Principles of American Democracy

Students in grade twelve pursue a deeper understanding of the institutions of American government. They compare systems of government in the world today and analyze the life and changing interpretations of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the current state of the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. An emphasis is placed on analyzing the relationship among federal, state and local governments, with particular attention paid to important historical documents such as The Federalist. These standards represent the culmination of civic literacy as students prepare to vote, participate in community activities and assume the responsibilities of citizenship. In addition to studying government in grade twelve, students will also master fundamental economic concepts, applying the tools (graphs, statistics, equations) from other subject areas to the understanding of operations and institutions of economic systems. Studied in a historic context are the basic economic principles of micro and macroeconomics, international economics, comparative economics systems, measurement and methods.

12.1 Students explain the fundamental principles and moral values of American democracy as expressed in the U.S. Constitution and other essential documents of American democracy, in terms of:

1. the influence of ancient Greek, Roman, English, and leading European political thinkers such as John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Nicolo Machiavelli, and William Blackstone on the development American government
2. the character of American democracy and its promise and perils as articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville
3. how the US Constitution reflects a balance between the classical republican concern with promotion of the public good and the classical liberal concern with protecting individual rights, and how the basic premises of liberal constitutionalism and democracy are joined in the Declaration of Independence, stated as "self-evident Truths"
4. how the Founders' realistic view of human nature led directly to a constitutional system that limited the power of the governors and the governed as articulated in The Federalist
5. the systems of separated and shared powers; the role of organized interests (The Federalist Number 10); checks and balances (The Federalist Number 51); the importance of an independent judiciary (The Federalist Number 78); enumerated powers; rule of law; federalism; and civilian control of the military
6. the Bill of Rights as a document limiting the power of the federal government and state governments

12.2 Students evaluate, and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they are secured, in terms of:

1. the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured (e.g., freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, privacy)
2. how economic rights are secured and what their importance is to the individual and to society (e.g., right to acquire, use, transfer, and dispose of property; right to choose one's work; join or not join labor unions; copyright and patent)
3. the legal obligations of obeying the law, serving as a juror, and paying taxes
4. the obligation of civic-mindedness including voting, being informed on civic issues, volunteering and performing public service, and serving in the military or alternative service
5. the reciprocity between rights and obligations, i.e., why enjoyment of one's rights entails respect for the rights of others
6. how one becomes a citizen of the United States, including the process of naturalization (e.g., literacy, language, and other requirements)

12.3 Students evaluate, take and defend positions on what the fundamental values and principles of civil society are (i.e., the autonomous sphere of voluntary personal, social, and economic relations not part of government), their interdependence, and meaning and importance for a free society, in terms of:

1. how civil society provides opportunities for individuals to associate for social, cultural, religious, economic, and political purposes
2. how civil society makes it possible for people, individually or in association with others, to bring their influence to bear on government in ways other than voting and elections
3. the historical role of religion and religious diversity
4. comparisons between the relationship of government and civil society in constitutional democracies and the relationship of government and civil society in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes

12.4 Students analyze the unique roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government as established by the U. S. Constitution, in terms of:

1. Article I of the U. S. Constitution as it relates to the legislative branch, including eligibility for office and lengths of terms of Representatives and Senators, election to office, the role of the House and Senate in impeachment proceedings, the role of the Vice President, the enumerated legislative powers, and the process by which a bill becomes a law
2. the process through which the U. S. Constitution is amended
3. the student's current representatives in the legislative branch of the national government
4. Article II of the U. S. Constitution as it relates to the executive branch including eligibility for office and length of term, election to and removal from office, the Oath of office, and the enumerated executive powers
5. Article III of the U. S. Constitution as it relates to judicial power including the length of terms of judges and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court 6. the selection and confirmation of Supreme Court judges

12.5 Students summarize landmark US Supreme Court interpretations of the U. S. Constitution and its amendments, in terms of:

1. the changing interpretations of the Bill of Rights over time, including the basic freedoms (religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly) articulated in the First Amendment, and the due process and equal protection of the law clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment
2. judicial activism and judicial restraint and the effects of each policy over the decades (e.g., Warren vs. Rehnquist courts)
3. the effect of the interpretations of the US Constitution, including Marbury v. Madison , McCulloch v. Maryland, and US v. Nixon, with emphasis on the arguments espoused by each side in these cases
4. the controversies that have resulted over changing interpretations of civil rights, including Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v. Arizona, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena and United States v. Virginia (VMI)

12.6 Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective office, in terms of:

1. the origin, development, and role of political parties noting those occasional periods in which there was only one major party or were more than two major parties
2. the history of the presidential candidate nomination process and increasing importance of primaries in general elections
3. the role of polls, campaign advertising and the controversies over campaign funding
4. the means that citizens use to participate in the political process (e.g., voting, campaigning, lobbying, filing a legal challenge, demonstrating, petitioning, picketing, running for political office)
5. the features of direct democracy in numerous states such as the process of referendums and recall elections
6. trends in voter turnout, the causes and effects of reapportionment and redistricting, with special attention to spatial districting and the rights of minorities, and the function of the Electoral College

12.7 Students analyze and compare the powers and procedures of the national, state, tribal, and local governments, in terms of:

1. how conflicts between levels of government and branches of government are resolved
2. the major responsibilities and sources of revenue for state and local governments
3. reserved powers and concurrent powers of state governments
4. the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and interpretations of the extent of the federal government's power
5. how public policy is formed, including the setting of the public agenda and how it is carried out through regulations and executive orders
6. the process of lawmaking at each of the three levels of government, including the role of lobbying and the media
7. the organization and jurisdiction of federal, state and local (e.g., California) courts, and the interrelationships between the federal state and local courts
8. the scope of presidential power and decision-making through the examination of case studies such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, passage of Great Society legislation, War Powers Act, Gulf War, and Bosnia

12.8 Students evaluate, take and defend positions on the influence of the media on American political life, in terms of:

1. the meaning and importance of a free and responsible press
2. the role of electronic, broadcast, print media, and the Internet as means of communication in American politics
3. how public officials use the media to communicate with the citizenry and to shape public opinion

12.9 Students analyze the origins, characteristics, and development of different political systems across time, with emphasis on the quest for political democracy, its advances and obstacles, in terms of:

1. how the different philosophies and structures of feudalism, mercantilism, socialism, fascism, communism, monarchies, parliamentary systems, and constitutional liberal democracies influence economic policies, social welfare policies and human rights practices
2. the various ways power is distributed, shared, and limited in systems of shared powers and in parliamentary systems, including the influence and role of parliamentary leaders (e.g., William Gladstone, Margaret Thatcher)
3. the advantages and disadvantages of federal, confederal, and unitary systems of government
4. the consequences of conditions that gave rise to tyrannies during certain periods applied to at least two countries (e.g., Italy, Japan, Haiti, Nigeria, Cambodia)
5. the forms of illegitimate power that twentieth century African, Asian, and Latin American dictators used to gain and hold office and the conditions and interests that supported them
6. the ideologies, causes, stages, and outcomes of major Mexican, Central and South American revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries
7. the ideologies that give rise to communism, methods to maintain control, and the movements to overthrow such governments in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, including the role of individuals (e.g., Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel)
8. the successes of relatively new democracies in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the ideas, leaders, and general societal conditions that have launched and sustained or failed to sustain them

12.10 Students formulate questions about and defend their analyses of tensions within the US constitutional democracy and the importance of maintaining a balance between these concepts (e.g., majority rule and individual rights, liberty and equality, state and national authority in a federal system, civil disobedience and the rule of law, freedom of the press and right to a fair trial, the relationship of religion and government)

Principles of Economics

12.1 Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning, in terms of:

1. the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices
2. opportunity cost and marginal benefit and marginal cost
3. the difference between monetary and non-monetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior
4. the role of private property as an incentive in conserving and improving scarce resources, including renewable and non-renewable natural resources
5. the role of a market economy in establishing and preserving political and personal liberty (e.g., the works of Adam Smith)"

12.2 Students analyze the elements of the United States market economy in a global setting, in terms of:

1. the relationship of the concept of incentives to the law of supply and the relationship of the concept of incentives and substitutes to the law of demand
2. the effect of changes in supply and/or demand on the relative scarcity, price and quantity of particular products
3. the role of property rights, competition, and profit in a market economy
4. how prices reflect the relative scarcity of goods and services and perform the allocative function in a market economy
5. the process by which competition among buyers and sellers determines a market clearing price
6. the effect of price controls on buyers and sellers
7. the role of domestic and international competition in a market economy in terms of goods and services produced, and the quality, quantity, and price of those products
8. the role of profit as the incentive to the entrepreneurs in a market economy
9. the functions of the financial markets
10. the economic principles that guide the location of agricultural production and industry and the spatial distribution of transportation and retailing facilities

12.3 Students analyze the influence of the US government on the American economy, in terms of:

1. how the role of government in a market economy often includes providing for national defense, addressing environmental concerns, defining and enforcing property rights, attempting to make markets more competitive, and protecting consumer rights
2. the factors that may cause the costs of government actions to outweigh the benefits
3. the aims of government fiscal policies (taxation, borrowing, and spending) and their influence on production, employment, and price levels
4. the aims and tools of monetary policy and their influence on economic activity (e.g., the Federal Reserve)

12.4 Students analyze the elements of the United States labor market in a global setting, in terms of:

1. the operations of the labor market, including the circumstances surrounding the establishment of principal American labor unions, procedures used to gain benefits for its members, the effect of unionization, the minimum wage, and unemployment insurance
2. the current economy and labor market including the types of goods and services produced, types of skills necessary, the effect of rapid technological change, and the impact of international competition
3. wage differences among jobs and professions using the laws of demand and supply and the concept of productivity
4. the effects of international mobility of capital and labor on the US economy

12.5 Students analyze the aggregate economic behavior of the United States economy by

1. distinguishing between nominal and real data
2. defining, calculating and explaining the significance of an unemployment rate, the number of new jobs created monthly, an inflation or deflation rate, and a rate of economic growth
3. distinguishing between short-term and long-term interest rates and explaining their relative significance

12.6 Students analyze issues of international trade, and explain how the US economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond its borders, in terms of:

1. the gains in consumption and production efficiency from trade with emphasis on the main products and changing geographic patterns of twentieth century trade among countries in the Western hemisphere
2. the reasons for and the effect of trade restrictions in the Great Depression compared with the present day arguments among labor, business, and political leaders over the effects of free trade on the economic and social interests of various groups of Americans
3. the changing role of international political borders and territorial sovereignty in a global economy
4. explain foreign exchange, how exchange rates are determined, and the effects of the dollar gaining (or losing) value relative to other currencies a strong or weak dollar

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