The visual guide to
AP® United States Government and Politics
5 units, 115 topics. Each topic is explained in writing, drawn as a lesson you can watch, and checked with practice questions.
/
Each unit is as wide as its share of the exam's multiple-choice section.Filled: topics you've opened.
Unit 1Foundations of American Democracy
- Natural Rights and the Social Contract
- Reading the Declaration of Independence
- The Gettysburg Address
- Limited Government and Its Four Guardrails
- Participatory, Pluralist, and Elite Democracy
- The Three Models Inside the Constitution
- Federalist No. 10 on Faction
- Brutus No. 1 Against the Large Republic
- The Articles of Confederation
- The Great Compromise
- The Three-Fifths and Slave Trade Compromises
- The Article V Amendment Process
- Separation of Powers and Federalist No. 51
- The Checks Each Branch Can Fire
- Impeachment and Removal
- Enumerated, Implied, Reserved, and Concurrent Powers
- Federalist No. 39: Partly National, Partly Federal
- Grants, Mandates, and Fiscal Federalism
- McCulloch v. Maryland
- The Commerce Clause and United States v. Lopez
- Federalism in Action
Unit 2Interactions Among Branches of Government
- Why Congress Has Two Chambers
- The Enumerated Powers of Congress
- How a Bill Becomes a Law
- Committees and Where Bills Die
- The Filibuster and Cloture
- The Federal Budget Process
- Mandatory vs Discretionary Spending
- Pork-Barrel Spending and Logrolling
- Polarization and Partisan Voting
- Redistricting and the Census
- Gerrymandering: Packing and Cracking
- Baker v. Carr and One Person One Vote
- Shaw v. Reno and Majority-Minority Districts
- Trustee, Delegate, and Politico Models
- Divided Government and Gridlock
- Formal and Informal Powers of the President
- The Veto, the Pocket Veto, and the Override
- Senate Confirmation and Appointments
- Executive Orders and Their Limits
- Federalist No. 70 and the Single Executive
- The Growth of Presidential Power
- The Bully Pulpit and Agenda Setting
- Judicial Review and Marbury v. Madison
- Federalist No. 78 and the Least Dangerous Branch
- Stare Decisis and Precedent
- How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court
- Life Tenure and the Court's Composition
- Judicial Activism and Judicial Restraint
- How the Other Branches Push Back on the Court
- The Shape of the Federal Bureaucracy
- Merit System vs Patronage
- Discretionary and Rulemaking Authority
- Congressional Oversight
- Iron Triangles and Issue Networks
- Policy and the Branches of Government
Unit 3Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
- The Bill of Rights
- The Establishment Clause and Engel v. Vitale
- Free Exercise and Wisconsin v. Yoder
- Clear and Present Danger: Schenck v. United States
- Symbolic Speech and Tinker v. Des Moines
- Time, Place, and Manner Limits on Speech
- Prior Restraint and New York Times Co. v. United States
- McDonald v. Chicago and the Right to Bear Arms
- The Eighth Amendment and Cruel and Unusual Punishment
- The Fourth Amendment and Digital Surveillance
- Selective Incorporation
- Procedural Due Process and Gideon v. Wainwright
- Searches, Seizures, and the Exclusionary Rule
- Miranda and the Rights Read Out Loud
- Substantive Due Process and the Right to Privacy
- The Equal Protection Clause and Tiers of Scrutiny
- Brown v. Board of Education
- Letter from a Birmingham Jail
- The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act
- The Nineteenth Amendment and Title IX
- The Emancipation Proclamation and the Reconstruction Amendments
- When the Government Restricted Rights
- Affirmative Action
Unit 4American Political Ideologies and Beliefs
- Core Values and the Role of Government
- Political Socialization
- Generational and Life-Cycle Effects
- How Political Events Reshape Ideology
- Building a Scientific Poll
- Sampling and Margin of Error
- Reading and Trusting Poll Results
- Ideologies of the Political Parties
- From Public Opinion to Public Policy
- Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand
- Ideology and Market Regulation
- Fiscal Policy: Keynesian vs Supply-Side
- Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve
- Ideology and Social Policy
Unit 5Political Participation
- The Amendments That Expanded the Vote
- Models of Voting Behavior
- Voter Turnout
- Structural Barriers and State Election Rules
- Linkage Institutions
- What Political Parties Actually Do
- Critical Elections and Party Realignment
- Candidate-Centered Campaigns and Party Adaptation
- Third-Party Politics
- Interest Groups Influencing Policymaking
- Free Riders and Unequal Group Resources
- Groups Influencing Policy Outcomes
- Primaries, Caucuses, and Nominations
- The Electoral College
- The General Election Campaign
- Congressional Elections
- Midterm Elections
- Modern Campaigns
- Campaign Finance
- Citizens United v. FEC and Super PACs
- The Media
- Changing Media