1.0 Institutions and Policy Processes: Presidency, Bureaucracy, Congress, and the Federal Courts
30%
- 1.1The major formal and informal institutional arrangements and powers
- 1.2Structure, policy processes, and outputs
- 1.3Relationships among these three institutions and links between them and political parties, interest groups, the media, and public opinion
- 1.4Structure and processes of the judicial system, with emphasis on the role and influence of the Supreme Court
2.0 Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
10%
- 2.1The development of civil rights and civil liberties by judicial interpretation
- 2.2The Bill of Rights
- 2.3Incorporation of the Bill of Rights
- 2.4Equal protection and due process
3.0 Political Parties and Interest Groups
15%
- 3.1Political parties (including their function, organization, mobilization, historical development, and effects on the political process)
- 3.2Interest groups (including the variety of activities they typically undertake and their effects on the political process)
- 3.3Elections (including the electoral process)
4.0 Political Beliefs and Behavior
15%
- 4.1Processes by which citizens learn about politics
- 4.2Political participation (including voting behavior)
- 4.3Public opinion
- 4.4Beliefs that citizens hold about their government and its leaders
- 4.5Political culture (the variety of factors that predispose citizens to differ from one another in terms of their political perceptions, values, attitudes, and activities)
- 4.6The influence of public opinion on political leaders
5.0 Constitutional Underpinnings of American Democracy
15%
- 5.1The development of concepts such as federalism (with attention to intergovernmental relations), separation of powers, checks and balances, majority rule, minority rights
- 5.2Considerations that influenced the formulation and adoption of the Constitution
- 5.3Theories of democracy