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2017-18 AP U.S. Government & Politics Unit 1: Introducing Government in America Readings: Chapter 1, pp. 2-24 Thursday 9.7 Welcome to the best class ever! In Class: Getting to know your personal political position In Class: Making sense of today’s politics In Class: 2016 Party Platforms Monday 9.11 Due: Assignment 1 - How about a reading/note quiz? In Class: Discussion about political thinking Homework: Assignment 2 Don’t forget to read about current political or policy events and check up on your Senator and U.S. representatives Wednesday 9.13 Due: Assignment 2 - How about a reading/note quiz? In Class: Discussion about the Five Principles In Class: Getting to know your Constitution Assignment 1, Due: Monday 9.11– Reading and taking notes, and writing questions Please use the note outline found on our wonderful AP U.S. Gov & Politics google classroom! Please read pages 3-11 in Chapter 1, "Political Thinking: Becoming a Responsible Citizen. Please take the time to examine the structure of the chapter in the textbook that includes intermittent boxes called “Political Thinking,” photographs with brief explanations, “Figure,” with data on issues that relate to the text that you have read, as well as terms and definitions, "Political Thinking Through Comparison," and “debating the Issues.” The authors of our textbook use “current” political events to show application of government in action. If you are unfamiliar with how and why government works, then these applications could be helpful to you. Assignment 2, Due: Wednesday 9.13 - Reading, notes, and discussion Please use the note outline found on our wonderful AP U.S. Gov & Politics google classroom! Please read pages 11-19 and 22-23 ABOUT THE TERMS: There are a plethora of websites out there with definitions of these terms and more that we will be using in this class, so while I will always include them with each reading, and you will be quizzed/tested on them in different formats, there is no need to write definitions for these terms in your notes.

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Terms to know: All of the terms listed in the textbook, and government autocracy oligarchy constitutional government authoritarian government totalitarian government public good free riding collective action agenda power institutions veto power policy impacts policy making institutions political issues policy agenda Some sources for definitions: A Great source: http://www.sparknotes.com/us-government-and-politics/glossary/terms.html A Good source: http://quizlet.com/11896399/ap-us-government-vocabulary-flash-cards/ An OK source: http://www.apstudynotes.org/us-government/vocabulary/ Five principles of politics that provide one theoretical framework: 1. All political behavior has a purpose. Political actors, be they citizens or professional politicians, engage in instrumental acts that are designed to achieve a goal or some combination of goals. In many instances, political behavior and action are the results of conscious and sometimes even calculated, choices on the part of these purposive individuals. 2. All politics is collective action. In order to produce public goods and make collective decisions, people must come together. As the number and diversity of the relevant actors increase, so, too, do the problems associated with collective action. 3. Institutions routinely solve collective action problems. Institutional arrangements provide for a division of labor, rules regarding the process of deciding relevant questions, and the means by which those to whom authority and responsibility for action have been delegated are checked by other actors. These "scripts" - routines and structured relationships - enable cooperation on repeated bases that help alleviate and perhaps solve collective -action problems. 4. Political outcomes are the products of individual preferences and institutional procedures. Purposive, goal-oriented behavior works its way through the rules and processes of government. Individuals have different goals that are shaped, channeled, and filtered through relevant processes. Both goals and processes shape outcomes. 5. History matters. Historical processes are the backgrounds that help explain the ways in which individual goals and institutional processes develop. Understanding the history of institutions and the historical processes that shape what individual actors want helps us to interpret contemporary political conflicts and to see institutional choices and their outcomes as a partial result of the "path" of history. Source: Lowi, Theodore J. and Benjamin Ginsberg. American Government. 9th Ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.