The document summarizes key concepts about the US government and democracy. It outlines the purposes of government as maintaining national defense, providing public goods and services, preserving order, socializing citizens, and collecting taxes. It then discusses political participation, policymaking systems, and models of democracy like pluralism and elitism. Finally, it analyzes historic documents like the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation that shaped America's founding political philosophy and early attempts at governance.

1. Philosophies of U.S.
Government
AP UNIT ONE

2. PART I: WHAT
GOVERNMENT DOES
 government - an institution that makes and
enforces public policies (decisions) for
society
 PURPOSES OF GOV’T:
1.) Maintain national defense to protect its citizens
2.) Provide public goods and services (+ collective
goods - services that cannot be denied to
anyone)
3.) Preserve order and keep the peace
4.) Socialize and teach younger generations what it
means to be a citizen
5.) Collect taxes from its citizens to fund public
services

3. What are Politics?
 politics - how we choose our leaders and
the policies they end up creating.
 political participation - how citizens
participate in gov’t to influence the outcome
of politics (ex: voting, contacting gov’t
officials, protesting, being members of
single-issue groups, etc.)
 single-issue group - people who are
focused on one political issue they want to
see advanced in government

4. Getting Political
 political issue - a disagreement on how to
fix a problem (ex: green energy vs. coal
energy, who gets taxed more, etc.)
 public policy - a government decision
aimed at solving a political issue
 policymaking system - how the people
influence the creation of policies that affect
them

6. Steps in the Policymaking
System
 1.) policymaking starts with the people
(their concerns, wants, needs, etc.)
 2.) the people “connect” to their gov’t to
influence it through linkage
institutions (ex: political parties,
elections, the media, etc.)
 3.) these groups encourage the
creation of a policy agenda - the
issues the gov’t decides are important
enough to be solved

7.  4.) The policy agenda is carried out by
policymaking institutions - gov’t
institutions that make public policy
– Congress (legislative) - makes laws
– Presidency (executive) - decisions and
policies of the President
– Courts (judicial) - rulings to interpret the
law
– Bureaucracy - enforce and regulate the
laws

8.  5.) These institutions make public
policy through gov’t laws, decisions,
and rulings.
 6.) Public policies are enforced and
affect the people.
IT’S A POLITICAL CYCLE!

9. Types of Public Policies
 Congressional statute/law- a law passed by
Congress
 Presidential action - a decision by the
president
 Court decision - a ruling of a court
 Budgetary action - Congress passing laws to
tax and spend money
 Regulation - agencies that regulate/make
rules for how laws are enforced

10. How to Interpret a Political
Cartoon
 1.) Look at the cartoon as a whole—
what appears to be going on on the
surface?
 2.) Look at what objects/people are
labeled. Who are they? Why are they
drawn this way?
 3.) What message is the artist trying to
send about government through this
drawing?

16. PART II: DEMOCRACY IN
AMERICA
 Democracy - a system of government
that derives its power from the people;
its leaders represent and work to fulfill
the wants of its citizens

17. Democratic Theory
 The ideas that define a democracy:
– Everyone has an equal vote (“one person, one
vote”)
– Citizens must have equal opportunity to
participate in making gov’t decisions
– Society should encourage the free expression of
a variety of ideas
– Citizens control gov’t policymaking
– Gov’t rights are given to everyone, and
citizenship is available to all

18. Majority Rule
 Democracy is based on majority rule -
the side with the most people (over half
the population) makes the final
policies/decisions
 However, minority rights must be
protected (the majority can’t do
whatever it wants)
– ex: the Bill of Rights protects minority
rights

20. Our Democracy
 our population is too large for all the people
to make all gov’t decisions (pure/direct
democracy)
 We have a representative (indirect)
democracy - the people make gov’t
decisions through elected officials who
speak for them (people are indirectly
involved in gov’t)
-the idea of gov’t through representation makes
us a republic
-Essentially, we are a republic with
characteristics of a democracy

21. Models of Democracy
1.) Pluralism - people who think alike
will work together to influence gov’t to
do what they want. Many groups want
the gov’t’s attention, but one group
doesn’t dominate.
2.) Elitism - upper-class elite hold the
most gov’t power and basically run it
(esp. influence using money, etc.)

22. 3.) Hyperpluralism - too many groups
are competing for the gov’t’s attention
and confuse the political process; the
gov’t has to satisfy too many groups so
its policies are slowed and weakened
4.) Participatory – Citizens all work to
directly make decisions that affect their
lives, generally without the specific
need for representatives

23. American Political Culture
 political culture - the political ideas/values
that are shared by a society
U.S. political culture holds to:
• Liberty - the freedom to live and act as one
wishes
• Egalitarianism - (think “equality”) everyone
has an equal opportunity to participate in
society and government
• Individualism - everyone can and should
make their own successes in society

24. • Laissez-faire - let the economy take
care of itself without government
interference
• Populism - the gov’t answers to the
will of the common people; they are the
gov’t’s priority

25. The Declaration of
Independence
 Main writer: Thomas Jefferson
 adopted by the Second Continental
Congress on July 4, 1776
 Pronounces the founding ideas of American
political philosophy
 lists the offenses of the British king (King
George III) against the colonies
 Declares the colonies to be independent
states with a gov’t of their own, absolved of
rule by Britain

30. The Articles of Confederation
(1776-1787)
 Our first attempt at government (rough draft)
 Set up the new 13 states as a “league of
friendship”
 States largely independent and would come
together only in times of emergency

31. Setup Under the Articles
 National gov’t was run by a unicameral
(one-house) legislature to make laws
for the country
 Each state got one vote
 No executive or judicial branches
 Congress could make and maintain
army and navy

32. Weaknesses Under the Articles
 National gov’t had no power to tax or
regulate trade
 Weak national gov’t could not make
states obey the Articles
 State gov’ts had the most power (were
afraid of tyrannical national gov’t)
 U.S. not a united country (more like 13
little separate countries)

33.  Changes to the Articles required all 13
states to agree
 National gov’t couldn’t put down
rebellions (ex: Shays’ Rebellion) or
deal with civil unrest over bad economy