Course Overview

Welcome to AP US Government and Politics.

I’ve taught this course to three cohorts of students: 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026. These notes have been refined through that teaching.

This course is about power: who has it, how they got it, and what they do with it. We’ll study the architecture of American democracy, from the philosophical debates that shaped the Constitution to the PACs and Super PACs that shape elections today.

What This Course Covers

The AP US Government curriculum is organized into five units:

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy covers the philosophical origins of American government, the Constitutional Convention, federalism, and the ongoing tension between federal and state power.

Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government examines Congress, the Presidency, the Judiciary, and the bureaucracy. You’ll learn how these institutions check each other and how power has shifted between them over time.

Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights explores the Bill of Rights, selective incorporation, and the ongoing struggle to extend constitutional protections to all Americans.

Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs investigates how Americans form political opinions, the role of political socialization, and how ideology shapes policy debates.

Unit 5: Political Participation covers voting, political parties, interest groups, campaigns, elections, and the media. This is where theory meets practice.

How to Use These Notes

Each unit is broken into articles covering specific topics. The articles follow the College Board curriculum but aim to make the material engaging rather than just exam prep.

Key things to know:

• Foundational Documents: You need to know the arguments in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Federalist No. 10, Brutus No. 1, Federalist No. 51, Federalist No. 70, Federalist No. 78, and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

• Required Supreme Court Cases: There are 15 cases you must know in detail: the facts, the constitutional question, the holding, and the reasoning.

• The Exam: 55 multiple choice questions (80 minutes) and 4 free response questions (100 minutes). The FRQs include concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay.

The Big Ideas

Five themes run through the entire course:

1. Constitutionalism: How the Constitution distributes power and protects against its abuse
2. Liberty and Order: The tension between individual freedom and social stability
3. Civic Participation: How citizens engage with and influence government
4. Competing Policymaking Interests: How different actors shape policy outcomes
5. Methods of Political Analysis: How political scientists study government and politics

Every topic connects back to these themes. When you’re lost in the details of committee procedures or campaign finance law, ask yourself: which big idea does this relate to?

A Note on Balance

This is a nonpartisan course. You’ll analyze arguments from across the political spectrum. The goal isn’t to tell you what to think. It’s to give you the tools to think clearly about politics.

The founders disagreed intensely about how to structure government. Those disagreements didn’t end in 1789. They continue today in every policy debate, every Supreme Court case, every election. Understanding the arguments on all sides is what separates informed citizens from partisans.

Let’s begin.