The AP US Government and Politics Curriculum Toolkit
Is the Promise Fulfilled?
Two hundred fifty years ago a group of colonists made some very bold claims about equality, rights, and government. This year, you are going to spend an entire course putting those claims on trial. Roger the GoPoPup will be your extremely opinionated research assistant.
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So, What Is AP Government and Politics?
AP U.S. Government and Politics is a college-level, nonpartisan course about how power in the United States is supposed to work, how it actually works, and the gap in between. You will study the Constitution, the three branches, civil liberties and civil rights, political ideology, and how citizens participate in the system.
Translation: this is the class where you learn to read the fine print on the most important contract in American history, then spend the year checking whether anyone is actually honoring it.
Skills over vibes. You will not be graded on having the loudest opinion. You will be graded on describing, explaining, comparing, and arguing with actual evidence from documents, data, and Supreme Court cases. Roger respects a well-cited argument more than he respects treats, and that is saying something.
You will practice five categories of skill
Applying political concepts to real and hypothetical scenarios
Applying Supreme Court decisions to new situations
Reading and interpreting charts, graphs, and data
Analyzing foundational documents and other primary sources
Building and defending an evidence-based argument
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The Big Question We Will Ask All Year
This year marks the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress put a promise in writing:
250 YEARS LATER
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
The Declaration of Independence, 1776
That sentence is the most famous run-on in American history, and it is also a promise: equality, unalienable rights, and government that answers to the people it governs.
The Big Question: Two hundred fifty years later, has the American political system lived up to that promise? We are going to ask this question in every single unit of this course, testing it against the Constitution, the courts, the branches, civil liberties, political behavior, and the news of this actual week.
Quick Check
Prove You Were Paying Attention
According to the passage itself, where do rights come from?
A. The federal government grants them to citizens
B. They are endowed by a Creator and are unalienable
C. The Supreme Court defines a new list every term
D. Congress votes on them each session
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Why This Is Not Just a History Question
Every generation of Americans has argued about whether the promise of 1776 is actually being kept, and this generation is no exception. Right now, people across the political spectrum are debating questions like these:
Who gets easy access to the ballot box, and who does not
What counts as free speech online versus off
How policing and civil liberties should be balanced
Whether economic inequality undermines political equality
How immigration and citizenship intersect with the promise of equal rights
Reasonable people disagree about the answers to all of these questions, and this course will not tell you which side is right. What it will do is give you the tools, the documents, and the data to build your own defensible argument, and to understand the strongest version of the argument you disagree with.
Quick Check
One More Before We Continue
In this course, arguments are expected to be backed up by...
A. Whichever opinion feels the most correct
B. A strongly worded tone of voice
C. Evidence and reasoning from documents, cases, and data
D. A poll of your group chat
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Meet the Series: Limiting Tyranny
The founders did not just make promises, they built machinery meant to stop any single person or faction from grabbing too much power. Across the year we will work through the full Limiting Tyranny slideshow series, one piece of the machine at a time.
1
Unit 1 - Foundations
Why Limit Power At All
The philosophical case against unchecked government, from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution.
2
Unit 2 - Branches
Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances
How Congress, the President, and the Courts are built to watch each other like nervous roommates.
3
Units 1 & 2 - Federalism
Federalism: The Vertical Leash
Splitting power between national and state government as a second layer of restraint.
4
Unit 3 - Civil Liberties
The Bill of Rights: Limiting Government Over You
How the first ten amendments draw a line the government is not supposed to cross.
5
Unit 5 - Participation
The Ballot Box: The Peoples Check
Voting, parties, and interest groups as the final and most direct limit on power.
We are not doing this series once and moving on. We will come back to Limiting Tyranny again and again, unit after unit, all year long, each time asking the same Big Question with a new piece of evidence in hand.
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Your Foundational Documents, Updated
These are the required foundational documents for this course. Source analysis of these texts shows up constantly on the exam, so get friendly with them early.
The Declaration of Independence1776
The Articles of Confederation1781
The Constitution of the United StatesIncluding the Bill of Rights and later amendments
Brutus No. 1Antifederalist warning
Federalist No. 10Madison on factions
NEWFederalist No. 39Madison on republican government
Federalist No. 51Madison on checks and balances
Federalist No. 70Hamilton on the executive
Federalist No. 78Hamilton on the judiciary
NEWThe Gettysburg AddressLincoln, 1863
Letter from a Birmingham JailMartin Luther King, Jr.
NEWThe Emancipation ProclamationLincoln, 1863
NEWCore Principles from Adam Smiths The Wealth of NationsAdded for this course year
Quick Check
Last One, We Promise
Look back at the grid on the last slide. How many foundational documents are marked NEW on the required list this year?
A. One
B. Two
C. Three
D. Four
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The Question Follows You All Year
Keep this in the back of your mind, because we are coming back to it constantly:
Unit 1Does the founding design actually match the founding promise?
Unit 2Do the three branches check power the way they are supposed to?
Unit 3Are liberties and rights actually equal in practice?
Unit 4Do ideology and belief shape who the promise feels true for?
Unit 5Does political participation give ordinary people real power?
Every unit, every FRQ, every current event we cover, we will circle back to one question: two hundred fifty years later, is the promise fulfilled? You get to build the answer, one piece of evidence at a time.
Curriculum Toolkit Complete
Welcome to the Class, Officially
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You now know the Big Question, the Limiting Tyranny series, and the updated foundational documents. Everything else this year builds on this page.
