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Advanced Placement United States Government 

and Politics Resources

N.B.  The Study Guide must be completed for each chapter including the study guide essay questions.

Chapter 1:  Introducing Government in America

• Policy. Action Network

• National Center for Policy Analysis- Idea House

• American Political Science Association

• Core Documents of US Democracy

• Chronology of US Historical Documents

• Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy

• PBS Democracy Project 2000

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Part One - Constitutional Foundations

Chapter 2: The Constitution                                The Bill of Rights Institute      The Founders Constitution    The National Constitution Center

• John Locke - The Second Treatise of Civil Government

• Thomas Paine

• The Articles of Confederation

• The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787

• The Federalist Papers

• Thomas "The Federalist Papers"

• The Debates in the Several States on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution

• The American Constitution - A Documentary Record

• Foundations of American Government      

Supreme Court Cases:    Marbury v. Madison (1803)    

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Chapter 3: Federalism

• Cases and Materials on American Federalism

Supreme Court Cases:  

• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)        

• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Public Policy

• First Amendment Issues

• The Bill of Rights Institute

• ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union

• The Last (E-Mail) Goodbye From 'gwb' to His 42 Buddies

• Football, Subways and the Fourth Amendment

Supreme Court Cases:    Gideon v.Wainwright (1963)    Engle v. Vitale (1962)   NYTimes Co. v. NY US (1971)    W. Va. Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette (1943)

LAWRENCE et al. v. TEXAS 2003

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Chapter 5: Civil Rights and Public Policy

• Landmark Cases on Equal Protection

• Landmark Cases on Civil Rights

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement

• The History of Jim Crow        Civil Rights Act (1964)

• Seneca Falls Convention (1848)  Library of Congress: Seneca Falls Convention    Freedom of Assembly: Seneca Falls (Bill of Rights Institute)

Supreme Court Decisions:    Korematsu V  US (1944)     Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)    Plessey v. Ferguson (1896)

Brown v. Board of Education (1954),      Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke (1978)        GRUTTER v. BOLLINGER et al 2003

GRATZ et al. v. BOLLINGER et al. 2003    

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Part Two - People and Politics

Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action

• The NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior

• Groliers - The American Presidency: Public Opinion

• Gallup Poll

• US Census

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Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

• CNN - All Politics

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Chapter 8: Political Parties            Links to Political Websites

    Political Party Platform Comparison assignment.

• Democratic National Committee        Democrats Choose Terry McAuliff to Lead Party

• Republican National Committee        Racicot named to head the RNC

• Directory of US Political Parties

• Mugwumps

Where do you fit?

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Chapter 9: Nominations and Campaigns

• Federal Election Commission (FEC)

• The Brookings Institution's Campaign Finance Reform Home Page

• The Great Debate and Beyond:: The History of Televised Presidential Debates

Buckley v. Valeo, 1976

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Chapter 10: Elections and Voting Behavior

• Vote-Smart.org        The Living Room Candidate (American Museum of the Moving Image)

• The National Commission on Federal Election Reform

• The History of Voting Machines

•  2000 Electoral Vote Totals    2000 Popular Vote Totals

• Electronic Voting

• Grolier's - The American Presidency: Primary Elections

• How direct should democracy be?

  "Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election"

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Chapter 11: Interest Groups

American Association of Retired Persons. AARP	AFL-CIO United Farm Workers	National Education Association  NEA	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP	American Medical Association  AMA
US Chamber of Commerce	The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference	National Catholic Education Association NCEA	Mothers Against Drunk Driving  MADD	National Rifle Association   NRA
Common Cause			National Organization of Women   NOW

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Part Three - The Policymakers

Chapter 12: Congress    Vote-Smart.org

 (United States Capitol)     [ Project Vote Smart]    Biographical directory of the US Congress (1774-present)    Congress Online Project,

The US House of Representatives Speaker, Maj Leader, Minority Leader. Republican Leader., Republican whip	The US Senate Maj. Leader, Maj. Whip Min. Leader, Min Whip	Pay and Perquisites of Members of Congress Congressional Pay Rates	The Congressional Record Women in 110th Congress	Reference Resources on Congress - Project Vote Smart
Pa. US District 1 Robert Brady	Pa US District 2 Chakka Fattah	Pa. US. District 7 Joe Sestak	Pa. US District 13 Allyson Schwartz	Pa. US District 16 Joseph Pitts
Pa US District 6 Jim Gerlach	Apportionment of the US House of Representatives 108th Congress  through the 114th Congress	Congress Link	Congress Merge: Online Congressional Directory	Roll Call

How a Bill Becomes a Law (Project Vote Smart)

Senator Robert Casey, Jr. Senator Arlen Specter  Congress Link (The Dirksen Congressional Center)

Issues of Importance:

(Campaign Finance Reform),     (The Brookings Institution's Campaign Finance Reform Home Page),     (Project Vote Smart -  Campaign Finance Reform),     ( opensecrets.org -your guide to the money in American elections),    (Racial -  Gerrymandering),      ,  (Congress in Action),,   ,   Apportionment of the US House of Representatives 108th Congress.    

Supreme Court Cases:

•  Powell v. McCormack (1969)

• US Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1996)

• Reynolds v. Sims (1964)

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Chapter 13: The Presidency

The White House	Official US Executive Branch Web Sites	American Presidency.org	Presidents of the United States		Grolier's Online - The American Presidency
The Bush Cabinet		Presidential Libraries IDEA Network	Presidential Inaugurations: Menu of all Presidents	Historical Tour of the White House	The American Presidency - A Glorious Burden
Cuban Missile Crises:, 1962: A Perspective after 40 years.	The Great Debate and Beyond: The History of televised Presidential Debates				Archives: State of the Union Speeches

Supreme Court Decisions:    Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. US (1952)     US v. Nixon (1974),    Bush v. Gore (2000),

Issues of Importance:  

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Chapter 14: The Congress, The President, and the Budget: The Politics of Taxing and Spending

• The Office of Management and Budget

• The Congressional Budget Office

• "If tax plan crashes, Bush may be its biggest fatality"

• Like Father, Bush is Caught in a Politically Perilous Budget Squeeze

• National Priorities Project

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Chapter 15: The Federal Bureaucracy

• Federal Independent Agencies and Commissions

• Independent Establishments and Government Corporations

• The Pendleton Act (1883)

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Chapter 16: The Federal Courts    The Supreme Court of the United States

US Supreme Court	Supreme Court Justices	Landmark Supreme Court Cases	Supreme Court Decisions	Exploring Constitutional Conflicts
Famous Trials of the 20th Century,	Judicial activism influence (commentary -10/10/03))	Justice Learning	Federal Court Concepts	The Dissenter: Justice John Paul Stevens

•  Time: How Rehnquist Changed America (6/30/03)    Time: Rehnquist Courts Biggest Decisions

•  In A Momentous Term, Justices Remake the Law, and the Court

Bush Would Sever Law Group's Role in Screening Judges,       

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Chapter 17: Economic Policymaking

• The Federal Reserve System

• FED101 - the Federal Reserve Today

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Chapter 18: Social Welfare Policymaking

• Social Security Administration

• The Sky Will Fall in 2016       t

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Chapter 19: Policymaking for Health, Energy, and the Environment

• US Department of Health & Human Services

• US Department of Energy

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Chapter 20: Foreign and Defense Policymaking

• US Department of State

• Department of Defense

• NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• United Nations Virtual Tour

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Chapter 21: The New Importance of State and Local Government

• PA PowerPort - Pennsylvania's Home Page

• On Politics: Pennsylvania's Governor

• 50states.com - States and Capitals

• A Background to Philadelphia Pennsylvania

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This page last updated on Monday, February 18, 2008