
3 – Civil liberties and privacy
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, rest of chapter 4
Dec.
7 – Guantanamo Bay, PATRIOT Act
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, rest of chapter 4
Dec.
9 – Civil rights
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, rest of chapter 4
Dec. 11 – Civil rights
Homework: Study for quiz
Dec.
15 – Quiz
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg 355-378
Take
online assessments at:
http://www.ontheissues.org/quizeng/XPolitics/start.asp
http://www.madrabbit.net/webrabbit/quizshow.html
“One
Nation, Slightly Divisible” by David Brooks
Dec. 17 – Marketplace of ideas, the sources of political opinions, conservatives and liberals (Presidential campaign presentations begin)
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg 379-398
“Polling
the public” by George Gallup
“Choice
words” by Richard Morlin“All
Politics is Local” and “Dance With The One That Brung Ya” by
Chris Matthews,
“The
Tyranny of the Majority” by Lani Guinier
Jan
4 – Public opinion, polling and the function of elections
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 10
“Democratic
Practice and Democratic Theory” by Bernard Berelson, . . .
Jan
6 –
Regulating elections and the electoral college
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 10
"Dirty politics" by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, "Going
Negative” by Stephen Ansolabehere, (Both in the Lanahan Readings in the
American Polity) “’Give
‘em Hell’ these Days Is a Figure of Speech” by Eileen Shields West (in
packet)
Jan.
8 -- Negative campaigning and elections
Homework:
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 10
Jan.
12 – Media history, introduce Supreme Court simulation
Homework: Lowi and Ginsburg, Chap. 13
“The Press is the Enemy” by Chris Matthews
Jan.
14 – Libel, slander, prior restraint, and regulation of the media
Homework: Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 13
Excerpts from “Bias” by Bernard Goldberg and “Inventing Reality” by
Michael Parenti
Jan. 19 – Bias and media impact
Homework: “The Power and Prejudice of Political Comedy” by Marshall Sella
Lowi and Ginsburg, Chapter 13
Jan 21 -- TBA
Jan. 25 – Finals prep day, assign Supreme Court Simulation roles
Jan. 26 -- Final for A4
Homework: How to write a press release and "Spin" by Chris Matthews
Jan. 28 -- Final for A3
Homework: How to write a press release and "Spin" by Chris Matthews
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