Understanding AP U.S. Government & Politics Unit 2

Things You Should Know There are 5 units of study defined by the College Board. Your course modules will fall into one of these five units. This second unit is titled Interactions Among Branches of Government and 25-36% of the AP Exam questions will come from it.

Please note that the content in the Public Policy Module can be connected to the other modules associated with Unit 2. Plus, you can see some connections to the American Political Ideologies and Beliefs Module in Unit 4 as policy making connects across many topics.

Here's what you should know:

Developing Understanding

In this unit, students continue to explore policymaking, focusing on its complexity and the idea that it is a process involving multiple governmental institutions and actors. Students will look at issues or policies from several different perspectives and then apply their knowledge to better understand the complexity of the policymaking process. The Constitution grants specific powers to Congress, the presidency, and the courts, each of which exercises informal powers (developed through political practice, tradition, and legislation). Because power is widely distributed, and checks prevent one branch from overreaching or usurping powers from the others, institutional actors are in the position where they must both compete and cooperate in order to govern.

Big Idea 1	Big Idea 4
*Constitutionalism*	*Competing Policymaking Interests*
Which branch of government is the most powerful? Why? Are there really checks and balances when one political party controls all three branches of government? Why or why not?	In what ways has the evolution of government powers affected Americans and their daily lives?

You Should Know...

The course content is organized into commonly taught units of study that provide a suggested sequence for the course. Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government is divided up between the following modules in this course.

Congress (CON)
Presidency and the Bureaucracy (PBU)
Judiciary (JUD)
Public Policy (PPO)

Key Vocab icon

Download a copy of the Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches Vocabulary / Specific Factual Information from CED here.

Because this unit is incorporated throughout multiple modules, you may have downloaded this list of vocabulary and information in a previous module. If you do not already have a copy, please download it now and add it to your notes.

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