US Government

Class Description

Learning how to appreciate the intricacies and excitement that is the US government. Especially the Executive Branch.

Week 1a Why should you care about government?
Week 1b Greece & Rome
Week 2a Magna Carta, Machiavelli & Locke
Week 2b Age of Enlightenment
Week 3a The Declaration of Independence
Week 3b The Articles of Confederation: Wow did that not work
Week 4a Constitution
Week 4b QUIZ
Week 5a THE PRESIDENCY and why it rules
Week 5b Chief Executive, Comander in Chief
Week 6a Negotiator in Chief, Guy with the Veto Stamp
Week 6b Appointing people is cool
Week 7a Explaining the Cabinet
Week 7b Why you should pay attention to the State of the Union
Week 8a A special kind of torture: reading the federal budget
Week 8b MIDTERM
Week 9a THE CONGRESS: Less cool than the President
Week 9b How a bill becomes a law--the official version
Week 10a How a bill becomes a law--the actual way
Week 10b THE JUDICIAL BRANCH: Old and cranky, man.
Week 11a How you can become a member of SCOTUS
Week 11b Important decisions that you'll have to memorize
Week 12a QUIZ
Week 13a CAMPAIGNS and ELECTIONS: general overview
Week 13b The Electoral College: how screwed up is this system?
Week 14a Campaign Finance: Boring, but important
Week 14b THE MEDIA: helpful for democracy or just really shrill and annoying?
Week 15a Learning about the Iron Triangle: It doesn't call you for dinner any more
Week 15b STATE GOVERNMENT: so much less interesting than federal government
Week 16a What governors do
Week 16b What state houses do
Week 17 FINAL EXAM